AROUND THE NFL
Daily Briefing
| And so – it is the Rams playing in their home stadium as the visiting team in Super Bowl 56.
But, they will be the first team that won a championship game at home that had more fans in the stands for the Super Bowl than it did for the 50-50 game Sunday night with the 49ers.
Just to expound on the closeness of this NFL season, the last 6 games played were decided by 21 total points, with the biggest margin, 6 points, coming from an overtime game (Kansas City 42, Buffalo 36). If you throw out the overtime points, the total regulation margin for the six games was 12 points.
Road teams went 4-2, scoring 142 points in the six games starting with the divisionals, home teams 139.
Some random tweets we saw on Championship Game Sunday.
@NFLResearch
Matthew Stafford has 49,995 pass yards and 323 pass TD in his regular season career
On February 13th, he will break the NFL records for most pass yards AND most pass TD by a player making his first Super Bowl appearance
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@WerderEdESPN
Matthew Stafford will be the 7th QB to start the Super Bowl in his first season with the team. He’ll try to join Tom Brady (2020 Buccaneers) and Trent Dilfer (2000 Ravens) as the 3rd to win, per @ESPNStatsInfo
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@StatsBySTATS
@RamsNFL are the first team ever to trail by double digits entering the 4th quarter with a Super Bowl berth on the line and come back to win the game.
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@ESPNStatsInfo
In Week 18, the 49ers got the ball back with 1:27 to go needing a TD to tie. They went 88 yards on 5 plays, eventually winning in OT.
The Rams shut down the 49ers this time, advancing to the Super Bowl, which will be played at home in SoFi Stadium.
Not a tweet, but from Peter King:
Never has a Super Bowl featured such low seeds. Cincinnati (13-7) and L.A. (15-5) are both four seeds, and this is the first Super Bowl since the NFL went to 12 playoffs teams in 1990 that two teams below the third seed have met. It’s a sign of what this season was like, really. Just as we couldn’t see the Bengals in this game in midseason, we also couldn’t see the Ravens losing their last six, Miami finishing 8-1 and firing its coach, Sean Payton walking away from the creation he built in New Orleans, and Tom Brady verging on retirement. Just an odd year.
This from Dane Brugler on the QBs:
@Dane Brugler
Joe Burrow and Matthew Stafford.
For only the second time ever, two QBs who were former No. 1 overall picks will face off in the Super Bowl (only other time was Peyton Manning and Cam Newton in 2016).
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From ProFootballReference:
Three people have won a Heisman, a National Championship, and a Super Bowl:
Tony Dorsett
Marcus Allen
Charles Woodson
With one more victory, Joe Burrow would be the first QB to ever accomplish the feat
Aaron Reiss of The Athletic offers some random stats of note:
The Bengals will face the Rams in Super Bowl LVI after a pair of conference championship games that came down to the last possession and were each decided by three points. Here are some of the most interesting stats from the day:
1. After a 27-24 Bengals win, Joe Burrow will be the sixth quarterback since 2000 to start in the Super Bowl in his second NFL season.
Kurt Warner (2000), Tom Brady (2002), Ben Roethlisberger (2006), Colin Kaepernick (2013) and Russell Wilson (2014) are the others. They combined to go 4-1 in the Super Bowl, with Kaepernick delivering the sole loss. Among the group, only Brady and Warner led teams that finished the previous season with a losing record, as Burrow is doing.
2. Sean McVay is the fifth head coach to make two Super Bowls in his first five seasons.
Tom Flores, Joe Gibbs, Jimmy Johnson and Mike Tomlin are the others. That’s rare company, and yet McVay’s counterpart and divisional foe, Kyle Shanahan, would have joined the club instead had the 49ers won the game. McVay is 4-7 all time against Shanahan but 1-0 in the postseason.
3. The Bengals once trailed the Chiefs 21-3, setting up for an unprecedented comeback against Patrick Mahomes.
Mahomes started the game 13-of-14 for 154 yards and three touchdowns. Prior to Sunday, he was 37-0 when leading by 15 points or more.
Kansas City’s problems began when Mahomes threw short of the end zone to Tyreek Hill during the final seconds of the first half, resulting in an empty possession for the Chiefs. From there, the Chiefs’ next five possessions went: punt, punt, interception, punt, punt. Mahomes completed 8 of 15 passes for 55 yards and a pick in the second half.
Comebacks against Mahomes are nothing new for Burrow’s Bengals. Cincinnati trailed by as many as 14 when it beat Kansas City during the regular season.
4. A 10-point fourth-quarter comeback by the Rams was unprecedented, too.
Before the Rams made a comeback from down 17-7 on Sunday, McVay’s teams were 0-14 when trailing by 10 or more entering the fourth quarter. Shanahan-coached teams were 23-1 when leading by 10 entering the fourth, with the only other loss coming against the Chiefs in Super Bowl LIV.
5. No team has won two overtime games in one postseason, according to ESPN.
The Chiefs got the ball to start overtime for the second week in a row, but this time Mahomes went 0-for-3 after regulation, with an interception on third-and-10 that set up the Bengals near midfield for the winning drive.
In addition to its divisional round victory against the Bills, Kansas City also won its only regular-season overtime game, against the Chargers in Week 15, so it appears some regression was in order. On the other side, the Bengals went 1-2 in overtime during the regular season.
6. The Bengals had their worst first-down rushing performance of the season.
Based on down and distance, Cincinnati’s first down runs were successful a season-low 34.9% of the time. And the Bengals ran on 58.6% of their first downs, their highest first down run rate in a single-score victory since Week 1. Cincinnati’s Joe Mixon ran for 59 yards on 16 first-down carries, but the numbers would have looked much uglier if not for one 23-yard carry.
