| The NFL goes ahead and announces a Week 14 Sunday schedule Flex a few days before they had to. Bryan DeArdo on the fiddling with two FOX games: The NFL made has made two notable changes to its Week 14 schedule. The league has moved the start of the Chicago Bears’ road game against the Green Bay Packers to 4:25 p.m. ET. The game was initially slated to start at 1 p.m. While the Bears-Packers matchup will have a later start, the Buffalo Bills’ road game against the Cincinnati Bengals — which was initially a 4:25 p.m. kickoff — has been moved to 1 p.m. ET. It’s safe to assume that records of each of the above teams played a role in the league’s schedule changes. With seven wins in its last eight games, Chicago (7-3) is one of the NFL’s biggest surprises this season. While we’re still a few weeks away from Week 14, there’s a good chance that the Bears’ game against Green Bay (6-3-1) will determine which team is in first place in the NFC North entering the final three weeks of the regular season. Conversely, the 2025 season has been a forgettable one for the Bengals, who are just 1-7 since Joe Burrow was placed on injured reserve after injuring his toe. And despite the fact that Burrow could possibly be back in time to face the Bills, the league clearly felt Bears vs. Packers was more deserving of the later time slot. While the 7-3 Bills could be considered a loser in this scenario, the real losers in this situation are the fans who will be inconvenienced by these time changes, especially one who have already purchased tickets and have made the appropriate plans to attend the game. |
| NFC NORTH |
| GREEN BAYRob Demovsky of ESPN.com with an update on the knee injury of RB JOSH JACOBS: – If Josh Jacobs misses any time, it won’t be more than one game. At least that’s how the Green Bay Packers running back believes it will shake out after he sustained a knee injury in Sunday’s win over the New York Giants. Jacobs, speaking Thursday, would not rule out playing Sunday against the Minnesota Vikings — the start of a key stretch of three straight NFC North games — and he all but guaranteed he would be back for the Thanksgiving game at the Detroit Lions four days later. “Worst case if I don’t play this week, Thursday I’m definitely playing,” Jacobs said. “It’s not like something that’ll linger over past that. That’s really the worst-case scenario, yeah.” Jacobs said he injured his knee on the second play of Sunday’s game and blamed the surface at MetLife Stadium. He played 10 more snaps before he dropped out because of what turned out to be a contusion that quickly swelled after he banged his knee at the end of a run. “Definitely the worst, it’s always been the worst,” Jacobs said of the field conditions. “I know if I ever play there again I will never talk about it because I talked about it all week, how bad it was, and it bit me in the ass.” Jacobs returned to practice Thursday on a limited basis after not practicing Wednesday. He said the swelling that made it hard to bend his knee during the game has been greatly reduced. He said stiffness and mobility were more of a hindrance than the pain. “Really now today it’s already 50%, probably 60% of the swelling is gone,” Jacobs said after practice. “It’s just about getting the range of motion back.” Ultimately, the medical staff will help determine when Jacobs plays again, but the Packers haven’t ruled anything out and will let the week play out. “Josh has a pretty intense demeanor about him,” offensive coordinator Adam Stenavich said. “If he’s like, ‘I’m in,’ I’m like, ‘OK.’ … He’s a guy who does everything he can to get out there for his team.” Third-year pro Emanuel Wilson, a former undrafted free agent, replaced Jacobs as the primary back against the Giants and recorded his first rushing touchdown of the season. Chris Brooks would likely be the backup to Wilson if Jacobs does not play Sunday. The Packers (6-3-1) listed 18 players — more than a third of their roster — on their injury report. However, all but three players had some level of practice participation. The only nonparticipants were linebacker Quay Walker (neck), cornerback Nate Hobbs (knee) and defensive tackle Karl Brooks (ankle). |
| MINNESOTAQB J.J. McCARTHY is bubbly about his future. Nick Shook of NFL.com: J.J. McCarthy’s first season as Vikings starter has included a pause in participation and plenty of bumps along the way. He believes those bumps will soon produce a celebratory explosion. “I kind of make the analogy of just a cork about to come off a bottle,” McCarthy said Wednesday, via ESPN. “Just understanding that it’s one to three little things that I need to change about my game that is going to make a huge difference in the outcome of every single drive in the game. So yeah, I feel like it’s really close, but it all comes down to the consistency of the fundamentals.” So far, the consistency has been lacking for McCarthy, be it in accuracy, decision-making or delivery outside of the most important moments. He’s struggled to establish a connection with top receiver Justin Jefferson and labored through his recent starts, posting a 2-4 TD-INT ratio while Jefferson has expressed visible frustration on the sideline. In order for the Vikings to reach their goals, McCarthy must play a central role. That begins with better pocket behavior, an area which McCarthy has struggled to command both in awareness of his surroundings and delivery, leading to turnovers. Coach Kevin O’Connell believes all of these issues can be fixed with an improvement in basic fundamentals, focusing on posture and improving his connection between McCarthy’s feet and eyes. If anyone would know, it’s the former NFL quarterback turned head coach. “We just have to find that when it comes to the post-snap,” O’Connell said, “and sometimes it’s not even reads and progressions, it’s simply just the fundamental foundation that we need to start seeing the concrete kind of dry a little bit on the work that’s put in.”. |
