AROUND THE NFL
Daily Briefing
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On the Covid front, the Tennessee Titans are now at full strength after their outbreak. Josh Alper of ProFootballTalk.com:
It took some time, but the Titans have cleared out their reserve/COVID-19 list.
The team announced on Tuesday that tight end MyCole Pruitt and practice squad defensive back Breon Borders have been activated from the list. Pruitt has three catches for 17 yards and a touchdown this season.
Both players were part of the outbreak of positive tests that led to the NFL postponing the Titans’ Week Four game against the Steelers to this weekend and moving their Week Five game against the Bills to a Tuesday night.
Wide receiver Corey Davis, defensive lineman Jeffery Simmons, wide receiver Adam Humphries, defensive lineman DaQuan Jones, fullback Khari Blasingame, long snapper Beau Brinkley, cornerback Kristian Fulton, tackle Isaiah Wilson were previously activated to the 53-man roster from the Reserve/COVID-19 list. Wide receiver Cam Batson and defensive back Greg Mabin returned to the practice squad, although the team announced Mabin’s release on Tuesday.
But the Carolina Panthers have some issues. David Newton of ESPN.com:
The Carolina Panthers placed kicker Joey Slye and backup offensive tackle Trent Scott on the reserve/COVID-19 list on Wednesday, the third and fourth Carolina players to be added to the list since Friday.
Slye and Scott have been placed on the list because they came in close contact with someone with COVID-19, a source told ESPN’s Adam Schefter. They could be available for Sunday’s game if they go five days without a positive test since their last contact with the person that tested positive. They have not been at the facility since Sunday.
The move came two days after guard Michael Schofield was placed on the list and the team asked players, coaches and staff members to work remotely on Monday and Tuesday. Backup guard/center Tyler Larsen was added to the list last Friday. A league source confirmed that he came back with a positive test.
The facility was reopened to players, coaches and staff members Wednesday as Carolina (3-3) continued preparation for Sunday’s game at New Orleans (3-2) under the NFL’s intensive protocol.
The protocol requires virtual meetings but allows practices as long as players wear masks or shields in addition to gloves.
The addition of Slye to the list means the Panthers will have to add a kicker to the roster. They brought in kicker Casey Bednarski for a visit on Monday. According to a league source, he has begun the six-day testing process necessary to be eligible to play.
Bednarski is a former Minnesota State-Mankato kicker who set a Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference and school record with a 63-yard field goal in September 2017.
It seems kind of drastic, but the NFL is prepared to push the Super Bowl back as much as four weeks if Covid increases. Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com:
When it comes to contingency plans for the 2020 season, the league has them. It just prefers not to have to use them.
Via Sports Business Daily, Packers CEO Mark Murphy recently acknowledged that the ultimate contingency plan includes bumping the Super Bowl to March.
“We could move the Super Bowl back as far as four weeks,” Murphy said during a virtual pep rally prior to the game against the Buccaneers. “Obviously, we’d prefer not to do that, but you do have that flexibility if we run into a number of outbreaks with different teams or if we have to kind of move the schedule back.”
That’s still a last resort. Indeed, the league is still resisting as long as possible tacking an eighteenth week onto the regular season.
“We’d prefer not to [add a week], we’d like to play as much as possible [with] the schedule as it sits now,” Murphy said, explaining that the cancellation of the Pro Bowl makes it easy to push everything back a week and keep the Super Bowl in its current spot: Sunday, February 7.
There should be no reason to bump the Super Bowl to March 7. That would happen if the league needs five makeup weekends, or if the league ultimately decides to temporarily shut things down amid multiple outbreaks and missed games.
One way or another, the NFL will complete the season. In 1982, the league conducted a postseason and a Super Bowl despite staging only nine regular-season games per teams. Already, most teams have played six games.
The bigger challenge this year will come from ensuring that all teams play 16 games. Most fans have yet to comprehend the possibility of teams making or missing the playoffs based on playing only 14 or 15 games.
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NFC NORTH
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GREEN BAY
Sam Borden of ESPN.com talks to those who have stood in QB JORDAN LOVE’s shoes as a backup to AARON RODGERS:
That is what it’s like being around Rodgers, Callahan says. Often this would happen on subjects unrelated to football: Rodgers is unabashed about his belief in the existence of UFOs, for example, and frequently engages with teammates in long, drawn-out discussions about who actually built the Egyptian pyramids. (“We can’t reveal what we know,” Callahan says when I inquire about any conclusions.)
Brett Hundley, who was a Packers backup from 2015 to 2018, also had discussions about UFOs with Rodgers, as well as the existence of aliens. “His brain is just always processing so much information,” Hundley says. And then there was the time in 2013 when Rodgers stopped in the middle of practice, pulled aside then-backup Seneca Wallace and pointed to an airplane that was flying overhead.
“‘What do you think all that stuff is flying behind that jet stream?'” Wallace recalls Rodgers asking. “‘Do you think that has anything to do with maybe why everybody’s getting cancer?'”
Wallace snorts. Rodgers “marches to the beat of his own drum,” he says, “always looking for loopholes” or things that “set people apart.”
Bizarrely, many of these potpourri discussions actually originate from a football staple: the weekly quarterback scouting tests. Each week, as happens on many clubs, one of the backups is responsible for putting together a 45-minute exam for the starter and the other backup to take.
Naturally, Rodgers’ instructions about the exam are pointed: There should be questions that cover strategy related to Green Bay’s upcoming opponent (Sample: What is the correct audible if the Bears come with an all-out blitz?), but there must also be a lengthy section devoted to pretty much anything else (Who really assassinated President Kennedy?).
