This is the long-awaited year that we find out if Eli Manning walks into the Hall of Fame because of two Super Bowl wins where his team scored a total of 38 points.

Two-time Super Bowl MVP Eli Manning, former Defensive Players of the Year Luke Kuechly and Terrell Suggs, and postseason kicking hero Adam Vinatieri are among the first-time nominees for the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s Class of 2025.

The Hall announced 167 modern era candidates for the class Wednesday that included 16 players who became eligible this year, including two-time All-Pro guard Marshal Yanda.

A screening committee will reduce the list of nominees to 50 players next month. Then the full 50-person selection committee will cut the list down to 25 semifinalists and then 15 finalists for the annual meeting before the Super Bowl that will produce the new class. Players must get 80% of votes to get in. Under the Hall of Fame’s bylaws, between three to five players can get in as modern era candidates.

There will also be three senior candidates, grouped with one coach and contributor. At least one and no more than three of those finalists will get in based on voting.

The other first-time candidates are offensive linemen Travis Frederick, Ryan Kalil and Joe Staley; running backs Marshawn Lynch and Darren Sproles; receiver Demaryius Thomas; tight ends Vernon Davis and Delanie Walker; and defensive backs Antoine Bethea, Aqib Talib and Earl Thomas.

There are also 10 players back under consideration who were finalists a year ago. Tight end Antonio Gates, receivers Torry Holt and Reggie Wayne; offensive linemen Willie Anderson and Jahri Evans; defensive backs Darren Woodson, Eric Allen and Rodney Harrison; defensive lineman Jared Allen; and running back Fred Taylor are back on the list.

Manning will look to follow his brother Peyton into the Hall following a standout career with the New York Giants. Manning was picked first overall in the 2004 draft by the Chargers and traded to the Giants, spending his entire career in New York. He led the Giants to an upset win over the undefeated New England Patriots in the Super Bowl following the 2007 season, throwing a game-winning touchdown pass to Plaxico Burress in the final minute.

He led another late TD drive to upset Tom Brady and the Patriots four years later. Manning is one of 13 QBs to win multiple Super Bowls, with eight of the nine who are eligible for the Hall getting inducted.

Only Jim Plunkett has not been inducted; more recent players in the category such as Brady, Ben Roethlisberger and Patrick Mahomes aren’t eligible.

Manning was a four-time Pro Bowl selection but never made All-Pro or led the league in a major statistical category in a season but finished his career with 57,023 yards passing and 366 TDs.

We know, there is more to Eli’s candidacy than those two Super Bowl runs.  He had a remarkable enduring career, compiling significant stats with one team over 16 seasons (14 as the clear starter). 

But the 117-117 career record gives pause.

Now, 48-128 didn’t stop Cleveland’s Joe Thomas from walking in his first year after a 12-year career.  No one seemed to care that he ended his career with 11 straight non-winning seasons.

But everyone, including the DB to some extent, judges QBs differently.

– – –

Will Brinson of CBSSports.com divides the nine 2-0 clubs into three groups (pretty reasonably we think):

Potential imposters

9. Pittsburgh Steelers

Wins: @ Falcons, vs. Broncos

Look, Mike Tomlin is decidedly not an imposter when it comes to keeping the Steelers scrappy and competitive. The defense is legit. And Justin Fields has controlled the ball, for now. We still expect this team to hang around the wild-card picture, as it always does. But the rival Baltimore Ravens and Cincinnati Bengals, a combined 0-4, still register as more dangerous in the long run.

8. Seattle Seahawks

Wins: vs. Broncos, @ Patriots

Mike Macdonald’s certainly got the defense back on track in Seattle. And Geno Smith remains something of an underrated crunch-time playmaker under center. Injuries have already taken a toll, however, including to bell-cow back Kenneth Walker III, and the offensive line remains a concern. You can only withstand iffy trenches for so long, and they’ve also yet to square off with a legit offense.

7. Los Angeles Chargers

Wins: vs. Raiders, @ Panthers

New coach Jim Harbaugh is living up to early expectations regarding the installation of a run-first attack. If Justin Herbert continues to enjoy such ground support, then it’s not crazy to envision a playoff push. J.K. Dobbins has to buck a personal trend of availability concerns down the stretch, though, and at some point Herbert will be required to beat far superior clubs with his new receiving corps.

Pleasant surprises

6. Minnesota Vikings

Wins: @ Giants, vs. 49ers

Everyone identified this as a solid spot for Sam Darnold, but no one expected him to look this sharp, this confident, this resilient as the point guard for a 2-0 start, even with Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison and T.J. Hockenson banged up or absent altogether. The depth is real here, as is Brian Flores’ defense, which outmatched even the San Francisco 49ers in sheer tenacity for Week 2’s home upset.

5. Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Wins: vs. Commanders, @ Lions

The 2023 season announced Baker Mayfield as a gritty comeback story. The 2024 campaign is threatening to announce him as an MVP candidate. Todd Bowles’ defense remains a focal point of this scrappy NFC South squad, but Mayfield has looked like his college self under new coordinator Liam Coen, playing with authority as both a passer and scrambler. Another postseason bid is within sight.

