THE DAILY BRIEFING
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We start our review of NFL schedules with the NFC North and NFC East today.
One of the obstacles thrown up over the years about an expansion team in London has been the perceived unbearable strain of flying a couple more hours to cross the pond.
But we note that more and more teams are declining the NFL’s offer of a post-London bye week and choosing to have it deferred until later in the season.
Maybe, after well over a decade of regular games, teams are finding out that they can play okay with no time off afterwards and this should lessen the resistance to a team moving to or being expanded into London.
Peter King debriefed the schedule makers and his insight peppers today’s Briefing.
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NFC NORTH
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CHICAGO
Bears schedule 2022 (all times Eastern)
Week 1: 9/11 49ers 1 PM, Fox
Week 2: 9/18 (Sn nt) at Packers 8:20 PM, NBC
Week 3: 9/25 Texans 1 PM, CBS
Week 4: 10/2 at Giants 1 PM, Fox
Week 5: 10/9 at Vikings 1 PM, Fox
Week 6: 10/13 (Thur) Commanders 8:15 PM, Amazon
Week 7: 10/24 (Mon) at Patriots 8:15 PM, ESPN
Week 8: 10/30 at Cowboys 1 PM, Fox
Week 9: 11/6 Dolphins 1 PM, CBS
Week 10: 11/13 Lions 1 PM, Fox
Week 11: 11/20 at Falcons 1 PM, Fox
Week 12: 11/27 at Jets 1 PM, Fox
Week 13: 12/4 Packers 1 PM, Fox
Week 14: BYE
Week 15: 12/18 Eagles 1 PM, Fox
Week 16: 12/24 Bills 1 PM, CBS
Week 17: 1/1 at Lions 1 PM, Fox
Week 18: Vikings TBD
SCHEDULE NOTES: 2 of the first 3 at home and 4 of the last 5 at home – that means 6 of 9 on the road in the middle…But the Bears don’t have to endure a 3-game road trip…Chicago makes one short trip, to Detroit, after Thanksgiving…They have to like the late bye in Week 14…Three national games seems to be one too many for a team of Chicago’s aspirations (all in the first 7 weeks)…Two trips to New York…The “17th game” is the Texans in Week 3.
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DETROIT
Lions schedule 2022 (all times Eastern)
Week 1: 9/11 Eagles 1 PM, Fox
Week 2: 9/18 Commanders 1 PM, Fox
Week 3: 9/25 at Vikings 1 PM, Fox
Week 4: 10/2 Seahawks 1 PM, Fox
Week 5: 10/9 at Patriots 1 PM, Fox
Week 6: BYE
Week 7: 10/23 at Cowboys 1 PM, CBS
Week 8: 10/30 Dolphins 1 PM, CBS
Week 9: 11/6 Packers 1 PM, Fox
Week 10: 11/13 at Bears 1 PM, Fox
Week 11: 11/20 at Giants 1 PM, Fox
Week 12: 11/24 (Thur) Bills 12:30 PM, CBS
Week 13: 12/4 Jaguars 1 PM, Fox
Week 14: 12/11 Vikings 1 PM, Fox
Week 15: 12/18 at Jets 1 PM, Fox
Week 16: 12/24 at Panthers 1 PM, Fox
Week 17: 1/1 Bears 1 PM, Fox
Week 18: at Packers TBD
SCHEDULE NOTES: Not only do the Lions not play in primetime (they do have a national game on Thanksgiving), but every single scheduled game is early…So 13 games at 1 p.m. on FOX…Thanksgiving starts a 3-game homestand, then 3 of the last 4 on the road…The “17th game” is in Week 13 vs. the Jaguars…The DB counts 9 games in which the Lions will either be favored or an under 3-point underdog.
Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com noticed something when the NFL talked about Detroit’s schedule:
The Detroit Lions will be showcased in August on Hard Knocks, an evening show on HBO. After that, the league has no use for the Lions in prime-time.
During a Friday media video conference, NFL V.P. of broadcast planning Mike North admitted that it “looks odd” to not have Detroit in any night games for 2022, barring a late-season flex to Sunday night. North pointed out that, even without a prime-time game, they continue to have a hammerlock on a prime spot on the fourth Thursday in November.
“Unattractive is not the right word,” North said of the Lions. “The real thing for us is, again, we look at them on national windows and we can never lose sight of the fact that Thanksgiving afternoon window — that 12:30 window in Detroit — most years is the Number Two or Number Three most-watched NFL game every year, so there’s no hesitation to put the Lions in a national window like that. . . . You could certainly make a pretty compelling argument they’re gonna get a lot more eyeballs for that one than they would have if they had one kind-of stand-alone Monday night game or one kind-of stand-alone Thursday night game. I acknowledge that it ‘looks odd’ to have them not in prime-time, but they’re gonna be playing in one of the five most-watched games of this season. That’s pretty good, too.”