7. The Rams faced a season-high 18 third downs and converted at their third-best rate of the season.
Los Angeles was 11-of-18 on third downs. That includes a season-high five conversions on third-and-long (seven yards or more to go). Matthew Stafford completed 10 of 14 passes for 125 yards and two touchdowns to Cooper Kupp on third downs.
8. Odell Beckham Jr. recorded his first 100-yard game since Week 6 of 2019.
Beckham finished with nine catches for 106 yards, joining Kupp to make for the first duo of 100-yard receivers Stafford has had in a single game since Week 9 of 2019. They’re the first pair of Rams receivers to each surpass 100 yards in a playoff game since Torry Holt and Kevin Curtis did so against the Seahawks in the wild-card round of the 2004 season.
Even more surprising than Beckham’s production? The five catches for 57 yards the Rams got out of tight end Kendall Blanton. The third-year undrafted player out of Missouri had four catches for 37 yards during the entire regular season.
9. Jimmy Garoppolo went 3-of-9 for 30 yards and an interception in the fourth quarter.
The closing performance was a strong explanation for why the 49ers traded up last year to draft Garoppolo’s eventual replacement, Trey Lance. The 49ers failed to score on three fourth-quarter drives, and Jimmy G all but sealed the loss with an ugly interception, an unwelcome signature of his game.
Since the 2000 season, a quarterback has started at least three games in a single postseason 62 times, and Garoppolo’s most recent playoffs ranked as the group’s fourth-worst performance by expected points added (EPA) per dropback. |
| NFC NORTH |
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GREEN BAY
The Packers are hopeful that QB AARON RODGERS slow exit after the season is a sign he could return – even with OC Nathaniel Hackett now running the Broncos. Ian Rapoport of NFL.com:
When Aaron Rodgers’ season ended after a Divisional Round loss to the 49ers, he didn’t hop on a jet and fly to Los Angeles. Frustrated, and with his future hanging in the balance, the Packers quarterback stuck around in Green Bay.
Sources say Rodgers stayed in the building for a few extra days to plot out the team’s future, huddling with coach Matt LaFleur and others and mapping out what’s next. It left those in the organization with confidence moving forward that Rodgers will return for the 2022 season.
Cautious optimism was the phrase, per sources, though no one wants to interfere with Rodgers’ process. And Packers decision makers all respect the steps he’ll take to arrive at his eventual decision.
Rodgers has said publicly that all options are on the table moving forward, from returning to retiring to working with the team on a possible trade that’s suitable for all parties. He also has said he doesn’t want to be in a rebuilding situation.
The Packers have some salary-cap issues, and their top offensive weapon — Davante Adams — needs a new contract or a franchise tag. The Packers are expected to place a franchise tag on Adams and then work toward a potential new deal, per sources. The team intends to reload as much as possible to keep on this track of being capable of winning a Super Bowl.
More than anything, they want Rodgers back, and in the worst way, as they’ve explained. Rodgers recently said on The Pat McAfee Show that there are a variety of realities he’ll consider.
“I think some of the factors are the direction of the team and the organization, and how I feel like I fit in in the future,” Rodgers told the show. “Mentally, do I still have the passion, the competitiveness, the desire to keep playing? I think it’s a feeling, and you just kind of know when the offseason has started. When you’re a hyper-competitive individual, you also dream or think about what the fairy tale ending is. It doesn’t mean Super Bowl necessarily, but that’s a pretty damn good fairy tale.”
Advice for Rodgers from (presumably) Mike Florio:
@ProFootballTalk
Aaron Rodgers needs to take a long look around the AFC right now before leaving the Packers.
Quarterbacks in the Broncos division – PATRICK MAHOMES, JUSTIN HERBERT, DEREK CARR.
Elsewhere in AFC – JOE BURROW, JOSH ALLEN, LAMAR JACKSON
While in the NFC North – KIRK COUSINS (?), JARED GOFF, JUSTIN FIELDS
Elsewhere in NFC – DAK PRESCOTT, MATTHEW STAFFORD, slight chance of TOM BRADY |
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MINNESOTA
Jim Harbaugh interviewed in Minnesota, but Peter King hears his destiny might be elsewhere:
Jim Harbaugh might still be in play. Heard some cryptic things about the Michigan coach over the weekend, including that he’s not likely to get the Vikings job and yet one other job is in play. Not sure which that would be. Would Shad Khan take another shot at a famous college coach? Can’t imagine. Houston? Miami? Steven Ross? No! Who knows. I hear a lot of weird things this time of year. |
| NFC EAST |
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NEW YORK GIANTS
Peter King on the new Giants honchos:
Finally, new braintrust for the Giants. This week (Saturday) is the 10-year anniversary of New York’s last playoff victory—the 21-17 Super Bowl win over New England. That is one long dry spell. New GM Joe Schoen won’t have an easy path with his buddy and new coach Brian Daboll. The Giants have to either fix Daniel Jones or replace him in 2023, and Schoen told me Saturday he’ll have to clear out $40 million from a bloated and mismanaged salary cap this spring.
“When we first got to Buffalo,” said Schoen, who worked for the Bills from 2017-’21, “we had $55 million in dead cap money we had to manage. We had a plan there, and we’ll have one here. We may have to make some decisions that hurt, but I do not want to kick the can down the road with the cap. I want to get it fixed.”
Schoen is smart—a bad team like the Giants needs to rip the cap band-aid off quickly so 2023 can be bright. (More about Jones in 10 Things, below.) I also think Schoen would be smart to look to deal one of their two high first-round picks (fifth or seventh overall) for future draft capital, so they could be in a pick-rich position to pick a quarterback if they’d be in the market for one in 2023.