4. New Orleans Saints

Wins: vs. Panthers, @ Cowboys

Speaking of NFC South surprises, there’s been none bigger than this. Derek Carr and Dennis Allen came into the season looking like sitting ducks, but the former has looked five years younger slinging the ball and feeding Alvin Kamara under the direction of first-time coordinator Klint Kubiak. The offense is legitimately humming like it did during their 2009 Super Bowl run. And Allen can still coach a “D,” too.

Confirmed contenders

3. Buffalo Bills

Wins: vs. Cardinals, @ Dolphins

Letting Kyler Murray and the young Arizona Cardinals threaten a Week 1 upset was a bit concerning, but Josh Allen has played MVP-caliber ball, James Cook is breaking out behind him, and Sean McDermott’s defense absolutely embarrassed the rival Miami Dolphins on a short week. In the end, even with the overturned receiving corps, it’s hard to discount Buffalo to any degree when Allen is at the controls.

2. Houston Texans

Wins: @ Colts, vs. Bears

Like the Bills, they nearly let one slip to a division rival out of the gate, but their MVP-level signal-caller has lived up to the hype; C.J. Stroud has been just as sharp and decisive as he was when we last saw him as a star rookie. Throw in more Nico Collins dominance on the outside, the added threat of Stefon Diggs as a possession target, and DeMeco Ryans’ improved pressure-generating front, and they’re a really tough out.

1. Kansas City Chiefs

Wins: vs. Ravens, vs. Bengals

Boring? Sorry, but until this team proves otherwise, they are the contender to beat. Two other AFC heavyweights gave them good fights to start the year, and yet the reigning champions prevailed, all while managing injuries to key names like Isiah Pacheco and Marquise Brown. Patrick Mahomes hasn’t been perfect, but as per usual, he’s delivered when it counts. They’re simply built to win.

NFC NORTH

CHICAGO

WR D.J. MOORE was the focus of NBC’s attention Sunday night.  He realizes it was a bad look, even though he really wasn’t all that disruptive.  Courtney Cronin of ESPN.com:

DJ Moore was unaware how his body language was being perceived during the Chicago Bears’ 19-13 loss in Houston until he saw video clips of himself circulating on social media.

Upon seeing how he was captured by cameras during “Sunday Night Football,” the veteran wide receiver did some “self-evaluation” and noted that his frustrations were not directed at the Bears’ passing game nor anyone in specific.

“I shouldn’t have shown as much,” Moore said. “But it’s a part of the game. Like I said, we were one play away from the game changing. And we just couldn’t connect, nobody on offense could connect with the one play or get the one play started to get us on track and go up. It’s football. Everybody is going to have their ups and downs and frustrations.”

Down nine points with 3:01 to play in Houston, Bears rookie quarterback Caleb Williams threw a back-shoulder pass to Moore on third-and-4 from the Texans’ 36-yard line. After the throw fell incomplete, Moore lay on his back momentarily before taking his helmet off and walking to the Bears’ sideline.

Cameras also showed Moore appearing to look sullen while sitting on the bench, which the wide receiver intimated was a mischaracterization of his body language.

“… every chance the camera got they caught that angle,” Moore said. “I usually sit on the bench like that anyway, so I don’t know what that’s about.”

Moore was targeted a team-high 10 times and caught six passes for 53 yards. While recounting his throw that ended the Bears’ penultimate drive of the game, Williams took responsibility for being off target.

“Tried to give [Moore] the ball, and if I threw it a little less wide and gave him a little bit more time, he would have made the play,” Williams said. “And so, we’ll be hitting on those here soon, and we’re going to be making those plays.”

Moore led the Bears in receiving (1,364 yards) during his first season in Chicago in 2023 and received a four-year, $110 million contract extension in August. While his frustrations over the Bears’ offensive struggles (2.97 yards per play, which is the franchise’s lowest total through two weeks in the Super Bowl era) are shared by others, Moore does not want his frustrations to put pressure on Williams.

“You want to keep things steady because then you don’t want him to get frustrated and just go out there and try to make a play, which he didn’t really try to go out there and make a play [out of frustration], he was just being himself,” Moore said. “That’s all you can ask of him.”

DETROIT

Coach Dan Campbell has moved.  Josh Alper of ProFootballTalk.com:

Lions head coach Dan Campbell and his family moved to a new house this week after his address leaked online.

FOX 2 in Detroit reports that the Campbell family filed reports with Bloomfield Township Police Department after being harassed at home in the wake of the team’s loss to the 49ers in the NFC Championship Game. Campbell confirmed that the team put the house on the market because of the privacy and security concerns that came as a result of the address being leaked.

“The home is beautiful,” Campbell told Crain’s Detroit Business. “It’s just that people figured out where we lived when we lost.”

