AROUND THE NFL
Daily Briefing
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If The Season Ended Today In The AFC – there has been a seismic shift in the East with New England moving into 1st in the division and 2nd in the conference, while Buffalo has tumbled all the way the precipice of falling out of the playoffs completely. Eight teams are now clustered within one game of the Wild Card pack.
Tennessee is still the top seed, despite losses to the Jets and Texans who do not appear in the playoff picture below.
W-L Div Conf
Tennessee South 8-3 1 5-2
Baltimore North 7-3 1 4-3
New England East 7-4 1 5-1
Kansas City West 7-4 1 2-4
Cincinnati WC1 6-4 2 4-2
LA Chargers WC2 6-4 2 4-2
Buffalo WC3 6-4 2 5-4
Pittsburgh 5-4-1 3 3-3
Indianapolis 6-5 2 5-3
Cleveland 6-5 4 3-4
Las Vegas 5-5 3 4-3
Denver 5-5 4 2-4
Thoughts from Peter King:
I think this is how nutty the AFC pennant race has been: Fifteen mornings ago, the Raiders were prepping at their Jersey City hotel to get on the bus to play the Giants. Vegas was 5-2. Only one team in the conference, Tennessee, had more wins (six). The Raiders were a game up on Los Angeles and Kansas City, and one-and-a-half up on Denver, in the AFC West. Not exactly a comfy lead, but a lead nonetheless. Starting in the Meadowlands that day, the once-potent Raiders—playing without speedy wideeout Henry Ruggs for the first time after his apparent alcohol-fueled death crash in Las Vegas—have scored 43 points in three games, and lost them by 7, 27 and 19 points. Derek Carr: four touchdowns, four picks, low impact. Now Dallas on a short week, and they still have Kansas City and Indy on the road in the last five weeks.
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A note from Peter King on Thanksgiving 2021:
All six teams playing on Thanksgiving lost Sunday. A special place will be left at the table for Chicago and Detroit, who play the opener of the Thursday tripleheader. They’re 3-16-1, combined, and we could be seeing a Tim Boyle-Andy Dalton duel. For the record, Boyle, of Detroit, played the first three years of his college career at UConn, where he threw for one touchdown and 13 interceptions.
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The NFL needs to make a decision about Week 15 this week. Peter King:
I think one of those (Buffalo) games, against Carolina, is part of an intriguing decision the NFL has to make, and will make as soon as today. The NFL has a doubleheader on NFL Network on Saturday, Dec. 18, with games at 4:30 p.m. and 8:15 p.m. The league has chosen five games to be in limbo that weekend, with two moved to that Saturday slot and three played on Sunday. I’d guess it’s unlikely that Jets-Miami and WFT-Philadelphia will be part of the standalone Saturday twinbill. The other three games, I’d guess, are the best candidates: New England-Indianapolis (the favorite), Las Vegas-Cleveland and Carolina-Buffalo. I’d guess the revived Patriots in primetime is an offer the NFL can’t refuse. Stay tuned for that call.
The DB wouldn’t be so quick to rule out WFT-Eagles. We shall see.
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NFC NORTH
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CHICAGO
Will QB JUSTIN FIELDS be available for the Bears Thursday in Detroit against the winless Bears? Kevin Patra of NFL.com:
The Chicago Bears continue to evaluate Justin Fields‘ rib injury after the rookie left Sunday’s 16-13 loss to the Baltimore Ravens.
Coach Matt Nagy told reporters Monday the club is “still gathering the facts” and couldn’t provide a further update on Fields’ status for Thursday’s game in Detroit.
NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport previously reported that initial X-rays on Fields were negative. The belief is he suffered bruised ribs. Chicago is conducting additional tests on the rookie QB.
Fields exited Sunday’s loss early in the third quarter after taking a hit on a scramble. Nagy said Monday he was unsure if the QB suffered the rib injury on the play or it was the cumulative result of multiple shots. Fields was sacked twice while going 4-of-11 passing for 79 yards and four rushes for 23 yards.
Andy Dalton took over and nearly helped pull off the win against the Lamar Jackson-less Ravens, but Chicago came up short.
With a quick turnaround to the Bears’ Thanksgiving game versus the Lions, Dalton would be in line to make his third start of the season, and first since Week 2, if Fields can’t go.
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Peter King on the trade that brought EDGE KHALIL MACK to Chicago:
With the news that Chicago’s Khalil Mack would miss the rest of the season with foot surgery, it seems like a good time—four seasons—to pass judgment on the Bears-Raiders trade that shook the NFL on Sept. 1, 2018. The Raiders traded Mack plus second-round and seventh-round picks (originally a conditional pick that turned out to be a seventh-rounder) to the Bears for two first-round picks and third-round and sixth-round choices.
It’s so interesting to analyze the trade. The Bears thought Mack would be the missing edge-rush piece they needed to chase and compete with the Packers in the NFC North. But since the trade, Chicago has zero playoff wins and is 1-6 head-to-head with the Packers. The Bears record in the seven Green Bay-Chicago meetings prior to the trade: 1-6. The Raiders got two useable offensive pieces out of the deal—Josh Jacobs and Bryan Edwards—but in all other ways for the franchise, the trade has been a disaster.
