The Daily Briefing Monday, January 16, 2023

By admin | January 16, 2023

THE DAILY BRIEFING

AROUND THE NFL

Peter King sets up next week:

Eight games left in the 2022 season, starting tonight in Tampa. The lineup for the NFL’s elite eight, starting with the divisional matchups next weekend:

Saturday

4:30 p.m. ET: Jacksonville (10-8, AFC 4 seed) at Kansas City (14-3, AFC 1 seed), NBC. Does Trevor Lawrence have a second miracle in his arsenal? Jacksonville’s 7-1 since KC beat the Jags 27-17 at Arrowhead nine weeks ago.

8:15 p.m. ET: New York Giants (10-7-1, NFC 6 seed) at Philadelphia (14-3, NFC 1 seed), FOX.These Giants. Remember the last two New York Wild Card teams to get hot in January? The 2007 Giants, 10-6, marauded their way to a Super Bowl win. Ditto for the 9-7 Giants in 2011.

Sunday

3 p.m. ET: Cincinnati (13-4, AFC 3 seed) at Buffalo (14-3, AFC 2 seed), CBS. Crazy to think that these two teams come off shaky Wild Card wins after a season in which they went through dominant stretches. That’s what happens when you play division rivals for the third time in a year. Bengals have won nine in a row, Buffalo eight.

6:30 p.m. ET: Dallas/Tampa Bay winner tonight at San Francisco (14-4, NFC 2 seed), FOX. The prospect of the last pick in the 2022 draft beating Tom Brady twice in six weeks is just downright bizarre, but if Tampa wins tonight, the Niners will be favored in the unbeaten Brock Purdy’s seventh NFL start.

– – –

Longtime Clemson SID Tim Bourret connects some dots as only he can:

@TimBourret

Congrats to Dexter Lawrence and the Giants for beating Minnesota in NFL playoffs. Quite a weekend as both former Clemson All-Americans named Lawrence advance in the NFL playoffs on teams that scored 31 points under first year head coaches.

NFC NORTH

MINNESOTA

Peter King with the obvious question:

I think if I were a Vikings fan, I certainly would not feel I got beat by an inferior team Sunday. But I would spend the off-season asking this question: Why would Kirk Cousins—on fourth-and-eight, with the season on the line, knowing you need eight yards or the season is over—throw the ball three yards beyond the line to J. Hockenson with a safety right on top of him? The result, of course, was a three-yard gain, with Xavier McKinney toppling Hockenson practically where he caught the ball. Three-yard gain.

Well, surprised Peter didn’t check with Kirk for the answer. Doug Farrar of USA TODAY:

As was the case through most of the game, Giants world-wrecking defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence had a bead on Cousins, and Minnesota’s offensive line couldn’t deal with that particular smoke. It didn’t help that Hockenson’s route was the only one that wasn’t long-developing. Which might work if your quarterback has a pocket. In this case, Cousins didn’t for long. In fact, it wasn’t just Lawrence who was getting to Cousins here.

“The intent as a playcaller is you’re not going to call a primary concept where somebody is short of the sticks to gain, especially on fourth down,” head coach Kevin O’Connell said after the fact. “If it’s 3rd down and you can catch, convert and make it a fourth-and-2 or 3, that’s okay. But yeah, looking back on it, I maybe could have just been a little bit more, hey, this is kind of where you want the ball to go. But I want Kirk to be able to play. I want him to be free out there to make good decisions. He did all night long. Moved our team. Stood in there, getting the ball out of his hand in rhythm. It just so happens that that down — we just didn’t get enough on the play regardless.

“In the end I look at as it’s as much on me in that play call, even though we had eligibles with a chance down the field. Maybe. There’s always a play that could be better for your guys out there, and that one will stick with me.”

But again, unless Cousins moved out of the pocket, those “eligibles” had routes that were too long in developing for the situation at hand. Receivers Adam Thielen and K.J. Osborn ran a deep switch release on the backside, and Justin Jefferson had a deep corner route through the numbers. If Cousins had rolled right and thrown to Jefferson, he would have had to deal with his best receiver being bracketed, and the Giants had sticky man coverage on Thielen and Osborn.

“Yeah, just a shell read there,” Cousins said. “Saw single high, tried to work Justin, didn’t feel good about putting it up to Justin, and when I went to progress [through his reads], I just felt like I was about to get sacked and I felt like I’ve got to put the ball in play. I can’t go down with a sack, so I thought I’d kick it out to T.J. I had thrown short of the sticks on a few occasions in the game and even going back a few weeks and just felt like throwing it short of the sticks isn’t the end of the world. It’s just obviously tight coverage, so didn’t have the chance to pull away. But I just felt like I was going to go down and take a sack if I didn’t put it out.”