Rodgers has high standards for the tests, and Hundley conceded that his exams “went from a B-minus to an A-plus” when he began focusing his off-field questions around conspiracy theories. Rodgers is also a trivia freak, and he appreciates a quarterback who can hew to a strong theme. Geographic questions about the team’s next road trip can be fertile ground for the test composer, as can pop culture.
“He’s good at history, good at music, good at movies,” Harrell says. But it’s possible to stump him by leaning into extremely niche subject areas. Rodgers — despite his famous championship-belt celebration — is actually weak on professional wrestling knowledge, for instance, so Harrell, who is a die-hard WWE fan, would enrage Rodgers by constantly peppering his tests with questions about, say, WrestleMania V.
As an alternative for those who prefer to avoid challenging Rodgers’ general knowledge acumen, Rodgers allows the second part of the quiz to also feature tongue-in-cheek “questions” about top opposing players, as long as there is some component to the question that Rodgers might be able to use on the field. Like everything else, Rodgers wants to challenge the traditional notion of trash-talking — give me something different I can use, he tells the test makers. Find me something new.
That can be difficult too, though, particularly because Rodgers has played for so long. There are only so many embarrassing photos of Matt Stafford to be found, Callahan says, meaning that often “you had to go deep back into the mid-2000s to find some old MySpace picture that they still have floating around.”
Callahan shrugs. With Rodgers, originality is prized above almost all else, so the pressure to learn the offensive scheme in any given week is frequently overshadowed by the pressure to dig up a new, entertaining nugget about Kirk Cousins. “We got pretty good at searching the internet for funny pictures of opposing teams,” Callahan says.
EARLIER THIS YEAR, the Packers used their first-round draft pick on Jordan Love, a quarterback seen as a strong contender to be Rodgers’ eventual successor. Many wondered whether Rodgers would be offended — Wallace suggested Rodgers might have been “a little butt-hurt about it” — and speculated that the selection could have led Rodgers to become overly competitive.
For those who have been in the position of backing up Rodgers before, the notion that the selection would change anything about the way Rodgers approaches his job is absurd. It isn’t about competitiveness (after all, Rodgers is already plenty competitive) — it is, once again, pushing back on the idea that has been accepted. Putting in work on something that seems decided. Rodgers is not simply going to cede his place because it seems that the Packers might have decided the time is coming.
So there will still be tests. There will still be trivia. There will still be moments of extreme social discomfort, like when Callahan was a rookie and Rodgers invited him and the other quarterbacks over for a friendly hang and then brought out his own personal karaoke machine, which tracked and rated each participant. Suddenly, Callahan found himself being forced to try to hit the high notes of Adam Levine on Maroon Five’s “She Will Be Loved” (it didn’t go well), while Rodgers cackled and then selected a song for himself with a much more reasonable range.
“You could definitely tell that he practiced,” Callahan says. “I would also definitely double-check the calibration on that microphone because his score seemed a little too high that day.”
Not all quarterbacks would assert their superiority through karaoke contests or authoritatively answering questions about the population density of the greater Houston area (Harrell learned all about that before a Texans game once). But what Love will find, the former backups say, is that those experiences are intensely valuable, if only because they put on display a critical part of what makes Rodgers the star that he is. Thinking counterintuitively is a skill that can be honed just like a seven-step drop, and so whether or not you personally believe that airplanes cause cancer or that there are residents of Mars who are longtime Packers fans, the simple act of pondering — even for a second — the possibility that those things might be true uses roughly the same muscle that Rodgers uses when he looks at a disintegrated offensive line and still sees a way to make a play.
Making our brains more elastic, more open to things that are not exactly the way we assume them to be, is the most basic path to creativity. And for Rodgers, creativity is his light.
“He loves seeing guys get outside their comfort zone,” Wallace says, “and pushing them to a point where it’s, ‘Oh, man, I don’t do this so well.’ Then he wants to see what happens.”
That is definitely what took place with Wallace and Hundley in the testing room and Callahan at the karaoke party and Harrell at the Carnation Crush. It is what will happen, over and over, with Love. Rodgers might be deeply cerebral (if not deeply weird), but he is also deeply talented, and there is no doubt those things are connected.
Will being around that help Love’s development? Will it change the way he sees the quarterback position? Will it affect his perspective on how to run an offense?
It is difficult to see how it won’t. And, knowing Rodgers, it is also difficult to imagine Rodgers not pushing to make Love’s learning period last for as long as possible.
“He’ll learn,” Hundley says. “But I’ll tell you what: Jordan is going to be sitting for a while.”
Hundley laughs. “Aaron’s not going to give up that position, that’s for sure.”
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NFC EAST
ESPN.com with a deep dive into the awfulness of the NFC East:
Just how low can a division winner go? The NFC East appears set to put this to a test.
The teams’ .229 combined winning percentage is the second worst for any division through Week 6 since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger. The imploding Dallas Cowboys (2-4) are in first place, without their starting quarterback Dak Prescott, who is out for the remainder of the season.
If that sounds bleak, here’s a pick-me-up: The NFC East should get two wins this week, unless the Philadelphia Eagles (1-4-1) produce another tie.
Picking a winner in this division is tough. It’s like going to the pumpkin patch and being forced to pick from the deformed options still remaining on the day before Halloween. Even the winner won’t be pretty.
ESPN’s Football Power Index (FPI) predicts there is a 28% chance the NFC East winner will have six or fewer wins. Again, not pretty. They even found simulations (13 out of 20,000) where the division champion emerged despite four wins.
