DETROIT

QB JARED GOFF was interception free on Sunday, but he was not without turnovers.  Mike Florio pounces:

After the 2020 season, the Rams wanted to get rid of quarterback Jared Goff so badly that they gave the Lions a first-round pick to take him. Recently, the Lions have gotten a taste of why the Rams were so anxious to move on.

With the Lions trying to position themselves for the franchise’s first-ever Super Bowl appearance, Goff has had six turnovers since Sunday.

He followed a three-interception performance in a come-from-behind win over the Bears four days ago with a three-fumble day (a career high) against the Packers in a Thanksgiving loss.

“No rhyme or reason,” Goff said about his six turnovers, via the team’s official website. “I tend to look at them individually and see what I could have done better and sometimes there’s an answer and sometimes there isn’t. But overall, yeah, it’s my job to take care of the football and I have to do a good job of it.”

He hasn’t in the last two games. And it could have been worse. Goff had what would have been a fourth interception — and likely a pick six — dropped by Bears cornerback Jaylon Johnson on Sunday. If Johnson had held on and not fallen, the Lions might be 7-4 right now.

They’re still 8-3, which is far better than they usually are in late November. The playoffs are a near certainty. If they hope to compete with the likes of the Eagles, 49ers, or Cowboys, however, Goff needs to play less like the guy the Rams couldn’t wait to get rid of.

GREEN BAY

The good news in Green Bay is that the reps as starting QB seem to have worked with QB JORDAN LOVE.  Josh Alper of ProFootballTalk.com:

When Packers head coach Matt LaFleur started to put together the plan for Thursday’s game against the Lions, he liked the idea of dialing up a deep ball on the first play of the game.

After Thursday’s 29-22 win, LaFleur said he had second thoughts about that call on Wednesday night and called quarterback Jordan Love to tell him. Love told him he “wanted this call,” though, and LaFleur left it in.

That decision paid off with a 53-yard strike to Christian Watson that set up a touchdown pass to Jayden Reed and kicked off an excellent day for Love. He was 22-of-32 for 268 yards and three touchdowns to continue a run of good play that reflects what LaFleur called a “night and day” difference in the quarterback’s command of the offense. That shift played into the opening play call and a lot of the other things the Packers did on Thursday.

“It’s given us a lot of confidence to be a little bit more aggressive with some of the calls,” LaFleur said at his postgame press conference. “When you’re trusting your offensive line, when you’re trusting your quarterback to facilitate and get the ball where it needs to go and throw on rhythm, that allows you to do that. We had a lot of I would say deeper developing plays and hit a lot of intermediate throws for some chunk plays that ended up being big for us.”

The win moved the Packers to 5-6 and Love’s play has provided some hope that they can make a late charge for a playoff spot. Next weekend’s game against the Chiefs will provide more evidence on that front, but, no matter the result, Green Bay is feeling a lot better about their quarterback than they were a few weeks ago.

DALLAS

Some stats that extol the greatness of the 2023 Cowboys:

@OptaSTATS

The @dallascowboys are the first team in NFL history to win their first 5 home games of a season by 20+ points each.

@ScottKacsmar

Most wins by 20+ points thru 11 games in NFL history

1. 2007 Patriots – 8

2. 1925 Pottsville Maroons – 7

2. 1948 Bears – 7

2. 1949 Eagles – 7

2. 1999 Rams – 7

2. 2023 Cowboys – 7

– – –

If we have this right, CB Da’RON BLAND has been a starter for 9 games this year (but he did play more than 50% of the defensive snaps in the first 2), and he already has an NFL season record.  Bobby Kownack of NFL.com:

DaRon Bland used the Cowboys’ annual Thanksgiving Day game to write himself into the history books.

The Cowboys cornerback set the NFL single-season record on Thursday with his fifth pick-six of the year, intercepting Commanders quarterback Sam Howell and evading multiple would-be tacklers on a 63-yard return to pay dirt.

“To have the fans, the family, the coaches there and do it on Thanksgiving Day is another thing to be thankful for,” Bland said postgame on CBS. “On that play, I saw the ball, saw the receiver run an out route and I just had to go get it. And then, all I saw was open field.”