But that’s the case every year, given that the Lions have owned this spot for decades and presumably will continue to do so. In a weird sort of way, North’s decision to justify no prime-time appearances for the Lions by saying, “Well, they’re getting one of the best spots of the year” creates the impression that maybe the league is at least pondering the possibility of being more strategic about 12:30 ET on Thanksgiving and less tied to tradition.
There’s no specific reason to believe that’s happening. But there was something about the way North said it — and there’s something about the increasingly deliberate manner in which the NFL deploys it’s scheduling assets — that at least made me stop and think that maybe, as the NFL further hones its broadcasting procedures, some in the league office would like to have the flexibility to a place team other than the Lions in “one of the five most-watched games of the season.”
The DB is optimistic about the Lions going forward, so perhaps they will be getting multiple primetime games in 2023 or 20024 on their own.
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GREEN BAY
Packers schedule 2022 (all times Eastern)
Week 1: 9/11 at Vikings 4:25 PM, Fox
Week 2: 9/18 (Sn nt) Bears 8:20 PM, NBC
Week 3: 9/25 at Buccaneers 4:25 PM, Fox
Week 4: 10/2 Patriots 4:25 PM, CBS
Week 5: 10/9 (Sun am) Giants (London) 9:30 AM, NFL Network
Week 6: 10/16 Jets 1 PM, Fox
Week 7: 10/23 at Commanders 1 PM, Fox
Week 8: 10/30 (Sn nt) at Bills 8:20 PM, NBC
Week 9: 11/6 at Lions 1 PM, Fox
Week 10: 11/13 Cowboys 4:25, Fox
Week 11: 11/17 (Thur) Titans 8:25 PM, Amazon
Week 12: 11/27 (Sn nt) at Eagles 8:20 PM, NBC
Week 13: 12/4 at Bears 1 PM, Fox
Week 14: BYE
Week 15: 12/19 (Mon) Rams 8:15 PM. ESPN/ABC
Week 16: 12/25 at Dolphins 1 PM, Fox
Week 17: 1/1 Vikings 4:25, CBS
Week 18: Lions TBD
SCHEDULE NOTES: Compare and contrast – Detroit 13 FOX games, Green Bay 8 FOX games; Detroit 16 early games, Green Bay 5 early games…Five primetime games, plus one in the morning…Three Sunday night games!…Three FOX 4:25 games – and two on CBS…A 3-game midseason road trip highlighted by Sunday night in Buffalo…The “17thgame” is in Week 11 vs. the Titans on Amazon…3 of the final 4 in frigid Lambeau, including the Rams at night.
This from Peter King:
The Tennessee-Green Bay game (Week 11, Thursday, Nov. 17) turned out to be a major statement game. How can a midseason Thursday game be such a big deal? The league wanted to help Amazon as much as possible with its Thursday night package. Amazon is going to treat much of its pre-game coverage the way ESPN does College Gameday. In other words, it’s going to be a very big deal. As the NFL goes through the scheduling process, it feeds all the must-have parameters into multiple computers and lets the software dictate so many things about the schedule. The NFL was going to give Amazon one Packers game. Amazon felt a Packers home game was a must, to show the pageantry of Green Bay tailgaiting, etc. The computers did what the league asked—Amazon would have a Thursday home game at some point of the season. Late in the process, 92 percent of the schedules spat out by the computers had Jets-Packers as the Green Bay home game.
Nice, but not great. Couldn’t the league, maybe, find a better foe for the Packers, one that might make this a hotly contested game for 60 minutes?
So Tennessee was put in the Week 11 Thursday slot, traveling to Green Bay. A gift. The two 2021 one seeds squaring off on the hallowed Lambeau grounds. That did create one problem the league dreaded. Tennessee would be one of two teams (Dallas the other) to play two short-week Thursday games; this year is the first time that has been required. So if the Jets had stayed in this slot at Green Bay, Tennessee would have had only one Thursday night game. Now the Titans will have two.
