The Daily Briefing Thursday, January 19, 2023

Eli Manning notes:

@EliManning

All 8 starting QB’s this weekend were counselors at the Manning Passing Academy. Pretty cool.

This is possible because QB TOM BRADY, whose high school and college days pre-date the Mannings and their camp is not one of the eight.

In fact, not one of the Elite 8 QBs are as old as 30.  We saw this several places, here from Locked On Sports:

Every year like clockwork NFL fans could count on seeing one (or more) of Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, Drew Brees, Ben Roethlisberger, or the Manning brothers vying for an NFL Divisional Round win.

But, the new age has taken over.

After Wild Card Weekend, the 2023 NFL playoffs currently do not feature a single quarterback over the age of 30.

In fact, Cowboys starter Dak Prescott (29) is the oldest starter still in and the only starter above the age of 27.

Kansas City’s Patrick Mahomes is the only quarterback still playing who already has a Super Bowl ring. He’s just 27 years old as he looks to get to his fifth-straight AFC Championship Game.

It truly is a new era, with the old guard getting replaced by established superstars in Mahomes, Josh Allen (26), Jalen Hurts (24), and Joe Burrow (26), with up-and-comers like Daniel Jones (25) and Trevor Lawrence (23) on their heels.

In fact Brock Purdy (23), who led the 49ers to a victory over the Seahawks on Saturday, became the third youngest quarterback to win a playoff game since 2000, behind Michael Vick in 2003 and Roethlisberger in 2005.

NFC NORTH

GREEN BAY

Shots fired.  Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com:

Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers said plenty on Tuesday’s edition of The Pat McAfee Show. One specific comment stands out.

“Do I still think I can play?” Rodgers said. “Of course. Of course. Can I play at a high level? Yeah, the highest. I think I can win MVP again, in the right situation.”

Many have reacted to that by asking why Rodgers is thinking about winning another MVP award, and not about winning another Super Bowl. Retired (for now) tight end Rob Gronkowski chimed in on the issue during a Wednesday appearance on FanDuel TV’s Up & Adams.

“I’m totally fine with everything he said, except one major part,” Gronkowski said. “And that’s the ‘MVP again.’ It’s just that I think ‘I could win another Super Bowl,’ and that would have been totally fine. Like, bro, like why are you thinking MVP? Like don’t you want Super Bowls? Like Super Bowls are I think five times greater than an MVP award.

“Like we all know that you won the MVP a few times now, but like, you know, everyone would know even more how many more Super Bowls you won than MVPs. So that’s why I’m just a little bit confused about that quote he just had. I mean, it should be Super Bowls. You should never be thinking the MVP when Super Bowls are twice . . . twice . . . better.”

No one will ever accuse Gronkowski of being as smart as Rodgers. But Gronkowski is smart enough to spot the flaw in Rodgers’s remark. It should never be about MVP. That doesn’t matter.

Champions crave championships. Selfish people covet individual awards and recognition.

Players like Patrick Mahomes put little significance in winning the regular-season MVP award. Rodgers apparently does. Maybe that’s one of the reasons why he’s won four of them — and only one Super Bowl.

MVP is something Rodgers won four times.  The Super Bowl? Once.

NFC EAST

DALLAS

Jori Epstein of YahooSports.com tries to figure out what happened to PK BRETT MAHER on Monday.

The message was consistent. But the tone varied.

The Dallas Cowboys expressed no plans Tuesday to move on from kicker Brett Maher after he became the first player in NFL history to miss four extra-point attempts in a game since the league began recording the statistics 91 years ago.

But the degree of confidence Cowboys brass expressed in Maher one day after a 31-14 NFC wild-card victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers was inconsistent.

There was team owner Jerry Jones, in his early morning radio show, wary of moving too quickly away from a player who completed 50 of 53 extra-point attempts in the regular season, in addition to 29 of 32 field goals.

“But we will take a look at it,” Jones said on Dallas radio station 105.3 The Fan. “It’d be really a big setback to go into the rest of this tournament, the rest of the playoff with shakiness at kicker.”

There was head coach Mike McCarthy, who had said Monday night from the Raymond James Stadium podium that Maher was “disappointed, but we need him.” On Tuesday, McCarthy further reiterated belief in Maher’s process, and the kicker’s ability to rebound after the worst night of his career.

“I think the biggest thing is just to make sure you got a good plan with Brett moving forward,” McCarthy said. “We’re going to forge ahead. So that’s, as of right now, that’s the plan.”

The qualifying phrase, “as of right now,” seemed notable.

And then there was special teams coordinator John Fassel, who needed no hesitation to express whether he wants Maher to start for the Cowboys at kicker in their divisional playoff game Sunday at the San Francisco 49ers.

“Hell, yeah,” Fassel said. “If you ask me, absolutely.”

So what will the Cowboys do? And how do they explain the disastrous performance that assailed the NFL’s third-highest scoring player (137 total points) in the 2022 season?

A weird night of kicking

If a picture is worth a thousand words, the Cowboys also believe each extra-point attempt is worth a story.

Coaches agreed Maher’s concerns Monday night were psychological and situational, rather than physical. The 33-year-old is not injured. There was no wind nor adverse weather concerns Monday night in Tampa. And the kicking operation — the hold, the snap — was clean.

On his first miss, Maher “didn’t commit to a full swing,” Fassel said. “Almost like a lazy swing.” The ball sailed so far right it landed not in the net behind the upright but in the stadium stands. The Cowboys then had to continue their kicking operation with the second of their three designated kicking, or “K” balls, a ball with which Maher had far fewer reps and experience.

To further distract from the second extra-point attempt, officials apparently flagged the Cowboys’ snapping operation before their second kick, saying they could not use a blade of white-painted grass from the field’s painted line to spot the ball. Whether that contributed to a second wide right extra-point attempt is up for debate, but what isn’t is Maher apparently catching the ball with his toe rather than executing a clean strike.

The stands swallowed that ball, too, leaving the Cowboys settling for their last, and least worn-in, kicking ball.

“We were down to our third and last ‘K’ ball which hadn’t been doctored up,” Fassel said, explaining the nuances. “You only have a certain amount of time with the ‘K’ balls so you spend most of the time [pregame] on the first one, whatever’s left over on the second and hope to get a [kick] on the third one. The first two got lost in the stands. Down to our last ‘K’ ball and if we had lost that one, we’d have needed to use one of the Buccaneers’.”

Maher overcorrected his third attempt. This time, he shanked left.

And by the fourth miss, the chaos was in Maher’s head. Yes, Fassel said, Maher had the “yips” — a psychological phenomenon in sports that the Mayo Clinic defines as when athletes became “so anxious and self-focused — overthinking to the point of distraction — that their ability to execute a skill … is impaired.”

Maher ultimately connected on his fifth try.

