| NFC NORTH |
| CHICAGOBill Barnwell breaks down Chicago’s OT loss to the Vikings, the progress of QB CALEB WILLIAMS and the conundrum of what to do with Matt Eberflus: To a subset of Bears fans, the past two weeks have been something close to an ideal outcome. After the disastrous 19-3 loss to the Patriots led to widespread condemnation of the Chicago offense, the calls to fire Matt Eberflus and his coaching staff grew. Instead, the team moved on from offensive coordinator Shane Waldron. Since then, the Thomas Brown-led offense has gotten quarterback Caleb Williams back on track, while the Bears have continued to lose games in heartbreaking fashion. If your goal for 2025 is to see a thriving Williams with a new offensive-minded head coach in place of Eberflus, you’re likely enjoying Bears football right now. While Eberflus deservedly came in for criticism after getting conservative in field goal range last week, I’m not sure there was much to be done in terms of game management Sunday. He correctly went for two in the fourth quarter down 24-16, although it didn’t work out when Williams couldn’t hit Keenan Allen. The Bears got the 2-pointer on their subsequent score to make it a three-point game with 29 seconds to go, and then chaos happened. After Chicago recovered an onside kick that bounced off Vikings tight end Johnny Mundt, Williams delivered what might have been his best NFL throw. Needing a chunk play with no timeouts, Williams stepped up in the pocket and delivered a perfect pass on time to DJ Moore, setting up the tying field goal: From there, things fell apart. The Bears won the coin toss, but Williams took a coverage sack against a three-man rush on second down. Eberflus’ defense, the strength of the team all season, then allowed the Vikings to convert third-and-10, a first-and-15 and first-and-20 for new sets of downs, eventually setting up a chip-shot field goal for John Parker Romo to win the game for the Vikings. Through the past two weeks, Williams looks significantly better than he did at his worst under Waldron. With the Bears unable to make significant changes to their offensive line or their personnel, there has been a clear mandate to the quarterback: Get the ball out or get running. Through Week 10, Williams’ average pass came after 2.90 seconds, which was the 25th-quickest time for any signal-caller. He was holding the ball too long too often. When he held the ball for more than four seconds over that span, his 19.6 QBR ranked 29th in the league. It felt as if he was emulating the hero ball he had to play for stretches at USC, just against far tougher competition at the professional level. Over the past two games, there has been a clear emphasis on getting the ball out quicker, through playcalling, play design and Williams’ decision-making. He has averaged just 2.42 seconds before releasing passes, a rate topped only by Tua Tagovailoa over this two-game span. Unsurprisingly, getting rid of the football has also helped his sack rate; after being taken down nine times in 39 tries by the Patriots in Week 10, he has been sacked six times on 84 dropbacks by the Packers and Vikings combined. It’s one thing to throw quickly, but Williams is also having some success making those throws. When getting rid of the ball in 2.5 seconds or less over the past two games, he is 35-of-44 for 277 yards and a touchdown. Those aren’t spectacular numbers, but they’re a building block for steady gains the Bears didn’t have on offense before. Williams is also getting out of the pocket and running more often. He was averaging 27 rush yards per game on scrambles and designed runs before the Waldron firing, but that has nearly doubled in jumping to 51.5 rush YPG over the past two weeks. It’s clear the Bears have told him to be more decisive and intentional as a runner as opposed to scrambling solely for the sake of extending plays. When he has decided to go over the past two weeks, it has usually been a good idea. Williams picked up a third-and-8 with a scramble early in this game, got a second-and-6 on a quarterback draw, and then converted a fourth-and-4 in the fourth quarter when his initial side of the field was covered, deliberately moving Andrew Van Ginkel for a moment with his eyes before running the other way for a critical first down: With all of that in place, the magic that made Williams an easy selection as the No. 1 pick has popped more often. He hasn’t been dominant, but he has looked much more confident and decisive as a pure passer in the dropback game. He had an excellent sequence to extend the game against the Packers last week, when he hit Rome Odunze on a third-and-19 scramble drill for 16 yards, then threw a perfect back-shoulder to Odunze against press coverage on fourth-and-3 to extend the game. This week, most of Williams’ best throws came early in the contest, as he was whizzing passes into narrow windows against Minnesota’s zone coverage. He snuck a pass through Van Ginkel for a 40-yard completion to Allen on a throw so good that it briefly reminded the veteran he’s allowed to run with the football after he catches it. Williams ran away from an unblocked Van Ginkel and hit D’Andre Swift streaking up the sideline for 30 yards. He squeezed another go route to Allen past Cam Bynum in center field for 24 yards, then nearly hit Allen for a 24-yard gain on another back-shoulder, only for the veteran to narrowly step out of bounds. There’s still progress to be made. While the Vikings can pose pressure problems for even the most experienced quarterbacks, I would have liked to see the Bears rely more heavily on play-action when they weren’t using quick game. Williams has used play-action on only 11.5% of his dropbacks since Brown has taken over. He’s 6-of-9 for 138 yards using play fakes over the past two