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MINNESOTA
Vikings schedule 2022 (all times Eastern)
Week 1: 9/11 Packers 4:25 PM, Fox
Week 2: 9/19 (Mon) at Eagles 8:30 PM, ABC
Week 3: 9/25 Lions 1 PM, Fox
Week 4: 10/2 (Sun am) at Saints (Tottenham) 9:30 AM, NFL Network
Week 5: 10/9 Bears 1 PM, Fox
Week 6: 10/16 at Dolphins 1 PM, Fox
Week 7: BYE
Week 8: 10/30 Cardinals 1 PM, Fox
Week 9: 11/6 at Commanders 1 PM, Fox
Week 10: 11/13 at Bills 1 PM, Fox
Week 11: 11/20 Cowboys 4:25 PM, CBS
Week 12: 11/24 (Thur) Patriots (Thanksgiving) 8:20 PM, NBC
Week 13:12/4 Jets 1 PM, CBS
Week 14: 12/11 at Lions 1 PM, Fox
Week 15: TBD Colts TBD, TBD
Week 16: 12/24 Giants 1 PM, Fox
Week 17: 1/1 at Packers 4:25, CBS
Week 18: at Bears TBD
SCHEDULE NOTES: The Vikings get part of the Week 2 Monday Night doubleheader, a Sunday morning tilt at Tottenham and they host the Patriots on Thanksgiving night…# of their first 5 games are division foes, and so are 3 of their last 5…They end with a pair of divisional road games…The Week 15 game is the “17th game.”…Of their 3 games in the 4:25 window, two are on CBS (Dallas at Green Bay).
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Peter King approves of Minnesota’s Draft Day trade downs:
Shame on me for not writing about this in the last two columns, but I wanted to get to it while it still matters. I think one of the most interesting things that happened in the draft was a rookie GM—with a team that’s a sneaky threat to go deep into the playoffs—trading in the first round with a team in his own division, then trading in the second round with another team in his division. And both of those division rivals picked receivers who could haunt the Vikings.
So why do I think Kwesi Adofo-Mensah did the right thing for his franchise? It’s arguable that one day he’ll regret trading down from 12th overall to 32nd with Detroit, allowing the Lions to pick Alabama receiver Jameson Williams. It’s arguable, but probably to a lesser degree, that he’ll regret trading down with Green Bay at 34 and handing the Packers wideout Christian Watson.
It comes down to this: The Vikings started the draft with two picks in the top 70. By the time day two was over, they’d made four picks in the top 70. And they were able to, in Adofo-Mensah’s words, “do more about the basket of problems we were trying to solve” than if they’d sat at 12 and picked, for example, Notre Dame safety Kyle Hamilton. Going down to 32, they got Georgia safety Lewis Cine, then picked Clemson corner Andrew Booth Jr., at 42, LSU guard Ed Ingram at 59 and Oklahoma linebacker Brian Asamoah at 66.
But Adofo-Mensah knows his first draft, and his rep locally, will be attached in part to Jameson Williams and Christian Watson.
As Adofo-Mensah said Friday, “I don’t know you’re not supposed to trade within the division, but I think you need to be delicate about it. It’s an uncomfortable position. I don’t think I would trade Justin Jefferson in the division. But a draft pick is an uncertain thing. You’re getting something back that is also uncertain. With Detroit, all else being equal and I had similar value somewhere else, I’d deal somewhere else. But that was our best option, we pulled the trigger, and I’m happy with what we did.
“I’m not dumb. I know every touchdown catch [Williams] scores against us, TV will show me or show my name. That’s life. If my feelings are going to get in the way of us making decisions to improve the team, I shouldn’t be in this seat. I made the decision because I’m in charge, but it’s more fair to say WE made the decision as an organization. The [draft] room was behind what we were doing … Detroit had [picks] 32 and 34, and we were targeting those picks for specific reasons.”
So 32 was Cine, a highly regarded player at a need position. At 34, Adofo-Mensah said he probably would have taken Booth, the Clemson corner, but then the Packers called, offering 53 and 59 for the 34th pick.
Did Adofo-Mensah want to give Green Bay a fleet receiver with size? No. “You’re a little terrified that Aaron Rodgers is gonna get that player, but it was actually the easier decision of the two,” Adofo-Mensah said. “You knew specifically what Green Bay was doing. They’re trying to be good this year. There was a different calculus to that conversation. But what we knew was, if Green Bay called any team after us and offered that deal, they’d have fallen all over themselves to take it. So Green Bay would have gotten the same player, and we wouldn’t have gotten the assets for it. If I didn’t do it, it’d just have been about saving face with the media.”
The Vikings took the 53rd pick and moved back up 11 spots in a trade with Indianapolis to get Booth at 42. Then Adofo-Mensah filled two other holes, guard and linebacker, at 59 and 66.
