| NFC NORTH |
| MINNESOTAThe self-diagnosis from WR JUSTIN JEFFERSON is that he is indeed playing in Sunday’s Battle of the Unbeatens with the Texans. Kevin Seifert of ESPN.com: As far as Justin Jefferson is concerned, there is no doubt that he will play Sunday against the Houston Texans — despite a right quadriceps contusion that knocked him out of the Minnesota Vikings’ Week 2 victory over the San Francisco 49ers. Asked Thursday whether he will play against the Texans, Jefferson said: “Oh yeah, for sure.” Jefferson suffered the injury while trying to block 49ers linebacker Fred Warner during a run play. On Thursday, Jefferson said he had missed his assignment and shouldn’t have been anywhere near Warner. “I was supposed to stay on the corner and pretty much run him off,” Jefferson said. “I’ve just got to make sure I’m aware of my rules.” Jefferson was a limited participant in practice Wednesday and Thursday. He said the injury feels “great” and added: “Just taking it day by day, just staying in the treatment room and working with those guys to make sure I’m feeling fantastic Sunday.” Fellow receiver Jordan Addison (ankle), meanwhile, did not practice Thursday and is not expected to play against the visiting Texans. |
| NFC EAST |
| WASHINGTONOC Kliff Kingsbury realizes he has to unlock WR TERRY McLAURIN. @JPFinlayNBCSCommanders OC Kliff Kingsbury on Terry McLaurin’s 39 receiving yards through 2 weeks: “We got to find a way to get Terry more involved. That’s on me. He’s a fantastic player.” |
| NFC SOUTH |
| CAROLINAQB BRYCE YOUNG reacts to his sudden benching. David Newton of ESPN.com: Bryce Young on Thursday admitted he was surprised when Carolina Panthers coach Dave Canales benched him in favor of veteran Andy Dalton for Sunday’s game against the Las Vegas Raiders. “As a competitor, obviously not how you dream of what’s going to happen,” Young said in his first interview since the decision was made on Monday. “It wasn’t something I necessarily was expecting. Obviously, it was not something that was great to hear. “It’s on me to put them in that situation.” Young, 2-16 as the starter since the Panthers (0-2) made him the top pick of the 2023 draft, repeatedly took responsibility for the decision to bench him the day after Canales said Young would start against the Raiders. He never admitted he was mad, although sources close to the situation said he initially was. Young also avoided speculation on whether he has a future at Carolina, although Canales said on Wednesday he still believed the former Alabama star could be a franchise quarterback in the NFL. “I’m a day-by-day kind of person,” Young said. “I’ve talked about that consistently. Big picture stuff, that’s out of my hands. That’s organizational stuff, for the people upstairs. I’m super grateful to be part of the team, with our organization. I want to help in every way I can.” A source close to Young said the quarterback is “open to anything” as it pertains to staying with the Panthers through the end of his rookie contract or being traded to another team. Canales said on Wednesday that trading Young is “not something that we’re considering.” Young has spent the past two days running the scout team. Defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero said the 5-foot-10, 204-pound Young has done a great job of playing the role of Raiders quarterback Gardner Minshew. “When you have a guy that can move around and make plays on the move, and sit in the pocket and make throws . . . he did a lot of good things in practice against us, and certainly he’s making us better,” Evero said. Young said his goal is to help the team however the staff sees fit. Asked if he had enough time to prove himself after a rookie season when head coach Frank Reich was fired after a 1-10 start and only two games into his second season under a first-year head coach, Young said that was for others to decide. But ultimately he took responsibility for statistics that were historically bad, including a 9.1 Total QBR this season that is among the worst in league history for consecutive games. “I had a lot of plays last year and in the first two games,” Young said. “For the most part, every snap hit my hands and I didn’t do enough. I take accountability for that. There’s a long list of things that I wish was better and I’ll continue to work and grow and improve and be better at. “Everyone has circumstances. If I went out there and played better and won games . . . and at the end of the day that falls on me and that didn’t happen . . . we wouldn’t be having this conversation.” Bill Barnwell, also of ESPN.com, examines what might be next: The most telling evidence that it was time for the Bryce Young era to end in Carolina is the immediate acceptance that followed. Nobody seemed to mind. There were no fans putting up signs supporting the embattled quarterback on the way to the facility, as there were for Justin Fields in Chicago after last season. No obvious replacement had rendered Young irrelevant with his play, as happened when Brock Purdy overtook Trey Lance in San Francisco. Eighteen games into Young’s tenure, just two games into his second season, the Panthers benched the No. 1 pick in last year’s draft and everyone collectively shrugged and said, “That makes sense.” By the numbers, it’s difficult to argue with the decision. Young isn’t getting better. He’s actually significantly worse than he was a year ago. As I wrote Monday, through the first two games, the Panthers have the second-worst expected points added (EPA) per play of any offense since 2007. Young’s 9.1 QBR ranks 504th out of the 506 passers to throw at least 50 passes through Week 2. The quarterback just behind him, ironically, is Andy Dalton, who posted a 7.4 QBR over his first two starts in 2017. The guy who is last on that list is Matthew Stafford, who had a 5.6 QBR in his first two NFL starts during the 2009 season, when the Lions went 2-14. I’m not suggesting Stafford’s turnaround is proof Young can do the same, but it seems natural to both reflect on how we got here and what comes next. How could Young have fallen out of favor so quickly? Has this happened before? And was anyone who went through this able to make his way back to relevance as an NFL quarterback? Let’s take a look into what has happened. While it might feel obvious, it was only a year ago that Young was regarded as a potential franchise quarterback. There are lots of questions to answer here, and even more to come between now and the trade deadline on Nov. 5. Is Young really playing poorly enough to be benched two games into the season?Put it this way: In just about any other situation, benching a quarterback with three guaranteed years left on his contract two starts into the season would be considered a panic move. I’m not sure the Panthers had much of a choice, however. Their offense wasn’t functional with Young under center. Nothing worked. And while argument could be made that he wasn’t getting much help, his struggles in obvious passing situations and inability to threaten teams downfield was putting a breathtakingly low floor and ceiling on the offense. Had Young been struggling in 2024 the same way he had been in 2023, I would argue the Panthers should have given him more time. That just wasn’t the case. He has been much worse. His raw numbers are abysmal and even they are inflated by garbage time, where Carolina has spent most of the second half of its games.