| NFC EAST |
| DALLASIn terms of passing yards, QB DAK PRESCOTT should be the greatest Cowboy ever by Monday. Charean Williams details his spot in the statistical pantheon of Dallas signalcallers: Dak Prescott owns three team passing records. He should add another on Sunday against the Eagles. The Cowboys quarterback is 160 passing yards from the team’s career record. He has not had fewer than 188 passing yards this season. Tony Romo, Prescott’s predecessor, had 34,183 passing yards in his career. Prescott went over 34,000 career passing yards in the victory over the Raiders on Monday night. “I’m humbled,” Prescott said Thursday, via Schuyler Dixon of the Associated Press. “Thankful to be healthy and to be in this position to do it. I was on the production call, and they asked me the same thing: Would I have thought this 10 years ago? And I said, ‘Yeah, I was very arrogant as a rookie.’ “When you’ve played in this game long enough, and you can stay healthy, with my expectations of what my play is, that’s supposed to happen. So just thankful, humbled, super grateful to be playing a game I love at this high of a level. To still be doing it and look forward to keep going any of those that will happen.” Prescott already holds the team records for career completion percentage (67.1), career completions (3,033) and career passer rating (98.5). He ranks second in passing yards, attempts (4,521) and passing touchdowns (234) and is third in total wins (80). Troy Aikman is the all-time leader in attempts (4,715) and wins (94), and Romo ranks first in passing touchdowns (247). But Prescott, of course, does not have what Roger Staubach and Aikman have. He is only 2-5 in the postseason and has never played in an NFC Championship Game, while Staubach and Aikman combined for five Super Bowl titles. We still think Roger Staubach may be the pick for the best Dallas QB, but his stats are well off the pace of the others. How likely is Prescott to get 160 or more Sunday? Well, he’s topped that mark in every start this year and last. It’s of 21 straight going back to a 12/17/23 game with Buffalo. All told, he has been over 160 in 120 of his 132 career games.- – – What happens in Vegas can lead to a benching. Calvin Watkins: @calvinwatkinsCeeDee Lamb said he & George Pickens missed curfew before the game at Las Vegas. The two were having dinner and a few drinks at @redrockcasino Lamb denied he was throwing up at the casino. He said it’s a disrespect to even suggest that. Lamb said he knows how to hold his liquor. |
| NFC WEST |
| SEATTLETurnovers, which sunk QB SAM DARNOLD down the stretch last year with the Vikings, have reared their ugly heads again in Seattle. Brady Henderson of ESPN.com breaks down the Seattle offensive breakdowns. — Sam Darnold’s four-interception performance last Sunday marked his worst game of what has otherwise been a strong debut season with the Seattle Seahawks. But it also continued an unwanted trend for the Seahawks and their Pro Bowl quarterback. Despite ranking sixth in scoring at 26.6 points per game, Seattle’s offense has turned the ball over 12 times over the past four weeks. As a team, the Seahawks lead the NFL with 20 giveaways. “It’s unacceptable,” Darnold said Thursday of their recent turnover spate. “We understand as an offense, we have to be better, I have to be better, protecting the football. We’re doing everything that we can in practice and when the game comes to try to take care of the football a little bit better.” One of the Seahawks’ 20 turnovers actually came on defense, when safety Coby Bryant fumbled the ball back to the Arizona Cardinals while returning an interception. Fourteen of the other 19 have been attributed to Darnold, who has thrown 10 interceptions to 17 touchdown passes and lost four fumbles. A few of the turnovers on Darnold’s ledger weren’t entirely his fault, including one interception that deflected off a teammate’s helmet amid a collapsing pocket and a fumble that came on a botched snap from a backup center. But there was nothing fluky about the four picks he threw last week in the Seahawks’ 21-19 loss to the Los Angeles Rams. Asked what he noticed after rewatching that performance, Darnold said he needed to do a better job of recognizing the Rams’ shell coverage and moving on in his progressions as opposed to locking onto one or two receivers. He credited Los Angeles for disguising certain defensive looks. “Just having a better understanding when the ball’s snapped [of] what the coverage is and when a guy is going to come open and when he’s not,” Darnold said. “When I say ‘get stuck on a progression,’ I mean just seeing one side of the field and feeling like there’s a chance that someone’s going to get open over there rather than just moving on and clicking through my progression as I normally do.” It was the third four-interception game in Darnold’s eight-year career, and his first since 2019 with the New York Jets. After Seattle’s loss to the Rams, wide receiver Cooper Kupp credited Darnold for remaining steady despite the interceptions and leading a late drive that gave the Seahawks a chance at a winning field goal from 61 yards. “Things are going to happen throughout the course of a game,” Darnold said. “Obviously, you’d love for those things not to happen, negative plays, but that’s football sometimes. For me, I just have to have a mentality of moving onto the next play because there’s nothing I can do once I throw an interception or fumble … so it’s about moving on as fast as I can, understanding why I messed up … and just being able to move on. I felt like I did a pretty good job of that in