On Tuesday morning in a meeting with Fassel, the kicker remained “distraught.”

“A perfect storm for bad kicking,” Fassel said. “I believe in a hot hand and I believe in the yips. Absolutely. You’ll wonder sometimes how you get into the yips, and you wonder sometimes how you get back into the hot hand. I think it’s [to] keep stepping up to the line and shooting.”

Fassel explains ‘best medicine’ for Maher

As of Tuesday evening, the Cowboys did not plan to drastically change Maher’s practice week or game day operation, a person with knowledge of the plan confirmed to Yahoo Sports. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly disclose details of the team’s game plan.

Maher was working out at team headquarters Tuesday, confronting and reviewing the frustrating tape, and preparing for his normally scheduled hash work on Thursday and situational kicks on Friday. A potential directional switch was the most likely change if any were to come (winding up from the right rather than left, for example) but a clean practice week could eliminate even that leaning.

The Cowboys’ next full practice, and thus designated kicking time, was scheduled for Thursday.

Fassel lauded Maher’s process as the best and most distinct routine of kickers he’d worked with in 18 seasons coaching NFL special teams with legs including Sebastian Janikowski and Greg Zuerlein’s. Each, at some point, got the yips. Each, afterward, kept kicking and moved past them.

“This week will give him confidence, just getting back out there,” Fassel said. “He’s probably going to be mentally hurting pretty bad until he can kind of sweat and kick again. There’s no medicine like being back on the practice field. I am optimistic. A good, professional man who really gives a damn … leads me to be optimistic about a good rebound. We all want it.

“To be honest with you, as a coach I kind of live for these moments — to play more psychologist than coach, get back in the meeting rooms and find a way to help these guys bounce back.”

Maher won’t have much time to pivot. The Cowboys travel to San Francisco on Saturday after a shortened practice week, raring to upset the 49ers and advance to a conference championship game for the first time in 27 years.

Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara will present another grass challenge unlike the Cowboys’ home turf. Bay Area winds will likely further test Maher’s mettle.

The 49ers are 3.5-point favorites, per BetMGM. The Cowboys will need every point they can get. Members of the organization hope Maher can deliver.

“At the end of the day, we all have a job to do,” McCarthy said. “He knows he has to put the ball through the uprights. And he’s been super productive and consistent for us.

“In this business, especially this game, you learn from your experiences when it doesn’t go the way you like as opposed to the success of it. So just like our whole football team [in a Week 18 loss], we came out of Washington and got punched in the jaw and I think we clearly responded.

“I think he definitely has that in him.”

NFC WEST

LOS ANGELES RAMS

DT AARON DONALD changed, then unchanged, his bio on Twitter.  He says it meant nothing. Michael David Smith of ProFootballTalk.com:

Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald says he’s not retiring.

Donald caused a stir by changing his Twitter bio to say that he’s a “former” NFL defensive lineman, then he changed it back to “NFL D Lineman for the Rams.” On Twitter Wednesday, Donald indicated that he will continue to play.

Responding to a tweet that played a podcast clip of Donald’s former teammate Chris Long saying that Donald will play this season, Donald indicated that Long is correct.

“Tell em C Lo [Chris Long] yeah I’m playn never said I wasn’t,” Donald wrote.

But while it’s true Donald never said he wasn’t playing, changing his Twitter bio to call himself a “former” NFL defensive lineman certainly hinted that he was done playing. And there’s a long history of players using their social media accounts to give vague hints that they’re considering retiring, or asking for a trade, or a new contract.

And in the same podcast clip Donald was agreeing with, Long said that Donald probably wouldn’t want to be part of a rebuild and might prefer the Rams to trade him to a team that is better positioned to contend in 2023. Long even named the Steelers and Eagles as two teams that Donald, a Pittsburgh native, would want to play for.

So while Donald says he’s playing, he hasn’t said he’s playing for the Rams. Which means his status remains worth watching.

– – –

Sean McVay has given a number of his coaches reason to dust off their resumes.  Charean Williams of ProFootballTalk.com:

The Rams have parted ways with several assistant coaches.

Field Yates of ESPN reports that offensive line coach Kevin Carberry, special teams coordinator Joe DeCamillis, defensive backs coach Jonathan Cooley, assistant defensive line coach Skyler Jones, and defensive assistant Lance Schulters will not return.

DeCarmillis spent two seasons with the Rams after four years with the Jaguars. He also has served as special teams coordinator for the Broncos, Bears, Cowboys, Giants and Falcons.

The Rams already lost offensive coordinator Liam Coen, who left the franchise to become the offensive coordinator at Kentucky, and running backs coach Ra’Shaad Samples, who now is the wide receivers coach and passing game coordinator for Arizona State.

We find the departure of Coen, thought to be a rising star interesting.  He was hired off the Kentucky staff last year and has made his way back, presumably by mutual agreement at best.

AFC NORTH

BALTIMORE

DE CALAIS CAMPBELL, 36, is pondering whether or not he has played his last game.  A ring and a sack are two reasons he could return according to Ryan Mink ofBaltimoreRavens.com:

Calais Campbell will weigh retirement once again this offseason, but he’s certainly not ruling out continuing his spectacular career.

Campbell, 36, considered retirement last offseason too, but announced during the Super Bowl that he wasn’t ready to hang it up. Asked about his future Monday, the day after the Ravens were knocked out of the playoffs by the Cincinnati Bengals, Campbell indicated he’ll follow a similar process to years past.

“I don’t think it would be wise to decide so quickly. I think you have to go through a process. So, I’m going to give myself a few weeks to kind of go through that process and decide after that,” Campbell said.

“This is definitely… It’s going to be hard to walk away, that’s for sure. So, we’ll see. I’ll talk to the front office and talk to the coaches and I’ll think. There’s a chance I could be back here again next year; I just have to go through my process.”

Campbell is under contract for another season with the Ravens. He is scheduled to have a salary cap hit of $9.4 million next season, per Overthecap.com.

Campbell had a resurgent season in first-year Defensive Coordinator Mike Macdonald’s system. His sacks had dropped each of the previous three seasons down to 1.5 last season, but Campbell finished second on the team with 5.5 sacks this year.

He was once again a force in the Ravens’ strong defense and a leader on and off the field. He had 36 tackles in 14 starts, missing three games due to injuries, including a knee injury late in the season. Campbell returned in Week 18 and the playoffs wearing a knee brace.

“I feel like I was still able to affect the ballgames, and that’s important,” Campbell said. “I don’t want to be a guy out here that’s not affecting the ballgames, just being a guy. So, that matters to me to decide if I’m going to continue playing or not because I want to make sure that I’m going to be confident that I can go out there and be a difference maker and not just being a guy.

“I think that wouldn’t do justice to my career and my legacy if I go out there and become less than what I’ve been. So, that’s something I have to weigh, but this year I think I was on par to the standard of excellence that I hold myself to.”

