| NFC NORTH |
| DETROITLions DC KELVIN SHEPPARD might be a sneaky good candidate to replace the departed Brian Kelly as head coach at LSU. He certainly has greater familiarity with the intricacies of the job than Kelly did upon leaving Notre Dame and heading to the bayou. Josh Alper of ProFootballTalk.com: Lions defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard played his college ball at LSU and he spent a year as the football program’s director of player development before joining Dan Campbell’s staff in Detroit in 2021, so it’s no surprise that he keeps an eye on what’s going on with the Tigers. There’s a lot to pay attention to around the school right now. Brian Kelly is out as their head coach and Sheppard’s status as both an alum and a rising name in coaching circles made it inevitable that he’d get questions about the job. They came on Thursday and Sheppard described himself as a “Liger,” because he is half-Lion and half-Tiger before adding that he has not heard anything from the school. “I can’t be interested in something I have no idea about,” Sheppard said, via Eric Woodyard of ESPN.com. “I’m interested in beating the Minnesota Vikings.” The LSU opening is one of several at the highest level of college football and there will likely be more changes to come on that front. That makes it unlikely that Sheppard will be the only current NFL coach to field questions about a potential move to the collegiate ranks in the coming weeks.– – -Meanwhile on the offensive side of the ball, OC John Morton says WR JAMESON WILLIAMS is on his mind as he seeks to get him more involved in the offense. Eric Woodyard of ESPN.com: Detroit Lions offensive coordinator John Morton says he has “failed” Jameson Williams in terms of getting the wide receiver involved enough in the team’s prolific offense. Williams was catchless for the first time all season during the Lions’ 24-9 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Oct. 20 while being targeted just twice by quarterback Jared Goff. For the season, Williams has 17 receptions for 289 yards and two touchdowns but has eclipsed 45 yards in only two games while playing alongside so many offensive weapons. “I looked at everything, as far as that. I’m going to do a better job with that. But there has been opportunities where it just didn’t happen,” said Morton, who is in his first year as the Lions’ offensive coordinator. “It’s not like we aren’t going to try to target him. So that was the biggest thing. “So I looked at everything, and I failed him. That’s what I told him,” Morton added. “I have to do a better job with that. But it’s a two-way street. We definitely looked at that.” Morton met with Williams privately during the Lions’ bye week and closely examined some of those missed opportunities. The coaching staff is also working to try to get Williams more open, particularly on third down, as he is now facing double-teams, alongside wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown. “He came to me and expressed to me how he felt, but with me, I really wasn’t taking it too far into thinking about it,” Williams said. “We was winning games and things like that, so I can never get myself too worked up with me getting the ball or me getting targeted or things like that. I know it’s gonna come. It’s a long season.” Williams refused to make a big deal of the limited touches as he’s focused on team success. Their recent conversation on the field ahead of practice this week also gives him confidence that they can move forward to get things right. “I know my time coming,” Williams said. “I know it’s coming, so I’m ready whenever it comes.” Morton has been impressed with Williams’ professionalism. The plan is to be more creative with playcalling while strengthening the connection between Williams and Goff. “He doesn’t say anything. He just goes and plays. Like I said, ‘I wouldn’t fault you if you were pissed at me,’ because I’ve coached that position, I’ve played that position,” Morton said. “And I know he works too hard. But we’ve got to make sure that we’re going out and doing the right thing, the right techniques and this and that. It’s not just him. It’s everybody.” In 2024, Williams surpassed 1,000 receiving yards for the first time in his career and signed a three-year extension worth up to $83 million in September. The Detroit offense knows it will need Williams at his best as the Lions begin the back half of the season against tough competition. “We want to win the game, we want to score points, and I think that’s the primary for everybody,” Goff said after Tuesday’s practice. “But of course, yeah, we’d love to get him involved more, get him to rock in a million different ways. And he’s explosive. I know defenses are worried about him at all times, and we need to find ways to continue to keep him involved.” |
