AROUND THE NFL
Daily Briefing
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In this week’s NFC version of If The Season Ended Today, the Cardinals and Cowboys are atop the NFC after five weeks with the playoffs line at 3-2. Everyone in the NFC, except Detroit (0-5) and the Giants (1-4) has two wins and is in within a game of the line:
W-L Div. Rank Conf.
Arizona West 5-0 1 3-0
Dallas East 4-1 1 3-1
Tampa Bay South 4-1 1 2-1
Green Bay North 4-1 1 2-1
LA Rams Wild Card 4-1 2 3-1
Chicago Wild Card 3-2 2 1-1
Carolina Wild Card 3-2 2 1-2
New Orleans 3-2 3 2-2
Washington 2-3 2 2-1
Minnesota 2-3 3 2-1
Philadelphia 2-3 3 2-2
Seattle 2-3 3 1-2
San Francisco 2-3 4 2-3
Atlanta 2-3 4 1-3
– – –
A tweet from Don Bui on the NFL’s Longest Day:
@donbui504
With a game kicking off in London today and then this SNF game being delayed by lighting, this has to be the longest NFL Sunday from 1st kickoff yo final whistle in history. @bergerhere ? SNF research better be working on this.
With this response:
@bergerhere
i’m off the clock
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NFC NORTH
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GREEN BAY
QB AARON RODGERS kept putting PK MASON CROSBY in position to win the game – and Crosby kept missing. Peter King:
Camera on Mason Crosby after he pulls a 36-yard field goal wide left, 2:12 left in the fourth quarter. No emotion from Crosby.
Camera on Mason Crosby after he pulls a 51-yard game-winner left on the last play of the fourth quarter. No emotion.
Camera on Mason Crosby, two minutes into overtime, after he yanks a 40-yarder two feet left. He looks chagrined, but no real emotion.
Camera not on Mason Crosby, fourth-and-inches for Green Bay in field-goal range, late in overtime in a 22-22 game. Coach Matt LaFleur approaches him on the sidelines, and you know what LaFleur is thinking. If he sees uncertainty in Crosby, if he sees the averted eyes, he’s not going for the field goal again. He’ll put it in the hands of one of the great quarterbacks of all time, Aaron Rodgers, and take his chances.
“What do you think?” LaFleur said.
“I got this,” Crosby said.
Straight down the middle from 49 yards away. Green Bay 25, Cincinnati 22.
It’s been a weird year for kickers. They missed 12 PATs Sunday, one by Crosby. So Crosby missed four kicks in Cincinnati, and still got a chance to kick the winner again.
It always interests me, the mindset and approach of field-goal kickers. There was a gusting wind on a warm afternoon in Cincinnati, the wind blowing in different directions up to 20 mph. The 51-yard miss got caught in a hard right to left wind, he thought. Crosby’s not sure, but he thinks one or more of the kicks may not have had the laces facing straight ahead; when they’re to either side, the ball can be a knuckleball. He’ll see the tape today and figure if the snap-hold part of the equation needs adjusting. But the approach . . .
“Sounds boring,” he said from Cincinnati post-game, “but I’ve been in it for a long time, and make or miss, you move to the next one. You kinda go through the process for a play or two and then you have to reload. When Matt came right down to me he just said, What are you thinking? And of course I wanted to kick it.
“It’s my job. I just keep resetting. I haven’t missed many kicks the last few years. Unfortunately it came in a little bit of a cluster here but I know my ability and when everything is smooth and good, we go out there and execute. It was another opportunity. Just couldn’t believe with how crazy this game was that we had another chance. But when there’s chaos, when the challenge gets even higher and the pressure gets greater, you have to find that calm. I’m able to do that. I want to be out there. If you get too high, you won’t find that calm.”
I talked to Crosby for 13 minutes. When I hung up, I thought: If we’d had a 65-yarder to try after he’d missed three, I’d have sent him out there too. I certainly know why LaFleur did.
Here is how that finish unfolded –
Tied at 22 in the 4th, Green Bay ball. Aaron Jones runs 57 yards to the Bengals 18. Crosby misses from 36 yards with 2:12 left. FG miss #1
Joe Burrow gets the Bengals to the Cincinnati 39 with 26 seconds left, 4th and 2, Zack Taylor let Evan McPherson try a 57-yarder. He hits the right upright. FG miss #2
GB takes over with 21 seconds left at own 39, Rodgers 20 yards to Adams and a spike with 3 seconds left. Crosby misses from 51. FG miss #3.
Cincinnati wins OT toss but Joe Burrow throws INT on first play. With ball at 17, Packers opt to run 2 plays that lose 5 yards. Then they send Crosby out for game-winner, from 40 of third down (would have been 35 if they kicked on first). Crosby misses from 40. FG miss #4.
Bengals need FG to win and get to GB 41 on 21-yard pass to Ja’Marr Chase. 3 plays, 9 yards, and Taylor sends in McPherson on 4th and 1 at 32. McPherson missed from 49 yards out. FG miss #5
Packers take over at 39. 20-yard pass to Bengals 41, but after 2 plays it is 3rd and 16 with the FG at about 64 yards. Rodgers hits Randall Cobb for 15 and on 4th and 1, Crosby makes the winning 49-yard FG. Whew.
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Jason Wahlers of the Packers points out that 30-7 Matt LaFleur is aligned with greatness (Paul Brown) and some other coaches who petered out:
@JTWahlers
Per @EliasSports
FEWEST GAMES TO 30 REGULAR-SEASON WINS
Guy Chamberlin, 35
George Seifert, 36
Paul Brown, 37
Matt LaFleur, 37
Yep, we had to look up Guy Chamberlin.
As a coach:
Canton Bulldogs (1922–1923)
Cleveland Bulldogs (1924)
Frankford Yellow Jackets (1925-1926)
Chicago Cardinals (1927)
In 1922, Chamberlin joined the Canton Bulldogs in multiple roles as a player, head coach, team captain, and part owner
In three seasons with the Bulldogs, Chamberlin led the franchise to three NFL championships and a record of 28-1-4, having outscored opponents by a combined total of 659 to 94.