Campbell has a resume worth Hall of Fame consideration, but a Super Bowl title has eluded him. He went to the Super Bowl as a rookie with the Arizona Cardinals, but they lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers. Campbell has also made it clear that he wants to reach the 100-sack milestone, and he sits at 99. He came within a whisker of getting No. 100 on several occasions in the last two games against the Bengals.

“I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t [a factor],” Campbell said of being just short of 100. “I had plenty of opportunities to get it this year and didn’t get it done. … I had the guy in my arms a couple times, and just missed him. So, I guess it’s not the top of the list, but it’s something I really want.”

It is starting to seem more likely that Campbell will be with the Ravens then QB LAMAR JACKSON.

Last week, things seemed to come to a head between the Ravens and quarterback Lamar Jackson. As the offseason officially commences in Baltimore, Jackson may be ready to continue to apply pressure to the pimple that has festered on the forehead of player and team.

“When you have something good,” Jackson posted on his Instagram story, “you don’t play with it. You don’t take chances losing it. You don’t neglect it. When you have something good, you pour into it. You appreciate it. Because when you take care of something good, that good thing takes care of you too.”

The comment will be interpreted as a message to the Ravens. In 2022, they refused to give him a five-year, fully-guaranteed contract. More recently, a sense of exasperation from the organization has emerged regarding his unwillingness to play in the postseason with a PCL sprain.

Jackson seemingly has tiptoed around doing anything over the past two years that would paint him as the bad guy. If the Ravens are going to subtly characterize him that way (and/or fail to push back on the efforts of outside voices to do so), he might as well embrace the role and do what Deshaun Watson did as one of the various steps on his path to a five-year, fully-guaranteed deal from the Browns — make it clear he’s done playing for his current team.

That could indeed happen in the coming weeks. All options are on the table, starting with a renewed effort to work out a long-term deal. Given that the two sides could make no progress when the relationship was strong, it’s hard to imagine a deal getting done at a time when things feel tense and dysfunctional.

The question then becomes whether the Ravens will apply the non-exclusive franchise tag, opening the door to negotiations between Lamar and other teams, and quite possibly an offer sheet or a trade.

CINCINNATI

Paul Dehner, Jr. of The Athletic on QB JOE BURROW and his 2022 offensive line:

Joe Burrow has been here before. One year ago, actually.

In this very divisional round, his future health and the punishment doled out while enduring nine Tennessee Titans sacks were thrust into the public discourse. The brutal day reinforced a fact the Bengals front office already knew.

This offensive line needed reinforcements — multiple, well-paid reinforcements.

Right tackle La’el Collins, right guard Alex Cappa and center Ted Karras were added in the first wave of free agency and selecting Cordell Volson in the fourth round moved the total to four offensive line draft picks the last two years.

For all the money spent and evaluation hours logged attempting to fix the glaring deficiency on the 2021 Bengals, Cincinnati finds itself right back at the epicenter of line instability once again as Collins (ACL), Cappa (ankle) and Jonah Williams (knee) have been lost in consecutive games.

The Bengals are doomed, right? Three backups, a rookie and Karras aren’t how this organization hoped to approach this daunting playoff round one year later.

“It’s an interesting spot,” Karras said. “We have to have guys step up. We’ve lost three starters. That’s never a huge recipe for anything good.”

Is a starting five of LT Jackson Carman, LG Volson, C Karras, RG Max Scharping and RT Hakeem Adeniji worse than the starting five last January at Tennessee? Maybe. Maybe not. Comparisons are close enough that whose better doesn’t much matter.

Many stats about sack totals, pressures and win rates could be trotted out to shift the argument.

Just remember this one: 4-1. That’s Burrow’s playoff record, all with some form of a rightfully criticized offensive line. The Bengals found a way to draw within a drive of the first championship in franchise history 11 months ago with that subpar line. Counting the Bengals out because of a similar group would be ignoring the closest thing to precedent as exists in this situation.

It would also mean forgetting the most important factor: Burrow is better. Burrow has evolved.

The nature of his evolution as a smarter, quicker analyst of defenses and willing adopter of situational checkdowns sets him up to be far more capable of handling offensive line attrition of this level.

“It’s critical,” head coach Zac Taylor said of Burrow’s decision-making offsetting potential offensive line concerns. “That’s a big part of it. We have trust there that he can diagnose the looks quickly and get the ball out.”

Burrow ranked third-best out of 40 qualifying quarterbacks in pressure percentage this season. Only Tom Brady and Tua Tagovailoa experienced better than his 26.6 percent of drop backs, via PFF. The low pressure percentages directly correlate with getting the ball out faster. Burrow owned the second-fastest time to throw average this year at 2.49 seconds (first: Brady).

Compare those numbers to last season where Burrow saw pressure on 34.3 percent of drop backs and had an average time to throw of 2.62 seconds, both middle-of-the-pack numbers.

Consider this past Sunday’s game against the chippy Ravens defense. Yes, Burrow took four sacks, the first time he’s gone down more than twice in a game since Halloween at Cleveland. In fact, Burrow had been sacked more than three times in a game this year only three times before Sunday. The Bengals lost all three (Pittsburgh, at Dallas, at Cleveland). Then they needed “The Hubbard Yard Dash” to survive against Baltimore.

The Ravens applied pressure at 25 percent of drop backs, nearly right on the season average. All this despite playing with three backups in front of Burrow for the majority of the game. Plays that accentuated his adjustments were littered across the playoff victory film.

“He does a great job of understanding the coverages and knowing where the ball needs to go quickly,” Taylor said. “You can see everybody else understanding that now. The first play of a drive they played Tampa 2 and we had four verticals called and he got the ball to (Joe) Mixon as quick as he’s ever done. And you know you can see how quick Mixon was ready for it now because they understand those looks now, too.”

Mixon’s awareness helped turn the middle checkdown into an easy eight-yard gain on first down. Early recognition of these types of efficient plays has become a fixture for Burrow and the Bengals offensive success. Burrow threw the ball in less than two seconds on 16 of his 32 attempts Sunday. He completed 13 of them for 7.25 yards per attempt. Compare that to when he held the ball two seconds or longer, Burrow was 10 of 16 and 5.8 yards per attempt. He was actually more efficient unloading the ball immediately. Part of that plays into the nature of the Ravens defense playing deep and refusing to allow explosive plays, but also speaks to the effectiveness to which Burrow can operate quick game. Doing so simultaneously keeps the rush off and avoids poor down-and-distance that often lead to sacks.

Burrow’s four sacks Sunday came on second-and-4, first-and-10, second-and-10 and third-and-10 with a different player responsible for each one, via PFF.