weeks, and moving linebackers to create passing lanes will only make life easier for him. The Packers and Vikings, to contrast, used play-action on about 30% of their dropbacks against Chicago. The risk of firing Eberflus is the same issue the Jets encountered once they moved on from Robert Saleh. Will getting rid of a defensive-minded head coach for a disappointing season from the offense break the defense? Saleh had built the Jets’ defense into an elite unit, but after ranking among the league leaders in most defensive metrics over the past two seasons and into 2024, the Jets rank 30th in points allowed per drive and 32nd in expected points added (EPA) per play allowed since he was fired. Eberflus’ defense, one of the league’s best during the second half of 2023, ranks seventh in points allowed per drive and ninth in EPA per play. Sunday wasn’t their best performance, as they had a clear game plan of taking Justin Jefferson out of the picture. With Jaylon Johnson covering the star wideout for nearly 58% of his routes, Jefferson had just two catches for 27 yards. Unfortunately for Eberflus, the Vikings also have Jordan Addison and T.J. Hockenson, and they caught 15 passes for 276 yards, including a lob to Hockenson over Jonathan Owens in zone coverage to set up the winning field goal. The Bears are better than their record, having outscored opposing teams by four points this season. They’re 2-5 in one-score games, including back-to-back losses. It’s easy to find Eberflus culpable for some of the decision-making and sloppiness in those defeats, and that might lose him his job at the end of the season. In a universe in which the Bears can defend a Hail Mary and successfully hit a 46-yard field goal, they’re 6-5 and in the thick of the playoff picture in the NFC. That would be nice for Eberflus, but if fans continue to see this version of Williams the rest of the way, their long-term excitement over him will overcome the short-term frustration of missing out on the playoffs. |
| DETROITMichael Silver in The Athletic has a long look at QB JARED GOFF. We had to edit it down a bit: First came the beating, another desultory setback in the rapidly degenerating professional life of Jared Goff, the face of a flailing franchise’s enduring futility. That was torture enough. What Goff truly dreaded, however, was The Meeting. Summoned to Detroit Lions coach Dan Campbell’s office on a late-October Tuesday in 2022, Goff feared the worst, and with good reason. Two days earlier, in an ugly road defeat to the Dallas Cowboys, he’d been responsible for almost as many turnovers (four) as points (six). The Lions were 1-5, and 4-18-1 since Campbell had taken over as a rookie head coach and Goff had become the starting quarterback. It felt like the whole world wanted him benched, and that Campbell, if only out of self-preservation, would imminently grant that wish. If the perception was that Goff was broken, well, it was a fair assumption. At 24, he’d gone head-to-head with Tom Brady on Super Sunday. Now, having just turned 28, he’d lost his mojo. He was getting booed by the home crowd, and his failings were constantly flaunted. Los Angeles Rams coach Sean McVay, the man who’d rejected Goff, had just hoisted a Lombardi Trophy in his home stadium, validating his wunderkind status. And he’d done it in his first season with Matthew Stafford, the Lions’ longtime starting quarterback who’d been swapped out for Goff. In dating terms, Goff had been dumped by his partner and was now eating ice cream alone on the couch while watching the ex escort a radiant new flame up the red carpet. As Goff entered Campbell’s office, he braced himself for bad news. “I know how this thing goes,” he told himself. “I’m not naïve. Is this it for me?” Yet Campbell, an outside-the-box hire with an unflinching nature, told his struggling starter he was sticking with him. And as Goff began to exhale, he had an epiphany. “Man, I’ve got to stop trying to do too much,” Goff told Campbell. “I’ve been trying to overcome certain things throughout the game, constantly thinking that this is the moment we’re gonna turn it around. I’m squeezing so hard trying to help us win, because we all want it so badly. I have to release that a little bit and just do my job, one play at a time. I’m just gonna do my job and not worry about the rest of it.” Campbell stared back at his quarterback and smiled. “Jared,” he said, “that’s all I’ve wanted you to do this whole time.” It was a mental shift that helped Goff manage the emotions he’d experienced since being traded to the Lions after the 2020 season, a move that blindsided him and crushed his confidence. The conversation fortified his bond with Campbell and laid the groundwork for a connection with a famished fan base that would come to view his redemption story as its own. Long before Goff became an MVP candidate and the Lions (10-1), who host the Chicago Bears on Thanksgiving, became the betting favorite to win Super Bowl LIX and inspired an iconic chant, the embattled quarterback unlocked the mystery in the nick of time. “It’s like you squeeze so hard, and the actual answer is to release,” Goff explained last week while sitting in an upstairs room of his Bloomfield Hills, Mich., home, which doubles as a film-watching sanctuary and memorabilia alcove. “Everyone wanted to fire Dan, fire (general manager Brad Holmes) and bench me. If we’d kept losing, of course they would. (But) it’s funny — you do your job one play at a time, and a little momentum starts to build. You do it 10 plays in a row, then 15, then 20, and the other 10 on offense are doing their job, and good things start to happen. “It’s ironic that when you try to do less, more happens.” Goff is a rock star in the Motor City, a pinpoint passer in the midst of a career year for a team laying