With seven weeks remaining, it looks like the 7 or 8 playoff teams in the AFC will come from these 9 teams.  If The Season Ended Today in the AFC:

                                                                                                                                                                                           W-L         Conf

Pittsburgh        North           9-0           6-0

Kansas City     West            8-1           7-1

Buffalo             East             7-3           5-2

Indianapolis     South           6-3           3-3

Las Vegas       WC1           6-3           4-2

Miami              WC2            6-3           3-2

Baltimore         WC3            6-3           4-3

Cleveland                           6-3           4-3

Tennessee                         6-3           4-3

In fact, it looks like Pittsburgh and Kansas City will fight for the top seed and the bye, then the other seven teams are in a virtual tie.

There are no 5-4 teams, then New England alone at 4-5.

NFC NORTH

GREEN BAY

GB OT DAVID BAKTIARI is a wealthy man.  Rob Demovsky of ESPN.com:

David Bakhtiari tweeted an emoji late Saturday night on the eve of the Green Bay Packers’ game against the Jacksonville Jaguars. Only a select few knew why he was so happy.

The All-Pro wasn’t just making his return from broken ribs, he was doing so as the highest-paid offensive lineman in NFL history.

Shortly before he went to bed, Bakhtiari signed a four-year contract extension that can be worth up to $105.5 million, a source confirmed to ESPN.

The Packers announced the extension shortly after Sunday’s 24-20 win at Lambeau Field. The base value of the deal is $103.5 million with another $2 million in incentives and includes the highest signing bonus — $30 million, all payable before the end of the 2020 season — for an offensive lineman, the source said, adding that the total cash flow amount is $37.052 million in the first year and $64.5 million in the first three years.

The new-money average of $23 million is a record for an offensive lineman. The deal Laremy Tunsil signed with the Houston Texans in May averages $22 million per year.

ProFootballTalk.com first reported the news of Bakhtiari’s extension.

“That was something that I’ve been chasing for a while,” Bakhtiari said. “In having the talks with my family, to have that monetary validation for all the hard work that I’ve put in really meant a lot and that was something that I can hold on to and have that title for the rest of my life. That is something special that I’ve been chasing really ever since I got in the league. I have goals, very lofty ones, and I always wanted to say that I was the highest-paid offensive lineman in NFL history and today I get to say that.”

NFC EAST

NEW YORK GIANTS

The Giants are on the rise in a division where they can reach the top.  Peter King:

Last five games for the G-men: Beat Washington at home, blew a late-10 point lead to lose in Philly, handed a Monday-nighter to Tampa, won at Washington, beat the Eagles by 10 Sunday in New Jersey. The Giants are a game behind the Eagles entering New York’s bye week, but by all accounts this is a better team right now with a defense playing better every week, and a quarterback finally—the franchise hopes—cutting down on the turnovers. The 27-17 win over the Eagles was Jones’ 22nd start in the NFL, and the first in which he had neither a fumble nor an interception.

“Protecting the ball is an important part of the game, and something I need to do better,” Jones told me post-game. “I’m continuing to focus on that and working to improve that week in and week out. There’s drills we’ve worked on and protecting the ball in the pocket. Keep two hands on the ball in the pocket. Simulating a rush, simulating stepping up in the pocket and keeping it protected. And I think it goes into decision-making, when to take risks, when not to take risks.”

That killed Jones and the Giants against Tampa, with two awful interceptions. If Sunday wasn’t an outlier and Jones can fix the giveaways, that Giants can be the best team in this bad division. Imagine a January rematch with Tom Brady in New Jersey.

Dan Graziano of ESPN.com is not convinced:

The Giants? The 3-7 team that has lost more games over the past four seasons than any other team in the entire league? Yes, those Giants. Don’t look now, but Sunday’s victory over first-place Philadelphia moved Big Blue within a game-and-a-half of the division lead. Daniel Jones has played two games in a row without turning the ball over, which might have been cause for a ticker-tape parade in less socially distant times. This wasn’t some kind of fluky, bad-bounce win. The Giants looked better than the Eagles, who are now 3-5-1, and Jones looked like a better quarterback than Carson Wentz, whose inexplicably miserable season continues.

Entering this week, ESPN’s Football Power Index (FPI) had the Giants’ chances of winning the division at 6%. But as ESPN analytics writer Seth Walder pointed out, those chances would jump to something in the 60-65% range if they were to win five of their final seven games — as long as one of those wins came Sunday against the Eagles. It did, and now they have their bye next week to rest up before a winnable Week 12 trip to Cincinnati.

Perhaps most importantly: No team has won the NFC East in back-to-back seasons since the Andy Reid Eagles did it in 2003-04, and the Eagles are the current defending division champions. Hope lives.

The verdict: OVERREACTION. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Here comes old Graziano, raining on Big Blue’s parade just like he used to do when he covered the team. I hear you. And please believe me when I say I really like what the Giants are doing under Joe Judge. They play hard. They’ve been in every game except the one where the 49ers’ backups blew them out at home. No matter how this season finishes, Giants fans have to feel good about where things are headed — especially if Jones really can get the turnovers under control.

But the remaining schedule is not easy. After that Bengals game, their next four games are against teams that have winning records — at Seattle, home to the Cardinals, home to the Browns and at the Ravens. Say they split those four, beat the Bengals in Week 12 and beat the Cowboys in Week 17. That gets them to 7-9, which honestly could be good enough to win the NFC East. But I still think this is a team that, as hard as it plays, is going to be outmanned more weeks than not. I do not think Jones has made his last killer turnover of the season. And while I cannot explain to you what is wrong with Wentz, it still looks to me like the Eagles — who are still in front of the Giants by a game-and-a-half, remember — are getting healthier and have the best chance of anyone in this division to field a truly competitive team the rest of the way.

Sunday’s win was great. Winning two in a row is great. But don’t lose sight of how far this Giants roster still has to go — in the short term and the long.

A note from Andrew Siciliano:

@AndrewSiciliano

Giants have beaten NFC East opponents in consecutive weeks for the first time since Weeks 7-8, 2012.

– – –

Jonathan Jones of CBSSports.com wouldn’t give RB SAQUON BARKLEY a big second contract:

I’m not sure how the New York Giants justify paying Saquon Barkley a big second deal next offseason, if they’re considering it now.

At the risk of Barkley catching a stray in this column as he recovers from ACL surgery, the Giants are getting plenty of ground production from Wayne Gallman, Alfred Morris, Devonta Freeman (when not on IR) and, of course, Daniel Jones. The Giants have eclipsed 100 rushing yards in each of their past five games in figuring out life without Barkley.