– – –There’s a two-play sequence in the third quarter of last Sunday’s loss to the Chargers that might have convinced coach Dave Canales it was time for a change. With the game already out of hand, the goal was likely to find Young some confidence-boosting completions. It didn’t happen. On a second-and-7, Canales called for a boot concept to the left side of the field, with three receivers flooding the same side to give Young a half-field read. He successfully exited the pocket and escaped the unblocked rusher, but he didn’t set his feet before throwing, and his pass to a wide-open Diontae Johnson missed badly. On the next snap, Young worked to the left side of the field and found nobody open. With the opportunity to climb into the pocket and try to make a play, he exited the left side of the pocket, where pass rusher Joey Bosa was able to chase him down for a sack. Veteran receiver Adam Thielen, believing he was open for what would have been a long completion, visibly signaled his frustration at the end of the play. Young didn’t have issues with arm strength during his time at Alabama, but he looks either unwilling or unable to throw downfield at the moment. The 5-foot-10 Young always seemed a step ahead of opposing defenses with natural creativity, which helped compensate for his lack of size and prototypical arm strength. That step is gone. The two best characteristics Young in college were his poise and creativity. Those were the reasons I was optimistic about his chances of succeeding at the highest level. Neither of them have been spotted often over the first two games of 2024. Without them, he isn’t an NFL-caliber quarterback; he doesn’t have the elite arm, physical tools or frankly the help to operate as a purely traditional quarterback in Carolina. Has any quarterback as highly touted as Young been benched so quickly?While acknowledging there are various definitions of highly touted and Young’s career is not yet over, this would qualify as an egregious start. In terms of games started with the team that drafted him, the worst top-five pick of the modern era is Lance. The former 49ers quarterback, drafted third overall in 2021, started two games as a rookie and two games in his second season before suffering a fractured fibula. You know what happened next: Next up would be former Bengals draftee Jack Thompson, who was selected with the No. 3 pick in 1979. He made five starts with Cincinnati, all during his first two years with the team, before eventually making 16 more with the Buccaneers The two quarterbacks competing with Young are a pair of No. 3 picks. In 1994, Washington drafted Heath Shuler and — after a holdout — made him the highest-paid draftee in league history when it gave him an eight-year, $19.3 million deal. It expected Shuler to be the quarterback for the next decade, but he completed less than 48% of his passes across 13 starts and two seasons. He was traded to the Saints after his third season, started nine games for coach Mike Ditka and then never played again. The other candidate is Akili Smith. The third of three quarterbacks taken atop the 1999 draft, he held out for 27 days before joining the Bengals. He started four games as a rookie and 11 more in his sophomore season, going 3-12 with a 53.8 passer rating. While he hoped to right the ship before the 2001 season, Cincinnati handed the starting job to Jon Kitna. Smith was an injury replacement for one more start in 2002 and 2003 before his NFL career ended, giving him a total of 17 starts over four years. That’s about it. Even Zach Wilson, who was benched during his second season and traded after Year 3 with the Jets, managed 22 starts through Year 2 and 33 total in a New York uniform. Is Young the worst first overall pick ever?It’ll be nearly impossible, though, to top the worst No. 1 selection in NFL history: Bo Jackson. If you’re thinking of the Auburn legend running past people in a Raiders uniform, well, you don’t know (or are forgetting an essential part of) Bo. While he spent his entire pro career on the field with the Raiders, he was first drafted by the Buccaneers in 1986. Jackson had no interest in playing for Tampa Bay because of a pre-draft visit that compromised his ability to play college baseball. He declined the Bucs’ contract offers, and when he remained unsigned by the 1988 draft, they lost his rights with no compensation in return. As bad as Young has been, the Panthers at least sold a few jerseys with his name on the back. The Bucs got nothing for their top pick and then saw him go to the Raiders as a seventh-round pick in 1987. And yet, Young doesn’t have the same excuses these other picks do. He didn’t suffer a career-altering injury. He didn’t leave football to go play baseball. Tim Couch, who spent five seasons with generally below-average efficiency for the expansion Browns after going No. 1 in 1999, lasted much longer and was more productive than Young. It’s fair to make a case Young is the worst No. 1 pick in terms of players who were relatively healthy during their careers with their pro teams. There’s a stronger case after factoring in the assets sent to acquire Young. The Panthers traded top wide receiver DJ Moore, two first-round picks and two second-round picks to move up in the draft with the Bears. One of those first-round picks became the top pick in the 2024 draft, allowing Chicago to land Caleb Williams, who is off to a slow start but doesn’t appear to be on a Young track. Perhaps that’s reinforced by the fact the Texans appear to have landed a franchise-altering quarterback in C.J. Stroud, who was taken with the pick after Young. Does Young have any trade value?Probably not much. Canales said Wednesday trading Young is “not something we’re really considering,” and the Panthers don’t have any leverage in dealing him. There are likely a handful of teams that will cross him off their backup list because of his height and extreme struggles at the NFL level. At the same time, quarterback trades often defy expectations. Young’s contract itself isn’t hard to deal for Carolina. It would owe $6.2 million in dead money this season and $12.3 million next year. In a world in which the Broncos just ate $85 million in dead money to move on after two years of Russell Wilson, the Panthers aren’t going to have trouble finding the cap space if they want to make a deal. They could theoretically eat some of the future salary owed to Young to help net a better return, but there’s not enough left on this deal to make a significant difference. My guess is Young would be worth a late Day 3 pick. Perhaps the Panthers could land a conditional pick that rises in value if he takes regular snaps for his new team. The closest comparable in terms of recent trades is probably Rosen, who netted a Day 2 pick on draft day with three years of cost control left on his deal. Rosen’s size and the timing of the trade, with a full offseason to practice after the deal, probably meant he had more of a market than Young will over the next few weeks. Is there a team that makes sense as a landing spot for Young?There aren’t many teams seeking a potential quarterback of the future right now. I’d argue the Raiders, Titans and Giants have real questions about whether they have the right guy under center. The Jets will need somebody if 40-year-old Aaron Rodgers retires. The Steelers have short-term deals with Fields and Wilson. I’m not sure any of those teams will trade for a quarterback during the season. Like my colleague Ben Solak suggested, there’s one team I see that makes obvious sense in a Young trade, in both the short and long term. The Dolphins just signed Tua Tagovailoa to a four-year, $212.4 million extension, but he suffered his third concussion in the past 24 months. Tagovailoa was placed on injured reserve, so he’ll miss the next four games at a minimum, and there are realistic questions about whether Young’s predecessor at Alabama will return to football. The backup in Miami is Skylar Thompson, who has averaged 5.2 yards per attempt across 119 passes as a pro, and the team added Tyler Huntley from the Ravens’ practice squad to sit behind Thompson. The Dolphins have a need for a short-term solution at quarterback while Tagovailoa is hurt, a passer who can fill in if Tagovailoa doesn’t return until much later in the season and a player who