waste to its opponents. He may have walked into Campbell’s office with trepidation that day 25 months ago, but he emerged with a bounce in his step that has morphed into a strut. The day after that fateful meeting, Lions owner Sheila Ford Hamp showed up at practice, spoke to reporters and gave Campbell and Holmes a vote of confidence. Four days later, Goff threw for 321 yards in a 31-27 defeat to the Miami Dolphins. And then, somewhat abruptly, the plot shifted and the losing stopped. The Lions are 32-9 since, a tally that includes their first two postseason victories since Jan. 5, 1992, and Goff’s job security rivals Red Bull driver Max Verstappen’s. In May, the Lions signed Goff to a four-year, $212 million contract extension, with $170 million guaranteed. In late November, Goff is armed with eye-popping numbers that serve as a sharp rebuttal to any remaining doubters. His 109.9 passer rating is the league’s second best, as is his 72.9 percent completion percentage. He’s averaging an NFL-high 9.02 yards per attempt, and he’s part of an MVP conversation that includes fellow quarterbacks Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen and running backs Saquon Barkley and Derrick Henry. “Jared Goff is operating with as much command and poise as any quarterback in the league,” said San Francisco 49ers assistant head coach/defense Brandon Staley, who was the Rams’ defensive coordinator during Goff’s final season with the team. “They’re putting a lot on his plate pre-snap, and they’re using his experience and knowledge to get into premier plays almost every snap. The timing and ball distribution has been elite all year long. His swagger, unselfishness, and toughness are leading that football team.” Indianapolis Colts defensive coordinator Gus Bradley, whose team suffered a 24-6 defeat to the Lions on Sunday, views Goff’s success as a direct result of his comfort with Detroit’s offensive scheme: “He has the answers. He knows what he’s looking for. They know how to attack. He and his coaches just see it the same way.” “He has taken efficiency to a whole new level,” added Atlanta Falcons head coach Raheem Morris. Since being drafted first overall by the Rams in 2016, the former Cal star has relied upon elite accuracy, a quick release and a penchant for remaining cool under fire. What’s different now, as Staley and Bradley suggest, is Goff’s mental grasp of the position, which deepened when Ben Johnson took over as the Lions’ offensive coordinator after the 2021 season. “I like to say it’s as much his offense as mine,” said Johnson, who has turned down head coaching opportunities in each of the past two cycles. “It’s really based on what Jared does well, what he felt most comfortable with. And we’ve tried the last two and a half years to challenge him and push him outside his comfort zone.” Campbell noticed an appreciable difference in his quarterback this past offseason. “When he came in,” Campbell said, “you could tell there was a different feel — like, he wanted to have even more ownership in the offense and to take it to a different level. So now the offense is evolving because of his ability to process and see it.” Last month, Johnson told Goff that he’s “now asking these PhD-level questions over the course of the week” that the quarterback hadn’t broached previously. “The game’s slowing down for him, too,” Johnson said. “He can recognize coverages right off the bat. He’ll say during the week, ‘Hey, I know we think that they’re doing Cover 2 in this situation, but if they go man, where do you want me to go with the ball?’ Or, ‘I know it’s not a Cover 0 team, but we’re in this exotic formation, and if they do it versus this and I see it, what do you want me to get to?’”– – –Goff’s commitment to intensive film study makes sense, given his physical limitations. Unlike peers such as Jackson, Allen and Patrick Mahomes, Goff can’t rely on his athleticism to get him out of jams and make off-schedule plays. “You do have to find different ways to win in the pocket because you aren’t as fleet of foot,” Goff said. “I have to play disciplined. And the work that I have to do from Monday through Friday, I feel like has to be more. That’s where I feel like I’m able to get my edge, whereas other guys have their athletic ability as their edge.” There’s another reason Goff is so intent on trying to master his craft: He’s aware of his reputation, and still a bit sensitive about the prevailing perception that McVay, known for his schematic acumen, discarded him because the coach needed an upgrade in that department. It’s a narrative that began in 2017 when it became clear that McVay, then the youngest coach in modern NFL history, was giving his second-year quarterback cues via the in-helmet communications system as Goff waited to receive the snap. It intensified after Goff’s poor performance in L.A.’s 13-3 defeat to the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LIII. Because McVay had become the brightest young star in his profession — the joke in league circles was that even his acquaintances were getting head-coaching interviews — it was easy to conclude that Goff wasn’t good enough to bring the coach’s brainy schemes to life. The Rams’ decision to deal him just weeks after he’d come off the bench to win a road playoff game with a broken right thumb seemed abrupt and suggested that there were deep-seated reasons for McVay’s dissatisfaction. “Everyone externally just assumed that I suck,” Goff said, “because why else would this be happening? People thought, ‘He’s done. He’s damaged goods. His story is over. His career will end in this way. This will be the end of the road.’” The trade hit Goff like an earthquake. The Rams, who’d signed the quarterback to a massive contract extension only 17 months earlier, were so desperate to