The scorecard:
• RAIDERS: The team used the first-round picks on Jacobs in 2019 and cornerback Damon Arnette in 2020, selected wideout Edwards with the third-round pick and used the sixth as a small piece in a trade that sent Kelechi Osemele to New York for a fifth-round pick. When the deal was made, Raiders coach Jon Gruden, who had personnel control of the franchise, said if you’re going to pay a quarterback like Derek Carr franchise-player money, you can’t also pay another player that kind of money and still build a strong roster. Not true, but the Raiders chose to spend the cap money they saved by not paying Mack on a slew of players acquired in the 2019 offseason who turned out to be crushing failures: Trent Brown, Antonio Brown, Lamarcus Joyner, Tyrell Williams. The Raiders got nothing but headaches with Antonio Brown, and wasted $85 million on Williams, Joyner and Trent Brown. Hmmm . . . $85 million. That’s about what it would have cost to keep Mack for these four seasons. Three failed players cost that much for two seasons.
Jacobs is a good NFL back, seventh in the league in rushing yards since being drafted. Edwards is a good piece on the Vegas receiver depth chart (32 catches in 1.5 years), middling value for a third-round pick. But overall, surrendering Mack and the 40th pick in the 2020 draft for massive cap room and two first-round picks should have yielded the backbone of a franchise. It hasn’t.
• BEARS: Mostly, they won the trade, because Mack’s production has been vital is lifting the Bears to third, eighth, 11th and 12th in yards allowed in his four seasons. And the added pick, tight end Cole Kmet, has been solid in his first 1.5 seasons. But the Bears have paid Mack $22.5 million a year in cash, on average. And, on average, Mack has been PFF’s 15th-rated edge-rusher over the past four years.
It’s hard to quantify how much a very good pass-rusher contributes to a team’s bottom line. After Mack’s infusion of energy and great play in 2018 lifted the Bears to the NFC North title, the Bears are 19-24 since. Certainly he can’t have the impact of, say, a quarterback, and he can’t make up for the Bears’ poor quarterback play in the last three seasons. But overall, I’d have expected more from the Bears than this combined record atop the NFC North since opening day 2018:
Green Bay, 42-20-1
Minnesota, 31-28-1
Chicago, 31-29
• MACK: Losers galore in this deal. One winner: Mack has played 54 games as a Bear—and made $90.1 million in these four seasons.
So many lessons:
1. Without a top-tier quarterback, acquiring a very good non-quarterback at any position is not enough to propel a team to greatness. So for the Bears, missing on Mitchell Trubisky was more of a negative for the franchise than acquiring Mack was a positive. Now the Bears will sink or swim on the Justin Fields pick.
2. The late George Young, when GM of the Giants, used to say, “Players don’t play better when you pay them more money.” Trent Brown was an okay tackle for New England in 2018. He was PFF’s 37th-rated tackle in 2018, playing for New England, allowing 37 sacks/hits/hurries of the quarterback. But the Raiders signed him to a four-year, $66-milion contract in 2019. He was a terrible investment, and reportedly undisciplined too; Vic Tafur of The Athletic reported he ballooned to 400 pounds while a Raider. The team paid him $37 million for two poor seasons—he missed 16 of 32 games due to injuries—then traded him back to New England. Investing in Trent Brown is a big reason why the Raiders gave up a top pass-rusher. These personnel mistakes make it difficult to build a team with a solid base.
3. Big trades pump energy into franchises that are treading water. But they can be fool’s gold without smart teams either building around a great new player, or using high picks to build a future. This offseason could be a period of unprecedented veteran QB trades. Deshaun Watson is likely to be dealt by Houston, and Aaron Rodgers and Russell Wilson might be traded too. So many of these trades—three or four high picks for a great player—look lousy for the team getting the bounty a few years down the road. The GM pulling the trigger, and the scouting infrastructure he has built, will be on the line. Houston GM Nick Caserio has never made a huge trade before, and he’s never had a single first-round or second-round pick, never mind a slew of them. There won’t be time for him to make rookie mistakes if he trades Watson.
4. Jimmy Johnson used to gather multiple picks. In most cases after the Cowboys drafted Troy Aikman first overall in 1989, Johnson would rather have had, say, the 30th and 45th picks instead of the 10th. He once told me he was more comfortable with more picks because he knew he was going to make mistakes in every draft. The Raiders were taking a chance with a character risk in 2020, Ohio State cornerback Arnette, with the 19th pick. Say they dealt that pick for similar value on the draft-trade value chart on draft weekend. The 19th pick has similar value, combined, to two Miami picks, 39 and 56. These are all pie-in-the-sky inventions, of course. But imagine the Raiders today, after using the 39th pick on cornerback Trevon Diggs of Alabama, and the 56th on linebacker Logan Wilson. Two reliable, long-term building blocks. My point: Unless it’s on a quarterback, I’m not taking character risks in the first round, ever.
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GREEN BAY
QB AARON RODGERS labored on Sunday despite a toe injury. Rob Demovsky ofESPN.com:
Aaron Rodgers’ ailing toe was so problematic in Sunday’s last-second loss to the Minnesota Vikings that the Green Bay Packers quarterback actually left the field before the first half was over to head into the locker room.
Rodgers likely thought the Packers were not going to get the ball back, but when they did, Jordan Love took the final snap — a kneel-down — before halftime.
Rodgers still would not get into any more details about his toe, which apparently became an issue during his COVID-19 quarantine earlier this month, saying only that it’s “a little worse than turf toe.” And he doesn’t think it’s going to get any better without a week off. The Packers (8-3) have one more game, a key NFC matchup next Sunday against the Los Angeles Rams (7-3), before they finally get their bye in Week 13.
“I’m just going to have to get to the bye and hope I can get some healing over the bye week,” Rodgers said. “Probably the same schedule next week. Was in a lot of pain. Went in at halftime early to get it checked out. It’s very, very painful. Got stepped on the first half, and that kind of activated all the symptoms I was having. It’s going to be another painful week and next week, and then hopefully start to feel a little better on the bye.”
