AROUND THE NFL
Daily Briefing
| If The Season Ended Today in the AFC:
New England East 9-4 1 7-1
Tennessee South 9-4 1 6-3
Kansas City West 9-4 1 4-4
Baltimore North 8-5 1 5-5
LA Chargers WC1 8-5 2 5-3
Indianapolis WC2 7-6 2 6-3
Buffalo WC3 7-6 2 5-5
Cleveland 7-6 2 4-5
Cincinnati 7-6 3 5-3
Denver 7-6 3 3-5
Pittsburgh 6-6-1 4 4-4
Las Vegas 6-7 4 4-4
Miami 6-7 3 4-5
The losses by Buffalo, Cincinnati and Pittsburgh put the Colts in the playoffs while on bye.
Once high and mighty, the Bills are barely in the playoffs, needing only a tiebreaker edge to hang 2nd of the 5 teams at 7-6.
With a finish of Carolina, at New England, Atlanta, at Jets, the Bills can aspire to a strong finish.
– – –
How do QBs get hurt? Mike Sando of The Athletic:
(Lamar) Jackson might wear down similarly if he keeps taking punishment, whether or not this specific play against the Cleveland Browns was an effective example. That’s not a controversial take.
Specific injuries are one thing. Cumulative effects are another.
“Joe is 100 percent right on about running quarterbacks getting hurt,” an NFL team exec said. “Josh Allen is going to get hurt too. Even Ben Roethlisberger would get hurt. Big people who get hit a lot will get hurt in football. The more times you get hurt, the more likely you’ll get hurt, whether you’re hit five yards downfield on a designed run or when you’re passing.”
Earlier in Jackson’s career, I charted all his rushing plays, categorizing them by how much punishment he absorbed, including unnecessary punishment incurred by turning upfield into defenders when he could have slid or stepped out of bounds. The frequency of hard or risky collisions seemed higher when watching all the runs at once, in contrast to how easily Jackson seems to shrug off the hits over the course of a game filled with many other types of plays.
We’ll need additional time to know whether cumulative effects reduce his abilities prematurely, but after the Allen showed up to his postgame news conference wearing a walking boot Sunday, Banner’s general point is well taken.
“It’s been that way the whole time with Allen,” another exec said. “Those are paid NFL defenders. The veterans know which is your throwing shoulder, when to target you below the waist, when they can land their body weight on you after you cross the line of scrimmage. These guys know all these things.”
We’ll learn more about Jackson and Allen in the coming days. In the meantime, here’s a look at notable quarterbacks who have missed games to injury this season, and the circumstances surrounding their injuries.
2021 Notable Starting QB Injuries
Baker Mayfield Pass (In Pocket) Shoulder (INT return)
Jalen Hurts Pass (In Pocket) Ankle
Russell Wilson Pass (In Pocket) Finger
Tua Tagovailoa Pass (In Pocket) Ribs
Zach Wilson Pass (In Pocket) Knee
Ryan Fitzpatrick Pass (In Pocket) Hip
Jimmy Garoppolo Pass (In Pocket) Calf
Lamar Jackson Pass (Outside Pocket) Ankle
Dak Prescott Pass (Outside Pocket) Calf
Daniel Jones QB Run Neck
Kyler Murray QB Run Leg
Justin Fields QB Scramble Ribs
Tyrod Taylor QB Scramble Hamstring
Jameis Winston QB Scramble Knee
Sam Darnold Unclear Shoulder
Even running quarterbacks pass far more frequently than they run, so it stands to reason that most injuries occur on pass plays. Quarterbacks can protect themselves more deliberately while running. They can be more vulnerable to unexpected and/or unprotected blows from defenders on pass plays. That is one reason teams do not pass more frequently. |
| NFC NORTH |
|
GREEN BAY
QB AARON RODGERS was brilliant Sunday night, but afterwards he had a sobering report on his toe. Rob Demovsky of ESPN.com:
It appears that Aaron Rodgers still owns the Chicago Bears but unfortunately for the Green Bay Packers’ quarterback, he also still has a problem with his fractured pinky toe.
Rodgers and the Packers beat the Bears for the sixth straight time and Rodgers ran his record as a starter against them to 23-5 — settling milestones and records in the series along the way. But he indicated that whatever healing took place with his toe during the Packers’ bye was wiped out, and then some.
“It feels worse,” Rodgers said after Sunday’s 45-30 win at Lambeau Field. “I don’t know what kind of setback that I had tonight but we’ll look at it tomorrow. Definitely took a step back tonight.”
Rodgers’ suffered the injury last month during his COVID-19 quarantine and has barely practiced despite not missing any significant game action since he hurt it. It had improved enough last week to the point where he actually practiced for the first time in three weeks.
During the bye, Rodgers said surgery was an option and even though he was told it could be done without him missing a game, he elected not to have it. He said Sunday that he was still hoping to avoid the procedure, which would immobilize his toe, but that a decision would be made after he undergoes tests on Monday.
“That would be last resort, for sure,” Rodgers said. “But I’ve got to see what kind of setback it was tonight.” |
| NFC EAST |
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DALLAS
Mike Sando of The Athletic looks at the Cowboys – and offers a mild endorsement going forward:
1. Here’s why I’m buying the Cowboys more than in the recent past.
Defensive stars: Adding defensive ends Randy Gregory and Demarcus Lawrence over the past two weeks has supercharged a defense that was already improved. The Cowboys rank fifth in defensive expected points added (EPA) per game, according to TruMedia. They rank fourth in combined EPA on defense and special teams and could climb with Gregory, Lawrence, rookie superstar Micah Parsons and ball-hawking corner Trevon Diggs together during the finishing stretch.