| MINNESOTAWith former Vikings signalcallers flourishing elsewhere (but not QB KIRK COUSINS), the pressure on QB J.J. McCARTHY is even more immense. Veteran scribe Michael Silver in The Athletic:.No, Kirk Cousins isn’t walking through that door. The Minnesota Vikings — the organization perpetually in search of a franchise quarterback — will instead resume their choppy journey with young J.J. McCarthy, the 10th pick of the 2024 draft, who’s set to return from a seven-week absence and make his third NFL start Sunday in Detroit. The dudes in purple don’t need a blast from the past, and thus won’t be trading for a 37-year-old whose most recent performance, as an Atlanta Falcons fill-in, didn’t exactly evoke memories of his glory days. What the Vikings could really use as we prepare to turn back the clocks an hour is something a bit more extreme: a time machine. Since March of 2024, when Cousins left Minnesota to sign a four-year, $180-million deal with the Atlanta Falcons at the start of free agency, the Vikings have ripped through a slew of quarterbacking scenarios that involve some of the NFL’s most productive passers of the moment. In less than a year, the Vikes tried to trade up for Drake Maye, enjoyed a season of Sam Darnold’s renaissance, spurred Daniel Jones’ revival and pondered a high-profile overture from Aaron Rodgers. All of those QBs are playing at a high level for teams with winning records. The Vikings (3-4), a team ostensibly built to win now, are still struggling to identify their triggerman of the present and future. If, as Wayne Gretzky said, you miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take, Minnesota is in danger of becoming the NFL’s Exhibit A. When you lead the league in cash spending ($343 million in 2025) and have already lost more games before Halloween than you did in the entire 2024 regular season, there will be plenty of second-guessing, both from inside and outside the franchise’s state-of-the-art training facility. Knowing what they know now, if the Vikings’ powerbrokers (owners Zygi and Mark Wilf, general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and head coach Kevin O’Connell) could request a do-over, they might well pursue a different strategy at the sport’s most important position. Instead, as all of us must, the last-place Vikings will live in the moment. And beginning with Sunday’s showdown with the 5-2 Lions at Ford Field, they’ll be focused on what is essentially a 10-game referendum on McCarthy’s status. If the young quarterback shines, as he did during a transcendent fourth quarter on the first Monday night of the season, he’ll have a firm grip on the job that was handed to him last spring, and the Vikings will continue to build around him. Should McCarthy struggle, as he did in a Week 2 defeat to the Falcons, the organization will surely explore viable alternatives at season’s end. And if McCarthy gets hurt — again — to garner an “incomplete” grade and prevent a more comprehensive evaluation? Given the prevailing questions about his durability, that will be an answer unto itself, and one that is strikingly similar to the second, less favorable hypothetical. (If McCarthy were to sustain a long-term injury in Sunday’s game, two days before the trade deadline, perhaps a Cousins reunion could then be on the table.) Would it be fair to sour on McCarthy because he can’t stay healthy at the start of his career? Of course not — but nothing about the NFL is especially fair. Just ask Los Angeles Chargers backup quarterback Trey Lance who, despite being the third pick of the 2021 draft, made only four starts with the San Francisco 49ers before they traded him after two injury-plagued seasons. It’s not McCarthy’s fault that he suffered a season-ending torn meniscus in his first preseason game as a rookie or that, in September, he sustained a high ankle sprain against the Falcons that lingered for a month and a half. And he certainly can’t be castigated for missing an important practice three days before his second career start to be with his fiancée for the birth of their son, spending three nights at the hospital in the process. His small body of work — seven subpar quarters, and a tremendous 15-minute stretch against the Chicago Bears that propelled him to an NFC Offensive Player of the Week award — suggests that the former Michigan star is very much a work in progress. And because of bad luck, and O’Connell’s high standard of expectation at the position, McCarthy’s growth curve will now have to become much steeper. For now in Minnesota, it’s still J.J. or bust. Will that mindset soon be replaced by J.J.’s a bust? Not if McCarthy plays well enough to remind people why the Vikings traded up a spot to draft him. Given O’Connell’s track record, there’s ample reason to believe this is possible. Last season, he won Coach of the Year honors while reaffirming his status as one of the sport’s elite quarterback whisperers, thanks to Darnold’s breakout performance. Darnold, who’d signed a one-year deal before the season, was so good for most of 2024 that it seemed unfathomable that the Vikings wouldn’t bring him back, either via the franchise tag or a lucrative long-term deal. However, he played poorly enough in each of Minnesota’s last two games — the regular season finale against the Lions, which decided the NFC North title and conference’s No. 1 playoff seed, and a first-round playoff defeat to the Los Angeles Rams — that the Vikings didn’t fight to keep him in free agency. Their offer was far less attractive than the three-year, $100.5 million contract he landed from the Seattle Seahawks, which now looks like a bargain: Seattle (5-2) is tied with the Rams atop the NFC West, and Darnold (109.2 passer rating) has been among the league’s top passers. The Vikings had their reasons for letting Darnold leave. Their investment in McCarthy, both emotionally and practically, remained a guiding force. For decades, the organization has been searching for a true franchise quarterback it could draft, develop and depend upon; Daunte Culpepper, a first-round selection in 1999, was the closest thing to that before a severe knee injury derailed