AROUND THE NFL
Daily Briefing
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NFC NORTH
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MINNESOTA
A tough weekend for injuries includes LB DANIELLE HUNTER. Courtney Cronin ofESPN.com:
The Minnesota Vikings fear defensive end Danielle Hunter has a torn pectoral muscle that will cause him to miss the remainder of the season, a source told ESPN.
Hunter sustained what was initially classified as a shoulder injury in the second quarter of Minnesota’s 20-16 loss to the Dallas Cowboys. He was downgraded from questionable to out at the beginning of the third quarter and was not seen on the sideline in the second half.
The two-time Pro Bowl defensive end had an MRI on Monday morning to confirm the diagnosis he received at the stadium. A torn pectoral tear would sideline him for the rest of the season.
Hunter missed the 2020 season with a neck injury that required him to have surgery last year.
Hunter, 27, is tied for 10th in the NFL with six sacks through seven games and played at least 83% of the defensive snaps in each of Minnesota’s first six games before its Week 8 bout with Dallas.
– – –
We would think that quite a few Vikings fans would side with this rant from Mike Florio ofProFootballTalk.com:
Last December, we shared some hard truths about the state of the Vikings in recent years. The franchise exudes a sense that being “just good enough” is more than good enough to stave off major changes that may be critical to lifting the team out of a perpetual purple purgatory, where it can’t win a Super Bowl but also won’t sink so far to justifying pressing the reset button.
After last night’s ugly loss to a team without its starting quarterback, ownership needs to start considering the reset button.
Currently, it’s not working. Offensively or defensively. Special-teams are no great shakes either; a missed 37-yard field goal prevented a win over the Cardinals, and an inexplicably short 49-yard field goal opened the door for a fourth-quarter, double-digit comeback by the lowly Lions.
The current Vikings are operating like the pre-Favre Brad Childress teams. Keep it close and hope for a late break. That’s a recipe for .500 or something close to it. It’s a recipe for getting to the playoffs every other year. It’s a recipe for keeping the fan base engaged by the possibility that the team eventually will deliver a Super Bowl win without ever taking the aggressive and necessary steps toward doing so.
It’s Big Shield’s version of the Big Lie. All teams spout off the notion that the goal is to win the Super Bowl, this year and every year. But they all know that it’s not a realistic goal. The real Super Bowl victory comes on the balance sheet, where they get brand-new Lombardi Trophies each and every year, even in the pandemic.
That’s part of the grift, frankly. Plenty of teams don’t make winning a Super Bowl a priority. Instead, they simply act like they’re trying to win a Super Bowl because fans wouldn’t buy tickets or watch the games or funnel various forms of money and attention to the team if they knew the football gods’-honest truth.
And here it is. Just good enough is more than good enough to make many millions in profit, year after year.
In Minnesota, just good enough may no longer be good enough. Especially since last night’s effort was not nearly good enough. The offense had no rhythm or urgency. The defense seemed woefully unprepared to deal with Cooper Freaking Rush. And coach Mike Zimmer may have begun the process of signing his own pink slip with a Fahu Tahi-stye f–kup by calling two straight timeouts, triggering a penalty that shrank third and 16 to third and 11, and then watching his defense be out-efforted by Ezekiel Elliott for the third-down conversion that set up the game-winning touchdown.
Zimmer, to his credit, took the blame for taking back-to-back timeouts. Then again, it’s not like it was anyone else’s fault. Zimmer became so caught up in his role as de facto defensive coordinator that he lost sight of his head-coaching responsibilities. And if a head coach who tries to wear both hats can’t do it, he shouldn’t try.
“I screwed up,” Zimmer said, because what else was he going to say in that moment? The last thing he could have done was repeat his preseason bravado about being “still ahead of the curve” and about landing on his feet as the head coach of another NFL team if the Vikings don’t want him. Seven games in, the best-case scenario is 9-8 or 10-7 and a one-and-done playoff appearance or something like 7-10 or 8-9 and no postseason for the second straight year.
Either way, it’s time for ownership to say “enough” when it comes to the team’s perpetual “just good enough” vibe.
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NFC EAST
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DALLAS
What are the chances this would happen, in Minnesota, with the same team, with different quarterbacks, a year apart:
@NFLResearch
The Cooper-Rush-to-Amari-Cooper TD is the 1st in NFL history where the passer’s first name & receiver’s last name are an exact match
Cowboys also have the only pass TD where passer’s LAST and receiver’s FIRST were an exact match: Andy Dalton-Dalton Schultz in Wk 11, 2020 at MIN
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WASHINGTON
Peter King led the media pack that got the name changed, and he’s still after WFT:
1. I think my one takeaway from the league meetings is how tone-deaf Roger Goodell sounded, standing in front of the press on Tuesday and saying the sanction on the Washington football team and owner Daniel Snyder was just. The tone-deaf part, mostly, is insisting the league is protecting the aggrieved women’s collective privacy, when several of the women are begging for the investigation’s finding to be released. I kept thinking about how the NFL is aggressively moving to appeal to women fans, to increase the number of women who watch and follow the game. Those are the women who have to be thinking how crazy it is that the league is protecting Daniel Snyder over the women who worked for him and were wronged.