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DALLAS
Grumbling about the coaching in Dallas. Jane Slater of NFL Network sends out a Tweet:
@SlaterNFL
#Cowboys players initially bought into keeping things internal. Now as they sit 2-4 the discontent is leaking out. On the coaching staff “totally unprepared. They don’t teach. They don’t have any sense of adjusting on the fly.” Another “they just aren’t good at their jobs”
Thoughts from Mike Florio:
Without knowing which players are saying these things, it’s hard to know whether to give these opinions any credence. And while the anonymous leaking of fact makes the media world go ’round, anonymous leaking of opinion can become a stickier wicket.
Given the way the team is playing, it’s clear that something is wrong. Either the players aren’t good enough or the coaches aren’t doing a good enough job with them.
In most teams, that dynamic would set up a potential battle between coach and G.M. to make their case to the owner as to who bears the blame for a bad team. In Dallas, the G.M. is the owner.
Which actually makes it useful for ownership to have anonymous players blaming the coaching, since that will tend to take attention away from the idea that ownership has not done a good enough job finding capable players.
Is Mike McCarthy’s response troublesome to those who monitor slights against those who are not men? Grant Gordon of NFL.com:
With a disastrous 38-10 loss not yet 24-hours-old, McCarthy indicated he needs to keep apprised of his team’s mindset and outlook, but that his door is open and the preferred approach — certainly in tough times such as these — would be talking directly to him.
“I haven’t been part of any of those type of discussions,” McCarthy said of reports that he and his staff are unable to teach and adjust on the fly. “I think like a lot of things, when you hit a part of your season or any challenge where there is negativity out there, where it comes from and who it comes from, that’s something I’ve never chased. I think you do have to recognize it and I just really go back to my first meeting with the football team. I’ve always stated this to every team that I’ve coached. I think it’s important to handle things as men; if you do have something to say publicly that is of most importance, I think it’s important to say it to the individual. Particularly in a group dynamic, setting. Especially in the game of football, especially for the Dallas Cowboys. That’s all part of the development of our program, of the system we’re installing here.”
Though the Cowboys are in first place in a borderline comical NFC East at 2-4, the struggles in every facet are abundant.
Despite an offense that leads the league in yards and is fourth in total points, Dallas tops the league with 15 turnovers and its defense has allowed an NFL-high 218 points — 26 more than anyone else.
McCarthy expressed conviction in his staff’s ability to reverse course, however.
“I have great confidence in the men that I work with,” McCarthy said. “This is something that we work on every single day. We understand that there’s still has been a learning curve for all of us involved. As a head coach you have to make sure that you’re touching each and every player. I’ll just say it as buzz words, but we need to coach better. Our job responsibility is simple, it’s to teach and demand. And the players understand that they’re responsibility is simple also. Their job is to prepare and perform. When you are working hard on one specific part of your game and it hasn’t shown up on Sunday, I have to continue to find a way to teach and demand our ball security challenge. It’s not reflective of the type of football team we’re gonna be. That’s coaching.”
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The Cowboys get DE RANDY GREGORY back from NFL Justice this week per Todd Archer of ESPN.com:
Dallas Cowboys defensive end Randy Gregory will be available to play Sunday against the Washington Football Team now that he has been removed from the commissioner’s exempt list.
Gregory, who had been on the list since being reinstated by the NFL in September, has not played in a game since the 2018 divisional-round playoff loss to the Los Angeles Rams because of an indefinite suspension. He has been able to work out and take part in meetings since reinstatement, and he began practicing two weeks ago.
His return comes at a good time for a pass rush that has struggled for most of the season, and last week, teammates and coaches said Gregory performed exceptionally well in practice. Gregory, the Cowboys’ 2015 second-round pick, had six sacks in 2018, which was second-best on the defense.
A number of violations of the NFL’s substance abuse policy led to multiple suspensions for Gregory, who has played in just 28 of a potential 86 career games. Upon his reinstatement, the Cowboys signed him to a one-year extension through 2021 that included a $200,000 signing bonus.
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PHILADELPHIA
It is not all players being added to the Eagles injury list. They expect the return of two key offensive players on Thursday against the Giants per Tim McManus of ESPN.com:
The Philadelphia Eagles are expecting to have receiver DeSean Jackson and right tackle Lane Johnson available for Thursday’s game against the New York Giants, coach Doug Pederson said.
Jackson hasn’t played since Week 3 due to a hamstring injury, while Johnson has been in and out of the lineup and missed last week’s loss to the Baltimore Ravens as a result of an ongoing ankle issue.
ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported last week that Jackson was on track to play against New York.
The Eagles get two key pieces back to their offense just as two others begin their absence. Running back Miles Sanders (knee) and tight end Zach Ertz (ankle) were hurt against Baltimore and will miss at least this week’s game. Defensive tackle Malik Jackson (quad) was also ruled out by Pederson.
Wide receiver Alshon Jeffery remains sidelined as he continues to work back from Lisfranc surgery. The Eagles did not place him on the physically unable to perform list at the start of the year in hopes he’d return within six weeks. Surprise contributor Travis Fulgham, who has 18 catches, 284 yards and three touchdowns in three games, will continue to get opportunities in his stead.
Tight end Dallas Goedert (ankle) and receiver Jalen Reagor (UCL tear in thumb) are “on schedule” in their rehab, Pederson said, but did not provide a timeline for their return.
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WASHINGTON
How long can it possibly take to come up with a name for your football team? If you thought a year was enough time, you were wrong if that team is the WFT. Ryan Young of YahooSports.com:
Though the team is working toward a new name, it’s unlikely that the Washington Football Team has a new name in place for the 2021 season.