his career six years later. The Wilfs, who bought the franchise shortly before Culpepper got hurt in 2005, are intent on finding out if McCarthy can finally fill that void. And many Vikings fans share that conviction, and really, really want it to happen. In that context, bringing back Darnold was problematic. He and McCarthy did not forge an especially close relationship during their time together, and it would have been hard to envision the untested youngster winning a fair competition. The vibe didn’t seem right for such an arrangement. Besides, the Vikings had a backup plan. That plan was Jones, a former New York Giants starter whose high point with the franchise was a 31-24 road playoff victory over the Vikings in O’Connell’s first season (2022). Released last November after losing eight of his 10 starts in 2024, Jones deliberately plotted his next move, with 15 teams pining for his services as a backup or practice-squad addition. O’Connell spent a lot of time and energy wooing him, even amid game-plan preparations, expressing the conviction that Jones, like Darnold, could reboot his career by assimilating into the Vikings’ ecosystem. It worked: Less than a week after his release, Minnesota signed Jones to a $375,000 deal to join the team’s practice squad. Jones was promoted to the active roster in advance of the team’s playoff game against the Rams. In the weeks that followed, O’Connell pitched him hard on the idea of returning in 2025, insisting that he’d be given a chance to compete with McCarthy. Free agency was fast and furious, and the Vikings lost the race. After Darnold agreed to terms with the Seahawks last March, O’Connell and Adofo-Mensah felt confident that Jones would sign with Minnesota. The next day, however, Jones surprised them by agreeing to a one-year, $14-million deal with the Indianapolis Colts, rejecting a slightly bigger offer from the Vikings that also included more guaranteed money. Why the miscalculation? For starters, Jones correctly surmised that he had a good chance of beating out struggling Indy incumbent Anthony Richardson, the fourth pick of the 2023 draft. And in the end, O’Connell’s greatest strengths — the Vikings’ player-friendly culture, and the coach’s previous success with quarterback — may have worked against him. Jones expressed to the Vikings that, given the team’s infrastructure, he didn’t see how McCarthy could fail. It’s also impossible to argue with Jones’ decision: He currently has the NFL’s sixth-highest passer rating (109.5) for the 7-1 Colts, who own the league’s best record. At that point, only one attractive veteran option remained for the Vikings as a hedge against McCarthy failing: Aaron Rodgers. The coach had long been friendly with Rodgers, a four-time MVP and future first-ballot Hall of Famer, who was coming off a pair of challenging seasons with the New York Jets. Rodgers, 41, wanted to sign with Minnesota, and the organization strongly considered it. However, O’Connell and his fellow decision-makers ultimately balked, because they felt delaying McCarthy’s debut for (at least) another season would inevitably stunt his growth. Rodgers eventually signed with the Pittsburgh Steelers and has played well (16 touchdown passes, five interceptions, 104.4 rating) for the AFC North leaders. Arguably, it’s the best Rodgers has looked since 2021, his second-to-last season with the Green Bay Packers, when he captured his fourth MVP. Presumably, the Vikings didn’t see that coming. On paper, this was a sound long-term decision: O’Connell, who’d received a lucrative contract extension through 2029 in January, and Adofo-Mensah, who would sign an extension later that spring, were intent on building a consistent winner, rather than finding a quick fix. Yet the Vikings approached the offseason like an organization heavily focused on the present, signing weathered veterans like defensive tackles Jonathan Allen and Javon Hargrave and center Ryan Kelly to lucrative free-agent deals. The way O’Connell and Adofo-Mensah viewed it, having a starting quarterback on a rookie deal allowed Minnesota to load up at other positions. However, that model required McCarthy to play well from the jump and avoid injury. Suffice it to say, things haven’t gone according to plan. And that includes the backup plans. The Vikings’ projected No. 2 quarterback — former Washington Commanders starter Sam Howell, acquired in an April trade with the Seahawks — had a horrible training camp and was flipped to the Philadelphia Eagles in August. (He’s currently a third-stringer in Philly.) To replace Howell, the Vikings signed 32-year-old Carson Wentz, who joined his sixth team since 2020. With little time to absorb O’Connell’s offense, Wentz, who replaced the injured McCarthy after Week 2, ran a hybrid scheme that included some plays and concepts with which he was already familiar. After winning two of five starts, and playing through a painful torn labrum in his left (non-throwing) shoulder suffered in an Oct. 5 victory over the Cleveland Browns in London, Wentz was placed on injured reserve Monday. That leaves undrafted rookie Max Brosmer as McCarthy’s backup. Brosmer, who spent his senior season at nearby Minnesota after transferring from New Hampshire, impressed coaches in training camp and the preseason by getting the ball out quickly, seeing the field well and making accurate throws. Internally, there have even been some comparisons with 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy, a 2022 