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MINNESOTA
This from Adam Schefter:
@AdamSchefter
There have been 18 games with a game-winning score in the final minute of regulation or in overtime this season, the most such games through the first five weeks all-time.
The Vikings have been involved in three of them, the opening week loss at Cincinnati, the Week 2 loss at Arizona and the Week 5 win over the Lions.
Mike Florio with more:
Also, 21 games have been decided by three points or fewer, tied for the most ever through five weeks. On Sunday, four such games happened.
There also has been at least one overtime game every week, only the second time that’s ever happened through five weeks.
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NFC EAST
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DALLAS
Peter King has the Cowboys as one of his three surprising teams (in a good way):
2. Dallas (4-1). Giving up 23.4 points per game, down six points a game from last year. That, plus Dak Prescott’s return, has made all the difference.
Arizona and the Chargers are the other two.
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NEW YORK GIANTS
Judy Bautista of NFL.com on all the Giants injuries:
Sunday was devastating for the New York Giants. Both Daniel Jones and Saquon Barkley had to be carted off during a loss to the Cowboys, compounding how shorthanded the offense already was without two starting receivers and a missing starting left tackle. And then receiver Kenny Golladay went down, too. The Giants were down six of 11 offensive starters, and not many teams could survive that kind of attrition. The defense, which keyed their second-half resurgence last season, hasn’t been as stout this year. Worse, the Giants (1-4) still have a brutal schedule ahead, with the Rams next week and upcoming meetings with the Chiefs and Bucs still to come before Thanksgiving.
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PHILADELPHIA
Jeff Kerr of CBSSports.com points out that the Eagles are in line for a trio of juicy first round picks in 2022:
The Philadelphia Eagles are in a year of transition, trying to find out if Jalen Hurts is the franchise quarterback with a first year head coach in Nick Sirianni. While the Eagles are still working to figure out their team on the field, general manager Howie Roseman had a banner offseason with trades that involve the immediate future of the franchise.
Thanks to some offseason moves that involve 2022 first-round draft picks, Philadelphia is in position to land three first-round picks in that draft class — all currently in the top-10. The Miami Dolphins are 1-4 after five games and the Indianapolis Colts are 1-3 after four games (they play on Monday night against the Baltimore Ravens), putting the Eagles in prime position to land their coveted top draft picks.
How did the Eagles acquire those draft picks? The Eagles received the Colts first-round pick as a result of the Carson Wentz trade this offseason, but there are some parameters to it. Philadelphia traded Wentz to Indianapolis in exchange for a 2021 third-round pick and a conditional 2022 first-round pick, which the Eagles will receive from the Colts if Wentz:
Plays 75% of the snaps in 2021
Plays 70% of the snaps in 2021 and the Colts make the playoffs
The Eagles just have to hope Wentz plays 75% of the snaps, which will happen if the Colts can stay in the AFC South race. If Indianapolis falls to Baltimore, the Colts will be two games behind the Tennessee Titans for the top spot in the division. Wentz has played 98% of the Colts’ snaps this season through five games and 25% of a projected season total.
Would the Colts actually end up giving up that high of a pick? Not likely if they keep losing, as a few more losses will lead toward a potential benching of Wentz in the second half of the season. The Eagles have to hope the Colts find a way to win a few games with Wentz and stay in the playoff hunt in a poor AFC South, giving them an opportunity to still land a high draft pick as a result of the Wentz deal.
Philadelphia gets a 2022 second-round pick from Indianapolis if Wentz doesn’t meet any of the above parameters. Per tankathon.com, the Eagles would get the No. 7 pick in the draft from the Colts.
The better pick available for the Eagles is the Dolphins, which is unprotected. Prior to the draft, the Eagles traded down from the No. 6 pick to No. 12, where the Dolphins gave Philadelphia the No. 12 (first round) and the No. 123 overall pick (fourth round) in the 2021 draft — along with a 2022 first-round pick. The Eagles used that No. 12 pick to trade up to No. 10 and select DeVonta Smith (also giving a third-round pick to the Dallas Cowboys), while the 2022 first-round pick from the Dolphins remains intact.
Since the Dolphins are off to a 1-4 start, they currently hold the No. 3 pick in the draft thanks to Miami having the weakest strength of schedule of all the 1-4 teams after five weeks (which is the tiebreaker). That unprotected pick means the Eagles get the pick no matter where the Dolphins finish in the standings.
To recap, Philadelphia has the No. 3 pick, No. 7 pick, and No. 10 pick (Eagles own pick) in the 2022 NFL Draft. If the Colts lose to the Ravens, that No. 7 pick jumps into the top five after Week 5 games are completed.
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WASHINGTON
The road ahead is not promising for Washington’s defense. Mike Sando of The Athletic:
Washington blew multiple coverages Sunday and couldn’t even stop New Orleans’ Jameis Winston from completing a Hail Mary touchdown pass as the second quarter ended during the Saints’ 33-22 victory. How is Ron Rivera’s team going to handle the quarterbacks on its schedule next?
Check out the lineup:
Week 6: Patrick Mahomes
Week 7: Aaron Rodgers
Week 8: Teddy Bridgewater
Week 9: bye
Week 10: Tom Brady
That’s three Tier 1 quarterbacks in the next four games for Washington, the NFL’s toughest schedule of opposing quarterbacks over the five-week span from Week 6-10. To rank upcoming schedules, I plugged in voting results from 50 coaches and evaluators who participated in 2021 Quarterback Tiers.
While Washington faces that tough Week 6-10 stretch, the division-rival Cowboys face Kirk Cousins, Mac Jones, Matt Ryan and Bridgewater. The Cowboys were likely going to separate from Washington regardless. The schedule should only help. Worse, when Washington faces Seattle in Week 12, Wilson could be back in the lineup for the Seahawks.