“That defense with Gregory, Lawrence and Parsons, good Lord, that is how you build,” an evaluator from another team said.
Dallas has forever been a team that needed its offense to carry a disproportionate amount of the load. The Cowboys ranked 24th in combined defensive and special teams EPA during the Tony Romo years. They haven’t finished higher than 12th since the 2003 team was third. That team had Quincy Carter at quarterback. This team has Prescott, which should be a very good thing.
The quarterback: Prescott hasn’t looked great lately, but if a player as tough and established and emotionally steady as him ranks among the Cowboys’ biggest concerns, the team should be OK. He should play better ultimately.
“I think Dak is fine,” an exec said Sunday. “They could take stress off him by using their running backs more. I know they’ve had some injuries there. They do not do that enough, in my opinion, but they are legitimately a good football team.”
At various points this season, coaches and evaluators leaned toward pushing Prescott closer toward Tier 1, which featured only Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady, Patrick Mahomes, Russell Wilson and Deshaun Watson in Quarterback Tiers polling of 50 league insiders before the season. That is a tougher sell lately. The underlying fundamentals would seem to remain solid.
“He is a physically strong player who can throw off all platforms, especially on the move,” an evaluator who studied Prescott earlier in the season said. “He is up with Rodgers and Brady as far as how fundamentally sound he is. Holds the ball in a secure way, two hands, on his breast plates, in the pocket. He has excellent understanding of the timing of the offense. The pocket collapsing doesn’t bother him — he knows how to climb. He is a highly efficient operator of a well-designed offense with dangerous weapons.”
That all sounded good at the time, but the Cowboys rank 15th in EPA per game on offense. That includes 28th over the six-game span beginning with the debacle against Denver in Week 9. Their top wide receivers have been in and out of the lineup. Running back Ezekiel Elliott is playing hurt. His backup, Tony Pollard, missed the Washington game.
Do those supporting characters elevate Prescott more than the other way around? Such things were frequently said of Prescott early in his career. A smaller number of coaches and execs still think it’s so.
“They need to be careful they don’t abandon the run too quickly,” one coach said. “The thing that weighs on them is Zeke gets banged up. It is very easy to get intoxicated with the pass when you are sipping from the open bar that is Dak Prescott and those two receivers (CeeDee Lamb and Amari Cooper).”
The Cowboys rank 16th on the Cook Index, which measures how frequently teams pass on early downs in the first 28 minutes of games, before time remaining and score differential become more influential. That suggests Dallas is sufficiently balanced.
“I’m talking situationally,” the coach said. “As far as I can remember, that clock doesn’t run after those incomplete passes.”
Alas, Prescott’s pick-six interception came on a second-down throw in the final five minutes with Dallas leading by 13.
How willing are you to bet on what Prescott has usually been? He was seventh in Quarterback Tiers balloting last summer and should play that way ultimately. If he does, the Cowboys will have a top-10 quarterback paired with a top-five combination on defense and special teams. That is a winning combination. Even with the recent issues, Dallas is on pace to beat its preseason Vegas win total (nine) by nearly three games. Only the Arizona Cardinals are farther ahead of their preseason win-total projection.
I see Dallas finishing 12-5, drawing the Los Angeles Rams in the wild-card round and turning loose their pass-rush against Matthew Stafford. But there are admittedly enough warning signs to justify extreme hedging, without getting into the usual concerns over how owner Jerry Jones has structured the organization and coaching staff.
– – –
Chris Trapasso of CBSSports.com on the greatness of LB MICAH PARSONS:
He’s a superstar on the Dallas Cowboys. He played a different position in college than he’s playing now in the NFL. He’s 22-year-old Micah Parsons.
The Cowboys rookie edge rusher demonstrated Thor-like power in the first half of Dallas’ deliver-on-Mike-McCarthy’s-guarantee win in the nation’s capital over the Washington Football Team, a victory that appeared to be headed toward being a blowout but was ultimately a little too close for comfort for Cowboys fans.
Five pressures, two sacks, and a forced fumble on 17 pass-rush snaps for Parsons. Bananas.
The sack became an official stat in 1982, and though we don’t have pressure stats dating back that long, what Parsons has done as a pass rusher this season is basically unprecedented.
You watch football. So you know Parsons has been pretty damn good this season. But I’m going to venture a guess you don’t realize just how good he’s been in a historical context. Here’s how the rookie season for the Cowboys star compares to other instant-star rushers over the last decade.
PASS-RUSH SNAPS PRESSURES PRESSURE-CREATION %
Micah Parsons, 2021 255 55 – 21.5%
Nick Bosa, 2019 492 80-16.2%
Joey Bosa, 2016 363 59-16.2%
Von Miller, 2011 404 60-14.8%
Aaron Donald, 2014 454 44-9.6%
J.J. Watt, 2011 498 43-8.6%
Amazing, right? Yeah. Insane.