And this on QB DANIEL JONES:
I think from the opening press conference and the early reviews, new Giants GM Joe Schoen looks the part of a modern GM who has paid his dues, learned the scouting game under excellent people, and knows the formidable task in front of him. The best thing Schoen said in his first couple of days on the job: He’s going to give Daniel Jones every chance to be the Giants’ long-term quarterback. When the Giants interviewed nine GM candidates for the job left vacant after the damaging reign of Dave Gettleman, eight said they were in Jones’ corner, including Schoen, the former Bills assistant GM. The Giants are convinced Jones has a chance to be the long-term guy. I’m dubious, but I do feel strongly that a player who was picked sixth in the draft and who has had some good moments in his first 38 games—throwing for 402 yards to best the Saints this year, going 4-2 in the division last year, showing the athleticism a modern QB needs—should not be jettisoned yet. As owner/president John Mara said the other day: “We’ve done every possible thing to screw this guy up.”
No Giants fan wants to hear a fervent defense of Jones, who has been hurt too much, been too careless with the ball and exited 2021 with what might be a serious neck injury. Jones will enter his fourth season in 2022 on his third head coach and fourth offensive coordinator. Jones has also had two different regular left tackles, two left guards, two centers and two right guards; and three different right tackles. The Giants haven’t had a 70-catch receiver in Jones’ three seasons.
Terry Bradshaw said something hauntingly familiar in his HBO documentary: In today’s football, he thinks the Steelers would have given up on him after three seasons. He was a 48-percent passer in his first three years, with 31 TDs and 58 interceptions. He’d lost his confidence. We get into this off-with-his-head mentality when evaluating young quarterbacks. How are you going to find out if the guy is the real solution if you give him three years, with the third year a mess because of massive receiver injuries and mayhem on the coaching staff?
“People give up on quarterbacks too soon,” Schoen told me Saturday. “Think about the five quarterbacks drafted in 2018. Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson have been in the same system, and look at their success. The other three quarterbacks—Baker Mayfield, Josh Rosen, Sam Darnold. What do they have in common? Different head coaches, different systems.” Mayfield four head coaches, Darnold three and Rosen, I’ve lost count on coaches and teams. Now, the fire drill is on for Jones. He’s got a year to show Daboll and Schoen he’s the guy. But he does deserve a fourth year.
Quarterbacks mature in different ways. Look at the first three seasons of John Elway, Eli Manning and Daniel Jones:
Elway: 42 games, .534 accuracy, 47 TDs, 52 interceptions, 6.55 yards per attempt.
E. Manning: 41 games, .541 accuracy, 54 TDs, 44 interceptions, 6.31 yards per attempt.
Jones: 38 games, .628 accuracy, 45 TDs, 29 interceptions, 6.62 yards per attempt.
Oh—and in his first three years, Elway ran for 636 yards and a 4.8 yards per carry average. Jones: 1,000 yards, 5.8 per rush.
Elway is one of the greatest quarterbacks ever, Manning a two-time Super Bowl winner with a good chance to make the Hall of Fame. Jones, with the best completion rate and TD/INT ratio, is a guy many Giants fans and New York talk show hosts want gone yesterday.
Now you certainly don’t guarantee Jones’ fifth-year option this offseason. If it costs you more to sign him later, so be it. This should be a prove-it year for Jones with a new staff. But let’s give the sixth pick in the 2019 draft a legit chance to play like one. |
| NFC SOUTH |
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TAMPA BAY
Just because Adam Schefter and Jeff Darlington got it early, it doesn’t mean they got it wrong. Peter King:
The denials Saturday were too soft, too tentative, too non-denial. If Jeff Darlington and Adam Schefter were over-reaching with their report Saturday that Tom Brady was retiring after 22 years atop the football mountain, we’d have heard more insistent pushback. It’s very likely a matter of time before Brady officially retires.
So why now? I believe it’s about a few things. At 44, Brady has already accomplished more than any player in the 102-year history of the NFL, and with cap and roster issues going forward, and with the Tampa futures of Chris Godwin and Rob Gronkowski both in doubt, 2022 could be a frustrating year for a Tampa Bay quarterback. I also think as much as Brady didn’t love Bill Belichick at the end, he respected that he’d always have a coaching/personnel plan to keep the team in Super Bowl contention. I don’t know that he feels that way about the Bucs’ ability to stay dominant. And his family. Listen to Brady on his podcast this week with Jim Gray: “It’s not always what I want. It’s what we want as a family.”
One person who spoke to Brady after the playoff loss to the Rams last week said over the weekend: “He’s done.” Seems so. Now it will be on his terms to make it official.
Interesting that King mentions doubt about Tampa Bay’s 2022 roster. What if there were a team that was three points away from the Super Bowl with an inferior QB that ran a scheme that didn’t require great mobility from a QB? A team that Brady grew up rooting for?
DB odds – retire 80%, 49ers 15%, Buccaneers 5%. |
| NFC WEST |
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ARIZONA |
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SAN FRANCISCO
Nothing specific about the future of QB JIMMY GAROPPOLO in the postgame after an NFC Championship Game performance that was his best-ever in the postseason until the final two drives. Nick Wagoner of ESPN.com:
As quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo walked slowly to the locker room for perhaps the final time as a member of the San Francisco 49ers, he stopped and embraced general manager John Lynch.
Garoppolo and the Niners’ latest comeback attempt had just been derailed when his last-gasp fling to JaMycal Hasty bounced off the running back’s hands and into those of Los Angeles Rams linebacker Travin Howard.
A dazed Garoppolo hugged Lynch back as the two shared some comforting words following San Francisco’s 20-17 loss to the division rival Los Angeles Rams in Sunday’s NFC Championship Game, a defeat that stung all the more because the Niners coughed up a 10-point lead in the fourth quarter much like they did in Super Bowl LIV.
Minutes later, Garoppolo stood in front of the assembled media and elaborated on the emotions of the moment, staring directly into the reality of an uncertain future that likely ends with him playing for another team next season.