L.A. It obviously didn’t go the way I wanted it to and the mistakes kept happening, but I felt like when I did make mistakes, I was able to just move on the way I normally do.” Darnold ranks fourth in Total QBR at 71.2. He entered Week 11 as the NFL’s leader in that metric at 77.8. That served as context for linebacker Ernest Jones IV ardently defending Darnold on Sunday, saying, “Sam’s been balling,” and that he shouldn’t be defined by one performance because “he’s had us in every f—ing game.” “We’ve got his back,” Jones said, “and if you’ve got anything to say, quite frankly, f— you.” Coach Mike Macdonald said a day later that Jones spoke for the entire team. Darnold said Thursday that he appreciated the support. “When things don’t necessarily go the way that I’ve wanted them to, especially on game day, the reason that it sucks for me is I feel like I’m letting those guys down,” he said, “and I feel like a lot of guys in the locker room feel the same way. That energy and the things that he said, it meant a lot to me for a guy to have my back like that. But I know the guys are just going to fight no matter what the case is, and so I’m going to do everything that I can to put by best foot forward and go execute at a high level.” |
| AFC WEST |
| KANSAS CITYJames Jones of CBSSports.com gets some anonymous coaches and execs to dish on the Chiefs. In general, they see the same old Chiefs, with old being a word becoming more operative. The Kansas City Chiefs (5-5) have backed themselves into a corner with next to no margin for error in the final seven games of the season. For those of us who said “don’t worry, the Chiefs will figure it out,” it’s getting late really early. The Chiefs are now 3 1/2 games behind Denver for the AFC West lead, meaning their chances of a 10th straight division title are nearly dead before Thanksgiving. And Sunday’s home match against the 8-2 Colts (coming off a bye, mind you) on CBS at 1 p.m. ET represents either the continuation of one streak or the beginning of a new one. Patrick Mahomes has never lost three straight regular-season starts which, at 122 starts, is the longest stretch by a quarterback to begin his career in league history. A loss at home to Indianapolis would mark three straight and place the Chiefs below .500 going into next week’s game against the Cowboys. But a win could spark the winning streak many have been anticipating for K.C., signaling the start of its master plan to get back into the postseason. I surveyed several coaches and executives who are on teams that played the 2025 Chiefs and the 2024 Chiefs. Last year’s team went 15-2 on its way to a third straight Super Bowl appearance, going 12-0 in one-score games for the most such wins in league history. This year’s iteration of the Chiefs can’t win a close game. Kansas City is 0-5 in those situations, with the worst one-score record in the league this year. A few themes emerged in talking with those sources. For one, there is still plenty of respect for the Chiefs. No one I spoke with has been willing to shovel a speck of dirt on their graves just yet. But more importantly, almost everyone pointed to age as a factor for these Chiefs. That is not the only thing holding Kansas City back this year, but it seems to be the one that has a consensus with it. Offensive coach No. 1: “Honestly they are very similar to last year; the difference last year is they won all the one-score games. They have more explosive receivers than when we played them last year. They still are top 3 in the league in [fewest] turnovers lost on offense and they were high up (No. 4) last year as well. To me the thing that is catching up with them is fatigue and age. They have played so many seasons in a row into the month of February it just eventually takes a toll on your body and I don’t think their depth, especially on the offensive and defensive lines, has developed to a point to let their stars rest like Chris Jones. “I think the young offensive tackle [Josh Simmons] is talented but you start playing the teams with elite pass rushers, it will limit how long Mahomes can hold the ball. That’s usually how he makes his back-breaking plays. The defense will still make you grind out points and yards but the offense hasn’t found the quick play touchdowns like they did in the past with Tyreek Hill or a younger Kareem Hunt who could go the distance.” Offensive coach No. 2: “They are older with 95 [Chris Jones] on defense and 87 [Travis Kelce] on offense, even though those guys still make plays in spots. I feel like they had more consistent production around Kelce last year. Same a little bit on defense with Jones. Jones always took some plays off, but he could win when he wanted. I don’t know that he wins the same two years later. He can’t turn it on and off like he could. I think because of this, Spags has had to generate more pressure, and therefore has had to blitz and stunt more than he did [in past years.]” Offensive coach No. 3: “Chris Jones is diminishing as a game wrecker and can be moved and they’re not dynamic aside from when rushing the passer. Then you’re not afraid of the offense running away with it like usual. Xavier Worthy hasn’t shown anything to be afraid of outside of speed. Kelce is diminishing. [Rashee] Rice just got back but not playing up to par. Run game is nonexistent. They really haven’t done much to help Pat, unfortunately.” Front office executive No. 1: “Biggest difference I think the real difference is OL play decline, receiver decline (also absence of Rice), Kelce not as potent as he once was. Also I think their secondary is average.” Front office executive No. 2: “Their losses have come to playoff teams on one score games. They used to win those. I don’t think it is a “sound the alarms” situation. Offense and defense still