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NFC SOUTH
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CAROLINA
Responding to a reader, Peter King is not ready to agree that QB SAM DARNOLD has locked down the Panthers starting job for 2022:
Alan Stover of North Carolina: “I have a question regarding your thought that, ‘Sam Darnold is better than I thought he’d be in Carolina. He could make the decision of owner David Tepper and coach Matt Rhule on the 2022 quarterback a difficult one.’ Can you expand on why you feel the 2022 quarterback situation is still unresolved in Carolina? I think the quarterback decision for 2022 is settled.”
It isn’t settled yet, Alan. Playing five games at above-average level, I’m sure, has not made Tepper believe Darnold is his long-term quarterback. The owner has made it clear—mostly internally—that he wants a franchise quarterback at all costs. It could be that Darnold is that franchise guy. But if Aaron Rodgers and Deshaun Watson are available in February (and if Watson’s legal case has clarity by then) I would expect Carolina to be interested . . . unless Darnold plays consistently well for the next three months. Then they’ll have a decision to make.
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TAMPA BAY
Some numbers from Greg Auman of The Athletic:
Counting last year’s playoffs, Bucs have played 17 games since adding Antonio Brown. Here are his stats in that span, along with Evans and Godwin:
Mike Evans: 80 catches, 1,230 yards, 14 TDs
Chris Godwin: 85 catches, 1,159 yards, 8 TDs
Antonio Brown: 73 catches, 889 yards, 9 TDs
And this:
@gregauman
To update this stat: Bucs have scored 44 points or more six times in 25 games with Tom Brady (now age 44) and they had scored six total in 44 seasons before he got here.
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NFC WEST
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ARIZONA
Peter King admits that the only undefeated team has not yet received its deserved moment in the sun:
The season is one month old, and there’s one unbeaten team—the 5-0 Cardinals. Is it possible we’re overlooking them? Arizona hasn’t played a prime-time game in five weeks, and only one is on tap in the first 13 weeks of the season, Thursday night Oct. 28 against Green Bay. It’s a year when so many 4-1 teams—Buffalo, Tampa Bay, the Rams and Chargers, Dallas, Green Bay—are getting the love and Arizona isn’t.
“That’s okay,” safety Budda Baker told me Sunday night. “I wouldn’t know that, because I don’t pay much attention to the hype. I’m a Netflix, chill-at-home guy. I don’t watch any of the football shows where people are saying things about us. It’s better than way. Every week, I come in level-headed, excited to play the next game. We got a lot of guys like that.”
Baker said something interesting about the equality he feels on the team. “So, J.J. Watt,” he said, speaking of the new Cardinal. “We’ve got a good thing going here—all egos left at the door. When we talk to each other, we’re not arguing. We’re correcting. We believe in never making the same mistake twice. J.J., he wants to be held accountable. His leadership is amazing. The things he says, it makes you want to run through a brick wall sometimes. For example, last week, J.J. skipped a gap on one play. He was supposed to rush through the B gap and I had the A gap. But he swam to the A gap. He took my gap and the running back bounced outside.
“So I talked to him about it and he was like, ‘Hey, you can correct me. I want you to correct me. If I do something wrong, do it.’ ”
The ego-free Cards won a game differently Sunday, 17-10 over the Niners. In the first four games, they scored 38, 34, 31 and 37 points. That was good, because they’re going to need to be frustrated and respond. Kyler Murray, a superstar the first four weeks, was a complementary player Sunday, when the Cards had to win a field-position game. “Kyler’s vocal levels have been way higher this year,” Baker said. “He’s a perfectionist, and he’s always fixing the smallest things on routes with his receivers.”
Big game Sunday at the 3-2 Browns, who’ve had two narrow losses to Kansas City and the Chargers. As usual, it’s a no-respect week for Arizona. It’s a regional game. America won’t see them again. “Doesn’t matter,” Baker said. “We’re just into the 1-0 mentality. Win every week. Go 1-0. The other stuff, who cares?”
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SEATTLE
Peter King crunches the numbers on QB RUSSELL WILSON:
After undergoing hand surgery Friday expected to keep him out at least a month, Russell Wilson will miss his first start as a professional football player Sunday in Pittsburgh. Since Wilson was the 75th pick in the 2012 NFL Draft, the Seahawks haven’t had a starting quarterback other than him.
Wilson’ durability, by the numbers, including his 16 playoff games:
Seasons: 10.
Games: 165.
Starts: 165.
Record: 109-55-1.
Seattle offensive snaps in his career: 10,772.
Snaps played by Wilson: 10,589 (98.3 percent).
Snaps missed per season, on average: 18.3.
Playoff snaps missed: 3.
In the next three weeks, with Geno Smith slated to start against the Steelers, Saints and Jags, Wilson is likely to miss more snaps than the 183 he’s missed in his 165-game NFL life.
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Mike Sando of The Athletic explains the quandary the Seahawks find themselves in with S JAMAL ADAMS. This is edited from the full version which has lots of pretty diagrams:
The teams with (Russell) Wilson and Patrick Mahomes at quarterback have 2-3 records, mostly because their defenses rank among the bottom five by most measures, including expected points added (EPA), which I prefer for its ability to separate offense, defense and special teams while adjusting for situation.
Drew Brees can relate. New Orleans wasted some of his finest seasons when the Saints’ defenses were historically bad.
Carroll must prevent something similar from happening to his quarterback by maximizing the most talented players on a defense that, at its best, is probably a middle-of-the-pack operation. That means unleashing Adams as a disruptive force near the line of scrimmage instead of asking him to simply be another safety in the defense.
“At least one out of every 3-4 plays, you need to design something for him so he can go out and play ball, because he is such an impact player,” a veteran play-caller from another team said.
For whatever reason, the Seahawks no longer seem to be doing that.
Last season, he led all qualifying defensive backs in blitz rate at 20 percent, according to NGS. This season, he has blitzed less than 10 percent of the time. Why again are the Seahawks paying this man $17.5 million a year?