The score added yet another cause for celebration at the tail end of a 45-10 thumping of Washington, and it pushed Bland past Eric Allen (1993), Jim Kearny (1972) and Ken Houston (1971) — the three men he tied with his fourth interception TD just last week.

Bland’s big play also vaulted the second-year cornerback into first in Cowboys franchise history for career pick-sixes, per NFL Research.

It’s just the latest magnificent feat in a season chock full of them for Bland, who was thrust into the starting lineup following Trevon Diggs’ torn ACL during practice ahead of Week 3.

Since then, Bland has emerged as one of the league’s preeminent playmakers on defense.

He now has 48 tackles, 13 passes defensed and seven interceptions on the season.

Bland’s yet to go more than two consecutive games without a defensive touchdown dating back to Week 1, and he still has six more regular-season contests to attempt to add to his jaw-dropping mark.

Bland has 7 INTs on the year, returning 5 to the house.  The QBs he has victimized are Daniel Jones (22 yards), Mac Jones (54), Matthew Stafford (30), Bryce Young (30) and, now, Sam Howell (63).

Bland had 2 INTs in his 2021 college season at Fresno State, then 12 in 28 games as a pro.

Perspective from Hall of Famer Rondé Barber:

@rondebarber

Can we stop for a second and not only talk about Edge Rushers being DPOY… 

I only had 8 career INTs for TDs, and felt like I was doing something… 😜 This is AMAZING!

WASHINGTON

This will not console the Commanders:

@OptaSTATS

Entering today, NFL teams were a combined 57-0 over the last 25 regular seasons when having a game with:

100+ rushing yards

250+ passing yards

35:00+ TOP

no more than 25 penalty yards

no more than 1 turnover

The Commanders did all that today and lost by 35.

NEW ORLEANS

QB DEREK CARR is the Saints QB on Sunday.  Josh Alper of ProFootballTalk.com:

Derek Carr will be back at quarterback for the Saints on Sunday.

Carr suffered a concussion in Week 10 and remained in the concussion protocol to start this week, but he has cleared the final stages. Carr was a full participant in practice on Wednesday and he was removed from the injury report entirely on Thursday, which puts him on track to play against the Falcons in Atlanta this weekend.

Carr has started every game in his first season with the Saints and their Week 11 bye was well-timed in regard to giving him enough time to keep that streak alive. That’s a plus for the Saints as they can strengthen their hold on first place in the NFC South with a win this weekend.

The Saints got offensive linemen James Hurst (illness) and Ryan Ramczyk (knee, rest) back at practice Thursday, but cornerback Marshon Lattimore (ankle) and running back Kendre Miller (ankle) remained out of action.

LOS ANGELES RAMS

RB KYREN WILLIAMS looks good to go for the Rams – and your Fantasy team.  Callie Lawson-Freeman of YahooSports.com:

The Los Angeles Rams’ top running back is slated for a return.

Starter Kyren Williams was reportedly designated to return to practice Wednesday after four weeks on injured reserve. The Rams are making the move in preparation to play Williams in their Week 12 matchup with the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter.

The 23-year-old was placed on injured reserve with a sprained ankle after the Rams’ initial matchup with the Cardinals in Week 6, a 26-9 win. He left the game in the fourth quarter after running for 158 yards and a touchdown. The team’s other leading running back, Ronnie Rivers, was placed on injured reserve with a knee injury after the same contest.

Williams was selected by the Los Angeles Rams in the fifth round of the 2022 NFL Draft out of Notre Dame. His most recent injury was the second ankle issue to sideline him for at least four games. He was placed on injured reserve during his rookie campaign due to a high ankle sprain. He was moved to the starting role at the beginning of this season.

Running backs Royce Freeman and Darrell Henderson were promoted from the Rams practice squad after Williams and Rivers were hurt. Henderson scored one rushing touchdown on six carries, securing four of seven targets for 28 yards in in the Rams’ 17-16 win over the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday. He was waived Tuesday, likely in preparation for Williams’ comeback.

In the last four games since Williams’ injury, Freeman averaged 53.8 rushing yards and no receptions. He led the team in carries during the team’s 20-3 loss to the Green Bay Packers in Week 9, rushing 12 times for 32 yards. He’ll likely move down on the Rams’ depth chart with Williams’ return.