Campbell’s home reportedly sold quickly and the family is in a new, more secure home for the 2024 season.

MINNESOTA

Count Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell among QB C.J. STROUD’s legion of fans.  Myles Simmons of ProFootballTalk.com:

In one of the more intriguing matchups of Week 3, the 2-0 Vikings are hosting the 2-0 Texans on Sunday afternoon.

It’s the first time Minnesota’s Kevin O’Connell has had to scheme against C.J. Stroud, and the head coach was effusive in his praise of the young quarterback on Wednesday.

O’Connell called Stroud a “special, special football player,” noting it’s different to watch him when not studying one of Stroud’s opponents but the quarterback himself.

“Unbelievable talent, C.J.’s off to such a great start in his career and has already become such a focal point of how you want to prepare defensively with what they bring to the table and really impact players at all three levels,” O’Connell said in his press conference.

“I think first and foremost, the thing that stands out the most is his arm talent,” O’Connell later added. “I mean, this guy is making throws in and out of the pocket that the list, if you make a list of the guys capable of making some of the throws, it’s not going to be a very long list that C.J. makes. Then I think he’s got — it never ever seems too big for him. From the first time he went out there to now, he seems incredibly prepared, so he’s obviously got a great process throughout the week. The experience of playing and leading that team is only making him more comfortable in his role.

“I can’t say enough about what shows up to me on tape. I mean, I’ve been like everybody else, if it’s on TV, we’re not playing, I’ve seen him make a lot of big-time throws and plays in games. Then when you dive into the tape, and you see the snap-in and snap-out impact he has, it’s pretty remarkable for such a young player.”

Even last year, when Stroud was in the draft, O’Connell had a very positive evaluation of the quarterback.

“I remember hosting him for a formal at the combine and then really diving into the tape and having a relationship with [Ohio State head coach] Ryan Day from previously working with him,” O’Connell said. “You just get a good feel for what he’s all about. And I remember feeling like this guy’s got a chance to have probably the most immediate success of all the guys. Just based upon he’s big, he’s strong, athletic, played in big games, arm talent, accurate, and then you just kind of watched it click for him.

“I was not surprised at all, but what I will say is looking back on that and just the immediate impact he’s had is very, very difficult to do in this league.”

After winning AP offensive rookie of the year in 2023, Stroud has started this season by completing 69 percent of his throws for 494 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions.

NFC EAST

WASHINGTON

This note, acquired through a complicated statistical sort, may not be “one for the history books’ – but it does bode well for QB JAYDEN DANIELS.  Caleb Skinner of SI.com:

The Washington Commanders selected former Heisman-winning LSU Tigers’ quarterback Jayden Daniels with the second-overall pick in this past April’s NFL draft with the hopes that he would one day become the team’s franchise quarterback of the future. We still have plenty of time to see if that manifests itself, but by naming Daniels the starter for Week 1 and based on his performance through two games it appears that he and the Commanders are on track for that dream to come true.

After being selected by the Commanders, Daniels set out goals for himself including trying to match some of the best rookie quarterback performances in the history of the NFL, and already through two games he is making his mark on history as he has become the only quarterback, not just rookie, in NFL history to complete over 75% of his passes, run for over 100 yards and throw zero interceptions over a two-game span (minimum 50 attempts).

It is great to see Daniels already etching his name in NFL history books, and he has done so pretty impressively over the two games of his career completing 75.5% of his passes for 410 yards and adding another 132 yards rushing. The zero interceptions are also promising, but where the Commanders would like to see improvement from their young, rookie signal-caller would be throwing touchdown passes and cutting down on turnovers as a whole, not just interceptions.

Daniels has yet to find the endzone as a passer and has let the ball slip out of his hands three times in his short career thus far, something that will need to be fixed as the season continues to progress.

NFC SOUTH

NEW ORLEANS

QB DEREK CARR isn’t taking his recent success as a guarantee of future performance.  ProFootballTalk.com:

The Saints offense is off to a blistering start to the 2024 season.

Their 91 points is the most over the first two games of a season since the 2009 Saints posted 93 points and they are the third team to score at least 30 points in the first half of both of their first two games. Quarterback Derek Carr has been at the helm of the unit and said on Wednesday that all the “extra hard work” of the offseason has led to the high output.

Carr also said that the Saints can’t afford to throttle back because they have to keep proving themselves every time they take the field.

“It’s hard to score that many times in this league,” Carr said, via the team’s website. “Obviously, you want to continue to do that. You want to keep putting pressure on defenses and things like that. You see the stats, you see the numbers out there for the whole offense and where it’s been in history and all that kind of stuff, and it’s cool. But at the same time, it doesn’t mean anything this week.”

The Saints get their first chance on their home field against the Eagles this Sunday and continued success should make for a return to the loud and intimidating atmosphere that the Superdome has lacked as the Saints have scuffled the last few seasons.