Parsons hasn’t had quite the pass-rushing volume of the other household names on that list, but let’s remember something. He was a former five-star recruit at defensive end, but was so athletically impressive at Penn State coaches decided he should play linebacker, which asked him to mostly play off the ball where his explosion would allow him to range from sideline to sideline, and he could kick down to the edge on passing downs. |
| NFC SOUTH |
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NEW ORLEANS
With a huge game in Tampa upcoming, the Saints are glad to have RB ALVIN KAMARA back. Coach Sean Payton gave him a heavy load in subjugating the Jets. Josh Alper of ProFootballTalk.com:
The Saints took a five-game losing streak into Sunday’s game against the Jets, but they put an end to it with a 30-9 win at MetLife Stadium.
One of the biggest reasons for the win was the play of running back Alvin Kamara. Kamara missed four games with a knee injury, but looked like he was back to being himself while running 27 times for 120 yards and a touchdown.
Kamara also caught four passes for 25 yards and accounted for 94 of the team’s 129 yards in the first half. After the game, head coach Sean Payton said that Kamara brought the team “real good juice and energy” in a win that kept the Saints in the playoff hunt.
“I feel good. I’m back healthy,” Kamara said. “I think that was most important thing, just being able to get healthy and get well so I can help the team the best I could. Like you said, I felt comfortable, I felt good. O-line played well. I think we played well all around as a team. I think there was a lot of energy out there and we came out with the win.”
The Saints will be in Tampa next Sunday night and having Kamara back in form is a big boost to their chances of getting a win they’ll need if they’re going to continue to harbor any thoughts of the postseason. |
|
TAMPA BAY
Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com checks the MVP odds:
Tom Brady continues to become a bigger and bigger favorite to win the NFL’s MVP. At the age of 44.
Four years after Brady won the award for the third time at the age of 40, he’s now an overwhelming favorite to win it for the fourth time.
From +175 a week ago (bet $100 to win $175) via PointsBet to -170 now (bet $170 to win $100), Brady has a huge margin over Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers (+550) and Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray (+900). Creeping up on the outside are Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes (+1200) and Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert (+1500).
Still, for Brady to win it, the Bucs may have to finish with the No. 1 seed in the NFC. If they don’t — if the Cardinals or the Packers do — their quarterbacks get a bump.
But if it’s close, Brady’s age and accomplishments surely will give him a boost. On Sunday, he became the all-time completions leader, to go along with the all-time yardage record and all-time passing touchdowns record.
He also has 4,134 passing yards, his 13th season over 4,000 yards. He’s now only one behind Peyton Manning, who holds the record with 14.
Brady, who leads the NFL in passing yards, also is on pace for his second 5,000-yard season. At his current rate of 318 per game, he’ll finish with 5,406. That would supplant himself as the third most in league history.
With his 2nd TD of the season, this is true – he has 10 rushing TDs:
@The33rdTeamFB
Tom Brady tied Jerry Rice for the most touchdowns scored after turning 40 (with his rushing TD today) |
| NFC WEST |
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ARIZONA
Peter King breaks down the run of good decisions leading to an 11-2 Cardinals team:
I look at the Arizona Cardinals being an NFL-best 10-2 with one month left in the regular season, and I look at six big decisions made by the team that got them here. Rarely do you get on the kind of roll Cardinals GM Steve Keim is on as an NFL decision-maker (along with owner and president Michael Bidwill), as these six calls show:
Decision No. 1: December 2018. Decided to fire head coach Steve Wilks after one year, a 3-13 season in 2018. Fans and media were harshly critical of the decision. “Keim should have been the one to pack up his office, not Wilks,” ESPN’s Josh Weinfuss wrote. Weinfuss’ take was one of the milder ones.
Decision No. 2: January 2019. The Keim-led coaching search resulted in the hire of the man fired with a 35-40 record at Texas Tech, Kliff Kingsbury. “It’s a bold move by the Cardinals,” wrote Kent Somers of the Arizona Republic. “And a bad one.” Somers’ take also was one of the milder ones.
Decision No. 3: April 2019. The Cardinals draft 5-10 quarterback Kyler Murray, a Kingsbury favorite since he began recruiting Murray as a 15-year-old high school quarterback. But wait. Keim picked a quarterback, Josh Rosen, 10th overall in the 2018 draft. What about Rosen?
Decision No. 4: April 2019. Keim, a day after picking Murray, trades Rosen to Miami for a second-rounder. Rosen had all of 14 games to prove himself to the Cardinals.
Decision No. 5: March 2021. After going 13-18-1 in the first years of Kingsbury/Murray, Keim goes all-in on veterans, trading for or signing as free agents center Rodney Hudson, defensive end J.J. Watt, wide receiver A.J. Green, kicker Matt Prater and running back James Conner. (Tight end Zach Ertz came in an October trade.) Those are deals made by a team that thinks it’s close to a Super Bowl.
Decision No. 6: Offseason 2021. By letting team leaders Larry Fitzgerald and Patrick Peterson go unsigned, Keim and Bidwill signal that the team is ready for new, younger leaders.
Considering the plethora of decisions he’s made over the past three years, Keim on Friday was brutally pragmatic.
“If this didn’t work,” Keim said, “let’s be honest, I wouldn’t have been hired to coach my middle school son’s flag football team. I mean, if you said, You’re gonna hire a fired college coach and draft a 5-10 quarterback with the first pick in the draft, you’d want to put us in a straitjacket.”