SEATTLE

Brady Henderson of ESPN.com with comments from QB GENO SMITH in the wake of another bad offensive day for the Seahawks:

Geno Smith says his arm is OK and his confidence in the Seattle Seahawks’ offense is intact after another ineffective performance in their 31-13 loss to the San Francisco 49ers on Thursday night.

In their fourth straight loss to their NFC West rival, the Seahawks managed just 220 yards, went 3-of-11 on third down and failed to score an offensive touchdown. They’ve gone seven straight quarters without one and have just three over their past four games.

“I still believe in our coaches,” Smith said. “I still believe in our players. I think it’s been a tough stretch for us, but I believe that things will turn around. I think what we have to do is continue to work hard, if not work harder. There is no excuse for it. There is no words that I can say that will make it better, but what needs to be done is we need to work harder. We need to find a way. We’ve got a lot of talent. We’ve got a lot of good players on this offense and we’ve got the right coaches. So we’ve got to believe.”

In response to a question about whether he’d change anything with the game plan in retrospect, Smith backed offensive coordinator Shane Waldron, who has come under fire during Seattle’s recent scoring lull.

“I feel like Shane always does a great job and I’ve got his back 110 percent,” Smith said. “He knows that. I feel like it comes down to us executing better as players. No matter what the play is called, it comes down to the players making it come to life. So Shane’s called some great games for us and he’s going to continue to do that. I just think overall we’ve got to stay confident, we’ve got to keep believing in what we’re doing, keep believing and trusting our process and Shane’s going to continue to call great plays and we’ve just got to execute for him.”

Smith was playing four days after suffering a triceps contusion on his throwing arm in Seattle’s loss to the Los Angeles Rams, which left him with a large knot on his elbow. The Seahawks held him out of practice Monday and limited him Tuesday before he practiced in full Wednesday, though they appeared to scale back his pregame throwing routine Thursday night.

Smith said his arm wasn’t impacted Thursday night by the contusion.

“No,” he said. “Not at all.”

Seahawks coach Pete Carroll praised Smith for playing on the quick turnaround and also said his arm wasn’t an issue.

“That had nothing to do with it,” Carroll said.

Smith completed 18 of 27 passes for 180 yards and an interception. He was nearly picked on an errant throw on Seattle’s opening possession. Two of his incompletions were drops by DK Metcalf. Another came on a throw into the end zone to Jaxon Smith-Njigba, who appeared to be held by cornerback Ambry Thomas. Smith ran over to the official after the play to plead his case.

Smith was also sacked six times.

“I haven’t seen the film yet, but it wasn’t good enough to get a win,” he said of his performance. “It wasn’t good enough to score any points, so definitely not up to my standard.”

The Seahawks trailed 24-10 late in the third quarter at the time of Smith’s incompletion to Smith-Njigba in the end zone. They had to settle for a field goal instead of a touchdown that would have made it a one-score game.

Smith made it clear postgame that he believed it was a missed call.

“I’m not one to get on the refs, I know they have a tough job,” he said. “I don’t know if they did or did not see it, but from my vantage point I could clearly see him getting held, and it affected him being able to catch a touchdown right there and that affected us being able to get points. So that’s a four-point swing, and in games like this, every point matters. Tough call but hey, that’s how it is sometimes.”

The Seahawks have been outscored 120-56 in their four straight losses to the 49ers.

“We’ve got another chance to go against these guys in a few of weeks and I think everyone’s got to take that personal,” Smith said. “I know I am. We all got to take it personal. We can’t keep coming out here and letting them beat us like that.”

KANSAS CITY

The Chiefs are the test case for what happens when you put a Hall of Fame QB and tight end with a mediocre at best collection of receivers.  Adam Teicher of ESPN.com:

Andy Reid was in a familiar place after Monday night’s loss to the Philadelphia Eagles, trying to explain why the Kansas City Chiefs’ passing game failed again.

Reid didn’t say anything he hadn’t before recent games. He said things between Patrick Mahomes and many of his receivers were off and that the receivers were dropping too many passes. He pledged that the Chiefs would fix the problem.

“All of these things have been kind of self-inflicted,” Reid said. “We’ve got to take care of that.”

The time for a fix may have passed. The Chiefs are 10 games into the season and lead the league in dropped passes with 26, six more than any other team, and a drop percentage at 7.1. Mahomes has thrown nine interceptions and is headed for the worst statistical season of his career.