seventh-rounder (he was the final pick of the draft) who made Lance expendable after stepping in and performing well late in his rookie season. If Brosmer ends up playing in 2025, that won’t be a cause for celebration in the Vikings’ training facility. It will have meant McCarthy’s stock has fallen, either because of injury or ineffectiveness — and it will bring up a lot of questions about how Adofo-Mensah and O’Connell might approach the upcoming offseason. The Vikings are currently $36.2 million over the salary cap for 2026, making the pursuit of a high-priced veteran alternative even trickier. A highly preferable development would be for McCarthy to begin fulfilling his promise and showing his superiors that their faith in him has been justified. Unlike Maye, the quarterback selected with the third pick in 2024 by the New England Patriots (who rebuffed the Vikings’ efforts to trade up for the pick), McCarthy didn’t have a chance to fight through rough patches as a rookie in a relatively low-stakes setting. Maye’s maiden effort for the 4-13 Patriots set the stage for a breakout campaign in Year 2: The AFC East-leading Pats (6-2) are one of the NFL’s unlikeliest first-half success stories, and Maye, who has completed a league best 75.2 percent of his passes and whose 118.7 passer rating is second only to Lamar Jackson’s, heard MVP chants last Sunday at Gillette Stadium. As McCarthy’s value to the Vikings continues to evolve, he’s stepping into a tougher spot than his bosses once envisioned. This team was conceived as a well-rounded unit that wouldn’t require extraordinary quarterback play to succeed, but injuries (especially on the offensive line) and execution issues have plagued them to this point. On offense, they’ve struggled to run the ball consistently, convert on short yardage and protect the quarterback. Their run defense and interior pass-rush production have been shaky, too, among other frustrations. O’Connell, Adofo-Mensah and the team’s other powerbrokers didn’t expect it to play out this way. In retrospect, they’d likely have done some things differently — especially at quarterback. Yet in football, as in life, there are no time machines. Looking back isn’t very helpful; you can only trudge forward and try to forge a fruitful path. That’s especially true for McCarthy. If he can make some big strides over the next 10 weeks, both the Vikings’ recent past and the immediate future will start to look a whole lot better. |
| NFC EAST |
| DALLASJori Epstein of YahooSports.com on the possible availability of CB TREVON DIGGS: Multiple executives at the league’s owners meetings last week agreed: Teams are looking for cornerbacks. Since then, the Los Angeles Rams have acquired cornerback Roger McCreary from the Tennessee Titans and the Philadelphia Eagles have acquired Michael Carter Jr. from the New York Jets to total a full five in-season trades for cornerback (also including Jarvis Brownlee Jr., Greg Newsome II and Tyson Campbell). “Everybody’s always looking for corners,” an NFC talent evaluator said. “Corners and usually if you get an interior D-lineman or offensive linemen. … Everybody talks about receivers, but those [three] are the ones that teams generally pursue because it’s just the hardest to find.” The San Francisco 49ers could be among teams interested in bolstering their cornerback spot. The positional need makes the Cowboys and Trevon Diggs’ evident discontent interesting. The Cowboys and Diggs disagreed in the offseason on his decision to rehabilitate in Florida, the team exercising its contractual option to fine Diggs $500,000 for offseason absences. Since then, Diggs has injured his other knee during the season and sustained an apparent concussion that no one has explained. Add in team owner Jerry Jones’ assessment that Diggs needs “to be in better shape to play,” and the conflict is thinly veiled. Diggs’ health, and up-and-down performance, will hurt the Cowboys’ ability to receive much compensation in return for him. His contract, too, will make him less appealing to teams. But a player with a high ceiling desiring a move from a team that seems ready to move on? Teams should at least be calling. Do opponents expect the Cowboys to listen? “It’s gonna be hard to predict,” one NFC talent evaluator said. “He’s been shaky when healthy. He’s much better off coverage where he has freedom to play the ball. But his health and contract are big issues.” The Cowboys would likely need to eat some of Diggs’ contract to make this deal palatable. A team that should at least call: the Green Bay Packers, who may remember which number to dial after a preseason trade for Micah Parsons. Green Bay could use cornerback depth and seems to be a legitimate Super Bowl contender that would have use for a player late in December and into January if not beyond. Add in Diggs’ best friend, Parsons, being there, and his college position coach, Derrick Ansley, now Green Bay’s defensive passing game coordinator and defensive backs coach? The Packers may be able to maximize Diggs in ways the Cowboys no longer can. -Jori Epstein |
| NFC SOUTH |