It’s always interesting to look back on decisions and try to figure out why the decisions worked or didn’t. Starting in the 2018 season, Keim didn’t like how the team was playing. It’s certainly not fair that Wilks and Rosen didn’t get time to build and play well. Keim said: “I think philosophically when Michael and I sat down and talked this through … How many times have people said, ‘I made that decision too early?’ The majority of time in life, people say, ‘God I wish I would’ve done it earlier. I waited too long.’ I think it goes back to the business where if you want to listen to the noise and not do what your gut says, you’re gonna get fired. And you’re not gonna be able to look in the mirror and say I did it my way.
“The pressure that was on both Michael and myself to make sure that it was right … every decision along the way.”
The one decision this year that looks golden is the trade with the Raiders for Hudson, the solid center Arizona has lacked. Important for the line, and important for the development of Murray. Hudson hasn’t had a typical year for him—Hudson has fallen from eighth in the league to 18th among starting center performance, per Pro Football Focus—but he’s provided the leadership the line and the quarterback needed.
The Raiders decided to move Hudson, and word surfaced early in free agency that he might be released. Keim called Las Vegas GM Mike Mayock, and caught him in the Atlanta airport getting ready to fly somewhere. Mayock told Keim he had an offer of a mid-round pick for him. “I said, ‘I’ll give you a third. Give me a seventh back.’ And it was done in two seconds. That call didn’t last longer than a minute, I promise you.”
“So impressive how Rodney’s brain works,” left tackle D.J. Humphries said last week. “Every week there’s always a play before the game where he’s like, ‘Hey Hump, you gotta be ready for this. They’re gonna do this.’ And every time it happens in a game, I just look at him and he just nods at me and walks back to the line like nothing happened. He knows it all. That’s been a huge help to me, and I know he’s doing it with Kyler too.”
Murray’s accuracy (72.7 percent) is up 8 points from his rookie year, and 5 points from last year. One way he’s gotten better is looking off defenders with his eyes. Watch the end zone view of this TD pass against the Rams in their first meeting. It’s clear Murray appears to aiming left from the snap, and then, in blanketed single coverage, he throws it up for A.J. Green, who catches it in stride. That’s a throw Murray could have made physically two years ago, but would he have the confidence and the ability to look off the safety while being rushed? Maybe not.
“His ability, this year, to manipulate defenders with his eyes has gone to the next level,” Keim said. “Which, as things slow down for a quarterback, you see it. Your fundamentals just get better with confidence.”
The Cardinals came off their bye last week and went to Chicago on a crummy weather day and put up 33 on the Bears. That’s a good sign for the near future. The Cardinals hold a half-game lead for top seed in the NFC over the Packers, but if they tie, Green Bay would win the tiebreaker … meaning a potential NFL title game would be at Lambeau Field, not cozy Glendale. The Cards close with the Rams tonight, then Detroit, Indy, Dallas and Seattle. Green Bay has Baltimore, Cleveland, Minnesota and Detroit. Comparative schedules? A coin flip. The Cards just have to keep winning. The way their quarterback is playing—scoring in the thirties in seven of his nine starts—I like their chances for the NFC road to go through Glendale. |
|
SAN FRANCISCO
TE GEORGE KITTLE was amazing in Cincinnati. Kevin Patra of NFL.com:
The San Francisco 49ers have clawed their way back from the brink, with Sunday’s thrilling 26-23 overtime road victory in Cincinnati thrusting Kyle Shanahan’s 7-6 club into the No. 6 seed with a one-game buffer over a cluster of six-win teams.
The key element to Sunday’s wild win was tight end George Kittle, who made spectacular play after spectacular play after spectacular play after spectacular play after spectacular play after spectacular play … you get the point.
Kittle caught 13 of 15 targets for 151 yards and a TD, many of them of the “he did what?!?” variety. Whenever Jimmy Garoppolo needed a big play, he looked Kittle’s way.
“I know that when coach Shanahan calls my name, I’ve just got to go out there and execute,” Kittle said, via the team’s official website. “When you have that opportunity, you’ve just got to make the play, and fortunately, I made the play more than I didn’t make it tonight.”
Kittle made a ridiculous leaping grab late in the fourth quarter to set up the potential game-winning field goal. After Robbie Gould’s miss forced overtime, Jimmy G looked Kittle’s way on a big third down with the Niners trailing in the extra period. The tight end made a sliding grab in traffic on a pinpoint pass to move the chains. The Niners won the game on the next play on a catch and run by Brandon Aiyuk.
“That’s a different dude,” Aiyuk said of the tight end. “Huge third down plays, just plays all over the field. … That’s a special dude, real special dude.”
Added Garoppolo: “George showed out today. He really did. When you have a guy like that you can lean on, it’s a nice feeling as a quarterback.”
– – –
Peter King says the 49ers are not totally committed to jettisoning QB JIMMY GAROPPOLO in 2022 and heading off into the unknown of QB TREY LANCE:
I’m told the Niners have not made up their minds, at all, about how to handle their quarterback situation in 2022 and beyond. They shouldn’t be. How do you know how Garoppolo will play down the stretch, and into a playoff run if that’s the fate of this season? I’m also told the Niners have been impressed, with Garoppolo’s career on the line, with how he’s handled this weird year, with Lance being the third pick in the draft and with Garoppolo expected to just handle things like a pro. He has.
