The Daily Briefing Monday, January 22, 2024
THE DAILY BRIEFING
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Bengals OC Brian Callahan is getting three second interviews.
@TomPelissero #Bengals OC Brian Callahan is emerging as a hot head coaching candidate: The #Titans, #Panthers and #Falcons all plan to bring him in for a second interview this week, per sources.
The Falcons have already done a second interview with Bill Belichick and plan on one with Jim Harbaugh. – – – Since 1996, One team has made the NFC Championship Game its home, the Lions are there for the first time:
NFC Title Game Appearances Since 1996
49ers 8 2-5 Packers 8 3-5 Eagles 7 3-4 Rams 4 4-0 Vikings 4 0-4 Panthers 4 2-2 Falcons 4 2-2 Buccaneers 3 2-1 Seahawks 3 3-0 Giants 3 3-0 Saints 3 1-2 Cardinals 2 1-1 Bears 2 1-1 Lions 1 0-0 Commanders 0 0-0 Cowboys 0 0-0
That’s 17 for the NFC West, 15 now for the NFC North, 14 for the NFC South and just 10 for the NFC East.
As for representing the NFC in the Super Bowl? NFC West 10/11, NFC East 6, NFC South 5, NFC North 4/5.
NFC North teams are 4-10 in the Championship Game, NFC West teams 10-6 (with no help from the 2-5 49ers).
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NFC NORTH |
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CHICAGO It looks like Shane Waldron will be moving from Seattle to become OC of the Bears. Michael David Smith of ProFootballTalk.com:
The Bears appear to have identified their next offensive coordinator.
Chicago is working toward a deal to hire Shane Waldron as offensive coordinator, according to Tom Pelissero of NFL Network.
Waldron spent the last three seasons as the Seahawks’ offensive coordinator. Prior to that he spent three seasons as the Rams’ passing game coordinator and he has also spent time in Washington and New England, in addition to multiple college jobs.
Bears head coach Matt Eberflus fired offensive coordinator Luke Getsy after the season.
The big question in Chicago is which quarterback Waldron will be calling plays for. Justin Fields is the incumbent starter, but the Bears own the first overall pick in the 2024 NFL draft and may move on to USC quarterback Caleb Williams.
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DETROIT Eric Woodyard of ESPN.com on the postgame as the Lions head to the championship game:
On Jan. 21, 2021, Dan Campbell delivered a fiery message that became known as the “kneecaps” speech during his hourlong introductory news conference as new coach of the Detroit Lions.
“So, this team is going to be built on, we’re going to kick you in the teeth, right? And when you punch us back, we’re going to smile at you,” Campbell told reporters. “And when you knock us down, we’re going to get up and, on the way up, we’re going to bite a kneecap off. All right?”
On Sunday, exactly three years to the date of that speech, Campbell had the Lions celebrating a 31-23 victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Ford Field that put them in the NFC Championship Game for the first time in 32 years.
“I envisioned that we would have a chance to compete with the big boys, and that’s where we’re at,” Campbell said afterward. “All you got to do is get in, and it’s about placing yourself in the very best position to where you can move. You get a home game and maybe you get a second home game, and now all of a sudden it gets a little easier.”
The Lions now have captured multiple playoff wins in a season for just the third time in franchise history — joining the 1952 and 1957 seasons, when they won NFL championships (before the Super Bowl era). Detroit will visit the San Francisco 49ers with the NFC title on the line next Sunday.
Under Campbell’s direction, the Lions have gone from one of the league’s worst teams in 2021 (3-13-1) to their first conference title appearance since the 1991 campaign. His players are all-in while following his lunch-pail leadership style.
“I owe that man, everything, and I’ll put it all on the line for him, and now I’m just happy to finally see where we are right now,” Lions offensive lineman Penei Sewell said. “And we’ve got a lot more left in the tank, a lot more meat on the bone, so that’s what we’re shooting for.”
Quarterback Jared Goff said the Lions are “not here by accident,” with the coaching staff and front office in place — a group that includes general manager Brad Holmes — helping shape the roster.
“I don’t want to say this arrogantly, but we expected to win the first game (in the wild-card round against the Los Angeles Rams), we expected to win this game and now we get to go to a game we expected to be in against a really good team at their place — and we’re going to come into it expecting to win,” Goff said. “It’ll be a tough game, but it’ll be fun.”
The Niners opened as 7-point favorites, via ESPN BET.
In the fourth quarter alone versus Tampa Bay, Goff completed 11 of 12 attempts for 131 yards with a scoring strike. Goff finished the game with 287 passing yards and a career playoff-best two passing touchdowns, and he received big contributions from the Lions’ 2023 draft class. Sam LaPorta, the 34th pick, had 65 receiving yards on nine receptions, the most by a rookie tight end in a playoff game in NFL history. Jahmyr Gibbs, the No. 12 pick, gave the Lions a 24-17 lead with 13:13 remaining in the fourth on a 31-yard touchdown run. Gibbs became the second player in Lions history with a rushing TD in back-to-back playoff games (Doak Walker also did it in the 1952 and 1953 NFL title games), and the first to do so in a single postseason. Gibbs rushed for 74 yards to go with 40 receiving yards.
Lions linebacker Derrick Barnes made a game-sealing interception off Bucs quarterback Baker Mayfield on a short pass in the middle of the field with 1:39 left in the game that had Lions fans roaring at Ford Field.
Campbell, a former tight end who played three seasons for the Lions (2006 to 2008), could relate to their excitement. He is now the eighth different coach since the 1970 merger to reach the conference championship game with a team for which he played. He said the moment isn’t one he’s taking for granted.
“It’s not the first thing you think of if you go to L.A. or just in general,” Campbell said of Detroit. “You’ve got the sun, you’ve got the beach, you’ve got plenty of other things going on. And here, man, it’s harsh winters, auto industry, blue collar, things aren’t always easy. And I just think, that’s what we’re about. You want something the city can be proud of.
“You can look at those guys and say, ‘Man, I can back that guy. I can back that team. I can resonate with those group of guys. They’re kind of salty. They don’t quit. They play hard.’ And so, I feel like we’ve done that. And I think these guys, they have a kinship with this city and this area, and they love it, man, and ultimately, that’s what you want. Now, a year from now, two years, we’ll be getting booed, maybe; that’s a whole other deal, though. But right now, life’s good, and I’m glad we could deliver that.” – – – Mike Sando of The Athletic points out how success can bring about the Sirianni Dilemma – which might be in the future for Dan Campbell as he goes coordinator shopping:
The Lions’ Campbell hit a home run replacing his first offensive coordinator, Anthony Lynn, with Ben Johnson. With Johnson likely to land a head-coaching job, the pressure will be on Campbell to find a suitable replacement. Lions defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn also could be leaving, as he’s considered a leading candidate in Tennessee.