could serve as the long-term replacement for Tagovailoa if the 26-year-old leaves football. Young would at least have a theoretical path toward filling those roles if he went to Miami. The offense would be a good fit for him in the way that playing for Mike McDaniel and with Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle is a good fit for anyone, but perhaps the bigger thing is it would help minimize some of his weaknesses and bad habits. Young would play the RPO game and be limited to quick, simple decisions. The furiously quick nature of the passing game would allow him to avoid pass pressure and larger defenders in his face. After playing with the league’s slowest receiving corps in Carolina, working with one of the fastest would undoubtedly create more opportunities after the catch to make his life easier. Young doesn’t have an elite arm, but he doesn’t need one to thrive in Miami. Is there any way Young could turn things around?I wrote earlier that Young had the ninth-worst ANY/A+ for a top-five pick in one of his first two seasons in league history. His ANY/A+ was 67. Have there been quarterbacks with sub-67 ANY/A+ marks who have eventually rounded into solid NFL passers? Yes. Quite a few, actually, many of whom were No. 1 picks. Jared Goff had a 52 ANY/A+ in his first season with the Rams (2016), a year in which he averaged 5.3 yards per attempt and threw seven picks in 205 attempts. The Rams lost all seven games Goff started. They fired coach Jeff Fisher in December and hired Sean McVay in the offseason, signed Andrew Whitworth and Robert Woods, traded for Sammy Watkins and drafted Cooper Kupp. Things got better quickly. Goff’s passer rating jumped by nearly 40 points, and the Rams became a perennial playoff contender. He wasn’t traded, but given how much around him changed, he might as well have been. Even worse than Goff was Alex Smith, whose 49 ANY/A+ is the fourth worst for any quarterback in his first two seasons since 1970. He threw one touchdown pass against 11 picks as a rookie in 2005. He was better in Year 2, but after offensive coordinator Norv Turner left to take the Chargers job, Smith fell further. He struggled in 2007 and missed all of 2008 with a shoulder injury. Niners fans wanted Smith benched as late as 2010, his sixth season in the league, before he finally became entrenched as an NFL starter with the arrival of Jim Harbaugh in 2011. He was an above-average starter for the next eight years in San Francisco and Kansas City. There are others in the Young ballpark. In what was admittedly a different era. Bert Jones posted a 51 ANY/A+ in 1973, four seasons before he won league MVP. Terry Bradshaw threw 24 interceptions in his rookie year after being drafted with the first pick in 1970, which produced a 65 ANY/A+. He turned out fine. Randall Cunningham had a 68 ANY/A+ in 1986. Donovan McNabb posted a 69 ANY/A+ in 1999. Troy Aikman was at 72 in 1989. Eli Manning had a 74 in 2004. I’d also point out we’re two weeks into a season in which many of the best quarterbacks, at least so far, have been reclamation projects who were cast off by their former teams. Sam Darnold ranks fourth in QBR after being traded by the Jets in 2021 and bottoming out with the Panthers. Geno Smith, who spent years toiling in anonymity after looking overmatched in two years as the Jets’ starter in 2013 and 2014, has thrived with the Seahawks and ranks fifth in QBR. The guy just below him is Baker Mayfield, who was salary dumped by the Browns in 2022, benched and cut in midseason by Carolina and parlayed a brief run with a desperate Rams team into an opportunity with the Bucs. Justin Fields doesn’t have an incredible QBR, but he’s 2-0 and has looked much better in his brief run with the Steelers. There are also veterans thriving who had longer starting runs and were still essentially abandoned by their former teams. The Raiders benched and cut longtime starter Derek Carr so former coach Josh McDaniels could move forward with Jarrett Stidham and then Jimmy Garoppolo. Carr leads the NFL in QBR, one year after Saints fans were booing him off the field at home games. Goff hasn’t gotten off to a great start, but he’s a year removed from the NFC Championship Game, a dramatic turnaround for a player the Rams salary dumped on the Lions as part of the Matthew Stafford trade. Do I think Carr is a significantly better quarterback today than he was a year ago? Is Goff much better now than he was at the end of 2020, when McVay essentially lost faith in him and started John Wolford in a playoff game? Not really. Their confidence is improved, but the big difference is they have better players around them. Goff is blessed with some of the best playmakers in all of football. Carr is finally in an offense that uses play-action and motion at modern rates. Mayfield has two elite wideouts and an organization that believes in him. Smith isn’t playing for his job every week. Darnold has that guy who produced a 97-yard touchdown in Week 2. All of that stuff helps! The success of Mayfield and Darnold (in a smaller sample) after leaving Carolina suggest the Panthers might be the bigger problem here. Both passers had Moore in the lineup, which Young did not. In my playmaker rankings, which attempt to rank the running backs, wide receivers and tight ends for each team independent of quarterback, offensive line, scheme and staff, the Panthers ranked seventh in 2021 and 18th in 2022. They were 31st in 2023 and 28th in 2024. Is this a sign teams shouldn’t draft short quarterbacks?Maybe. I will say the biggest concern about Young coming into the league was more about his weight (204 pounds at the combine) and slightness than his height. He missed one game as a rookie, but he isn’t being taken out of the lineup because he hasn’t been able to physically handle the exertion of pro football. Will the Panthers really be better with Andy Dalton?I think so. Dalton, 36, has been a regular starter only once in the past four seasons, but he was competent when he started 14 games for the Saints in 2022, completing nearly two-thirds of his passes while averaging 7.6 yards per attempt. In his lone start last season, former Carolina coach Frank Reich inexplicably had Dalton drop back to pass 61 times, with Dalton going 34-of-58 for 361 yards and two touchdowns in a 37-27 defeat at Seattle. Dalton won’t have Young’s mobility nor theoretical upside. In terms of being able to deliver the ball on time as part of simple pass concepts, though, he should be an upgrade on what we saw from Young through two weeks. The issue there is there are still 15 games to go. Carolina’s stadium didn’t look full in its home opener, and it wasn’t going to attract more fans after what we saw with Young over the first two games. With his confidence shot and Canales losing faith, it’s difficult to believe things were about to get better. Playing with a hopeless quarterback has a way of wearing on a franchise. The locker room might have lost their faith in Young, as we saw when Thielen was visibly frustrated on the field. A new coaching staff playing who their players believe to be the wrong quarterback isn’t going to have an easy time handling the locker room. Team owner David Tepper fired a coach at midseason each of the past two years. Canales might have felt like it was quickly going to become him or his quarterback. Does it matter who made the decision to bench Young?Only if it turns out Tepper wanted to bench his quarterback and Canales wanted Young to stay as the starter. While I can understand the reticence to have Tepper involved with personnel decisions, the idea any owner would have no say or input into the franchise’s starting quarterback being benched is a little naive. There might be a few teams that hand over full responsibility for roster decisions to their coach and/or general manager and have the owner get out of the way, but benching