“Jimmy’s one of my favorite people that I’ve ever coached,” Shanahan said. “He’s a hell of a dude. He’s not trying to hide anything. I also don’t want to downplay it and say this whole situation is just not a big deal. It’s a huge deal. Really hard on him. But he came in with the right mindset all the way back in OTAs. He hasn’t gotten sideways at all through any of it. No matter what he hears, he’s been the exact same guy I’ve known the four years prior, and that’s given us a chance to fight through this year. It’s given us the chance to be at where we’re at right now.”
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| AFC WEST |
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DENVER
With minimal notice, the Broncos did a great job remembering fallen great WR DEMARYIUS THOMAS. NFL.com:
Ahead of Sunday’s win against the Detroit Lions, the Denver Broncos paid tribute to a franchise great gone far too soon.
In honor of Pro Bowl receiver Demaryius Thomas, who unexpectedly passed away last week at the age of 33, the Broncos offense took the field after receiving the opening kickoff with only 10 men in the huddle, leaving vacant the “X” receiver position Thomas held down for eight seasons.
The crowd erupted into applause and chants of “DT” as the game clock ticked down to zero while players from both teams stood pat and paid their respects. The Broncos incurred a delay of game penalty for the gesture which Detroit quickly declined.
Shortly thereafter, wideout Courtland Sutton — Denver’s current X receiver — jogged from the sidelines and joined his team in the huddle to signal the official start of the game.
Sunday’s opening play was one of several tributes the organization implemented in Thomas’ memory, which included a No. 88 decal on Denver’s sideline and player helmets, as well as a video tribute prior to the signing of the National Anthem. |
|
KANSAS CITY
Peter King:
Remember when we were worried about Kansas City? Like, really worried? That was way back in time … 29 days ago. Since then, KC is 4-0 by an average score of 33-10.
– – –
The Chiefs had a 48-9 win – and it’s a Scoragami! Jeff Kerr of CBSSports.com:
The NFL has reached a Scorigami for the fifth time this year, thanks to the Kansas City Chiefs’ 48-9 win over the Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday. The tally was the 1,071st unique final score in the 102-year history of the league.
The other Scorigamis in the league this year happened when the Rams beat the Giants, 38-11, in Week 6, followed by another one in Week 7 when the Cardinals beat the Texans, 31-5. The Colts were involved in two: beating the Jets 45-30 in Week 9 and the Bills 41-15 in Week 12.
The five total Scorigamis are impressive, but far from the 12 achieved last season. Having more different final score combinations does make it harder to accomplish new ones.
The Scorigami fans can thank the Chiefs’ prolific offense for making this unique final score possible. Derrick Gore’s 51-yard run with 7:19 helped produce Kansas City’s 48 points. The Raiders scored their lone touchdown late in the third quarter and failed at converting the two-point attempt, resulting in their nine points.
Even if the Raiders had converted the two-point try, a Scorigami would have been in play. There has never been a 48-11 final score in NFL history, either.
The idea of tracking every Scorigami was created by SB Nation writer Jon Bois and there’s now a Twitter account with more than 285,000 followers that tracks each and every Scorigami. |
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LOS ANGELES CHARGERS
Mike Sando of The Athletic beholds the wonder of QB JUSTIN HERBERT – and thinks we need a QB competition between the young arms:
Justin Herbert’s latest awe-inducing throw leaves the NFL no choice. “The Quarterback Challenge” must return, headlined by Herbert, Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen aiming for Vinny Testaverde’s 1988 record.
It’s been about 15 years since the last Quarterback Challenge pitting NFL starters against one another in televised competitions showcasing accuracy and pure deep-ball prowess. Would reviving the series violate current players’ contracts? We don’t need the competition to return annually, but a one-time event raising money for players’ chosen causes would surely sell. Especially if Herbert, Mahomes and Allen were the headliners.
This throw by Herbert in the Chargers’ victory against the New York Giants on Sunday brought to mind those old competitions. It wasn’t the longest throw you’ll see, but neither did Herbert take a javelin thrower’s running start. Herbert stepped away from pressure, set his feet quickly and launched the ball 60-plus yards in the air (56 yards past the line of scrimmage) with pinpoint accuracy to Jalen Guyton just as a defender crashed into him. How far could Herbert throw a ball under more favorable conditions? Herbert was asked that question Sunday. He didn’t know the answer.
“I really haven’t tested it,” Hebert said, “but however far that one was, I guess that’s a good answer right there.”
Mahomes once claimed he could throw a ball 83 yards. Can we see him try?
Testaverde reportedly holds the record in the deep-ball challenge with an 80-yard heave in 1988. Randall Cunningham reportedly recorded a 76-yard throw. As this screenshot from the 1997 challenge shows, Brett Favre won the competition that year with a 75-yarder.
None of those guys’ arms fell off after competing. |
| AFC NORTH |
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BALTIMORE
Peter King:
The very preliminary gut feeling on Lamar Jackson’s injured ankle is that it is not a serious injury. Good for him and for the franchise. But Baltimore is 2-3 and averaging 16.6 points a game in the last five. Ravens (8-5) have some serious issues, and they’re one game ahead of every other AFC North team in the loss column. Nothing good is guaranteed for Baltimore in the next month.