get out of that deal and land Stafford that they included two first-round draft picks and a third-round selection. Goff got the news while hanging out at his Hidden Hills, Calif., home on a Saturday night in late January, via a phone call from McVay — who was in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, celebrating the deal in real time with Stafford and then-Rams left tackle Andrew Whitworth, one of Goff’s closest friends on the team. The news broke instantly, before Holmes, the Lions’ newly hired GM, could get ahold of his new quarterback. Eventually, Goff took phone calls from Holmes — who’d been the Rams’ director of college scouting when he was drafted — and Campbell, both of whom were still at the Lions’ facility as midnight approached. At first, Goff seemed shellshocked, but when he heard the excitement in Holmes’ and Campbell’s voices, he became fired up and defiant. The next morning, he told me, “I’m just excited to be somewhere that I know wants me and appreciates me.” His phrasing was intentional. McVay’s reproach over the past two seasons had beaten him down, and this was a stark juxtaposition. Most of the football world viewed him as a declining quarterback who’d be a stopgap starter — at best — for the Lions, but Holmes and Campbell saw things differently. “Everybody created that monster and that was never the case with us,” said Holmes, who called it a “lazy narrative.” Goff, who’d gone 1-11 as a true freshman starter for Cal in 2013, viewed it as a chance to do something epic. “The opportunity that I have to be at the ground floor of something is something that most guys don’t get in their career,” he recalled thinking. “You can either see it as something that’s happened to you or something that’s happening for you.” The turnaround didn’t happen quickly — and Goff’s self-esteem suffered along the way. “It felt like he got traded here to never be talked about again,” said Goff’s wife, Christen, who was his girlfriend at the time. The model and actress relocated from L.A. to Detroit after the trade and had an up-close-and-personal view of the struggle. In 2021, the Lions didn’t win their first game until December, beginning with an 0-10-1 stretch that included a 28-19 road defeat to the Rams. In February, a week before Stafford and the Rams would defeat the Cincinnati Bengals in Super Bowl LVI at SoFi Stadium, I visited Goff at his Hidden Hills home, and he did his best to put a positive spin on the situation. “We all run our own race, whatever that may be,” he told me then, expressing excitement at the prospect of working with Johnson as his coordinator. “It’s part of the journey, and this year obviously was a tough experience. My time will come, whenever that may be, to get another crack at it, and in order to get there, there’s a lot of work that needs to be done.” So Goff did the work — schematically and psychically. He felt stung by the way his Rams tenure ended and experienced conflicting emotions as they won a Super Bowl without him, but he refused to let bitterness be his driving force. “It’s not vindictive for me,” he insisted. “And I think that was a big part of the journey, that it couldn’t be. Because that’s not enough. That’s not enough to motivate you to get through the hard times. It was never that. … It truly became, how can I help this team and help this city and be a part of this rebuild and do everything I could for Dan and for this coaching staff?”– – –Last season, as the Lions closed in on their first division title and home playoff game in 30 years, it became clear that Goff might have to confront his demons in a conspicuous setting. Sure enough, as if the bracket were drawn up by screenwriters, the third-seeded Lions hosted the sixth-seeded Rams in a first-round playoff game at Ford Field. If Detroit was going to break an NFL-record nine-game postseason losing streak, Goff would have to get past McVay and Stafford. In the lead-up to the game, Goff tried hard not to make the story about him. As it turned out, tens of thousands of empathic observers would adopt a different approach. When Goff entered the tunnel to take the field for pregame warmups 50 minutes before kickoff, his image was projected onto the stadium’s video screens. Spontaneously, fans began chanting his name, increasing the volume minutes later when Stafford, who’d spent 12 years as Detroit’s starter, took the field. It was an acknowledgment of the stakes, of Goff’s difficult journey and of a region’s unmitigated embrace of a player who’d won the respect of the paying public. “That’s what it felt like,” Goff recalled. “It was very surreal. I was like, ‘Holy s—; this is incredible.’ … They knew I was dumped by this team. They knew that basically (the Rams) said I wasn’t good enough. And they were saying, ‘No, you’re our guy. You are good enough for us. Let’s go win it.’” Said Christen Goff: “That was so incredible. Everybody here got it. It’s not like they’re cheering his name because they are obsessed with him and they think he’s just everything. It’s because every single one of those people have been him before, or they just get that story, and it resonates with them. … It didn’t feel like fans; it felt like family.” On the sideline, Goff sidled up to Johnson and told the coordinator, “Dude, I feel great! Let’s go!” “Yeah,” Johnson answered, “I’d be feeling pretty good if the whole stadium was chanting my name, too.” Goff delivered, sealing the Lions’ 24-23 victory with an 11-yard pass to star receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown just after the two-minute warning — a typically bold Campbell second-down call — and the chants got even louder. When he reached the locker room, his teammates were joyfully mimicking the “Jared Goff” mantra. He cherished the moment, believing it was a