Campbell has raised the bar in Detroit, but he hasn’t done it alone. Future coordinator hires will be especially critical for him as a coach who hasn’t called plays since 2021 and seems unlikely to make that his focus in the future.
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NFC EAST |
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DALLAS Another playoff exit has left Prescott wanting out of Dallas. That would be Tad Prescott, older brother of DAK. Mike Fisher at SI.com (which appears to be still functioning at the moment):
And now it is a weekend hat trick, as Dak Prescott’s brother has joined the chorus of family members of Dallas Cowboys players who “want out” of the “America’s Team” experience.
“Cowboy fans who continue to DM me, TRUST ME,” said Tad Prescott on social media Saturday, “If I could get Dak to leave Dallas, I would.”
Tad’s voice echoes that of CeeDee Lamb’s mom, who is now on social-media record as saying the Cowboys’ problem is Dak, and that either the QB’s “a**” should be shipped out of town or her son should be allowed to escape.
Mom, by the way, would like CeeDee traded to her hometown Houston Texans so she can play with C.J. Stroud.
And Dak and CeeDee teammate Micah Parsons? His brother Terrence also thinks the Cowboys issues are simply too much to bear, so he wants Dak and the coaching staff ousted.
The play of Prescott, Lamb and Parsons is subject to public scrutiny. That is part of their job. Their supportive relatives’ failures to comprehend that is mystifying – especially because when the Cowboys are riding high, these very same relatives refer to the Cowboys as “us” and “we.”
But in the wake of a playoff loss? Everybody wants out.
Or, better said, everybody’s mother and brother wants out.
Lamb’s mom and especially Parsons’ brother are insisting they have problems with the Cowboys themselves. Terrence Parsons says “the organization” has committed “crimes against” Micah.
In Tad’s case, he makes it clear that – this time around – he’s not mad at the Cowboys. (Though he has certainly expressed that view in the past.)
“The city and organization have been great to he and our family, but,” he said, “done with drama and the so-called fans, but he loves this team, and wants to bring it rings.”
The Cowboys irony here? CeeDee’s mom, Micah’s brother and Dak’s brother might all be tired of the “drama” … while somehow failing to recognize that they are the ones creating the drama.
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PHILADELPHIA Nick Sirianni is rumored to have received an ultimatum – whack both your coordinators and you get to coach another year. Although, again per rumors, the Eagles will wait until OC Brian Johnson does NOT get a head coaching job before they fire him
If so, the first shoe fell over the weekend. Here is Martin Frank in the Delaware News Journal:
It wasn’t a surprise that defensive coordinator Sean Desai was fired, or that his replacement, Matt Patricia is leaving as well, as the NFL Network first reported Sunday night.
The fact that the report said Eagles coach Nick Sirianni was the one who fired Desai could be a sign that Sirianni is remaining as the Eagles head coach.
Patricia is leaving to “explore other opportunities,” the NFL Network reported.
That Sirianni would be returning isn’t surprising after he took the Eagles to the playoffs in each of his three seasons, something no other coach in Eagles history has done.
But there was speculation that Sirianni’s job could be in jeopardy after the Eagles finished out the season with 6 losses in 7 games, including a 32-9 loss to Tampa Bay in the NFC Wild Card Round last Monday night.
There’s a good chance that Desai and Patricia won’t be the only coaches leaving. Desai had already been replaced on Dec. 16 by Patricia, who was hired last spring as a special defensive assistant. Desai kept the title of defensive coordinator, but Patricia called all the defensive plays while Desai was moved upstairs to the coach’s box.
The Eagles defense didn’t improve under Patricia as the Eagles finished 31st in the NFL in pass defense and 30th in points allowed per game.
Sirianni, meanwhile, was expected to meet with Eagles chairman and CEO Jeffrey Lurie last Friday in order to make sure a finish like this doesn’t happen again. That will likely mean changes in Sirianni’s staff.
That could also include offensive coordinator Brian Johnson. After all, Jalen Hurts regressed during the season-ending slide as well. Johnson, who has known Hurts since Hurts was a toddler, had served as the Eagles quarterbacks coach the previous two seasons.
Johnson is also a candidate for some head coach openings. He interviewed with Atlanta last week. Johnson was in his first season as offensive coordinator. He replaced Shane Steichen, who left to become the Indianapolis Colts head coach, following the Eagles’ Super Bowl loss last February. Desai had succeeded Jonathan Gannon, who became the Arizona Cardinals head coach after the Super Bowl as well.
But Sirianni appears to be staying. And some veterans expressed surprise that his return was even in question.
If Johnson, a Black coach, is hired off the Eagles staff, Philadelphia gets a 3rd-round draft pick from an NFL initiative.
So that perhaps explains his continued presence, although reports are out that he and QB JALEN HURTS did not get along. Ralph Vacchiano of http://FOXSports.com:
There are many reasons why Sirianni might not be safe. One big one is what might be an unprecedented pool of coaching candidates available. The field is filled with some of the biggest names in the industry — Bill Belichick, Jim Harbaugh, Pete Carroll and Mike Vrabel — plus an impressive group of younger offensive minds, headlined by the Lions’ much-coveted offensive coordinator, Ben Johnson. If Lurie still believes his team is built to win now, it could be hard to pass on a group like that.
But first he’d have to conclude that Sirianni isn’t the right guy to get the job done anymore. And there are some good reasons for him to be skeptical.
Perhaps the biggest is this: It’s not clear at all that Jalen Hurts, the Eagles’ $255 million quarterback, has Sirianni’s back. Hurts has reportedly been unhappy with the direction of the offense all season long, and he’s often appeared frustrated on the sidelines. Then on Monday night, given a chance to endorse Sirianni after the painful loss, Hurts didn’t exactly sound enthusiastic.
When asked if he wanted Sirianni to return, Hurts said “I didn’t know he was going anywhere.” When he was told there was speculation about his job security, Hurts said “I didn’t know that.” And when asked if he still had confidence in Sirianni, Hurts said “I have a ton of confidence in everyone in this building.”
It’s hard to know if Hurts was being purposely quiet and cryptic or just wasn’t in a talkative mood. But other players offered far stronger support to their coach.