That likely means he won’t practice much — if at all — in advance of the Rams game. Last week, his only time on the practice field came Friday in limited work, which could explain his slow start to Sunday’s game.
Still, he managed a 385-yard, four-touchdown game, including a game-tying 75-yarder to Marquez Valdes-Scantling with 2:08 left in the game. And whatever treatment Rodgers got at halftime must have worked. He led touchdown drives on all three of the Packers’ second-half possessions, including a pair to Davante Adams (seven catches for 115 yards). It was the start of the game that doomed them. Their first four drives finished field goal, punt, missed field goal, punt.
“I thought in the second half we finally started to get into a better rhythm,” Packers coach Matt LaFleur said. “We started to be a little bit more aggressive, and our execution was on point. There was a lot of good within the game. Certainly, we’d like to finish a couple of those drives a little bit better.”
While the Packers’ defense couldn’t come up with a stop after the Valdes-Scantling touchdown — safety Darnell Savage dropped an interception on the ensuing play that would have given the ball back to Rodgers at his own 36-yard line with two minutes left — the quarterback wouldn’t put this one on a defense that couldn’t stop Justin Jefferson (eight catches for 169 yards and two touchdowns).
And Rodgers has lost his left tackle. Patrik Walker of CBSSports.com:
Terrible news has arrived for the Green Bay Packers. Locked in a bare-knuckled brawl against the NFC North rival Minnesota Vikings on Sunday, a fight they wound up losing to a game-winning field goal, the Packers also lost yet another starting left tackle for the season. Elgton Jenkins, starting in place of five-time All-Pro tackle David Bakhtiari, went down in the fourth quarter in what looked to be a non-contact injury. He was carted into the locker room and the Packers feared the worst-case scenario, but more tests were scheduled to get a detailed look at what Jenkins was up against.
On Monday, tests reportedly confirmed Jenkins suffered a torn ACL, per Adam Schefter of ESPN, ending his season and, due to the nature and timing of the injury, putting question marks around his availability for training camp and the season opener in 2022.
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NFC EAST
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DALLAS
With WR AMARI COOPER sidelined by COVID, the Cowboys face the possible absence of concussed WR CEEDEE LAMB on Thursday. Todd Archer of ESPN.com:
Coming off a 19-9 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday, Dallas Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy said he’s glad his team has such a quick turnaround by playing on Thanksgiving against the Las Vegas Raiders.
“I think the chance to get up and get going again is preferred any time you don’t play as well as you would like,” McCarthy said.
But the quick turn could mean the Cowboys are without their top wide receivers come Thursday.
Amari Cooper will not play against the Raiders, his former team, because he was placed on the reserve/COVID-19 list Friday and as an unvaccinated player cannot return until Nov. 28, at the earliest. And in the second quarter of Sunday’s loss to the Chiefs, CeeDee Lamb sustained a concussion, meaning he would need to clear protocols in short order to be available.
Lamb has not missed a game in his two years with the Cowboys. Sunday marked the first game Cooper has missed since he joined the team in a 2018 trade from the Raiders.
McCarthy did not have an update on Lamb’s status after the game, but quarterback Dak Prescott said he spoke to the receiver in the locker room.
“He’s going to be OK,” Prescott said. “I didn’t necessarily know what was going on, but that is the nature of this. You have to continue to move on and trust the guys we have. That is what I did. He will be fine. He will be OK.”
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NEW YORK GIANTS
The Giants get RB SAQUON BARKLEY back for the Buccaneers tonight. Jordan Raanan of ESPN.com:
New York Giants running back Saquon Barkley is expected to play Monday night against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers barring a setback with his ankle, sources told ESPN.
Barkley was officially listed as questionable for the contest after practicing all week. He has missed the Giants’ past three games.
Barkley was injured when he stepped on the foot of Dallas Cowboys cornerback Jourdan Lewis on Oct. 10. His ankle ballooned immediately.
The thought was that it was a low ankle sprain, and that he would have to miss some time. But even Barkley admitted last week that he ended up being sidelined longer than expected.
He said his return was perhaps pushed back by a false positive COVID-19 test the week before the Giants’ bye. Barkley returned to practice last Monday for the first time since suffering the injury, and after Friday’s practice, he said he felt “pretty good.”
Barkley had a 54-yard touchdown catch and ran in the game-winning score in overtime during his last full game in Week 4 in New Orleans. It was a sign that he finally seemed to be coming around following a torn ACL that sidelined him for most of last season.
“I still believe I’m capable of the things that I’ve shown on the field before, so when I’m able to make those plays, when those plays come to me, make those plays and don’t force anything and take it one day at a time,” Barkley said. “That’s really the only thing I can do. Those are my expectations. Take it one day at a time, be a leader that I am, and be the playmaker that I know I can be and know that I will be.”
Barkley, 24, has 195 yards rushing on 54 carries in five games this season.
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WASHINGTON
Democrats in Congress insist they have the regal right to read any WFT email. Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com:
A baker’s dozen of bright, objects from the eleventh Sunday of the 2021 NFL season isn’t nearly enough to lessen the ongoing Congressional glare created by the WFT investigation.
Via the Wall Street Journal, the U.S. House Oversight and Reform Committee disputes the NFL’s contention that one or more legal privileges attach to documents and other information the Committee has requested from the league regarding the 10-month probe into workplace misconduct over a period of years at the franchise owned and operated by Daniel Snyder.
“The NFL has no valid basis to withhold the documents the Committee is seeking,” a spokesperson for the Committee recently told the Wall Street Journal. “We expect the League to honor the commitment made by the Commissioner and fully comply with the Committee’s requests.”