rank high in EPA [third on offense, 12th on defense.] But a couple of things: Offensively the offensive line isn’t what it was last year. Loss of [Joe] Thuney, Trey Smith not playing as well since he got paid and LT being a roller coaster. That coupled with early season suspension to Rice and the injury to Worthy, they couldn’t get their feet under themselves. The lack of consistency and attention to detail overall is holding them back in the close games they used to always wins. “Defensively they have tried to replace Justin Reid with youth and they lost [Tershawn] Wharton, who gave them eight-plus sacks and 40 pressures, with Tillery, magnified by Chris Jones not playing as well. They have never been a big run team, so when the pass game isn’t in sync because the players haven’t always been in the lineup, that slows them down.” Defensive coach No. 1: “No difference actually at all. That’s the thing. Defenses have adjusted to beat them and they haven’t adjusted back. Kelce is nowhere close to the player he was in 2023 and that was nowhere close to the guy he was in 2021. He’s a guy in free fall from a skill standpoint that’s just age showing up.” Defensive coach No. 2: “Offensively they still present problems to defenses with the QB, TE and speed at WR. Having Rice back makes them really explosive in many different ways. They are still a very scary group. Defensively they are not great in the money area: red zone, third down, hitting the QB.” It was interesting to hear a defensive coach speak so highly of the team’s offense while not being impressed by the defense. Indeed, Kansas City is 10th in defending the red zone (eighth last year), 23rd in third-down stops (up from 26th a year ago) and ninth in team pressures (slightly up from 10th in 2024.) But here’s something that came up that I wasn’t expecting: confidence. Might the proud Chiefs be a bit shaken by what’s happening with them? Offensive coach No. 3: “Effort. I’m not sure how much belief they have right now.” Defensive coach No. 2: “The league saw Philly beat them down. And not just beat them but actually pummel them. Then they start the season with a loss in Brazil and again to Philly. Doubt starts to creep in.” Front office executive No. 2: “They will turn the corner because Mahomes is too good. There’s maybe more frustration than [a lack of] confidence. They have played in too many big games with this core to lose that.” Whether or not the Chiefs have all the confidence in the world, they aren’t getting any younger as the season gets later and their playoff chances dim. No one will want to see the Chiefs if they can get into the playoffs, but things must turn around beginning this week against the Colts. |
| AFC NORTH |
| BALTIMOREJamison Hensley of ESPN.com on the high amount of sacks that QB LAMAR JACKSON has taken in 2025: In returning to practice Thursday, Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson was taken aback when told he already has been sacked the same number of times in seven starts this season as he was all of last year. “I got to talk to the offensive line about that,” Jackson said while raising his right eyebrow. “I’m going to holler at my guys about that.” This season, Jackson has been sacked 23 times, which is the eighth most in the league despite him having sat out three games because of a hamstring injury. Last season, Jackson was sacked 23 times in 17 starts, which ranked 26th among all quarterbacks. Along with the sacks, the injuries also have increased. Jackson sat out Wednesday’s practice because of an ankle injury before being a full participant Thursday. Last week, he was sidelined for one practice because of knee soreness before practicing the rest of the week. Jackson said he was feeling good physically but acknowledged that it probably would be his routine going forward to sit out Wednesday practices. “We’ll see how it goes,” Jackson said. “I got to see how [Coach John Harbaugh] feels about it.” Since becoming the Ravens’ starting quarterback midway through the 2018 season, Jackson has been hit 1,305 times — which is 107 more than any other quarterback in that span. Jackson was asked if he has had to learn how to manage his body as he has aged. “I don’t think I’m old at all right now,” said Jackson, who turns 29 in January. “Not that old.” Even though Baltimore (5-5) has won four straight games, the two-time NFL Most Valuable Player hasn’t been at his best lately. In wins at Minnesota and Cleveland, Jackson completed 57.4% of his throws for an average of 184.5 yards. In Sunday’s 23-16 win at the Browns, he threw no touchdown passes and two interceptions for a 47.6 passer rating, which is the second worst of his career. “If it just happens in the game, probably,” Jackson said when asked if injuries have affected his play. “But if you were injured, took some time off and you were able to come back, I doubt it.” |
| CINCINNATIQB JOE BURROW is taking first team reps. Look out, New England. As NFL Week 12 kicks off Thursday, there’s no shortage of notable injury news. Joe Burrow returned to practice Wednesday for the Bengals, and took the first-team reps at practice Thursday. If he plays Sunday it would represent a remarkably fast return from a serious toe injury for which he had surgery earlier this season. But that’s still an “if.” “I’m not there yet,” Bengals head coach Zac Taylor said when asked about Burrow playing on WLW radio. “One day at practice isn’t going to lead to that decision yet.” While Taylor is coy, WR TEE HIGGINS is confident that Burrow is back. Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Tee Higgins said he asked Joe Burrow on Wednesday if he was going to play Sunday against the New England Patriots. The two-time NFL Comeback Player of the Year gave Higgins a side-eyed look. “I don’t know what that look meant, but I assume good,” Higgins told reporters Thursday, Burrow’s second straight day practicing in full ahead of a Week 12 home game versus an AFC title contender. When the Bengals opened Burrow’s 21-day practice window on Nov. 10, he said returning for Cincinnati’s Thanksgiving game against the division rival Baltimore Ravens would be “very” meaningful. But he might be back on the field before then. Higgins said Burrow is back to 100% from the turf toe injury he suffered in the second game of the season. “He’s practicing like he was Week 1,” Higgins said, via Bengals reporter Mike Petraglia. Burrow was the first quarterback to throw during position drills in the portion of Thursday’s practice open to the media, according to ESPN’s Ben Baby, who also reported that Burrow took snaps from starting center Ted Karras in a quarterback-center exchange drill. Joe Flacco, whom Cincinnati traded for last month following Jake Browning’s struggles in Burrow’s absence, has started the past five games. While the Bengals have won only once in that span, Flacco has often done his part, throwing for 1,453 yards, 12 touchdowns and only 3 interceptions along the way. Flacco practiced Thursday, however, he was limited with a right shoulder injury. Burrow, who had surgery on his toe on Sept. 19, is still on injured reserve, so he’d have to be moved to the active roster if he’s to start Sunday against the Patriots. |
| CLEVELAND With QB DILLON GABRIEL still concussed, QB SHEDEUR SANDERS will make his starting debut Sunday. |
| PITTSBURGHQB AARON RODGERS was at practice with a brace on his left wrist. Dylan Svoboda of the New York Post: After not practicing Wednesday, Rodgers was listed as a limited participant with a couple of days to go before the Steelers take on his longtime NFC North nemesis, the Bears. The Pittsburgh quarterback is reportedly pushing to play in Sunday’s road matchup in Chicago despite suffering a fracture in his non-throwing wrist. Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin said earlier this week that Rodgers taking the field this weekend depends on his “comfort” and “functionality,” which the quarterback echoed on Wednesday. “It’d be a safety thing,” he said. “… Gotta get the OK and gotta feel like I can protect myself,” Rodgers said. Rodgers reportedly took snaps in the shotgun on Thursday, but that isn’t the formation he’s worried about. “I would say it’d be difficult to take a snap under center than catch one in the ‘gun and there’s been times in my career where we have adjusted and gone to some pistol sets if we need to, to still keep the spacing on the run distribution between the halfback and the quarterback, but the goal would be to take snaps from under center,” Rodgers said Wednesday. The injury occurred late in the second quarter of Sunday’s game against the Bengals when Rodgers landed awkwardly on his wrist. |
| AFC SOUTH |
| HOUSTONThe DB much prefers Houston’s Battle Red uniforms that were on display Thursday night. |
| AFC EAST |
| BUFFALOWR KEON COLEMAN has not done a good job of behaving like a pro in his two seasons with the Bills – and he was sidelined Thursday night. Alaina Getzenberg of ESPN.com: The Buffalo Bills are continuing to tinker with the receiver lineup ahead of Thursday night’s game at the Houston Texans, with wide receiver Keon Coleman listed as a healthy scratch for a second straight game. Coleman was inactive for the team’s win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 11 after being late to a team meeting on the Friday before the game. Coleman, the 33rd pick in 2024, had previously been in the plans to play that week. The team has elevated wide receiver Gabe Davis from the practice squad for consecutive weeks, along with tight end Keleki Latu, with tight end Dalton Kincaid (hamstring) and wide receiver Curtis Samuel (elbow/neck) out for Thursday’s game. Wide receiver and returner Mecole Hardman Jr. has been placed on injured reserve after just one game with Buffalo. He suffered a calf injury on a punt return in which he fumbled the ball against the Buccaneers. Last week’s scratch marked the third time Coleman has missed game time in his two-year career because of disciplinary issues. He missed the first quarter of a game with the Jaguars in 2024 and the first series versus the New England Patriots in Week 5. Coleman, 22, spoke after the game vs. Tampa Bay and acknowledged being late and took responsibility. “I’m aware of how he handled it more publicly, and I appreciate that and respect that,” coach Sean McDermott said Tuesday. “And now it’s again, one day at a time, and earning the trust and respect of the teammates. And that takes time, so that each day that goes by, you check ’em off as wins, trust builds. So, that’s the important piece of it.” |
| NEW ENGLANDHere is how WR STEFON DIGGS spent the mini-bye, Mike Reiss of ESPN.com: Rapper Cardi B announced the birth of her child with New England Patriots wide receiver Stefon Diggs on Instagram, posting a picture of her holding a baby and including the date Nov. 4 with three emojis: a teddy bear, heart and football. The couple hasn’t revealed the baby’s name. In the picture, the baby is swaddled in a blue Patriots-themed blanket printed with the name “Diggs.” The baby is also wearing a blue hat printed with footballs and “Diggs.” Diggs responded to the post, saying “Proud of you boo butt !!!! Love you” with a heart emoji, “There he issssssss,” and “Baby brim” with kissing emojis in different comments. Cardi B attended the Patriots’ 24-23 win over the Atlanta Falcons on Nov. 2, sitting in owner Robert Kraft’s private box. The home crowd erupted in cheers when the videoboard showed her as she mimicked Diggs’ trademark celebration by holding her left hand over her face and extending her right hand