“[The emotions] hit pretty hard in the locker room,” Garoppolo said. “I think these next couple of days it will really start to settle in a little bit. Emotions are high after a game win or loss, and it’s one of those things you’ve got to be glad it happened, smile from it, and think about the good things. We’ll see what happens in these next couple days, weeks, whatever, but I love this team. Just the fight and the battle in this team throughout the entire year has been really impressive. I love those guys.”
The opportunity to play one more game with the team that traded a second-round pick for him in 2017 and signed him to what was at the time a record-breaking five-year, $137.5 million contract slipped through Garoppolo’s fingers after another uneven performance in which he offered glimpses of both the good and bad that have marked his tenure with the team.
Garoppolo finished 16-of-30 for 232 yards with two touchdowns and the interception for a passer rating of 87.1. He made some big throws, including a 16-yard touchdown pass to tight end George Kittle that staked the Niners to that 10-point lead. He also made some mistakes, including missing a wide-open Kittle in the first quarter on a play that might have gone for a long touchdown.
Most of Garoppolo’s damage came from a clean pocket, which he had for most of the first three quarters when the Rams managed just four pressures on 22 dropbacks. But when Aaron Donald, Von Miller & Co. turned up the heat in the final quarter, Garoppolo had few answers.
Garoppolo was under pressure on seven of his nine fourth-quarter dropbacks, going 2-of-7 with the interception. He finished the season with an NFL-high eight interceptions when pressured, including five since Week 18.
After the loss, Niners coach Kyle Shanahan wasn’t ready to issue a goodbye to Garoppolo but instead offered an appreciation.
“I love Jimmy,” Shanahan said. “I’m not going to sit here and make a farewell statement or anything right now. There’s a lot of stuff on my mind. Jimmy has battled his ass off, he battled today and he did some unbelievable things today. I love coaching Jimmy.”
Just how much longer Shanahan will coach Garoppolo remains to be seen. The writing has been on the wall for a change at quarterback since the Niners traded up to No. 3 in last year’s NFL draft and selected Trey Lance.
Parting ways with Garoppolo won’t be easy. Since Shanahan took over in 2017, the Niners are 35-16 when Garoppolo starts and 8-31 when he doesn’t.
Garoppolo has one year left on his contract with a scheduled cap charge of $26.905 million, though the Niners would incur a charge of only $1.4 million in dead money by trading or releasing Garoppolo in the offseason.
The Niners’ preference, of course, would be for a trade, with multiple teams around the league needing a quarterback and few proven starters likely to be available. For any team aiming to acquire Garoppolo, a contract extension would probably be in the offing.
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LOS ANGELES RAMS
Just because the Rams don’t believe in first round picks, it doesn’t mean they don’t believe in the draft. Peter King on that and other things:
The Rams won a playoff game last year with Goff. Trading him meant they thought they could win more than just a playoff game. They thought they could win it all.
This is a different franchise than the other 31. But it is not a senseless franchise, just because it trades first-round picks the way the rest of us change socks. The outside world sees trading second- and third-round picks for a declining Von Miller, and trading two ones and a three plus Goff, plus money thrown in, for Stafford, who’d never won a playoff game or a division title in 12 Detroit years, and thinks it’s the most live-for-today team in recent football history. It might be, but hear them out.
“We’ve had the second-most draft choices in the league since Sean took over as coach,” Demoff said. “We just haven’t had them in the first round. We draft [Penn State safety] Nick Scott in the seventh round in 2019 as mostly a special teams player. When we draft guys in lower rounds, the goal is not to have them come in right away and play; it’s to train them so at some point they’re more than special-teams guys—they’ve got a chance to be key players.”
Scott’s a perfect example. With Covid and injuries battering the Rams in December, he started to see more playing time at safety, not just in the kicking game. He’s started all three playoff games, and last week in Tampa, he made one of the big plays of the season for the Rams, intercepting Tom Brady on the way to L.A.’s 19-16 win. Another six-tackle day Sunday helped the Rams get to the Super Bowl.
This game was loud, throughout. It looked to be about 55-45 San Francisco fans, but the odd thing was that it seemed the crowds were in competition with each other. Rams fans wanted to out-decibel Niners fans, and vice versa. “We’re going to kick their ass,” one 49ers fans in a BOSA 97 jersey said to me in my hotel lobby Sunday. “I mean, we’re gonna show them what team is taking over this stadium.” Neither team did—it was deafening throughout, by both sides. Such is what happens when fans of a team with Super Bowl tradition, the 49ers, can travel to see a big game at a beautiful new stadium.
McVay did a good job figuring out how to win this game. He knew he’d have to put it in Stafford’s hands, and he was comfortable doing that. It was fitting that the man McVay was dying to get on his team was the guy the coach used to the max in the biggest game of the year. Stafford threw 24 passes in the first half and 21 in the second, and he was more efficient as the game went on.
Cooper Kupp and Odell Beckham Jr., played great games, and the Rams’ decision to go get Beckham in November paid off beautifully here. Kupp has been the dominant receiver in the NFL this year; no player in history, in fact, has had the combined regular- and post-season run that Kupp has had, with 170 catches for 2,333 yards in 20 games. But Beckham (nine catches, 113 yards) was every bit as important as Kupp. Once and for all, Beckham has proven at 29 that he’s not washed up. Whatever happened in Cleveland has stayed in Cleveland, and Beckham is happier than he’s ever been as a pro. “Everything here is done right,” Beckham said after this game.
The Niners looked to be on the way to their seventh straight win over the Rams when they took a 17-7 lead entering the fourth quarter. But then Stafford and his receivers made the plays that ended up winning the game. Finishing up a 75-yard drive with a classic McVay call got the game close. With 13:35 left, McVay called for a formation that lined up three receivers in a triangle-bunch to the left. Kupp, in the lower right, did a classic Kupp thing. He shaked-and-baked against a veteran corner, K’Waun Williams, used the fog of the three-receiver set to create confusion for the secondary, and …
“To be honest with you,” Stafford said, “San Francisco did a great job of masking some coverage there. We got a coverage that we probably didn’t think we were gonna get. But we got it. Cooper and I both recognized the coverage as the ball was snapped. He ran an unbelievable route, getting off his guy right after coming off the line. And when I saw him, that’s just … that’s chemistry. That’s us spending time together. We spend so much time together talking about football, talking about opportunities that might come up in a game. That’s how that play worked.”