When responding to the initial inquiry from the Committee earlier this month, the league explained that issues pertaining to the attorney-client privilege and/or the work-product doctrine may apply to some of the materials generated by the investigation, including the notorious trove of 650,000 emails that supposedly came solely from items sent to and received by former WFT executive Bruce Allen.
It’s easy to throw around the names of fancy-sounding legal privileges and protections. But mere invocation of the labels doesn’t mean the protections actually apply. Here, attorney Beth Wilkinson initially was hired by the Washington Football Team to conduct the investigation. The NFL eventually commandeered the probe. Who is the “client” in a situation like this, and at what point if any do Wilkinson’s conclusions or recommendations become the kind of legal advice that cannot be invaded? Those are important questions that could potentially show that there are no actual issues of attorney-client privilege involving these materials.
The work-product doctrine is a more slippery concept, arising largely from the notion that documents and reports generated by a lawyer, while not specifically communicating advice to a client, may include mental impressions that should not be revealed. In this case, Wilkinson was instructed not to create a report, which surely would have embodied many different impressions as to the relevant facts and/or the credibility of witnesses. If Wilkinson and/or her staff have generated notes, memos, or other documents that assess whether and to what extent (for example) witnesses are, or aren’t, telling the truth, perhaps the work-product doctrine applies.
That said, neither privilege presumably applies to the Bruce Allen emails. The NFL already has conceded that these documents fall beyond the scope of the investigation. The question then becomes whether personal or private communications between Allen and others should be fair game. Frankly, they already became fair game for whoever leaked the emails sent by former Raiders coach Jon Gruden. There should be no reasonable expectation of privacy for any emails sent from or to an official Washington Football Team account. Everything should be disclosed to the Committee.
The league is trying to create the general impression that it’s cooperating with Congress while reserving the right to specifically refuse to produce certain things. As Cowboys owner Jerry Jones recently told Bob Costas, “Certainly in every way does the NFL want to cooperate with anything Congress asks of it there.”
Yes, “in every way.” Except in the way that may entail damaging documents being given to Congress.
In every way. As long as it’s the way we choose.
The push and pull will continue. Ultimately, the question becomes whether Congress simply decides to issue subpoenas and hold hearings.
Although only a fairly small percentage of these investigations conclude with a formal, public process, it’s been obvious for weeks that the league is trying to hide something potentially massive, either as it relates to the Washington Football Team, some other franchise, or the inner workings of the highest levels of the league office.
Already, enough bits and pieces have emerged to take out Gruden and to tarnish longtime NFL general counsel Jeff Pash. If Congress pushes hard enough, further disclosures could lead to more accountability for others who otherwise would like to avoid their reckoning.
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NFC SOUTH
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TAMPA BAY
Peter King weighs in on WR ANTONIO BROWN’s possible use of a fake vaccination card. If true, he calls for a substantial suspension and a federal investigation:
A few thoughts:
a. Brown’s agent told Stroud the player has been vaccinated.
b. There are quite a few people in Brown’s past who read that last sentence and said, “Riiiiiiiiiiiiight.”
c. I am reminded of one of the great lines in movie history. It’s from Casablanca, when Captain Renault (Claude Raines) of local law enforcement in Casablanca, just before being handed his winnings by a croupier, closes down Rick’s Café (Humphrey Bogart is Rick) and says, “I’m shocked—shocked!—to find that gambling is going on in here!”
d. Stroud reported that, “To document the list of vaccinated players as quickly as possible, the Bucs would sometimes have Guerrero or others in the organization photograph the cards to send to head trainer Bobby Slater and eventually to their infection control officer.” So the Bucs very likely have the card, and of course they should have it. For those of you who have been vaccinated, you understand how easy it would be to check the validity of Brown’s card. Look at the front of your vax card. In each case, it lists where the shot was given and what batch the vaccine came from. All you have to do is contact the agency/site on the front of the card and check whether the person claiming he got a shot at that site and from that batch actually got it.
e. In my opinion, if Brown is confirmed to have forged his vaccine status, he should be suspended. And I believe a suspension will definitely be on the table, particularly since forging a vaccination card is a federal crime.
He does make a good point with “d.”
Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com smells a coverup.
NFL stories need developments like a fire needs oxygen. Over the weekend, the Antonio Brown fake vaccination card story ended up getting a sustained blast of the thick white cloud of an extinguisher.
With the NFL making it known on Thursday that it will review the matter, the Sunday Splash! circuit would have provided a prime platform for making it known that Brown did — or didn’t — submit a fake vaccination card and, in turn, pretend to be vaccinated when he was not. Instead, there were no developments announced or leaked regarding the NFL’s investigation.
The message seems clear. They want this one to go away. They don’t want to address it, one way or the other. Possibly, they suspect that the story is true; otherwise, they’d shut it down by announcing that the card was real. And if they suspect (or know) that it’s fake, they also know that it will be very difficult to hammer Brown or the Buccaneers without further exploring a rabbit hole that may be far deeper and more ugly than the league wants anyone to know.
The temptation for players who: (1) don’t want to be vaccinated; and (2) want to be treated like they’re vaccinated has been obvious from the get go. Frankly, it’s respectable that players like Cole Beasley, Carson Wentz, and Kirk Cousins owned their status instead of lying about it, publicly or privately.
If Brown had a fake card, he’s likely not the only one on the Buccaneers who did. And the Buccaneers surely aren’t the only team to have one or more players with fake vaccination cards.
The most significant Sunday nugget regarding Brown came from Jay Glazer of Fox Sports. He said that, as to one of the other players accused by Brown’s former chef of using a fake card, the team witnessed that player’s vaccination at the facility.
This hardly means that Brown didn’t procure or use a fake card. It means, at most, that Steven Ruiz was wrong about one of his claims. It doesn’t automatically make him wrong as to the others.