“I personally don’t see the value in spending so much for a guy who doesn’t take away the ball,” an exec said, “but Jamal Adams is absolutely a disruptive force, a No. 1 game-plan consideration if you use him the way Gregg Williams did, or even how Pete used him last year. You strip that away if you put him in the deep and ask him to take precise angles.”
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History sometimes repeats. More than two decades ago, the Seahawks spent big in free agency for Chad Brown, an elite pass-rushing linebacker. But after a couple years in Seattle, a coaching change resulted in the team installing a rigid defensive system that did not suit his talents. Suddenly, Brown went from being a 13-sack star in Pittsburgh to chasing tight ends 30 yards downfield in Seattle as a dime linebacker.
“In coaching, there’s a difference between guys who are trying to fit players into the system vs. guys who will draw up special roles that use a guy’s skill set,” said Brown, who was a coaching intern with the Jets during Adams’ rookie season and now is an NFL analyst on radio and TV in Denver. “That is what I’m not seeing from (Seahawks defensive coordinator) Ken Norton and, by extension, Pete, because they are so system based.”
If Brown’s time in Seattle taught him how coaches can squander the talent of an individual, playing under Bill Belichick in New England showed him how the reverse can be true. The Seahawks under Carroll have an established scheme, but they’ve shown some flexibility as well. Carroll during his early years in Seattle deployed a “Bandit” package featuring four pass rushers and seven defensive backs. Later, he adapted his defensive front to feature former defensive tackle Red Bryant as a five-technique defensive end. That worked well.
“Pete does have to roll up his sleeves,” former NFL exec of the year Randy Mueller said during our latest Football GM Podcast. “I just don’t see a roster that has been built on the defensive side that is going to give them the burst of whatever they need to fix it. They have all their money in Bobby Wagner and Jamal Adams. That is $35 million (actually $25 million this year) in cap room tied up really in two box players. When the game breaks out of the phone booth and gets into recess mode, I don’t know what they can do about it, because when teams spread the field, they can’t cover them.”
Whatever the case, maximizing the existing personnel is the No. 1 job of coaches. It’s especially vital when the starting quarterback is about to miss a month or longer.
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AFC WEST
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KANSAS CITY
Mike Sando of The Athletic on how the Chiefs are using a defense that is “off the charts bad”, not just bad, to lose with QB PATRICK MAHOMES:
Kansas City has now lost four of its past six games with Patrick Mahomes in the lineup, after winning 12 in a row and 25 of its previous 26. How is that possible? Here is how: As a general rule, the Chiefs lose when their defense is not just bad, but off-the-charts bad. Bad, as in Allen completing 15 passes for 315 yards on the night.
By the way, Joe Namath holds the record for yardage in a game on 15 or fewer passes, because of course he does. Broadway Joe completed 15 for 496 yards and six touchdowns against the Baltimore Colts in 1972. Johnny Unitas passed for 376 yards, leading the New York Daily News to report that “Joe and old master John Unitas put on an aerial display that hasn’t been matched in this city since Francis Scott Key blew his mind over the rockets’ red glare.”
Are the Chiefs history, too?
If we stack all 59 Mahomes starts according to the Chiefs’ defensive EPA in those games, we see that Kansas City is 22-0 when its defense is average or better, according to TruMedia. The rest of the league is 586-262-5 (.690) in those games. Advantage, Chiefs.
We see that Kansas City is 15-2 in games when its defense is below average, but not off-the-charts bad. The rest of the league is 202-346-2 (.371) in those games. Advantage, Chiefs.
Finally, we see that Kansas City is 9-11 in the games when its defense is at its worst. The rest of the league is 70-281-1 (.200) in those games. Big, huge, Tier 1 quarterback advantage, Chiefs, except that 9-11 is not a good record in isolation. Unfortunately for Kansas City, all five Chiefs games this season fall into the “worst defensive games” category. That is reflected in the team’s record, which might not improve unless the defense does.
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The Chiefs have lost their starting RB CLYDE EDWARDS-HELAIRE for awhile. Michael David Smith of ProFootballTalk.com:
The Chiefs have lost their starting running back for a few weeks.
Chiefs running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire suffered an MCL sprain and is out for a few weeks, Ian Rapoport of NFL Network reports.
Edwards-Helaire suffered the injury during Sunday night’s loss to the Bills. He had gained just 13 yards on seven carries at the time he went down.
For the season, Edwards-Helaire leads the Chiefs with 65 carries for 304 yards.
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LAS VEGAS
Charles Robinson of YahooSports.com thinks Jon Gruden’s email requires the ultimate punishment:
In 2011, Jon Gruden wasn’t an NFL head coach. But he was very much a part of the machinery.
Not only was he climbing up the star ranks at ESPN, he was making millions off his NFL resume and the fame it facilitated. Eventually, those millions would turn into many millions every single year as the network’s highest paid on-air talent. And almost all of the money rolled through NFL doors that were left wide open for him. Whether it was Gruden’s visits to NFL facilities, a center-stage “Monday Night Football” gig, or his pre-draft “QB Camp”, there was no shortage of NFL avenues that he utilized to stockpile money and opportunity.
Even when he wasn’t in the league’s coaching ranks, Gruden kept himself synonymous with the product. And that’s precisely why the NFL can’t just walk away from the very telling mess that Gruden has created for himself. Because it’s not just his now. It’s the league’s mess too, and how it gets sorted out will say plenty about whether this is just the same good ol’ boys network of the last century, or a corporation that is actually interested in progressing beyond the kind of casual racism that Gruden felt comfortable to send to the general manager of an NFL team.
Oh, yes, I’m aware that Gruden has said — repeatedly — that he’s not racist. He repeated it again on Sunday after his Las Vegas Raiders lost at home to the Chicago Bears.
“I don’t have an ounce of racism in me,” Gruden said.
NFL head coaches. They sure do love measuring things into definable increments. Even racism.