Hockenson pointed out that there were options to his route that he wasn’t able to exploit, as safety Xavier McKinney made the tackle.

“It’s just a choice route, you know I think there’s angle on the front side. I just wish I could’ve broken the tackle and been able to run that. It’s a tough one, it’s a tough look to accept who’s down, and it’s a tough read so I just kind of broke it out but I just wasn’t able to break [McKinney’s] tackle.”

The short version – Lawrence was going to sack him, the only route that had developed was Hockenson’s, throwing “short of the sticks” does not always mean the play will end up short of the sticks.

Football Perspective has this:

@fbgchase

The Vikings completed 80% of their passes today. That’s the 2nd-highest completion percentage in a playoff loss in NFL history, behind only the 2017 Matt Moore Dolphins.

They averaged 8.5 yards per catch, which is much more likely to lead to a loss.

NFC EAST

DALLAS

Todd Archer of ESPN.com on how important tonight is to the legacy of QB DAK PRESCOTT:

The Dak Prescott story is at a crossroads.

Not so much because of what he will write, but for how the Dallas Cowboys quarterback will be perceived.

Prescott will be making his fourth playoff appearance when the Cowboys face the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday (8:15 p.m. ET, ABC/ESPN/ESPN2/ESPN+) in the wild-card round. He has won one playoff game, in the 2018 wild-card round against the Seattle Seahawks.

Fairly or unfairly, Cowboys quarterbacks are judged by what Roger Staubach and Troy Aikman did in the 1970s and 1990s, respectively, when the Hall of Famers combined for five Super Bowl championships. The accomplishments of every Cowboys quarterback since, despite statistical success (or in Danny White’s case, making it to three straight NFC Championship Games), have just not been good enough.

Unless Prescott pulls off a playoff run over the next month that ends the Cowboys’ 26-year Super Bowl drought, he will have to fight through the unending question of whether he can ever deliver.

Prescott isn’t running from the pressure to do what Staubach and Aikman did.

“I’ve got to say I want to. I want to win the championships and win the titles and everything that they did, and all the games, put this team in that position,” Prescott said. “But I can’t say that that’s at the forefront of my mind, as I’m thinking about what those guys have done, what the great quarterbacks here have done before me. I don’t have any tell on what they did then. It’s about focusing on the now and knowing what I can do, what I’m capable of doing and the opportunity this team has in front of them.”

Tony Romo, Prescott’s predecessor, found himself in the same position. He put up gaudy statistics in becoming the franchise’s all-time leading passer. But he could never get past the divisional round of the playoffs.

He had gone from unknown regular-season savior in 2006 (losing in the wild-card round) to losing a divisional-round playoff game at home as the NFC’s top seed in 2007. In the 2009 playoffs, he won his first postseason game, only for the Cowboys to get wiped out in the divisional round.

In 2014, his eighth season as the full-time starter, Romo made his fourth playoff appearance, coming off his best season. He had the Cowboys in position to beat the Green Bay Packers in the divisional round only to have it ripped away when Dez Bryant’s catch at the goal line was overturned by replay.

He would start only four more games as his body kept breaking down. A twice-broken collarbone in 2015 and recurring back issues — as well as Prescott’s Rookie of the Year performance — ended Romo’s career after the 2016 season.

Prescott, 29, is younger than Romo was then (34), but he also has physical scars. He suffered a dislocated and fractured right ankle in 2020. He missed five games this season because of surgery to repair a fractured right thumb. He missed a game last season because of a calf strain. He also had offseason surgery on his left shoulder.

Staubach was 29, like Prescott now, when he won Super Bowl VI against the Miami Dolphins. But it was just his third season with the Cowboys after a five-year commitment to the Navy. Aikman was 29 when he won his third championship, beating the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XXX. He won his first Super Bowl in his fourth season as the Cowboys’ starter.

Prescott has started the past seven seasons.

Since 1980, only three quarterbacks have made it to their first Super Bowl with their original team after a longer run as the every-game starter than Prescott has had as the Cowboys’ starter. Ken Anderson was in his 10th season with Cincinnati Bengals when they made Super Bowl XVI. The Indianapolis Colts’ Peyton Manning (Super Bowl XLI) and Atlanta Falcons’ Matt Ryan (Super Bowl LI) were in their ninth seasons as the starters for their respective teams.

Prescott’s playoff appearances have been mixed.

He got off to a slow start in the 2016 divisional round against the Packers, only to finish 24-of-38 for 302 yards and three touchdowns and lead a late comeback to tie the game before Aaron Rodgers’ end-of-game wizardry ended the Cowboys’ season.