| CAROLINAQB ANDY DALTON lost 2 fumbles on Sunday against the Bills. Apparently it was after he broke his thumb. Charean Williams of ProFootballTalk.com: Andy Dalton started for injured starter Bryce Young on Sunday. The Bills blew out the Panthers 40-9 as Dalton went 16-of-24 for 175 yards and an interception and two lost fumbles. Dalton is on this week’s practice report with a thumb injury that kept him out on Wednesday and limited him on Thursday. He revealed that he broke his thumb on the second series. His throwing hand hit the raised hand of Bills linebacker Dorian Williams. Dalton said he has played through several right thumb injuries, including after his car accident last year. “You know I’m not going to use that as an excuse for anything,” Dalton said, via Darin Gantt of the team website. “I’d love for my thumb to not be broken, but you know it is what it is. I knew that I had taken a hit, and then I still felt like I could function normally, so I didn’t think that it was even worth really anything to talk about. “Not going to make any excuses like I said earlier, but obviously if it wasn’t broken, obviously it would be a different feel there.” The Panthers added Mike White to the active roster this week, but Dalton said he can play if needed. Bryce Young (ankle) was a full participant again today. “I mean, it’s not ideal, but you know I can still work,” Dalton said. “I can still throw the ball, and so yeah, we just go from there. I think it’s just more mental than anything. You try not to think about it, but I went out there, I threw today, and it felt good.” |
| NFC WEST |
| ARIZONAQB KYLER MURRAY looks to return Monday in his hometown. Bryan DeArdo of ESPN.com: After missing the past two games with a foot injury, Cardinals’ Kyler Murray is preparing to start Monday night’s game against the Cowboys, Arizona coach Jonathan Gannon said on Thursday. Murray, 28, hasn’t played since he injured his foot during Arizona’s Week 5 loss to the Titans. That game was the third of three consecutive losses for the Cardinals, who started the year with consecutive wins over the Saints and Panthers. During Murray’s absence, the Cardinals’ offense was led by veteran Jacoby Brissett. While he put up decent numbers, Brissett lost both of his starts by four points to two of the NFL’s best teams: the Indianapolis Colts and the Green Bay Packers. Murray’s return should help revive the Cardinals’ ground game, which hasn’t recovered since losing former Pro Bowl running back James Conner to a season-ending injury in Week 3. Arizona has averaged 118.2 rushing yards with Murray this season and just 91 yards per game without him. Making Murray’s return more significant is the fact that the Cowboys are one of the NFL’s worst teams against the run. They are currently 29th in the league in rushing yards allowed, 25th in average yards-per-carry allowed and 23rd in touchdown runs permitted. The Cardinals’ quarterback change could also lead to more targets for second-year wideout Marvin Harrison Jr., who was targeted just eight games during the Cardinals’ last two games after getting 32 targets during Murray’s five games under center. While there are clear upsides to Murray’s likely return, one significant downside are the turnovers that sometimes occur with Murray as a result of him either holding the ball too long or trying a low-percentage pass that ends up in the hands of the other team. Murray had two picks during Arizona’s Week 4 loss to Seattle and a fumble during the Cardinals’ Week 5 loss to the Titans. Murray aside, Monday is a huge game for two teams who are looking to stay alive in the NFC playoff picture. The Cardinals (2-5) haven’t won since Week 2, while the Cowboys (3-4-1) are trying to get back to .500 following last week’s blowout loss in Denver. As for intangibles, Murray is 2-2 on Monday night, but he’s never lost a game as a starter at AT&T Stadium. His lifetime mark of 9-0 stretches back to his high school days. His last game there — on Oct. 19, 2020 — was a 38-10 Cardinals’ victory, which happens to be the lone blemish on Dak Prescott’s “Monday Night Football” record of 5-1. |
| LOS ANGELES RAMSLook out Saints, WR PUKA NACUA is back and feeling frisky. Josh Alper of ProFootballTalk.com: The week started with hope that wide receiver Puka Nacua would return to the Rams lineup and everything remains on track for him to be in the lineup against the Saints. Nacua missed Week 7’s win over the Jaguars with an ankle injury, but he used the bye week to heal and he moved up to full practice participation on Thursday. Nacua said he felt “fantastic” after the practice and sounded ready to be back in his usual role this weekend. “It’s good to be back out on the football field, moving around, getting a good sweat in, put my feet in the ground,” Nacua said, via Sarah Barshop of ESPN.com. “It’s been good. We had a nice Thursday practice, so finally get to hit somebody. It feels like it’s been too long for sure, but it felt great to be back out there.” Nacua was leading the league in catches before getting hurt in Week 6 and having him back on track should allow the Rams to pick up where they left off before the bye. |
| SAN FRANCISCOWill QB MAC JONES make a 7th start? QB BROCK PURDY is still not a full participant. Charean Williams of ProFootballTalk.com: 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy remained limited on Thursday as he continues to work his way back from turf toe. Purdy initially injured his toe in the season opener. He sat out two games before returning in Week 4 and aggravating the injury. He has not played since. Mac Jones has started six games in Prudy’s stead. “Mac’s done such a great job and continues to do so,” General Manager John Lynch said on KNBR, via David Bonilla of 49erswebzone.com. “Brock . . . continues to progress. Kyle [Shanahan] spoke of it yesterday. A lot of this, at this point, is going to be on trusting Brock and where he’s at. He continues to feel better. He continues to ramp up what he’s doing out on the field, and that was the case yesterday, and we’ll see by the end of this week. We’ll all make a good decision on who that guy’s going to be.” |