Before his ACL surgery, Barkley was in line for a $15 million per year deal in 2021 going into his fourth season. But he was banged up most of last year and tore his knee in Week 2 this year. Throw in a reduced salary cap next season and it’s hard to see how the Giants will even want to pay him.

There are some running backs you pay in this league. Alvin Kamara, Dalvin Cook and Derrick Henry top the list for me. But the Giants are showing they don’t need to tie up 8-10% of their cap with a running back.

PHILADELPHIA

Doug Pederson tries to explain a failed two-point conversion try.  Jeff Kerr ofCBSSports.com:

Doug Pederson has defined his head coaching career in the NFL with his aggressive play calling. The Philadelphia Eagles head coach may have been too reckless in Sunday’s loss to the New York Giants.

Corey Clement scored on a 5-yard touchdown run to cut the Eagles’ deficit to 21-17 with 5:20 left in the third quarter. Pederson, who converted a two-point attempt earlier in the game, just needed an extra point conversion from Jake Elliott to make the score 21-18 — putting the Eagles within a field goal of the Giants. Instead, Pederson decided to go for two again — which would have made the score 21-19 if the conversion was successful.

Carson Wentz was sacked on the conversion attempt, and the score remained 21-17. The Eagles would not score again the remainder of the game.

“The decision making you know, was to obviously trust my guys upstairs,” Pederson said regarding his decision to go for two. “We just converted one before and I felt good with the play call. You go for it and you make it and a field goal can win the game for you later on in the fourth quarter. It at least gives you the opportunity to know what you need to do to win the game.”

Pederson offered a deeper explanation on the two-point decision with SportsRadio WIP host Angelo Cataldi Monday morning, explaining the decision had more to do with improving the chances to win if the attempt was successful.

“So we have a two-point chart based on points and win probability,” Pederson said. “Down four, to go down two in that situation, your win probability goes way up and that’s why I made that decision to go.”

So were the Eagles’ chances of winning greater by going for two? The Athletic’s Ben Baldwin demonstrated Philadelphia’s chances to win the game are 47% if the conversion is successful compared to 43% of the Eagles convert the extra point. If Philadelphia failed at the two-point conversion attempt, the chances of winning go down to 42%, compared to 43% if the Eagles just kick the extra point and make it.

The success rate is much higher of kicking the extra point then going for two, which the Eagles are successful just 38.14% of the time. Jake Elliott has made all 12 extra point attempts this season.

Perhaps the Eagles are too dependent on analytics and Pederson doesn’t have a feel for the game — where kicking the extra point puts his team down a field goal with just over 20 minutes of game clock remaining. The Giants ended up punting on their next two possessions and the Eagles trailed by four both times (21-17).

NFC SOUTH

NEW ORLEANS

Can QB JAMEIS WINSTON do for the Saints what TEDDY BRIDGEWATER did last year?  Kevin Patra of NFL.com:

Drew Brees might need some rest.

The 41-year-old quarterback suffered a rib contusion in Sunday’s win over the San Francisco 49ers and will undergo an MRI to look for possible cartilage damage.

NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport and Tom Pelissero reported that the Saints are bracing for Brees to miss some time to fully heal, per sources informed of the situation.

Brees has also been dealing with an injury to his throwing shoulder that has limited his practice time in recent weeks.

The results of the MRI will tell the full story, but it appears likely the Saints could sit their veteran QB for at least a game or so to let him recover.

If Brees misses any contests, Sean Payton could turn to Jameis Winston.

The former Tampa Bay Buccaneers QB played the second half of Sunday’s 27-13 win. He completed 6 of 10 passes for 63 yards, mostly throwing short to running back Alvin Kamara. Despite having a big arm, Winston attempted just two throws of more than 11 air yards, both incompletions. Winston looked particularly jittery in the red zone, where he got happy feet several times.

It’s not new for a QB entering a game he’s not expecting to play in to not execute at his best. Teddy Bridgewater performed similarly last year when thrust into action midway through a tilt. With a full week of practice as the starter and a game-plan tailored to his strengths, it’s likely we’d see a better Winston than we did Sunday afternoon.

Last year, Bridgewater used his five-game audition to revamp his reputation and land a big deal in Carolina. It’s possible Winston could do likewise.

The question is how much Sean Payton will ride Winston and how much run Taysom Hill Hill will get. Hill earned several third-and-short snaps Sunday in the second half and played extensively in running situations. How Payton handles his two backup QBs could be one of the more interesting storylines in the coming weeks if Brees is out for a stretch.

Thoughts from Peter King:

You want to see how valuable Drew Brees is? The Saints might have to, with Brees unable to play in the second half of the win over outmanned San Francisco with a rib injury. Lucky for New Orleans, the next three games are against Atlanta, Denver and Atlanta again—they’re both 3-6.

The Falcons and Broncos don’t have winning records, but they play with a pulse.  Average teams at the moment, but not bad ones.

TAMPA BAY

RB RONALD JONES entered the week 9^th in the NFL in rushing.  Now, after a game with a 98-yard run, he is 3^rd.  Peter King on one of his Players of the Week:

Ronald Jones, running back, Tampa Bay. Hey, you break a tackle at your own 11-yard line and outrun a faster guy (Jeremy Chinn) around the 50, and finish off a 98-yard touchdown sprint unchallenged for the last 25 yards, and you’re going to be player of the week. The explosive third-quarter TD broke open a three-point game and started the Bucs on the way to a surprising rout, 46-23, in Charlotte.

NFC WEST

ARIZONA

For all of the excitement of the big play, don’t forget the role played by PK TYLER BASS:

Tyler Bass, kicker, Buffalo. I think it’s pretty safe to say Bass had the best quarter by a kicker in NFL history in the second quarter at Arizona. He kicked 54, 55 and 58-yard field goals in the second period, sending the Bills into halftime with a 16-9 lead.

– – –

Whatever else you might put in your Peter King equation, you have to say he re-creates big moments well.  Today’s example – the miracle KYLER MURRAY-DeANDRE HOPKINS TD pass:

Remember last spring, in Franchise Receiver Lotto, when Buffalo made the big trade for Stefon Diggs and Arizona paid far less to deal for DeAndre Hopkins? Referendum time Sunday in the desert. When Buffalo QB Josh Allen made a spot-on throw and Diggs made a diving end-zone catch with 34 seconds left, the Bills took a 30-26 lead. Biggest moment of the game, and Diggs rose to meet it. The Bills exulted. This precise play is why Buffalo paid a Maserati price for Diggs, and you could see it on their sideline. Whooping, screaming, unadulterated joy.