For his lone postseason win, in the 2018 wild-card round, his numbers weren’t great (22-of-33 for 226 yards, one touchdown, one interception), but he put the game away with a memorable 16-yard run on third-and-14, flipping near the goal line. On the next play, he gave the Cowboys a 24-14 lead over the Seahawks on a 1-yard score with 2:08 to play.

But the next week, the Cowboys were run over — literally — by the Los Angeles Rams (273 rushing yards) in the divisional round.

And then there was last season’s 23-17 loss in the wild-card round to the San Francisco 49ers at AT&T Stadium. The lasting image is Prescott’s quarterback keeper in the final seconds, after which the Cowboys could not spike the ball in time to try one last play.

That loss is still motivation.

“Damn right. Damn right,” Prescott said. “Then, obviously, after a game like last week [26-6 road loss to the Washington Commanders], it helps remind you how precious these moments are. You don’t get these opportunities, you don’t get a lot of opportunities to play this game in general, but to be in the playoffs, have the team that we have and knowing we’ve got to make sure it counts now.”

Prescott enters the 2022 playoffs tied for the NFL lead in interceptions with 15, despite starting only 12 regular-season games. He has had at least one pass intercepted in seven straight games, the longest streak by a Cowboys quarterback since 2004. He has had three interceptions returned for touchdowns in the past four games.

Yet the belief in Prescott within the organization is as high as ever.

“I don’t know if it’s really affected his confidence at all,” running back Ezekiel Elliott said. “When you put all the work in, when you leave nothing up to doubt, then there is no reason for you to lose confidence. You’ve built that through continuous repetitions, through continuous hard work. So, I mean, he’s put the work in. I know he’s ready.”

Said offensive tackle Tyron Smith: “Expect him to be great like he always is. He does everything he can to prepare himself.”

Said receiver Michael Gallup: “[He’s] literally the same guy every day. First one in the locker room, last one to leave. That’s just what he does. That’s how his brain is wired. … He’s ready to go. It’s just how he is. Never lose faith in [No.] 4.”

Prescott hasn’t lost faith, either.

“I’ve just got to go win the game, do everything I can and leave no doubt in my preparation to make sure I’m putting this team in the best chance to do that,” Prescott said. “And understanding, I’ve said it myself, right, we’re all judged off of wins and wins in the playoffs. These matter. I know that.

“Not that it’s pressure, but you’ve got to love playing in these moments. You’ve got to love being in games like this. If you don’t, this league, this sport, this isn’t the place for you. So for me, it’s about embracing the moment. Staying within myself. It’s not time to do anything new, create anything new. Trust my teammates, trust how I prepared throughout and go out there and stay within the moment.”

NEW YORK GIANTS

This on QB DANIEL JONES, with the 75+ rush yards being the key:

@ESPNStatsInfo

Daniel Jones is the 3rd QB in postseason history with 300 passing yards and 75 rushing yards in a game, joining Lamar Jackson and Steve Young.

He’s the first to get the win.

– – –

Peter King has no problem with Brian Daboll polluting the pristine Minnesota air:

Brian Daboll was smoking a cigar outside U.S. Bank Stadium Sunday evening, and he deserved one. Let’s be real. The brain trust of the 2022 Giants—Joe Schoen the GM and Daboll the coach—inherited a bad combination when they took the jobs last January. The Giants had the worst talent 1 to 53 and the worst cap situation, combined, of any team in the league. Oh, that cap. But the Giants had a quarterback with athleticism and some moxie, Daniel Jones, and they had a running back, Saquon Barkley, burning to show the world he was back, and a defense with some intriguing talent.

So the Giants made the playoffs. Now, winning a playoff game, on the road, against the NFC’s three seed, the 13-4 Vikings … Wouldn’t this be time to breathe a sigh and appreciate the feat of winning a playoff game in what was absolutely a bridge year for what Schoen and Daboll were building?

“No,” Daboll said. “Can’t do it.”

Sort of a Parcellsian answer.

He wasn’t positive yet, but Daboll thought there was a good chance the Giants would be playing top-seeded Philadelphia Saturday night in the divisional round. Not only was this not the time to preen, it was a time to start the short-week homework for Philly.

Daboll got on the bus to the airport. A minute or two later, he said: “You know what I’m doing right now? I’m watching our field-goal rush team against Minnesota’s field-goal protection. I’m watching the tape. No time for that other stuff.”

The Giants beat Minnesota 31-24 in the Wild Card game Sunday. Barkley churned for 109 total yards and two rushing touchdowns. Jones, in his best clutch games as a pro, threw for 301 yards, ran for a game-high 78, outplayed Kirk Cousins, and looked like he’d been playing games like this one forever. No sweat.