Team president Jason Wright said on WJLA on Tuesday that there’s “a pretty good chance” the placeholder name gets used again next fall. There’s simply too much they need to do.
“I think next year is fast because of how the brand has to come together through uniforms, through approval processes through the league,” he said on WJLA. “Next year is fast. There is a pretty good chance we will still be the Washington Football Team next season.
“We could get there quicker. It’s actually pretty hard to get there that quickly because of all the steps that need to happen.”
While Wright’s statement on Tuesday may surprise some, his timeline actually makes a lot of sense.
Washington officially dropped its long-standing racist nickname in July, something team owner Dan Snyder had previously vowed never to do. It announced that it would go by the Washington Football Team this season while the organization works on a new name.
Handling everything that goes into a name change — deciding on the name, obtaining trademarks, creating new logos and jerseys, replacing stadium signage and more — generally takes anywhere from 18-24 months. As the Washington Football Team started the process in July, that timeline would allow them to officially change their name around January 2022.
Though the temporary name isn’t ideal, new coach Ron Rivera doesn’t want the process rushed.
“We want this new name, this new nickname, to be able to stand the rest of time, stand for 100 years,” he said in July. “We’re going to be real busy with that. We’ve hired a firm that wants to be very diligent with their work, they want to be inclusive with their work. We’re going to do this right.”
Give everyone on the committee a week to come up with possible names, sit around for a couple of hours to pick the one you like, give legal a couple of weeks to check out the rights to that name and trademarks, you already have the colors, a month to design uniforms and logos. What’s that seven weeks? What are we missing?
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NFC SOUTH
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CAROLINA
RB CHRISTIAN McCAFFREY is getting closer. A couple of tweets from NFL.comreporters:
@TomPelissero
#Panthers RB Christian McCaffrey isn’t expected to play Sunday against the #Saints — the fifth game he’s missed since a high ankle sprain in Week 2, sources tell me and @MikeGarafolo. He’s close, but they’re staying cautious with a Thursday night game vs. Atlanta up next.
@MikeGarafolo
Two games in five days is a tough stretch so he’ll sit this one out. Has a shot for next Thursday.
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NEW ORLEANS
With Baton Rouge beckoning, the Mayor of New Orleans has caved. But the number of fans she is letting into the Superdome is far below what the Saints wanted. Amie Just of the New Orleans Times-Picayune:
The New Orleans Saints and Mayor LaToya Cantrell have reached a compromise to let 3,000 fans attend this weekend’s game against the Carolina Panthers and potentially more for subsequent home games, the team announced Tuesday.
Three thousand tickets for season ticket holders will be available for Sunday’s game, serving as the beginning of a phased-in approach for fan attendance at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. If the coronavirus numbers continue to decrease or remain stable, attendance may increase to 6,000 for home games against San Francisco on Nov. 15 and Atlanta on Nov. 22. An outbreak of COVID-19 cases or a sudden increase in community spread of the coronavirus would result in a pause in fan attendance, Cantrell said.
“The way forward towards additional expansion depends on the current trends remaining stable,” Cantrell said. “I am glad to begin welcoming Saints fans back into the Dome, and hopeful that we can continue on a deliberate, gradual path forward.”
The next phase for fan attendance would 15,000 for the Kansas City and Minnesota home games in late December, unless coronavirus-related conditions worsen. The game against the Chiefs is scheduled Dec. 20, while the game against the Vikings is set to kick off on Christmas Day in the mid-afternoon.
The new phased-in plan for fans came less than 24 hours after the Saints announced they had met with Cantrell, her medical advisers and Ochsner Health Systems officials regarding the matter, but no consensus had been publicly reached Monday evening.
The Saints are the 19th NFL team to welcome more than a token few fans back to games in some capacity, NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said. The others include all three NFC South teams in Atlanta, Carolina and Tampa Bay, as well as Arizona, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Kansas City, Miami, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Tennessee and Washington.
“There’s been no indication that NFL games with fans are having an impact on daily COVID case trends at the local or state level,” McCarthy said last week.
The Saints and Cantrell had been in a stalemate regarding fan attendance since before the season began.
The Saints first pitched a plan Aug. 11 to Cantrell and Gov. John Bel Edwards that would have seen the 74,295-seat Superdome at 35% capacity, but Edwards and Cantrell dismissed that plan. The Saints played their season opener against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers with only a handful of people in the seats, and those were team employees.
Edwards gave the Saints the all-clear to have the Superdome at 25% of capacity for the Week 3 game against the Green Bay Packers, but Cantrell would not allow it, instead acquiescing to only about 750 relatives of players, coaches and staffers. The same limit held for the Week 5 game against the Los Angeles Chargers.
So a week ago, the Saints announced they were working with LSU to play home games at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge. The Saints explored that move because, at the time, no fans outside of relatives were allowed to attend Superdome games, and the team said it hadn’t received any indication regarding fan attendance moving forward.
After the 3,000-fan plan was announced Tuesday, the Saints thanked LSU and its athletic director, Scott Woodward, as well as Superdome operator ASM Global, Ochsner Health and the NFL and Cantrell for their “tremendous teamwork.”
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Sean Payton says that WR MICHAEL THOMAS has been disciplined and it is time to move on. Josh Alper of ProFootballTalk.com:
The Saints are coming back from a bye, but one of their key players has gone a lot longer than a week since playing his last game.