So I guess maybe it was just a half-ounce of racism when Gruden used that racist trope about the size of the lips on NFLPA executive director DeMaurice Smith. And maybe it was just a half-ounce of irony when Gruden did it in an email to then-Washington general manager Bruce Allen — who was nestled inside an organization continually ridiculed for having a racist nickname and logo. And I guess it was probably just a half-ounce of karma that the conversation came out in a workplace investigation of that same organization, which determined the franchise was abusive enough toward women to use phrases like “toxic” and “highly unprofessional.”
I guess maybe Jon Gruden was sending his email to the right place.
And yes, we know, he says he was mad about the lockout and said all kinds of bad things about a lot of people because of it. He told ESPN that he used an expletive to refer to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell in an email. And according to that same report, “also included harsh words for a handful of team owners.”
I’d be curious to see these emails. I’d like to know if any of those harsh words included describing owners through racially offensive observations about their physical features. I’d also be curious to know if Gruden thinks calling a white commissioner an “A-hole” or a “MFer” is the same as identifying the Black union head with a snipe about the size of his lips. Seems like a pretty interesting choice to not simply use the same expletive for both men.
But Gruden maintains that he never had a racial thought in his head. Apparently it was just a hamster on a wheel that churned out the phrase “lips the size of michellin tires (sic).” Or perhaps it really was some half-baked instance of using the phrase “rubber lips” to describe liars. But that sure seems like going an awfully long way to call a guy a liar — running a single word through your Spider 2 Y Banana metaphor machine and then coming out with something that later requires you to explain why there isn’t even one ounce of racism (not one?) in it.
Frankly, the NFL shouldn’t care. It should act here. It should make a statement that your words matter. Especially when you’re someone of Gruden’s stature and have spent decades steeped in the riches and fame that the league provides. There’s nothing stopping the league from stepping up here, either. NFL coaches aren’t governed by a collective bargaining agreement. They have no union. If precedent serves, the league can pretty much do as it sees fit when one of its coaches does something to embarrass the league office.
And yes, this is an embarrassment to the league office. Because it took someone leaking the email to the media for it to become public, and that just underscores how filthy it is to have an investigations given through “oral reports” rather than written ones — because god forbid something like this gets out.
Well, whoops. It got out anyway. And now the league has a dilemma on its hands. The head coach who was chosen by Raiders owner Mark Davis before his last coach (Jack Del Rio) was even fired — essentially violating the spirit of the Rooney Rule back in 2018 — now has to spend time quantifying the number of ounces of racism inside him. And his players? Well, if any of them are actually upset about what Gruden wrote in that email, they certainly aren’t in a great position to share that publicly.
Instead, someone else is going to have to make the statement and hold Gruden accountable. If that someone isn’t going to be Mark Davis, then it needs to come from the top of the league. From someone like Goodell, who is well within his rights to point out that this was 10 years ago and Jon Gruden was a man just a few months shy of his 49th birthday. Which is pretty late in life to not understand racist terminology, or the potential downfalls of utilizing it in an email sent to a highly placed franchise executive.
There is no statute of limitations on this. There are also no private boundaries that protect it, as if Gruden was whispering it into an empty box in an empty room with the lights turned out. He sent it to an NFL executive. He made the remark about a union executive. And then he chose to walk right back into their world to earn an even bigger paycheck than before. There’s an element of responsibility that comes with that. Now the league needs to make sure Gruden takes some.
And it needs to be a hell of a lot more than a single ounce.
Other thoughts from Jason Whitlock of The Blaze after he sees an emotional discussion of the issue on ESPN.
@WhitlockJason
We can’t remain this weak and phony. Jon Gruden saying DeMaurice Smith has huge lips, which he does, can’t bring us to tears. Are we really this weak? Does the white man’s opinion of our lips mean that much? I like my big lips, never had a woman complain about them.
@WhitlockJason
Gruden’s intent was to insult. So? I’m not going on national TV and crying because Jon Gruden or any man insulted me. The feminine energy Randy Moss tapped into is far more insulting than some random email from 10 years ago. How are we this weak?
@WhitlockJason
He said something in a private email that was intended for one person to read/know. Anybody insulted is someone who spends their life looking to be insulted.
@WhitlockJason
The man cried on national TV because Jon Gruden said Smith had big, rubbery lips. You ain’t built for this world if all it takes to make you cry is a 10-year-old email that stated the obvious.
@WhitlockJason
Can we get a full list of things that can’t be talked about because it’s going to make black men cry on national TV? Life is tough. We look like the weakest people on earth if private emails make us cry on TV.
The leaked emails seem to have emanated from the NFL Office. And we are learning that DeMaurice Smith isn’t the only person Gruden said mean things about. Peter King has thoughts about can a current NFL employee be disciplined in 2021 for something they sent in an email as a private citizen a decade ago:
A few thoughts:
• Gruden has said to many over the weekend that he’s not racist, that he doesn’t have a racist bone in his body, and, after the Raiders game Sunday, doubled down: “I had no racial intentions with those remarks at all.” That’s hard to swallow. Who says something offensive about the size of a man’s lips? It’s a classic racial stereotype. Gruden keeps saying it. I keep being skeptical about it.
• The fact that there are more Gruden emails the league has in its possession (as was reported by Beaton on Friday) is notable; ESPN’s Chris Mortensen reported Sunday that one of them has Gruden cursing out commissioner Roger Goodell. The Smith comments are much more serious.
• Over the weekend, I asked a few people what would be a sensible sanction, if any is forthcoming, from the league. After a discussion about it for a few minutes, one executive I respect told me: “I honestly have no idea. This is so out of bounds.”
Gruden, of course, wasn’t employed by the league in 2011, so you could question whether any discipline at all should be forthcoming for a man who was an NFL analyst for ESPN and did not return to the NFL as a coach till 2018. Mike Florio reported Sunday that some influential league office people think he will not be suspended. Goodell has lots of latitude to sanction league employees, however, and unlike players who have a union with some teeth, coaches don’t have a union and have to either accept the commissioner’s decision or appeal it—to the league office.