As to Brown, either his card is legitimate or it isn’t. If the league truly wanted to know the answer to this simply yes or no question, it would already have it. And someone — Schefty or Glazer or one of the various members of the NFL Media army — would have declared it on Sunday.
In this case, silence invites speculation that the league wants nothing to do with any of it, because the league realizes that nothing good comes from taking a baby step onto a slippery slope that potentially concludes with a determination that enough players had fake cards to suggest that the NFL and its teams were either complacent or incompetent when it comes to confirming the validity of vaccination cards.
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NFC WEST
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ARIZONA
Peter King on QB COLT McCOY:
Colt McCoy’s a big-time winner. We’re a couple of weeks away from the 10-year anniversary of one of the most vicious hits in NFL history—James Harrison’s helmet to McCoy’s facemask, at full speed, on a Thursday night in 2011. From then to this season, McCoy drifted from San Francisco to Washington to the Giants, starting only nine games in nine seasons. This year, with Kyler Murray missing three games due to injury on the team with the best record in football, McCoy has been excellent. He’s 2-1, including road wins at the Niners and the Seahawks in the NFC West, completing 81 percent in those two games. “I feel like I’m the best player I’ve ever been,” the 35-year-old McCoy said Sunday night. “I’m just so happy right now.”
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SEATTLE
Andrew Crane of the New York Post on the agony of Pete Carroll:
Emotions boiled over for Seahawks receiver DK Metcalf last Sunday as a result of Seattle’s string of losses. This week, it was head coach Pete Carroll’s turn.
After the Seahawks lost 23-13 to the Cardinals — their fifth defeat in the last six games — Carroll abruptly walked away from his postgame press conference after eight minutes, before later returning to take questions from reporters for another nine. He said this is the most frustrated he’s been since arriving in Seattle — “it’s not even close” — and the team’s 3-7 record is its worst since 2011, with the weeks left to rebound for a wild-card spot quickly slipping away.
“I’m just not any good at this,” Carroll said. “I’m not prepared for this. I’m struggling to do a good job of coaching when you’re getting your butt kicked week in and week out. It’s new territory, and I’m competing in every way I can think of. But I’m just unfamiliar with it.
“So if I leave early or if I make a mistake, I’m not on my best game right here … I’m not making any excuses. And I don’t want to get good at this.”
He walked away from the podium after finishing an answer, saying “I’m really done.” But he returned in street clothes, out of his team-branded quarter-zip that he started with, and said, “I know that you probably have some more questions. I don’t know if I have any more answers for you, but I’ll try.”
Those answers haven’t emerged at any point over the past six weeks, either. Russell Wilson’s return from a finger injury was supposed to provide a boost, but the quarterback has thrown for just 367 yards in the two games since his return (both losses), with zero touchdowns and two interceptions.
Seattle was shut out against the Packers last week, and managed just 13 points against the Cardinals on Sunday. Wilson, in his second game back from the finger injury, completed 14 of 26 passes, and the team’s lone offensive touchdown the last two weeks came on a 2-yard run by DeeJay Dallas.
Carroll expressed optimism about the Seahawks not turning the ball over and only committing two penalties the entire game, but said other issues that have followed them throughout the season — like third-down and red-zone conversions — have become clearer when the offense no longer has its explosive plays on first and second down.
“It’s really surprising now that we’re back a couple weeks with Russ back in there that we had such a hard time scoring and moving the football,” Carroll said. “The running game was pretty efficient. But it came down to we were 1-for-5 in the first half (on third down). The hard part of it is that this is what it’s been like and it hasn’t gotten better.”
Carroll said that he doesn’t understand “why it’s become a mystery” to score points, since it’s never been an issue, but the Seahawks have topped 21 points in a game just three times all season. Metcalf has only recorded seven catches for 57 yards the past two games, the opposite effect that Wilson’s return was projected to have. Tyler Lockett had a 48-yard catch against the Cardinals, but only has six receptions the past two weeks, too.
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AFC WEST
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DENVER
The Broncos have invested in WR COURTLAND SUTTON. Kevin Patra of NFL.com:
The Denver Broncos locked down another wide receiver long-term.
NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport and Tom Pelissero reported Monday that the Broncos reached an agreement on a four-year extension for Courtland Sutton, per the receiver’s agency. The pact is worth $60.8 million with $34.9 million guaranteed.
Sutton, a second-round pick in 2018, was on the final year of his rookie contract.
Following a 1,112-yard season in 2019, the 26-year-old missed all but one game in 2020 after suffering an ACL tear. Sutton returned for the start of the 2021 season, starting all 10 games for Denver, compiling 43 catches for 617 yards and two touchdowns, including three games over the 90-yard mark.
Sutton’s new contract comes days after the Broncos signed Tim Patrick on a three-year, $34.5 million extension as general manger George Paton continues to lock down the homegrown talent.
The Denver wideout corps is stocked with first-round pick Jerry Jeudy, Sutton, Patrick and K.J. Hamler all under contract for the next several seasons. Now Denver needs to figure out who will be throwing to the receivers in the future.
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KANSAS CITY
NFL Research tells us this about the Chiefs:
@NFLResearch
The Chiefs defense has allowed fewer than 20 points in 4 straight games (all wins)
The last time they did that was a 5-game streak from Weeks 11-16, 2019… and just over a month after that streak they won Super Bowl LIV
The first game was against DANIEL JONES and the Giants, but after that the QBs they held down were AARON RODGERS, DEREK CARR and AARON RODGERS.
Nary a DAVID MILLS or TIM BOYLE amongst them.