But what impressed me is what else the Giants had Sunday. Some teams have cap problems and push the issue into the future. The Giants were in cap hell last spring and it influenced every last decision they made with this team. The fact is, they started four veterans who, on average, were making $960,000 this year. The leader of that pack: wide receiver Isaiah Hodgins. What a story. The Bills drafted Hodgins, a 6-4 target from Oregon State, in the sixth round in 2020, and he’d mostly languished on the bench. Daboll and Schoen were with that Buffalo team when Hodgins came aboard. Daboll, then the Bills’ offensive coordinator, coached him.

On Nov. 3, the Giants saw Hodgins on the waiver wire. The brain trust thought: He could be our best wideout. The Giants put in a claim for him.

What a strange league. The Giants were the only team to claim Hodgins.

Turns out Buffalo was trying to move Hodgins from the active roster to the practice squad. The Giants were awarded Hodgins, and he quickly moved into the rotation. He started five games in the regular season and a sixth Sunday in his first playoff game, in Minnesota. At 6-4, he was the kind of big receiver the Giants lacked. “Smart player, dependable guy, kept his head down,” Daboll said. “Caught a lot of contested balls at Oregon State. He worked. He knew what we were trying to do offensively inside and out. Joe [Schoen] brought him up. We thought he’d be a good fit because he knows all the terminology of our offense.”

Price tag for the cap-strapped Giants was good too: Hodgins would make just $705,000 in 2022. He’d be one the lowest-paid players on the team.

The Giants were the land of opportunity, though, and Daniel Jones took to Hodgins right away. Since Dec. 1, he’s the most-targeted wideout on the team, with 33 targets, and another nine Sunday in Minnesota. His 14-yard TD catch from Jones Sunday gave the Giants a 14-7 lead late in the first quarter. New York never trailed after that.

Turns out Hodgins had the first 100-yard game of his life—eight catches, 105 yards. One of the lowest-paid guys on the field out-performed the likely Offensive Player of the Year, Justin Jefferson. One more catch, one more TD, 48 more receiving yards.

The Giants employed three other starters in Hodgins’ financial neighborhood—wideout Richie James, corner Fabian Moreau, linebacker Jaylon Smith—on short, prove-it deals, the only kind Schoen could offer roster marginalia. He signed others to low-paying Practice Squad jobs, telling those willing to work cheap it’s all the Giants had, and they’d be moved to the active roster on gameday when the opportunity permitted. And Daboll, offensive coordinator Mike Kafka and defensive coordinator Wink Martindale coached them hard.

The result: New York will go to Philadelphia with a bunch of players with boulders (not chips) on their shoulders. The Giants wanted them. No one else did. The Eagles will have more talent, to be sure. But desire could make this a game Saturday night at the Linc.

WASHINGTON

Jeff Bezos is not among those who have submitted a bid for the Washington NFL franchise. Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com:

On the eve of the deadline for submitting bids to buy the Commanders, Forbes reported that owner Daniel Snyder has already received multiple offers “well north” of $7 billion. Now,FrontOfficeSports.com disputes this account.

A.J. Perez of FrontOfficeSports.com reports that no bid exceeded $6.3 billion. More significantly, Perez reports that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has yet to make a bid. At all.

The real question, as a league source has framed it for PFT, is whether Bezos has deliberately chosen not to get in, or whether he has been frozen out. There’s acrimony between Snyder and Bezos, given that Bezos owns the Washington Post.

If Snyder agrees with the suggestion contained in the GOP version of the House Oversight Committee report that the entire investigation was aimed at forcing Snyder out and installing “the owner of a left-leaning newspaper sympathetic to the Democratic party,” maybe Snyder will never sell it to Bezos, regardless of the price.

NFC WEST

ARIZONA

Cody Benjamin of CBSSports.com on the whereabouts of Kliff Kingsbury:

Days after his dismissal as Cardinals head coach, Kliff Kingsbury is drawing interest from around the NFL, with multiple teams targeting him for their offensive coordinator vacancies, according to Fox Sports. That doesn’t mean Kingsbury is set to return to the sidelines anytime soon. The 43-year-old coach recently bought a one-way ticket to Thailand, according to Peter Schrager, and has respectfully declined all inquiries, telling teams he’s not currently interested in coaching.

This echoes previous speculation from NFL Media’s Ian Rapoport, who suggested after Kingsbury’s firing that the former Texas Tech coach was a candidate to step away from the game. Highly paid by Arizona, which last March signed the coach to a six-year contract extension through 2027, Kingsbury was perceived to be especially worn down by the Cardinals’ tumultuous 2022 campaign, in which the team went 4-13 and endured a number of off-field controversies.

