Thursday Night Football'shighly anticipatedshowdown between Trevor Lawrence and Joe Burrow ended up being decided by a buzzer-beater field goal.
That's right—a professional football game dubbed the rematch between the 2020 CFP national championship quarterbacks was decided on a walk-off.
Cincinnati defeated the Jaguars, 24-21, after Burrow led four straight scoring drives in the second half after not scoring at all during the first. Tied 21-21 with 10 seconds to go when the teams lined up, all eyes fell to Bengals kicker Evan McPherson.
The 22-year-old sent the ball flying easily through the uprights from 35-yards out, giving Cincinnati the walkaway victory.
Despite Jacksonville now losing 19 in a row, Lawrence starred on Thursday, completing 17 of 24 passes for 204 yards. However, all three touchdowns for the Jaguars were rushing. Meanwhile, Burrow completed 25 of his 32 passes, tallying 348 yards for two touchdowns to C.J. Uzomah.
The Jaguars, though, lost one of its offensive weapons as wide receiver DJ Chark fractured his left ankle, suffering the injury during the franchise's opening drive. Offensive lineman A.J. Cann was also ruled out with a knee injury.
Jaguars wide receiver DJ Chark fractured his left ankle in Thursday night's game against the Bengals, the team announced. He will be out indefinitely with the injury, Rapoport added.
Chark suffered the injury during the Jaguars' opening drive. As running back James Robinson took the handoff, he was running behind offensive lineman Jawaan Taylor and Chark, who was the outside blocker. Chark ran into Taylor as the lineman attempted to make the block. Taylor eventually fell to the ground and rolled up on Chark's ankle.
Chark was immediately carted off the field and shortly thereafter was ruled out of the game.
The Pro Bowl receiver entered the game needing 50 receiving yards to pass Pete Mitchell (2,091) on the all-time receiving yards list and move up to No. 15 in franchise history.
Chark has caught seven passes for 154 yards and two touchdowns this season. The Jaguars lead the Bengals 7-0 early in the second quarter.
Jaguars also ruled out offensive lineman A.J. Cann with a knee injury.
Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Mary J. Blige and Kendrick Lamar will all be at centerstage at SoFi Stadium on Feb. 13, 2022, marking the first time the five icons will grace the stage together. This year's group of artists have a combined 43 Grammy awards, 19 No. 1 Billboard albums and five epic hitmakers.
“The opportunity to perform at the Super Bowl Halftime show, and to do it in my own backyard, will be one of the biggest thrills of my career,” Dre said in a statement, per Billboard. “I’m grateful to JAY-Z, Roc Nation, the NFL and Pepsi as well as Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Mary J. Blige and Kendrick Lamar for joining me in what will be an unforgettable cultural moment.”
NFL's announcement floored fans across the country, some saying that they have been calling for this for years. And as ESPN's Kimberly Martin tweeted, "Say no more, NFL."
Here's what some of your favorite Twitter personalities and sports icons are saying about the upcoming legendary performance.
Former New England star Julian Edelman seemed to think so when he posted a well-crafted meme on Twitter of an awkward dinner party on the hit TV show, adding, "I. Declare. #GOATBOWL!"
Fans will immediately recognize the clip of when Michael Scott and his girlfriend Jan hosted a tension-filled dinner party. In Edelman's clip, Brady is Michael and hangs his Bucs' Super Bowl banner on the wall, and it's the Lombardi Trophy being hurled by Belichick.
Sunday will mark Brady's first time facing his former team since leaving in March 2020 for Tampa Bay. He led the Patriots to six Super Bowl titles over his 20 seasons, but the Patriots head coach still sings Brady's praises.
"Nothing Tom does surprises me," Belichick told reporters, per ESPN. "He's a great player, works hard, takes care of himself. He's talked about playing until 50. If anybody can do it, he probably can."
Brady is 68 yards away from becoming the league's all-time leader in passing yards, and will most likely pass Drew Brees's mark of 80,358 in the same stadium he played in for 20 seasons.