Wide receiver Michael Thomas missed three games with an ankle injury and then was held out of the lineup in Week Five in a disciplinary move after he punched defensive back Chauncey Gardner-Johnson during a practice session. Saints head coach Sean Payton said that there will be no more team discipline for Thomas, but cited the ankle while saying he wasn’t sure Thomas will play against the Panthers.
“We’ll see,” Payton said on a conference call. “I think he’s feeling better. We really don’t get into injuries or predictions, so you guys will be the first to know.”
Payton said he was “not interested” in talking about how Thomas handled the team’s decision or any other aspect of the disciplinary action because the team was moving on to this week’s game.
CHAUNCEY GARDNER-JOHNSON? Did his parents watch the 1979 movie “Being There”?
Middle-aged, simple-minded Chance lives in the townhouse of a wealthy old man in Washington, D.C.. He has spent his whole life tending the garden and has never left the property. Other than gardening, his knowledge is derived entirely from what he sees on television. When his benefactor dies, Chance naively tells the lawyers that he has no claim against the estate and is ordered to move out.
Chance wanders aimlessly, discovering the outside world for the first time. Passing by a TV shop, he sees himself captured by a camera in the shop window. Entranced, he steps backward off the sidewalk and is struck by a chauffeured car owned by elderly business mogul Ben Rand. In the car is Rand’s much younger wife Eve, who mishears “Chance, the gardener” in reply to the question who he is, as “Chauncey Gardiner.”
It goes on from there until Chauncey is an advisor to the President of the United States.
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TAMPA BAY
Are the Buccaneers looking to make a trade? Josh Alper of ProFootballTalk.com:
The Buccaneers have added some space under the salary cap as they head toward the second half of the regular season.
Field Yates of ESPN reports that the team has restructured left guard Ali Marpet‘s contract. They converted a portion of his salary into a bonus and created $4.125 million in space for the rest of this season.
That money will be folded into the remaining years of Marpet’s contract. He’s signed through 2023 with cap hits over $10 million, but the guaranteed money from his 2018 extension has been paid out.
The Buccaneers were close to the cap before the move. Opening up more space allows them to add a player before the year is over and they could also roll over the space to next season.
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NFC WEST
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SAN FRANCISCO
The State of California has given the go-ahead for the 49ers (and some other teams) to have fans in the stands. But that ain’t good enough for the hyper-sensitive health department of Santa Clara County. ESPN.com
California will let fans back in outdoor stadiums for pro sporting events in counties with low coronavirus infection rates, the state’s top health official said Tuesday.
San Francisco and neighboring Alameda and Santa Clara are the only counties that meet the threshold for pro sports. However, immediately after the announcement, officials in Santa Clara, home to the San Francisco 49ers, issued a statement saying they weren’t prepared to allow even a limited number of fans into Levi’s Stadium.
As many as 14,000 people could attend Levi’s Stadium events under the state’s guidance, setting up the chance of devastating “superspreader” events, said Dr. Jeff Smith, Santa Clara County’s executive officer.
“It’s a matter of reasonable scientific decision-making instead of political decision-making,” Smith told reporters. “Putting an audience in a stadium in large groups is just asking for trouble. It’s like a petri dish.”
Being outdoors isn’t enough to guarantee the virus won’t spread, he said, because fans would be using the same restrooms and same doors to enter and leave the stadium, while screaming and yelling during the game.
The 49ers said the team welcomed the news from the state but “will continue to collaborate with local public health officials to implement a plan that ensures a plan that protects the health and wellness” of the team, its employees and the public. Many NFL teams in other states have been playing games with fans in the stands.
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LOS ANGELES RAMS
Rookie PK SAM SOLMAN has missed a PAT in each of the last two games, so this could be a sign of a short leash. TheRams.com:
The Los Angeles Rams announced Tuesday that they have signed kicker Kai Forbath to their active roster off the Bears’ practice squad.
Forbath, 33, has connected on 131 of his 151 career field goal attempts (86.8 percent). Last season, he spent four games with the Dallas Cowboys and made all 11 of his field goal attempts. He began his NFL career as an undrafted free agent signee with the Cowboys in 2011 and has also spent time with the New England Patriots, Washington Football Team, Minnesota Vikings, New Orleans Saints and Jacksonville Jaguars.
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AFC NORTH
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CLEVELAND
Jake Trotter of ESPN.com with the thoughts of QB BAKER MAYFIELD after Sunday:
Baker Mayfield admitted that even though the Browns still boast a winning record, it hasn’t felt like it this week following a deflating 38-7 loss to the Steelers.
“The feeling throughout [our] building after that loss — 4-2 has never felt so much like 0-6 before,” the Cleveland quarterback said Wednesday. “But that’s because we have very high expectations for ourselves.”
The Browns last held a winning record in 2014. But an otherwise strong start has been marred by blowout losses to AFC North division rivals Baltimore and Pittsburgh, which combined to outscore Cleveland 76-13.
Despite that, ESPN’s Football Power Index gives the Browns a 56.6% chance to finally snap the NFL’s longest playoff drought of 18 years. According to FPI, Cleveland also faces the easiest remaining schedule in the league.
“We’re eager to get back to work,” Mayfield said. “Fix the problems we know are within our control.”
Mayfield has taken the brunt of the criticism for the loss to the Steelers after producing a QBR score of 5.5, the third-worst QBR performance of any quarterback this season. While battling a chest injury that limited him in practice last week, Mayfield threw a pick-six on Cleveland’s third snap, and Pittsburgh went on to sack him four times and intercept another pass. He was eventually replaced by Case Keenum late in the third quarter.