And this:
I think the biggest winner of week 14 in the playoff stakes is Tampa Bay. The Bucs have a manageable schedule (Saints, at Carolina, at Jets, Carolina) that is more advantageous than either of the other 10-win teams in the NFC. … Biggest loser: Baltimore. The Ravens are not playing well, and they finish with Green Bay, at Cincinnati, Rams, Pittsburgh, and all three teams chasing them have a chance to catch them. Can the Ravens win two of four down the stretch? They could, but I am dubious. |
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CLEVELAND
Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com on the state of QB BAKER MAYFIELD and the Browns:
Often candid to a fault, Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield opened up a fault line in Cleveland with his comment to NFL Network that there have been “a lot of internal things” along with outside noise.
So what are the “internal things”? Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland Plain Dealer took a stab at listing them.
First, Cabot reports that there’s been a “disconnect all season” between Mayfield and coach Kevin Stefanski in terms of playcalling. On Sunday, Mayfield complained that the Browns became “too conservative” after building a big lead. He’s undoubtedly not referring to himself when he says it.
Second, criticism of Mayfield on the team’s in-house radio show, Cleveland Browns Daily, “hasn’t always played well” with Mayfield. That’s one of the very real challenges of team-produced media. If the hosts and analysts go too easy on the players, coaches, etc., they look like shills. If they go after key members of the organization more aggressively, they can piss off those who view them as coworkers — because they are.
Third, the OBJ fiasco from early November has created problems. Per Cabot, the fact that many players supported Odell Beckham Jr. after his father posted a video showing all the times OBJ didn’t get the ball when open “was hard on Mayfield, and the ordeal took its toll.”
Fourth, there’s been a “major disconnect” between player and team as to “messaging” about his injuries. The coaches downplay them, Mayfield talks about them.
Fifth, some defensive players “have been frustrated” with Mayfield’s points production.
And we’ll add a sixth one of our own. Mayfield’s unresolved contract situation lingers in the background of all of these points of contention, likely magnifying them. At the core resides the question of whether the Browns value Mayfield in the way he believes he should be valued. If not, they’ll need to find a way to hold it all together for one more season, before he can become a free agent.
Sunday’s win becomes a Band-Aid (or maybe a temporary tourniquet), but the reality is that the Browns will be under a significant microscope over the next three weekends, with an NFL Network game at the Raiders on Saturday, a Christmas Day visit to Lambeau Field, and a Monday night trip to Pittsburgh for Ben Roethlisberger‘s final home game. If they sputter, they’ll hear it more loudly than they do when their games are tucked within the haze of the 1:00 p.m. ET kickoffs on a Sunday afternoon.
And everyone will now be looking for any signs of acrimony or friction or tension between Mayfield and, well, pretty much anyone. |
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PITTSBURGH
KC Joyner has a surprising recommendation to start at QB this week in your Fantasy playoff game:
Can Ben Roethlisberger really be considered a QB1 in the fantasy playoffs?
Let’s start by noting that Roethlisberger has posted 19+ points in three of the past four games and ranks ninth in quarterback points per game since Week 11.
To put additional perspective on this, keep in mind that Roethlisberger’s 18.9-point average in this span is much higher than Joe Burrow (16.1), Patrick Mahomes (13.5), or Dak Prescott (12.3). It is also fifth among quarterbacks with three or more games played since Week 11.
This doesn’t make him a slam dunk starter, as the Steelers have some tough remaining matchups (Tennessee, at Kansas City, Cleveland) and looked abysmal for the first two and half quarters of the Vikings matchup this past Thursday, but it does offer evidence that fantasy managers should at least consider acquiring Roethlisberger and potentially starting him if their current quarterback isn’t producing at an acceptable level. |
| AFC SOUTH |
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JACKSONVILLE
Here’s the story from Tom Pelissaro of NFL.com that caused a kerfuffle over the weekend:
Months of tension surrounding Jaguars coach Urban Meyer has boiled over with multiple run-ins with players and other coaches in recent weeks, sources say, renewing questions in league circles about whether Meyer’s stay in Jacksonville could end after just one tumultuous season.
At this point, there are no signs that Jaguars owner Shad Khan is seriously considering a change. One of the NFL’s most patient and supportive owners, Khan dreamed for years of Meyer — a three-time college national champion at Florida and Ohio State — coaching his team and overhauling the culture of a franchise accustomed to losing, before finally luring him out of retirement in January. (A spokesman for Khan declined comment for this story.)
But sources say Meyer’s repeated public comments shifting blame to players and coaches amid the team’s 2-10 season have exacerbated frustration in the building with his hard-charging and sometimes condescending approach — a style that many observers believed wouldn’t work in the NFL even before the Jaguars hired him.
Entering Sunday’s visit to Tennessee, the Jaguars have lost four games in a row and five out of six since their Week 7 bye, averaging just 10.7 points per game in that span. One of their best players, running back James Robinson, was benched last week under clouded circumstances. Franchise quarterback Trevor Lawrence — who has shown flashes of why Jacksonville selected him No. 1 overall in April’s draft — is completing just 58% of his passes for 2,514 yards with nine touchdowns and 10 interceptions.
And while the Jaguars opted not to fire Meyer in October after he stayed in Ohio instead of taking the team plane home after a Week 4 loss to the Bengals, only to be captured in viral videos at a bar with a young woman who’s not his wife dancing close to his lap, sources say Meyer hasn’t adjusted his approach.