one-off. “I thought that was the end of it,” Goff said. “But yeah, it’s taken on a life of its own.” The chant resumed a week later at Ford Field as the Lions defeated the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to reach the NFC Championship Game. Soon after, it went viral, surfacing at a University of Michigan hockey game, a Grand Rapids Griffins hockey game and a high school cheerleading competition in eastern Michigan. The chant has since been busted out at Red Wings and Pistons games, at most Lions road games and at Green Day and Creed concerts. “Now it’s just a fun thing that everybody’s doing when they’re drunk at a bar, which is honestly just as amazing,” Christen Goff said. “I’ve seen it everywhere. People send me videos; I think somebody got married in Italy and a chant broke out. Now I think it’s Michigan’s inside joke.” Campbell’s wife, Holly, doesn’t see the phenomenon ceasing anytime soon: “I think 50 years from now, Jared Goff chants will still be happening. I think it’s just a thing now. And it’s beautiful, because it is about the underdog fighting adversity and coming out on top.”– – –Later, Goff harkened back to the trying times he, many of his teammates and their coaches have experienced together, and the resolve it fostered. “Yeah, we are (different),” Goff said, leaning forward in the chair where he sits during his marathon film-study sessions at home. “There aren’t many teams who can go through that and win, on the road, on ‘Sunday Night Football,’ with five turnovers — the whole thing. It took everyone to win that game. “There are no other teams like us. You can’t replicate it unless you go through what we’ve been through. Which is not fun. And most people don’t survive. And most head coaches don’t stand firm with it — and stand in the s—, and stand in the mud, and take all the criticism.” Goff’s voice rose as he continued. “I think there were moments where Dan could have turned his back on me,” the quarterback said. “He was the head coach on a team that was 0-10-1, and then at the end of the season we were 3-13-1. Could’ve done it then; could’ve done it in the middle of that first season; could’ve done it the next year when we were 1-6 to start. And he never did. And I’m thankful for that. ‘Cause you see it all over the league, where somebody’s head’s got to fall. They were calling for his head. They were calling for Brad’s head. They were calling for my head. And Dan just held the line and said, ‘No, I believe in what we’re doing here, I believe in Jared, I believe in what we have going on, and he’s our guy.’ And here we are.” As he continues his unlikely comeback story, Goff is exactly where he wants to be, in a place that appreciates every bit of adversity he has overcome. His name may be chanted all over the world, but the 30-year-old quarterback belongs to Detroit and its appreciative fans, and he wouldn’t want it any other way. “I think they relate to the journey a lot,” Goff said. “Especially the last four years of everyone telling you you’re not good enough, and you kind of turning away from that and saying, ‘Hey, watch me. Let’s see. Let’s see what happens.’ And that motivates me. But I’m not motivated by that as much as I am motivated by wanting to win for this city.” |
| MINNESOTAAnd as we go to press, word comes that QB DANIEL JONES has cast his lot with the Vikings. Jordan Dajani of CBSSports.com: After clearing waivers on Monday, former New York Giants quarterback Daniel Jones has chosen his new NFL home. According to CBS Sports NFL insider Jonathan Jones, Jones is signing with the Minnesota Vikings. NFL Media reports Jones will sign with Minnesota’s practice squad. It was the Vikings Jones upset in the playoffs as a member of the Giants during the 2022 postseason, directly leading to the four-year, $160 million extension he signed that following offseason. It’s the same Vikings who admitted they “felt a little bad” for Jones as they dominated him in a Week 1 28-6 victory this past September. The Vikings were one of CBS Sports’ projected landing spots for Jones. Minnesota’s quarterback of the future appears to be first-round pick J.J. McCarthy, who is out for the year with a knee injury, while Sam Darnold is a pending free agent who has made some money for himself with a career year. The Vikings also have Nick Mullens and Brett Rypien on roster, but McCarthy is the only quarterback under contract next season. Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell is an offensive mind that knows how to make quarterbacks comfortable, and he gets another reclamation project in the former No. 6 overall pick out of Duke. |
| NFC EAST |
| NEW YORK GIANTSIt may be QB DEAN LOCK Thursday in Dallas. He would be the 3rd starting QB for the Giants in as many games. Jason Owens of YahooSports.com: New York Giants quarterback Tommy DeVito is dealing with forearm soreness on his throwing arm that could sideline him for Thursday’s Thanksgiving game against the Dallas Cowboys. This is according to head coach Brian Daboll, who told reporters on Tuesday that he’s “hopeful” that DeVito will be able to play, but that it’s “not 100%” that he will. Backup Drew Lock will get reps at practice with Giants starters on Tuesday. After Daboll made his comments, DeVito told reporters that “the plan is to play.” “My whole body’s kind of sore,” DeVito said. “First time playing in a while. Took a couple shots. It’s only, not even 48 hours. Things are still kind of settling in. “The plan is to play. See how I feel tomorrow. Hopefully wake up feeling a little better after I get some more treatment today. Looking forward to tomorrow.” DeVito is coming off his first start in place of longtime starter Daniel Jones, whom the Giants benched and subsequently released last week for poor play. Lock was the No. 2 quarterback behind Jones, but Daboll promoted DeVito from third-string to starter over Lock, raising questions about the decision in New York. |