a quarterback — especially a highly drafted one like Young — is different than swapping out guards. Every owner is going to want to hear his team’s quarterback is about to be benched before it happens. I’m not saying they would exercise veto power or control over the position in every case, but I’m aware of at least one NFL owner who has called his football staff Monday morning in recent years and told the coaches it needed to make a change at quarterback. I would hardly be surprised if that was the only one. What makes this change so fascinating is Canales is only two games into his new job as coach. When the Panthers conducted their hiring process this offseason, they would have surely targeted coaches who felt confident they could turn around Young and make him the player the Panthers expected. It seems dramatic that Canales would have lost faith in his ability to fix him so quickly. We’ll find out more about the process that led into the decision as time goes on, but the Panthers went from building around Young to giving up on him in a matter of 67 dropbacks. Is the Young trade worse than the Deshaun Watson or Russell Wilson trades?Gulp. This isn’t exactly a group a player wants to be thrown into. We’ve had three utterly disastrous trades involving multiple first-rounders for quarterbacks over the past few seasons. Is this the worst trade of the bunch? There’s no concrete answer — yet. The Bears-Panthers trade included Moore, a high-end wide receiver, who was the best individual player to move in these deals. The Seahawks got three roster players as part of the Wilson deal, while the Browns deal was all picks, including three first-rounders. Some might want to consider the actual players the teams acquired with each selection, while I tend to lean toward the value of the picks as being more meaningful in evaluating each deal. What I come back to is salary. Each of these teams paid way too much in draft capital for their respective quarterbacks, but the Panthers are on the hook for only about $38 million over four years for Young, or $9.5 million per year. The Broncos ended up paying Wilson $124 million for two years, which is $62 million per season. The Browns aren’t paying Watson quite as much per year, but his five-year, $230 million deal is fully guaranteed, with Watson earning $46 million per year through 2026. If those figures sound astronomical, keep in mind we’re not even including the surplus value of the draft picks sent to acquire these passers. Ben Baldwin’s non-quarterback draft value chart pegs the average value of a first-rounder at 3.3% of the salary cap per season, a second-rounder at 2.6% per year, and down to a seventh-rounder at about 0.1% of the cap each season. Because we know what each pick is paid on the slotted scale, we can use this to help inform the value of the picks sent to acquire these quarterbacks. Given that each pick provides surplus value for four years and all the selections have actually been made but one, I’ll use Baldwin’s chart, the actual salaries of each pick and the cap figures for each year to include surplus value in those calculations. For the 2025 second-rounder the Panthers still owe the Bears, I treated the pick as an average second-round selection and used an estimated cap of $275 million for 2025. Including the value of the picks sent to acquire each of those quarterbacks, the Panthers are paying Young an extra $7 million per season in lost surplus value, totaling $16.5 million. That number is conservative because Baldwin’s chart doesn’t include quarterbacks, and the Bears used the No. 1 overall pick on Williams in 2024. I projected the surplus value of the first pick in this year’s draft to be worth closer to $40 million per year. If you factor that in, the Panthers would be paying Young the equivalent of $50 million per season when including the surplus value of the picks they sent to acquire him. Ouch. That’s still a lot less than the veterans, though. The Broncos sent two top-10 picks and two second-rounders to acquire Wilson and got only two years of middling play for their efforts. Throw another $29 million in surplus value onto the fire and that’s $153 million over two years for Wilson, or an average of $76.5 million per season. And the Browns sent even more to acquire Watson, with the Texans adding three first-round picks as the highlight of their package. The surplus value of all the missing Browns picks amounts to more than $70 million, meaning he has cost Cleveland over $300 million for an orange-and-brown tenure marked by suspension, injury and struggles. Cleveland is on the hook for more than $60 million per year by that measure. While Wilson was more expensive on a year-by-year basis and Young cost the Panthers a star receiver and their chance at Williams, I’d argue the Watson trade has been the worst of the three. The Panthers won’t have trouble moving on from the Young contract, and the Broncos were able to draw a line under the Wilson era after two years. Cleveland still has the better part of three years left with Watson as a toxic contract. |
| NEW ORLEANSSAK TAYSOM HILL (Swiss Army Knife, nominally a TE now) tried to practice on Thursday. Charean Williams of ProFootballTalk.com: Saints tight end Taysom Hill (chest) returned to practice Thursday, getting in limited work. Hill required a trip to the hospital after injuring his chest during Sunday’s win against the Cowboys, but he did fly back to New Orleans with the team. Saints coach Dennis Allen said he’s hopeful Hill will play in Week 3, and Hill’s return to practice is a step in the right direction. Linebacker D’Marco Jackson (calf) also returned to practice with a limited session. The team added safety Will Harris (shin) and wide receiver A.T. Perry (illness) to the practice report. Harris did not practice, and Perry was limited. The rest of the report remained the same, with defensive tackle Khalen Saunders (calf) and offensive tackle Landon Young (foot) still not practicing. The Saints have the Eagles this week as they look for their first 3-0 start since 2013. The Saints have scored 91 points. That’s four off the record for most in a first two games set by the Oakland Raiders in 1968 who had 95. The record for most points in the first three games of a season dates to the Cowboys in 1968 when Dallas scored 132. So the Saints need 41 to tie, 42 to break. Those ’68 Cowboys went 59-28-45 with the final 45 also against the Eagles.- – -Ben Solak of ESPN.com sings the praises of Saints OC Klint Kubiak while explaining the greatness of the 2024 Saints offense. There are so many different offenses to fear in the NFL. The elite quarterbacks: Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen. The dual-threat quarterbacks: Lamar Jackson, Jalen Hurts. The elite schemers: Kyle Shanahan, Sean McVay. The star wideouts with takeover potential: Justin Jefferson, Tyreek Hill. And of course, the New Orleans Saints, who have scored 4.33 points per drive to start the season. (The best offense this century, the 2007 Patriots, finished the season at 3.19.) The 15 consecutive scoring drives quarterback Derek Carr strung together to start the season is the longest streak since 1978, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. No biggie. Even the most optimistic Saints fan did not have this on their bingo card: a 47-10 drubbing over the listless Carolina Panthers chased by a 44-19 statement win at AT&T Stadium against the Dallas Cowboys. The Saints were 25th on our preseason Power Rankings, with coach Dennis Allen firmly on the hot seat. Allen’s defense still looked stiff, but on offense, they were planning to start rookie left tackle Taliese Fuaga and bump much-maligned left tackle Trevor Penning to the right side in place of the injured Ryan Ramczyk. Franchise running back Alvin Kamara has been asking for a new contract for months. Carr, signed to a big