The time for the Chiefs to give Mahomes more help passed in the offseason, when they could have signed any of several veteran wide receivers, Odell Beckham Jr., DeAndre Hopkins and JuJu Smith-Schuster, among others.

The Chiefs instead spent much of their available money on defensive players, one for each level: lineman Charles Omenihu, linebacker Drue Tranquill and safety Mike Edwards. They went with who they had at wide receiver, adding only a rookie, Rashee Rice, in the second round of the draft.

An argument could be made that the Chiefs did the right thing. Omenihu, Tranquill and Edwards are playing well and helping the Chiefs become one of the NFL’s top defensive teams. The Chiefs had stocked up the year before at wide receiver, signing veteran Marquez Valdes-Scantling, trading for Kadarius Toney and drafting Skyy Moore.

A better question: Why haven’t those players given the Chiefs more? The Chiefs knew the early part of the season would be a developmental one for many of their receivers, with Valdes-Scantling being the only as an established NFL regular.

But that process is taking longer than the Chiefs hoped. The rookie, Rice, leads the wide receivers by significant margins in catches (36), yards (420) and touchdowns (4).

“Our expectation is to score a lot more than we did,” wide receiver Justin Watson said after the 21-17 defeat Monday night to the Eagles. The Chiefs were scoreless in the second half for the third straight game.

“We’ve got to figure out how to get it fixed quick. Some of it is just the way defenses are playing us, some of it we’ve just got to make plays.”

Watson is second among Chiefs wide receivers in catches (19) and yards (329). That it’s Rice and Watson leading the way is a shock to the Chiefs, who believed going into the season that their big three would be in some order of Toney, Valdes-Scantling and Moore.

Those three players have combined for 53 catches, 493 yards and 3 touchdowns — less than tight end Travis Kelce by himself.

The Chiefs traded for Toney midway through last season believing he might emerge as a No. 1 type of receiver. They tried to acquire him earlier in his career, hoping he would fall to them in the 2021 draft and then trying to deal for him months before they finally made it happen.

“He can do anything,” general manager Brett Veach said last spring. “He’s predominately been a guy that is a slot receiver, returner, runner, gadget guy if you will, but I don’t know if there is a limit on his game because he has a vertical game. It’s a fair question to [ask], ‘Has he ever played with a quarterback that likes to push the ball down the field [like Mahomes]?’

“We have a lot of high hopes for him. He was a first-round pick for a reason. There’s a reason why we traded for him and we felt like he was first-round talent. … I think the sky is the limit for him.”

Toney missed all of training camp after having surgery to repair a torn meniscus but he’s played in every game. However, he has had minimal impact, and the Chiefs before the recent trade deadline acquired Mecole Hardman Jr., a player with similar skills as Toney.

Valdes-Scantling has been the most disappointing of Chiefs receivers. He has never been a high-volume pass-catcher in six NFL seasons, but usually delivered a large number of big plays.

He is averaging a healthy 17.8 yards per catch this season but has only 14 receptions. He had one game this season with more than two catches. Against the Eagles, he didn’t catch any passes and his drop near the end zone contributed to the defeat.

“I know we all look at the numbers … but here is a lot that he does well that sometimes doesn’t show up on the stat sheet,” offensive coordinator Matt Nagy said, pointing to Kelce’s touchdown against the Eagles, where Valdes-Scantling effectively screened Kelce’s defender, freeing him to score.

“He does a lot of that and I think that’s a credit to him and that can be very selfless at times, which we love. Production-wise, he’s not where he was last year and we do know that we have hopefully a bunch of season left and we want to be able to continue to keep working through these things as we have these different wide receivers.”

Mahomes has been affected by the drops. He had an interception returned for a touchdown after it was deflected by Toney in a one-point, season-opening loss to the Detroit Lions. Moore dropped a pass in the end zone as the Chiefs were trying to rally in what would become a Week 8 loss to the Denver Broncos.

Valdes-Scantling’s drop against the Eagles was as damaging as any. Mahomes immediately put his hands on his head in shock, perhaps knowing the Chiefs’ best chance to win had slipped by.