AFC WEST

LOS ANGELES CHARGERS

Former NFL RB Maurice Jones-Drew says that the Chargers got the biggest steal of the offseason running backs market:

Lots of big names there, but the early steal from the offseason RB market likely isn’t the player you’d expect. That honor goes to J.K. Dobbins, who leads the NFL with 266 rushing yards (on a league-best average of 9.9 yards per tote) heading into Week 3. This is the kind of production we’ve all known the 25-year-old is capable of when healthy, but therein lies the problem: Dobbins, who was Baltimore’s second-round pick in 2020, played in just 24 of a possible 67 regular-season games over his first four pro seasons.

This offseason, Dobbins signed a team-friendly, one-year deal with the Los Angeles Chargers, moving west with Ravens teammate Gus Edwards and reuniting with former Baltimore offensive coordinator Greg Roman. As new Bolts coach Jim Harbaugh stressed all offseason, Los Angeles would be hell-bent on running the football — and thus far, that’s something this team has done quite well.

The healthy Dobbins has been dynamite in the Chargers’ downhill run game. Posting back-to-back performances with 130-plus rush yards and at least one rush TD, Dobbins became the fifth player in the NFL since 1960 to do so in his team’s first two games in a season — joining Garrison Hearst (1998), Billy Sims (1980), O.J. Simpson (1975) and Jim Brown (1963). Dobbins looks as explosive as ever — even trying out some gymnastics — with three runs of at least 20 yards. As as a focal point of L.A.’s offense, he has helped the Chargers wear down defenses and control the clock, which is exactly the type of ball Harbaugh wants to play.

The biggest benefactor of Dobbins’ success on the ground is Justin Herbert — despite what the stats or his fantasy football managers say — as he’s taken a tremendous amount of pressure off the big-armed quarterback to make plays and force big gains on every snap. The efficient ground game has even allowed Herbert to essentially take some plays off by simply handing the ball off to Dobbins and Edwards. Sure, this approach might not produce as many aerial fireworks as we’ve seen in recent Chargers seasons, but the team is winning because of it.

Los Angeles is now 2-0 to start the season for the first time since 2012. Up next is another undefeated team in the Pittsburgh Steelers, whose defense ranks second in points, fifth in yards allowed and fourth against the run. This won’t be an easy matchup for Dobbins and the Chargers, especially with the game in Pittsburgh, but if they continue to follow their winning formula to pound the rock and look to Herbert for key gains when needed, they could find themselves leaving the eastern time zone with consecutive wins.

AFC NORTH

CINCINNATI

The Bengals look to be getting WR TEE HIGGINS back.  Nick Shook of NFL.com:

Tee Higgins appears to be nearing a return to the field.

The Bengals receiver, who missed Cincinnati’s first two games of 2024 due to a hamstring injury, is back practicing on Thursday, head coach Zac Taylor told reporters prior to the session.

“See where it goes from there,” Taylor said. ” We need him.”

Higgins suffered the hamstring injury in practice in early September, removing one of Joe Burrow’s top targets from the team’s offense for their first two games. Cincinnati struggled mightily in their season-opening loss to New England, finishing with just 154 passing yards while possessing the ball for fewer than 26 minutes.

A week later, the Bengals produced better results, as Burrow completed 23 of 36 passes for 258 yards and two touchdowns, but he needed to rely on a host of lesser-known pass-catchers — tight end Mike Gesicki led the team in receiving with seven receptions for 91 yards, while receiver Andrei Iosivas caught both touchdown passes — in order to move the ball through the air. Even with their improvement, the Bengals fell to 0-2 in a 26-25 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs.

With the Washington Commanders up next as a potential get-right game on Monday, now is the ideal time to work Higgins back into the offense, provided he’s healthy enough to go.

“He’s a top player in this league,” Taylor said of Higgins. “That makes every personnel grouping better when he’s in it. Him and Ja’Marr (Chase), obviously two guys that draw a lot of attention singularly, so when we’ve got them on the field together, it’s certainly good assets to have.”

Higgins has plenty to play for beyond wins and losses. The receiver was the only player to be franchise tagged in the 2024 offseason and fail to come to a long-term agreement, playing out the single-season tag with a chance to earn a pay day with his performance.

Cincinnati and Higgins will need to be cautious when it comes to Higgins’ health. Hamstring injuries often require careful monitoring, and can be prone to aggravation if rushed back too soon.

As Taylor said Thursday, the Bengals’ first goal with Higgins is simple: “Just make sure he’s healthy.”

If so, Cincinnati has reason to be excited about the looming return of a key playmaker.

CLEVELAND

Legal news from the Browns that does not involve QB DESHAUN WATSON.  Josh Alper of ProFootballTalk.com:

Browns rookie defensive tackle Mike Hall Jr. remains on the Commissioner’s Exempt list after pleading no contest to disorderly conduct on Thursday.

Hall was arrested for domestic violence in August and was placed on the list ahead of the cut to 53 players that month. Hall, who is paid while on the list, pleaded to lesser charges on Thursday and received probation, a fine and a suspended jail sentence.