The math says Minnesota started the day with 12 and 47 and, with other picks being involved, turned those into four need players at 32, 42, 59 and 66.
Adofo-Mensah is happy, even if some of his fans are not. He said after the draft, he went to a Twins game and at a bar afterward, a couple of fans said, “How’d you trade with Green Bay?!”
Maybe Adofo-Mensah should have just sat where he was and taken, say, Kyle Hamilton and Ed Ingram. This is just me, but knowing what I know and the alternatives the new GM had, I’d have been disappointed if he just sat and picked. Williams could turn out to be a great receiver and he could torment the Vikings, but if three of those four players become valued starters over the next four to five years, it’s a win for Minnesota.
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NFC EAST
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DALLAS
Cowboys schedule 2022 (all times Eastern)
Week 1: 9/11 (Thur) Buccaneers 8:20 PM, NBC
Week 2: 9/18 Bengals 4:25 PM, CBS
Week 3: 9/26 (Mon) at Giants 8:15 PM, ESPN/ABC
Week 4: 10/2 Commanders 1 PM, Fox
Week 5: 10/9 at Rams 4:25 PM, Fox
Week 6: 10/16 (Sun nt) at Eagles 8:20 PM, NBC
Week 7: 10/23 vs. Lions 1 PM, CBS
Week 8: 10/30 vs. Bears 1 PM, Fox
Week 9: BYE
Week 10: 11/13 at Packers 4:25 PM, Fox
Week 11: 11/20 at Vikings 4:25 PM, CBS
Week 12: 11/24 (Thur) Giants 4:30 PM, Fox
Week 13: 12/4 (Sun) Colts 8:20 PM, NBC
Week 14: 12/11 Texans 1 PM, Fox
Week 15: 12/18 at Jaguars 1 PM, Fox
Week 16: 12/24 Eagles 4:25 PM, Fox
Week 17: 12/29 (Thur) at Titans 8:15 PM, Amazon
Week 18: at Commanders TBD
SCHEDULE NOTES: Five primetime games plus Thanksgiving for America’s Team…3 games on Thursday…3 of the first 4 at home…4 of the last 6 against the AFC South, the other 2 vs. division foes…Just as the AFC South games are bunched, the 4 NFC North contests line up 4 in a row around Halloween…CBS gets two flexed Cowboys games, but FOX gets back the Texans contest from traditional CBS inventory…5 games at 1 pm, 6 in the late window counting Thanksgiving…The “17th game” is a good one, vs. the Bengals in Week 2.
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NEW YORK GIANTS
Giants schedule 2022 (all times Eastern)
Week 1: 9/11 at Titans 4:25 PM, Fox
Week 2: 9/18 Panthers 1 PM, Fox
Week 3: 9/26 (Mon) Cowboys 8:15 PM, ESPN/ABC
Week 4: 10/2 Bears 1 PM, Fox
Week 5: 10/9 (Sun am) at Packers (Tottenham) 9:30 AM, NFL Network
Week 6: 10/16 Ravens 1 PM, CBS
Week 7: 10/23 at Jaguars 1 PM, Fox
Week 8: 10/30 at Seahawks 4:25 PM, Fox
Week 9: BYE
Week 10: 11/13 Texans 1 PM, CBS
Week 11: 11/20 Lions 1 PM, Fox
Week 12: 11/24 (Thur) at Cowboys 4:30 PM, Fox
Week 13: 12/4 Commanders 1 PM, Fox
Week 14: 12/11 Eagles 1 PM, Fox
Week 15: TBD at Commanders
Week 16: 12/24 at Vikings 1 PM, Fox
Week 17: 1/1 Colts 1 PM, CBS
Week 18: at Eagles
SCHEDULE NOTES: After the opening game, the Giants do not play a game in an opponent’s stadium until October 23 when they go to Jacksonville…A 3-game home run starting in September, leads to 3 of the final 4 on the road…The Giants get two national window games (not counting London), but are only allowed to take that stage when they share it with the Cowboys…The “17th game” is the Ravens in Week 6….10 games on FOX, 7 in the 1 p.m. window (and there could be two more)…We are six teams in before we come to our first divisional crunch as the Giants and Commander meet twice in a 3-week span in December…Both Eagles games are in December as well…5 of the last 7 are divisional, meaning just 1 of the first 10.