“They know I’m going to keep firing it,” Mahomes said. “That’s just who I am. I’m going to fire it to the guy who’s open and usually they’re going to make the play. It happens. … A lot of stuff happened throughout the game and so you just have to keep firing.”

BALTIMORE

The Todd Monken-coordinated Ravens seem to have found a happy place for QB LAMAR JACKSON.  Jamison Hensley of ESPN.com as Jackson closes in on 5,000 rush yards:

The Baltimore Ravens and Seattle Seahawks were tied at 13 late in the third quarter on Oct. 20, 2019, and second-year quarterback Lamar Jackson convinced coach John Harbaugh to go for it on fourth-and-2 from the Seattle 8-yard line. Harbaugh called for “Quarterback Power.”

The play was designed for Jackson to dart up the heart of the defense, and the Ravens QB didn’t stop until he reached the end zone, leaving two tacklers in his wake.

“Lamar is one of the most spectacular athletes in the National Football League,” then-Seattle quarterback Russell Wilson told ESPN earlier this month. “I love his competitiveness, what he can do on the field.”

Four years later, Jackson likely will be joining Wilson in the record books. Jackson needs 28 yards rushing to become the fourth quarterback in NFL history to run for 5,000 yards, joining Wilson, Michael Vick and Cam Newton. He can do so on Sunday night, when Baltimore plays at the Los Angeles Chargers (8:20 p.m. ET, NBC).

It’s fitting he would join that group, because Jackson blends the speed of Vick, fearlessness of Newton and elusiveness of Wilson into his own style.

“That mark is a special mark,” said Wilson, who was the last quarterback to surpass 5,000 yards rushing when he did so on Sept. 17 against the Washington Commanders. “But there’s a lot more football left to be played [for Lamar]. I think Lamar is definitely going to get a lot more yards in his lifetime in football.”

Jackson has taken the production of the dual-threat quarterback to the next level in his six NFL seasons. He set the single-season rushing record for a quarterback with 1,206 in his 2019 NFL MVP season, and he is the only quarterback to produce multiple 1,000-yard rushing seasons.

Now, he is set to eclipse 5,000 yards rushing in the fewest amount of games for a quarterback. It took Vick 104 games, Newton 129 and Wilson 175 to reach 5,000. Sunday will be Jackson’s 82nd.

“I’m in line with the greats,” Jackson said Tuesday. “That’s cool.”

Speed

It was third-and-3 in the third quarter on Oct. 18, 2020, when Jackson made the Philadelphia Eagles pay for their mistake. Half of the Eagles’ defense ran to the right after Jackson faked the ball to running back J.K. Dobbins, and the other half shifted to the left to follow a couple of pulling Ravens offensive linemen.

That left a huge hole in the middle, which essentially gave Jackson a track lane to the end zone.

Jackson sprinted 37 yards untouched for a touchdown, outrunning three defenders, including one who appeared to have a good angle on him. He reached a maximum speed of 21.01 miles per hour, which, according to NFL Next Gen Stats, is the fastest he’s been clocked.

“He’s like a roadrunner,” former Ravens cornerback Brandon Carr said. “His feet go so fast.”

How fast is Jackson? He didn’t run the 40-yard dash at the 2018 NFL combine, but a day after being the last pick of the first round, Jackson was asked for his fastest time in the 40.

His answer: 4.34 seconds.

“I ran it with turf toe, too,” Jackson said.

Since Jackson entered the league in 2018, he has produced 70 runs when he has reached a max speed of 19 mph or faster, according to NFL Next Gen Stats. No one else in the NFL — running backs included — has totaled more than 51 during that span.

“Lamar got a gear not many human beings got,” Newton said in 2020. “I say Michael Vick, I say Lamar, I don’t even think I’m in that stratosphere.”

Fearlessness

After Jackson’s second career start in 2018, Vick offered him some advice.

“With quarterbacks, we’re not used to getting hit all the time,” Vick said. “When we do it, it can either get you into the game or it can shake you up a little bit.

“It’s not like a guy sitting in the pocket, you run the risk of getting injured. I’m not saying that should deter Lamar or scare him, I’m just saying proceed with caution.”

For those who’ve watched Jackson’s 828 rushing attempts, no one would ever accuse Jackson of running scared.