In the past two weeks alone, sources say:
* Receiver Marvin Jones — one of the locker room’s most respected and mild-mannered veterans — became so angry with Meyer’s public and private criticism of the receiver group that he left the facility until other staff members convinced him to come back and had a heated argument with Meyer during practice.
* During a staff meeting, Meyer delivered a biting message that he’s a winner and his assistant coaches are losers, according to several people informed of the contents of the meeting, challenging each coach individually to explain when they’ve ever won and forcing them to defend their résumés.
* Contrary to his public statements that it was injury-related, Meyer ordered Robinson’s benching after an opening-drive fumble in last week’s 37-7 road loss to the Rams, then had running backs coach Bernie Parmalee stop Robinson from re-entering the game, insisting Carlos Hyde (who played for Meyer at Ohio State) stay in. Only after Lawrence questioned Meyer on the sideline about Robinson’s absence was Robinson allowed to return late in the second quarter. (Speaking to reporters this week, Lawrence said: “Bottom line is James is one of our best players and he’s got to be on the field and we addressed it, and I feel like we’re in a good spot and the whole team, we’re good.”)
Several Jaguars players vented their frustration to Rams players after that game, sources say, reiterating a common complaint that Meyer — who had no prior NFL experience — doesn’t treat them like adults. And the staff meeting follows a pattern of tense interactions between Meyer and his assistants dating back to the offseason. After opening the preseason with consecutive losses, for instance, sources say Meyer informed assistants that he was sick of being embarrassed and if the team didn’t start winning immediately, some of them wouldn’t be around for a second year.
There has been staff turnover since Meyer arrived in January, for a variety of reasons. Meyer’s hand-picked strength and conditioning coach, Chris Doyle, resigned under pressure in February after renewed focus on the allegations of racial remarks that had led to Doyle’s separation agreement at the University of Iowa in 2020. Special teams coordinator Brian Schneider took a leave of absence in May for personal reasons and did not return. Meyer’s chief of staff, Fernando Lovo, left the team last month to return to the University of Texas. Tight ends coach Tyler Bowen is expected to become offensive coordinator at Virginia Tech, according to college sports and recruiting site On3.com. And more staff changes are expected after the season, even assuming Meyer stays.
There have been other missteps. In July, the NFL fined the Jaguars $200,000 and Meyer $100,000 for violating rules on organized team activities and docked the team two OTA days in 2022. In September, the NFL Players Association announced it was launching an investigation after Meyer acknowledged to reporters that the team factored vaccination status into cutdown decisions. (The state of that investigation is unclear; 23 of 24 players cut were vaccinated.)
And of course there were the October viral videos, which were shot in the days following a 24-21 loss to the Bengals that dropped Jacksonville to 0-4. Meyer apologized publicly and to the team, telling players days later he had too much to drink and acted like an “(expletive) idiot.” Khan released a somewhat tepid statement of support for Meyer, calling his conduct “inexcusable” and adding: “I appreciate Urban’s remorse, which I believe is sincere. Now he must regain our trust and respect. That will require a personal commitment from Urban to everyone who supports, represents or plays for our team. I am confident he will deliver.”
Postgame comments from Meyer
As his team fell to an AFC-worst 2-11 on the season, the first-year NFL coach said he assured Jaguars owner Shad Khan that he’s going to turn things around. But he acknowledged reports of a fractured locker room aren’t helping the cause.
“What’s the answer? Start leaking information or some nonsense? No. No, that’s nonsense, that’s garbage,” Meyer told reporters. “If there is a source, that source is unemployed. I mean, within seconds. If there’s some source that’s doing that.”
The information in question includes a heated argument between Meyer and veteran wideout Marvin Jones, Meyer labeling his assistant coaches losers, and Meyer benching leading rusher James Robinson last week while publicly attributing the absence to injury. Meyer denied feuding with Jones and called the loser comment “inaccurate.”
“We’ll address it on Monday,” he said of reports detailing internal discord. “The reality is that losing sucks, losing tears you apart, especially people with pride and people [who] worked their butts off and we just got to stick together and keep going.”
What if the source was TREVOR LAWRENCE? Will he be unemployed within seconds?
The DB remembers a story from former Giants coach Ray Perkins who said, “I told George Young I knew the perfect way to keep drugs off the team. ‘If any player is found to be doing drugs, cut him immediately.’”
“Then George said to me, ‘Ray, you might want to think about that. What if the player doing drugs was Lawrence Taylor?’”
“And I said, ‘George, that’s ridiculous. I know Lawrence Taylor, I know him to the core of his being. He would never do drugs.’”
Thoughts from Peter King:
I think the fact that Urban Meyer’s “multiple run-ins” with Jaguars staffers and players have reached the public—through the reporting of reliable Tom Pelissero of NFL Network—bothers me about the future of Meyer in Jacksonville. To have word leak that Meyer had words with receiver Marvin Jones is bad. What’s worse is Pelissero reporting that Meyer “delivered a biting message that he’s a winner and his assistant coaches are losers.” Meyer denied the reports in remarks after Jacksonville’s loss to Tennessee on Sunday.