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PHILADELPHIA
Eagles schedule 2022 (all times Eastern)
Week 1: 9/11 at Lions 1 PM, Fox
Week 2: 9/19 (Mon) Vikings 8:30 PM, ABC
Week 3: 9/25 at Commanders 1 PM, Fox
Week 4: 10/2 Jaguars 1 PM, CBS
Week 5: 10/9 at Cardinals 4:25 PM, Fox
Week 6: 10/16 (Sun nt) Cowboys 8:20 PM, NBC
Week 7: BYE
Week 8: 10/30 Steelers 1 PM, CBS
Week 9: 11/3 (Thur) at Texans 8:15 PM, Amazon
Week 10: 11/14 (Mon) Commanders 8:15 PM, ESPN
Week 11: 11/20 at Colts 1 PM, CBS
Week 12: 11/27 (Sun nt) Packers 8:20 PM, NBC
Week 13: 12/4 Titans 1 PM, Fox
Week 14: 12/11 at Giants 1 PM, Fox
Week 15: 12/18 at Bears 1 PM, Fox
Week 16: 12/24 at Cowboys 4:25 PM, Fox
Week 17: 1/1 Saints 1 PM, Fox
Week 18: Giants TBD
SCHEDULE NOTES: The NFL gives the Eagles a flurry of 4 primetime appearances in a span of 6 mid-season games…Philly goes 6 games without a FOX appearance, then looks to have a clean FOX slate for the last 6 games, 4 at 1 pm (plus Flex Week 18)…They are part of the overlapping Monday night games in Week 2….Philly faces a 3-game road trip in December that culminates in FOX’s big game on Christmas Eve in Dallas…The other Cowboys game is a Sunday Night NBC affair in October…The “17th game” fortuitously is their Pennsylvania rivals, the Steelers, in Week 8.
This from King:
As schedulemeister Warren Sharp points out, while 21 teams play either zero or one short-week road game, the Eagles play four: Week 3 in Washington coming off of a Monday night home game; Week 9 in Houston on Thursday night off a Sunday home game; Week 11 in Indianapolis off a Monday night home game; and Week 16 in Dallas on a Saturday afternoon off a Sunday road game. (To be fair, most teams in Week 16 have a short-week game because 12 games are slated to be played Thursday/Saturday that week.)
But the Eagles do get a week on extended rest, a mini-bye, between Thursday in Week 9 and Monday in Week 10.
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WASHINGTON
Commanders schedule 2022 (all times Eastern)
Week 1: 9/11 Jaguars 1 PM, Fox
Week 2: 9/18 at Lions 1 PM, Fox
Week 3: 9/25 Eagles 1 PM, Fox
Week 4: 10/2 at Cowboys 1 PM, Fox
Week 5: 10/9 Titans 1 PM, CBS
Week 6: 10/13 (Thur) at Bears 8:15 PM, Amazon
Week 7: 10/23 Packers 1 PM, Fox
Week 8: 10/30 at Colts 4:25 PM, Fox
Week 9: 11/6 Vikings 1 PM, Fox
Week 10: 11/14 (Mon) at Eagles 8:15 PM, ESPN
Week 11: 11/20 at Texans 1 PM, Fox
Week 12: 11/27 Falcons 1 PM, Fox
Week 13: 12/4 at Giants 1 PM, Fox
Week 14: BYE
Week 15: TBD Giants TBD
Week 16: 12/24 at 49ers 4:05 PM, Fox
Week 17: 1/1 Browns 1 PM, Fox
Week 18: Cowboys TBD
SCHEDULE NOTES: With their newly-compliant name, Washington’s football team gets a pair of national outings…They still show up at least 10 times at 1 pm on FOX (only one game on CBS, that also at 1 pm)…The historic first game as Commanders comes at home against Jacksonville, the same team that throttled QB CARSON WENTZ in Week 18 last year…Look at that – with the Week 14 bye, the Commanders play back-to-back games against the Giants.
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AFC NORTH
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CLEVELAND
The slow wheels of NFL Justice appear to be grinding towards a resolution in the case of QB DESHAUN WATSON. Mike Florio”
The uncertain status of Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson could be moving toward some kind of certainty, soon.
League officials reportedly will meet with Watson in Texas this week, according to Josina Anderson. League spokesman Brian McCarthy tells PFT that the NFL “will decline comment on that tweet.”
McCarthy’s remark regarding the new report came in response to Monday morning questions aimed at securing information about the timetable for action, if any, against Watson. “We have no update,” McCarthy said. “There’s no timetable as the review is active and ongoing.”
A meeting with the player usually becomes a sign that the process is moving toward some sort of conclusion. Usually, the league meets with the player after interviewing his various accusers.
It’s unknown whether the league has met with all of Watson’s 22 accusers. The league has met with some of them. Through lawyer Tony Buzbee, some complained last year about the treatment they received via the questioning.