It actually looks like Kingsbury may have bought two tickets – Jaclyn Hendricks of the New York Post:

Veronica Bielik’s latest Instagram post hasn’t gone unnoticed by Cardinals fans.

Taking to Instagram on Sunday, the 29-year-old Bielik — who has been linked to former Arizona coach Kliff Kingsbury since 2020 — posted cheeky snapshots from Thailand, where the 43-year-old Kingsbury has reportedly retreated to. A short time after the model’s post went live, NFL followers quickly flooded the comments section.

“How’s Kliff doing?!” one user wrote while another posted, “Can you ask kliff if he plans on coming back?”

Mike Florio throws cold water on Kingsbury’s situation:

Some may have gotten a chuckle out of the notion that former Cardinals coach Kliff Kingsbury plans to live it up in Thailand or wherever on Michael Bidwill’s money, while also ignoring opportunities to go to work for another team as an offensive coordinator. Bidwill may be laughing for a different reason.

The buyout that a coach gets when fired without cause usually has a significant string attached. Specifically, the coach can’t just sit back and collect the cash he would have earned without trying to earn some cash elsewhere. There’s an obligation to seek and accept alternative employment.

The ultimate question becomes the wording of the contract. But other coaching contracts include phrases like this: “Coach shall have the affirmative obligation to seek employment after such involuntary termination.”

So maybe Kliff should be a little more discreet when boasting about his plans. It’s one thing for Bidwill to chase Kingsbury around to ensure that he’s fulfilling his obligation to seek other work, that he’s trying his best to reduce his buyout by getting hired to coach somewhere else. It’s quite another if Kingsbury is flaunting the fact that he’ll get paid millions by Bidwill to do nothing.

Which, based on yesterday’s reporting, he seems to be doing.

To which the DB would say – it looks like Kingsbury’s salary as head coach of the Cardinals was $5.5 million. So, let’s say he spurns OC offers of $1.5 million – and the Cardinals sue him and he concedes he is in violation of that part of his contract.

His choices would seem to be – $5.5 million to be an OC with all that entails or $4 million to do nothing for a year.

Peter King:

@kentsomers

Cardinals coach search includes Payton, whose team once had a bounty on Kurt Warner, and Flores, who is suing the NFL and the Cardinals. Should be interesting interviews with Bidwill

And this in explanation:

@RonChav82555521

Replying to @kentsomers

How is Flores suing the Cards? He’s suing the NFL, NOT THE CARDS

@kentsomers

Replying to @RonChav82555521

Cardinals are named in the lawsuit, when Wilks signed on

AFC WEST

LOS ANGELES CHARGERS

Lindsay Thiry of ESPN.com was with the Chargers after their loss:

It was a game the Los Angeles Chargers had no business losing, but there they stood on the sideline at TIAA Bank Field on a chilly January night, helplessly watching as kicker Riley Patterson drilled a 36-yard field goal to lift the Jacksonville Jaguars to an improbable 31-30 come-from-behind victory in a wild-card playoff game Saturday night.

“I’m hurting for everybody in that locker room,” L.A. coach Brandon Staley said after the defeat. “This is the toughest way that you can lose in the playoffs.”

The Bolts intercepted quarterback Trevor Lawrence four times in the first half. They won the turnover battle 5-0. But they also watched as a 27-0 lead vanished, sending them packing into the offseason.

“It’s really tough because we think really highly of our team, and that’s a special group of guys in that locker room,” Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert said. “They deserve better, and it didn’t go our way, and that’s the unfortunate part.”

The Jaguars’ comeback amounted to the third largest for a win in the NFL playoffs and the fifth largest in league history, if including the regular season.

“It’s embarrassing,” L.A. defensive lineman Sebastian Joseph-Day said. “It feels really bad, and it just sucks.”

At the outset of the game, the Chargers wasted no time in setting an aggressive tone.

On the Jaguars’ second play from scrimmage, linebacker Drue Tranquill intercepted a pass from Lawrence. Two plays later, running back Austin Ekeler converted the takeaway into a touchdown.

On the Jags’ ensuing drive, cornerback Asante Samuel Jr. grabbed a pick of his own and followed with two more in the first half, becoming the first player in NFL playoff history with three first-half interceptions.

The Bolts also forced a first-half turnover after recovering a muffed point.

They converted four of the five takeaways into points and led 27-0 until, with 44 seconds remaining in the first half, Lawrence connected with tight end Evan Engram for a 9-yard touchdown.

From there, Lawrence threw a touchdown pass on three consecutive drives to open the second half, and the Chargers’ meltdown — during which they were unable to get a stop or develop any rhythm on offense — was in full effect.