I think owner Shad Khan is still very likely to bring back Meyer (2-11 as a rookie NFL coach) for 2022, perhaps without a few coaches on offense. Some of this Meyer-as-Captain-Queeg stuff is bothersome. Some of it is about the state of the NFL in 2021. Think for a minute about the last huge-name college coach who had a disastrous, embarrassing rookie year in the NFL. That was Jimmy Johnson in 1989 in Dallas. After propelling the University of Miami to the top of college football and taking a big contract to revive a moribund NFL franchise, Johnson went 1-15 as a rookie coach. It was so bad that year that the staff kept a pile of playbooks in the corner of a meeting room, to be able to give and get back from the steady flow of players being claimed and then fired so quickly that year. By the end of the year, Johnson was so fed up, so angry, so finished with football, that, after the final game of the season, a home loss to Green Bay, he got on a plane to the Bahamas and couldn’t be found for more than a week. Then he got recharged and started building a damn good team in year two.
Does Meyer have this in him? I don’t know. He does have an owner who wants him to succeed and has not given up on him. That is sincere. Now Meyer has to show why Shad Khan is right. If I’m Meyer, I find a core of people who are with me. I find the players like Michael Irvin, who helped Johnson control the Dallas locker room, and the others in team leadership who can influence the easily influenced. Trevor Lawrence? Brandon Linder? Myles Jack? Who knows. Meyer has to find a few. And he has to find the coaches who have his back, who think he can make it. And then, for this next month, he’s got to be solid as a rock. He’s got to be sure his team is leak-proof. Maybe all of this is not possible. Cannonballs have pierced the hull in Jacksonville. That’s got to stop. In 1989, even in media-crazy Dallas, Johnson could keep a lot of the BS behind the scenes. That’s harder to do today, even in a small market like Jacksonville. The walls have ears. There are more Pelisseros and Schefters, lots more, than there were 32 years ago. |
| AFC EAST |
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BUFFALO
A postgame walking boot for QB JOSH ALLEN.
Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen entered his postgame news conference with a walking boot on his lower left leg after the team’s 33-27 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday.
Allen said he isn’t “quite sure” what the injury is, but that there will be further tests on it Monday. The Bills called it a foot injury.
“Finished the game on it, so I don’t think it’s going to be a big deal,” Allen said, adding that “it’s pretty sore. It’s football.”
Allen appeared to suffer the injury at the end of a 23-yard run in the fourth quarter. He did not miss a snap but was limping throughout the rest of the game, and it appeared he wasn’t putting much weight on the leg.
“Our medical staff checked with him,” coach Sean McDermott said. “There was talk about how he was, what could he do still. He’s a warrior and he played his butt off.”
Allen finished 36-of-54 for 308 yards with two touchdowns and an interception. He also ran for 109 yards and a rushing score on 12 carries, the third time in his career he has rushed for over 100 yards in a game.
Allen’s passing attempts were a career high, and he became the first Bills player with at least 250 passing yards and 100 rushing yards in a game. Allen is also the only player in the past 40 seasons to attempt all of his team’s passes and rushes in a first half, according to Elias Sports Bureau research.
The Bills’ backup quarterback is former No. 2 pick Mitchell Trubisky.
“There’s no way I was going out,” Allen said. |
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NEW ENGLAND
Peter King on Bill Belichick’s pursuit of history:
The top three coaches, in regular-season and postseason games, are in this order on the all-time coaching wins list entering the home stretch of the 2021 season:
1. Don Shula: 347-173-6 (.667)
2. George Halas: 324-151-31 (.682)
3. Bill Belichick: 320-152-0 (.678)
So a few things about Belichick chasing this record:
• He once said you wouldn’t find him coaching in his seventies, but he turns 70 in four months, has turned the post-Brady Patriots back into contenders, and seems healthy. Why leave?
• He’s 28 wins from passing Shula. There are 38 regular-season games and who knows how many playoff games in the next month and two seasons. If he stays, it’s conceivable he could break the record late in 2023. (Say New England plays six playoff games between now and the end of the ’23 season. It’s quite conceivable in that scenario that New England could win 28 games by the end of the ’23 season.)
• The rise of Buffalo and Miami in the AFC East could throw a wrench into any win projections, because it looks like they’ll be formidable over the next few years. Going 5-1, or thereabouts, in the division every year is certainly not a lock. So that could throw a wrench into future win totals.
• Behind Belichick among active coaches, I don’t see a contender to topple his record, at least not now. Andy Reid (246) can’t catch Belichick if Belichick doesn’t retire; Reid coaching Patrick Mahomes for 10 or 12 more years, into Reid’s mid-seventies, seems doubtful. Mike Tomlin (159) has age on his side (he’s 49), but his long-term success—at least in Pittsburgh—is dependent on finding a winning heir to Ben Roethlisberger. And all the young guys coaching now, who knows?
There were fewer regular season games when Halas and Shula coached.
On the other hand, Shula was 32 when he first began compiling victories in Baltimore in 1963.
Halas was only 25 when he won his first 10 games with the Bears in 1920.
Belichick was 38 when he took over the Browns for 36 wins in 5 seasons. Then a 5-year interruption and was 48 when he became coach of the Patriots in 2000.
So, at age 47, Belichick had 36 wins. Halas had 168 wins when he turned 48 while missing three seasons as Bears coach while in the military during World War II.
Shula had 154 wins (regular season only, 164 with playoffs) when he turned 48. He had already won his two Super Bowls.
Belichick has been making up for lost time ever since. |
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