Even if he had Hurts’ support, though, there are other lingering questions about Sirianni — like his choice of a staff. A year ago, Lurie had high praise for Sirianni’s staff, which included Shane Steichen as his offensive coordinator and Jonathan Gannon as his defensive coordinator. He even praised the way Sirianni went about replacing them during the offseason.
But a team source said that Lurie, like many in the organization, has soured on his choices. In fact, one team source said that if Sirianni was allowed to keep his job, Lurie and general manager Howie Roseman would likely insist that he fire both his coordinators, if he wasn’t planning to do it anyway.
Sirianni already demoted defensive coordinator Sean Desai late in the season and handed the play-calling over to senior defensive assistant Matt Patricia, though the defense only got worse from there.
There is an internal belief that he made a big mistake hiring Desai from outside the organization while passing over popular defensive backs coach Dennard Wilson, who immediately left to take the same job with the Baltimore Ravens. They could fix that by hiring Wilson to replace Patricia and Desai.
And there has been a lot of frustration with offensive coordinator Brian Johnson’s play-calling late in the season — including his pass-happy approach against the Bucs even though Hurts was playing with a dislocated finger on his throwing hand and without No. 1 receiver A.J. Brown. Johnson was Hurts’ choice to succeed Steichen when he left, but there’s some speculation that relationship has soured too.
One team source said Hurts audibled and freelanced more frequently late in the season, and that he and Johnson rarely seemed to be on the same page. Hurts regressed badly during the six-game slide, throwing just six touchdown passes with five interceptions. And the Eagles got away from their dangerous run-pass option attack, as Johnson shied away from the running game in general. In fact, Hurts unbelievably had just one carry in the loss to the Bucs, and that didn’t appear to be a designed run.
None of that reflects well on the head coach, who could have stepped in and changed the approach on either side of the ball at any time.
But the biggest issue for Sirianni is still the obvious: He wasn’t able to stop a slide that lasted seven weeks. It was never going to be easy to repeat as NFC champs and keep their energy all the way up to a second straight Super Bowl. The Eagles wouldn’t be the first team to hit a post-Super Bowl wall or suffer the dreaded “Super Bowl hangover.” But since December, they sounded like a team that expected they’d simply be able to turn everything on when it mattered, that as bad as they were playing it would all work out.
Sirianni sounded convinced that would happen too. Of course, it never did.
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NFC SOUTH |
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ATLANTA Whoa. Bill Belichick leaves his second interview without an agreement and the Falcons turn their attention to Jim Harbaugh. Jeff Howe and Josh Kendall of The Athletic mention the Rooney Rule as an obstacle to a quick resolution with either of the experienced coaches.
The Atlanta Falcons’ star-studded coaching search will roll on next week with another interview scheduled for Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh, a league source confirmed Friday. Harbaugh previously interviewed with the Falcons on Tuesday.
Harbaugh, fresh off leading the Wolverines to an NCAA national championship, will join former New England Patriots’ coach Bill Belichick among the coaches getting a second interview with Atlanta. Belichick and Falcons owner Arthur Blank met for dinner Thursday, a team source told The Athletic on Friday.
Like with Harbaugh, Atlanta is set to have a second interview with Belichick this weekend. Belichick’s first interview came Monday.
The Athletic’s Dianna Russini previously reported the Falcons consider Belichick to be their top candidate.
What this means for Atlanta The Falcons pursuit of Belichick hasn’t put a stop to their other coaching efforts. In addition to scheduling a second interview with Harbaugh, Atlanta completed a virtual interview with Detroit Lions defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn on Friday and reached out to former Tennessee Titans coach Mike Vrabel about the possibility of a meeting in the future.
All of those efforts feel like insurance in case the Belichick deal doesn’t get done. Belichick and team personnel met for a second interview that was completed early Friday evening, however the Falcons still must complete in-person interviews with two minority coaches in order to satisfy the NFL’s Rooney Rule.
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TAMPA BAY In the aftermath of Sunday’s game, the Buccaneers head coach made it clear he wants QB BAKER MAYFIELD back – and it looks like WR MIKE EVANS may also return. Jenna Laine of ESPN.com:
Moments after the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ season ended with a 31-23 playoff divisional loss at the Detroit Lions, coach Todd Bowles said quarterback Baker Mayfield earned the right to return in 2024.
Mayfield, who was on a one-year deal with Tampa, has indicated he would like to return, as would wide receiver Mike Evans, who was unhappy at the start of the season over not getting a new contract before Week 1.
“He most definitely has,” Bowles said of Mayfield, who led the Bucs to a 10-9 record and an NFC South title in the franchise’s first year of the post-Tom Brady era. “Obviously, it’s too early to talk about that and business is business, but Baker had a hell of a year. We love him. The guys love him. And we’ll see what the future holds.”
General manager Jason Licht shared a lengthy hug with Mayfield outside the locker room, indicative of the organization’s feelings for the No. 1 pick-turned journeyman quarterback who was playing for his fourth team in two seasons.
There have been no talks on a new deal for Mayfield this season, but his representatives will meet with the Bucs in the offseason to discuss one.
“I love this group,” said Mayfield, whose 349 passing yards Sunday were the third most in a Buccaneers playoff game. “I said that all year. And it’s authentic. I mean that. It would mean a lot for me, to bring back a lot of key pieces, to get this back together, to get it to Year 2 in the system, you can make huge strides. I would love that.
“Obviously, who knows how it’s going to play out, but I can’t say enough about this organization and the opportunity they gave me this year. Just thankful, and I hope it works out.”
Licht has also said the team has plans to reach a new deal with Evans. The franchise’s all-time leader in receiving yards, receiving touchdowns, receptions and total TDs, Evans finished with over 1,000 receiving yards for the 10th consecutive season — the only player in NFL history to achieve that feat.
Licht told ESPN that it “would mean everything for the franchise, ownership, all of us” to make Evans a Buccaneer for life, and the star wide receiver shared that sentiment.
“I’ve been on record saying how much I love this place and how much I want to be here,” said Evans, who had 147 receiving yards and a touchdown in the playoff game. “Not a lot of guys finish the one team, so that’ll be amazing if I get to do that. But we’ll see. I’m still trying to get over this loss.”
Evans and his agent, Deryk Gilmore, had set a Sept. 9 deadline on a getting a new deal done prior to the start of the 2023-24 regular season — or they said they would not negotiate until the offseason.
Sources told ESPN that the Bucs did not extend an offer prior to the deadline, which disappointed Evans.
Evans believes talks will happen after the Super Bowl.