contract as a rare free agent quarterback, was under fire for substandard play in the first year of his deal. In a last-ditch effort to fix the offense (and save his job), Allen did something that hadn’t been done in New Orleans since 2005: He introduced a new offense. When coach Sean Payton was hired in 2005, Payton installed his offense, which was first coordinated by Doug Marrone (2006 to 2008) before Pete Carmichael took the headset in 2009 and held it all the way to 2023, even after Payton retired in 2021. But Allen let Carmichael go at the end of last season, and in his place, he installed Klint Kubiak. Kubiak is a chip off the old Shanahan block, which, incidentally, is a chip off the old Kubiak block. Klint is the son of Gary Kubiak, who was Mike Shanahan’s offensive coordinator in Denver when Shanahan first started messing around with under center, single back formations, outside zone runs and play-action passes — the portents of the modern offense that has spread like wildfire throughout the league after its introduction from Kyle Shanahan, Mike’s son. Klint, who was under Kyle in 2023 as the 49ers’ passing game coordinator, came up through the coaching ranks under his dad in Denver and Minnesota. Allen is not the first defensive coach looking to save his offense and job by grabbing a branch of the Shanahan coaching tree. Pete Carroll hired Shane Waldron, a Sean McVay assistant coach, to salvage late-career Russell Wilson in 2021 (it didn’t work for Wilson, but hey, it was great for Geno Smith!). In Minnesota, Mike Zimmer went from father (Gary Kubiak) to son (Klint) in 2020 and 2021 before he got canned. That’s right — this is Klint’s second swing at offensive coordinator, and this time, it came without a star wideout like Justin Jefferson or a ready-made system quarterback like Kirk Cousins. That 2021 Vikings’ offense ranked 13th in DVOA, 15th in expected points added (EPA) per play, 23rd in success rate and 16th in points per drive — it was a league average offense. There were reasons to doubt. It was probably a good move for Allen and Carr, but just how good would it really be? Fifteen consecutive scoring drives good, apparently. The most remarkable thing Kubiak has done with the Saints is adapting to New Orleans’ personnel. Through two games, no team has taken a smaller percentage of its snaps in 11 personnel (one running back, one tight end and three receivers) than the Saints. Only 22% of their snaps have three wide receivers on the field, which is miles below the league average (61.7%) and substantially below second place (the Baltimore Ravens at 32.1%). Compare the Saints’ personnel rates through two games with that of the 2021 Vikings and 2023 San Francisco 49ers. Those recent offenses trended toward heavier personnel, but Kubiak has abandoned 11 personnel at easily the greatest clip we’ve seen so far: How Klint Kubiak Has Changed Since 2021 Personnel groupings 2024 Saints 2021 Vikings 2023 49ers11 personnel 22.0% 42.1% 38.8%12 personnel 36.4% 13.3% 13.3%21 personnel 27.1% 18.2% 36.2%13 personnel 4.2% 0.6% 0.2%22 personnel 6.8% 7.8% 10.7% Now, these numbers are a little jumbled. The sample size is small, and the presence of Taysom Hill is a confounding variable. He’s being charted as a tight end for personnel purposes, but he already has taken more snaps in the backfield, as either a fullback or traditional tailback, than he had any season before. With that said, the Saints’ commitment to tight ends is notable — neither the 2021 Vikings nor 2023 49ers were using multi-tight end sets like this. And it wasn’t a no-brainer from Kubiak, either: New Orleans’ tight end room wasn’t renowned for its depth and talent before Kubiak arrived. In Foster Moreau and Juwan Johnson, it had two playable guys, but Johnson lined up at wideout as frequently as he lined up at tight end before this season. Kubiak has now stuck him to the tackle’s hip and made a true tight end out of him. Fullback Adam Prentice is getting Kyle Juszczyk usage — he has lined up at tight end on 30% of his snaps this season. So Kubiak is doing new stuff with the Saints’ personnel, but why does personnel matter so much? Because offensive personnel dictates defensive personnel. The more tight ends and running backs he puts on the field, the more defensive backs the opposing defense has on the field — the defense needs bigger bodies to play in the box and remain sound against the run. The fewer defensive backs are on the field, the easier it is to throw the ball. Look at just how many of Carr’s passing attempts have come against base personnel this season: 51.7%. On more than half of his passing attempts, he has faced only four defensive backs. If that number holds, it would be the highest mark for a quarterback since the 2013 season.– – –Carr is on pace for a season far beyond even his 2016 or 2020 numbers, but his production will almost certainly regress. That’s the thing about passing out of heavier personnel, passing out of play-action and passing against base personnel: It all works so much better when teams have a lead. Or, at the very least, on a neutral game script According to NFL Next Gen Stats, 74% of Carr’s dropbacks this season have come while the Saints have a win probability greater than 75%. In general, dropbacks at higher win percentages produce more expected points, more yards per attempt and a better completion percentage. He has only dropped back on seven third downs, which is fewer than every quarterback in the league, including those who have only started one game. What now?The question I find myself asking: What will this offense look like when it’s forced into more neutral scripts? Say the defense has a bad start, suffering from an unlucky turnover, and suddenly it’s 17-3 in the second quarter. They can’t just never get into 11 personnel, as they have so far this season — and WR3 right now is Cedrick Wilson Jr. or Mason Tipton, who don’t exactly instill faith in their secondary passing options. So far, Carr is one of the least pressured quarterbacks in the league despite having a rookie left tackle and a shaky right tackle — but that’s what play-action and extra tight ends can do for you. Will the Saints’ dropback pass protection hold up as well as their play-action protection? If Carr’s performance hasn’t been the biggest surprise of the Saints’ offensive explosion, then certainly it has been the play of the offensive line. Both tackle spots were big questions entering the season; both guard spots had veteran players (Lucas Patrick and Cesar Ruiz), but neither was known as a plus starter. The displacement this group is getting in the running game is a sight to see. Kamara’s life has never been better. Only J.K. Dobbins has more rushing yards before contact this season than Kamara; no back with at least 10 carries has been contacted behind the line of scrimmage less frequently than Kamara. This running game is humming. The magic right now is in the double teams. Watch how frequently and easily combination blocks are climbing to the second level from the New Orleans front. Allowing Fuaga to get downhill in the running game has been a masterstroke for his NFL onboarding, as he was a right tackle in a run-first offense in college. So too does a heavy dose of downhill run blocking help Penning, who has still been shaky when asked to drop in traditional pass protection this season. The Saints are protecting their bookends while also maximizing their respective strengths. The passing game gets the splashy headlines in New Orleans, but defenses will start to catch up to the designs and machinations of the offense. Shaheed will get more respect from safeties, and linebackers will clue in on the Olave dig that has been free money through the first two weeks. Defenses will try to force the Saints to beat them with targets to Moreau, Hill, Johnson and Kamara. Some of the wind will leave New Orleans’ sails — it just has to. (Again: 4.33 points per drive. 