Lamar Jackson on the run

Lamar Jackson should become the fourth QB in NFL history to reach 5,000 rushing yards. He needs just 28 on Sunday against the Chargers to join Michael Vick, Cam Newton and Russell Wilson. Here are the categories in which Jackson leads:

CATEGORY      STAT

Yards after contact since 2018   508

Yds/designed runs since ’06       3,271

Between tackles since ’18          2,216

100-yard games ever by QB      13

QB carries since ’18                   828

QB hits sustained since ’18        1,012

Runs of at least 19 mph since ’18           70

Since NFL Next Gen began tracking designed runs for quarterbacks in 2006, Jackson’s 3,271 are the most by any quarterback through their first six seasons, according to ESPN Stats & Information. Newton is second with 2,117.

And Jackson isn’t taking the ball and racing to the sideline. He has gained 2,216 yards when running in between the tackles. That’s more than double every quarterback since 2018, other than Josh Allen (1,904) and Jalen Hurts (1,130).

“When you ask him to run the ball up inside, he has toughness and vision,” Ravens offensive coordinator Todd Monken said. “That’s probably the biggest thing — toughness and vision that some guys don’t have.

“They may be athletic, but they don’t have a great feel for rush or running lanes, and he does have that. It’s unique.”

Jackson’s toughness is underscored by the amount of contact he’s sustained. He has taken an NFL-leading 1,012 hits since 2018, which is an average of 12.5 per game.

Ravens coaches have said over the years that there is a better chance of Jackson getting hurt in the pocket — when his eyes are focused downfield — than when running. When Jackson’s two season-ending injuries are brought up, he is quick to point out that he was hurt both times when trying to throw.

“He’s like a cat out there,” Ravens backup quarterback Tyler Huntley said. “You know when you chase a cat, they find every which way to find a way to get out there. I just pray he keeps doing what he’s doing.”

Elusiveness

Jackson’s most electrifying run of his career came in Cincinnati in 2019, when an open-field spin move became the defining moment of his MVP season.

To get around two defenders at the Bengals’ 32-yard line, Jackson pivoted and corkscrewed himself with a 360-degree move to break free for a 47-yard touchdown. The touchdown probability for that run was 0%. In less than 24 hours, that highlight had generated six million views on the NFL X feed.

“They’ll be watching that run for decades and decades,” Harbaugh said.

Jackson’s 508 yards after contact are the most by any quarterback since 2018, according to ESPN Stats & Information.

“That’s the most frustrating thing for a defense,” Bengals coach Zac Taylor said. “You have a play covered, and he’s an elite athlete.

“We’ve played a couple of good athletes; he’s one of the rarest I’ve seen in person. Just one little crease and he’s got 30 yards on you.”

After Jackson reaches 5,000 yards rushing, the next milestone is surpassing Vick for the most all-time rushing yards by a quarterback. Jackson trails Vick by 1,137 yards, which means he will likely break that record next season.

Until then, how can teams prepare to stop Jackson running the ball?

“Playing Madden,” 49ers defensive coordinator Steve Wilks said. “This guy is extremely dynamic, can make plays when you do not think there is a play there to be made. He is just Houdini, I guess.”

Jackson has 535 rush yards through 11 games this year, that’s a pace for about 825 rush yards.  Not quite the 1,000+ he had in 2019 and 2020.  He’s carried between 5 and 14 times per game, an average of about 9 carries per game.

Meanwhile, his passer rating of 100.1 is up about 10 points from last season.

PITTSBURGH

The Athletic has an anonymous player poll up, and those surveyed have taken notice of what NFL Justice did to RB JAYLEN WARREN:

Speaking of money, players are tired of the NFL taking it away from them, with 14 percent of them mentioning fines as the league’s biggest issue. Through Week 10, players have been fined nearly $4 million this season.

One player took particular issues with “running backs getting fined for unnecessary roughness. You’ve just got to let people play.” The league has already doled out more than $215,000 in fines to running backs for impermissible use of the helmet. That accounts for nearly one-third of the fines across the league for that foul, with Pittsburgh’s Jaylen Warren being fined twice to the tune of $97,112 and Las Vegas’ Josh Jacobs fined twice for a total of $43,710. Jacobs was fined in consecutive weeks, with the first prompting him to implore the NFL to “chill with the bs.”