| AFC WEST |
| LAS VEGASJori Epstein of YahooSports.com on whether or not EDGE MAXX CROSBY might be moving at the deadline: Crosby may be the most interesting, with Vegas’ interests in clear conflict. On one hand, the 2-5 squad has less than a 1 percent chance to make the playoffs, per ESPN’s playoff predictor, amid a talented AFC West that likely features at least two playoff teams in the Kansas City Chiefs and Denver Broncos. On the other hand, Pete Carroll is 74 years old. Will he and the club want to stomach a long rebuild if they trade away their game-wrecker? “I think their whole issue this year is you wanted someone with gravitas and experience,” an NFC executive, “but you’re in a rebuilding phase and not in a competing phase.” An NFC talent evaluator from another team didn’t think the door was closed. “I still think for the right price, Crosby could be on the move,” the evaluator said. “First and a pick swap, most likely.” Raiders team owner Mark Davis downplayed that likelihood at league meetings last week after initially playing coy. “I would talk to our general manager and head coach — I don’t make those decisions,” Davis told Yahoo Sports last week. “I expect Maxx to be here with the Raiders for quite a while.” |
| AFC NORTH |
| BALTIMOREQB LAMAR JACKSON returns in good form, the Ravens start playing defense and the schedule ahead is manageable. Grant Gordon of NFL.com: After missing three games and spending three minutes on the bench waiting for his return, Lamar Jackson took a little more time to get going on Thursday. After a low Jackson pass was incomplete on the Ravens’ first drive and forced a punt, Baltimore and its returning quarterback took the lead following an Alohi Gilman forced fumble. It came on a fourth-down call with Jackson finding tight end Mark Andrews for six. Just like that, there were glimmers of the Ravens of old, which built into a stellar night of Jackson throwing four touchdowns in his triumphant return as Baltimore rolled past the Miami Dolphins, 28-6. “It’s awesome,” said Jackson, who watched from the bench as the Dolphins won the coin toss and elected to receive the ball, delaying his first game action since Sept. 28. “It’s great to be back and get a dub.” In a full week of practice for Jackson, his head coach saw a performance such as this on the horizon. “He was that sharp mentally all week and he was that sharp on Tuesday when we went fast,” John Harbaugh said. “Half the practice, we went fast on Tuesday and he was lights out. It was impressive. I was pretty optimistic that he was gonna play well.” Jackson found himself in just about the perfect setting to return to action, as the Pompano Beach, Florida, native carved up Miami once again, throwing for four or more TDs for the third time in five games against the Dolphins. He completed 18 of 23 passes for 204 yards with no interceptions and a sparkling 143.2 rating. In five career starts against the Dolphins, Jackson is 3-2 with 1,405 passing yards (281 per game), 18 passing touchdowns, just one interception and a 142.9 passer rating, the highest by any single player (minimum 100 attempts) versus a single opponent in history, per NFL Research. After hitting Andrews on his first two touchdowns, Jackson hit Charlie Kolar and Rashod Bateman for third-quarter scores. There appeared to be some rust early — notably the aforementioned low miss to Bateman on the first drive — and Jackson didn’t look to be his usual speedy self running five times for 14 yards, but the overall stats and final result were certainly stellar. “Yeah, a little bit,” Jackson said when asked if it felt like he hadn’t played since Week 4 against the Chiefs. “I missed a pass to Bate like the first drive, so it was going through my mind the whole game. But it’s cool. We got the dub.” Miami had twice as many first downs (10-4) and twice as many yards (225-109) as Baltimore in the first half, but Jackson and the Ravens owned a 14-6 halftime lead. In the second half, the Ravens really took off, with a Jackson scramble igniting them. On the opening drive of the second half, Jackson faced a third-and-6 before rushing for 13 yards. “That was probably the key play of the whole game probably because if not, you’re kind of in the second quarter mode still,” Harbaugh said of Jackson’s third-down run. Andrew’s second TD catch came with 14:10 to go in the second quarter and preceded a trio of three-and-outs to end the half. Jackson’s scramble sprang the team back to life and keyed an 11-play, 68-yard drive that ended with Kolar’s TD and truly got the ball rolling on a blowout. Baltimore finished with 338 yards of offense, 229 coming in the final two quarters. “I just felt a little comfortable and our guys were ready to score,” Jackson said. “Shoutout to the offensive line. They did great. All phases, all skill positions, and our running backs, those guys were just locked in and wanted to put points on the board because we only scored twice in the first half.” Baltimore has now won two straight after a dreadful 1-5 start. Only four teams since the 1970 merger have made the postseason after such a beginning. However, since 1990, 21 teams have advanced to the postseason following 3-5 starts. Jackson is back, and with him, the Ravens’ swagger might have returned, as well. “Yeah, I mean it’s do or die,” Jackson said. “Win or go home. Usually we start off winning games, and we never be behind, but right now we’re behind and we all got to step it up.” |