Coach Kevin Stefanski explained afterward, “I didn’t want to see him get hit one more time.”
“I’ve got to have a short memory playing quarterback,” Mayfield said. “It’s tough when you’re in a momentum swing like that to get back on track. But this position, you have to be able to do that.”
Mayfield said avoiding early mistakes will be key to bouncing back.
“Not let them up front pin their ears back and bring a bunch of different crazy blitzes,” he said. “Get the ball out of [my] hands, not give them a taste for hitting the quarterback, getting those sacks. … Playing the field position early on is more than OK.”
Mayfield said his chest and rib injury had improved since Sunday despite taking several big shots and that he expects to get more practice snaps this week.
And as for criticism from the pundits?
“I don’t give a damn what they say,” he fired back. “We know we can be better. I know I can be better. The outside noise doesn’t matter. They get paid to talk and we get paid to do our work. So that’s how it’s going to be handled.”
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PITTSBURGH
LB ROBERT SPILLANE has some big shoes to fill. Joe Rutter of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review:
Mike Tomlin is prepared to go with former undrafted free agent Robert Spillane at inside linebacker for the immediate future as the Pittsburgh Steelers plan to play the rest of the season without starter Devin Bush.
Tomlin said Tuesday at his weekly news conference Bush will undergo surgery Wednesday to repair a torn ACL. Bush will be placed on injured reserve, essentially ending his season.
Spillane had five tackles, plus another on special teams, after replacing Bush late in the second quarter of the Steelers’ 38-7 victory against the Cleveland Browns on Sunday.
The Steelers (5-0) play the Tennessee Titans (5-0) on Sunday at Nissan Stadium in a matchup of the AFC’s only two unbeaten teams.
“We’ve got a great deal of confidence in Robert, and we’ll largely go with him in the replacement of Devin,” Tomlin said. “Through gameplanning, we will look at options in terms of dividing the labor, but Robert will be the primary man responsible for replacing Devin. We’re excited about watching him play and play to the standard of our expectations.”
Ulysees Gilbert III, who has been inactive for four of the five games, and converted safety Marcus Allen also could see playing time at inside linebacker.
Tomlin, though, didn’t confirm whether Spillane will wear the green dot in his helmet, which goes to the player relaying the defensive signals from the sideline. Spillane wore the green dot after Bush left the game.
“We still have heavy gameplanning to do,” Tomlin said. “We’ll hammer out some of those details, like who is carrying the green dot and the division of labor. I doubt Robert Spillane will be playing all of the defensive snaps. It will probably be a combination of people to replace Devin Bush.
Spillane is from the Chicago area and went to Western Michigan. He is the grandson of 1953 Heisman Trophy winner, College Football Hall of Famer and NFL halfback Johnny Lattner. Turns out Lattner had 25 grandchildren. His Heisman Trophy was destroyed in a fire.
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AFC SOUTH
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JACKSONVILLE
Doug Marrone puts QB GARDNER MINSHEW on notice. Michael DiRocco of ESPN.com:
Jacksonville Jaguars coach Doug Marrone said he never considered benching quarterback Gardner Minshew despite his struggles during the team’s 34-16 loss to the Detroit Lions on Sunday.
But he didn’t rule out taking that step if things don’t get better.
“Maybe in the future, I think,” Marrone said. “I mean, I’d be naïve not to say [that’s a possibility]. That’s up for any position, any play that we can do for ourselves to get better.
“But no, I didn’t feel that way during the course of the game.”
That Marrone wouldn’t rule that out indicates that Minshew — unless he goes on a tear the rest of the season — might not be the quarterback around which the team can build. Marrone and general manager Dave Caldwell gave Minshew this season to prove he can be the long-term starter, but he has not played well since the season opener.
Five of the eight TD passes he’s thrown since Week 1 have come with the Jaguars down double digits. He has turned the ball over eight times (five interceptions), and he’s been sacked 13 times in the five-game losing streak.
Minshew threw for a season-low 243 yards with one touchdown, one interception and had three rushes for 14 yards and another TD against the Lions.
DB ALERT – actually Minshew’s season-low is 173 yards, but that was in the Week 1 upset of the Colts that the Jaguars won. Still Minshew is one of only four QBs who has passed for 243 or more yards in 5 games or more. Deshaun Watson has 6, two others have 5.
He missed on several normal throws, including throwing behind DJ Chark on a fourth-down slant and overthrowing Chark when he was wide open in the end zone. He continued to look uncomfortable in the pocket.
Minshew also lost a fumble, but that was more on left tackle Cam Robinson, who let Trey Flowers get by him and behind Minshew to swat the ball out of his hand.
The Jaguars managed just 108 yards (99 passing) and three points in the first half and Minshew didn’t get the Jaguars into the end zone until they were trailing 24-3.
That’s another slow start, which has plagued Minshew and the offense since they scored 14 points in the first half of the season opener against Indianapolis. Since then, the Jaguars have been outscored 82-40 in the first half. Against the Lions, the Jaguars went three-and-out and gained zero yards on their opening possession.
– – –
When the offense isn’t functional until the game gets out of hand and the defenses play softer coverages, that’s on the quarterback. It’s what happened in 2018 with Blake Bortles and last season when Nick Foles returned from his broken collarbone. And in each case, Marrone made a QB switch: He benched Bortles for Cody Kessler and Foles for Minshew.
This year, his options if he wants to bench Minshew are veteran Mike Glennon, who has thrown just 31 passes since he was replaced as Chicago’s starter by Mitchell Trubisky four weeks into the 2018 season, and rookie sixth-round pick Jake Luton.