On the other sideline, Kyler Murray, on the bench, stared at the ground. All he could think of was the same kind of devastating loss last week to Miami, blowing a fourth-quarter lead then too. “That same kind of feeling creeps in,” Murray said later. “Bummed out. Let another one get away.”

But . . . 34 seconds is 34 seconds.

“Thirty-four seconds, 75 yards,” said one of the Arizona trainers on the sidelines. “We got this.”

Short chunks. To Andy Isabella for 14, Hopkins for nine, Larry Fitzgerald for nine.

Eleven seconds left. No timeouts. Ball at the Buffalo 43. Bills up four. Field goal does Arizona no good. Maybe a sideline throw here, then a shot to the end zone? Or maybe a rollout, let some traffic gather in the end zone, and try a Hail Mary? When the play from Kliff Kingsbury got called into his helmet, it was for the latter, a rollout left and then try to make something happen.

But the formation . . . a tad mysterious. The play-call was for a 1-by-3 formation, with Hopkins the lone receiver left and Murray rolling left, trying to find Hopkins deep. The Cardinals, hoping the three receivers to the right (Larry Fitzgerald, Andy Isabella, Christian Kirk, none going to the end zone) would take some of the traffic off Hopkins. But did that really make sense? What defense in its right schematic mind would not blanket Hopkins with two guys and a safety eying him and with the quarterback rolling left? Whatever the call, the ESPN win probability for Buffalo as Arizona huddled with 11 seconds to go was 96.8 percent.

Murray wasn’t feeling too confident as he lined up in the ‘gun. He was just going to have to make something happen.

“I mean, the play was kind of in shambles,” the 23-year-old quarterback said 75 minutes later.

Well, nothing to do now but run the play.

“BLUE HUT!” Murray barked. Back came the snap from center Mason Cole.

– – –

This day wasn’t supposed to have drama like this. Anytime the Game of the Week is Bills-Cards, drama might be in short supply. But let’s get back to Glendale, Ariz., to the Cardinals Radio Network, with Dave Pasch and Ron Wolfley setting the scene as the clock shows :11.

Pasch, calm voice: “Hopkins to the left. Three receivers to the right. Cardinals trail by four. They’re out of timeouts, 11 seconds left in the game. First down at the Buffalo 43. Now the Bills drop two men back, 25 yards downfield. Murray back to throw.”

:11, :10 . . . “When I got ready to take the snap, I’m trying to diagnose the defense, see if there’s any holes. Anything easy. I still figured I probably had two plays, two shots at it. The play was designed to roll out left, like I said, and they did a good job of containing,” Murray said.

Murray was sitting in a room just outside the Cards’ locker room, talking to me, watching the highlights of the game on TV. This helped. Now he could see what he’d just felt over an hour ago.

Pasch, voice elevating: “Flushed out, rolling left, in trouble. Slips a tackle”.

:09 . . . Buffalo defensive end Mario Addison, quick but not Kyler-quick, drew a bead on Murray as he gamboled left.

“The game’s on the line,” Murray said. “I can’t get tackled here. There was no chance he was tackling me. No chance.”

:08 . . . “The angle he took at me, I’m fortunate he took that angle,” Murray said. Addison touched Murray but didn’t have a good shot at him really, and flew past. Murray took another step, then turned upfield, maybe eight yards from the Cardinal sideline at about the Arizona 48-yard line.

Meanwhile, it looked like the three receivers to the right of the formation were occupying four defenders. Hopkins, who streaked down the left flank, took two DBs with him. As Murray suspected, there was a safety lurking in midfield, clearly waiting for the ball to be launched to Hopkins. It was three Bills defenders on one great receiver. It was a game of chance.

Pasch, voice another octave higher: “Gotta launch it.”

:07 . . . Murray, sounding surprised: “I looked downfield, I locked in on Hop. And what was weird was, he was the only player on our team in the end zone.” Hail Marys count on traffic, and the benefits of crowds. Why? The more people in red jerseys in the end zone, the better chance for a fluky pop-up touchdown.

One guy in the end zone? Not good.

But that one guy? Good.

Hopkins caught 115 balls in 2018 for Houston, with zero drops. Since PFF has been keeping stats on drops in 2006, no wide receiver ever had a season with 110 receptions or more with zero drops. So, in training camp last year, I asked Hopkins about the secret of his hands.

“My brother and I used to watch a lot of Jet Li movies, so we used to always do quick things like kickboxing or catching things with our hands,” Hopkins said. “One thing I remember we always used to do—we always used to catch flies with our hands. I was the only one that could catch them. I actually studied it, and I grew with it. I was like, ‘How do I catch flies?’ Flies always fly up. I would always just hit over it. And I thought: If I can catch flies, I know I can catch anything.”

Flies always fly up. I would just hit over it.

:06 . . . So now, Hopkins nestled himself two yards deep in the end zone. Murray, after running left and turning slightly upfield, had to turn his body forward, so he’d be able to maximize his arm strength and get the ball to the end zone. He cocked his arm to throw, right at midfield, as Buffalo defensive lineman Quinton Jefferson sped toward him. Murray threw a rainbow-ball, falling out of bounds, hoping not to get leveled by the 290-pound Jefferson.

Think of the throw.

“I’ve never done a Hail Mary before,” Murray told me.

Running to his left, evading one rusher, turning slightly upfield and getting ready to let the ball go, knowing he had to throw it almost exactly 50 yards in the air, arced high so that his 6-1 wide receiver would have a shot at it. “Obviously in that situation you can’t overthrow it,” Murray said. The throw had to have air under it, and it had to be in the 10-yard space of the end zone or, very possibly, game over. It’s a throw that’s best made from the pocket, with some time to rev up the arm and figure how much arc to use. Throwing to a target 51 yards away while falling out of bounds? Challenging.

“I felt really good about it when it left my hand,” Murray said. “I knew it would get to the end zone.”

Pasch, getting excited: “Left side – into the end zone – jump ball – annnnd it is … “

:05, :04 . . . Down it came, aimed about two yards deep in the end zone. Three Bills were in a triangle around Hopkins: safety Jordan Poyer in front, his right hand gloved in white reaching high as the ball fell to earth; cornerback Tre’Davious White to the left, grasping two hands up near Hopkins’ hands but not quite as high, looking like he was trying to compete with Hopkins to high-point the ball; and then, in back and slightly to the right, safety Micah Hyde, with his right hand trying to knock the ball away when it landed.