Some in the league office believe Watson should be placed on paid leave until the 22 pending civil lawsuits are resolved. Commissioner Roger Goodell made it clear during a March press conference that, if any action is going to be taken against Watson, he’ll simply be suspended. (Our email to the league office also sought confirmation as to that point.)
Recently, we explained the procedure that will apply to any such discipline, given changes made by the 2020 labor deal.
The league is not required to wait until the 22 cases are resolved before suspending Watson. The league could act now, it could wait, or it could impose a preliminary suspension with the door open for further action later.
My guess would be that the league will suspend him now, with the possibility of suspending him again later. But it’s just a guess. The league keeps its cards close to the vest, and it has learned in recent years to wait for as long as possible until making a decision.
Still, at some point a decision needs to be made. Justice delayed, as the saying goes, is justice denied. The Browns and Watson need to know whether he’ll be playing. He’ll also need to have time to fight whatever the league hopes to do, via the two-tiered procedure that begins with an independent hearing officer and concludes with an appeal handled by the Commissioner or his designee.
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AFC SOUTH
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JACKSONVILLE
The Jaguars are bringing in a presumed Trent Baalke crony as assistant GM (probably an unfair shot).
When the Jaguars put a search for an executive vice president of football operations on hold in March, word was that the team would continue looking for an assistant General Manager to work with G.M. Trent Baalke.
They have found that person and he has ties to Baalke from the 49ers. Albert Breer of SI.com reports that the Jaguars are hiring Ethan Waugh as their assistant G.M.
Waugh was most recently the the director of college scouting and football systems for the Niners and he began working for the team in 2004. Baalke was the 49ers G.M. from 2011 to 2016 and he first joined the organization in 2005.
Waugh is the second executive to leave the 49ers for a new job this week. Demitrius Washington was hired as the vice president of football operations by the Vikings.
The thought had been that the new hire would be an independent voice to Baalke to keep an eye on his management, but that would not seem to be the case.
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AFC EAST
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NEW ENGLAND
Matt Patricia has surfaced on the offensive side of New England’s coaching staff. Michael David Smith of ProFootballTalk.com:
Patriots head coach Bill Belichick has been even less forthcoming than usual this offseason about which of his assistant coaches will have which responsibilities, but Matt Patricia revealed today that he’s working with the offensive line.
Patricia, who was the Patriots’ defensive coordinator before becoming the Lions’ head coach, now has the title of senior football advisor. But it was revealed earlier this offseason that Patricia was coaching the offense, not the defense, and today Patricia said he’s working with the offensive line, a position he hasn’t coached since 2005.
“I’ve been out there with the offensive guys, working with the offensive line,” Patricia said, via Mark Daniels of the Providence Journal. “It’s been fun to get back to that and get back to my roots.”
Patricia said he has Dante Scarnecchia, the Patriots’ longtime offensive line guru. on speed dial, and that any time he has contact with Scarnecchia he feels like it’s making him a better coach.
“I don’t like to bother him,” Patricia said of Scarnecchia, “but there’s a lot of roots there and I appreciate him. It’s been fun.”
The Patriots don’t have anyone with the title of offensive line coach, but they do have an assistant offensive line coach in Billy Yates. It appears that Patricia and Yates will be primarily responsible for coaching the offensive line this season.
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THIS AND THAT
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DREW BREES IS A FREE AGENT
Drew Brees has seen studio work, and he’s tried game analysis. The competitor that he is prefers the latter, but so far he hasn’t been all that good at it and NBC doesn’t have the necessary reps available. So Brees is out at NBC and FOX is a possibility.
Andrew Marchand of the New York Post, now the go-to guy for NFL TV scoops:
One and done.
Legendary NFL quarterback Drew Brees will not return to NBC after just one season as a studio and game analyst, according to sources.
The decision seemed mutual as Brees preferred doing games over the “Football Night in America” studio show, and NBC didn’t have many NFL games to offer him. NBC soured on Brees’ potential after originally believing he could develop into the heir apparent to Cris Collinsworth on “Sunday Night Football” games.
After the story was published, Brees tweeted out a response, saying his future at NBC is in limbo and he said there were some grand possibilities.
“Despite speculation from [the] media about my future this fall, I’m currently undecided,” Brees said. “I may work for NBC, I may play football again, I may focus on business and philanthropy, I may train for the pickleball tour, senior golf tour, coach my kids or all of the above. I’ll let you know.”
On the air, Brees, 43, had an up and down rookie season that was highlighted by a poor performance in his biggest broadcast of the year, the Bengals-Raiders playoff game.