15 consecutive scoring drives. Just bonkers numbers.) But what gives me faith that the Saints can sustain serious offensive success — not record-setting, mind you, but still quality success — is how well they’re running the football. It’s with the ground game that offenses punish those defenses that stay in lighter personnel to defend the play-action pass. It’s with the ground game that great teams hide the pass protection of their tackles and protect Carr from his demons against pressure, as he was one of the worst quarterbacks in the league when pressured last season. It’s with the ground game that they control the game script and ensure that you never encounter those big deficits that force you out of heavy personnels and out of the play-action passing game. Even if statistical regression is inevitable, we might not see the Saints’ offense truly slow for a bit. The team hosts an Eagles team in Week 3 that has struggled mightily stopping the run — they’re dead last in success rate against running back carries — and gave up plenty of intermediate in-breaking targets to the Falcons on “Monday Night Football.” In Week 4, the Saints will see another poor run defense from the division-rival Falcons. Week 5 against the Chiefs is the game to circle. Kansas City defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo, who just saw Kubiak’s offense in the Super Bowl, runs the sort of chaotic, amorphous defensive structure that’s a nightmare to deal with in the running game. And while most defenses aren’t comfortable against the pass in base packages, the Chiefs are great with only four defensive backs on the field. Shortly thereafter, New Orleans will face the Buccaneers and coach Todd Bowles. And if Kubiak can do to the Bucs — with whom the Saints currently share the division lead — what he’s done to the Panthers and the Cowboys, the Saints can ride this offense all the way to the NFC playoffs. |
| TAMPA BAYLegendary coach Tom Moore, still on the Buccaneers staff in his 80s, appeared with Pat McAfee and his comments hint that QB BAKER MAYFIELD’s ceiling might be higher than we think: “I love Baker Mayfield and he’s a great competitor..he’s a great person and he does everything that you need to win in this league” ~ Tom Moore On the other hand, former NFL QB Mike Glennon is only impressed to a point by Mayfield (and Sam Darnold). Former Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Mike Glennon is not among that group, though. Glennon was a guest on 99.9 FM sports radio in Charlotte and took a shot at Baker Mayfield — and Sam Darnold — while trying to illustrate a point about Bryce Young getting benched. Young took the worst of it, but Glennon knocked them all down. “Even with how well Sam and Baker are playing, those guys are not elite quarterbacks,” Glennon said, via JoeBucsFan. “They’re solid starters in the NFL, where [the Panthers] drafted Bryce to be elite, and he’s just not that.” And Mayfield is said to be “taking a shot” at his predecessor. Jackson Thompson of http://FOXNews.com: Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield has the team playing well for the second straight season, almost as well as it did under Tom Brady. Mayfield claims to bring a drastically different vibe to the team than the one Brady brought from 2020-22. During an interview on the “Casa De Klub podcast this week, Mayfield revealed what he heard about the vibe and locker room culture when Brady was there. “The building was a little bit different with Tom in there,” Mayfield said. “Obviously, playing-wise, Tom is different. He had everybody dialed in, high-strung environment. So, I think everybody was pretty stressed out. “So, for me, and everybody was expecting the Bucs to not be good last year, they wanted me to come in, be myself, bring the joy back to football a little bit for guys that weren’t having as much fun and just continue to raise the competition level. They just asked me to be myself. As a player, you really can’t ask for much more than that.” Brady was notorious for being a perfectionist throughout his career, a habit he picked up during his tenure with the New England Patriots and strict head coach Bill Belichick. Later in his career, Brady even reportedly had a hard time sleeping when he made a mistake in a game, even if it was in a game his team won, according to ESPN. However, some of Brady’s teammates have had different takes about Brady’s presence. Former Buccaneers tight end Kyle Rudolph, who played with Brady in his final season in 2022, said during an interview with NBC Sports in September 2023 that Brady always kept a positive attitude. “If anyone had the right to sometimes be an a–hole, it was Tom. He never was. Think of how tough a year it was for him off the field. The most amazing thing to me was, with all the negativity swirling around his life outside of football, he never carried it into the building. Always positive. “My experience with Tom was incredible. First, the way he treated people. The way he treated the Glazer family [Bucs owners] is exactly the way he treated the janitor at 6:30 at night when he and maybe one or two other guys were the last players in the building.” Mayfield, now in his second season as Tampa Bay’s starter, has led the team to a 2-0 start after a playoff victory last year. The Buccaneers have played so well lately they landed in the top five in Fox News Digital’s latest NFL power rankings. |
| AFC NORTH |
| CINCINNATIOne good thing for the Bengals is that they know all about being 0-2. Ben Baby ofESPN.com: There are two ways to view the Cincinnati Bengals’ first two weeks of the season. On one side, players and coaches have expressed the disappointment that comes with starting 0-2 for the third straight season and the fifth time in the past six years. On the other — as quarterback Joe Burrow pointed out Thursday — is that the familiarity that comes with the slow start means Cincinnati knows what it will take to snap the skid and beat the Washington Commanders on Monday night. “We’re in a fine spot,” Burrow said in his weekly news conference. “We’ve been here before. We’re not panicking. We’re focused on getting a win and getting better every day.” Burrow said he’s not sharing the same feeling of frustration that he had following Sunday’s loss to the Kansas City Chiefs. The Bengals led in the fourth quarter and were a defensive stop away from beating their AFC rivals. However, a defensive pass interference penalty on fourth-and-16 set up the winning field goal in Kansas City’s 26-25 victory. In four of Burrow’s five NFL seasons, Cincinnati has lost its first two games of the season. The exception was in 2021, when the Bengals beat the Minnesota Vikings in overtime of Week 1. Since then, the star quarterback has battled various injuries at the start of the year — a ruptured appendix (2022), a calf injury (2023) and recovery from wrist surgery (2024). And while there is calm in how the team is approaching Monday’s game, Burrow said there is a sense of urgency for Cincinnati to find its first win quickly. “We’ve treated every practice like it’s the same,” he said. “We pride ourselves on us not being able to tell if we win or lose. At practice, we’re going to go out and have fun and get our work in and get better.” Bengals coach Zac Taylor said despite the rough start to the year, which included a Week 1 loss to the New England Patriots although Cincinnati was favored by more than a touchdown, it doesn’t feel as if the team is pressing unnecessarily as it prepares to face Washington (1-1) or is carrying any undue tension. Taylor said he has never felt that from the players, which is why the team has handled these situations well before. “I feel this is a very comfortable team that understands how to work,” Taylor said. “How to have that preparedness about them that can lead to confidence and can lead to being at ease.” Cincinnati did get a boost Thursday, as wide receiver Tee Higgins practiced for the first time since he suffered a hamstring injury Sept. 5. Higgins, who sat out the first two games, was a limited participant. Taylor said the team will see how Higgins continues to progress throughout the week. If he can play, Burrow and the rest of the team are well aware of the impact the fifth-year receiver can make on Cincinnati’s offense. “Hopefully we have him on Sunday,” Burrow said. “If we don’t, we still feel confident in the guys that we have. We’re obviously more dynamic and a much better team with Tee out there.” |