2. I think Washington used to be a flagship franchise of the NFL. Consider this now: Only one team in the NFL through seven weeks was averaging less than 80-percent capacity at its home games. That’s WFT—averaging 62.3 percent at FedEx Field. I am amazed the league is bending over backward to support a miscreant owner who’s run one of the best franchises in the game into the ground.
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NFC SOUTH
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CAROLINA
Peter King:
I think the Sublime Quote of the Week belongs to Panthers cornerback Stephon Gilmore, asked after Carolina’s win in Atlanta if next week’s game against New England would have a little extra meaning for him. Said Gilmore: “A lot extra.”
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NEW ORLEANS
Sean Payton and Peter King praise QB TREVOR SIEMIAN for standing toe-to-toe with The GOAT – and winning:
This is what I really love about the NFL: West Virginia Big 20, 85 Delta Go.
I love it because it’s absolutely preposterous. Trevor Siemian, who hasn’t been an NFL starter for four years, throwing to Kevin White, who hasn’t caught an NFL pass in three years. Siemian, who is rarely asked to throw deep, throwing deep. On a larger scale: Siemian, New Orleans’ third-string quarterback, dueling with Tom Brady.
“Think about this,” Sean Payton said from New Orleans late Sunday night. “You’re Trevor Siemian. You gotta prepare to play Tampa Bay. You really have to get your mind ready to go in the meetings, go to practices, and then you gotta do it the next week and you might have to go two or three years, and maybe you never play. You gotta prepare like you’re gonna play, but tell me—what if you were a firefighter, prepared all the time to go fight fires, and there never was a fire for two, three years. You never get to fight a fire. Then one day, there’s a fire, and if you’re not really ready, that house is gone. Burned down. So here, Trevor Siemian’s gotta prepare like he’s playing, because he’s gonna regret it, really regret it, if he’s not ready. Unique job. Know what I mean?”
Siemian was in the game because the starter, Jameis Winston, got corkscrewed into the turf by Tampa linebacker Devin White 17 minutes into the game; it’s likely Winston will be lost for the season with the resulting torn knee ligaments. (Further exams today.) Backup Taysom Hill missed the game with a concussion. (He should be back at practice Wednesday.) That left third-stringer Siemian to enter a 7-7 game against the Super Bowl champions with 43 minutes left.
All Siemian had to do—and keep in mind the Saints weren’t going to run much against the best rushing defense in football—was to summit Mount Brady . . . and also, don’t dare get hurt. “When he went in,” Payton said, “I told him, ‘I don’t want you getting hit, at all.’ I mean, he goes out, and we’re using Alvin Kamara back there at quarterback, taking shotgun snaps. Alvin’s our emergency guy. So we had a lot riding on Trevor.”
So the Saints were relying on Siemian, who’d completed three passes in the last four years, to stay upright, to move the team with not much of a chance to run the ball, and to somehow score more points in the last three quarters than Tom Brady, who is only on pace to throw for 5,631 yards with 53 touchdown passes this year.
Piece of cake.
“What I was thinking,” Siemian said, post-game, “was just don’t mess it up. Keep it running smooth. Have fun. I had so much frickin’ fun out there.”
Wait a minute. I have to be fair to Siemian here. Before we started he said he wanted to say something first.
“I am gutted, absolutely gutted, for Jameis,” Siemian said. “This win was truly for him. I know how much it meant for him, to play his old team and to win. I love the guy. Just love him. And I just hope . . .”
Pause. A bit of an ominous pause.
“I just hope he’s back sooner than later,” Siemian said.
The Lead: Saints
Week 8: the week of the backup QBs. In New Jersey, Mike White, making his first career start for the Jets, beat Joe Burrow. In Minnesota, Cooper Rush, making his first career start for the Cowboys, beat Kirk Cousins. P.J. Walker got the save for Carolina in relief of the concussed Sam Darnold to beat Atlanta. Geno Smith got his first post-Russell Wilson win in Seattle against the Triple-A Jaguars.
In Louisiana, Siemian had the toughest task of them all.
But it wasn’t impossible. On Saturday night, Siemian sat in on the weekly Dot Meeting that Payton has with his quarterbacks. That’s the meeting Payton and his coaches discuss with Winston what he likes and what he wants called in every section of the play sheet. Payton takes Winston’s input and, with a black sharpie, puts a bold dot next to the plays Winston wants to run. Usually Payton dots about 40 to 50 plays on the big laminated piece of oak tag and calls most the next day. But there’s also info about the foe that’s valuable. On this day, for instance, when singled against a Saints receiver, well-traveled Tampa Bay corner Pierre Desir would be a New Orleans target.