While Brees is done with NBC, there is still a possibility he could end up in an NFL booth next year as Fox still has to fill its top game analyst positions for this year as Tom Brady won’t start until after he finishes playing.
Greg Olsen and Fox have already begun discussions to make Olsen the No. 1 analyst, according to sources. No contract is completed, but Olsen is on his way to standing next to Kevin Burkhardt on Super Bowl Sunday.
Fox has the big game in two of the next three years. Olsen and Burkhardt were partners last season in Olsen’s rookie broadcasting year.
If Olsen moves up to the top booth, Fox would have an opening for its No. 2 spot and Brees is considered a candidate. The No. 2 jobs do not pay like the No. 1 gigs, so Brees would have to truly want to call NFL games. There is a feeling that is still his desire.
Brees could possibly team with Joe Davis or Adam Amin on Fox’s No. 2 team, which does call playoff games. Amazon could also maybe be a possible landing spot for Brees.
Last year, Brees called Notre Dame games with Mike Tirico. He also did the “Sunday Night Football” pregame and a few NFL games.
After Marchand’s story broke, Brees fired off a Tweet filled with newsy innuendo:
@drewbrees
Despite speculation from media about my future this fall, I’m currently undecided. I may work for NBC, I may play football again, I may focus on business and philanthropy, I may train for the pickleball tour, senior golf tour, coach my kids or all of the above. I’ll let you know
Peter King with advice that would apply to his intended target TOM BRADY, as well as Brees:
I think the biggest question about Tom Brady as a future NFL game analyst on TV is the question every former player and coach who transitions to TV has to answer: Are you willing to cross the line and work for the people signing your very big check, or will you protect the players and coaches you know and like instead of calling things the way you see them? That’s the reported $375-million question for Fox.
I think the easy thing to say about Brady is he’s gotten used to being so vanilla in his public statements that there’s no way he’ll change and be the kind of analyst that once or twice a game will throw a zinger or a dagger. I actually think the opposite, or nearly the opposite. It’s like what his QB coach, Clyde Christensen, said the other day in Tampa: If Tom Brady chose to be a plumber post-football, he’d be great at it. He couldn’t stand being a crappy plumber, or crappy at anything. So I think he’ll work at it. He’ll know that, just like in football 21 years ago, the TV pros will be looking at him with skepticism. He’s not clever enough, he’s not honest enough. He’ll know that to be good, he has to get out of his comfort zone of all niceties and tell it like it is. On that LeBron James show last year, Brady said, “Ninety percent of what I say is not what I’m thinking. There’s a part of me that doesn’t like conflict, so in the end I always just try to play it super-flat.” That has to end once he’s on TV if he wants to be any good.
I think what I’d do if I were Brady is study Cris Collinsworth—and honest to goodness, I don’t say that because I work for NBC. I say it because Collinsworth knows how to talk X’s-and-O’s conversationally, he’s an easy listen, and he can criticize when the time comes. Remember the end of the Patriots-Seahawks Super Bowl? Whatever you think of the play call that led to the Malcolm Butler interception, Collinsworth did not mince words: “I’m sorry. But I can’t believe the call. I cannot believe the call. You’ve got Marshawn Lynch in the backfield, a guy that’s been borderline unstoppable in this part of the field … I can’t believe the call.” Sometimes, a strong opinion is required, and you can’t be afraid to give it.
One last piece of advice. If I were Brady, and I understand the busy-ness of his life, I would find time, 10 or 12 times this fall, to sit down and watch a football game from start to finish. Listen to the color guy. Think of what you like, what you don’t like. Think of the cadence of doing a game. Think of speaking in cogent eight-second bursts, because that’s the world you’ll be entering. Don’t start thinking about the gig a week after you retire, whenever that is. Think about the production meetings; you’ve been in a thousand of them. What line of questioning gets a smart coach or player to talk? You don’t have to do games now, or pretend to do them. But you can start to think about a style and the points you’d like to make that maybe are not made enough on TV.
Brady will have plenty of opportunity to pick the brains of all the current analysts as Tampa Bay’s schedule will run the gamut for his production meetings.
Meanwhile, another former Saints employee signs with FOX. Mike Florio ofProFootballTalk.com:
Sean Payton won’t be coaching in 2022, but he will be working in football.
Per a source with knowledge of the situation, Payton has accepted a job with Fox.
The Super Bowl XLIV-winning coach will work in studio with Fox throughout 2022. It’s believed that he’ll join the Fox NFL Sunday crew on off days for Jimmy Johnson.