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TENNESSEE
Good note from Michael David Smith of ProFootballTalk.com:
@MichaelDavSmith
In the Titans’ 17 games with Ryan Tannehill as starting quarterback, Derrick Henry has 2,158 rushing yards.
In the Titans’ 17 games pre-Tannehill, Henry had 1,256 rushing yards.
He’s averaging more than 50 yards per game more with Tannehill than he was before Tannehill.
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AFC EAST
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MIAMI
QB RYAN FITZPATRICK was 3-3 with a 95.0 passer rating. In the last two games, both wins, he had a 124.9 passer rating. He’s headed to the bench for rookie QB TUA TAGOVAILOA:
It wasn’t an easy decision, Flores said.
Fitzpatrick didn’t do anything to lose the job. He had three touchdown passes in each of his last two games, both Dolphins wins. Flores made sure to praise Fitzpatrick.
“Fitz has been great the last two years, year and a half,” Flores said, via the Miami Herald. “I don’t know that there’s been anyone more instrumental trying to instill a culture and embody what we’re looking for — toughness, competitiveness, team first [attitude].
“He’s made an impact on Tua and a lot of players on this team. I have a great respect for him. That made this decision very tough. But as a team, we felt this was the best thing to do for our team moving forward is go with Tua.
Tagovailoa came in late in the Dolphins’ blowout win Sunday against the New York Jets. He completed both passes he threw as Miami was running out the final couple minutes. It obviously was a lot more than two garbage-time completions that led to the change.
“We’ve seen a lot of improvement from Tua. He’s gotten more comfortable. Accuracy, decision-making, all those things have been good in practice,” Flores said, via the Herald. “But practice is very different from the games.
“We are going to do everything we can from a meeting, walk-through, practice standpoint to get him ready to play in a game. We’re confident he’ll be able to be competitive in those games when the time comes.”
The move was inevitable. First-round quarterbacks don’t sit full seasons anymore, especially on teams like Miami who, despite the 3-3 record, are still rebuilding. Joe Burrow and Justin Herbert are already starting for their teams and doing very well. Sitting Tagovailoa just to sit him is imprudent. He’s the future.
The difference with Tagovailoa is the health questions. His final college season at Alabama ended when he suffered a bad hip injury. The Dolphins weren’t going to risk his long-term health to rush him into the lineup.
Flores expressed that the team thinks Tagovailoa is ready. That must mean from a health standpoint, and also being able to go out and run the offense well. Miami has a bye this week, which helps the transition. Tagovailoa is an exciting prospect and once he was ready it made sense to put him in the lineup, regardless of what the Dolphins’ standing was at the time.
Hopefully Flores is right on the timing, because there’s no turning back now.
We eventually learned how to spell Garoppolo without looking it up. Working now on Tagovailoa.
More from Cameron Wolfe of ESPN.com:
The Dolphins discussed the move Monday night with coaches and front office personnel before making the decision to start Tagovailoa. Flores said being on the bye week helped and that making his NFL debut in garbage time against the New York Jets on Sunday was another checkpoint to cross off.
Ultimately, however, Flores said the feeling was that Tagovailoa had shown enough behind-the-scenes to be given the keys to the offense.
“We’ve seen a lot of improvement from Tua,” Flores said. “He’s gotten more comfortable — accuracy, decision-making have been good in practice. But again, practice is very different than games. We’re going to do everything we can from a meeting, walkthrough, practice standpoint to get him ready to play in a game. Obviously we’re comfortable and confident that he’ll be able to be competitive in those games when the time comes. There’s a lot that leads into that.”
Multiple Dolphins players told ESPN that Tagovailoa has been impressive in practice in recent weeks, with his improvement since training camp becoming more noticeable.
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NEW YORK JETS
QB SAM DARNOLD was back at practice Wednesday.
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THIS AND THAT
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AIKMAN RATINGS thru Week 6
Bruce Arian inherited a Tampa Bay team that finished 27th in the 2018 Aikman Combined Ratings. In 2019, despite a torrent of Jameis Winston interceptions, the Buccaneers rose to 12th. And now, with Tom Brady and the NFL’s top Aikman Defense, they sit atop the Aikman Ratings for the second consecutive weeks.
Another surprise is the Arizona Cardinals who have risen to #2 (from #4 after Week 5) following their easy win over Dallas.
Then come four teams, the Steelers, Chiefs, Seahawks and Ravens, who most experts have atop their power rankings.
The unbeaten Titans have the top Aikman Offense, but the defense has not been up to snuff and so Tennessee only sits 9th in the current Aikman Combined.
The two NFC North teams who are a combined 9-2, the Bears and the Packers, have not performed in a manner that the Aikman Ratings have responded to and they sit at #12 and #15 respectively.
The Aikman Ratings do agree that the NFC East teams aren’t very good, as they fill four of the bottom nine spots with the #24 Eagles the best of the bunch.