“We just didn’t play clean enough football in the second half in all three phases,” Staley said. “We didn’t score the ball or possess it well enough on defense. We had far too many penalties in the second half that really hurt us and didn’t play well enough in the red area, didn’t perform well there in the two minutes at the end of the game. Just didn’t play a good second half of football as a team.”

Herbert, in the first postseason start of his career, completed 25 of 43 passes for 273 yards and a touchdown.

“As an offense, we need to move the ball better, through the air, on the ground,” Herbert said. “We just have to be able to move the chains. We didn’t do that enough. We didn’t score in the red zone enough. Only put up three points in the second half. So as an offense, that’s on us.”

The Bolts led throughout, until Patterson converted the winning field goal as time expired.

“The way we started the game, that’s the team that I know that we’re capable of being,” Staley said. “In the second half, we just didn’t finish the game.”

We note that Sean Payton remains unsigned.

Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com reminds us in the fourth paragraph of the opportunity now afforded Chargers management:

During the pregame show prior to tonight’s Chargers-Jaguars playoff game, I said that folks around the league werevery curious as to whether the Chargers or Cowboys will make a coaching change if they lose in the wild-card round or, more importantly, how they lose.

The Chargers have lost in epic fashion, blowing a 27-0 lead and losing 31-30.

That will put the entire sports media on watch for the possibility of Chargers coach Brandon Staley being relieved of his duties after two seasons, especially with an A-lister like Sean Payton looking for a new home.

Payton and Justin Herbert? Are you kidding me? The Chargers would take over L.A., and they would never look back, at least not while Payton and Herbert were together.

Here’s the question. Will ownership move on from Staley, and will they cough up the cash necessary to bring Payton to town?

If the Chargers won’t, maybe the Broncos will. And that may be all the more reason to do it.

AFC NORTH

BALTIMORE

Charles Robinson of YahooSports.com on the deteriorating relationship between the Ravens and QB LAMAR JACKSON:

Lamar Jackson wasn’t with the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday night during their AFC wild-card game against the Cincinnati Bengals. Not on the plane. Not on the bus. Not in the locker room and not on the sideline.

His social media accounts during an excruciatingly competitive loss were silent, as they have been since he raised eyebrows across the league by tweeting out an injury update Thursday.

The absence was noticeable. The silence is loud. And now the future for Lamar Jackson is as opaque as ever.

In some situations, this is how trades get rolling. In others, it’s how contract negotiations come to a head and deals get done. Either could happen with Jackson and the Ravens in the coming months. This ambiguity will make their union the NFL’s biggest story of the offseason, until either the franchise or the franchise quarterback (or both) step out and publicly settle what is developing into a quiet war over Jackson’s health and forthcoming extension.

Make no mistake, that is what is happening right now: The Ravens are dealing with the frustration of expecting to have Jackson back in the fold for the postseason vs. a quarterback who isn’t going to risk a more significant injury when he doesn’t feel right and still has so much to lose.

Seemingly everyone in the NFL is talking about some aspect of it, titillated by the ambiguity of the situation — or simply reading into the demeanor of Baltimore head coach John Harbaugh or the eyebrow-raising comments of Ravens wideout Sammy Watkins. It’s a small circus that feels like it’s about to get a whole lot bigger and louder, and more dramatic.

As one NFL general manager texted late Sunday night: “Feels good to have [our quarterback’s] deal done!”

Not that anyone in the league is wishing this situation on Jackson or the Ravens. Those in the NFL who have been through this kind of thing — negotiations with record-setting quarterback implications, hurt feelings, angry fans — are a small fraternity. All of them have some kind of scar tissue from the experience, whether it’s setting a new contract standard that pisses off the rest of the league’s franchise owners or signing a deal that eventually turns bad. Few of them, even the most competitive, wants to see others have to go through the experience.

But the Ravens are in it. When it all started, Jackson was the perfect savior for the franchise. He connected with teammates and the coaching staff. Fans gravitated to his candor and charisma. It was suddenly so easy to see how he won the 2016 Heisman Trophy and so hard to understand why he had lasted to the final pick in the first round of the 2018 NFL Draft. His league MVP in 2019 came quickly and unexpectedly, but also set an astronomical bar: He’d arrived … now came the period when he would be expected to thrive.