In a statement provided to multiple reporters, the NFL said that there’s been no change in the wake of the plea.

“We have been closely monitoring all developments in the matter which remains under review of the Personal Conduct Policy. There’s no change in his status,” the statement said.

Hall was a second-round pick out of Ohio State this year.

THIS AND THAT

SHOULD WE HINDER KICKERS?

With 50+-yard FGs now being hit at about 90%, is it time for a restriction by legislation?  Jeff Eisenberg of YahooSports.com explores the options with a guest appearance from former NFL PK Michael “Como Esta?” Husted:

On Sept. 28, 2008, then Oakland Raiders head coach Lane Kiffin infamously sent out Sebastian Janikowski to try a 76-yard field goal. It fell short by almost 20 yards and the NFL world laughed, contributing to Al Davis’ decision to fire Kiffin just two days later.

Sixteen years later, Dallas Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy initially wanted Brandon Aubrey to attempt a 71-yarder just before halftime of the team’s season opener two Sundays ago. When McCarthy ultimately decided it was too risky, the NFL world didn’t laugh. Rather, it screamed for him to reconsider.

Those contrasting reactions reflect how ridiculously good NFL kickers have gotten over the past decade or two. They’re now hitting long-distance field goals with the ease of Steph Curry sinking an impossibly deep 3-pointer or Scottie Scheffler bombing a 300-yard drive down a fairway.

Thirty-nine times during the first two weeks of the 2024-25 season, NFL kickers have lined up to try a field goal from 50-plus yards. They’ve converted all but four of those kicks, with the most accurate kicker in NFL history, Justin Tucker, improbably responsible for two of the misses.

Never before have NFL kickers hit 35 field goals from 50 yards or beyond in a two-week period. As recently as 2006, they made only 40 field goals from that distance in an entire season.

Never before have NFL kickers made 89.7% of their 50-plus-yard field goals during the opening two weeks of the season. As recently as 2007, the league’s kickers missed more field goal tries than they made from 50 yards and beyond.

Yes, kicking stats tend to wane over the course of a season as the weather turns blustery and field conditions worsen, but there’s reason to expect this trend to have staying power. Many NFL coaches appear to trust modern kickers from distances they once would have deemed too big a gamble. And with the NFL’s new touchback rule giving the receiving team the ball at its own 30-yard line, teams need only a single explosive play or a couple first downs to cross midfield and give their big-legged kicker a chance.

If this field-goal explosion doesn’t slow down, it will raise questions that would have been unfathomable not that long ago: Are NFL kickers getting too good? Might the league need to explore doing something to make field goals less automatic?

When he first tried out to play football in ninth grade, Michael Husted recalls the coach asking all the players if any of them could kick.

At first, Husted kept quiet because he envisioned playing quarterback or receiver. Only after no one else put their hand up did Husted raise his.

“I play soccer,” Husted said.

“Alright, you’re our kicker!” his coach responded.

The first time Husted kicked in front of his team, the only real instruction he received was to take three steps back, two steps over and kick the ball. It sounded easy enough to Husted until he went to plant, lost his footing on the wet grass and fell on his butt.

After a couple better attempts kicking the ball both straight-on and soccer style, Husted asked his coach which way he preferred. The coach told Husted, “Son, I don’t care if you kick it with your ass. Just get the ball through the uprights.”

That inglorious introduction to place kicking more than three decades ago was how Husted’s path to the NFL began. He blossomed into an all-state kicker at Hampton High, walked on at Virginia and carved out a nine-year NFL career.

Husted, now a kicking coach, chuckles when describing how different the kicking landscape is today compared to when he grew up. The stereotype of the scrawny, unathletic kicker has gradually eroded. The level of athlete drawn to the position has improved so much that modern NFL kickers might flaunt a 42-inch vertical on social media, bench press 225 pounds 25 times in a row or run a 4.79-second 40-yard dash.

Today’s top young kickers often specialize in the position as early as middle school and benefit from increased access to private lessons and instructional camps. Those who can afford it often hire a former NFL or college kicker to help them hone their technique. Others might splurge on a trainer who can design workouts specific to the kicking position or a sports psychologist who can recommend ways to visualize success.

“When I was coming out of high school, there was maybe one kicking camp in the whole country,” Husted said. “Now there’s a pop-up shop on every corner.”

As the caliber of kickers entering the NFL has improved, so has the conditions they encounter when they arrive. Advances in grass maintenance and field turf have provided kickers a pristine surface. The K-balls used for kicking are less slick and better broken-in. And then there are the other specialists who snap and hold the ball.

Ex-Pro Bowl kicker Mike Hollis told Yahoo Sports he seldom had a full-time long snapper when he played for the Jacksonville Jaguars from 1995-2001. Rather than expend a roster spot on a specialist, the Jaguars preferred to train a tight end or offensive lineman to handle long-snapping duties.