“It’s meant a lot to me and my family,” Evans said of being a Buccaneer. “I didn’t grow up a Bucs fan or anything like that, but we’re lifelong Bucs fans no matter what happens. I love the city and I love the franchise.”
Wide receiver Chris Godwin said he hopes both players will return.
“It would be amazing,” Godwin said of Evans, who has played with him since he was drafted in 2017. “I think him not being here sounds and feels very, very weird. I don’t like that we got to this point. But hopefully we can keep this thing going.
“The person that Mike is, the player that he is, like obviously you hope that things would have been done earlier, but that’s the business side of it. We can’t control that. But again, I hope he’s back and I hope we get to do this thing again.”
On a potential return for Mayfield, Godwin said: “He fit right in. I think we had bunch of fighters — guys fighting through the same types of things — and I think he came in and fit the mold.
“I think we all love Baker and we have a lot of respect for him. We can’t control the business side of it, but we hope that they’ll be able to do it.”
Here’s a random tidbit – in these playoffs, Mayfield became just the 4th QB to throw for 310+ yards and 3+ TDs in the first two games of a playoff season. The others are Patrick Mahomes in 2022, Matt Ryan in 2017 and Drew Brees in 2012. If you go with the more rounded 300 yards, he is the 6th. – – – The Buccaneers did not fight to the bitter end per Michael David Smith ofProFootballTalk.com (one of several on-line clock management experts we saw):
Lost in the excitement of the Lions beating the Buccaneers to advance to the NFC Championship Game was that both teams made clock management mistakes at the end of the game.
When the Lions intercepted a pass with 1:33 left in the game, the Buccaneers still had one timeout. That meant that even if the Lions had used the full 40 seconds between kneeldowns, they couldn’t have run the clock all the way down — as long as the Bucs used their timeout.
The Lions knelt down anyway, and didn’t even take the full 40 seconds off the clock between kneeldowns. But the Bucs never used their final timeout. When Lions quarterback Jared Goff knelt down for the third and final time, 36 seconds were on the clock and the Bucs still had their timeout. It was fourth down, which meant that if the Bucs had called their timeout, the Lions likely would have attempted a 49-yard field goal.
If that field goal had missed, the Buccaneers would have had the ball at their own 39-yard line with about 30 seconds left, needing to drive 61 yards for a touchdown and then score a two-point conversion to force overtime.
Is it likely that the Lions would have missed the field goal, the Buccaneers would have scored a touchdown and two-point conversion and then won the game in overtime? No. Is it possible? Absolutely. And with the season on the line, a team should be doing everything possible to win. The Buccaneers just let the last 36 seconds run off the clock and took their timeout into the offseason.
Lions coach Dan Campbell and Buccaneers coach Todd Bowles both did good work this season to get their teams to the divisional round of the playoffs, but at the end of this game, both made key mistakes: Campbell by not running every second he could off the clock, and Bowles by not calling his final timeout.
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NFC WEST |
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LOS ANGELES RAMS Impressive how the Rams want their DC to leave. Sarah Barshop of ESPN.com:
Rams general manager Les Snead began his end-of-season news conference with an unprompted endorsement of defensive coordinator Raheem Morris, who is interviewing for several head coach openings.
Morris, who has been the Rams’ defensive coordinator for the past three seasons, has been a head coach twice before: with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers from 2009 to 2011 and as the Atlanta Falcons’ interim coach in 2020.
Before he took questions Friday, Snead said he wanted to talk about Morris “because I know he’s interviewing for just about every head-coaching job in the NFL right now.”
“No. 1, I think we all know, [he’s a] great human being,” Snead said. “The guy is coded to respect everyone, to build a relationship with everyone no matter where you’re at in the organization. What’s awesome is, as he does that, you just see the respect flow back in his direction. He’s coded for that. It’s a superpower that I think would help any organization.”
Rams coach Sean McVay said when he interviewed Morris for the defensive coordinator position in 2021, he spent time trying to convince Morris to take the Rams job instead of going to Jacksonville to coach the Jaguars.
“But what I remember is as soon as we were able to get him on board, there was an immediate excitement from everybody that he touched in this building, whether it be players, coaches [or] staff,” McVay said. “And he’s got that magnetism about him where he is just saying something’s different about this guy and he’s really special.”
Morris, who was the team’s defensive coordinator when it won Super Bowl LVI, helped the Rams reach the playoffs in a season in which they chose to move on from several veteran defensive players and instead lean on rookies. The Rams traded star cornerback Jalen Ramsey to the Miami Dolphins and parted ways with linebacker Bobby Wagner, linebacker Leonard Floyd, defensive tackle A’Shawn Robinson and nose tackle Greg Gaines.
Snead pointed to Morris’ “unique football acumen,” because he has coached in both defensive and offensive rooms, something “not many coaches on the planet” can say.
“He’s going to give any organization an edge just how collaborative he is,” Snead said. “It’s going to be an edge that most teams aren’t going to be able to compete with. I know this, he’ll be able to hire an unbelievable staff. Every coach who’s any good, who’s qualified, they’re going to want to work for Raheem. And I’m pretty sure there’ll be a lot of tampering charges because just about every player in the NFL’s going to text him and want to come play for him.”
Perhaps most importantly for a head-coaching candidate, Morris is “a phenomenal leader,” McVay said.
“He always had such a unique way about leading,” McVay said. “The guy has never had a bad day in his life, and then you get around him and you’re thinking, ‘Yeah, you can’t be like this all the time.’ And you’re like, ‘Holy … he really is like this all the time.’ He’s just got such great energy that’s so authentic. He can be demanding on people.
“He’s just such a great person. He has got such an incredible high capacity for this game and the ability to be able to teach in a digestible manner. I can’t say enough good things about him in terms of what he’s meant to me.”
The Rams would receive a third-round compensatory pick for two years if Morris is hired by another team as part of the Rooney Rule.
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AFC WEST |
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KANSAS CITY Peter King hangs out in the Chiefs locker room, notepad in hand:
This hit me in the locker room: a corner of the room, with Mahomes, backup Blaine Gabbert, kicker Harrison Butker and a couple of others, discussing where they were when Tyler Bass missed the fairly easy field goal that would have tied it. “It just, just FROZE IN THE AIR,” Mahomes said.
“Man,” Butker told me, “I feel for Tyler. Life of a kicker. We’ve all been there.”
Travis Kelce’s locker now. He gave me a fist bump as he sprint-dressed-packed and said he wasn’t talking; a team aide had a cart waiting, to get him to Tayler Swift and one other famous person in the entourage, brother Jason. The Other Kelce had quite a day slamming light beers in the stadium.