For the most part, Jackson has lived up to it. He has been a prolific winner as a starter, but also requires an offense that is tailored to his strengths. One of those being that he is going to run a significant amount and invite no shortage of injury risk. Another being that he can throw from the pocket with accuracy and efficiency, but still suffers through droughts that rekindle his critics. Wrapped around all of it was the aspect of money and contract and a fan base that has sparred with him on social media. Not to mention the still-pressing issue of how he and the Ravens would navigate a landmark knives-out negotiation without a seasoned agent between the two parties. How much damage would each side do to the other before a deal could be reached? And what if the talks found themselves in the dicey territory of an injury or longstanding disagreement over contract guarantees or structure?

How would each side handle that kind of added drama?

The answer? Not well. Or if you’re a pessimist reading into the current situation: horribly.

That’s how this all feels right now, with Jackson staying home during a playoff game that he could have supported the team, and no real answer about who made that decision. Not to mention his decision to tweet out his health status, which can be interpreted as a move to defend himself when it appears the Ravens either wouldn’t or didn’t know it was necessary.

When you calculate this trajectory, it’s not hard to understand where the speculation goes next. None of it is really good. It’s at the point where some very well-connected people are now openly opining that Jackson’s days in Baltimore are numbered. That includes one very prominent former head coach who is expected to be a future head coach — maybe even with one of the teams that has the kind of owner who would trade for and pay Jackson the money he’s seeking.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you former New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton, who has significant friendships inside the Ravens that were steeled over years as a member of the league’s competition committee. Now an analyst for Fox Sports, he shared a likely informed opinion that should be taken seriously.

“They’re in a playoff game and I get if he’s not playing, but this whole tweet out [from Jackson last week saying] ‘Let me explain my whole medical status’ — look, I’m hearing grumblings from a handful of folks there that [there are] teammates that feel like his process has been slower than expected,” Payton said. “I just don’t like it. The team’s more important right now than you and we appreciate the information on your injury status. You’re not playing. I get it.

“I don’t see this player back in Baltimore next [season],” Payton said definitively. “I think he’ll end up with another club.”

A few months ago, that statement would have been unthinkable. Right now, it feels possible.

The simple truths are not hard to find in this situation. Jackson and the Ravens were far apart on a contract when this season started, thanks largely to a warped fully guaranteed deal signed by Deshaun Watson and the Cleveland Browns. Well, since the start of the season, things have gotten worse between the two sides. The Ravens have been dancing around any criticism of Jackson and avoiding any talk about why the contract impasse lingers. Meanwhile, Jackson has been sparring with fans on social media in a way that strongly suggests he’s upset about the lack of a deal. Then he ultimately sat out the remainder of the season after suffering a PCL sprain in a Dec. 4 game against the Denver Broncos, watching the Ravens lose, from afar, a hard fought wild-card game to the Bengals.

None of that feels like a recipe for a good-natured compromise. Instead, it feels like two parties getting further from each other with each passing week. And when you looked at the Ravens on Sunday night, you saw it.

Jackson was nowhere to be found. The Ravens were moving on with what they had. Now more than ever, it feels like that might be exactly how this all plays out.

Shanna McCairston of CBSSports.com on the reaction to Jackson’s absence:

Former NFL quarterback Michael Vick did not hold back on his feelings about Lamar Jackson sitting out the Ravens’ playoff game against the Cincinnati Bengals. Baltimore’s quarterback remains out due to a PCL sprain, and Vick has no sympathy for No. 8 not suiting up for Sunday’s important contest.

“It’s the playoffs, you’re three games away. Put a brace on it. Get it going,” Vick said Saturday on “Fox NFL Kickoff.”

“I played a whole season with a torn MCL.”

Jackson has missed six straight weeks of practice with what he called a “Grade 2” sprain in a tweet, and that it was a borderline Grade 3 sprain. The injury was initially not categorized as season-ending as head coach John Harbaugh listed him then as “week to week.” Jackson has missed five games due to the injury.

Former head coach Sean Payton does not agree with Jackson tweeting out his injury status. “I just don’t like it. … the team is more important than you.” Payton added there are people in the organization who feel Jackson’s process has been slower than expected.

But, Robert Griffin III tweeted this out with a picture of his playoff knee injury:

@RGIII

This is why you don’t just put a brace on it and play. Played with no ACL and LCL for my brothers/team. Changed the trajectory of my career. Hindsight is 20/20. I didn’t have the luxury of that. Lamar does. He is DOING THE RIGHT THING.

CINCINNATI

The NFL, in its wisdom, never tried to set things right for the Bengals vis a vis a game at Buffalo in the Divisional, so Cincinnati plays at the Bills this week. Peter King:

“It is what it is,” Joe Burrow said as the clock struck midnight, not long after Cincinnati edged (is there a better word for an agonizingly close game than “edged”?) Baltimore to set up a divisional playoff date Sunday that just might get a good television rating: Cincinnati at Buffalo.