Kupp got a step-and-a-half on Williams, and Stafford’s throw to the left side of the end zone was perfect. That made it 17-14. Stafford alternated between Kupp and Beckham on the tying and winning field-goal drives. McVay praised Beckham for his smarts after the game, and his work with Stafford to become a co-favorite receiver alongside the brilliant Kupp for Stafford. But what impressed me in this game was Beckham’s toughness. He took a brutal helmet-to-helmet shot from Niners safety Jimmie Ward while make a great catch along the left sideline with 9:47 left, and he just shook it off and looked unaffected by it. Those things don’t go unnoticed by teammates … or coaches.
So now the Rams stay home for the Super Bowl, and their quarterback gets one more shot to prove this was the smartest trade of the McVay/Snead Era. Of all the storylines entering the season, one huge one was this: Is Stafford as good as the quarterback gurus all say he is, and will he finally prove it with a strong cast around him?
Stafford, after a 3-0 playoff run with one turnover in 12 quarters, is trending in the right direction. And you could tell in the mayhem of the Rams’ postgame thrillride he was loving it.
“Sure, I’ve dreamed about this,” Stafford told me. “I’ve loved football for a long time. Now it’s coming true—and now we’ve got a chance to go out there and win the Super Bowl. It’s a pretty unebelievable thing.” |
| AFC WEST |
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DENVER
Peter King:
The Denver Broncos celebrated the hiring of head coach Nathaniel Hackett with a dinner at Shanahan’s Steakhouse in Denver Tech Center not far from the Broncos’ facility Friday night.
In a back room having dinner with friends was the man himself, former Denver coach Mike Shanahan. Hackett was invited back to meet Shanahan. “This feels like it’s out of the Godfather,” Hackett said. Shanahan welcomed Hackett to Denver in a warm, cordial 10-minute chat.
Shanahan’s age at time of Denver hire in 1995: 42.
Hackett’s age at time of Denver hire in 2022: 42. |
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KANSAS CITY
After the Chiefs lost, KMBC tried to buck up Chiefs Kingdom with this tweet:
@kmbc
AGAINST ALL ODDS: We were never supposed to be here. We were never meant to make it this far. But against all odds, we did. What a season. Thank you for the incredible ride. We will always be #ChiefsKingdom
Tom Fornelli was among those who provided ridicule to AGAINST ALL ODDS:
@TomFornelli
The Chiefs were favored by 7 points today and were favored in all 20 of their games this season.
The gutty Chiefs have now played in four straight championship games with QB PATRICK MAHOMES – and he’s not happy with how this one ended:
There might have been a time early in his career when Patrick Mahomes would have looked back at a season in which the Kansas City Chiefs lost in overtime of the AFC Championship Game and felt his team accomplished a lot.
But he said after Sunday’s 27-24 overtime loss to the Cincinnati Bengals that that time has passed.
“The leaders on this team know this isn’t our standard,” said Mahomes, who threw a touchdown pass on each of the Chiefs’ first three possessions but threw one interception in the second half and another in overtime. “We want to win the Super Bowl. Whenever you taste winning the Super Bowl, anything less than that is not success.
“It’s definitely disappointing. Here, with this group of guys that we have, we expect to be in that game and win that game, and anything less than that is not success. We’ll go back and look at all the things we did well, the adversity we battled through, the team we became at the end of the season and try to learn from the mistakes we made and try to be better next year.”
This was the second overtime loss for Mahomes in the AFC Championship Game since he became a starter in 2018. The Chiefs lost in the conference title game that season to the New England Patriots.
In between that loss and the one on Sunday, the Chiefs appeared in two Super Bowls, winning one and losing the other.
“A few plays here and there we could have four chances at the Super Bowl … You can’t let this end what we have here,” Mahomes said. “You have to make sure you continue to battle, continue to get better and try to find ways to win Super Bowls.” |
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LAS VEGAS
Frank Schwab of YahooSports.com on the hirings of Josh McDaniels and Dave Ziegler:
The Las Vegas Raiders have their new coach, Josh McDaniels. As long as he doesn’t back out before he signs the contract.
McDaniels, who shocked the NFL in 2018 by taking the Indianapolis Colts’ job and then backing out before he got on a plane to finalize the deal, is apparently finally ready to become a head coach again. He agreed to become the Raiders’ next head coach.
That had been a hot rumor for a week, and it got stronger when the Raiders hired Dave Ziegler of the Patriots to be their new general manager. ESPN and NFL Network reported that the Raiders had decided on McDaniels and were working on a contract to make him their new head coach.
McDaniels hasn’t been an NFL head coach since 2010. Since then he has done a great job as the New England Patriots’ offensive coordinator, while flirting with many teams that had head coaching openings. He always returned to the Patriots, but something about the Raiders job must have appealed to him.
McDaniels has had a notable and unusual career.
He was the hottest candidate in the NFL more than a decade ago and got the Denver Broncos’ head coaching job in 2009, at the age of 33. It did not go well.
McDaniels turned off the locker room by shuttling out popular veterans in favor of anyone with Patriots ties, which is a common mistake among former Bill Belichick assistants. He somehow got control of the front office shortly after he was hired and his personnel decisions were bad. He drafted Tim Tebow in the first round, and that wasn’t even his most questionable move.