| WASHINGTONPK AUSTIN SIEBERT was an early season hero for the Commanders – but he has fallen on hard times with a hip injury. John Keim of ESPN.com on his trip to injured reserve. The Washington Commanders placed kicker Austin Seibert on injured reserve, two days after his missed extra point attempt prevented a shot at overtime against the Dallas Cowboys. Seibert had missed the previous two games with a hip injury. It’s uncertain if he was placed on IR because of the hip or if there was a new leg injury. In the 34-26 loss to Dallas on Sunday, Seibert missed two extra points and a 51-yard field goal. He pushed the last extra point attempt wide left; it occurred with 21 seconds left and right after receiver Terry McLaurin had scored on an 86-yard catch-and-run on a pass from quarterback Jayden Daniels to cut Washington’s deficit to one point. Dallas then returned the ensuing onside kick for a touchdown, providing the final margin. Seibert did make two field goals in the loss — from 41 and 51 yards. After the game Seibert said he was fine to kick, having worked in practice during the week but said, “I just wasn’t striking it well.” Before his hip injury, Seibert had been perfect on 22 extra point attempts and had made 25-of-28 field goal tries. Zane Gonzalez had replaced Seibert in the two games he missed. He was 3-for-3 on field goals and perfect on four extra point attempts. Gonzalez remains on Washington’s practice squad and can be elevated one more time without needing to be signed to the active roster. Washington also signed running back Chris Rodriguez Jr. to the active roster. The Commanders are banged up at running back with Austin Ekeler (concussion) and Brian Robinson (sprained right ankle) dealing with injuries. |
| AFC WEST |
| DENVERPete Prisco on Sean Payton coaching his butt off this year with the Broncos: Sean Payton has been one of this league’s best coaches for a long time, winning a Super Bowl, leading amazing offenses with precision play-calling and having a great feel for what defenses do against him. But he might be doing the best coaching job of his career this season — and that’s saying something. Payton has taken the Denver Broncos, a team many picked to be one of the worst in the league, a team starting a rookie quarterback most thought was a reach in the first round, to being the No. 7 seed in the AFC if the playoffs started today. The Broncos are 7-5 after beating the Las Vegas Raiders, 29-19, on Sunday on the road, the first time they beat the Raiders on the road since 2015. The Broncos now play two straight home games against the Cleveland Browns and Indianapolis Colts, both winnable games that could get them to 9-5 with three games to go. That would almost certainly get them into the playoffs. The Broncos have been riding a top-level defense all season, but it’s the play of rookie quarterback Bo Nix that has elevated this team the past three games. In those games, Nix has eight touchdown passes and no interceptions. Payton, who had Nix as his hand-picked quarterback — even though most said he reached to take him with the 12th overall pick — does a great job of calling plays for Nix to make for easy throws and decisions. But the thing that stands out from the past three weeks is Nix taking and hitting shots into the middle of the field with accuracy. He is certainly playing with more confidence, and the league has taken notice. He’s completely closed the gap in terms of betting odds for NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year over at FanDuel, as it’ll likely be neck-and-neck between he and the Commanders’ Jayden Daniels down the stretch. As for the defense, it’s special. It is third in points given up at 16.5 points per game, with only the Los Angeles Chargers and Detroit Lions better. It is third in total defense, sixth in rush defense and ninth against the pass. It gives up a paltry 3.8 yards per rush, and it’s been 3.1 yards per rush over the past three games. That run defense leads to second- and third-and-long situations, which leads to sacks. The Broncos lead the NFL in sacks with 44 as coordinator Vance Joseph turns his blitz-heavy group loose to menace quarterbacks. It may not be a group of stars on that side of the ball — aside from corner Patrick Surtain II – but they get after it. They play hard and tough and fast, and Joseph knows how to call a defense. Denver, which is up to 10th in my latest Power Rankings, hasn’t exactly beat up on a brutal schedule. It has one victory over a team with a winning record and that is 6-5 Atlanta, who it beat up two weeks ago at home. But if the Broncos beat the remaining teams on their schedule who don’t have a winning record, they will be a playoff team. So no apologies needed, and they did go toe-to-toe with the Chiefs in Kansas City three weeks ago, only to have a last-second field goal blocked to lose the game. With a dominant defense, solid running attack and Nix hitting the timely passes when needed, the Broncos will be a playoff team. The question will be whether it can be more. Defense does win in the playoffs and it travels well. And then there’s always the Payton factor. He can flat out coach, and he’s proving it as well as ever with this team. |