Pasch: “Is it caught? Is it caught?”

:03 . . . As he tumbled out of bounds, Murray looked downfield and saw two black gloved hands rising. “We were joking about it in the locker room,” Murray said. “Like, there were all these white gloves, and everybody just saw two black gloves come out from that pile. They were above everybody else’s hands. Hop wears like 5X’s so yeah. Crazy.”

Hopkins’ black Nike gloves (with the Jumpman logo), size 5XL, were highest of the four men jumping for the Murray fly ball. Murray got a hand on either side of the ball, and vice-gripped it for the catch, then pinned the ball to his torso, and the three men fell to earth.

Pasch, yelling: “OH MY GOODNESS It’s caught! DeAndre Hopkins caught it! He caught it! Touchdown! With one second left! I can’t believe it! You’ve gotta be joking me! Hopkins reaches up with three defenders around him! And pulls it in! And the Cardinals lead it! 32-30! With a second left!

:02 . . . The side judge, Dave Hankshaw, signaled TD. The back judge, Keith Ferguson, soon followed with his signal.

“They [the Buffalo defenders] were in position,” Hopkins said later. “It was just a better catch by I.”

By I. That’s what he said.

“I never panic when the ball is in the air,” Hopkins said.

As Hopkins fell, Hyde, the safety, still tried to poke it away. Hopkins firmly pressed the ball to his legs with his right hand; it wouldn’t move.

Analyst Ron Wolfley, screaming: “You can’t cover Nuke! You’re not gonna be able to cover him! Throw the ball long! That’s what Kyler Murray did! He extended the play with his legs! And just chucked that thing up into the air! Into the desert sky, baby! And D-Hop brought it down – touchdownnnnnn!”

Murray never saw the end of the play till well after the game. When we spoke, he was on a landline just off the locker room, watching the highlights of the game.

“That’s my first one [Hail Mary],” he said.

“Never had one in high school, even?” I said.

“No. Never,” he said.

“Have you had a moment like this?” I said. “You’ve played at a very high level of high school in Texas, and college at Oklahoma.”

“Well,” he said with a chuckle, “in high school we had a lot of moments. Never like this one, though. Last-second, I mean, this is the highest level. Hail Mary, last play of the game. [There was an inconsequential kickoff left.] I really have had a lot of moments in my life . . . but this one, none can compare.”

What was surprising, observers said, about the Arizona locker room afterward, was that the players and staff were unabashedly happy but not crazy. Hopkins, I’m told, was almost tranquil. “Like he expects to do that,” one person in the locker room said, “and it didn’t surprise him.” Afterward, Kingsbury gave game balls to Hopkins and to running back James Saxon—whose brother recently died. That 24-hour rule, Kingsbury told his players? The one that allows player to celebrate a win for 24 hours and then turn the page to the next opponent. “Twelve-hour rule this week,” Kingsbury said. The Cards play Thursday night, and so today is a big day of preparation.

Three-team tie atop the West: Arizona 6-3, L.A. Rams 6-3, Seattle 6-3. Cards at Seattle on Thursday, Rams at Tampa Bay on Monday night.

Seattle plays the Cards and Rams down the stretch.

Arizona plays the Rams twice and Seattle once.

The Rams are at Arizona in Week 13 and finish at Seattle and then Arizona at home.

If there’s an eight-team playoff field, justice would have it that all three will make the playoff. If the field is seven playoff teams, because the Saints and Bucs look like playoff teams in the South, one of those in the wild West won’t make it. As of this morning, Arizona holds the tiebreaker for the division lead, but that doesn’t matter much in Week 10; in fact, the NFC wild cards are Tampa, L.A. and Seattle today.

It’s very hard to not like Arizona right now. Murray gets wiser every week; he knows to not take the big hits, and his pistons for legs are just faster than any defender’s. Hopkins leads a receiving corps that’s trustworthy and healthy through 10 weeks. The Cards have the league’s top offense, the Rams the NFL’s second-ranked defense. Seattle’s hit a speed bump over the past eight days, with losses at Buffalo and the Rams, and with Russell Wilson turning it over seven times in eight quarters. That’s got to stop, or Seattle will be home for the New Year.

Of course, the common rival for all is COVID-19. But for one Sunday, and one day in the desert, Hail Murray—for a few golden moments—allowed everyone to get lost in a great sporting moment. We needed it.

Normally, when a team allows a Hail Mary, you say but why didn’t they do this?

Here, they had enough pressure to make Murray move, and then when he threw the ball, the receiver had not one, not two, but three defenders on him.  And White, Poyer and Hyde aren’t chumps.

LOS ANGELES RAMS

Peter King on the difference made by CB JALEN RAMSEY in Sunday’s win over Seattle:

Credit to Jalen Ramsey for more than earning his huge contract Sunday in the 23-16 win over Seattle, helping hold DK Metcalf to two catches for 28 yards. “I told him after the game I look forward to these matchups for years to come,” Ramsey told Steve Wyche of NFL Network. As should we all.

Albert Breer of SI.com on the Rams defense:

The Rams’ defense is worth paying attention to. Russell Wilson’s passer rating on Sunday was 57.0, his lowest in nearly two years. The Seahawks scored just 16 points, which is 11 fewer than their previous low-water mark for the year, and just the second time in 2020 they’ve been held under 30 points. And if you ask Leonard Floyd—a new Ram, over from Chicago, who had three sacks and fumble recovery Sunday—he’s not surprised in the least in what Brandon Staley’s been able to do in his first year as a coordinator. “Nah, it doesn’t surprise me at all because Coach Staley’s always been intelligent and deep into the game,” said Floyd, who worked with Staley in Vic Fangio’s defense in Chicago. “He’s just intelligent, man. He comes up with some of the best defensive calls, and we’re going out there and executing them.” It was a little more complicated than that against Seattle. Floyd said that the Rams’ plan was predicated on disciplined pass-rush. “The most important thing we wanted to do was rush as a unit,” he said. “Try to keep [Russell Wilson] in the pocket as much as we could and just wait on him to move around. Force him to make bad errors.” And that much worked, with the Rams consistently getting Wilson off the spot, but not letting him break the pocket. Six sacks, 12 quarterback hits and two picks against the Seahawks later, and it looks like Sean McVay’s plan to resurface his staff and create a defense mirroring the offense (aggressive and attacking, in the style of Fangio’s, a scheme that’s given McVay himself fits in the past) is working. And the Rams are tied with Arizona and Seattle atop the division as a result.