Aikman NFL
Off Def Comb Off Def Comb
1 4-2 Buccaneers 92.8 78.1 170.9 13 3 16
2 4-2 Cardinals 98.9 71.8 170.7 4 19 23
3 5-0 Steelers 91.9 74.6 166.5 27 1 28
4 5-1 Chiefs 100.2 65.3 165.5 2 20 22
5 5-0 Seahawks 99.6 60.2 159.8 21 26 47
6 5-1 Ravens 89.6 69.2 158.8 18 15 33
7 3-3 49ers 88.6 69.6 158.2 9 11 20
8 4-2 Rams 90.7 67.4 158.1 5 10 15
9 5-0 Titans 103.2 52.7 155.9 15 17 32
10 4-2 Colts 83.0 72.4 155.4 11 5 16
11 3-3 Dolphins 87.5 67.0 154.5 14 22 36
12 5-1 Bears 80.7 73.6 154.3 25 14 39
13 2-3 Patriots 81.2 72.6 153.8 26 4 30
14 4-2 Browns 91.3 62.3 153.6 12 23 35
15 4-1 Packers 98.5 53.8 152.3 20 6 26
16 1-4 Chargers 88.2 63.6 151.8 23 9 32
17 3-2 Saints 95.6 54.3 149.9 24 2 26
18 1-5 Vikings 89.5 59.4 148.9 7 29 36
19 3-3 Panthers 86.3 60.9 147.2 6 16 22
20 3-2 Raiders 95.0 51.1 146.1 19 12 31
21 4-2 Bills 92.2 53.4 145.6 8 25 33
22 2-3 Lions 89.4 56.1 145.5 28 8 36
23 1-5 Falcons 89.9 55.4 145.3 3 32 35
24 1-4-1 Eagles 86.3 57.1 143.4 22 21 43
25 1-5 Texans 88.0 53.8 141.8 10 31 41
26 2-3 Broncos 69.7 70.1 139.8 32 7 39
27 1-5 Washington 74.4 64.5 138.9 30 13 43
28 1-5 Jaguars 84.1 54.0 138.1 16 30 46
29 2-4 Cowboys 89.0 47.8 136.8 1 28 29
30 1-4-1 Bengals 78.9 57.7 136.6 17 27 44
31 1-5 Giants 67.5 61.4 128.9 30 18 48
32 0-6 Jets 64.5 61.9 126.4 29 24 53
NFL Average 87.7 62.3 150.0 NFL Rankings Based On Net Yardage
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FLYOVER COUNTRY
Troy Aikman and Joe Buck were standing in the booth, chit-chatting off air, and they saw a formation of military aircraft flyover a largely empty stadium.
Somehow that conversation made it into the Twitter world, something that Jimmy Traina of SI.com didn’t like:
If you’ve been on the internet over the past 48 hours, you most likely saw the video of Joe Buck and Troy Aikman talking about military flyovers.
The internet, as it always does, ran with the video with no context and spun it to paint Buck and Aikman as super liberal, anti-military people.
Aikman fought back against that narrative yesterday when he addressed the controversy.
Buck will address this situation on his podcast, Daddy Issues, which comes out Thursday.
There are many things about this ridiculous story that need to be cleared up. First, it seemed pretty clear if you listened to the audio, that Buck and Aikman were goofing around and being sarcastic.
Two, and most important, they were not caught on a hot mic. This did not take place during a break in the Packers-Bucs game.
This was done before the game, during a rehearsal. That means someone who works at FOX, either in a truck or a broadcast studio, pulled the clip on purpose and then leaked it on purpose to make Buck and Aikman look bad. And the fact that one of their co-workers would leak this clip to make the broadcast duo look bad really sucks.
You can be sure Fox is doing some sort of internal investigation to find the culprit.
Both announcers commented on a waste of jet fuel. As Aikman said in his twitter defense, they were talking about a flyover above a stadium emptied by Covid restrictions.
@TroyAikman
I love a flyover but It was odd to see one over a mostly empty stadium but I am an unwavering patriot that loves this country, has always respected our flag, supported the men and women in the armed forces as well as those in uniform who serve & protect and for anyone to suggest otherwise doesn’t know me, my beliefs or what I have stood for my entire life.
Mike Florio defended Aikman on this point:
It’s entirely possible to be an “unwavering patriot” who respects the flag and supports the military while also questioning whether taxpayer money is properly used for displays of military might prior to a sporting event. Indeed, many unwavering patriots demonstrate their patriotism by asking tough questions of a those charged with properly managing taxpayer funds.
Even in this twisted, upside down, hyper-politicized existence of ours, questioning the prudence and wisdom of the decisions and actions of the federal government is not, cannot be, and never has been unpatriotic. It’s quintessentially patriotic to use our voices, raise our concerns, and air our grievances.
And as to those who insist that there’s no extra expenditure of money because these flyovers double as training runs for pilots (frankly, I like my flyover pilots to be fully trained in advance), why has that never before been mentioned when the question of whether flyovers at sporting events constitute a proper use of taxpayer funds has come up in the past? Why would flyovers that also represent important and critical pilot training be regarded as non-essential, and thus be suspended, during a shutdown of the federal government?
Even if there’s a dual purpose for such flights, they avoid incurring extra expense only if they already would have been flying the exact same path, over the stadium. Any deviation from normal and usual training flights surely costs extra money, and thus expends resources that arguably shouldn’t be.
The reality is that flyovers are good for military recruitment and otherwise enhancing the image and reputation of the armed services. Which arguably makes it not a waste of taxpayer money but a legitimate expense with a calculated, strategic end in mind.
Regardless, for Aikman or anyone else to suggest that it’s a waste of money doesn’t make him unpatriotic. To suggest otherwise would be to argue that true patriots should sit down and shut up regarding any and all concerns as to the proper use of public funds. While those in power may prefer their patriots to be compliant and obsequious, this country became great — and will stay great — thanks to the willingness of true patriots to ask tough questions, take unpopular positions, and do unpopular things.
We would add, wondering about the effectiveness of the flyover was not something Aikman or Buck felt passionately about. They weren’t dying to bring it to the attention of their viewers. Just two guys passing the time before their next broadcast duty.
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