My thought is Gruden has to do something to show legitimate repentance—something like endowing a scholarship for Black students with part of his reported $100-million contract with the Raiders. An apology is not enough, regardless of how well-meaning it may be.
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LOS ANGELES CHARGERS
Peter King on the Chargers:
Isn’t it fun to watch the Los Angeles Chargers? The confluence of imaginative coach (Brandon Staley) and phenom quarterback (Justin Herbert) and offensive weaponry galore and defensive playmakers (Derwin James, especially, playing everywhere) getting off the canvas time and again. It’s just fun to watch. The 2021 Chargers are what the 2019 Chiefs were.
On Sunday, the Chargers beat Cleveland 47-42 in a wild and wooly slugfest, Creed versus Balboa. Forty-one points in the fourth quarter. Six touchdowns in the last 12 minutes. When I spoke with one of the heroes of the day, Austin Ekeler, 20 minutes after the game, he clearly hadn’t come down yet. He said “Wow” five times. He scored three touchdowns in the last eight minutes, two on runs and one on a screen pass. On Ekeler’s final touchdown, four Cleveland Browns dragged him into the end zone to max out how much time they’d have to come back and win. The defense dragged the offensive player into the end zone! Against his will!
Ekeler, unplugged, on the wildest game of the first month of the NFL season:
“Oh my goodness. Oh man, I’m still taking in that win and what just happened. It was incredible. Wow. On the touchdown pass in the fourth quarter, it was a screen, a play I fumbled on earlier in the game. That made me sick to my stomach. I’m still sick about it. But that’s the great thing about football—you can make up for plays like that.
“Man, it feels like, when we get on the field, we’re gonna go score. If we have to, guess what? We’re going for it on fourth down. That’s just the way we roll right now. J-Herb’s been smart with the ball. Finding us, and we’ve been getting open and giving him an option to throw to. It’s that feeling like we’re in a zone. We’re scoring every time we get the ball.
“Crazy play at the end. I’m not trying to score. Right? I’m trying to waste time. Which, I mean, if I was smarter in that situation I would’ve just immediately gone down. I was like, Oh let me try to waste more time. And I tried to get cute, kill some time, got greedy, and they came and grabbed me, picked me up, took me in the end zone. Weirdest play ever. Has anybody ever been sad to score a touchdown? There’s not many situations where you’re sad that you scored a touchdown, but that one was like, man, wow, I dropped the ball in that situation by not just going down.
“So now, big win. But we can’t caught up in hype. One of my old running back coaches used to tell me, ‘You can smell the cologne but don’t taste it. Don’t taste it.’ What does that mean? There’s gonna be a lot of people talking about you. You can say thank you, but make sure you know every single week you gotta show up to work. This is the NFL.
“Wow. Today was incredible. I got a feeling you’re gonna see this all year.”
More from King:
Justin Herbert, quarterback, L.A. Chargers. Herbert is making all things possible for the Chargers right now. Forget the numbers (398 passing yards, four TD passes, no picks; 29 rushing yards and one rush TD) and just watch his commanding presence. In the last 12 minutes of a challenging game against a team that almost certainly will make the playoffs, Herbert led four touchdown drives—of 61, 75, 75 and 48 yards. The man is 23 years old, and no team in five weeks has thrown anything at him that he can’t handle. What a game he had, and what a player he is.
The 2020 draft:
5 Miami Dolphins Tua Tagovailoa QB Alabama
6 Los Angeles Chargers Justin Herbert QB Oregon
We will never know with absolute certainty whether or not the Chargers like Tua better than Herbert or not.
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AFC NORTH
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CINCINNATI
QB JOE BURROW’s throat contusion appears to be improved. Cassandra Negley ofYahooSports.com:
Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow was released from the hospital overnight after being admitted for a throat contusion from Sunday’s overtime loss to the Green Bay Packers.
Burrow is in “good shape” after the injury and the team does not expect him to be limited in practice this week, Paul Dehner Jr. of The Athletic reported. The team will take it “day-by-day.”
The Bengals announced after the game that Burrow was taken to the hospital, but did not provide any more detailed information. There is no word on how he suffered the injury or how serious it might have been.
NBC Sports’ Mike Florio reported on “Sunday Night Football” that the quarterback was poked in the throat sometime during the game. He did briefly leave the sideline in the second quarter after taking a big hit. The Cincinnati Enquirer’s Kelsey Conway reported that Burrow was having trouble speaking.
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CLEVELAND
You can’t blame QB BAKER MAYFIELD and the offense for Sunday’s loss:
@ESPNStatsInfo
·
The Browns scored 42 points, had 532 yards with 0 turnovers.
They are the first team in NFL history including the playoffs to lose when having either
– 40 Pts and 0 turnovers OR
– 40 Pts, 500 yards and 0 turnovers
@ESPNStatsInfo
Through the 1p Sunday games, teams with 40+ pts & zero TO were 463-0-0 including the playoffs combined.
If we add 500 yards to that it’s 72-0 including the playoffs all-time combined.
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PITTSBURGH
Beating the Broncos cost the Steelers the services of WR JuJU SMITH-SCHUSTER for the rest of the year. Nick Shook of NFL.com:
JuJu Smith-Schuster’s return to Pittsburgh has met an early conclusion.
The receiver will undergo surgery to address a shoulder injury suffered in Sunday’s 27-19 win over the Denver Broncos and will miss the remainder of the 2021 season, NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport reported.
Smith-Schuster suffered the injury in the second quarter of the Steelers’ Week 5 game when he carried the ball on an end around and was hit hard by Broncos defensive back Kareem Jackson. Smith-Schuster exited the game and did not return.
The USC product surprised most everyone during the offseason when he decided to take less money to return to the Steelers on a one-year deal. With the Steelers facing significant salary cap constraints, Smith-Schuster was expected to head elsewhere, but ended up opting to run it back with Ben Roethlisberger and the only team he’s known as a professional, choosing Pittsburgh over an opportunity to sign with Kansas City.