On the field it didn’t start that terribly. The Broncos got off to a 6-0 start in McDaniels’ first season. McDaniels’ brash style seemed to be working. Then the Broncos collapsed and finished 8-8. The next season the Broncos got caught filming a San Francisco 49ers practice in London, a violation that cost the team and McDaniels $50,000 fines. That was the beginning of the end for McDaniels in Denver, and he was fired during his second season there with a 3-9 record.
It took a long time for McDaniels to resurface as a head coach, though he agreed to take the Colts job and then backed out before he got on a plane to Indianapolis.
Still, he remained a popular candidate due to his work with the Patriots offense.
There have been many stories written through the years about how McDaniels has learned from the fiasco in Denver. The Raiders obviously believe that he’ll be totally different running a team this time around.
The Raiders passed on making Rich Bisaccia the permanent head coach, even after Bisaccia took over a tough situation during last season and led the Raiders to the playoffs. Many players said they wanted Bisaccia back. Hopefully McDaniels’ improvement in dealing with players is legitimate, because it will be tested right away.
The Raiders are coming off a playoff berth, but it will be a challenge in an AFC West against Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs, and Justin Herbert and the Los Angeles Chargers. But McDaniels has been an excellent offensive coach his entire career, including last season’s work with rookie quarterback Mac Jones. He’ll get the most out of the Raiders’ offense.
The Patriot Way is coming to Las Vegas. When the failures of Belichick assistants are mentioned, McDaniels’ stint in Denver is mentioned prominently. The Raiders are hoping he’s a much different coach this time around. Assuming he signs the contract.
Peter King:
The Raiders choose Josh McDaniels. Some would say, The Raiders? Why go to that team of dysfunction in this division of death? I would say: I doubt there’d ever be a better job for McDaniels. He has his own hand-picked personnel guy, Dave Ziegler. He has a quarterback who can win in the NFL, Derek Carr. So he’s got a flighty owner. The one thing you don’t hear about Mark Davis is he’s a meddler. So think of those three qualities in a coaching job. It’s not the best job in the NFL, and the roster definitely has holes. But for McDaniels, I think it’s a great chance, and probably the best he’d ever have outside the New England cocoon.
As far as the Patriots go, I don’t think they’ll lose valued defensive assistant Jerod Mayo to a head-coaching job. But for Bill Belichick to lose his Mac Jones tutor and his top personnel man to the Raiders on one weekend—that’s a twin blow that will hurt.
This from Tashan Reed:
@tashanreed
#Raiders were a couple plays away from beating the AFC Super Bowl representative and have a new coach and GM. That’s crazy. |
| AFC NORTH |
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CINCINNATI
Support for the Bengals, not only this year, but beyond:
@Chron_MattYoung
The Bengals have won as many playoff games this month as the Dallas Cowboys have won in the past 25 years.
@jimsteeg
As critical as media, fans & even other nfl owners have been of Brown family Bengals have been in more Super Bowls than Panthers, Falcons, Ravens, Bears, Bucs, Saints, Cardinals, Titans/Oilers, Chargers, Jets, Lions, Browns, Jaguars, Texans, and as many as Eagles & Seahawks
That got us thinking, the Bengals are not an “elite” franchise, but in the last two decades they have been more like an average or mediocre one than a pathetic and hapless.
We wondered where on the 21st Century wins list the Bengals might stand, we thought it would not be in the bottom quarter. And what about the Rams?
Both of this year’s SB teams are in the bottom half (teams that have made Super Bowl in Green in that span, teams that have won Super Bowl in bold). Bengals are just out of the bottom quarter.
REGULAR SEASON WINS SINCE 2000
17 Miami Dolphins 168
17 New York Giants 168
19 Carolina Panthers 167
20 St. Louis / Los Angeles Rams 166
21 San Francisco 49ers 164
22 Tampa Bay Buccaneers 162
23 Buffalo Bills 161
24 Cincinnati Bengals 159
25 Arizona Cardinals 156
26 New York Jets 154
27 Washington 146
28 Oakland / Las Vegas Raiders 143
29 Houston Texans 139
30 Jacksonville Jaguars 131
31 Detroit Lions 122
32 Cleveland Browns 118
What if we cherry-pick to 2003, the first year that Marvin Lewis was the coach? The Bengals move ahead of the Rams (and quite a few others) over the last 18 seasons:
17 Chicago Bears 149
18 Cincinnati Bengals 147
19 Buffalo Bills 142
20 Arizona Cardinals 141
21 New York Giants 139
22 Miami Dolphins 137
23 San Francisco 49ers 136
24 Houston Texans 135
25 St. Louis / Los Angeles Rams 135
26 Tampa Bay Buccaneers 131
27 New York Jets 126
28 Washington 123
29 Jacksonville Jaguars 112
30 Oakland / Las Vegas Raiders 110
31 Detroit Lions 108
32 Cleveland Browns 99
– – –
We remember how the smart guys thought that QB JOE BURROW should force a trade to a real franchise. It comes up in this from Judy Bautista of NFL.com:
Burrow is almost perfectly constructed for the franchise he joined. The Bengals didn’t need him to provide just elite play. They needed him to provide bountiful confidence, a resistance to the feeling of impending doom that has felt like it has surrounded the franchise for decades.
That he was capable of fulfilling that mandate was apparent even on that November day, when Burrow was as cool staring down a losing streak as he was on Sunday, facing an 18-point deficit against the game’s premier quarterback, in a road game with a Super Bowl appearance on the line. As cool as he was leading the methodical second-half drives that brought the Bengals back. As cool as when he was slowly moving them into field-goal range in overtime. As cool as Burrow was, meeting Ickey Woods in the middle of the celebration and doing a few steps of the Ickey Shuffle, linking the last time the Bengals had great success with this sudden revival. As cool as he was explaining the enormous diamond-encrusted “JB9” pendant he wore after the game.
“They’re definitely real,” he said. “I make too much money to have fake ones.”