Payton also had been in the running for a position with Amazon.
Many believe it will be a one-year foray for Payton. He nearly became the Miami coach earlier this year, in what would have been a partnership with Tom Brady. The Brian Flores lawsuit pulled the plug on that possibility.
More recently, Payton was linked to the Carolina Panthers. He’ll always be on the radar screen for the Cowboys.
For now, he’ll be on our TV screens in 2022.
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OTHER BROADCAST NEWS
Peter King on the love shown by the NFL for Amazon and its Bezos bucks:
The league treated the first-ever streaming package on Thursday nights as semi-golden territory. One league mole told me: “There’s no way we’re taking the big Amazon money and throwing a bad schedule in there.” When I first saw the Amazon Prime 15-game Thursday slate, I thought: I know it’s streaming, and I know the ratings won’t compare to other prime-time windows. But this is a better package than some of the ones ESPN used to get on Monday nights. ESPN used to bitch about the quality of the MNF schedule while it paid the biggest rights fees for NFL programming. So I went back and looked. I chose 2016 at random. ESPN had a 15-game slate on Monday nights in 2016; Amazon Prime has a 15-game slate on Thursdays in 2022. In 2016, ESPN had four games on the schedule with winning 2015 records for both teams. In 2022 eight games—more than half the schedule—match teams with winning records from 2021. Look at the schedule. I count three bowsers: Washington-Chicago in Week 6, Atlanta-Carolina in Week 10, and the bizarrely placed Jags-Jets in Week 16 (Dec. 22).
But starting in Week 11, Amazon has three straight games worthy of Sunday night: Titans-Packers, Bills-Patriots, Raiders-Rams.
“If we want to make this successful,” said Mike North of the NFL’s scheduling team, “as we migrate to a streaming service for the first time … the way to do that is to make sure we put really good games there. I think we’re going to give fans reason to go find Amazon this year and find these football games and hopefully after maybe the first couple of weeks, it’ll just become another button on our remote.” Starting with Justin Herbert–Patrick Mahomes, ending with Cowboys at 2021 AFC top-seed Tennessee, helps.
Amazon Prime will be a different animal than the traditional game on TV. There will be an emphasis on analytics. There will be two different broadcast teams for every game, with Al Michaels-Kirk Herbstreit, obviously, the main and traditional one. “We think there’s an opportunity to innovate,” said Marie Donoghue, Amazon’s vice president of global sports video. “We’ll have new and exciting alternative feeds … We think this will be a better experience for fans [than the traditional telecasts].”
One other interesting comment from Donoghue about the Amazon ‘cast. “There hasn’t been a new studio show in decades,” she said. Well, NFL Network’s show is a decade-plus old, and NBC’s is 16 years old. But point taken. She made it clear Amazon will innovate on the studio shows, which will be welcome.
FOX is not complaining, at least on Thanksgiving weekend. More from King:
Thanksgiving weekend, very possibly, will be the best weekend in FOX Sports history. Let us go day-by-day:
• THURSDAY. NFL: Giants at Dallas, late-afternoon window. A smart TV person told me: “If the Giants have a pulse by then, this will be a 30-million-viewer audience.”
• FRIDAY. World Cup soccer: USA-England, 2 p.m. An audience of 25- or 30-million on Black Friday.
• SATURDAY. College football: Michigan at Ohio State. Should be 20 million minimum unless one or both goes in the tank.
• SUNDAY. NFL: Rams at Kansas City, doubleheader window. And just think: FOX has Bucs at Browns in the 1 p.m. ET slot, which could be a big number in a diffused early window if it’s Tom Brady-Deshaun Watson. In any case, Rams-Chiefs is one of the 10 best games of the year, and it should draw at least 25 million viewers.
That’s a dream programming weekend.
Plus plenty of other college football peppered in throughout the weekend.
And with the rise in young QBs in the AFC, FOX is not always the victim of the NFL’s 2022 pre-scripted cross flexes:
A change in crossflexing. Traditionally, FOX would do all games with an NFC road team, and CBS would do all games with an AFC road team. A few years ago, the league began crossflexing, or moving games from the top-heavy NFC schedule on FOX to CBS to equalize the chance for big games to land on a different network. Now, because of the rise of so many top quarterbacks in the AFC, there are some big games moving from CBS to FOX this year: Baltimore at New England becomes the dominant 1 p.m. ET game on FOX in Week 3, Kansas City at San Francisco becomes the FOX doubleheader game in Week 7, and Raiders at Denver becomes a late-window CBS game in Week 11. A Mahomes national game moving to the other network. Big win for FOX.
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