Since those players were busy with their primary responsibilities during most of practice, Hollis rarely had more than a few minutes a day to work with his whole field-goal operation. One year, the Jags even practiced punting and field-goal drills simultaneously, meaning that Hollis worked with only his primary long snapper and holder on game days.

In the modern NFL, teams value the kicking game too much to repeat those mistakes. The field-goal unit develops timing and continuity through daily practice reps because the long snappers are now specialists and punters typically serve as holders.

“Snappers now are so good that they count the rotations of the ball so that it reaches the holder with the laces perfectly forward,” Hollis said. “All the holder has to do now is put the ball down and put his hand on top of the ball.

“It was not like that back in the day when I played. I had a plethora of snappers that weren’t just snappers. Their priority was other positions. Snapping was kind of a secondary thing, so they weren’t as good, clearly, as the guys who specialize these days.”

All those factors have contributed to the kicking position evolving as quickly as any across sports. Mike Vanderjagt retired in 2006 as the most accurate kicker in NFL history. Less than two decades later, the former Indianapolis Colts standout has already slipped to No. 9 and will soon fall out of the top 10 once Aubrey or Cameron Dicker get to 100 field-goal attempts.

A decade ago, kickers became so automatic booting extra points that the NFL competition committee began exploring the need for change. The ideas that the committee considered offer a hint at what options the NFL might consider if field goals percentages start to soar.

Excuse the kickers invited to the 2015 Pro Bowl if they considered turning down the honor.

The NFL used that year’s all-star game to experiment with two new ways of challenging kickers, increasing the distance of extra points to 33 yards and narrowing the width of the goal posts from 18 feet, 6 inches to 14 feet.

The changes contributed to the legendary Adam Vinatieri botching a pair of extra points and a potential game-tying 38-yard field goal. Vinatieri criticized the tweaks before and after the game, likening them to if the NFL prohibited receivers from wearing gloves because they were catching the ball too well.

“I understand that the wheels of change are in motion and people want to change stuff,” Vinatieri told reporters, “but I feel bad for the young bucks that will have to deal with that their whole career.”

Seeking to add intrigue to one of football’s most predictable plays, the NFL adopted the longer extra points the following season. Kickers went from converting 99.3% of extra points in 2014 to 94.2% in 2015, though the rate of success has since rebounded somewhat as NFL veterans have adjusted.

Unconvinced that there was a need to make field goals less automatic nine years ago, the NFL opted against narrowing the uprights. The competition committee hasn’t dabbled with the idea again even as kickers have gradually become more dependable from distances and coaches have shown more willingness to try long field goals once deemed too risky.

Assuming those trends continue, Husted said he considers the NFL narrowing the uprights to 13 or 14 feet an “inevitable next evolution.” If that happens, Husted would like to see the NFL make 50-plus-yard field goals worth four or five points.

“They do it in fantasy,” he added. “Why not do it for real?”

Hollis also predicted that the NFL will someday explore potential changes if kickers continue to get more accurate. Narrowing the uprights or raising the crossbar are the obvious answers, Hollis said, but he expressed hope that the NFL would consider something creative like adding a second set of skinny goal posts and awarding bonus points when a kick goes through both.

More adamantly opposed to narrowing the uprights is 15-year NFL veteran Nick Novak, now a private kicking coach and showcase host in the San Diego area. He told Yahoo Sports that he doesn’t see a need to make field-goal kicking harder than it already is.

“But if you narrowed it, I think guys would adapt,” Novak said. “I truly believe that. I think there would be a transition period like there was with the longer extra points and then guys would ultimately adapt and overcome and be just as good as they are now.”

The evidence of how good NFL kickers are has come in bunches the past two weeks. Houston’s Ka’imi Fairbairn has connected on six field goals from 50 or more yards. Washington’s Austin Seibert hit seven field goals in a single game.

Maybe the strongest example is an exchange between McCarthy and special teams coordinator John Fassel just before Aubrey’s near attempt at the 71-yarder two Sundays ago.

When the Cowboys took over the ball at their own 40-yard line with nine seconds left until halftime, McCarthy wasn’t content to drain the clock and protect a three-score lead. He asked Fassel how far the Cowboys needed to advance the ball to get Aubrey into field-goal range.

“Just across the 50,” Fassel responded, and no one laughed.

Sorry, it doesn’t make any sense to reward extra points to an offense that doesn’t get as close to the end zone.

WHEN QBs GO WRONG

Mike Sando of The Athletic on the huge cost when big QB contracts go wrong with case studies of the situations in Carolina, Miami, Cleveland and Denver.

It’s been a stressful start to the NFL season for teams that made big, speculative bets on quarterbacks.

Bryce Young is benched. Tua Tagovailoa is on injured reserve after another concussion. Deshaun Watson is facing another sexual-assault lawsuit.

On the surface, those three cases might not seem related. But in all three situations, teams led by billionaire owners made unusually speculative bets, piling risk upon risk, only to face negative results quickly, though not shockingly. The decisions precipitating these predicaments involved assuming compound risks — each one potentially tenable in isolation, but harder to overcome in combination.