One other thing when the third-stringer’s in the game: Some of the guys on the scout team might suddenly be in favor. Why? Because those are the guys a Siemian is used to throwing to. White, for instance. And tight end Garrett Griffin. “I guarantee you, early in the week, there was no play in our gameplan that tried to get the ball to Griff. But weird things happened in this game.” On his first full possession, spawned by a Cam Jordan strip-sack of Brady, Siemian found Griffin (one career reception) for 12 and then for 14 over the middle; those helped get in position for a field goal and a 10-7 Saints lead.
Again Brady helped the Saints’ cause two minutes before halftime, throwing an interception that gave Siemian a 35-yard field to lengthen the lead. Siemian hit the speedy Tre’Quan Smith—singled by Desir—for 15 on the right sideline. With 30 seconds left, the Saints had a third-and-goal at the Tampa four-foot line. “Big third down here,” Troy Aikman said on TV. “Big.”
“We’re in goal-line offense,” Payton said, “but Tampa doesn’t get subs in for the base defense.” The interesting thing is, not subbing was good for Tampa, because the Saints had no plans to run it; the more cover guys the better. Lavonte David, Devin White, Antoine Winfield Jr., all were ready if Payton called a pass. The logical receiver was tight end Adam Trautman, tight left. What was interesting here: Payton called for Mark Ingram (he’s back) deep in the backfield and little-used fullback Alex Armah in front of him. Siemian under center. The Bucs loaded the middle of the defense, respecting Ingram. At the snap, Armah didn’t block and didn’t pretend to. Instead, the pride of the University of West Georgia sprinted left, toward the pylon, while Ingram got a play-action fake. It was like the defense said, Alex Armah? Who? He hasn’t been targeted once all season.
I don’t want to overrate Payton, or overstate his importance. But look at this play. Siemian, the third quarterback. Ingram, acquired in trade for a pittance from Houston last Wednesday. Armah, a September practice-squad player with zero targets all season. This is the weaponry Sean Payton threw at the mighty Bucs, the Super Bowl champs, on a vital play in a 10-7 game just before halftime.
“Bill Parcells used to say, ‘Know who you’re throwing to,’ “ Payton said. “Trevor’s throwing to a classic fullback. Any inaccuracy with the throw, and it’s not a touchdown. Cool and calm. Right in stride.” With David and White in pursuit, the only throw to Armah this season was a classic strike. At the half, Tampa led 16-7.
Now, time for West Virginia Big 20, 85 Delta Go. That’s Kevin White’s play. “West Virginia” is for White’s college, where he played for two years before being Chicago’s first-round pick in 2015. Yes, Kevin White, with all of 25 catches in his NFL career entering Sunday, has a play. Payton likes players on their last NFL legs. They’re desperate, and they aim to please. “Kevin knows this is probably it, and I kinda like him,” Payton said. The Saints were getting the second-half kickoff, and if Payton got the look he hoped for on first down, he wanted Siemian to pick on Desir.
So here it was, first play of the second half, Tampa Bay never expecting Siemian to air it out. But White split out right. Desir was on him one-on-one. No safety help.
This was gold.
“Kevin’s one of the guys I get some reps with on the scout team,” Siemian said. “If there’s a receiver on the team I’d have some chemistry with, Kevin would be one. I love throwing him the ball.”
White got by Desir maybe 15 yards into his route down the right sideline. By that time, Siemian had already let it go, 39 yards in the air from quarterback to receiver, the ball perfectly nestling into White’s arms. Gain of 38, Siemian’s longest of the day. On FOX, play-by-play man Joe Davis was stunned: “KEVIN WHITE! KEVIN WHITE, OF ALL PEOPLE, WITH HIS FIRST RECEPTION IN THREE YEARS! WHO ARE THESE GUYS!”
Trevor Siemien, Alex Armah, Kevin White. Those are the guys who slayed the dragon Sunday in the Superdome. They had help in Saints 36, Bucs 27. Where does this leave the Saints? They’re 5-2, a half-game behind Tampa Bay. The Bucs have a bye this week and New Orleans hosts Atlanta, which means the Saints could be tied for the NFC South lead at 6-2 with Tampa Bay a week from today. Payton wasn’t discussing his quarterback situation going forward Sunday night. But he could have a decision to make if Winston, as expected, will be gone for the season. Siemian or Taysom Hill, the annual Saints’ bridesmaid, coming off his concussion? Could be a tough call for Payton.