| LAS VEGASQB AIDAN O’CONNELL will have a Prime opportunity on Friday in Kansas City. He has already beaten the Chiefs on the day of the year most open the presents they are buying on Black Friday. With Gardner Minshew suffering a season-ending injury during Sunday’s loss to the Broncos, Las Vegas is going to turn back to Aidan O’Connell. Per Tom Pelissero of NFL Media, the Raiders are preparing to start O’Connell against the Chiefs on Friday afternoon. O’Connell replaced Minshew in the starting lineup in Week 6, but suffered a broken thumb in the loss to the Rams in Week 7. O’Connell had been sidelined ever since, but Las Vegas opened his 21-day practice window on Monday. In his Monday press conference, head coach Antonio Pierce noted that O’Connell needs to be able to “grip the ball comfortably” for the club to start him. Desmond Ridder is also available at quarterback if O’Connell can’t play. In four appearances with two starts this year, O’Connell has completed 63.4 percent of his passes for 455 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions. As a rookie, O’Connell started last year’s Christmas Day victory over the Chiefs in Kansas City, though he didn’t complete a pass after the first quarter. In 11 appearances with 10 starts in 2023, O’Connell completed 62.1 percent of his throws for 2,218 yards with 12 touchdowns and seven interceptions. Since December 17 of last year, counting postseason, the Chiefs are 17-2. The only two QBs to beat them are O’Connell and Josh Allen. |
| AFC NORTH |
| PITTSBURGHThe Steelers are optimistic they will have the services of EDGE ALEX HIGHSMITH sooner rather than later. Josh Alper of ProFootballTalk.com: The Steelers are trying to bounce back from a loss to the Browns and they may have edge rusher Alex Highsmith back to help their chances of beating the Bengals. Highsmith has missed the last two weeks with an ankle injury, but head coach Mike Tomlin said on Tuesday that he is “leaning in on a return” as the team moves through the practice week. Highsmith said he’s “feeling much better” and was running around at Tuesday’s practice as he tries to keep “progressing every day.” “I really have been attacking rehab every single day,” Highsmith said, via Chris Adamski of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. “I’ve been here doing extra, doing as much as I can just trying to get back.” Tomlin said Highsmith’s practice participation will be a guide to his availability and Wednesday will bring the first official word on that front when the team’s first injury report of the week is released. |
| AFC EAST |
| BUFFALOThe 49ers are headed into a blizzard in Buffalo. Bryan DeArdo of CBSSports.com: The Buffalo Bills’ home-field advantage will once again be on display on Sunday night with severe weather projected to be on tap for the Bills’ Week 13 showdown with the San Francisco 49ers. The forecast is currently calling for freezing temperatures, possible snowfall and winds that could exceed 20 mph. The National Weather Service in Buffalo has called for potential low visibility, with snow on the roads possibly impacting travel. There are no current plans to postpone Sunday’s game, which is slated to kick off at 8:20 p.m. ET. Highmark Stadium has been synonymous over the years with hosting games with less than ideal weather, unless you’re a Bills player or fan, that is. In fact, weather forced the NFL to postpone this past January’s wild-card playoff game between the Bills and Steelers, a game Buffalo eventually won. Sunday’s weather will undoubtedly benefit the Bills, especially when you consider that their opponent, the 49ers, is a team more accustomed to milder weather. The 49ers do have a recent history of winning games that have been played in adverse weather. Just ask the Packers, who were upset by the 49ers in the 2021 divisional round in what was Aaron Rodgers’ final playoff game for the green and gold. Speaking of history, Sunday’s game is a matchup between two of the NFL’s powerhouses during the 1990s. During that decade, the 49ers won their fifth Super Bowl and played in five NFC title games. Buffalo became the first team to appear in four consecutive Super Bowls after winning four straight AFC titles from 1990-93. Despite their success back then, the Bills and 49ers never faced off in the Super Bowl. It doesn’t appear that will happen this season, either, unless the 5-6 49ers can mount a late-season charge. |
| THIS AND THAT |
| SAVING DANIEL JONESDoug Farrar of YahooSports.com offers his recipe for reviving QB DANIEL JONES: In each of the last three seasons, a quarterback who was highly drafted but did not initially fulfill started to flourish in a new location with the right offense and coaching staff. In 2022, the Seattle Seahawks decided 2013 second-round New York Jets pick Geno Smith would replace Russell Wilson as their franchise quarterback after Smith had been a washout with the Jets, the New York Giants, and the Los Angeles Chargers. Smith has been a plus-level starter in the Emerald City ever since. Baker Mayfield was selected by the Cleveland Browns with the first overall pick in 2018, fell out of favor with head coach Kevin Stefanski, and was jettisoned in favor of Deshaun Watson, who joined the team in what may be the worst deal in NFL history. Mayfield had a nice cup of coffee with the Los Angeles Rams, and then signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2023. Under offensive coordinators Dave Canales (who was instrumental in Smith’s professional rehabilitation, and is doing the same for 2023 first overall pick Bryce Young in Carolina) and now Liam Coen, Mayfield has come to define the Bucs franchise as much as any current player. Sam Darnold, another Jets failure early in his career, was selected by Gang Green No 3 overall in 2018 – two picks after Mayfield. Things never worked out for Darnold there, and he was catapulted out of the building via a trade to the Carolina Panthers after three seasons. After two decent years with the Panthers, and a 2023 stint with the San Francisco 49ers as a backup, Darnold found the perfect place in Minnesota, where Vikings head coach and offensive shot-caller Kevin O’Connell has made the most of Darnold’s attributes while masking his deficiencies. Could