The number could have been higher, which is where the belief in Burrow to overcome shows itself. Take third-and-inches on the first set of offensive downs coming out of halftime. Burrow sprinted right on a play designed to the edge that the Ravens played ideally while Roquan Smith shot the gap and aimed to take Burrow down. Burrow shrugged him off, cut back and was able to gain four yards and an unlikely first down.

“The play was just a disaster,” Taylor said. “For him to sprint out and reverse course and get us the first down is really a play that should get more storylines than some realize because that play (came) versus a bad look and he just kind of willed it to happen.”

Burrow’s will set off a 12-play, 83-yard touchdown drive in Carman’s first full series at left tackle. The drive nearly ended with Burrow hitting Hayden Hurst for a touchdown, but Hurst was ruled down inches from the goal line. The play was another example of Burrow countering new pieces up front. He canned the original call quickly upon seeing the zone coverage from Patrick Queen, with eyes on Hurst wrapping behind his former LSU teammate in zone then proceeded to rip a dart just past Queen’s earhole for the near score.

The anticipation and aggressiveness of making a scoring window appear out of thin air while Calais Campbell broke into his face shows off the skill to work with precision on time. A trait that’s long been a strength for him, but a perfect example of the mastery necessary to help the line.

– – –

The obvious trait the Bengals can lean into will be the beauty of Backyard Burrow. Much like avoiding disaster against Smith earlier in the game, the smooth nature with which he can flush out of the pocket and quickly reconnect in phase with his receivers showcases a weapon teams can’t counteract. Also, one they open themselves up to by virtue of pressure created in the first place.

Burrow immediately flushing to the right on the two-point play and Tee Higgins reversing path to work the back line in the opposite direction for the conversion was a perfect example.

“Joe’s great on his feet, great delivering the ball on the move,” Karras said. “The whole kind of right side they lost contain. I think one thing when you look back at that play too, the speed with which Tee recognizes the scramble, and then if you watch his change of direction, and just his acceleration, it’s quite remarkable, actually … he covered about 15 yards in four steps.”

The Bengals have become dynamite at figuring out the openings when Burrow flushes from the pocket. Burrow ranks first in passer rating on all plays outside the pocket, second in adjusted net yards per attempt and fourth in EPA/drop back. He’s thrown six touchdowns and zero interceptions.

He ranks 23rd in total drop backs moving outside the pocket (61). For reference, Patrick Mahomes leads the NFL with 163, but the ability to lean more into an area where he has been among the league’s best but only utilized sporadically provides another potential counter-measure.

All this is not to say the Bengals are somehow better off playing three backup offensive linemen. Of course not. Carman was viewed as the best option to take over at left tackle due to his physical traits and collegiate history at the position despite never playing a down of it in the NFL. He was chosen over D’Ante Smith, a 2021 fourth-round pick viewed as a tackle of the future out of East Carolina and Isaiah Prince, who played tackle for the entirety of the Bengals’ Super Bowl run last year.

That speaks more to the thin state of the position than anything about Carman, who has struggled to be any sort of factor since being drafted in the second round in 2021.

He took 16 pass-blocking reps against the Ravens and five true pass sets, via PFF. On one of the five he allowed a sack — not good. But that was the only pressure he allowed on the night — not bad. Any path involving Carman will be littered with good and bad, even in a best-case scenario.

“I thought he did a nice job,” Taylor said of Carman, who was also dinged for a holding penalty. “Especially being thrust into there. Given the opportunity he had against a tough defensive line, I thought he handled it really well.”

The Bengals desperately need to avoid situations where true pass sets and deep drops are continually necessary. Or else more snaps will look like the one where Burrow was buried by two Ravens pass rushers while Carman and Scharping looked down from above.

They’ve largely played that way this season as part of Burrow’s growth and game plans to take advantage of all the deep zones thrown at them.

The Bengals will need to hold on for dear life up front to make it all the way to Arizona and Super Bowl LVII. But, they’ve schemed this weakness up before and will attempt to do so again.

 “Any time we’re calling a play on a hash or preparing for a guy that’s an interior guy or an exterior guy, we always try to factor that in to give our guys the best opportunity,” Taylor said. “And finding help where we can when it makes sense. Sometimes it’s more beneficial to get four or five guys out on the route instead of helping. That’s part of what we got to deal with starting today and formulating those plans.”

Burrow will need to carry them. This was already known. He’s specifically better prepared to do so at this moment. We will find out in Buffalo if the weight of a third injured offensive lineman proves too heavy to handle.

PITTSBURGH

OC Matt Canada will be back in 2023.  Veteran scribe Gerry du Lac in the PittsburghPress-Gazette:

The Steelers have no plans to replace offensive coordinator Matt Canada and he is expected to return to Mike Tomlin’s coaching staff in 2023, sources have told the Post-Gazette.

Despite a public outcry to fire him and numerous rumors about his coaching status, Canada will return for his third season as offensive coordinator — something, apparently, that was never really in doubt after the offense continued to show signs of improvement late in the season.

The Steelers’ strong finish to the regular season — they won their last four games and six of their final seven — and the development of rookie quarterback Kenny Pickett were large factors in Canada returning next season.

Despite that, the Steelers offense was one of the most anemic in the league and has lagged appreciably in the two years since Canada replaced Randy Fichtner.

After Cam Sutton’s career year, Steelers will need to pay up to keep their top cornerback

They had 28 offensive touchdowns, third-fewest in the league, and ranked 26th in scoring average (18.1 points) in 2022. In two seasons with Canada as offensive coordinator, the Steelers have averaged 19.1 points per game, which is 7.5 points fewer than they did in 2020 when Fichtner’s contract was not renewed.

What’s more, the offense lacked explosive plays. The Steelers were the only team in the league to have only three plays longer than 40 yards, and their longest touchdown was 31 yards. Of their 28 total touchdowns, 21 were less than 10 yards.

But the offense showed small signs of improvement since the bye week. They had two of their three highest point totals and their running game averaged 151.8 yards in the final four games.

It is not known if Canada, who has a year remaining on his contract, will have to adjust his approach and have his offensive assistants be more involved in the game plan.

Meantime, assistant receivers coach Blaine Stewart is leaving to join the staff at West Virginia, according to a source.

AFC SOUTH

TENNESSEE

Last year, the Broncos hired Nathaniel Hackett as head coach with many expecting/hoping QB AARON RODGERS would follow him to Denver.

Now, many of the same people are wondering about new GM Ran Carthon and QB TREY LANCE.  Cody Benjamin of CBSSports.com:

The Titans found their new general manager this week, hiring 49ers executive Ran Carthon as the successor to Jon Robinson. Is it possible they accidentally found their new quarterback as well? Moments after Carthan’s hiring was first reported, Trey Lance posted a cryptic message to his Instagram story, attaching three “fingers crossed” emojis to a picture of Carthan. The 49ers signal-caller has been sidelined since Week 2 due to injury, and his future in San Francisco is increasingly unclear thanks to rookie Brock Purdy’s emergence as the team’s late-season starter.