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LOS ANGELES CHARGERS
QB JUSTIN HERBERT is the only member of the 350/90 club. Jeff Kerr ofCBSSports.com:
Justin Herbert has done some incredible things in his first two years in the NFL, yet had the greatest performance of his career Sunday night. Herbert completed 30 of 41 passes for 382 yards with three touchdowns to just one interception (116.1 rating) while rushing nine times for 90 yards in the Los Angeles Chargers’ thrilling 41-37 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers — accomplishing a feat no quarterback in NFL history has reached.
Herbert is the first quarterback to throw for 350 yards and rush for 90 yards in an NFL game. No quarterback in the 101-year history of the NFL has reached that stat line until Herbert accomplished it Sunday night.
“He’s got real instincts at the game for the position,” Chargers head coach Brandon Staley said of Herbert after the game, via the Chargers website. “His legs today really helped us win that football game. … The way that they were playing the game. He knows when there’s daylight and he ran to it. What that does, is it forces the defense to change and that’s a good thing. They can’t play those coverages vs. us. And if they do, they better account for him.”
Michael Vick and Russell Wilson – and now Herbert too – are in the 350/75 rush club.
The record for most yards passing when a QB runs for 100+ is 340 by CAM NEWTON.
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AFC NORTH
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CLEVELAND
In the next three weeks, the Browns will only play Baltimore in a quirk the NFL schedule-makers conjured up. At Baltimore, bye, Baltimore.
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What’s going on with QB BAKER MAYFIELD? Shanna McCarriston of CBSSports.com:
The Browns beat the Lions on Sunday, but it was an ugly win. It was such an ugly win for the Browns that Baker Mayfield’s wife Emily Mayfield felt the need to come to the quarterback’s defense.
In an Instagram story that has since been deleted, Emily Mayfield wrote about Baker Mayfield’s toughness while calling out the rest of his Browns teammates.
Here’s what Emily Mayfield posted and then deleted:
“No one better say anything bad about @bakermayfield after this game. I don’t think I have seen toughness like this in a while. Maybe the rest of our team should take the hint and get tougher.”
Those comments came after the Browns just barely beat the Lions, who have not won a game this season, 13-10. Baker Mayfield declined to speak to the media following win. He threw for 176 yards with a touchdown and two interceptions. The QB has been playing with an injured left shoulder for most of the season.
Emily Mayfield is not the first family member of a Browns player to participate in team chatter this season. Odell Beckham Jr.’s father criticized Baker Mayfield for not targeting his son enough before Beckham Jr. was traded to the Los Angeles Rams.
Myles Simmons of ProFootballTalk.com:
Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield has been playing through several injuries. But at this point, it doesn’t sound like Cleveland is planning on letting him rest and heal anytime soon.
“We have to see how the next few days go,” head coach Kevin Stefanski said in his Monday press conference, via Zac Jackson of TheAthletic.com. “If he’s ready to go, yes he’ll start.”
Mayfield was ineffective on Sunday for a second poor game in a row. He finished 15-of-29 passing for 176 yards with a touchdown and two interceptions. He was inconsistent in hitting and missing receivers throughout the 13-10 victory over Detroit.
Stefanski had admitted that Mayfield isn’t 100 percent and is “definitely battling.”
“We’ll always defer to the medical staff,” Stefanski said. “He’s ready to play and help the team win.”
Still, there’s a possibility Mayfield could be out as the Browns take on the Ravens for Sunday Night Football in Week 12.
“If he’s limited and can’t play to his potential, those are things we’ll discuss,” Stefanski said. “He’s played pretty well at times the last few weeks. We’ll never do anything that’s not in the best interest of the team.”
The last time Mayfield really played well was in Week Nine when the Browns beat the Bengals in Cincinnati. He finished that game 14-of-21 passing for 218 yards with a pair of touchdowns as the Browns won 41-16.
Since then, Cleveland has scored only 20 points in its last two games. Mayfield had to exit the Week 10 loss to New England early due to injury after completing just 11-of-21 passes for 73 yards with a touchdown and a pick. But Mayfield was healthy enough to return to the game — he just didn’t given the lopsided score.
Mayfield did sit out Cleveland’s Week Seven win over the Broncos, in part because the game was on a Thursday.
In 10 games, Mayfield has completed 64 percent of his passes for 2,166 yards with 10 touchdowns and six interceptions this season.
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PITTSBURGH
DT CRAIG HAYWARD punched Chargers QB JUSTIN HERBERT while he was in a prone position under him. Reports are NFL Justice does not view it as serious. Kevin Patra of NFL.com:
Following a hustle effort to tackle Justin Herbert late in the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 41-37 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday, Cameron Heyward appeared to punch the quarterback. Heyward was penalized for the action.
NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport reported Monday morning that the play would be reviewed for a potential fine, but Heyward isn’t facing a suspension, per a source informed of the situation.
“To be honest, I was running after the ball, and I caught my hand under, so when I was trying to get back up, I couldn’t get up, and I fell back on him,” Heyward said after the game, via the Associated Press. “I know it looks terrible, (but) there was nothing malicious behind it. I don’t think I was trying to punch him, but I know it looks worse than it is in slow motion. I’m sorry if I did anything to offend anybody. I wish I had said more to Justin after, but there was nothing behind it.”
The hit came after Heyward — the Steelers’ best defender Sunday night — hustled a long way downfield on a 36-yard scramble by Herbert to keep the QB from scoring a TD with just over nine minutes left in the fourth quarter.