in front of her and waving it. Based on Cardi B’s Instagram post, the baby was born two days after that visit to Gillette Stadium. Diggs, 31, leads the Patriots with 59 receptions for 659 yards and has three touchdown catches. He regularly speaks with reporters on Wednesdays and after games but has noted that he prefers not to discuss his personal life. On Monday, Diggs hosted a “Game Day of Giving” event at Gillette Stadium, welcoming families into the team’s field-level lounge for what he touted as “winter support and holiday cheer.” More than 100 guests were served dinner and received warmup kits including coats, hats, gloves and other essentials in an event that included a disc jockey playing music, face painting, crafts and more. The Patriots had been given Friday, Saturday and Sunday off after playing last Thursday, and Diggs was asked how he spent his time. “I saw my son. I saw some of my kids. That’s important to me,” he told reporters Monday night.– – -We had thought that former QB Cam Newton took a shot at QB DRAKE MAYE, but upon closer inspection it was more all Patriots encompassing than just one player: Count former NFL MVP quarterback Cam Newton among those skeptical of the Patriots’ 9-2 start to the 2025 season. Just don’t expect Drake Maye to pay much attention. On Wednesday, the quarterback responded to Newton’s recent comments (in which he compared Maye’s Patriots to “fool’s gold”) with a simple, biting statement. “I don’t even know what show he’s on,” Maye said, via boston.com. “I think they get paid to make remarks and make certain comments.” Newton took a sharp, dubious sword to New England’s reputation when discussing the Patriots’ standing atop the AFC East during a recent appearance on ESPN’s First Take, keeping his meandering explanation simple in purpose: He just isn’t buying what the Patriots are selling. “It has fool’s gold written all over it,” Newton said. “Cubic zirconia. Middle of the mall. And yes, is Drake Maye playing good football? … Absolutely. “The thing I have a problem with is if you keep playing sorry scrubs … it has one and done written all over it.” For New England, one and done would still represent a significant turnaround from the dark place in which the franchise had been mired since the end of the Tom Brady era, a period in which Newton himself played quarterback for the Patriots. But these Patriots are not the same team for whom Newton suited up and was eventually benched in favor of Mac Jones. This Patriots club has rediscovered success by turning back to its winning roots, bringing in coach Mike Vrabel, who built his fame while playing under Bill Belichick in New England, and largely adopting some of the key tenets of the famed Patriot Way. They applied one — ignore the outside noise — when processing Newton’s comments. “I’m just worried about what people in our organization think, and worry about (what) we think and what my teammates think,” Maye said. “People are going to have different opinions. I’m just going out there on Sunday and worrying about ourselves.” Vrabel echoed his quarterback, welcoming external doubt while keeping his focus on what he can control: his team’s preparation for an upcoming slate that begins Sunday with Cincinnati and then the New York Giants the following week, but also includes a rematch with Buffalo and a date with Baltimore. “Nothing is weird to me because people can come on the radio, TV, and you know whatever, it’s just things that get their attention. We’re OK with it,” Vrabel said. “I promise you we are OK with it. Anything that anybody says, we are OK with. “We are going to come to work, we’re going to focus on us, we’re going to try to improve and we’re going to focus on the Bengals and going on the road and try to get our 10th win. That’s what we’re going to focus on.” That response isn’t too far from Belichick’s famous “We’re on to Cincinnati” reply from 2014. While the Patriots certainly haven’t attempted to replicate the Patriot Way in its entirety, they’ve clearly benefitted from being led by a coach with plenty of experience gained as both a player and coach and success achieved in both arenas. Now, that coach is tasked with guiding his team of youngsters through uncharted waters of notoriety. Judging by their response to Newton, they’re off to a great start. |
| NEW YORK JETSHard to believe – the Jets have not made an interception this season. And they only have one takeaway on a fumble recovery. Every other team has at least six takeaways. The record for fewest takeaways in a full season (tracked since the mid-70s) seems to be seven by the 2018 49ers. |
| THIS AND THAT |
| HOT SEATJared Durbin of CBSSports.com doesn’t use the term “hot seat” here, but that seems to be what’s operating on his list of coaches and players: We’re heading into the stretch run of the NFL season now, and the stakes are getting higher. For everybody. Not just the teams, in terms of their playoff positioning or even the draft. But also for individual players and coaches, whether in terms of their performance on the field or their potential futures. With that in mind, we thought now was as good a time as any to take stock of the people in the league with the most at stake over the final third of the season. We separated the candidates into three separate groups: the coaches, the quarterbacks and the other players. Without further ado… The Coaches Mike McDaniel, Kevin Stefanski, Pete Carroll and Chip Kelly, Raheem MorrisMcDaniel is reportedly safe for the rest of the season. Supposedly, Dolphins ownership wants to keep him around beyond this year as well. But not having alignment between the front office and the coaching staff is always dicey, and whoever is hired as the new general manager could decide to go in a different direction. How the