The Bengals are going to the Super Bowl — not a misprint — for the third time in franchise history because the Chiefs ran a misguided play at the end of the first half, squandering a chance to extend their lead by a margin that would have won the game, the first of six straight scoreless possessions. They are going to the Super Bowl because their defense dropped more men into coverage in the second half, blanketing Patrick Mahomes’ targets and finally getting pressure on him.
But most of all, they are going to the Super Bowl for the first time since 1989 because Burrow was as unruffled by the daunting circumstances the Bengals faced Sunday as he was by that now-laughable, two-game losing streak or the enormity of the Bengals’ cursed history.
That the Bengals were even in this situation, in this game, was a marvel. The Bengals won two games two years ago, the perpetual also-ran then a laughingstock, too. And then Burrow, son of Ohio, so at ease with the stage that the indelible image of him is of Burrow smoking a stogie after winning the national championship for LSU, was the first overall pick and brought his brand of extreme confidence and competence to a team that hadn’t had much of either in more than 30 years.
On Saturday night, Burrow told head coach Zac Taylor that he was going to run for 100 yards and Burrow explained later that it was because he had not used his legs much when the Bengals beat the Chiefs in the regular season, so he figured the Chiefs might not account for that. He didn’t quite get to 100 Sunday — Burrow ran for 25 yards — but his elusiveness extended plays over and over, especially on the drive that led to the field goal that gave the Bengals their first lead of the game. On a third-down play, Burrow was nearly engulfed by the pass rush before he somehow squirted free and scrambled to his left for the first down.
“He just finds ways to make plays when there isn’t a play to be made,” Taylor said.
Burrow greeted all these developments with the sanguineness that has become his trademark. He was more animated disclosing that one of his favorite musical artists, Kid Cudi, reached out to him over the weekend. Where he is socially — provoking runs on sunglasses he wears, being asked about his jewelry — that is surreal, he said. The football? This is exactly where Burrow has expected the Bengals to be all season.
“If you’d told me coming into the league when I got drafted that we’d be here this year, obviously it would have been a shock,” Burrow said. “But now I’m not surprised. Playing this whole year, I felt we’d have a chance to be here.”
Defensive end Sam Hubbard, an Ohio native who has known Burrow since they met at Ohio State, has been a Bengal since 2019. He and some of his teammates have been miserable over the years, as the Bengals have struggled. When Burrow was in position to be the first overall pick two years ago, when there were suggestions he should refuse to play for the Bengals to salvage his career, Hubbard and Burrow talked.
“We need you,” Hubbard said he told Burrow. “You’re the guy who can turn this around, I know it.”
The turnaround is complete and the Queen City might soon have its crown. Hubbard was right about something else.
Burrow is, indeed, the guy. |
| AFC EAST |
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BUFFALO
Sean Payton defends Buffalo’s late kickoff strategy, the rest not so much. Peter King:
“A lot of it depends on my kicker. If I’ve got a young kicker I’m not sure I can trust, I will not squib kick. You can’t risk the kick going out of bounds, or being recovered at the 40. I also don’t like trying a pop-up kick to land at the eight- or 10-yard line. I’m not asking a kicker to use a technique, seldom-used, to place a kick somewhere that might determine whether you go to the championship game. I’m probably just kicking the ball deep into the end zone and giving them the ball at the 25, like Buffalo did.
“The crime that is committed comes after that. We are playing football still—you can’t be defending the sidelines at all costs, like Buffalo was. You see when Travis Kelce catches that long pass to put them in field-goal range, a cornerback is defending an area of the field near the sidelines he doesn’t need to defend. Kansas City’s got two timeouts left—they don’t need to get out of bounds. Everything about what Buffalo did defensively is flawed. We would play outside man technique with a three-man rush, funneling balls to the middle of the field and contesting outside technique.” |
|
MIAMI
Marcel Louis-Jacques of ESPN.com says the Dolphins coaching search seems to be centering on young offensive coaches:
There was a 34-year span, from 1970 to 2003, when the Miami Dolphins were the epitome of stability. Two losing seasons, two Super Bowl wins and three head coaches made it so.
But they have just five winning seasons in the 18 years since. They have also employed 10 head coaches over that span, including the recently fired Brian Flores, who led them to two of those winning seasons.
In the midst of another quest for stability on the sideline, Miami has played its search close to the vest since firing Flores on Jan. 10, but ESPN sources have confirmed the team wants to hire a coach with a background in offense.
Former Buffalo Bills offensive coordinator Brian Daboll was widely reported to be a top candidate for the Dolphins before taking the New York Giants job Friday, narrowing Miami’s search.
There are reports that offensive coordinators Kellen Moore (Cowboys) and Mike McDaniel (49ers) will get second interviews early in the week, although Dallas owner Jerry Jones has said he expects to retain Moore next season.
Dolphins defensive tackle Christian Wilkins doesn’t care what side of the ball the next coach comes from. He says he will be focused on a different quality.
“You can be a player’s coach, you can be an X’s and O’s guy,” he said. “But I feel like consistently to be a good head coach, you have to have the ability to motivate and get everybody on the same page … you got to be able to be a great leader.”
When Flores was fired, owner Stephen Ross said, “We’re going to look for the best man. … Our mind is open.”
However, it makes sense that the minds of Miami’s decision-makers would be most open to a coach with a background in offense, because fixing that unit has to be the team’s No. 1 priority. Anyone who watched the Kansas City Chiefs defeat the Bills 42-36 in overtime of the divisional round of the playoffs last weekend knows as much.
If McDaniel, 38, is the hire, the Dolphins will be getting a coach in his first season as the 49ers offensive coordinator. He also coordinates the team’s running game and is regarded as an innovative play designer. In addition to working for 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan, McDaniel has spent time on the same staffs as Green Bay Packers head coach Matt LaFleur and Los Angeles Rams head coach Sean McVay.