– – –

Is this the end of the line for T ANDREW WHITWORTH?  Josh Alper ofProFootballTalk.com:

Rams left tackle Andrew Whitworth avoided a torn ACL, but he is still set for a stay on injured reserve.

Whitworth hurt his left knee in the first half of Sunday’s 23-16 win over the Seahawks when Seahawks linebacker K.J. Wright slammed into it during a passing play. Whitworth had to be carted off and he was ruled out a short time later.

Ian Rapoport of NFL Media reports Whitworth tore his MCL and damaged his PCL. That will leave Whitworth, who played every snap of the season before his injury, out of action for a while.

“Yeah, obviously tough. You hope for the best,” quarterback Jared Goff said. “Obviously, think we’re going to find out, you know, hopefully in the next day or so, but yeah it’s tough. With everything that he’s put on the line for all of us, you never want to see that happen again. Hope for the best, but he’s a hell of a guy.”

Joe Noteboom took over for Whitworth on Sunday and will likely be in the spot when the Rams visit the Buccaneers on Monday night in Week 11.

SEATTLE

In the Not For Long League, QB RUSSELL WILSON has taken a tumble from the top over the last few weeks.  Kevin Patra of NFL.com:

Two weeks ago, the Seattle Seahawks were cruising, and Russell Wilson was the MVP leader.

In a fortnight, everything seems to come undone.

The Seahawks dropped their second straight game, getting bullied by the Los Angeles Rams, 23-16. For the first time this season, Wilson looked mortal, throwing two INTs, zero TDs and just 248 yards.

“Sometimes you go up to the plate, and you don’t have your way,” Wilson said after the loss, borrowing a baseball metaphor. “That’s what it was today.”

Wilson was uncharacteristically loose with the ball, particularly on a bad decision to throw across his body deep downfield on a second-quarter interception that squelched the Seahawks’ chances of getting back into the game.

“I just got to get better,” Wilson said, via the Seattle Times. “I’m not going to make it overly complicated. It’s not on anybody but me. I put it on my shoulders, and we’ll get it fixed.”

Wilson shouldn’t shoulder the blame alone. The defense remains a sieve. The run game is lost without Chris Carson. The coaching staff didn’t have one of its better outings.

Despite the depressing day, Wilson spun things positive.

“Sometimes you get knocked down,” he said. “But the one thing I know about myself — I’m always going to get up. I’m always going to get up, and I’m always going to keep swinging. And that’s just my mentality. So I look forward to the challenge. I look forward to the next day. I look forward to the next game. That’s where my mindset is.”

The back-to-back losses dropped the Seahawks from atop the NFC West into third place behind the Arizona Cardinals and Rams, despite all three being 6-3.

Seattle needs a quick bounce-back game from Wilson in Week 11 against the Cardinals, who the Seahawks lost to three weeks ago.

AFC WEST

DENVER

The Bronocs will persevere, for now, with QB DREW LOCK.  Kevin Patra of NFL.com:

Drew Lock’s afternoon fittingly ended with an interception as the Denver Broncos got beat down by division rival Las Vegas Raiders, 37-12.

Lock threw a career-high four INTs, a culmination of weeks of inefficient and poor overall play. The young quarterback has now thrown multiple interceptions in three of his last five starts. During his impressive end to last year’s rookie campaign, Lock threw just three INTs total in five starts.

The quarterback’s turnovers have increasingly become an issue for coach Vic Fangio, who has now started 3-6 in each of his first two seasons as the Broncos head coach.

“Obviously, it’s very much of a concern,” Fangio said, via the team’s official transcript. “With four interceptions-you can’t win turning the ball over that much. We’ve got to do a good job of evaluating why we’ve thrown these interceptions, what can we do to help him. Everybody’s fingerprints is on that performance, coaches, players, and we all have to take a good hard look at it, which we have been on a weekly basis, but we haven’t found the right formula yet to be consistent on offense.”

Fangio did all he could to shift at least part of the blame off Lock, saying that the loss was a team effort, as his defense allowed 30-plus points for the fourth consecutive game.

Lock’s play recently, however, has been concerning for a franchise that has struggled to find a consistent signal-caller since Peyton Manning. In recent weeks, Lock’s tendency to fall away and throw off his back foot has become problematic. Like many young quarterbacks with a big arm, Lock believes he can overcome poor circumstances with blunt force, and it’s backfired more than worked in recent weeks. His red-zone interception to Raiders veteran safety Jeff Heath was a prime example of the young QB predetermining a throw and killing a scoring drive.

Part of Lock’s issue is the second-year quarterback forcing throws once things start to go bad during a contest. Fangio noted it’s on the team to buffer Lock and rebuild his confidence.

AFC NORTH

CLEVELAND

It wasn’t impressive, but the Browns beat the Texans – and perhaps more importantly, RB NICK CHUBB is back.  Peter King:

Nick Chubb, running back, Cleveland. Chubb returned after four weeks down with a knee injury and was the dominant figure in Cleveland’s 10-7 squeaker over Houston. His stat line—19 rushes, 126 yards, one TD—would have been 19-127-2 if he’d stepped into the end zone down the stretch instead of stepping out of bounds at the 1-yard line, which allowed the Browns to run out the clock without Houston touching the ball again. “That’s a great football-awareness thing by him, one of a kind, to know to step out of bounds,” said Baker Mayfield of Chubb. And that’s a big reason why he’s in this space.

PITTSBURGH

No practice. No problem for QB BEN ROETHLISBERGER.  Brooke Pryor of ESPN.com:

Ben Roethlisberger might never practice again.

OK, that’s unlikely, but Roethlisberger proved Sunday that he didn’t need a week of practice when he put together his best game of the season in a 36-10 win over the Cincinnati Bengals to preserve the Pittsburgh Steelers’ undefeated record.

“Really just felt nice and rested coming into today,” Roethlisberger said. “I tried to talk Coach into seeing if I could take next week off, too.”

Unable to be at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex, Roethlisberger spent five days in isolation after being labeled as a “high-risk close contact” of tight end Vance McDonald, who tested positive for the coronavirus last week. Because he never tested positive or developed symptoms, Roethlisberger was removed from the reserve/COVID-19 list Saturday in time for an extended walk-through with the team.

That was all he needed.

The veteran quarterback completed 27 of 46 attempts for a season-high 333 yards and four touchdowns, also a season high. With the four touchdowns, he set a franchise record with 124 multi-touchdown games, good for eighth in NFL history.