Dolphins play down the stretch could have a significant effect on that decision, whenever it comes. The Browns remain a disaster. They’re now 5-22 over the last two seasons. It wouldn’t be surprising if they decided to make a change this offseason, even if it was expected that they’d be bad this year. Beyond that, it wouldn’t be surprising if Stefanski decided he wanted a change this offseason and decided to chase one of the other open jobs, given how bleak the prospects are in Cleveland. The Raiders are also a disaster, and it really looks like they don’t have much of a clue what to do on either side of the ball. Particularly on offense, things are… brutal. They don’t have a plan to get the ball to their best players; they can’t block; the Geno Smith experiment has been a failure. The Raiders reportedly have confidence in the John Spytek-led front office, but it’s not hard to see them pivoting away from the oldest coach in league history after a season that’s gone the way this one has so far, assuming it continues this way for the rest of the year. Terry Fontenot was one of the general managers on the hottest seats in our hot seat rankings earlier this week, and one way for a GM to take the pressure off himself is to lay it off on the coaching staff. The Falcons have regressed pretty badly from one year to the next and it’s not like Morris has an extensive track record of success as a head coach to fall back on here. If Atlanta plays its way into a top-five pick that is headed to the Rams, we could definitely see a change here. The Quarterbacks Tua Tagovailoa, Daniel Jones, J.J. McCarthy, Kirk CousinsTagovailoa has been extremely up and down this season, and it’s been mostly down. He’s gone from leading the NFL in passing yards two years ago to leading the league in interceptions this year, and his yards per attempt average has plummeted since his career high all the way back in 2022. His contract is massive, but the Dolphins can’t really save money by cutting him this offseason, though they can do so by trading him. The Colts traded two first-round picks for Sauce Gardner and reportedly believe enough in Jones that they want to give him a new contract this coming offseason. But we’ve seen some signs over the last few weeks of Jones regressing into some bad habits in terms of sacks, fumbles and interceptions, and if that continues down the stretch of the season, it could change Indianapolis’ plans. We saw something similar happen with Sam Darnold in Minnesota last year. Indy doesn’t have a McCarthy type waiting in the wings, but that might not matter if Jones falters. If he stabilizes, though, he’s likely going to get paid a handsome amount. McCarthy is already getting the “well, we don’t know about his future in Minnesota” type of reporting, just five starts into his career. It’s been pretty bleak out there for him, so it’s not hard to see why that’s been the case. The Vikings moved on from Darnold to hand him the job and that looks like the wrong decision so far, but McCarthy has a chance to show down the stretch why they were willing to do so. If he continues to struggle, though, the Vikings could be looking to move on pretty quickly. It’d be wild, but it’s possible. Cousins is going to start down the stretch for the Falcons and this following slate of games is likely going to determine whether he sticks in the league or his career is over. The results when he’s been counted on this year and last haven’t been encouraging and he won’t have top target Drake London for at least a week, so it’s hard to see him making a run at a significant contract this offseason. (The Falcons are clearly going to cut him given the financial realities they’d face by keeping him around, and nobody is going to trade for him at his base salary.) The Others Trey Hendrickson, Kyle Pitts, Breece Hall, Mark Andrews, Jaelan PhillipsThese players are all pending free agents, so they have a lot to play for down the stretch of the season. Hendrickson has yet to return to practice for the Bengals, who are 3-7 and set to play the Patriots this week, without Ja’Marr Chase. If Hendrickson doesn’t return soon and the Bengals continue to stack losses, he may decide just to shut it down for the rest of the year to preserve his body ahead of his foray into the market. He’s going to be 31 years old in a few weeks, but there should be plenty of time left for him as a premium edge rusher if he gets a three- or four-year deal — it’s just a matter of how much that deal is worth. Pitts has underwhelmed through the first five seasons of his career, regressing badly amid injuries and limited playing time after his spectacular rookie year, when he caught 68 passes for 1,026 yards. But he has an opportunity over the next few weeks, with Drake London likely out, to prove that he can be a top-level target if featured in the passing game. Hall was reportedly available for a third-round pick at the trade deadline, but nobody paid that price. He’s flashed extremely high-level rushing ability throughout his career, but he’s also had periods where he looked extremely ordinary. If he can put together a nice stretch run with Tyrod Taylor under center, maybe he can earn himself a sizable free-agent contract this offseason from one of the running back-needy teams. Andrews is probably in his final season with the Ravens, given the team is more likely to re-sign, well, Isaiah Likely, given the players’ ages and Andrews’ declining production in recent seasons. But he’s still auditioning for a new contract. He probably needs to perform better than his current 8.6 yards-per-catch average over the next few weeks to earn himself a multi-year deal worth a significant amount of money. Phillips is already excelling for the Eagles and has the potential to earn himself a ton of money by continuing to play at that level for the next several weeks and into the playoffs. He has occasionally been an electric edge rusher throughout his career and again looks like that right now, but injury issues have plagued him going all the way back to college and it might be viewed as a significant risk to give him a long-term, big-money deal. If he plays well enough, though, teams could be willing to overlook that history. |