Pittsburgh struggled to get going offensively in the first month of the 2021 season and its team-wide difficulties showed in Smith-Schuster’s production. The wideout caught just 15 passes for 129 yards in four and a half games before suffering the season-ending shoulder injury. Perhaps most unfortunate was the timing of Smith-Schuster’s exit, which came during the Steelers’ first legitimately productive offensive showing of 2021.
Smith-Schuster’s injury brought a disappointing end to his fifth season of his career, which saw him break 1,400 receiving yards as the No. 2 option alongside Antonio Brown in 2018, but fail to exceed the 900-yard mark in each of the three seasons that followed. It’s likely he’ll again hit the open market and is expected to head elsewhere in 2022.
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AFC SOUTH
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HOUSTON
Mike Sando of The Athletic takes David Culley to task for what he deems to be a bad decision:
The Texans had a choice late in their 25-22 defeat to New England. They could take possession of the ball with about 1:45 remaining, likely at their own 25-yard line, down by seven with no timeouts. Or, they could take possession of the ball with about 15 seconds remaining, also likely at their own 25, down by three, also with no timeouts.
Houston inexplicably chose the latter scenario, and lost.
With the scored tied and the clock stopped with 1:56 remaining after Houston used its final timeout, officials flagged New England for an illegal shift on second-and-goal from the 4. The Patriots scored a touchdown on the play. Normally, any team allowing a touchdown would accept any penalty wiping out said touchdown. In this case, the Texans’ decision to accept the penalty killed their chances for a comeback. The Patriots ran two more plays, taking the clock down to 17 seconds before Nick Folk booted the winning 21-yard field goal.
Had the Texans allowed the touchdown to stand, they would have gotten back the ball with about 1:45 remaining, down by seven. That’s a tough spot to be in, but much better than getting the ball back with 15 seconds left, down by three.
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JACKSONVILLE
Urban Meyer only lost five of these:
@ProFootballTalk
Jaguars are now the third team in 102 NFL seasons to lose 20 games in a row.
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TENNESSEE
Peter King on how much WR JULIO JONES is being paid to miss games:
I think this about Julio Jones, who was out again with a bum hamstring Sunday:
• He’s missed nine of his teams’ last 21 games—seven in Atlanta last year, two in Tennessee this year—with injuries.
• In the 12 games he’s played, he’s had 63 receptions and three touchdowns.
• Earnings in 2020 and 2021: $37.5 million. (Tennessee owes him $11.5 million in each of the next two seasons if it keeps him.)
• The Titans owe Atlanta a second-round pick in 2022 and a four in ’23 (Atlanta will send back a 2023 sixth-rounder), so the cost for Jones is not only the money.
• Jones will be 33 in four months.
• Teams that were interested in Jones before he was dealt to the Titans—Baltimore, Vegas, New England—are undoubtedly happy they didn’t pay the freight for Jones.
The Jones story is not over. He has plenty of time to make an impact on a team that probably is still the AFC South favorite. But once 32-year-old receivers who’ve played 138 physical NFL games start breaking down, they don’t usually become ironmen.
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AFC EAST
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BUFFALO
Peter King says Sunday night’s long win marks the ascension of the Bills to the top of the heap in the AFC, the odds on favorite, the team to beat:
This felt bigger than one game. The Chiefs looked thin on offense and absolutely threadbare on defense. This looked like a changing of the guard in the AFC more than just a Week 5 game. It looked that way from the booth too. “When we get to the end of the season,” Cris Collinsworth said on NBC, “we’re gonna look back on this night and say, ‘This is the night a lot of things changed in the AFC.”
The Lead: Buffalo Bills
The AFC’s has two explosive front-runners this morning—the Bills and Chargers, both 4-1. The NFC isn’t as easy. On a given Sunday five teams can stake a logical claim to NFC superiority—the 5-0 Cardinals; then Dallas, Green Bay, Tampa Bay and the Rams, all 4-1.
– – –
The worst thing you can do after a game like Buffalo-Kansas City is think too much.
But I’m going to think a little bit about what we saw and where these two power teams stand.
KANSAS CITY
Now alone in last place in the strong AFC West—I would have said “powerhouse AFC West” except I saw Denver and Las Vegas play Sunday—and 2.5 games behind the Chargers, I see trouble. KC’s two games out, but I could the tiebreaker as a half-game, and the Chargers own the Week 3 head-to-head win at Arrowhead. Interesting to watch the frustration of the Andy Reid offense, with the Bills’ two-deep scheme taking Tyreek Hill out of the deep-passing game. When Hill catches seven for 63, with a long of 17, as he did Sunday night, it’s a win for the defense, particularly with no other deep threat to scare the D.
And that Kansas City defense. Frighteningly bad. I go back to draft day 2020 and think of the Clyde Edwards-Helaire pick. He’s been a B player. Imagine if that pick had been at a defensive need spot—at safety, maybe, where Antoine Winfield Jr., went 13 picks after Edwards-Helaire, or at corner, where Trevon Diggs went 19 picks after the runner. The Edwards-Helaire pick sounded great at the time, but needs were glaring elsewhere, and those needs really showed up all over the field Sunday night—and in the team’s 2-3 start.
Look at the standings this morning. Kansas City’s allowing 32.6 points per game, most in the league. Never thought I’d see this in the Mahomes Era, but the offense can’t outscore the defense (154 points for, 163 against) right now.
Reid was asked about this game, his team’s play, and the reaction of the locker room. “They’re embarrassed by it. We all are,” he said. Andy Reid has not had to say that many times in his coaching career.
BUFFALO
Entering the season, the Bills needed some answers on the defensive front. Over the first two rounds of the last two drafts, Buffalo GM Brandon Beane drafted three pass-rushers, including the largely unproven Gregory Rousseau, who had one impressive season as an edge rusher in his life. On Sunday night, Beane watched from the press box as Rousseau made the play that sealed the game. With 18 minutes left and Mahomes at the Buffalo 8-yard line, trying to carve into a 31-13 Bills lead, Mahomes threw for Mecole Hardman near the right sideline. Rousseau, rushing from the left side, stuck his hand in the air to block the pass. He tipped it to himself for the interception. Huge play, the kind of play the Bills’ defensive front hasn’t made enough of—especially when KC put up 64 on them in eight quarters last year.