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AFC SOUTH
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INDIANAPOLIS
Sometimes players are drafted without conviction, just because they had the top grade on the board. Then, there is what happened with RB JONATHAN TAYLOR as recounted by Peter King:
Indy GM Chris Ballard went to Wisconsin. He has a soft spot for Badgers. And when the 2020 draft came along, and Ballard thought he needed a franchise back, he and his scouting staff got fixated on the 5-10, 226-pound Taylor, who averaged 151 rushing yards in 41 games at Wisconsin—after, amazingly, bypassing a strong pitch from Harvard to play and study there. (Taylor was tempted.) Early in the second round of the draft, with Clyde Edwards-Helaire and D’Andre Swift gone and the Colts still seven or eight picks away from the spot they thought they’d take Taylor, 44th overall, owner Jimmy Irsay piped up.
“Uh, Chris,” Irsay, “you’ve been talking about this guy Jonathan Taylor all spring. Don’t you think you ought to go get him?”
Ballard obliged. He got on the phone, not really worried that Taylor would get plucked before 44, but understanding that a team that might love him could swoop in with a trade to get him. So he dealt his fifth-rounder to the Browns to move from 44 to 41 to pick Taylor. And everyone in the draft room, he said, exhaled.
“I’ve worked four drafts with Chris now, since 2018,” Reich told me. “And I don’t think there’s ever been a player he liked more than Jonathan Taylor.”
King with more on Taylor:
Taylor’s a Jersey kid. When he was growing up, he loved space and sometime thought how fun it would be to travel through it. In high school, he was a late bloomer in football, to the point that Harvard coach Tim Murphy was convinced he had a good shot at winning a middling recruiting race for Taylor. But Taylor wanted to prove to himself he could be a great football player, and so he chose Wisconsin. “Once I got to high school and lifting weights and working at it, football grew on me,” Taylor said.
To the point that Ballard now calls him one of the five biggest offensive weapons in football. “It makes me want to go out every week and work hard so I can back him up,” Taylor said.
But 15 touchdowns now, and, barring injury, a great chance at winning a rushing title. Taylor is bright and optimistic, but he doesn’t love hearing how great he is.
“We know it’s a 1-0 mentality each week,” Taylor said. “Anytime you look too far ahead or reminisce in the past too long, that’s how you get lost in the sauce. So just understanding that we have the defending world champions coming up next week [Tampa at Indy next Sunday] and we have to take care of business to even think about our goals at the end of the year.”
But others will speak for him. “I was around Devin Hester in Chicago,” said Ballard, “and ever time he touched the ball, I thought he’d score. I’m feeling the same way about Jonathan.”
On one of Taylor’s five scores Sunday, tight end Mo-Alie Cox said: “One play at the goal line I’m blocking and I turn my head and see him fly through the air like a f—ing superhero.” Get used to it. The Colts are going as far as Taylor can drag them.
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TENNESSEE
Peter King makes QB RYAN TANNEHILL one of his Goats of the Week:
Ryan Tannehill, quarterback, Tennessee. When your best player is out, your other top players need to play well to make sure the six-game winning streak doesn’t go down the drain. Tannehill’s one of those players, and he fell flat Sunday in the stunning loss to Houston. This was the 131st game of Tannehill’s NFL career, and the first one in which he threw four interceptions. Three came in the last 12 minutes, when the Titans had a legitimate chance to come back on the Texans.
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AFC EAST
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BUFFALO
Dan Wetzel of YahooSports.com, like many of the rest of us, has tumbled to the fact that the Bills might be one and done as AFC East champs:
Winter is coming. So are the New England Patriots. Yet, somehow, someway, Buffalo has a roster that doesn’t appear capable of weathering either of these inevitabilities.
The Bills can neither run the ball nor stop the run. They can’t win in the trenches. They rely too much on daring passes from their $250 million quarterback. They are undisciplined.
They are, currently, a mess worse than their 6-4 record. That leaves the team, coming off a conference title game appearance that was a hot choice to reach the Super Bowl, in second place in its own division. All as December looms, bringing a sharp turn in conditions and two games against their AFC East nemesis Patriots.
The Bills didn’t just get blown out by a surging Indianapolis team on Sunday, 41-15. They revealed recurring issues with all the basics of the game that a team staring out at Lake Erie should never lack. This courtesy of a Colts club that possesses all of them and has the looks of a contender despite playing its home games in a dome.
Indianapolis outrushed the Bills 264-91, controlled the clock to the tune of 37 minutes, 47 seconds to 22:13, and won the turnover battle 4-0. Add in the Bills’ five either pre- or post-snap penalties and this is a reeling team that needs an immediate reboot heading into a Thanksgiving trip to New Orleans.
“Execution is what it comes down to and we’re not executing at a high enough level right now,” said quarterback Josh Allen, who went 21 of 35 for 209 yards.
That’s part of it, but it doesn’t appear to be the underlying reason the Bills have lost three of their last five games. It’s about toughness; both physical and mental.
Buffalo is a pretty team; big plays and exciting highlights. This is neither the time nor the place for pretty. The Bills need to be able to win in the trenches, not rely on Allen to consistently make spectacular deep throws. It has to set the line of scrimmage. It can’t seemingly quit when adversity strikes.
The recipe for defeating them is obvious. Beat ’em up and run it at ’em.
And guess how Bill Belichick likes to play?
You don’t need elite quarterback play to beat these guys right now. On Sunday Buffalo lost for the fourth time to a quarterback with a QB rating of under 87. Carson Wentz was just 11 for 20 for 106 yards and a touchdown. It was all Jonathan Taylor, who had 32 rushes for 185 and five touchdowns, with Nyheim Hines chipping in four carries for 31 yards.