That wasn’t a worry for Payton, or Siemian, Sunday night. All in all, it’s hard to imagine a bigger regular-season victory for the Saints since Payton took over in 2006. Not the most significant, maybe. I’m talking against all odds, with the third quarterback matching up against the great Brady, the third quarterback against the Super Bowl champs.
“I don’t know,” Payton said, asked if this was his biggest regular-season victory of the 148 he’s won. “I don’t really focus on things like that. I’ve got a closet with game balls and old stuff. I’ve got the Super Bowl pictures. None of it’s displayed. It’s just in bags. Someday, when I’m done . . .”
Payton’s voice trailed off. One last thing.
“Got a text from Mike Krzyzewski tonight,” Payton said. “All about adversity, and winning the games you’re not supposed to win, and when coaching really matters.
“I’ll save it forever.”
This from Albert Breer:
@AlbertBreer
Someone told me to look this stat up, and it might be out there, but it’s pretty good—the Saints are 12-3 without Drew Brees in the lineup since 2018. And that’s no slight on Brees at all.
Really, it’s just a tribute to how good Sean Payton is.
Bruce Arians is 16-7 with QB TOM BRADY in the regular season.
– – –
With Winston presumably done with an ACL, but the Saints looking like a Super Bowl-caliber team otherwise – will Payton and company roll with what they have – Siemian-Taysom Hill-rookie Ian Book – or will they bring in a veteran?
We have seen Cam Newton mentioned. Could Drew Brees return?
Will Brinson of CBSSports has a suggestion:
@WillBrinson
Philip Rivers’ St Michael’s varsity team finished their season on Friday night (6-3, 3-3).
Believe they just missed 4A playoffs.
Rivers less than 3 hours away, would consider returning to right spot.
With Jameis Winston tearing his ACL, Sean Payton should give Rivers a call.
Thoughts about playing with the current hand from Mike Sando:
For 15 years, Payton honed his offense with Drew Brees in the lineup. But he was always eager to build gameplans around Taysom Hill’s special talents. He embraced finding ways to win when the odds were stacked against his team by hurricanes, bounty punishments or whatever else was standing in the way.
It’s going to be fascinating to see how Payton and the Saints proceed. Siemian and Hill could play in a rotation after Hill returns from the concussion protocol as early as next week against Atlanta. Hill could play all the reps. Who knows?
There was a point late last season when the Saints needed a roster spot, so they cut Siemian with the intent of signing him to their practice squad. There was one potential complication. Washington was potentially in the quarterback market as the playoffs approached, with Alex Smith struggling physically and the team not trusting backup Dwayne Haskins. Washington did not claim Siemian, which meant the veteran backup would remain with Payton, one of the truly elite offensive coaches in the game.
The most talented quarterbacks might succeed almost anywhere, but players in Siemian’s situation — 25 starts, 13-12 record, wins when the supporting cast is strong — covet opportunities to align with the top offensive schemers, from Payton to Andy Reid to Sean McVay and, despite his team’s record, Kyle Shanahan.
Payton has a 13-6 record with quarterbacks other than Drew Brees starting: 5-1 with Teddy Bridgewater, 5-2 with Winston, 3-1 with Hill, 0-1 with Luke McCown and 0-1 with Mark Brunell.
The Saints are not going to win because of Hill or Siemian, but they are not 5-2 because of Winston, either. They just beat Brady and the Bucs with Siemian taking over for Winston on zero notice. They are not always fun to watch — see the Seattle game a week ago — but they are a team worth watching for all the ways they find to win. Their coach doesn’t pout when he loses his quarterback.
“Don Shula totally changed his offense from the Bob Griese days to Dan Marino,” an exec said. “Not many coaches have traditionally been willing to do that. Bill (Belichick) and Josh (McDaniels) put in RPOs for Cam Newton (in New England) and then went right back to their offense (with Mac Jones) as soon as they could. Payton may be a little different there. That is really interesting to me.”
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NFC WEST
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LOS ANGELES RAMS
The Rams get a high-end talent, perhaps at the end of the line, while expending more draft picks – albeit not very high ones. Adam Schefter with the scoop:
@AdamSchefter
Blockbuster: Broncos are finalizing a trade to send eight-time Pro Bowl linebacker Von Miller to the Los Angeles Rams in exchange for two second-day 2022 draft picks, league sources tell ESPN.
Miller is now saying his goodbyes to his friends in the Broncos’ training facility.
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AFC NORTH
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BALTIMORE
LB MALIKE HARRISON spent his bye weekend getting shot. Jamison Hensley ofESPN.com:
Baltimore Ravens inside linebacker Malik Harrison suffered a non-life-threatening injury after being struck by a stray bullet in the left calf, the team announced Monday.
Harrison, 23, was injured during a gathering in Cleveland on Sunday night while the Ravens were on their bye.
A third-round pick in 2020, Harrison is scheduled to return to Baltimore on Monday after receiving medical care at a Cleveland hospital.