The Bills also have discovered a tight end defenses have to worry about. Beane drafted Dawson Knox in the 2019 third round. Big and athletic, Knox already has five touchdowns this year, the latest a 53-yard TD from Allen, stretching the lead to 24-10 late in the first half.
This is an offense with more firepower than last year, and a defense growing stronger with players like Rousseau providing a needed pass rush. On this night, all of that helped Allen. One of the things he’s tried to do this year is to play more calmly. Playing crazy had its drawbacks for Allen in year one and two. “Back in the day,” he told me in camp, “I tried to play pissed off on the field and I found myself not playing very well, tensed up . . . Now, [I’ll do] small things like listening to calming music pregame, to not be so hyped and anxious for the game.”
On Allen’s pregame playlist, he told NBC, there was no Metallica, no metal. There was some Frank Sinatra (“Fly Me to the Moon”) and Paul Anka (“Put Your Head on my Shoulder”). Whatever works.
After the game, coach Sean McDermott told his team: “Don’t act surprised. We’re better than we even showed today.” If so, this could finally be the year western New York forgets all those nineties Super Bowl disappointments. Josh Allen will have a lot to do with that.
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NEW YORK JETS
Peter King on the Jets:
I think no team in the NFL looks as hapless offensively as the 1-4 Jets. Five statistical notes, after New York’s loss in London:
a. They’ve played five games. In those five games, they’ve had 27 first-half possessions. They’ve punted 16 times and scored one touchdown.
b. Zach Wilson threw for 59 yards in the first 50 minutes of the loss in London. That’s almost a 1956 number.
c. Wilson is apace to throw 30 interceptions. The rookie record for picks in a season: Peyton Manning, 1998, 28.
d. In the last 25 games, the Jets have not scored 30 points in a game once. In its last 25 games, Green Bay has scored 30 points or more 14 times.
e. Sunday was the Jets’ 50th loss since opening day 2017. No team has lost more games since then, though the Giants have also lost 50 since then. It’s a wonderful time to be the back-page editor of the New York Post or New York Daily News.
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THIS AND THAT
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DeMAURICE SMITH SURVIVES FOR NOW
Peter King:
DeMaurice Smith won a reprieve Friday, a new term as executive director of the NFLPA approved by the board of 32 player reps 22-8 with two abstentions. During the 90-minute call with the reps, he told them if he didn’t get at least two-thirds of the vote Friday, he wasn’t going to run—because it would be clear the player leadership didn’t have enough faith in him to lead the union. Now that he got the vote, he said this will be his last term, with the length TBD. It might make sense for a two-year period to find a new executive director; that’s how long it took the NBA players union to ID and hire its last executive director, Michele Roberts, and the two unions have similarities in the complexities of the job.
As for Smith, his struggle with many player leaders is based in the union’s acceptance of the 17-game season, which is detested by many players (with good reason). I’ve always believed Smith’s hands have been half-tied when it comes to major issues like the 17-game season—and could come in the next labor deal if/when the owners ask for 18 games. Football players don’t have the stomach for a work stoppage. They just don’t. They might say they do, but in order to hang in, players with finite lifespans in the game (many of them with lower career spans than their baseball or basketball peers) have to be willing to sacrifice a year of employment to get what they want. And in the case of the last vote, you saw the vast majority of the rank-and-file push a labor deal with the 17-game season over the finish line. Why? Because the majority players who might play for two, three or four years don’t want to go on strike. They want the best deal they can get without striking.
Smith gets whacked for pushing the 17th game, understandably. The ancillary parts of the deal—a slightly higher percentage of the gross NFL revenue, 11,000 retired players getting a pension bump averaging 53 percent a year, minimum salaries for young players going up from $510,000 in 2020 to $1.065 million in the last year of the new deal, expanded practice squads, less off-season work, no more suspensions for positive marijuana tests—didn’t get covered much. He never would have gotten the buy-in if he said to players, We’ll fight the 17th game, but you may have to strike for it.
No idea who the favorite to replace Smith will be. Whoever it is better buy not just a few Armani suits, but a suit of armor to take the arrows this job requires.
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SUPER BOWL ODDS
The oddsmakers finally believe that the Chiefs are not the best bet to hoist Lombardi in Los Angeles – but the new favorites are not the Bills or Cardinals or Chargers or Cowboys. David Purdum of ESPN.com:
For the first time since January 2020, someone other than the Kansas City Chiefs is the consensus favorite to win the Super Bowl.
The defending-champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers moved atop the odds to win the Super Bowl this week at U.S. sportsbooks. The Buccaneers are 11-2 to win the Super Bowl at Caesars Sportsbook, followed by the Buffalo Bills at 6-1. Kansas City is 13-2 while the Los Angeles Rams, at 17-2, round out the teams with single-digit Super Bowl odds.
The Chiefs fell to 2-3 after losing to the Bills 38-20 at home on Sunday night. It was their third outright loss as a favorite this season and dropped them out of the role as Super Bowl favorites for the first time since before the divisional round of the 2019 playoffs, according to ESPN Stats & Information.
The Green Bay Packers are 12-1 to win the Super Bowl at Caesars Sportsbook, followed by the Arizona Cardinals, who are the only remaining unbeaten team and have seen their odds improve from 40-1 at the start of the season to 13-1 after five weeks.
The Dallas Cowboys, Cleveland Browns and Baltimore Ravens are each 14-1, and the Los Angeles Chargers are 16-1.
The Chiefs’ loss to the Bills capped a good week for the betting public, with multiple sportsbooks reporting a losing Sunday. Favorites went 10-4 straight-up and 8-6 against the spread Sunday.
“Today has been by far our worst Sunday of the season,” John Murray, executive director of the SuperBook at Westgate Las Vegas, told ESPN on Sunday night.
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