Emphasis on at Buffalo.

Good for Burrow. Whatever he feels deep down about the Bengals having to go to Buffalo instead of the site of the game being determined by a coin flip, or played at a neutral field, he said all the right things about it to me early this morning, talking after Cincinnati 24, Baltimore 17. The right things, and sincere things, in the wake of Buffalo safety Damar Hamlin nearly dying on the field in Cincinnati 14 days ago.

“When something like that happens,” Burrow said, “you’re not the Bengals and the Bills anymore. You’re NFL players who care about each other and want the best for one another. So that was a tough moment. It’s great that [Hamlin] is back in Buffalo with the team. I think that’ll make the game a lot easier to play.

“That night, yeah, I was proud of the way things were handled. I think it was handled the right way. Both teams showed support to each other. It was a hard moment for everybody. Head coaches handled it with class and the right decision was made at the end to cancel the game. I was proud to be an NFL player in that moment.”

I mean, Joe Burrow is not only a great football player. He’s got this thing in the right perspective.

Burrow, coach Zac Taylor and the rest of the Bengals will be asked this week about the circumstances surrounding Cincinnati traveling to Buffalo for this playoff game. The league did make allowances for Buffalo and Kansas City, should they meet for the AFC title in 13 days, to play at a neutral site because Buffalo, which beat Kansas City in the regular season, didn’t have the chance to tie KC for the best record in the AFC. That’s because the NFL chose to cancel the Bills-Bengals game after Hamlin collapsed at Paycor Stadium Jan. 2. Though the Bengals (12-4 in the regular season) would have had the same record as Buffalo (13-3) had Cincinnati won that night, and though the Bengals would have been the higher seed because of the head-to-head win, the league made the decision to have a prospective Cincinnati-Buffalo playoff game played at the team with the better record and playoff seed regardless of the cancellation. So Buffalo is second-seeded in the AFC and Cincinnati is the third seed.

Though it probably would have been more egalitarian for the home field to be settled by coin flip this week, it also seems a trivial thing to be upset about considering what happened to Hamlin. I was glad to hear Burrow, when I asked if he had any ill will about having the game in Buffalo Sunday, answer this way:

“It is what it is,” he said. “That’s … that’s where we’re at. It’s our job to figure out how to go in there and get a win.”

I love that. Nothing can be gained by grousing about it now. It’s mental energy wasted. The Bengals beat the AFC’s 1 and 2 seeds, Tennessee and Kansas City, on the road to get to the Super Bowl last year. And now they could have to do precisely the same thing this year—beat the 2 and 1 seeds away from home to get to the Super Bowl a month from now in Arizona.

I’ll get to the play of the weekend later in the column—Baltimore QB Tyler Huntley’s questionable decision to try to break the plane of the goal line with an outstretched reach of the ball, and Sam Hubbard’s 98-yard TD return of the resulting fumble—but one last thing about the Bengals for now. In the last 52 weeks, they’ve played five playoff games. They’re 4-1 in those games, in Burrow’s playoff history. Every game has been a one-score game. Average margin of victory: 3.4 points.

“That’s how playoff football is,” he said. “It’s never easy. I don’t care about the score—as long as we come out with the win, that’s all that matters.”

AFC SOUTH

JACKSONVILLE

Michael DiRocco on what the Jaguars accomplished:

@ESPNdirocco

The Jaguars are the first team in NFL history to have the worst record in the NFL (including ties) and win a playoff game the following season.

Where does the 27-point comeback rate? Michael David Smith of ProFootballTalk.com:

The NFL’s fifth-biggest comeback ever took place on Saturday night in Jacksonville, when the Jaguars fell behind 27-0 in the first half only to win 31-30 on a field goal as time expired.

Two of the NFL’s five biggest comebacks have happened in the last month: The biggest comeback in NFL history took place on December 17, when the Colts jumped out to a 33-0 lead over the Vikings at halftime, only to have the Vikings win 39-36 in overtime.

Prior to that Vikings-Colts comeback, the biggest comeback in NFL history was 32 points, when the Houston Oilers took a 35-3 win over the Bills in a playoff game on January 3, 1993, but the Bills came back to win 41-38 in overtime.

The NFL has also seen two 28-point comebacks: In a playoff game on January 4, 2014, the Colts fell behind the Chiefs 38-10 but the Colts came back and won 45-44. And in a regular-season game on December 7, 1980, Archie Manning and the Saints jumped out to a 35-7 halftime lead, but Joe Montana and the 49ers rallied to win 38-35.

Now the Jaguars’ comeback takes its place alongside those other games among the great comebacks in NFL history.

The Daily Briefing Monday, January 16, 2023

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