Harrison started the first five games of the season, but his play has significantly decreased recently. With veteran Josh Bynes getting more work at middle linebacker, Harrison has been on the field for fewer than 20 defensive snaps in the past three games.
Known as a thumper inside, Harrison ranks ninth on the Ravens with 22 tackles.
The Ravens (5-2) lead the AFC North and host the Minnesota Vikings (3-4) on Sunday.
A Halloween night gathering with bullets on the menu.
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CINCINNATI
The Bengals didn’t get the ball back against the Jets because of a mystery call by Craig Wrolstad’s crew. Peter King:
It’s customary in the NFL to bitch about officials’ calls. I don’t write about them much because who cares? Every team gets crappy calls. But there was one penalty Sunday that truly bothered me, and it should bother the NFL. Using the helmet to initiate contact, quite simply, is unfairly meted out by officials. The defensive player is the one called for the penalty far more often, even if both players lower heads to initiate contact.
The crap call happened at the Meadowlands, with two minutes left in Bengals-Jets. New York led 34-31, with a third-and-11 at the Jet 20-yard line. Mike White threw a short pass out wide to Ty Johnson, and Cincinnati corner Mike Hilton moved in for the tackle. Defenders are taught to not use their helmets to initiate contact with another player’s helmet, and Hilton, as he was supposed to do, moved in very low on Johnson, his head nowhere near Johnson’s head. At the last moment, Johnson ducked his head, and the two helmets made contact. A flag was thrown—15 yards for illegal use of the helmet on Hilton.
If the call was either not made or called on the Jets, it would have been fourth down for the Jets deep in their own territory. And assuming Cincinnati would have taken its first timeout there, it’s likely Joe Burrow would have gotten the ball back, with two timeouts, at around his own 30-yard line with 1:40 to play, needing a field goal to tie. Who knows if he gets the 40 yards to do that, but the flag on Hilton meant the Bengals never saw the ball again. Even if the officials called offsetting fouls, the Jets would have had to convert a third-and-11 to keep the ball away from Cincinnati.
“When are the officials going to start calling helmet-to-helmet on the ballcarrier?” asked former New England and Kansas City personnel czar Scott Pioli.
That’s a question the officiating department should answer this week. The vagaries of the call might have decided a game Sunday.
More from Josh Alper of ProFootballTalk.com:
Bengals cornerback Mike Hilton was flagged for lowering his helmet to initiate contact on Jets running back Ty Johnson late in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s game and the penalty helped the Jets run out the clock on a 34-31 win.
The call generated much criticism from those watching the game who noted the timing of the rarely called penalty and Johnson lowering his head among their complaints. Hilton appeared to ask what he’s supposed to do while speaking to officials on the field and referee Craig Wrolstad got the same question from a pool reporter after the game. Wrolstad said he’s “not here to verse you on how to tackle properly, but the rule is that you cannot lower your head to initiate contact on a player with your helmet” and that officials never considered throwing a flag on Johnson as well.
Hilton wrote on Twitter after the game that “I just don’t know what a tackle is anymore.” Safety Jessie Bates said the team was told not to discuss the play, but noted that exact play goes uncalled all the time and it “obviously sucks” that it wasn’t the case this time. Bates also said the Bengals can’t let things get to that point and head coach Zac Taylor made the same point.
“It shouldn’t have to come down to those plays. We should just play better to not be in a position for that stuff to matter,” Taylor said.
The Bengals can’t control what officials decide to call or when they decide to throw flags, but they can control giving up 34 points and more than 500 yards to a Mike White-led offense and their failure to do that on Sunday really cost them.
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CLEVELAND
Charles Robinson of YahooSports.com on the strange state of WR ODELL BECKHAM, Jr.
Shaping up the NFL’s potential trade deadline offerings last week, two things became apparent after speaking to some general managers who will be manning the phones: Nobody is all that interested in taking on someone else’s salary-cap dump; and overvalued “just a name” players don’t have a market to speak of.
We should have learned that in early October when the Dallas Cowboys tried in vain to get anything of value for linebacker Jaylon Smith. It became apparent very quickly that teams didn’t want to be responsible for the one-time Pro Bowler’s remaining salary, leaving Dallas to cut him purely for future cap maneuvering. And we’re going to learn it again by Tuesday, particularly as it pertains to players whose trade availability amounts to little more than a salary dump.
You can officially count the Cleveland Browns’ Odell Beckham Jr. in that category. He has no fit in the Browns’ offense and virtually no interest in the open market as we head toward the deadline.
As one AFC general manager said of Beckham Jr. last week, “Nobody is going to want that salary unless [the Browns] are going to pay part of what’s left on it [this season]. And even if Cleveland is willing to do that, which they probably aren’t, nobody is giving up anything for him. I’ll be very surprised if they can move him for anything.”