| AFC SOUTH |
| HOUSTONThe Texans have lost TE BREVIN JORDAN for the remainder of the season with a tron ACL. The loss hit the team hard. This tweet from Jordan Schultz who combines the name of Houston’s two tight ends: @Schultz_Report#Texans QB CJ Stroud on Brevin Jordan’s injury: “If you want to talk about the heartbeat of this team, it’s just who he is. Somebody who loves hard and he loves everyone in this building.” |
| AFC EAST |
| MIAMIIn their first game without Tua, the Dolphins may not have RB RAHEIM MOSTERT. TheRedZone.org: The Dolphins don’t think they’ll get running back Raheem Mostert back in the lineup this weekend according to the team’s official website. Mostert missed last Thursday’s loss to the Bills with a chest injury, but he’s been able to practice this week on a limited basis so there was some hope that he’d be able to go against the Seahawks. Head coach Mike McDaniel said at his Friday press conference that he’s “pessimistic” about having Mostert in the lineup, however. De’Von Achane, Jeff Wilson, and Jaylen Wright are the other backs in Miami. The loss of Mostert of course pales in comparison to the loss of quarterback Tua Tagovailoa. Skylar Thompson will be the starting QB in Week 2 against the Seahawks and for the foreseeable future. |
| NEW ENGLANDThe start of the QB DRAKE MAYE Era? He got to mop up on Thursday. Tyler Sullivan of CBSSports.com: Welcome to the NFL, Drake Maye. With less than five minutes to play in the New England Patriots Week 3 matchup against the New York Jets and trailing 24-3, first-year head coach Jerod Mayo has sent veteran Jacoby Brissett to the bench and thrust his first-round rookie quarterback into the fold. This was Maye’s first taste of regular-season action since he was the No. 3 overall pick at the 2024 NFL Draft out of UNC. Maye did battle it out with Brissett for the starting job throughout the summer, but despite a late surge with some strong showings in the preseason, the job was ultimately given to the veteran. In this game against the Jets, Maye’s first pass attempt fell incomplete as he targeted tight end Austin Hooper and nearly got intercepted. His second pass was a completion on a short completion to Kayshon Boutte. On the night, he completed four of his eight passes for 22 yards and took two sacks. Given the nature of how this Week 3 contest got out of hand, it’s unclear if this is a changing of the guard for the Patriots under center. Really, it looks more like the team waving the white flag and getting Brissett — who was sacked five times on the night — out of harm’s way. Brissett completed 12 of his 18 throws on the night for just 98 yards as New England’s offense struggled to find any rhythm. As a team, the Patriots totaled just 139 yards yards of total offense in the 24-3 defeat compared to the 400 yards of offense registered by New York. Josh Alper of ProFootballTalk.com with more from QB JACOBY BRISSETT: The Patriots gave Drake Maye his first NFL playing time late in Thursday’s 24-3 loss to the Jets and that meant head coach Jerod Mayo fielded questions about turning the offense over to the rookie quarterback on a full-time basis. Mayo said “I don’t know” when asked if the team will make a change after watching Jacoby Brissett go 12-of-18 for 98 yards while being sacked five times. When it was time for Brissett to meet the media, he said “of course” he still feels like the starter and said he wasn’t going to lose sleep over what Mayo said in his press conference. “I’m not going to overreact to something that I didn’t hear,” Brissett said, via a transcript from the Jets. It has always been a matter of time before the Patriots make a permanent change at quarterback, but two competitive outings to open the season suggested it might be a while. Thursday night wasn’t competitive and there won’t be many of those outings before the team charts a new course. |
| NEW YORK JETSQB AARON RODGERS served notice that he is healthy and motivated Thursday with a smooth performance in the 24-3 win over the Patriots. Phillip Martinez ofYahooSports.com also covers what appeared to be an awkward moment between the QB and head coach here: Aaron Rodgers and the offense looked the best it has so far in this young season and the defense kept the Patriots from gaining any traction all night. But there was one odd moment caught by the broadcast. In the second quarter, Rodgers went up to head coach Robert Saleh on the sidelines. Saleh looked to try and give his QB a hug but Rodgers stuck his forearm out to seemingly block it before saying something. After the win, we finally know what actually happened. “It wasn’t awkward at all,” Rodgers said with a smile. “He’s not a big hugger, usually, so I didn’t know he was going for the hug. He likes to do the two-hand chest push as well. “He talks a lot about two-score leads. So I just kind of gave him a push and said ‘two-score lead.’ That’s what happened.” “Part of the things that we’ve been talking about is to give the defense a two-score lead,” Saleh said with a laugh. “It was a two-score lead so he wanted to see something on defense.” Rodgers certainly did see something from the Jets defense. Gang Green allowed the Patriots to amass only 139 yards of total offense and sacked the quarterback seven times. But it wasn’t only the defense. The Rodgers-led offense picked up 400 yards of offense and had 27 first downs. Rodgers’ two touchdowns went to Garrett Wilson and Allen Lazard, with Breece Hall punching in a third Jets touchdown. It was an overall team effort and one the Jets wanted to see after their season-opening loss to the 49ers and squeaking by the Titans in Week 2. But now with a 2-1 record, for the first time since 2015, the Jets will get some much-needed rest before hosting the Denver Broncos back at MetLife. Another quick video if you want to go to the link: @EmmanuelAcho95% of other NFL quarterbacks, in history, who attempt this pass would’ve thrown a 97 yard interception TD. Aaron Rodgers simply throws another TD. here This dude is greatness personified. #Jets This from RB BRAELON ALLEN on why he was available to the Jets in the 4th round. Jets rookie running back Braelon Allen turned in a strong performance on Thursday night, carrying 11 times for 55 yards in a win over the Patriots. And he thinks he’s showing that NFL teams should regret letting him fall until the 134th overall pick in the draft. Responding to a question on social media about why he fell to the fourth round in the 2024 NFL draft, Allen said it was all about his decision not to run the 40-yard dash, either at the Scouting Combine or at Wisconsin’s Pro Day. “Everyone wanted to see me run in my underwear to decide if I was a good football player,” Allen said. At 6-foot-1 and 235 pounds, running fast in a straight line isn’t necessarily Allen’s strong suit, and he was still recovering from a college ankle injury that made him decide not to get tested in the 40. That may have affected his draft stock, but it’s a distant memory now that he’s in the league. |
| THIS AND THAT |