Those fines to running backs have felt like a double whammy of sorts to players already dealing with the issue of positional value, a topic raised by a handful of players.

“I feel like you have positions that are overpaid and you have positions that are underpaid,” one player said. “If you can ball, I don’t think it should be like, ‘You play this position, you should only be able to make this much.’”

Another player kept the issue more simple: “Quarterbacks get paid too much.”

It’s not so much that Warren was fined, although that was bad enough – it’s the massive amount of the fines.

MIAMI

RB KYREN WILLIAMS is back for the Rams this week, RB De’VON ACHANE is not for the Dolphins.  Grant Gordon of NFL.com:

Miami’s scoring machine will be down one dynamic running back on Black Friday.

Rookie De’Von Achane is not expected to play for the Dolphins’ game against the New York Jets due to a nagging knee injury, NFL Network Insider Tom Pelissero reported Friday morning on Good Morning Football, per sources.

Achane just returned from an injured reserve stint to play in a Week 11 win over the Las Vegas Raiders, but aggravated the injury in the game and after drawing a questionable designation coming into Friday’s game will be unavailable.

2023 NFL season, Week 12: What We Learned from Thanksgiving Day games

So far this season, the knee injury has been the only thing to slow down Achane.

He burst upon the scene with a four-touchdown performance on Sept. 24 in a 70-20 win over the Denver Broncos in which he tallied 233 scrimmage yards.

For the season, Achane is averaging 92.2 yards per game over five appearances with 461 yards and five touchdowns on the ground, with two more scores through the air. His knee injury sidelined him from Weeks 6-9. Upon his return against the Raiders, he had just one carry for 1 yard as the injury bug bit him again.

THIS AND THAT

ANGRY SCOTT MITCHELL

This as former Lions QB Scott Mitchell airs his grievances:

You didn’t expect a Scott Mitchell vs. Eminem feud this week, but it happened.

A new Barry Sanders documentary “Bye Bye Barry” was released on Amazon Prime Video this week. It features Emimen, the music superstar and Detroit Lions fan, and other famous Lions fans like actors Tim Allen and Jeff Daniels. And a whole lot of jaw-dropping Sanders highlights.

Mitchell is not in the documentary, nor is he specifically named in it. That didn’t matter much.

One of the themes of the documentary is that the Lions weren’t good enough to get perhaps the best running back ever to a Super Bowl. The lack of a star quarterback is mentioned as a issue.

Mitchell took that personally and went off on Facebook, with Sanders and Bridges getting called out.

Mitchell must have been holding into some angst for a while.

Mitchell was a big free-agent signing by the Lions before the 1994 season. Mitchell did throw for 4,338 yards and 32 touchdowns in 1995 but he never brought any playoff success to Detroit and was generally seen as a flop.

In a Facebook post, MItchell said watching the documentary “was not a very pleasant experience.” He said Sanders was great. Then he got to his real feelings.

“However, I am so tired of hearing how I was the reason that Barry Sanders never won a Super Bowl,” Mitchell said on Facebook, via the Detroit News. “I’m so tired of hearing how I was not a good QB. My only response is F*** YOU ALL!!!!! That includes Eminem (and) Jeff Daniels.”

Scott Mitchell cussing Slim Shady and the guy from “Dumb and Dumber” should fill out your NFL Mad Libs sheet for the week. Funny enough, they never really even said anything about the former Lions quarterback, even indirectly.

Mitchell wasn’t done. He blasted his Lions coach, Wayne Fontes, for not having his back. There’s a clip from this year of Sanders and Fontes talking in the documentary, and Fontes telling Sanders he wanted Joe Montana or Warren Moon but then-Lions GM Chuck Schmidt thought both were too old. Fontes never mentioned Mitchell, though Mitchell said on Facebook that Fontes begged him to come to Detroit.

Then Mitchell got to Sanders himself.

“Bottom line, Barry Sanders had everything in Detroit,” Mitchell’s screed continued on Facebook. “Everyone loved him. Everything was built for Barry to succeed. In his 10 year career, he won one playoff game and the only reason he didn’t win more was everyone else was the problem? How many yards did Barry have in the playoffs in ’94, ’95, ’97? I’ll give you a hint not very many. We all are to blame for not winning a (Super Bowl) in Detroit even Barry Sanders.