This is a consistent theme with Beckham when NFL teams speak about him. Despite him still being a “name” player among fan bases — not to mention a target of constant trade speculation — the truth is that when teams look at Beckham, they see an $8.05 million liability for the remainder of 2021. That’s how much salary he’s owed for the rest of the season, which translates into the cap he would eat up for any team that acquires him. It also represents the amount of money Cleveland would then be able to gain on this year’s cap and roll forward.
The importance of that number is debatable, given that the salary cap is expected to take a healthy jump to nearly $208 million in 2022 (as compared to $182.5 million this season). A lot of teams should have plenty of money to spend, but there will be a push by teams to extend as many of their valuable players as possible next offseason. That’s because some franchises are looking to get ahead of the big cap jumps slated to begin in 2023, when the league’s salary cap is expected to start jumping by at least $20 million per year (and possibly more) annually.
For many teams, that’s going to equate toward an aggressive push to get key extensions done sooner than later — as well as motivation to add players in free agency next offseason before contracts start reaching larger escalations at the middle levels. Long story short: It means teams are going to want as much cap space as possible heading into next offseason, so they can nail down enough players as possible before contracts start to shoot up across all stages of talent.
It’s an important factor with Beckham, even when he accounts for “only” $8 million on a team’s books this year. Not to mention the fact that his injuries and general ineffectiveness in Cleveland don’t bode well for his value, either. While the blame game is getting popular in Cleveland — trying to pin down who is most responsible for Beckham’s lack of contributions — the fact is he’s in an offense where he should be able to contribute more than he has.
Is his lack of traction a Baker Mayfield problem? Does it fall on the offensive scheme of head coach Kevin Stefanski? Is Odell the issue? What about the injuries?
The sentiment from people inside the franchise concludes that it’s a little bit of everything. There are times when Mayfield hasn’t clicked with Beckham. There are times when he has been frustrated with his use in the offense. And there have been times when Beckham hasn’t played nearly as well as some people want to assume — either because of injuries or mistakes or because he’s not the dominant player he once was.
That doesn’t mean he can’t be again. He may still hold value for a team interested in tailoring its offense toward what Beckham does well — then feeding him consistently, like the target-volume dependent player he has always been. There are certainly questions about whether he can still be the explosive player he once was, or even remain healthy for a full season. Lest anyone forget, he has played 44 of his past 74 possible games (including two postseason games last season).
Add all of that up. What you end up with is a “name” player who has a lot of lingering injuries and also been a sometimes-good-but-rarely-great player, in a league that is leaning more into passing offense than ever before. And he’s available at a time when teams are trying to be as smart as ever about their salary cap allotment.
None of that bodes well for Beckham. Nor is it particularly great that two teams that could probably use him now — the Baltimore Ravens and Pittsburgh Steelers — are both in the same division as Cleveland. All of this creates an unmistakable problem for the Browns. It’s less about whether they’re willing to part company with him and more about the realities of whether he really has any trade market at all.
As of last week, he didn’t. Maybe that changes with Tuesday’s deadline pressing. Either way, it’s clear Cleveland is picking up the phone on this one, knowing that one way or another, Odell Beckham Jr.’s time in the franchise is ticking down to an inevitable end.
– – –
Mike Sando of The Athletic says the 2021 Browns aren’t that much worse than the 2020 Browns:
The Cleveland Browns’ regression could be explained by … statistical regression.
The Browns’ 15-10 home defeat to Pittsburgh was frustrating, in the words of coach Kevin Stefanski. The defeat also continued a regression from 2020 as Cleveland fell to 1-3 in games decided by six or fewer points. The Browns finished 11-5 last season because they won nearly all their close games.
Four teams over the past two decades won at least seven games in a season when the final score differential was six or fewer points. The 2020 Browns were one of those teams. They won those games by the following scores:
41-35 over Tennessee
37-34 over Cincinnati
35-30 over Cincinnati
27-25 over Jacksonville
24-22 over Pittsburgh
22-17 over Philadelphia
10-7 over Houston
Cleveland went 7-1 in those games overall last season, the only loss coming in a wild 47-42 game against Baltimore in Week 14 when the teams combined for 35 points in the fourth quarter.
Faring that well in close games was unusual. Faring that well in those games again was an even longer shot. The 2021 Browns have some injury issues that weren’t a factor to the same degree last season, but natural regression in close games could be driving the difference in the team’s record. Cleveland lost 47-42 to the Chargers and 33-29 to the Chiefs this season before pulling out a 17-14 victory against Denver last week.