“Great Lakes guys,” Travis Kelce said quietly to me. He and his bro, Cleveland guys, down the southern coast of Lake Erie from Buffalo. “You bring us home, and anything can happen.”
When I told him, “What a friggin’ game,” Travis Kelce, in the middle of hurriedly packing his bag, said, “With these two teams, these two guys, Josh and Patty, man, instant classic. These are the moments you miss in the off-season. It’s why you play the game.”
I saw Mahomes walking through the room. “I love Arrowhead—I love playoff games at Arrowhead,” he said. “But man, that was fun.”
Crazy things happened here. After the Pacheco touchdown produced the final score, no one scored for the final 14 minutes. Football’s odd that way; for 46 minutes, you see 51 points and five lead changes. In the last 14 minutes, zero points, zero lead changes. There was a failed fake punt, a fumble out of the end zone, a Bills punt, a KC punt, a Bills fumble and recovery, and then the fateful Tyler Bass missed 44-yard field goal.
Some 33 years ago, Scott Norwood missed a 47-yard field goal 18 inches wide right in the Super Bowl. Now Bass missed by a bigger margin. No wonder these fans think they’ll never win a title. Normal kickers missing makeable kicks, plunging a region that is so desperate to win into a months-long depression. I figure they’ll come out of it, oh, around training camp in late July.
Edward Sutelan of SportingNews.com on how impressive a run of six straight appearances in a conference championship game might be:
The word “dynasty” often gets used to refer to any team on a successful run, usually ending in multiple championships. The Chiefs might not be there just yet, but they’re about as close to any team in the NFL is to being a true dynasty.
The pairing of Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid has guided Kansas City to the 2024 AFC Championship, marking the sixth straight appearance by the duo. They have reached the conference title game each of the first six years Mahomes has been the starting quarterback, a feat that has been accomplished only once in NFL history.
If the Chiefs make it back to the Super Bowl and win Mahomes’ third ring, it’s fair to begin calling their run a true dynasty. The critics say you can’t officially be given the prestigious title until a trio of titles are brought to a city.
But even just making it to the AFC championship six consecutive years in a conference that is loaded with top-tier quarterbacks is an impressive feat in its own right.
Here’s a look back at the longest streaks of consecutive conference game appearances by teams in NFL history.
Most championship games in a row This might not come as a surprise, but the Tom Brady-led Patriots hold the record for consecutive appearances in a conference championship. Which era? The second extended dynastic period.
From 2011, when New England lost the Super Bowl to the Giants, to 2018, when it beat the Rams, the Patriots reached eight consecutive conference championship games. There is some overlap with that Patriots team and the current Chiefs’ squad, as Brady’s Pats beat Pat’s Chiefs in Arrowhead Stadium in the 2019 AFC Championship to advance to the Super Bowl.
But Mahomes is quickly advancing on New England’s record. With the appearance against the Ravens in 2024, Kansas City has now been to sixth straight AFC championship games, which now is the the second-longest streak in NFL history.
Mahomes also now shares the company of Ken Stabler for taking a team to the AFC championship in their first five years as the team’s starter. Heading into 1973, Stabler had been in the NFL for three years, but had started only two games for the Raiders. He secured the team’s starting role in Week 4 of the 1973 season, and never looked back, taking the team to the AFC championship in his first year as the full-time starter and then the next four seasons. During that run, the Raiders won Super Bowl 11 during that stretch, marking Stabler’s lone ring.
Here’s a look at all the teams that have had streaks of at least four straight championship appearances:
Team Years Streak Patriots 2011-18 8 Chiefs 2018-24 6 Raiders 1973-77 5 Cowboys 1967-70 4 Bills 1990-93 4 Cowboys 1992-95 4 Eagles 2001-04 4
– – – Even as we have decried the lack of weapons for QB PATRICK MAHOMES, Mike Sando points out that the Chiefs have become more of a traditional championship team:
Mahomes with defense and run game: The great championship quarterbacks of decades past usually had strong defenses on their side. Terry Bradshaw and Roger Staubach in the 1970s. Joe Montana in the 1980s. Troy Aikman and Brett Favre in the 1990s. Tom Brady over the past two decades.
Mahomes has been the exception, which separated him from those other greats, but now he has a top-five defense and the potential for a physical ground game with Isiah Pacheco. It’s a great combination as long as Travis Kelce is healthy (he is), Rashee Rice is developing (check) and Marquez Valdes-Scantling makes the occasional explosive reception (a work in progress, but he did catch passes for gains of 30 and 32 yards against the Bills).
Will it be enough against Baltimore? Think Mahomes knows his Chiefs are underdogs for the second consecutive week? Think he knows Lamar Jackson is the presumptive MVP? His legacy needs no enhancing at this point, but just think what’s at stake for his Ravens counterpart: Jackson is two victories away from being a two-time MVP (presumptively) and a Super Bowl champ. – – – Michael David Smith of ProFootballTalk.com points out that Mahomes has played the rough equivalent of one regular season in his career playoff appearances. And even though he is supposedly facing elite defenses regularly, he has had a fantastic “season”:
The AFC Championship Game will be the 17th postseason game of Patrick Mahomes’ career, meaning that Mahomes has effectively played another full season in the playoffs. And in that other full season, Mahomes has put up MVP numbers.
In the 16 postseason games that Mahomes has started so far, the Chiefs are 13-3.
Mahomes has thrown for 4,561 passing yards in his 16 career postseason games. That would have been the third-most yards in the league in the 2023 season — and both of the quarterbacks who passed for more yards than that in 2023 did so only in their 17th game.
In his 16 postseason games, Mahomes has thrown 38 touchdown passes. That’s more than any quarterback threw in 17 games in the 2023 regular season. And Mahomes has just seven interceptions in the playoffs.
Mahomes has completed 66.8 percent of his passes in the postseason, and his postseason passer rating is 106.7. Those are both even better than his career regular-season numbers.
Mahomes has been the NFL’s best regular-season player over the last six seasons. He’s even better in the playoffs.
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AFC NORTH |
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BALTIMORE The halftime words of QB LAMAR JACKSON were the secret sauce that propelled the Ravens to a breakaway victory over the Texans. Jeff Zrebiec of The Athletic:
They told anyone who would listen that this was a different team, that they had learned from past playoff failures, that they were “locked in” on making a Super Bowl. Then, over the first 30 minutes of football Saturday on a frigid late afternoon in Baltimore, they looked like the playoff Ravens of the recent past.