Bengals’ Joe Burrow struggles against another elite defense in loss to Steelers

“I threw about 50 balls on Friday, and that was it,” Roethlisberger said of his preparation. “I wanted to kind of let it rest. … I iced it a lot.”

It was Roethlisberger’s first game throwing for four touchdowns since Week 10, 2018, against the Carolina Panthers, according to ESPN Stats & Information research. He hasn’t thrown four touchdown passes against an AFC North opponent since he had six against the Baltimore Ravens in Week 9 of the 2014 season.

Roethlisberger went into Sunday’s game averaging 241 passing yards per game, a mark he eclipsed in the first half, when he completed 17 of 27 attempts for 243 yards and two touchdowns.

By the fourth quarter, the game turned into the Steelers’ first blowout since beating the Cleveland Browns 38-7 in Week 6, but it took a few drives for Roethlisberger and the offense to get in sync. The Steelers alternated punts and field goals on the first four drives before scoring a touchdown on their fifth possession, a one-minute drive on which Roethlisberger connected on three straight passes, beginning with a 46-yard deep ball to Diontae Johnson. The ball traveled 35 yards in the air, Roethlisberger’s second longest this season. The only ball that traveled farther was an 84-yard toss to Chase Claypool in Week 2 that went 36 yards in the air.

“When I let it go, I didn’t really know where it was going to end up because the wind was blowing so much,” Roethlisberger said of the pass to Johnson. “It was just one of those ones where you put air on it, and Diontae did the rest of the work. He ran underneath of it and made a great play. All around, kind of everyone had to contribute to plays like that.”

– – –

Peter King on the hiring of Mike Tomlin and how it rewarded the Steelers:

Ten lessons Mike Tomlin can teach the NFL about fixing the head-coach hiring process, which includes increasing the inclusiveness for people of color:

1. Survey the entire field, not just the candidates you know. When 34-year-old Tomlin walked into the Steelers offices in Pittsburgh in January 2007, he shook hands with club czars Dan Rooney and Art Rooney II for the first time. They’d never met. The leading candidates for the job, Ken Whisenhunt and Russ Grimm, were on the Steeler staff; the Steelers had already satisfied the Rooney Rule—mandating at least one minority be interviewed for every head-coach opening—by interviewing Ron Rivera, of Hispanic descent. “He came in cold,” Art Rooney, son of Dan, told me about Tomlin last week. “[GM] Kevin Colbert put him on the list for us to look at.”

2. Open your eyes. After the first meeting with Tomlin, who’d just finished his rookie year as a coordinator (in Minnesota), Dan Rooney looked at Art and said: “He’s a real candidate.” The Rooneys had high regard for Whisenhunt and Grimm, but there was something commanding about Tomlin, though he was so young. That hadn’t bugged the Rooney family when they’d hired the unknown Chuck Noll at 37, or the better-known Bill Cowher at 34. They wanted to be careful to not be insular, a great lesson for teams today.

3. Listen to the people you truly trust. It’s possible that of anyone in the football business the Rooneys would trust about Tomlin, Tony Dungy was at the top of the list. Dungy had played for Chuck Noll, coached under Noll, and was tight with the Rooneys—and Dungy had hired Tomlin as his secondary coach in Tampa in 2001. The week the Steelers interviewed Tomlin, Dungy was preparing to coach the Colts in a divisional playoff game against higher-seeded Baltimore. Dan Rooney called him, mindful of his schedule but needing his counsel. “Dan told me, ‘He’s really impressed us. Tell me about him,’ “ Dungy recalled. “There was a twinkle in his voice. I could tell even though he’d just met Mike, he was intrigued.”

Dungy shared with Dan Rooney that Tomlin would be a great match for the Steeler ethos. “He had the Steeler philosophy. We’re going to do it our way, and not worry about anyone else. He was young, he was tough, and he was a great communicator with young players,” Dungy said. Art Rooney told me that without a strong recommendation from someone he and his father knew well and trusted, they might not have hired Tomlin.

4. Don’t care about winning the press conference. The Rooneys didn’t care in 1969 when they were openly questioned for hiring Noll, a little-known assistant for the Colts. They didn’t care when locals thought Grimm should have been the call in 2007, and the choice of Tomlin would unintentionally shake up the coaching staff. “We hired Mike because he was the best candidate for the job,” Art Rooney said, “and really, nothing else mattered.”

5. Hire a coach who is a leader of people, and a good teacher. So often, the top-candidate lists for head-coaching jobs are lists of the best coordinators in the NFL. It’s good, of course, to find coaches who are great on one side of the ball, or to hire coaches from a great tree. But Tomlin wasn’t hired because he worked under Dungy for one season, or because in his lone season as a coordinator he bossed the 14th-best scoring defense in the NFL. It was his presence, his knowledge of the game, and his ability to coach and deal with the modern player. That goes, too, for the coaches on the staff. Though he was a coordinator in Minnesota, Tomlin gave the defense to incumbent defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau when he arrived. LeBeau’s defenses were second and first in scoring defense in the league in 2007 and ’08.

6. Hire a coach who is comfortable dishing out discipline. When Antonio Brown live-streamed Tomlin’s post-game talk to his team after a playoff win in January 2017, Tomlin called it “foolish, selfish and inconsiderate. We will punish him.” Part of the job. Tomlin didn’t shy away from confrontation. “A good coach has to be good at confrontation,” Bill Parcells says, and if you were around the Giants in the eighties (I was), you saw it often, and sometimes on national TV.

7. Hire a coach who can build an unbreakable bond with the players. In a playoff game in the 2010 season, Pittsburgh trailed Baltimore at halftime 21-7. All week, Tomlin told his team it would face some adversity. At halftime, he told his players they were built for this, they trained for this. On the way back to the field for the second half, he put an arm around safety Ryan Clark’s shoulders and said, “Wait till they see this comeback! The stories you guys will have—you’ll never forget this day!” Clark played the half of his life, forcing a fumble that led to a TD; Baltimore, 21-14. He intercepted Joe Flacco, leading to another TD; Tie, 21-21. Steelers won, 31-24. “If coach T doesn’t talk to me like that,” Clark told me last week, “I don’t think that happens. I honestly don’t think it happens. He had that effect on us.”