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PITTSBURGH
Is Mike Tomlin a Hall of Famer already? Peter King:
I think congrats are in order for Mike Tomlin, who tied Bill Cowher in regular-season victories on Sunday with the 15-10 victory over Cleveland. Comparing Tomlin to Cowher, the Hall of Fame coach, in regular-season play:
Tomlin, 15 years: 149-89-1
Cowher, 15 years: 149-90-1
Each has one Super Bowl, like Tony Dungy who was 139-69-1 in 13 years.
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AFC SOUTH
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HOUSTON
Peter King thinks QB DESHAUN WATSON will remain the property of the Texans when Wednesday dawns:
I will be shocked if Deshaun Watson is traded. As I’ve said all along, trading for a star with as many question marks surrounding him is, to put it charitably, irresponsible and desperate and stupid. Normally I’m not prone to conspiracy theories, but the conspiracy theorist in me says all the reports of the chances he could be traded are music to the ears of Houston owner Cal McNair and GM Nick Caserio. To McNair, Watson is a headache he prays will go away, soon. To Caserio, Watson is an opportunity to get a better return next March than he could get now.
One last note about Watson: I’ll always think the dumbest thing about this whole situation is pride and hubris. Watson seems convinced either that he did nothing wrong or that he would never be found to have done something wrong, so why not fight it? But a smart person, or a smart lawyer, would have said last May: Let’s cut our losses. Let’s make a global settlement of say, $3 million, to the aggrieved women, let’s issue a heartfelt apology, let’s take a six-week NFL suspension. Do you know what would have happened if Watson had done that? He’d be tarnished—not as much as he could be by mid-2022—but he’d also be on a team preparing to play in Week 9. Ironically, if the Texans had dealt Watson to Miami last summer, there’s a very good chance the QB matchup at Hard Rock Stadium next Sunday would be Houston’s Tua Tagovailoa versus Miami’s Deshaun Watson in his Dolphins debut.
Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com hears that GM Nick Caserio was willing to lower his exorbitant demands for Watson, then went back to ground zero when word leaked that Watson would settle after he became a Dolphin.
A week ago, the Texans and Dolphins were closing in on a deal for quarterback Deshaun Watson. Per multiple sources, the Dolphins wanted Watson to settle the 22 civil lawsuits accusing him of sexual misconduct during massage therapy sessions. Per multiple sources, once the Texans caught wind of the growing possibility that the 22 civil lawsuits would be settled, their price for Watson went up.
With no deal ever in place (and the Dolphins would concede that a deal was never reached), the Texans were free to ask for more, if/when they sensed that the Dolphins would be getting Watson with one of the two major branches of his legal portfolio resolved. (The 10 pending criminal complaints will remain in place until a grand jury decides whether to charge Watson.)
Brandin Cooks appears unhappy with Texans trading Mark Ingram – ProFootballTalk
The increased demands caused the talks to crater. Now, the primary impediment is the gap between what the Texans want and what the Dolphins will offer. That could change as the deadline arrives, because in the NFL and most other businesses deadlines drive action.
If a trade is done, the expectation is that Watson will get the 22 civil cases settled. If a trade doesn’t happen, it’s expected that the civil cases won’t be resolved, at least not for now.
Either way, the deadline arrives on Tuesday at 4:00 p.m. ET. Obviously, it will happen by then. Or it won’t.
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INDIANAPOLIS
In a pivotal game with the Titans, QB CARSON WENTZ made two critical blunders. Peter King:
Goat of the Week
Carson Wentz, quarterback, Indianapolis. Two interceptions in the last eight minutes against Tennessee—one of them inconceivable—were crucial in the 34-31 OT win for the Titans. With 1:33 left and the score tied, Wentz made one of the biggest errors of his NFL career. It looked like he panicked. Though coach Frank Reich took the blame post-game for calling a screen so close to the goal line, it may be that he deserves a bit of the blame–but quarterbacks have to execute all play calls, not just the ones that might be perfect calls. With the ball at the Indy 8-yard line, pressure converged on Wentz, who was trying to throw a screen pass. As three Titans neared Wentz, instead of having the presence of mind to throw it at a receiver’s feet, he transferred the ball to his left hand and threw the ball left-handed. Rookie cornerback Elijah Molden grabbed the gift interception and returned it two yards for a go-ahead touchdown. After rallying to tie the game in regulation, the Colts had the ball at their 27 with six minutes left, and Wentz threw another pick, to safety Kevin Byard. A game-winning field goal followed for Tennessee. The Colts fell three games behind the Titans with the stunning loss.
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TENNESSEE
This changes everything as Adam Schefter dropped this bombshell on Monday morning:
@AdamSchefter
Titans’ RB Derrick Henry suffered a potentially season-ending foot injury during Sunday’s 34-31 win over Indianapolis, sources reported ESPN. Henry is undergoing an MRI today to determine the full extent of the damage.