Young was the first pocket quarterback of his size/stature to be drafted first overall since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger. Tagovailoa was the first concussion-protocol-era quarterback signed to a top-five contract while carrying a personal concussion history so serious, he considered retirement. Watson was the first quarterback to receive a fully guaranteed contract spanning more than three years.

Might this moment become a flashpoint inviting reflection? Or, does the league now live in an age when some owners are so wealthy, nothing seems to faze them?

‘I’m as scared as everybody else was’

The Panthers’ choice of Young, the 5-foot-10 Alabama product they selected atop the 2023 draft, was risky on three fronts:

• There was the standard risk associated with selecting college players (which was unavoidable).

• Carolina raised the stakes by trading a proven player (receiver D.J. Moore), plus first- and second-round picks, to Chicago for the right to move from the ninth spot in the 2023 draft to the first overall pick. This was an understandable risk if the team had selected a high-odds prospect with the pick.

• The Panthers compounded the existing risks by selecting an outlier prospect in the diminutive Young, who was seeking to become the first modern-era quarterback of his size/stature to succeed in the absence of elite speed/athleticism.

No single risk seemed too great to take. It’s the combining of risk factors that must be taken into account when evaluating these decisions.

“There is something special about his ability to see it and get (the ball) out,” an evaluator from another team had said of Young at the 2023 NFL scouting combine, “but I’m as scared as everybody else was. When I went and saw him, this guy is literally my size.”

It’s common to hear analysts write off the draft as a “crapshoot” where no one knows whether any prospect will pan out. But when a franchise goes all-in on a prospect known to carry lower odds for success and/or less upside, writing off the results as random becomes disingenuous.

“It’s not like Bryce Young even was an outlier,” another evaluator said. “No one has come in at that size and ever done it.”

Young, benched this week after 18 career starts, including two this season, has attempted to mitigate his stature by hopping in the air when making what would be routine passes for the typical NFL quarterback. He ranks last in EPA (expected points added) per pass play among 43 quarterbacks with at least 10 starts over the past three seasons, per TruMedia.

League executives did not universally criticize the Panthers’ decision to draft Young at the time. Most seemed to understand it. Plenty were intrigued by Young’s prospects.

It’s possible the Panthers doomed Young by failing to support him with the right coaching and personnel. A weak roster surely has contributed to Young’s struggles. That was a risk the organization took in trading away so much for a quarterback who, by most accounts, lacked the physical traits to overcome such challenges.

‘Where was Tua going?’

The risks Miami took in signing Tagovailoa to a four-year, $212 million extension in late July include some that, taken individually, might not be deal-breakers. Again, it’s the combining of multiple risk factors that must be taken into account. Those risks included:

• Paying top-of-market money to a quarterback perceived by the league at large to be a mid-tier player, as reflected by Tagovailoa’s No. 15 ranking and Tier 3 status in 2024 Quarterback Tiers, which drew upon votes from 50 coaches and executives. The Dolphins are not alone in doing this, and could have valued Tagovailoa more than others would have.

• Entering into the contract when Tagovailoa had only one full season of higher-end production, and while the quarterback still had one year remaining on his existing deal. The Dolphins could have used the franchise tag to buy one or two additional years beyond the current season. Making decisions before decisions must be made heightens risk when more information would help.

• Entering into the contract with a physically smaller player carrying a significant injury history, including surgeries on Tagovailoa’s hip, throwing hand and ankle, plus fractured ribs.

• Beyond the standard injury history, and most crucially, Tagovailoa had already considered retirement after suffering two concussions, plus another head injury inviting so much scrutiny, the league changed its head trauma protocols. This was the ultimate compounding risk factor.

“Not only did you pay him a very high amount, but you gave him a structure so that if he has a concussion, you are in trouble,” a veteran agent said. “Why did you have to do both? Where was Tua going?”

There were risks for Miami in not extending Tagovailoa’s contract. The quarterback withheld services during training camp and could have held out into the season, jeopardizing what the Dolphins might have seen as a championship window. Teammates sympathetic to the risks Tagovailoa had already taken in returning from concussions could have rallied around the quarterback, who is, by all accounts, a beloved teammate.

Forcing Tagovailoa to play out his deal while other less-productive quarterbacks (Trevor Lawrence, Jordan Love) cashed in could have made the Dolphins appear less sincere in their public praise for Tagovailoa, which has been extensive.

The Dolphins mitigated some of their cash and cap commitments with an insurance policy that could recoup some of their investment if doctors preclude Tagovailoa from playing. The team could try to recoup other guarantees if Tagovailoa chooses to retire, but doing so could be uncomfortable (the Indianapolis Colts allowed Andrew Luck to keep $25 million in bonus money the team could have pursued when Luck retired unexpectedly in 2019, citing his physical and mental wellbeing).

The Dolphins are well-positioned to mitigate whatever short-term salary-cap issues might arise, because their owner, Stephen Ross, whose net worth was estimated by Forbes to be $10.1 billion, has shown a willingness to spend cash, which lets teams push cap consequences into future years.