| MEL KIPER AND COVER TWOMike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com: Mel Kiper, Jr. has had a legendary career. He has helped make the draft into the ultimate reality show it now is. He started from absolutely nothing and invented a career that didn’t previously exist. Of course, this has resulted in Kiper becoming Guy Who Only Knows About The Draft. And while such “stay in your lane” admonitions often are used to dismiss those who have more to offer than the thing for which they’re primarily known, guys like Kiper do themselves no favors by venturing from their lane with a take that is objectively nutty. Kiper recently suggested outlawing the two-high safety defense. And while it gave ESPN a few news cycles of content (much like the suggestion from Ron Jaworski in 2013 that Colin Kaepernick could be one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time), it makes Kiper look goofy. The NFL has systematically tried to goose offensive football over the last 50 years, with a variety of rule changes. The thought of putting restrictions on the deployment of defensive players has never been considered, much less suggested. This is’t the NBA, where zone defenses can be abolished — and where the rule can be effectively enforced. There’s no practical way to tell NFL defenses what they can or can’t do. But Kiper’s comments have moved the needle. They’ve already shown up in press conferences. Dolphins receiver Tyreek Hill, for example, gave a thoughtful and pragmatic response when asked about it on Thursday. “It’s up to us to try to figure it out,” Hill said. “That’s why people love football because of how it’s played and all kind of things can be stopped and stuff like this, that’s the beauty in it. It’s our job to come inside this building and figure out how do we get this not ran against us.” He’s right. Defenses have 11 players. They can use them however they see fit. Two deep, three deep, zero deep. 4-3, 3-4, 5-3, 3-3-5, 46 defense, whatever. Still, the Kiper take has become a bona fide thing, even if there’s no way the league would ever do what he suggested. After last night’s win over the Patriots, Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers made a reference to it. You wouldn’t know it from the transcript, which says this: “The entire focus of all three defenses we’ve played had been taking Garrett [Wilson] away. It’s been Malachi [Corley] for his worst nightmare, lot of cover two.” That’s not what Rodgers said. He said — clearly and obviously — that it’s been “Mel Kiper’s worst nightmare.” Maybe it’s as simple as the person who transcribed the remarks not being aware of the Kiper thing. Regardless, Rodgers was. Even though it first emerged on a game day, Rodgers knew about it. Remember that the next time Rodgers feigns ignorance of anything and everything the media says, perpetuating the idea that he’s above it all. He’s not. He has rabbit ears bigger than Dumbo’s. The bottom line is that Kiper’s comments will ultimately fall on deaf ears. And it gave ESPN plenty of views and clicks, even if they don’t do much to help Kiper shed his typecast as a guy who shouldn’t be talking about anything but draft prospects. |
| BROADCAST NEWSEven as the NFL has denied Tom Brady access to just about anyone at any time, the rest of the league’s TV broadcasters are getting more time with the players. Richard Deitsch of The Athletic: It is not an accident that you are seeing more in-uniform interviews from NFL players this season. Here’s why: Last May, the NFL broadcasting department sent out a memo on the topic to the league’s chief executives, club presidents, general managers, head coaches and public relations directors. The memo outlined access changes for the NFL’s television partners after a review between the league and its media rights holders. The shared goal? To enhance the game content that we see as NFL viewers. I’ll give you an example of how this has manifested itself for viewers so far. During the opening-week broadcast between the Cincinnati Bengals and New England Patriots, CBS sideline reporter Evan Washburn interviewed Cincinnati quarterback Joe Burrow right before kickoff. Home clubs must make a high-profile player available for pre-kick interviews in full uniform as part of the new broadcast access rules. (There are limits to the amount of interviews each player does with a network during the season, so it’s not one player doing it each week.) “It always hits differently when you hear a player tell you things in his own voice,” said CBS Sports producer Ken Mack, who produces the CBS NFL team of Ian Eagle, Charles Davis and Washburn. “When Joe Burrow told Evan Washburn about how he ‘got a little emotional yesterday’ in the moments before the Bengals opener, it felt like it brought the audience closer to the player.” The new access policy says clubs must make the head coach or either offensive or defensive coordinator available for in-game, on-camera interviews. The time slots are agreed upon between each club and the televising network prior to game day, and the home team has the first choice of interview timing between the end of first quarter, halftime, or the end of the third quarter. There are limits to the number of questions each coach can get (two) and where they take place. NBC “Sunday Night Football” lead producer Rob Hyland said his broadcast has taken advantage of the new access initiatives. Through the first three games of the season, SNF has interviewed Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, Detroit Lions wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown and Houston Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud prior to kickoff. “We’ve also connected with each head coach, either at the start or end of halftime,” Hyland said. “One of Sunday Night Football’s stated goals is to take the viewer somewhere they have never been. Having the opportunity to speak with a player moments before kickoff or a head coach at halftime provides an additional layer of access for our audience that we believe adds to the overall viewer experience. Fans want to be as close to the stars of the game as possible.” You might have also noticed footage from the locker room coverage prior to the game. That’s part of the new access deal too. Per the memo: “When requested by televising network, clubs must record and share at least 20 seconds of pregame locker room footage or content with televising network each game. Recording must occur between conclusion of pregame warmups and 15 minutes prior to kickoff, with the Club having final approval on footage to be aired on broadcast.” There are many NFL game days where you will see viewer complaints on social media about in-game interviews. The criticism usually revolves around the idea that coaches or players don’t provide insight or little is gleaned from the responses. Sure, sometimes that is valid criticism. But there are moments when viewers do get the occasional gem and insight. It’s why the networks will always support this: There is value in showing your viewers that you have unique access to the main people competing in the event. “When a coach gives your reporter (and by extension your audience) insight into the team’s mindset at a crucial point in the game, that can be illuminating,” Mack said. “During that same Week 1 broadcast, Evan talked to (New England coach) Jerod Mayo at the start of the second quarter when the Patriots faced a third-and-goal from the Cincinnati 4-yard line. The conversation pushed the game’s storyline forward. Mayo’s forecast of continued aggressive play was borne out on the next play when the Patriots scored a touchdown to take the lead.” Added Hyland: “Why wouldn’t you want fresh information from the individuals directly impacting the game? Hearing from the coaches and players in-game is something we will continue to showcase. On the rare occasion where some might think there isn’t much information gleaned, body language and non-verbal cues during the interview can be very telling and add to the story of what’s happening in the game.” |