| BIG TEN UNEASEStewart Mandel of The Athletic on the disturbance in the force of the Big Ten: The Big Ten has gotten too big. For nearly 20 years, the league was a stable, manageable group of 11 mostly Midwestern universities (save Penn State) that kept the members largely in lockstep with the league and with each other. There was no noticeable difference when Nebraska joined in 2011. But the conference has added six members since 2014, two each under longtime commissioner Jim Delany (Rutgers and Maryland), short-lived successor Kevin Warren (USC and UCLA) and current leader Petitti (Oregon and Washington). In doing so, each achieved their most tangible goal: making more money. The Big Ten’s TV rights jumped from about $250 million a year in 2014 to a $440 million average from 2017-23 to a staggering $1 billion average for the current deal, which runs from 2023-2030. But that windfall was not without consequences: Michigan State fans forced to stay up until 2:30 a.m. (ET) to watch the Spartans play a football game in Pacific time. UCLA basketball fans trading Las Vegas for Indianapolis for conference tournament weekend. Maryland volleyball players flying cross-country to play a Thursday night match. The conference no longer has a cohesive identity like its “It Just Means More” SEC counterpart, mostly because the schools no longer have much in common. No one tuning into the Week 9 UCLA-Indiana game on Fox thought to themselves, “Now this is Big Ten football!” And now, behind the scenes, there is unprecedented friction in a long-harmonious conference. It began in 2020, when Warren alienated many of the league’s coaches and administrators with his handling of the initial cancellation of the season during the pandemic. Several schools opposed the decision and threatened to play an independent schedule before the league ultimately reversed its decision. Three years later came the Connor Stalions signal-stealing scandal at Michigan, when the Wolverines’ rivals pressured the still-new-on-the-job Petitti to drop a hammer on the school. His solution, suspending Jim Harbaugh for three games, was seen by Michigan as an egregious overreach and as not nearly enough punishment by everyone else. Petitti to his credit did manage to get all 18 coaches and ADs to lock arms in support of his controversial 4-4-2-2-1 concept for an expanded College Football Playoff. The problem: He couldn’t get anyone outside of the Big Ten on board. And now, the most momentous venture of his three-year tenure has run into a wall. The deal will pay out that up-front cash in a tiered structure. The most valuable programs, Ohio State, Michigan and Penn State, could receive as much as $190 million, while the others would get anywhere from $110-$150 million. USC opposes it because the school feels it belongs in that top tier, which seems like something that could be negotiated. “We greatly value our membership in the Big Ten Conference and understand and respect the larger landscape, but we also recognize the power of the USC brand is far-reaching, deeply engaging, and incredibly valuable,” USC AD Jen Cohen said in an open letter to Trojans fans last week. “And we will always fight first for what’s best for USC.” And in Ann Arbor, Michigan board members and other officials have made it clear they oppose the entire concept of selling off long-term equity for short-term cash. “The University of Michigan is not desperate,” Mark Bernstein, chairman of the Michigan board of regents, told The Athletic. Perhaps Petitti and many of his members were too eager to land the plane. Perhaps easing the immediacy will give him time to win over the two dissenters. With or without those two, the league is planning a shift to uneven revenue distribution going forward, where the more valuable and highest-performing programs make more than the middle or lower-tier schools, inspired by Florida State and Clemson and the ACC. The conference’s new vibe is light-years different from the Big Ten’s longtime picture of dogged unity. It was the first conference to devise a grant of rights, back in 1988, preventing Ohio State and Michigan from ever pulling a Texas- and Oklahoma-level defection. Since then, the schools have shared conference-generated revenue and a portion of their own ticket sales equally, even though Ohio State and Michigan bake far more of the pie than Northwestern and Purdue. Now, the league is on the verge of a new era that conjures the type of instability that has long plagued other conferences. Ask the early-2010s Big 12 how making special concessions to two of its members played out. Ask most of the present-day ACC what it’s like to sit in a room while a few schools threaten to leave them behind. The shame of all this is that on the field, the Big Ten is thriving. After years of playing second fiddle (at best) to the SEC, Michigan (in 2023) and Ohio State (2024) won back-to-back national championships under the league’s banner. The Buckeyes and Hoosiers hold the Nos. 1 and 2 spots in the latest College Football Playoff rankings. They’ve come a long way from the days when Delany felt compelled to publish an open letter suggesting the SEC’s superior speed on its defensive lines was because of their inferior academics. Ironically, Big Ten schools — when there were fewer of them, at least — got along better when they weren’t as good at football. |