This update after Mike Vrabel’s press conference. Myles Simmons ofProFootballTalk.com:
“We’re not going to put a timeline on when he may return,” Vrabel said, via Ben Arthur of the Tennessean. “I know that he’ll do everything that he can to work himself back to be able to help this football team. And whenever that is, that’s when it’ll be. I know that he’ll be around our team as soon as he can. I know that’s important to him and I know that’ll be important to our team.
“We’ll have to move on, unfortunately, without him in the short term and not look back.”
Vrabel said the team found out after the game that Henry’s foot was going to be a significant issue. The head coach also noted that there’s a chance Henry returns this season. But, according to multiple reports, the bone broken in Henry’s foot carries a roughly eight-week recovery timetable.
Vrabel noted that Henry is disappointed, but will work to get back as quickly as possible.
“He feels bad,” Vrabel said, via Jim Wyatt of the team’s website. “We spent a lot of time together with the coaching staff and with the players, so you never want to see any of them injured in any capacity. So I know that Derrick is going to work extremely hard to get back to do everything he can to help this football team.”
Henry led the league in rushing in each of the past two seasons, reaching 2,027 yards with 17 touchdowns last year. He currently leads the league with 219 carries, 937 yards rushing, and 10 rushing touchdowns.
Sad that some potential records will not be achieved. But the season extends now to January 9, so to say “season-ending” would seem to be premature.
We see the 6-2 Titans with four very winnable games in their final nine (even without Henry). Winnable game in green, coin flips in black, uphill battles in red.
WEEK 9 · Sun 11/07 at Los Angeles Rams
WEEK 10 · Sun 11/14 New Orleans Saints
WEEK 11 · Sun 11/21 Houston Texans
WEEK 12 · Sun 11/28 at New England Patriots
WEEK 13 bye
WEEK 14 · Sun 12/12 Jacksonville Jaguars
WEEK 15 · Sun 12/19 at Pittsburgh Steelers
WEEK 16 · Thu 12/23 San Francisco 49ers
WEEK 17 · Sun 01/02 Miami Dolphins
WEEK 18 · Sun 01/09 at Houston Texans
The Titans are four games up on the Colts (3-5, with a Titans sweep). If they can finish 11-6 (4 green wins, 1-2 in the three coin flip games), the Colts would not be able to catch them unless they go 9-0. So the Titans are likely to be in the playoffs, as the #4 AFC seed without Henry – and then could get Henry back, fresh except for his foot, for the playoffs.
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Will Adrian Peterson ride to the rescue? Ian Rapoport:
@RapSheet
The #Titans are expected to work out veteran RB Adrian Peterson this week, sources say, in the wake of the Derrick Henry foot injury. Tennessee could replace the MVP candidate with one of the greatest running backs of all time.
Labeling the 2021 version of Adrian Peterson as “one of the greatest running backs of all time” may be technically true, but would seem to stretch things a bit as to his current status.
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AFC EAST
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NEW ENGLAND
After the win over the Chargers, the Patriots are making a move warns Peter King:
A half-game out of a wild-card berth this morning, a half-game ahead of mighty Kansas City. The Pats are in it after 27-24 win over the Chargers in Los Angeles. They’ve outscored the last two foes 81-37. Just think what’ll happen when Mac Jones and the offense are really in sync.
Crucial point of this game: Ten minutes to play, Pats down 17-16, Chargers ball, third-and-10 at their 22-yard line. Justin Herbert needed to make a conversion throw. Tight end Jared Cook ran an incut from the right and was either slow in turning for the throw or made the wrong cut. Behind Cook in coverage was the former Chargers safety Adrian Phillips, who signed with the Patriots in free agency last year. Phillips dove for the errant Herbert pass, and if you stopped the tape at precisely the right moment, Phillips would look parallel to the ground about four feet high. He caught it, got up, and sprinted 26 yards down the left sideline. That was his second pick of the day. Not bad for a guy who earned everything he ever got with the Chargers, who cut him seven times after signing him as an undrafted college free agent out of Texas in 2014.
I asked Phillips about playing for Bill Belichick, and if anything he’d learned under Belichick showed up Sunday. “Coach Belichick has a canvas,” said Phillips, “and you can do whatever you want on this canvas, play however you want, if it makes sense.” How about on the winning pick-six? “I don’t want to tell you exactly what happened there,” he said, “but I can tell you I had some options there, and I’m fortunate that I picked the right one, and it worked.” Not often that you hear players talk about their freedom under Belichick, but Phillips—maybe it was just the euphoria of the evening—sounded liberated Sunday night.
And this note on PK NICK FOLK:
Nick Folk, kicker, New England. One of the most interesting kicking careers in recent times continued its renaissance at SoFi Stadium on Sunday. He was four-for-four in field goals, all in the final 33 minutes, from 24, 48, 48 and 24 yards. The oft-cut Folk, since opening day 2020, has made 46 of 49 field-goal tries for New England.
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