Lance has posted well wishes to colleagues and teammates before, and his “fingers crossed” message may be just that: an expression of hope that Carthan, who’s spent the last six years in the 49ers’ front office, excels in Tennessee. But in today’s landscape, where contract feuds and trade talks can genuinely ramp up in the wake of social media hints, some have interpreted Lance’s post as a tease that he’d like to follow Carthan to the Titans — or, more specifically, that Carthan will bring him along.

Whether or not that was Lance’s intent, it’s not hard to make the leap in interpreting it that way. While the 49ers almost certainly aren’t eager to part with Lance just two years after trading up to draft him No. 3 overall, the reality is the QB situation has changed in San Francisco. Even with veteran Jimmy Garoppolo due to hit free agency, Purdy has seized the starting job down the stretch, going 6-0, including playoffs, as an emergency fill-in. Barring a divisional round meltdown or an injury of his own, in fact, Purdy seems to be on the fast track to opening 2023 as the 49ers’ QB1.

The Titans, meanwhile, could be in the market for a new QB — particularly a longer-term option. Their current starter, Ryan Tannehill, is a potential salary cap casualty via trade or release thanks to a pricey contract. And their only other QB under contract beyond 2022 is third-round rookie Malik Willis, who was replaced by Joshua Dobbs at the end of the season. Carthan, the Titans’ new GM, notably served as San Francisco’s director of player personnel when the 49ers moved up to draft Lance.

AFC EAST

BUFFALO

S DAMAR HAMLIN has made his way to Orchard Park on numerous occasions.  Alaina Getzenberg of ESPN.com:

As Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin continues his road to recovery, he has begun spending more time at the team’s facility.

Coach Sean McDermott said Wednesday that Hamlin was there “almost daily,” visiting on Tuesday and Wednesday.

“It’s limited, just overall,” McDermott said of what Hamlin has been doing. “But he comes in and really just started really today or yesterday and just trying to get back to a little bit of a routine and just get himself acclimated again and taking it one step, one baby step at a time here.”

He has not been participating in team meetings but is “kind of get himself dipping his toe back in here and you know, getting on the road to just getting back to himself,” McDermott said.

Hamlin was not in attendance at the team’s win over the Miami Dolphins to start the playoffs, but he was watching remotely. The 24-year-old first visited the team Saturday at its walk-through before the game, with his parents, Mario and Nina, and his brother, Damir.

“That was special for the whole team, because everybody just ran up and just bombarded each other trying to get to see him and hug him,” cornerback Kaiir Elam said Sunday. “And I think that was very special, and it lifted a lot of spirits as well.”

Hamlin suffered a medical emergency during the first quarter of the Bills’ Week 17 game in Cincinnati leading the game to be postponed and ultimately cancelled. He spent almost a week at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center recovering from suffering cardiac arrest before flying to Buffalo to spend about two days at Buffalo General Medical Center/Gates Vascular Institute. He was discharged last Wednesday.

While the team is preparing to host the Bengals in the divisional round after experiencing a variety of emotions over the last couple of weeks, McDermott feels that with Hamlin continuing to progress, the team is in a solid place.

“Well, I think the guys are in a good spot,” McDermott said. “Damar’s in the building now, almost starting daily, and so that’s, that’s good news. And as he continues to improve, I think those are, you know, that certainly helps. So that’s gonna be — I mean, that experience — we’ll carry that with us and there’s a challenge to that, but there’s also a lot of good that came from that. And I think right now we need to focus on the positives and the positives that came out of that, as opposed to the other piece of it right now.”

NEW ENGLAND

The Patriots apparently are going to have an old-fashioned offensive coordinator this year with Andrew Callahan of Boston Herald identifying two of the candidates:

The Patriots are interviewing tight ends coach Nick Caley and Vikings wide receivers coach Keenan McCardell for their offensive coordinator job, according to the NFL Network.

Caley, 39, is the team’s longest-tenured offensive coach. He’s coached the Patriots’ tight ends since 2017 and before that spent his first two seasons on staff as an offensive assistant. Caley reportedly interviewed for the Jets’ offensive coordinator job on Monday.

NEW YORK JETS

The Jets want to extend DT SHELDON RANKINS, the former Saint per Field Yates ofESPN.com:

Will they re-sign defensive tackle Sheldon Rankins? Yes. While the Jets need to fix their offense to take their success to higher levels, ensuring that the defense doesn’t step back is also essential. Rankins fits the scheme, alleviates some pressure from Quinnen Williams and helps defend the run. He has earned a multiyear deal. — Yates

– – –

Zack Rosenblatt of The Athletic with a long look at the Jets struggles at quarterback:

Robert Saleh saw a tweet in September that stuck with him. It pointed out that legendary basketball coach John Wooden didn’t win his first national title until his 16th season at UCLA, that Starbucks’ massive growth took more than a decade, and ended with this line: Be persistent. Success takes time.

In Week 3, the Jets lost to the Bengals on a bad day when they turned the ball over four times. They were 1-2 with Joe Flacco starting at quarterback in place of the injured Zach Wilson, and fans were readying their pitchforks. Saleh thought of that tweet again. He texted it to some people he thought needed to see it. “We’ll be fine,” Saleh would say to anyone willing to listen. “We have the pieces.”

Once Wilson returned in Week 4, the Jets won five of their next six games, powered by an elite defense, an effective ground game and a trio of rookies — cornerback Sauce Gardner, wide receiver Garrett Wilson and running back Breece Hall — quickly emerging as stars. But while this was going on, Saleh was working behind the scenes to put out fires and ease tensions in a locker room growing increasingly frustrated with the lack of production from Wilson, the 23-year-old quarterback who was the No. 2 pick of the 2021 NFL Draft.

The Jets entered their bye week 6-3, with Saleh building internal support for his ability to weather the winds of controversy that enveloped many Jets coaches before him. He had players believing they could overcome anything — trade requests, bad quarterback play and injuries to key players. New York went into its bye week with a 60 percent chance of making the playoffs, per FiveThirtyEight, but Saleh’s message remained consistent: “We still have a long, long way to go.”

Zach Wilson’s dreadful performance in a 10-3 loss to the Patriots after the bye week — followed by postgame comments skirting responsibility for his poor play — led to his benching. Some in the locker room, and on the coaching staff, rejoiced at starting Mike White, a 27-year-old journeyman with three previous career starts. When Wilson replaced an injured White weeks later, multiple teammates openly grumbled about his return during practice and in meetings.

Saleh had been putting out fires all season, but he couldn’t ignite a broken offense. The Jets finished 7-10, losing seven of their final eight games and six in a row to end the season.