“Teams used to say to agents, ‘Just because I own a franchise worth, at the time, $2 billion, doesn’t mean I should pay more than I’m supposed to pay the players — we have a salary cap,’” a team contract negotiator said. “Now, the franchises are even higher in value and because the cap is manageable under almost any circumstances, it comes down to how much the owner is willing to pay for a certain player, period.”

Perhaps Tagovailoa returns to health and enjoys a long, productive career. But there’s no getting around the fact that, six weeks after the contract was signed, current and former players have pleaded with Tagovailoa to retire, citing the quarterback’s long-term health. This scenario was not difficult to envision six weeks ago.

‘We finally found a number where the salary cap matters’

It’s difficult to imagine a Fortune 500 company buying out a CEO from another company and then signing him to record compensation while dozens of women were accusing him of sexual harassment, sexual assault or both.

NFL teams operate more unilaterally. What the billionaire owner says often goes.

Watson was facing 22 lawsuits accusing him of sexual harassment and/or sexual assault when the Browns acquired him from the Houston Texans in 2022. Watson had sat out the previous season. He was facing a suspension. The Browns made him the face of their franchise and gave him unprecedented financial security.

Another woman filed suit against Watson this month, accusing him of sexual assault and battery in 2020. Watson has denied the allegations. He also denied allegations made against him in past lawsuits (he entered into financial settlements to avoid court cases in the previous instances).

On the field, Watson ranks 41st in EPA per pass play among 43 quarterbacks with at least 10 starts since 2022.

If the Browns sought to exit the deal, they would incur salary-cap charges so punitive — nearly $173 million, at present — that they would have a hard time functioning in the short term.

“I’ve always said the cap doesn’t matter,” the team contract negotiator said, “but at $170 million, the cap does matter. We finally found a number where it matters.”

The Browns have not flinched. They awarded Watson a game ball for his performance against the Jacksonville Jaguars in Week 2. Before the latest lawsuit was filed, they converted some of Watson’s salary into signing bonus to create shorter-term flexibility under the cap, making it even tougher to extricate themselves from the contract.

“All their actions say they are comfortable with this,” another team exec said. “Now, look, the guy has only played 14 games for them. Maybe he gets better.”

Cleveland could recoup some of its investment in Watson if the allegations against the quarterback are determined to be valid. But the best-case scenario for them would be for Watson to be exonerated, and for their quarterback to begin producing the way he did in 2020, when he was a rising star for the Texans.

Plenty of teams have traded away huge quantities of draft capital for quarterbacks. Plenty have signed players facing allegations of serious wrongdoing. Plenty have signed players to what were, at the time, the largest contracts in league history.

The Browns rolled all those risks into a single transaction when acquiring Watson from the Texans. Not only that, they guaranteed the $230 million contract, unprecedented in the NFL.

“If you want to overpay someone for one year, you can,” the agent said. “Who cares? It’s one year. Two years, you can live with. But when you go five, that’s absurd.”

It’s shaping up as the ultimate franchise-altering unforced error.

‘A central theme’

Two years ago, the Denver Broncos, flush with cash after their purchase by Walmart heirs, handed a $245 million contract to their new quarterback, Russell Wilson, after parting with a haul of draft picks to acquire him.

Wilson had two years remaining on his existing deal, and had shown signs of decline. There was no strategic advantage for the Broncos to enter into the extension at that time. The contract continues to limit the team’s ability to operate within the salary cap, even after Wilson’s release.

“A central theme here is ownership that makes reactionary decisions,” a longtime NFL team exec said. “’We need to have a quarterback. Go get Bryce Young. Pay Tua — the price is only going to go up. Trade for Deshaun Watson because I have to have the best player, and don’t care about the accusations.’”

Extreme wealth could explain these teams’ willingness to take risks that once might have seemed unimaginable. Forbes has estimated ownership for the Broncos, Panthers, Dolphins and Browns to rank among the top 11 in the 32-team league, with net worths ranging between $77 billion (Broncos) to $8.5 billion (Browns).

Putting a couple hundred million at partial risk doesn’t seem so risky in that context.

“There is a small subset of teams that do not care, but there are a lot of teams watching this unfold thinking, ‘Are we about to fall into a windfall of free players?’” an exec said of these deals and other expensive ones for mid-tier or unproven quarterbacks. “There is so much money being spent and potentially not enough cap dollars to go around, so that eventually it could run out.”

Rising revenues have so far prevented that from happening.

The owners ranked near the bottom of the net-worth rankings according to Forbes — such as Cincinnati Bengals’, Pittsburgh Steelers’ and Chicago Bears’, for instance — were not the ones driving the $200 million gambles analyzed here. But with franchise valuations pushing $7 billion on average, the price of entry for new owners means there will be even more with the wherewithal to make huge bets carrying lower odds.

“I think we are only going to see more of them,” another exec said.