Jones be part of a similar the feelgood story in 2025? The Giants recently released the 2019 sixth-overall pick after a career of (mostly) subpar play. Jones has never looked like The Guy. But, to be fair, he’s also had three head coaches, four offensive coordinators, and multiple offensive systems to deal with. Per multiple reports, Jones (who has cleared waivers, leaving any team that signs him without the weight of the four-year, $160m contract he signed in 2023) would prefer to wait for the right situation – preferably with a playoff-level team, which makes all the sense in the world. No reason to go with the first franchise that offers him a roster spot, especially if Jones would be sent into a similarly rocky situation. Smith, Mayfield and Darnold were able to reframe their careers after landing with teams who built the right offenses around them. How can Jones’s second NFL team accomplish a similar turnaround, most likely with the 27-year-old as a backup behind a true star quarterback? Make the RPO a staple conceptJones isn’t the best field-reader in the NFL, and there are times when he waits too long to throw. But he is mobile, and he can win as a runner. He has 2,179 rushing yards and 15 rushing touchdowns in his career. So the run-pass option should be a big part of his next offense. This concept gives the quarterback the option to throw, hand off to a running back, or run the ball himself based on how the defense attacks. It also tends to limit the quarterback’s need to read the entire field, as most RPO passes are of the quick-game variety. This season, Jones has been relatively efficient as a passer and as a runner in RPO plays. He’s completed eight of 13 passes for 52 yards, while as an RPO runner, he’s gained 42 yards on six carries. Teams like the Denver Broncos, Kansas City Chiefs, or Philadelphia Eagles, who run higher rates of RPO plays, may be good fits in that regard (again, we’re not saying Jones will replace Patrick Mahomes, Jalen Hurts or even Bo Nix – but he could be a solid backup, and these tactics would work if he did come in as a replacement). Make Jones a game managerThe term “game manager” is generally considered pejorative, as it indicates a quarterback whose physical gifts are unspectacular, and therefore must be protected by coaching and the talent around him. But every quarterback is a game manager to a certain extent, and even the all-time greats are coveted for their overall consistency as much as their flashes of brilliance. What does this mean for Jones? In his case, his next coaching staff will want to establish a consistent rhythm for him in the passing game, and that means eschewing the deep ball in favor of short and intermediate passes. This not only regulates Jones’ inconsistencies, it also removes the previously mentioned field-reading issues when plays take longer to develop, and Jones starts to get out of his depth. Jones’s passing splits this season tell the tale: Passes under 10 air yards: 172 completions in 247 attempts for 1,241 yards, four touchdowns, four interceptions, and a passer rating of 79.7. Passes of 10-19 air yards: 38 completions in 65 attempts for 613 yards, two touchdowns, two interceptions, and a passer rating of 87.5. Passes of 20+ air yards: Six completions in 29 attempts for 216 yards, two touchdowns, one interception, and a passer rating of 66.7. Intermediate passes are what Jones’s next team should lead with, while giving him easy reads in red zone situations, which will complicate the short-pass numbers for any quarterback who isn’t conversant with converting in those compressed situations. The Baltimore Ravens, Houston Texans, and Cincinnati Bengals have outstanding intermediate passing games by design. You can build from there. Help Jones to become a “Messenger of Confidence”Former Giants general manager Dave Gettleman took Jones at No 6 after Jones had a great week of practice at the 2019 Senior Bowl, and was named the game’s Most Valuable Player. One of the reasons Gettleman is the Giants’ former GM is that he placed more importance on one All-Star week over the three seasons at Duke in which Jones put up tape that was far more of the second- or third-round variety. That put Jones firmly in the realm of the overdrafted. And while the money’s a lot better in that neighborhood, it also tends to create an unfortunate dichotomy between what is expected and what can actually be achieved. Not everyone is Tom Brady, who was selected with the 199th overall pick, and wanted to make everyone in the world pay dearly for that oversight. In Jones’s final press conference as a Giants player, he read a statement in which he apologized for his overall performance and thanked the team. Jones was rightly praised for handling the situation professionally, but that’s a tough way to end one’s time with a franchise. And Jones’s self-confidence, something that is crucial for a quarterback, may be affected as a result. It’s not just self-confidence that is crucial for a quarterback either – his teammates must believe in his abilities too. For example, Young is turning things around with the Panthers this season after a horrid rookie campaign in 2023, partly because his teammates now believe in him. After Young had his best game to date last Sunday in a 30-27 loss to the defending Super Bowl champion Chiefs, veteran receiver Adam Thielen said of Young that he had become “The messenger of our confidence and who we can be. We love that guy, and [we] appreciate his kind of mindset this year.” Wherever Jones goes, he’ll need help from his new coaches and players to wipe away the football sins of the past. In short, the goal will be to help Jones to become a Messenger of Confidence. That facet is mandatory for any quarterback hoping to find professional redemption. |