8. Hire a coach who’s okay with throwing players overboard. When Le’Veon Bell’s contract demands weren’t met after the 2017 season, he sat out the ’18 season and Tomlin didn’t seem too bothered by it. When Antonio Brown went AWOL before the final game of 2018, Tomlin told his agent he didn’t want Brown back for the game, and Brown never played for the Steelers again; Tomlin was okay with that too. Since Bell played his last game for the Steelers, Pittsburgh is 26-14-1. Since Brown went AWOL, Pittsburgh is 18-8. And keep in mind that 14 of those games for both players were played without Ben Roethlisberger. Bell and Brown would have been headaches if they’d stayed—so just move on. The Steelers now have very good and fairly ego-less receiver and running back groups, and, at midseason, are sixth in the league in scoring with Bell and Brown long gone.

9. Hire a coach who doesn’t care how famous he is. Ryan Clark told me he wondered why Tomlin didn’t share more with the press, “why he didn’t expound on decisions he made or why he game-planned a certain way or why he didn’t share how he good of a motivator he is.” So he asked Tomlin once. “He told me, ‘Those things are personal. I want you guys to get a glimpse of me, but I don’t need to share my soul with the rest of the world,’ “ Clark said. “I respected that. The players respected that. It made me feel like what we did in the building and the locker room and the stadium was sacred to him.” It’s reminiscent of Noll.

10. Have a good quarterback in-house. It helps to take over a team with a 25-year-old franchise quarterback just entering his prime. Writing the Tomlin story in Pittsburgh without mentioning Ben Roethlisberger’s importance to winning would be naïve. As with Belichick/Brady in New England, a coach looks a lot better when he’s got a Hall of Fame quarterback playing for him.

The results:

• Among coaches who have coached at least 10 NFL seasons, Tomlin’s regular-season win percentage (.657) is 10th all-time.

• He has passed Dungy as the winningest Black coach of all-time, with 142 wins to Dungy’s 139.

• Steeler coaches winning percentage, in the regular season: Tomlin (14 seasons) .657, Cowher (15 seasons) .623, Noll (23 seasons) .566. Tomlin trails Cowher by seven wins and Noll by 51.

Tomlin won’t be 50 for 16 more months. “Coaching takes its toll on everyone who does it, but I don’t see any signs that he’s ready to retire,” Art Rooney said.

Last year, there were five coaching openings. There were three Black coaches (Eric Bieniemy, Marvin Lewis, Kris Richard) and two other minority coaches (Ron Rivera, Robert Saleh) interviewed. There were 16 white coaches interviewed. Of the Black coaches, NFL EVP Troy Vincent said, “Eric was the only one who had multiple teams [interviewing him].” The ratio of white-to-minority interviews, Vincent said, “is not what’s best for the game.” The most significant rules tweak this offseason, likely, will be the second minority candidate getting an interview for each opening.

But it’s significant only if teams survey the full field, and not just the regular candidates. It was impossible for the Steelers to know in 2007 what a good job Tomlin would be doing well into his second decade as coach. But the Rooneys opened their minds, opened their eyes and got one of the best coaches in recent NFL history. Open minds can lead to great decisions.

Tomlin has quite a few strengths as chronicled here and there is no doubt that he, like Dungy, is an outstanding coach.  Owners should be looking for them in everyone, and they are hard to find in all candidates.

AFC SOUTH

HOUSTON

The Texans get four of Peter King’s 10 Things I Think I Think this week – stemming from the firing of Amy Palcic, the PR chief who was popular everywhere but in the Texans front office:

4. I think if Amy Palcic is not “a cultural fit” with the Houston Texans—which Adam Schefter reported was the reason why club president Jamey Rootes fired her Wednesday—then a thinking, intelligent person who cares about doing things the right way and takes pride in his or her work should not want to work in the culture of the Texans, at least as long as Rootes is in charge.

5. I think the media’s job in 2020 requires a level of trust in the media-relations staffs. It always does, but this year in particular because we can’t have personal contract with players and coaches. We can’t work locker rooms, or sidle up to guys after a practice or in team facilities. The only contact is virtual, or by phone. One of the things I’ve tried to do—when possible—is take you behind the curtain to tell you real stories of how football works in 2020. Covering the first round of the Bucs’ draft virtually, for instance, with GM Jason Licht allowing me to spy on his videoconference and phone calls. I’ve done a couple more, but my favorite because of the detail involved was a Day in the Life of Houston Texans Training Camp on Aug. 10. You might remember it. It was a tick-tock of a real training-camp day in an unusual season.

King goes on to thank Palcic for her roll in making the story work which we will edit out for space.

6. I think I know enough about the inner workings of the Texans—and the significant dissatisfaction of the players in the locker room about Palcic’s firing and the shock to those particularly in the national press who work with her regularly—to know that this was a patently stupid move. Stupid if for only one reason: The franchise is headed into a vital offseason. The Texans will miss the playoffs for only the second time in the last six years, and they will be looking for a head coach for the first time since 2014 and also a general manager. Let’s say the coach they settle on is Kansas City offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy. Let’s say Bieniemy has more than one choice, and the other choice is the New York Jets, and his agent looks into all aspects of the two jobs. Normally, you’d probably say, The Toledo Mud Hens is a better job than the New York Jets. But then you think Texans versus Jets. You think the Jets have five picks in the first three rounds in 2021 and two first-round picks in 2022, and a stable GM in Joe Douglas. (You may have the first overall pick, of course, in 2021.) And you think:

• Houston has Deshaun Watson, but by signing for only four years this year he signaled that he’s not so sure about the future of the franchise.

• Houston has massive personnel holes but won’t pick till the third round of the 2021 draft because of past trades, which included trading DeAndre Hopkins for next to nothing.

• Houston (entering Week 10) is 21st in scoring even with the great Watson, 29th in points allowed and 30th in yards allowed—even with J.J. Watt and Whitney Mercilus (32 and 31 years old, respectively, next season) on defense.

• Look at the salary cap. Houston’s top eight 2021 cap numbers will cost the team a combined $109 million. That leaves $66 million for the last 45 players on the roster, before re-doing contracts or cutting players. Not good.

• Houston just let go one of the best PR people in the NFL because she wasn’t “a cultural fit.” Is this some good ol’ boys club with an owner reticent to be involved and some unknown club president? Look at the reaction of players, who rarely if ever care about who the PR person is. Some are angry.

If Bieniemy has more than one choice, even with Watson on the pro-Houston side of the balance sheet, does the idiotic Palcic move just add more fuel to fire of avoiding the Texans at all costs?