| CINCINNATICharles Robinson of YahooSports.com thinks EDGE TREY HENDRICKSON could be available: I still think there’s a chance that Cincinnati Bengals edge Trey Hendrickson gets traded in a big Monday move, but it may be dependent on the outcome of Sunday’s game against the Chicago Bears. If the Bengals win that one, it could put Hendrickson on ice as Cincinnati tries to claw to the top of a messy AFC North. Like Jeffery Simmons, I’ve heard from a few personnel sources that the price on Hendrickson is not going to be stout (as in a first-rounder), but would more likely be in the range of a late second-rounder from a contending team plus a potential late pick swap on Day 3 of the draft. Pay close attention to the Indianapolis Colts, who aren’t being seen as a buyer publicly, but have caught lightning in a bottle and could use another edge rusher to fight their way through a tough field of AFC quarterbacks in the playoffs. Former Bengals defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo makes this a definite potential landing spot for a Hendrickson rental. – |
| PITTSBURGHThe Ravens are getting better on defense. Can the Steelers keep pace? Josh Alper of ProFootballTalk.com: The Steelers appeared to get a handle on things defensively during a three-game winning streak, but the last two weeks have shown few signs of things going well on that side of the ball. They gave up 33 points in a Week 7 loss to the Bengals and they gave up 35 points to the Packers last Sunday, which isn’t where they’d like to be as they head into this Sunday’s matchup against the league’s top offense. A loss to the Colts would cut their lead over the Ravens in the AFC North to one game, so it would be the perfect time for the defense to rediscover its footing. One of the group’s veteran leaders made that exact point on Thursday. Defensive end Cam Heyward criticized his team’s inability to handle adversity after the Packers loss and said that he’s challenged everyone to come up with a more complete effort this time around. “Anything I say to y’all, I’ll say to them first,” Heyward said, via the team’s website. “We all have to get better. I challenge everybody. I challenge myself first and foremost. That’s always the way I’ve been raised. You can’t look at anybody else. You’ve got to look at yourself. The way to get this bad taste out of our mouth is just play better football. Let’s fight. Let’s play ball. I’m not going to shy away from it. I think we’ve just got to play better ball. If we have a problem with it, let’s handle it on the field. Everybody’s been open with me. I’m not running from it. Just know it’s coming from a good place, and I want our defense to be successful.” Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin dismissed the idea of making any significant changes to the defense after losing to Green Bay, but another poor showing will put that back on the table so that the Steelers can find a way to right the ship while it can still make a difference. |
| AFC SOUTH |
| HOUSTONIt looks like QB C.J. STROUD will have his top weapons Sunday against the Broncos. DJ Bien-Amie of ESPN.com: Texans wideout Nico Collins is out of the concussion protocol and set to return against the Denver Broncos in Week 9, he said Thursday. “Blessed to be off the protocol,” Collins said. “Feeling good, feeling excited about this week’s great matchup.” Texans wideout Christian Kirk, who missed the past two weeks — and four games in total — with a hamstring injury, also is expected to return. Kirk has 10 catches for 109 yards on the season. Collins suffered a concussion early in the fourth quarter of the Texans’ loss to the Seattle Seahawks in Week 7. The Pro Bowl receiver fell on the back of his head after trying to catch a back-shoulder pass from quarterback C.J. Stroud while being defended by Seattle’s Josh Jobe. He sat out last week’s victory against San Francisco 49ers as Stroud threw for a season-high 318 yards while tying his career high in completions (30). The Texans’ other receivers stepped up against the 49ers as third-year wideout Xavier Hutchinson had 69 receiving yards and a touchdown, and rookie Jaylin Noel had a 63-yard performance. Fellow rookie Jayden Higgins caught his second touchdown of his career, and Braxton Berrios made key receptions to convert third downs. Collins leads the team in receiving yards (339) and is second in receptions (26). His presence against the Broncos should make it easier for Stroud to build on last week’s performance. |
| THIS AND THAT |