Their offense was confused and overwhelmed by the blitz. Their presumptive MVP quarterback, Lamar Jackson, looked frustrated. Their special teams gave up a game-changing punt return touchdown. The Houston Texans might as well have been the 2018 Los Angeles Chargers, 2019 Tennessee Titans or 2020 Buffalo Bills. It was the same movie, just a different antagonist.
But the biggest difference between these Ravens and previous versions revealed itself behind closed doors in an “edgy” locker room. That’s where a fed-up Jackson, who teammates say has matured and grown as Baltimore’s leading man, told the room enough was enough. They weren’t going down like this.
“There’s something in him right now,” said Ravens wide receiver Nelson Agholor, who caught a 3-yard touchdown pass in the second quarter. “It’s been in him all year, but there’s something really in him right now, and I’m with it. I’m with it.”
Nobody seemed to want to reveal what Jackson said at halftime with the score tied and the offense coming off three consecutive three-and-outs. A few of the offensive linemen said it wasn’t anything new. They were already acutely aware of Jackson’s passion for winning. But Jackson conceded he was the one who did the crux of the halftime talking, which isn’t typical.
“A lot of cursing at halftime,” Jackson acknowledged.
The Ravens came out in the second half and ran the Texans off the field as a capacity crowd of 71,018 morphed from antsy to jubilant. Dominating on offense and defense, the Ravens reeled off the game’s final 24 points to win 34-10, securing a spot in the AFC championship and solidifying M&T Bank Stadium as the site on Jan. 28.
The Ravens will play the winner of Sunday night’s matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and Bills. It will be the first time the Ravens will host an AFC Championship Game in team history and the first AFC title game in Baltimore since the Colts hosted the Raiders in January 1971.
“This is the first step,” said Ravens coach John Harbaugh, whose team hasn’t played for a conference title since it won Super Bowl XLVII following the 2012 regular season. “The next step is in front of us.”
Harbaugh and some of his assistant coaches broke out the dance moves in the locker room after the game. It was a far different vibe than it was at halftime when Jackson turned up the heat on the offense he leads.
“I was (edgy),” Jackson said. “We had no other choice — the offense as a unit. We just weren’t putting points up. Well, we scored once. Our defense was playing lights out, but we’re not responding. So, we just had to dial in at halftime. Like Coach said, ‘Get the ball out quick and let the defense play us honest,’ and that’s what we did.”
In the second half, Jackson led three consecutive scoring drives, sandwiching a 15-yard touchdown pass to Isaiah Likely between 15- and 8-yard touchdown runs by the quarterback. It was vintage Jackson, making quick decisions, forcing the Texans to honor every part of Baltimore’s offensive arsenal — including his legs — and not forcing anything.
After his last touchdown, which gave the Ravens a three-touchdown lead with 6:20 to play, Jackson ran straight up the tunnel. The show was mercifully over for the Texans, who gave up 229 rushing yards, 134 of which came in the second half.
Jackson became the first player in NFL history to have 100-plus passing yards, 100-plus rushing yards, a 100-plus passer rating and two passing touchdowns and two rushing scores in the same game.
“Credit to Lamar,” Texans coach DeMeco Ryans said. “He made a ton of great plays. That’s why he’s the MVP.”
Peter King does his thing:
“It’s been three years and four days since your last playoff game,” I said to Lamar Jackson Saturday night, and his brow got furrowed.
“Man,” he said. “Long time.”
Yep. Buffalo 17, Baltimore 3. A putrid affair for the Ravens in Orchard Park, dropping Jackson to 1-3 as a playoff quarterback and setting up a long road to Saturday. A very long road. “It’s been eating away at me,” he told me in the hallway outside the Ravens’ locker room. He’s had lots of regular-season wins, but two injuries robbed him of a third of the last two seasons, and a rancorous contract spat with the Ravens made things worse, as did reminders annually that he wasn’t a good postseason player. It’s all why Jackson has been more serious this season after the contract got done, less euphoric after regular-season wins. And why the 34-10 rout of the Texans Saturday almost seemed like the start of the season to Jackson.
As coach John Harbaugh told me: “It’s just the idea that everything that we do, everything that he does, every game up until this point was to put us in position for this. This is when it begins.”
“All season,” Jackson said, “I’ve thought, finish 13-4, get the one seed, first-round bye, then it’s only two games at home to get to the Super Bowl. That’s got to be our goal.”
The full Lamar was vital Saturday, because the Ravens were in trouble at halftime. They were lucky to be in a 10-10 game after the Texans—not a big blitzing team normally—blitzed on 13 of Jackson’s 18 first-half pass-drops (including scrambles), per Next Gen Stats. Houston sacked Jackson on two of the last three snaps of the half. So at halftime, the QB did something about it. “I talked to coach Tee [Martin, quarterback coach],” Jackson said. “I said, we can’t keep trying to get deep and developing routes because our guys can only block for so long. Then it might be holding, or me getting sacked. I gotta move. Just gotta get the ball out. Second half, it was more like us.”
In the first half, Jackson’s time to throw per Next Gen was 3.53 seconds, an eternity in today’s NFL; it let the blitzing Texans pressure Jackson consistently. In the second half, prodded by Jackson’s halftime suggestion, the number went down to 2.70. Jackson wasn’t sacked. Baltimore dominated the half, shutting out Houston 24-0 and gaining 234 yards. Jackson ran for two scores in the last 30 minutes and threw for one, a touch pass plucked out of the air by TE2 Isaiah Likely, who has played very much like TE1, with six touchdowns in seven games since Mark Andrews went down with an ankle injury.
The Ravens have been impressed with offensive coordinator Todd Monken’s flexibility in year one. This is the best receiver corps Jackson has had in Baltimore, with field-stretchers like Zay Flowers (someone check his tracking device; seemed like he sprinted five miles in Jet Motion against Houston), Odell Beckham and Rashod Bateman. Monken obviously wanted to test the Texans’ back end; they were 23rd in the league in passing yards allowed. But Monken listens to his coaches and listens to Jackson. Thus the second-half metamorphosis.
Jackson’s never going to have the biggest stats, but this game, particularly the second half, was a perfect illustration of who he is as a player. He knows how to control a football game. His 152 yards passing and 100 yards rushing, and two TDs throwing and two rushing, and no turnovers, led to a 37:35 domination of time of possession. His mastery of the clock late in the game was Brady-like. From the midway point of the third quarter to :00 of the fourth, Houston had the ball only four minutes, five seconds. Jackson milked every second he could from the play clock, suffocating any chance C.J. Stroud had to rally his team. It was so maddening for Houston that coach DeMeco Ryans started using his timeouts with 6:26 left.