7. I think I saw Ian Rapoport’s report on the Texans possibly hiring the current interim coach, Romeo Crennel, as coach for 2021, in part because of the complications of conducting a coaching search in COVID times. Good story by Rapoport. But, really? My skepticism isn’t because Crennel could not do the job—though he will be 74 at the start of the 2021 season. If the Texans conduct a search and Crennel’s the best man for the job, fine. But the NFL conducted free agency in the early days of the pandemic and got it done. The NFL conducted the draft in the heart of the pandemic; got that done too. The NFL has played 147 football games during the pandemic; through 10 weeks, there is not one game that has not either been played or rescheduled. And using Zoom and private planes, with potential coaches and interviewers who are tested every day, you can’t conduct a coaching search? That might be the dumbest thing I’ve heard all season. It sounds much more like a team that knows it might not be able to get a good candidate to come to Houston because of all the strikes against it. Imagine America has a vaccine for all by next July 1. Imagine stadiums can be open again. Imagine telling your fan base that the best idea going forward, when season-ticket holders get their invoices for the 2021 season, is for a stop-gap season. Great idea.

AFC EAST

BUFFALO

A note from Andrew Siciliano:

@AndrewSiciliano

Bills 3 losses have come against teams that are a combined 20-7 right now (Titans, Chiefs, Cardinals).

MIAMI

Dan Graziano of ESPN.com on whether or not the Dolphins can win the AFC East.

The Hopkins catch you’ve surely seen by now was over half of the Bills’ defensive backs room and drove a stake into Buffalo’s heart just ahead of its bye week. Moments earlier, Stefon Diggs had made an incredible catch in the opposite end zone to put Buffalo ahead by four points and on the doorstep of an 8-2 record. But Murray and Hopkins are superheroes, which means that just when it appeared they were done for, they did something completely incredible and came out on top.

We will get to them in a moment. Right now we are talking about the Bills, who instead go into the bye week at 7-3 off a bitterly disappointing loss and with the 6-3 Dolphins in their rearview mirror. If Miami wins next Sunday in Denver, this race is tied with six games to go.

The verdict: NOT AN OVERREACTION.

The Dolphins have won five in a row — they took down the Chargers on Sunday — and are 3-0 since making the move from Ryan Fitzpatrick to rookie quarterback Tua Tagovailoa. Their defense is playing at a high level and they make plays every week on special teams. Make no mistake, though: They’ve been better in key areas since the quarterback switch.

In three games with Tagovailoa as the starter, Miami has scored touchdowns on 8 of 10 red zone possessions, and he is 4-for-6 with four touchdowns on third-down red zone plays. In its first six games, it was 8-for-15 scoring touchdowns in the red zone, and Fitzpatrick was 1-for-6 with a touchdown and an interception on red zone third downs.

But here’s the big thing: The Dolphins’ next three games are at Denver, at the Jets and home to the Bengals. They will (and should) be favored in all three, and if they win them they’ll be 9-3 heading into the final stretch of the season. Now, that stretch includes a home game against the Chiefs and a trip to Las Vegas, which are obviously tough matchups. But they do finish with a Week 17 game in Buffalo. Which means, if they can stay tied or in front, they can win the division on the field on the final Sunday.

The Bills, last-second losses notwithstanding, do look like the all-around better team. But the margin isn’t massive, and Buffalo still has a cross-country trip to San Francisco, a road game in New England (which, sure, but the Bills haven’t won there since 2016) and the Steelers at home. You don’t need to be picking the Dolphins, but to say they can win the division is by no means an overreaction at this point.

THIS AND THAT

DOES THE NFL HAVE A KIM NG?

With the Miami Marlins hiring Kim Ng as their new GM, the DB was wondering if the five letters represent the shortest full name of any GM in any sport.

But Peter King is wondering if there is a female who could be a GM?

I was pleased to see the Miami Marlins hiring Kim Ng as the first female and Asian-American GM in the history of the major American sports, and you might be surprised at my first thought: I know two women who could do the job with an NFL team right now. One: Dawn Aponte. Two: Amy Trask.

You all know Trask, who worked for the Raiders for 25 years, was molded by Al Davis, and rose to the job of chief executive with the team. Since leaving football for the media and covering football, you see the well-rounded and smart Trask. With the Raiders, she was tough and an unyielding disciple of Davis, working in every aspect of the organization. Some teams might steer clear of her because she’s been out of the game full-time for seven years, but she’s a worthy consideration.

Aponte is largely unknown to the public, but her résumé is strong. Salary cap analyst and manager of football administration, Jets; vice president of labor finance, NFL; vice president of football administration, Browns; senior VP (and later EVP) of football operations, Dolphins; and, currently, chief administrator of football operations, NFL.

Over the weekend, I asked three veteran NFL people working in the league now if there was a woman who could be an NFL GM today. All three said Aponte. Two mentioned Trask.

2. I think if I worked for Houston or Atlanta—two teams that will be in the GM market—I’d interview Aponte or Trask. The football side of each business is going to have a clean slate. Why not look at all candidates and not just the traditional pool? One former NFL exec, Scott Pioli, who has worked to advance the careers of women as assistant coaches and scouts, told me: “I don’t know how many years away we are from having [a female NFL GM],” Pioli said, “but based on the backgrounds of some of the GMs working in the league today, there are already women qualified to do the job. The convenient excuses like, ‘Well, she never played football,’ get eliminated when you look at the backgrounds of some coaches and GMs working in the league in recent years.”

More than that is this realization, particularly when it comes to someone like Aponte: Her 26-year career in the NFL has been bookended by working for Bill Parcells and Roger Goodell, with experience on three teams and the league office; talk to those who’ve worked with her. Not a soul would use the word “lightweight.” There are things she hasn’t done—play at a high level, set a draft board—but there are things she’s done that traditional GMs haven’t. She’s the NFL’s COVID-regulations point of contact for teams this year, runs many aspects of game operations and on-field operations, and is the day-to-day football operations chief inside the league office. Good people person too. Most GMs in the NFL are essentially player personnel experts who farm out other parts of the job to experts in things like the cap, analytics and day-to-day running of the franchise. There’s no reason why you can’t hire an expert in the business and cap and technical parts of the job, while importing two or three top scouts.

I’m not saying, “Definitely hire Aponte or Trask.” I’m saying, “Why not consider one, or both?”

The DB is under the impression that Katie Blackburn, the daughter of Mike Brown, has a roster of duties with the Bengals that look a lot like those of some GMs.  She just has not been given the title.  She goes by Executive Vice President.

Of course, should her father pass, Blackburn will jump right past GM to owner.