| AWARDS PICKSCBSSports.com’s top correspondents collectively think a running back, a certain running back, is the favorite for the MVP Award at the midway mark. With a blink of an eye, the midway point of the 2025 NFL regular season is upon us. And if the first half is any indication of what is in store for the second half of the regular season, NFL fans will surely be in for a treat. The first eight weeks of the regular season featured some spectacular individual performances that could lead to hardware for themselves and possibly their teams at season’s end. Specifically, the Patriots and Colts have multiple individuals who are in position to win some of the biggest awards the NFL has to offer. It’s no coincidence that both teams are also off to surprisingly good starts. Before the start of Week 9, members of the CBS Sports team cast their votes for the NFL’s most distinguished individual awards through the season’s first eight weeks. Some votes were landslides, others were extremely close and one ended in a dead heat. The voters (14): CBS Sports editorial senior director Adam Silverstein; CBS Sports assistant managing NFL editor Kevin Steimle; CBS Sports NFL editor Kyle Stackpole; CBS Sports NFL writers Cody Benjamin, John Breech, Jared Dubin, Garrett Podell, Tyler Sullivan; CBS Sports writers Jordan Dajani, Bryan DeArdo, Zach Pereles; CBS Sports HQ NFL analysts JP Acosta, Leger Douzable and Emory Hunt. MVP 1. Colts RB Jonathan Taylor (7 votes)2. Patriots QB Drake Maye (4 votes)3. Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes (3 votes)Has the NFL MVP become a quarterback award? Based on our votes, that may not be the case this year as Taylor appears to have a serious case to be the first non-QB to win the award since Adrian Peterson did so 13 years ago. Not surprisingly, Taylor’s two closest competitors for the award are indeed quarterbacks. However, the QBs themselves are a bit surprising, especially Maye, who is completing a league-high 75.2% of his passes. A two-time league MVP, Mahomes (who currently leads the NFL with 17 touchdown passes) is back in the MVP conversation after leading the Chiefs to three straight wins after a 2-3 start. Offensive Player of the Year 1. Colts RB Jonathan Taylor (11 votes)2. Seahawks WR Jaxon Smith-Njigba (2 votes)3. Buccaneers QB Baker Mayfield (1 vote) This award, at times, has been the consolation prize for non-quarterbacks who had an MVP-caliber season (see Saquon Barkley last year). In that vein, it’s no surprise that Taylor dominated the voting as he has been the league’s best skill player through eight weeks. What is surprising, however, is that Mayfield is receiving an OPOY vote but no MVP votes. Regardless, Mayfield deserves some love for his role in the Buccaneers’ 6-2 start. Defensive Player of the Year 1. Browns DE Myles Garrett (8 votes)T2. Giants OLB Brian Burns (2 votes)T2. Packers DE Micah Parsons (2 votes)Others receiving votes: Broncos OLB Nik Bonitto (1 vote), Texans DE Will Anderson Jr. (1 vote) Garrett ran away with the vote, and it’s not too hard to see why. The 2023 DPOY leads the NFL in tackles for loss and is tied with Burns for the league lead with 10 sacks. He had five sacks this past week while becoming just the fourth player since 1982 to record at least five sacks in a game while being on the losing team. Garrett, who recently broke Reggie White’s NFL record for most career sacks before turning 30, is trying to become the 13th player (and only active player) with multiple DPOY trophies. Offensive Rookie of the Year 1. Buccaneers WR Emeka Egbuka (9) 2. Colts TE Tyler Warren (3)3. Giants QB Jaxson Dart (2) With Chris Godwin and Mike Evans injured, Egbuka has stepped up for a Buccaneers team that has overcome a myriad of injuries during the season’s first half. Egbuka appears destined to continue the lineage of successful receivers that have come out of Ohio State. This list also includes Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Garrett Wilson, Terry McLaurin, Chris Olave and Marvin Harrison Jr. Defensive Rookie of the Year T1. Browns ILB Carson Schwesinger (6) T1. Giants OLB Abdul Carter (6)Others receiving votes: Eagles ILB Jihaad Campbell (1), Seahawks S Nick Emmanwori (1) We have a tie in what appeared to be a vote between production and potential. While Carter has just half a sack, he leads all rookie defenders in pressures, which would seem to indicate that the sack numbers will eventually be there for the No. 3 overall pick. Conversely, Schwesinger has already made a tangible impact on the Browns’ defense, currently leading the team with 64 tackles. His first career interception came at the expense of Maye during Cleveland’s Week 8 loss to New England. Comeback Player of the Year 1. Cowboys QB Dak Prescott (5) 2. Lions DE Aidan Hutchinson (4) 3. 49ers RB Christian McCaffrey (3) Others receiving votes: Colts QB Daniel Jones (2) While less prestigious, this award might be the most compelling one to monitor during the second half of the season, given the number of deserving candidates. Prescott is once again playing at an elite level, a year after he suffered a gruesome hamstring injury that ended his 2024 season after eight games. Hutchinson, a year after suffering tibia and fibula fractures, has six sacks and a league-high four forced fumbles for the 5-2 Lions. McCaffrey could possibly become the first player in history to finish top-10 in the league in both rushing and receiving a year after experiencing a litany of health issues that included Achilles tendinitis in both knees. Jones, who is enjoying a career renaissance this season with the Colts, would have a much stronger case to win the award had the NFL not recently changed its criteria for CPOY to emphasize players who returned from either a major illness or a physical injury. Coach of the Year 1. Shane Steichen, Colts (11)2. Mike Vrabel, Patriots (3) It’s clearly a two-man race between two coaches who have led their respective teams to surprising spots atop their divisions. Based on our voting, it appears that Steichen’s impact on Jones has given him a sizable lead at this point over Vrabel, the 2021 COY, who is on the precipice of leading the Patriots to their first winning season since ’21. |