The story angle out of this game, clearly, was Jackson playing his best playoff game after four mostly lousy ones. Fair, certainly; Jackson was football’s Mookie Betts here, a five-tool player you might hold down for a few series but eventually he’s going to kill you with his arm and legs, and he doesn’t care which extremities he uses. There was something else impressive about Baltimore: Stroud came in having led 25 offensive touchdown drives in his previous nine games. Here, he got none (Houston’s lone TD came on a punt return). Last week, against Cleveland’s top-ranked defense, he put up 31 points. On Saturday, he led one field-goal drive. Nothing else. That led Harbaugh to tell me post-game: “We can win games in a lot of different ways.”
So now the Ravens move on to host the first AFC Championship Game in the city since, well, the first AFC Championship Game. True fact. The AFL and NFL merged in 1970, birthing the AFC and NFC. And in January 1971, John Madden brought his Raiders to Baltimore’s Memorial Stadium to play the Colts … and the Indianapolis Colts weren’t a gleam in anyone’s eye back then. Baltimore 27, Oakland 17, with one TD pass by the great Johnny Unitas. To Ray Perkins.
Unitas, Louisville Cardinal product. A half-century later, there’s another slightly more versatile one.
Lots of celebrating in a frozen Charm City Saturday night, savoring a playoff rout and anticipating the first title game in the city in 53 years. The most famous Raven was not celebrating, yet.
“It’s cool,” Jackson said, smiling only a little. “I feel all right. Still got a lot of business to take care of.”
What are the odds that the two best QBs in Baltimore history went to Louisville…
TD Passes, All-Time, by QBs from Louisville:
Johnny Unitas 290 Lamar Jackson 125 Teddy Bridgewater 75 Chris Redman 21
Jackson also has 29 career rushing TDs
Unitas (7) and Jackson (5) are the only QBs from Louisville ever to throw postseason TD passes. All of the Unitas TD passes were for the Baltimore Colts.
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AFC EAST |
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BUFFALO Mike Sando of The Athletic looks at what the Bills must do to get better than Kansas City:
1. The Chiefs beat the Bills in the playoffs for the third time in the past four seasons. Two quick takeaways, one for each team.
• What the Bills must do: Defensive injuries give Buffalo a potential out for its inability to stop the Chiefs when it mattered, but it’s an out the organization cannot afford to take. The issues on that side of the ball run deeper and will require some form of roster overhaul for the future.
Thirty-five defensive players logged at least 10 snaps for the Bills and Chiefs on Sunday. Seven of the eight oldest played for Buffalo: Linval Joseph (35), Von Miller (34), Micah Hyde (33), Jordan Poyer (32), A.J. Klein (32), DaQuan Jones (32) and Leonard Floyd (31).
The Bills keep getting older on defense while the Chiefs have gotten much younger.
The Chiefs ranked fifth in defensive EPA per play during the regular season with eight defensive starters drafted since 2020. The Bills ranked seventh but are older, smaller and more injured, giving them less staying power, which showed up Sunday. (Kansas City has consistently averaged about five pounds heavier per defender on a snap-weighted basis, using unofficial player weights.)
“Buffalo is an effort-pursue defense that is going to take speed over size every time,” an opposing coach said of the Bills, “so their best player is (linebacker) Matt Milano, and he’s small (221 pounds) and he got hurt. At the end of this game, when everybody wants them to get a stop and get the ball back for Josh Allen, Kansas City gets the first down easily.”
Buffalo and Kansas City, unlike their counterparts in the NFC bracket, are paying top dollar for their quarterbacks. That forces them to budget accordingly for the long range. But with age comes higher salaries. Buffalo has 10 defensive players earning at least $3.5 million per year this season. Kansas City has three.
The Chiefs made a calculated bet in the 2022 offseason, trading Tyreek Hill for picks and investing heavily in defense in the draft, and they made those investments count. They leapfrogged the Bills in the first round for cornerback Trent McDuffie, who was a first-team All-Pro this season. George Karlaftis, taken nine picks later, has added to an impressive homegrown pass rush.
The Bills have taken some swings on defense in the draft, but without the same results. After Kansas City took McDuffie, Buffalo made a small trade-up for cornerback Kaiir Elam, who has just eight starts through two seasons. The Bills spent a first and two second-round picks on pass rushers (A.J. Epenesa, Gregory Rousseau and Boogie Basham) from 2020 to 2021, but none has been as productive as Karlaftis, leading them to splurge a 33-year-old Miller in 2022.
The Bills have many things to figure out this offseason, including what direction the offense is headed following an in-season coordinator change on that side of the ball. Defensively, they need to follow the Chiefs’ lead in reversing the aging process.
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THIS AND THAT
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2024 DRAFT Daniel Jeremiah of NFL.com gives us his much-awaited first Mock Draft of the year.
The NFL has released the list of underclassmen who have been granted early entry to the 2024 NFL Draft, marking the official start to Mock Draft Season!
Now that I’ve had a chance to dig into the class, a few positions really stand out. There is a very deep group of offensive tackles and several first-round candidates at quarterback. The wide receiver group is absolutely loaded, too.
I tend to base my mock drafts on what I’m hearing around the league, whereas my Top 50 prospect rankings reflect what I’m seeing during my own evaluations. Keep an eye out for those rankings in the days ahead, but for now, here is my first look at how the top 32 selections could play out when the draft gets underway in Detroit on April 25.
NOTE: As of this writing, the draft order for picks 1-24 is set. The order for picks 25-32 will be determined by postseason results. Those picks are ordered in this mock based on regular-season record, with strength of schedule as the tiebreaker.
1 Chicago Bears (via CAR) Caleb Williams USC · QB · Junior We’ve seen Justin Fields continue to improve, but I still believe GM Ryan Poles’ decision at No. 1 overall will be an easy one. The Bears select Williams, the most talented quarterback in the class.
2 Washington Commanders Drake Maye North Carolina · QB · Sophomore (RS) It’s a new era in Washington led by general manager Adam Peters. The Commanders find their quarterback of the future in Maye.
3 New England Patriots Jayden Daniels LSU · QB · Senior While Marvin Harrison Jr. would be tempting here, the Patriots need to address the quarterback position first and foremost. Daniels is coming off a monster year as a dual-threat weapon.
4 Arizona Cardinals Marvin Harrison Jr. Ohio State · WR · Junior This is a perfect scenario for the Cardinals, with Harrison falling right into their lap. I’ve compared the former Buckeyes star to franchise icon Larry Fitzgerald.