“I will believe until I die that had we been given more time and patience with the offense, we had and the talent we had we could have made a deep run in the playoffs and competed to win a Super Bowl.”

Sanders had -1 rushing yards in a 1994 playoff game against the Green Bay Packers. He had 40 and 65 yards in the other two games Mitchell referenced. The Lions went 0-3 in those games. Take that, Marshall Mathers.

The Sanders documentary is fantastic, either for fans who want to relive the memories or the ones who aren’t old enough to have lived through the experience. Mitchell probably won’t be rewatching it, however.

BROADCAST NEWS

Jeff Kerr of CBSSports.com on today’s game – which anyone can watch on Amazon:

The NFL is starting a new schedule tradition in 2023 with the first “Black Friday” game that will be streamed exclusively on Amazon Prime Video. The game will be streamed for free as part of a Black Friday “deal” presented by Amazon, so fans don’t have to subscribe to watch the contest between the Miami Dolphins and New York Jets.

Why does the NFL have a “Black Friday” game in the first place? Money played a major factor, as Amazon missed an opportunity to broadcast a game on Thanksgiving in its $1 billion “Thursday Night Football” package. The NFL Thanksgiving Day games have separate rights in the league’s television contracts, being contracted to CBS, Fox, and NBC — so there was no share of the pie for Amazon.

Amazon created the idea of having a game on “Black Friday” to coincide with its biggest shopping day of the year. Prime Video ended up paying $100 million to the NFL to have an annual game on “Black Friday” starting in 2023, banking they’ll make the money up with the numerous eyeballs tuning into the game (remember, a Prime Video subscription is not needed to watch Friday’s game).

Is the NFL entering unchartered territory? The NFL has played games on Fridays, but they have been played on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day since 1999. The league did have a pair of Friday games on New Year’s Eve in 1993, which was also a holiday. The last time the NFL played games on a Friday that wasn’t on a holiday was in 1986, six days before Christmas on Dec. 19.

Friday games were a fixture on the AFL schedule in the 1960s, with the league playing the last November Friday game in 1964 between the Boston Patriots and Denver Broncos. That game on Nov. 20 was six days before Thanksgiving. The last game played on Black Friday was between the Patriots and Buffalo Bills on Nov. 23, 1962.

The last time the NFL played a game on a Friday that wasn’t in December was when the Los Angeles Rams played the St. Louis Cardinals to open the season on Sept. 18, 1970 — a game that started at 11 p.m. ET.

The plan is to have a “Black Friday” game every year. Like when the Thanksgiving night game was added in 2006 to NFL Network, this is the start of a new tradition on Friday afternoons that will likely stick.

HAROLD HASSELBACH

A former NFL player has passed away at age 56:

Former Denver Broncos defensive lineman Harald Hasselbach, who won two Super Bowls with the team in the ’90s, died, the team announced. He was 56.

Hasselbach died six months after being diagnosed with metastatic mucinous adenocarcinoma, a rare type of cancer.

Hasselbach’s family confirmed the news, and said Hasselbach died “free of pain” and “in the comfort of his home,” in a statement provided to ABC News.

“We’d like to make it known that he passed from cancer peacefully in the comfort of his home, free of pain,” Hasselbach’s family said in a statement. “He’s had an overwhelming amount of support over the last week, including past teammates, coaches and family that’ve flown in from around the world.

“… We learned he had the illness less than 6 months ago and he fought as hard any human possibly could, with incredible strength.”

Hasselbach joined the Broncos in 1994 and spent his entire NFL career with the team. Over seven years in the league, Hasselbach never missed a game. He played in 112 out of 112 possible regular-season contests, and appeared in all nine of the team’s postseason games during his career.

Hasselbach played in all four playoff games during the Broncos’ Super Bowl run in 1997. He recorded six tackles across those games. The Broncos went on to defeat the Green Bay Packers 31-24 in the Super Bowl.

The following year, Hasselbach started all three of the team’s postseason games. He recorded two tackles in Super Bowl XXXIII, which the Broncos won 34-19 over the Atlanta Falcons.

Prior to joining the Broncos, Hasselbach, who was born in the Netherlands, played for the Calgary Stampeders in the CFL. He won a Grey Cup with the team, and is one of at least 10 players to win a Grey Cup and a Super Bowl.