Previously against the Bills, Pittsburgh’s Ben Roethlissberger threw for just 188 yards and one TD (QB rating: 83.9), Tennessee’s Ryan Tannehill 216 and no touchdowns (70.5) and Trevor Lawrence just 118 yards and no touchdowns (69.1). Yet all three won.
The Bills are built for Madden rather than reality. It’s even more bizarre considering where they play. Sunday was cold and rainy. It’ll get worse. Yet they ran it just 13 times, including just three times on 13 first quarter offensive snaps when the game was still close.
Buffalo almost has to be the more physical team to win games, especially in January which is what this highly anticipated, dream-big Bills Mafia season was expected to be about.
“Normally, I would say we’re a pretty sound, fundamental team,” coach Sean McDermott said. “We stress that a lot, as you know … But we didn’t have it today.”
It’s a short week and a road trip now, which might be a good thing after such a distasteful performance. Then it’s a long break until a pivotal gut check when New England visits for a Monday Night clash on December 6. What follows is a trip to Tampa, a visit by Carolina and then a trip to Foxborough.
That’ll be the stretch that defines these Bills, if they haven’t already done it.
Every one of those teams is going to try to run the ball down Buffalo’s throat. Then they are going to try to keep the Bills offense as a one-dimensional outfit – the more Allen is throwing into soft coverage, the better.
No one is going to respect Buffalo at the point of attack until Buffalo makes them. That, in particular, includes Belichick.
From 2001-2019, his Patriots teams went 34-4 against Buffalo. One of those Bills victories (2014) came when he rested many of his starters for the playoffs. This was about as complete of an ownership of a rivalry as has ever existed.
Then Buffalo swept New England last year. Now? The Pats run the ball, play a physical defense and have a quarterback who picks apart what’s given. It’s how teams win the AFC East.
Can Buffalo prove it can still be that? Or are these Bills just a flashy roster that wins offseason hype and in the sunshine of September?
“We know who we are,” Allen said. “And that – what we put out there on that field – that’s not who we are.”
We’ll see. Winter is coming. So are the Pats.
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NEW ENGLAND
As the Patriots sat around this week, they became the favorite to win the Super Bowl. At least, by one metric – DVOA of FootballOutsiders.com:
Team SB Win
NE 17.0%
ARI 15.4%
TB 14.6%
DAL 9.4%
GB 6.6%
BUF 6.6%
KC 6.4%
BAL 5.1%
LAR 3.5%
IND 3.5%
TEN 2.5%
LAC 2.4%
SF 2.1%
MIN 1.4%
NO 1.0%
PHI 0.9%
CLE 0.5%
PIT 0.4%
CIN 0.2%
DEN 0.1%
CAR 0.1%
LV 0.1%
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Well-traveled PK NICK FOLK is on a roll as noted by Peter King:
In the 2020 draft, the Patriots used a fifth-round draft pick on a kicker, Justin Rohrwasser of Marshall. Rohrwasser couldn’t beat out Nick Folk and eventually was released.
Last summer, undrafted free agent Quinn Nordin beat out Folk for the New England kicking job, then was put on injured-reserve with an abdominal injury before Week 1. Folk was signed to be the Patriots’ kicker, again.
That tenuousness for Folk, who had kickers imported to New England in 2020 and 2021 to beat him out, provides the backdrop for this comparison with a kicker likely headed for Canton one day, Justin Tucker.
Field-goal accuracy since opening day 2020
Folk: 52 of 56, 92.9 percent.
Tucker: 46 of 51, 90.2 percent.
Tucker is six of eight from 50 yards and beyond. Folk has made six of nine long ones in the last two years.
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THIS AND THAT
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FULL-TIME OFFICIALS
Peter King polls two respected officiating folks – and gets one luke warm endorsement of the concept of full-time officials (“perception”) and one admanent “no”:
I think I’ve heard a lot of discussion in recent days about how bad the officiating is (it’s dodgy, but not worse than in past years) and how full-time officials are the answer to this issue. I’m dubious. Over the weekend, I asked two of the people whose opinions I trust most about officiating: Would full-time officials make the craft better?
• Dean Blandino, FOX rules analyst, former NFL VP of officiating: “A lot of people don’t see it as a solution. But I think it would certainly be, from a perception standpoint, a positive. Officials wouldn’t have other jobs taking away from the NFL job. Exactly what they’d be doing all season, I am not sure. But people who spend more time on their craft are going to be better at it. Overall, I don’t think you’d move the needle all that much, but even a small improvement would be worth it because there’s so much at stake. There is no quick fix, and I don’t think this would immediately change the quality. Over time—three, five, seven years—you might see overall quality of officiating improve.
“One other thing is the opportunity to improve in the offseason. Right now, officials have a dead period between the end of the season and April 15 where they’re not supposed to be doing anything on officiating. That’s a missed opportunity that could be addressed if officiating is a full-time job.”
• Terry McAulay, NBC rules analyst, three-time Super Bowl referee: “I don’t believe it would make officiating better in any way, shape or form. The only way it would possibly improve an official’s life is there wouldn’t the stress added to your life that a full-time job adds. I used to get home from a Sunday game maybe 11 or 12 o’clock at night, and I’d be at my desk [as a computer scientist] at 6 the next morning. There really wasn’t much downtime. That really would be the only pro. A few years ago, the NFL had a program where some officials were full-time employees. [In 2017, 21 officials were hired full-time, and that number increased to 24 in 2018. I should point out that the NFL and the NFL Referees Association couldn’t agree on a path forward for the full-time officials and so the program was discontinued.] If the NFL was seeing improvements with those officials or their crews, I doubt the program would have gone away. I just think there’s only so much video you can watch, so many tests you can take. It gets to the point of diminishing returns, and I don’t think making officials full-time makes officiating better.”
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