Compromised by injuries to key players, the offense couldn’t overcome a quarterback (Wilson) who lost his confidence and a coordinator (Mike LaFleur) who felt constrained by the quarterback’s limitations. Wide receivers openly expressed frustration with the direction of the offense. Defensive players collectively shrugged, wondering how much more they could’ve done.

Saleh has said the “quarterback is the head of the snake,” and that “you want the head of the snake to be stable.” The Jets will spend the offseason looking for a new quarterback since Wilson, most have accepted, is not the solution.

The Athletic spoke with a dozen players, coaches, staff and others in and around the Jets organization to figure out what went wrong. Some were granted anonymity to speak freely about the inner workings of the team without reprisal. Those conversations painted the picture of a head coach doing his best to keep things together as his players grew increasingly irritated with a young quarterback battling injuries, self-doubt and a frustrated offensive coordinator.

When the Jets hired Saleh to be head coach in January 2021, LaFleur was an easy choice for offensive coordinator.

Saleh and LaFleur had been fellow assistants on the 49ers under Kyle Shanahan — Saleh the defensive coordinator, LaFleur the passing game coordinator — and had known each other for years. Saleh worked and lived with Mike’s brother Matt at Central Michigan, and would annoy a teenaged Mike by hogging the TV when he visited the LaFleur family home in Mount Pleasant, Mich.

LaFleur’s hiring was praised by many around the league. “It’s the West Coast system,” he said in his introductory news conference. “We’re trying to run the outside zone and do the play-action stuff off of it, but we fit it to our players.” But some players found the system to be needlessly complicated.

“We’ll have one route but it has a bunch of different names depending on the concept,” said a former Jets receiver who spent time with the team in training camp this year. “I’ve been on multiple teams, this is the first time I’ve experienced that.”

– – –

As a rookie, Zach Wilson struggled with the complexity of the scheme and went 3-10 as the starter. Over the offseason, LaFleur and quarterbacks coach Rob Calabrese studied what worked for Wilson in 2021 and what didn’t. There was some level of frustration. LaFleur would tell people how much more effective the offense looked with quarterbacks Flacco, Josh Johnson and especially White. The stats backed it up.

But Wilson was the Jets’ future, so LaFleur adjusted the scheme, reduced the volume of plays and tried to make things more digestible. Wilson seemed to have a better handle on the offense in OTAs and went into the rest of the offseason committed to building chemistry with his wide receivers.

He spent thousands of dollars flying to Florida, Arizona and Tennessee to work out with teammates. Wilson invited most of the team’s skill position players and quarterbacks to Idaho for a getaway right before training camp, a fun weekend relaxing in the company of celebrities like Wayne Gretzky and Justin Bieber. Some of Wilson’s teammates appreciated the effort he was putting in.

“I never hung out with him outside of the building or anything, but from my experience he was a cool, down-to-earth dude,” said the wide receiver who was with the Jets in training camp. Jackson said when he was first signed to the Jets, Wilson told him: “I’m happy you’re here.” And when Jackson was cut, Wilson called “to make sure I was in the right headspace.”

In New York’s first preseason game, Wilson started things off by sailing a pass over Garrett Wilson’s head and throwing a bad interception. On his second drive, his right knee buckled on a scramble, a non-contact injury. He had suffered a torn meniscus and bone bruise and was forced to the sidelines for six weeks while recovering from a procedure to repair the meniscus. Wilson said afterward he did not anticipate any long-term effects from the knee injury, or from the PCL sprain he suffered as a rookie to the same knee that forced him to miss four games.

Wilson made his 2022 regular-season debut in Week 4 against the Steelers and struggled for three quarters, though he did catch a second-quarter touchdown on a trick play. In the fourth quarter, the Jets trailing by 10, Wilson pulled his teammates aside and told them, in so many words, to “man up.” He completed 10 of 12 passes for 128 yards and a touchdown that quarter while playing through an ankle injury, and the Jets won 24-20.

“The young man doesn’t flinch,” Saleh said after the game.

It never got better.

LaFleur’s directive to Zach Wilson when he returned to game action wasn’t complicated: If the first read and second reads aren’t there, run.

The strategy worked against the Steelers and again in Week 5 against the Dolphins, a 40-17 win. In Week 6, the Jets won in Green Bay, even though Wilson completed only 10 of 18 passes for 110 yards while playing through a separation of the AC joint in his left shoulder.

The Jets’ simplistic approach to the passing game wasn’t sitting well with some wide receivers, who weren’t seeing the ball as much as they had with Flacco starting the first three games. Garrett Wilson had one catch against the Packers. Elijah Moore wasn’t targeted at all while running 14 routes. Moore reportedly first expressed his displeasure to teammates after the Packers game, questioning his future with the Jets. That night, he also responded to a tweet about his lack of targets by saying: “If I say what I really wanna say … I’ll be the selfish guy … just know I don’t understand either.”

His frustration spilled into practice that week. That Thursday, Moore surprised teammates and coaches by blowing up on LaFleur, telling him to “go f— yourself” and “you suck,” according to multiple people who witnessed the interaction. LaFleur and Saleh ultimately decided to send Moore home to cool off. That night, he requested a trade.

He was the second highly drafted wide receiver to do so — Denzel Mims, a second-round pick in 2020, wanted out in August, once it became clear he was buried on the depth chart. Both times, the Jets made it clear they didn’t intend to trade either. Publicly and privately, Saleh supported both Moore and Mims, and his compassion resonated with other Jets players. Moore and LaFleur hugged it out. Mims and Moore didn’t cause any issues the rest of the season.

The Jets won their Week 7 game against the Broncos, though it came at a great cost. Hall, averaging 5.8 yards per carry during his rookie season, suffered a torn ACL. Star offensive lineman Alijah Vera-Tucker, selected 12 picks after Wilson in the 2021 first round, suffered torn triceps. Both were lost for the season.

The next week, Wilson threw three interceptions in a 22-17 loss to the Patriots, and his relationship with LaFleur started to sour. NFL legend Steve Young, who Wilson said he called in November for advice, shed some light on their relationship in a radio interview earlier this month.

“Zach doesn’t need tough love. He doesn’t need somebody to see how tough he is. He needs a big brother — a young, knowledgeable innovator, someone who he can trust and says to him, ‘You know what, despite everything that’s happened, Zach, I believe in you. You can get this done.’ Zach needs that,” Young said. “Mike kind of kept him at arm’s length and gave him the tough-love aspect, and I don’t think that’s really useful for Zach.”

Zach Wilson sat in the back of the visitor’s press conference room at Gillette Stadium as Saleh spoke, fuming at one reporter’s line of questioning. Wilson had just had a brutal performance, 77 passing yards in a 10-3 Week 11 loss at New England. The offense mustered only 2 yards in the second half.

Is the quarterback holding the offense back?

If Zach continues to struggle, will you bench him?