Moore, 33, finished his third season as the Cowboys’ offensive coordinator, with his offenses leading the NFL in scoring in two of them (quarterback Dak Prescott missed most of the other season with an injury). A left-handed former quarterback, Moore could offer a unique understanding of Miami starter Tua Tagovailoa.
Whoever gets the job will have a lot of work to do. Miami hasn’t fielded a top-10 offense since 1995, which is the longest drought in the NFL by 12 years. The team ranked 25th in yards per game (307) in 2021 — averaging 92.2 rushing (30th) and 214.8 passing (17th). Meanwhile, three of the four teams playing in conference title games wielded top-10 offenses during the regular season, and the Cincinnati Bengals finished 13th, averaging 361.5 yards per game. That’s a mark the Dolphins reached just four times in 17 games this season. |
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THIS AND THAT |
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OVERALL #1 QBs
Here are the overall #1 QBs. We put the ones who went to a Super Bowl with the team that drafted them in Green, the ones who started a Super Bowl for the only team they ever played for in purple, those who started a Super Bowl for another team than the team that drafted them in Red and bolded the Super Bowl starters and winners.
1970 Terry Bradshaw‡ Pittsburgh Steelers
1971 Jim Plunkett New England Patriots
1975 Steve Bartkowski* Atlanta Falcons
1983 John Elway‡[A 7] Baltimore Colts
1987 Vinny Testaverde* Tampa Bay Buccaneers
1989 Troy Aikman‡ Dallas Cowboys
1990 Jeff George Indianapolis Colts[A 11]
1993 Drew Bledsoe* New England Patriots
1998 Peyton Manning‡ Indianapolis Colts
1999 Tim Couch Cleveland Browns
2001 Michael Vick Atlanta Falcons
2002 David Carr Houston Texans
2003 Carson Palmer Cincinnati Bengals
2004 Eli Manning San Diego Chargers
2005 Alex Smith San Francisco 49ers
2007 JaMarcus Russell Oakland Raiders —
2009 Matthew Stafford Detroit Lions
2010 Sam Bradford St. Louis Rams
2011 Cam Newton Carolina Panthers
2012 Andrew Luck Indianapolis Colts
2015 Jameis Winston Tampa Bay Buccaneers
2016 Jared Goff* Los Angeles Rams
2018 Baker Mayfield Cleveland Browns
2019 Kyler Murray Arizona Cardinals
2020 Joe Burrow Cincinnati Bengals
2021 Trevor Lawrence Jacksonville Jaguars
Franchise QBs have been few and far between in the last 20 or so years. |
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PLAYOFF OVERTIME PROGNOSIS
Peter King was among those who succeeded overtime to push the PAT back. And he spent more than a decade campaigning to finally get Washington’s name changed.
So, he is temporarily discouraged, but not broken, with the prognosis for his desired reform to postseason overtime:
Overtime. We all think it’s a no-brainer the NFL will do something at the late-March meetings in Palm Beach to tweak overtime. But in surveying the landscape after the Buffalo-Kansas City OT game late in the week, I’m skeptical anything will change this year. (Sunday’s equitable overtime result in Bengals-Chiefs certainly will be a factor too.) It’s not impossible, but owners move glacially on rules changes, and those inside the league didn’t hear the vitriol they’d expected to hear from high-ranking club officials and owners this week about changing overtime to ensure each team would get a possession in the extra period. Remember: It took five years of drip-drip-drip momentum to change the PAT from an automatic kick to moving it back 13 yards to make it a more competitive play. It’s going to take some arm-twisting—and, as always, I think it’ll take Roger Goodell putting his thumb on the scale of the issue for dual-possessions to get the requisite 24 teams to vote for a change. |
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BETTING UPDATE – SUPER BOWL AND BEYOND
From David Purdum of ESPN.com:
The upstart Cincinnati Bengals are underdogs again.
Sportsbooks on Sunday installed the Los Angeles Rams as 3.5-point favorites over the Bengals in Super Bowl LVI. The Rams opened as -170 money-line favorites to win the game straight up at Caesars Sportsbook, and the over/under total was set at 50.5 points.
The Super Bowl will take place Feb. 13 at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, home of the Rams. However, John Murray, executive director of the SuperBook at Westgate Las Vegas, told ESPN it did not include any home-field advantage in its opening line.
The line was growing Sunday night, with at least one big bet showing up on the favored Rams. Caesars Sportsbook reported taking a $180,000 money-line bet on Los Angeles on Sunday in Nevada.
Still, Cincinnati has overcome much longer odds already this season. The Bengals kicked off the season at 200-1 to win the Super Bowl at sportsbooks. Only the Houston Texans had longer odds than the Bengals. At some books, the Texans attracted more bets to win the Super Bowl than Cincinnati in the offseason.
The Bengals are the first team to reach the Super Bowl with odds longer than 100-1 since the 1999 St. Louis Rams (150-1), according to SportsOddsHistory.com.
Some bettors did jump on the Bengals’ bandwagon early. The SuperBook at Westgate Las Vegas reported taking 17 bets on the Bengals to win the Super Bowl at 200-1 odds, the largest for $200.
On Oct. 28, a bettor at Caesars Sportsbook in Michigan placed a $13,440 bet on the Bengals to win the Super Bowl at 35-1. According to the sportsbook, the same customer also put $13,000 on Cincinnati to claim the AFC crown at 16-1 and won $208,000 when the visiting Bengals rallied to beat the Kansas City Chiefs in Sunday’s AFC Championship Game.
While the Bengals were big long shots, the Rams entered the season at 14-1, among the top tier of teams in the odds to win the Super Bowl. The Rams have remained near the top of odds boards throughout the regular season and playoffs.
BetMGM offered odds on the exact Super Bowl matchup in the preseason. A Bengals-Rams Super Bowl was listed at 500-1. |
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