5 Los Angeles Chargers Rome Odunze Washington · WR · Senior Odunze is my favorite player in the draft. He’s a complete receiver. The Chargers have salary-cap decisions to make with Keenan Allen and Mike Williams. This would be a home run addition for Justin Herbert.
6 New York Giants Malik Nabers LSU · WR · Junior This continues the Giants’ quest from last offseason to add team speed. Nabers is the most explosive wideout in the draft.
7 Tennessee Titans Joe Alt Notre Dame · OT · Junior The Titans’ offensive line was in shambles this past season. As the rebuilding process begins, Alt could protect Will Levis’ blind side for years to come.
8 Atlanta Falcons Dallas Turner Alabama · Edge · Junior The Falcons have been on a seemingly never-ending journey to find pass rushers. They didn’t have a player record more than 6.5 sacks in 2023. Turner has a broad arsenal of tools to help Atlanta.
9 Chicago Bears Jared Verse Florida State · Edge · Senior The Bears pair Caleb Williams with Verse, who’s the best power rusher in the draft. He’ll be a great complement to Montez Sweat.
10 New York Jets Taliese Fuaga Oregon State · OT · Junior (RS) I love Fuaga’s tape from his career at Oregon State. I think we’ll see him move up draft boards during the evaluation process. He’s massive and powerful. New York’s offensive line is screaming out for more help as the Jets look to protect Aaron Rodgers.
11 Minnesota Vikings Byron Murphy II Texas · DT · Junior I believe Murphy is the top defensive tackle in the class. The Vikings need to add more firepower up front.
12 Denver Broncos Terrion Arnold Alabama · CB · Sophomore (RS) I think Arnold could go as high as fifth overall. He’s the best cornerback in this draft and he would pair with Pat Surtain II to give the Broncos one of the best CB tandems in the league, if not the best.
13 Las Vegas Raiders Olumuyiwa Fashanu Penn State · OT · Junior (RS) Teams are split on Fashanu. After a dominant 2022 season, he took a step back in 2023. But the talent is still immense.
14 New Orleans Saints Bo Nix Oregon · QB · Senior I’m a big fan of Nix’s game. I think his experience as a five-year starter is a positive for him as he heads to the next level. He would be a plug-and-play starter in New Orleans. I’m not confident the Saints view Derek Carr as the answer.
15 Indianapolis Colts Brock Bowers Georgia · TE · Junior Bowers is going to be tricky to place in mock drafts. The talent suggests he should be a top-five pick, but the debate about positional value could push him down as far as the Colts at No. 15.
16 Seattle Seahawks Troy Fautanu Washington · OT · Senior The Seahawks continue to add young talent to their offensive line. Fautanu would slide right in at guard in Seattle and can play tackle in a pinch.
17 Jacksonville Jaguars Quinyon Mitchell Toledo · CB · Senior Mitchell had a ton of production in 2022 (five interceptions, 20 pass breakups) but wasn’t challenged as much in 2023. He is incredibly gifted and will put on a show when it comes to athletic testing.
18 Cincinnati Bengals JC Latham Alabama · OT · Junior The Bengals have to address the offensive line. Some evaluators have Latham as a lock to go in the top 10. If he’s still available at No. 18, it’ll be a desirable scenario for Cincinnati. He can slide in at right tackle.
19 Los Angeles Rams Laiatu Latu UCLA · Edge · Senior I wouldn’t rule out a quarterback with this pick. The Rams could follow the Packers’ Aaron Rodgers-to-Jordan Love blueprint and begin developing a passer behind Matthew Stafford. If they don’t go that route, continuing to add pass rushers would be a smart move.
20 Pittsburgh Steelers Amarius Mims Georgia · OT · Junior The Steelers go back to Georgia after selecting Broderick Jones and Darnell Washington last year and George Pickens in 2022. Mims would join Jones to give Pittsburgh a pair of athletic bookends with prototypical size.
21 Miami Dolphins Brian Thomas Jr. LSU · WR · Junior Miami elects to build on a strength. I could see Thomas going much higher than 21st in the draft, but Tua Tagovailoa reaps the benefit in this scenario. Thomas gives the Dolphins some size — without sacrificing speed — alongside Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle.
22 Philadelphia Eagles Tyler Guyton Oklahoma · OT · Senior The Eagles need to start planning for the end of Lane Johnson’s career. Why not go shopping at the same store? Guyton, another former Sooner, is one of the most athletically gifted tackles in the class.
23 Houston Texans (via CLE) Chop Robinson Penn State · Edge · Junior Robinson joins last year’s No. 3 overall pick, Will Anderson Jr. — and potentially Jonathan Greenard, if the Texans are able to retain the pending free agent. Robinson is a little more dynamic than Anderson, but not nearly as polished.
24 Dallas Cowboys Jordan Morgan Arizona · OT · Senior Considering the age of Tyron Smith — the 33-year-old whose contract is due to void this offseason — it’s important to add to the offensive line. The Cowboys would have a good young duo to build around with Morgan and 2022 first-round pick Tyler Smith.
25 Green Bay Packers Graham Barton Duke · IOL · Senior Barton meets the Packers’ criteria for offensive linemen in terms of intelligence and versatility. He could play all five spots up front.
26 Tampa Bay Buccaneers Ennis Rakestraw Jr. Missouri · CB · Junior (RS) I love Rakestraw’s toughness and competitiveness. He fits the Bucs’ mold with Todd Bowles.
27 Arizona Cardinals (via HOU) Cooper DeJean Iowa · CB · Junior The Cardinals can take the best player available with their second pick in Round 1. DeJean has the versatility to play any position in the secondary.
28 Buffalo Bills Jer’Zhan Newton Illinois · DT · Senior The Bills are a pretty complete team, and they add another good player in Newton. He gives Buffalo even more pass-rush juice on the interior.
29 Kansas City Chiefs Devontez Walker North Carolina · WR · Senior Rashee Rice has really come on for the Chiefs, but they need more firepower on the outside. Walker provides it.
30 Detroit Lions Nate Wiggins Clemson · CB · Junior Wiggins is a height-weight-speed corner. He’s very rangy and will help a Lions defense that should often be playing with a lead, given the team’s talent on offense.
31 San Francisco 49ers Kool-Aid McKinstry Alabama · CB · Junior McKinstry offers good instincts and ball skills. He fits what the 49ers look for in their cornerbacks.
32 Baltimore Ravens Troy Franklin Oregon · WR · Junior Franklin is ultra explosive. He would be another weapon for Lamar Jackson, further strengthening an underrated receiver room. |