Then, Wilson spoke. He called his performance “frustrating,” admitting that some throws “got away” from him. He pointed out that it was “windy as hell,” which made things challenging. At the end of the news conference, Wilson was asked if he felt like he let the defense down on a day when it allowed the Patriots’ offense to score only three points.

His response: “No, no.”

The moment went viral, with Wilson mocked incessantly from all corners of the internet for his lack of accountability. The quote quickly made its way around the locker room, and some teammates — especially defensive players — were unhappy. Wilson didn’t realize the magnitude of his words until his dad texted him on his way out to the team bus: What the heck did you just do?

Wilson tried explaining that his response was directed at the reporter, not the question. But the damage was done. He’d planned to apologize at his next news conference after practice on Wednesday, but tight end C.J. Uzomah and others texted him Tuesday night suggesting he speak to his teammates before that.

“Hey man, just letting you know: You rubbed the team the wrong way,” Uzomah said he told Wilson on “The Chris Rose Football Show with C.J. Uzomah.” “I’d say something if I were you.”

That Wednesday morning, Saleh informed the team that Wilson was being benched for White. Wilson still apologized to coaches, to team captains and in front of the entire team. It was described as a heartfelt apology, but many of Wilson’s teammates, and LaFleur, were excited about opening up the offense with a different quarterback.

Saleh labeled it a “reset” for Wilson, bumping him down to the third string so he could get back to basics and fix the mechanical issues that were plaguing him, namely his footwork. Saleh insisted the Jets weren’t giving up on Wilson and said later in the season that they’d continue working with him through “hell or high water.”

The Jets beat the Bears 31-10 in White’s first start, and nearly beat the Vikings in Minnesota the following week. After the game, a loss, teammates raved about White in a way they never had about Wilson. “I know I’d go to war for that boy,” said Garrett Wilson. “He’s got something special about him.”

Meanwhile, Zach Wilson sought to find the “fun” in football again. He called some former NFL quarterbacks who hit rough patches early in their careers for advice: Kurt Warner, Drew Brees and Young. Warner told The Athletic that he “enjoyed” talking to Wilson and getting to know him, though he wanted to keep their conversation private. He did say that Wilson’s willingness to make those calls is a positive sign.

“I think there’s a lot of things to learn when you’re open to believing you still have something to learn, and areas you can grow,” Warner said. “I respect him a lot for reaching out and listening … (but) it’s one thing to reach out and listen, and it’s another thing to be willing to do what it takes to change.”

The Jets had planned to keep Wilson benched through the end of the season, but White suffered fractured ribs against the Bills in Week 14. Saleh named Wilson the starter for Week 15. In practice that week, Wilson threw a series of incompletions during team drills that frustrated Jets receivers, and the struggles carried into games.

Wilson completed 18 of 35 passes in a loss to the Lions. In Week 16, he was booed off the field by Jets fans and benched for practice squad quarterback Chris Streveler in the second half of a loss to the Jaguars. New York went back to White in Week 17 against Seattle, playoff hopes still alive, even though White was still battling the rib injury.

The Jets lost 23-6, their playoff hopes over.

Jets owner Woody Johnson pointed at the large portrait of Winston Churchill in his office at Florham Park and smiled.

“I brought it over from London,” Johnson said last week. Churchill “was behind every ambassador since 1944.”

Johnson returned to the Jets in 2021 after serving four years as the ambassador to the United Kingdom as a member of former President Donald Trump’s administration. Johnson returned to a different organization than the one he left, with a general manager (Joe Douglas) and head coach (Saleh) both hired by Christopher Johnson, Woody’s brother, who believed in their vision.

By all accounts, Woody Johnson does too, though he was frustrated with the way the Jets collapsed at the end of the season. After the loss in Seattle, Johnson had meetings with Saleh and Douglas to discuss the Jets’ plan of attack in the offseason, among other things.

Multiple people in the organization pushed back on the narrative that Johnson forced Saleh to fire LaFleur, though Saleh likely did feel pressure from above to make changes. For weeks, Saleh defended LaFleur, insisting — publicly and privately — that the problems were not one person’s fault.

It would’ve been hard for anyone to succeed with below-average quarterback play, the loss of two “superstars” — Saleh’s words — in Hall and Vera-Tucker and an offensive line in shambles. All told, the Jets had six starting offensive tackles spend time on injured reserve. Left tackle Duane Brown played 12 games with a bum shoulder. Right tackle George Fant played eight on a bad knee. They started 11 different players and nine different combinations on the line.

But the Jets didn’t score a touchdown in their final three games and went 1 of 6 in the red zone in a five-point loss to the Vikings in Week 13. They finished ranked 25th in total offense and 29th in scoring. After the season, Garrett Wilson said that in the final games, other teams “had an idea of what we were trying to do,” and that it “got real hard for us on offense.”

On Jan. 11, Saleh and LaFleur agreed to part ways. Saleh canceled scheduled coaches meetings that day. “I think it was hard on Robert,” one Jets staff member said. “He protects everyone. It’s a little close to the chest for him.” Offensive line coach John Benton and wide receivers coach Miles Austin were also fired.

Now the Jets move forward, as Saleh seeks someone to revamp an offense with major issues at quarterback and on the offensive line — and with no guarantee this staff will still be around in 2024. They are expected to pursue veteran quarterbacks this offseason, and Johnson said he is “absolutely” willing to spend to upgrade the position. The Jets retain one of the NFL’s best defenses and an impressive core of young talent, including defensive tackle Quinnen Williams, Garrett Wilson, Vera-Tucker, Gardner, Hall and cornerback D.J. Reed.

The pressure is on Saleh, and Douglas, to fix the offense. That starts at quarterback. Even if the Jets haven’t given up on Wilson, he’s unlikely to be their starter in 2023. Few NFL head coaches or general managers survive a misevaluation like that for a No. 2 pick.

The Jets need to find some stability at quarterback, their “head of the snake.”

Right now, they are a snake with no head.

THIS AND THAT

SENIOR BOWL COACHES

A change in format in the selection of Senior Bowl coaches.  The AP:

Chicago Bears offensive coordinator Luke Getsy and Las Vegas Raiders defensive coordinator Patrick Graham will serve as Senior Bowl head coaches.

The Senior Bowl said Wednesday that Getsy will coach the American team and Graham the National team in the Feb. 4 showcase game for senior and graduate NFL prospects.

The Bears have the top overall pick in April’s draft, and the Raiders own the No. 7 selection.

It’s the first time the Senior Bowl won’t have two full team staffs coaching the game.

NFL Football Operations has put in a “coach up” format to promote professional development for coordinators and other assistants. The head coaches and general managers from all non-playoff teams were able to nominate assistants.

The team head coaches were then chosen by a group comprised of league office executives, representatives from the general managers advisory committee and Senior Bowl officials.

At least one coach from all 16 teams that submitted nominations were chosen, with the New Orleans Saints, Washington Commanders and Chicago Bears having four representatives. The Raiders (3), Cleveland Browns (2) and Pittsburgh Steelers (2) also have multiple coaches.

“Everyone at the Senior Bowl is excited about this new coaching format since it connects our players to half the league’s teams behind the scenes during the week,” Senior Bowl executive director Jim Nagy said. “Both Luke Getsy and Patrick Graham have tremendous reputations around the league and the young men in our game will undoubtedly leave Mobile as better football players after spending the week with these excellent staffs.”

The American coordinators will be Atlanta Falcons quarterbacks coach Charles London (offense) and New England Patriots defensive line coach DeMarcus Covington (defense).

The National coordinators are Saints quarterbacks coach/pass game coordinator Ronald Curry and Steelers defensive backs coach Grady Brown.

BROADCAST NEWS

Cowboys-Buccaneers was not the only NFL ratings winner on what, from the ratings standpoint anyway, was indeed a Super Wild Card Weekend.  Bill Shea of The Athleticreviews what was and looks ahead to the Super Divisional Playoffs.  Interesting, that for all the chatter about ESPN’s big Monday night rating – it was the late Sunday afternoon game on FOX that attracted the most eyeballs.

I’m among those guilty of initially thinking the Seahawks–49ers wild-card game should have been in prime time on Saturday rather than a late-afternoon kickoff.

That was after the L.A. Chargers took a 27-0 first-half lead over the Jacksonville Jaguars, but in my defense, it wasn’t a misguided sentiment in the moment: The 49ers’ 41-23 win over the Seattle Seahawks (which averaged 27.46 million viewers for Fox’s late afternoon kickoff) absolutely did look like the more compelling game.

After all, Jags quarterback Trevor Lawrence had tossed four first-half interceptions and things looked like a blowout in the making.

But that’s why they play two halves.

Lawrence finished the night with four touchdown passes and an unlikely comeback win to wrap up a Jekyll-and-Hyde evening that averaged 21.8 million viewers for NBC’s prime-time broadcast. It’s a truism in the TV industry that a live game that’s obviously a blowout is bad for retaining viewership, so Saturday’s early score disparity likely siphoned some audience.

But really, we’re talking about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. Both games dominated all TV viewership and advertiser demographics on Saturday, Fox and NBC surely sold plenty of lucrative advertising airtime, and the NFL is still the chonkiest of fat cats when it comes to sports media rights.

Sunday’s wild-card games — played on the day most people are used to NFL games — did even better. The New York Giants’ 31-24 upset of the Minnesota Vikings led all weekend programming with 33.21 million viewers for the 4:30 p.m. kickoff on Fox.

Buffalo eking out a 34-31 win over Miami in a 1 p.m. game on CBS averaged 30.871 million viewers, which the network said was the most-watched Sunday AFC wild-card game in nine years.

The wildest of the wild-card games may have been Cincinnati’s 24-17 win over Baltimore, which was played without Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson. Backup Tyler Huntley fumbled trying to score with 11 minutes left and Bengals defensive end Sam Hubbard took the ball a playoff-record 98 yards for what proved to be the winning score.

The game averaged 28.6 million viewers in prime time for NBC, the network said.

Monday night’s playoff game betwixt the Cowboys and Buccaneers — perhaps Tampa Bay quarterback Tom Brady’s final game — averaged 30.6 million viewers on the Disney-owned channels (ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN+). That includes 1.7 million for Peyton and Eli Manning’s alternative booth on ESPN2.

That’s a preliminary Nielsen number and expected to rise a bit as viewership is further number-crunched. Disney said the broadcast is among its most-watched NFL games since the company bought ABC and ESPN in 1996.

“This exceptional number proves once again that live sports are unequaled in amassing large audiences,” said ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro in a statement.

A year ago, the two Saturday wild-card games (Raiders at Bengals, 27.7 million on NBC early; Patriots at Bills, 26.5 million on CBS late) did better overall with raw eyeball totals.

The three Sunday games drew even bigger audiences: 41.5 million for 49ers-Cowboys on CBS in the late afternoon while Eagles-Buccaneers at 1 p.m. averaged 30.3 million on Fox. The prime-time game, Steelers at Chiefs on NBC, averaged 28.9 million viewers.

Last season’s Monday night wild-card game between the Cardinals and Rams (ABC, ESPN, ESPN2) averaged 23.15 million.

This brings us now to this weekend’s playoff slate:

Jaguars at Chiefs, 4:30 p.m., Saturday (NBC)

Giants at Eagles, 8:15 p.m., Saturday (Fox)

Bengals at Bills, 3 p.m., Sunday (CBS)

Cowboys at 49ers, 6:30 p.m., Sunday (Fox)

What can we expect viewership-wise?

A lot of people watching. Duh! But just how many is intriguing.

Beyond it being the historic NFL television powerhouse — almost all of American television’s most-watched programming is the league’s playoff games in January and February — these are also compelling matchups that should draw well if they remain close games.

On Saturday, the late afternoon game has Lawrence and the upstart Jags coming into Patrick Mahomes’ stadium. And in prime time, the NFC favorite Eagles will attempt a three-game sweep of the division-rival Giants.

On Sunday, the Bengals and Bills have emerged as AFC powerhouses with young star quarterbacks. They’re also rematching in a mid-afternoon kickoff just 20 days after the scary Damar Hamlin situation.

Sunday evening is potentially the big one, a game that theoretically could set a viewership record for a divisional-round playoff game when the Cowboys play at San Francisco. It’s a rivalry with a lot of history.

Per Sports Media Watch, the current TV record for an NFL divisional playoff game is 48.5 million for Packers-Cowboys in January 2017 — a number even larger than the official record because out-of-home viewership wasn’t formally measured then. OOH can add 10 percent-plus to an NFL game’s total audience.

Even for the mighty NFL, setting a TV audience record is a tough task amid all the cord-cutting and overall decline in TV usage — only 62 million U.S. households have traditional pay TV bundles versus more than 100 million a few years ago. Streaming hasn’t made up the difference. Still, it can be done: The Giants-Cowboys Thanksgiving game two months ago set the NFL’s regular-season television benchmark average with 42 million viewers, breaking a record from 1990.

This weekend’s four winners will meet in the conference championship games scheduled for Jan. 29 (NFC at 3 p.m. on Fox, AFC at 6:30 p.m. on CBS).

Last year’s AFC title game averaged 47.8 million viewers on CBS and the NFC game averaged 50.2 million on Fox.

The conference winners meet in Super Bowl LVII at 6:30 p.m. Feb. 12 at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Ariz., on Fox. Last year’s game averaged 112.3 million viewers, and the record is 114.4 million viewers for Seahawks-Patriots on Feb. 1, 2015.