"He's done more than any other player at that position in whatever measurement you want to take—whether it's yards, completions, touchdowns, championships, you name it," Belichick said. "Put anything out there that you want; it doesn't get any tougher than that."
Meanwhile, Belichick has been in the center of multiple news reports throughout the week, the most recent being an excerpt from ESPN's Seth Wickersham's upcoming book where he reports owner Robert Kraft called the team's longtime coach the "biggest f------ ass---- in my life."
Dr. Dre, Eminem and Mary J. Blige are among a star-studded group of artists who will headline the 2022 Super Bowl halftime show, the NFL announced Thursday.
"I'm extremely excited to share the stage with my friends for the #PepsiHalftime Show," Dr. Dre shared in a tweet. "This will introduce the next saga of my career. Bigger and Better than Ever!!!"
The halftime show also features two Los Angeles legends: Snoop Dogg and Kendrick Lamar. This year's group of artists have a combined 43 Grammy awards, 19 No. 1 Billboard albums and five epic hitmakers.
This marks the third halftime performance collaboration between Roc Nation, Pepsi and the NFL.
SI Sportsbook posted an over/under of 52 in this contest, pointing to a wide-open game.
More: Mac Jones – 23.11, Justin Fields – 22.59
Jason Getz-USA TODAY Sports
Running Backs
Top Tier: Alvin Kamara, New Orleans Saints ($8,400/$9,000)
An early lead helped Kamara to touch the ball a season-high (27 times). He gained 118 combined yards with a score and three catches. After three games, he only has 10 catches on 14 targets, which is well below his previous career resume (5.4 catches for 47 yards and 0.25 touchdowns per game) with Drew Brees behind center. Kamara has yet to gain over 20 yards on any play while averaging only 3.4 yards per rush (5.0 in his career) and 6.2 yards per catch (8.7 in his career).
The Giants allowed 499 combined yards with two touchdowns and seven catches over the first three weeks.
Sports Illustrated has Kamara projected for 157 combined yards with two touchdowns and six catches against the Giants.
More: Derrick Henry – 33.38
Value: David Montgomery, Chicago Bears ($5,800/$7,500)
The switch to Justin Fields at quarterback over the past two games has led to Chicago gaining only 353 combined yards against the Bengals and Browns. In addition, Montgomery struggled to make plays in the run game (30/95 – 3.2 yards per rush) over this span with five catches for 39 yards. The Bears had him on the field for 80.9 percent of their plays over the previous two weeks.
Running backs gained 356 combined yards with six touchdowns and nine catches vs. the Lions. The Packers’ running backs gained 149 yards in their only road game with four scores and seven catches.
Montgomery looks to be on a path for 115 combined yards with a touchdown and four catches while only one big run to fill his salary bucket.
More: Zack Moss – 17.57, D’Andre Swift – 20.50
Wide Receivers
Top Tier: Stefon Diggs, Buffalo Bills ($7,600/$8,000)
After three weeks of action, Diggs sits 24th in wide receiver scoring (44.10 fantasy points) with no impact games (9/69, 4/60/1, and 6/62). Despite his slow start, the Bills have looked his way 29 times. He has one catch over 20 yards (41 yards) compared to 40 over 20 yards and 13 over 40 yards in 2019 and 2020.
Wide receivers have 34 catches for 476 yards and two touchdowns against the Texans, with three wideouts having success (3/86/1, 5/77/1, and 8/126).
Josh Allen should get his top wide receiver rolling this week, setting up a special day. However, Diggs needs to get out of the gate quickly as the second half of the game could feature many runs by the Bills if they build a big lead.
Top Tier: Keenan Allen, Los Angeles Chargers ($6,800/$7,100)
Despite ranking third in wide receiver scoring (21/258/1) in PPR leagues while averaging 11 targets per game, Allen has played second fiddle to Mike Williams (8/82/1, 7/91/1, and 7/122/2) over the first three weeks. Last year, Allen played well at home (69/701/4), highlighted by four games (13/132/1, 10/125, 9/103/1, and 16/145/1), with the third output coming against the Raiders.
Las Vegas faced two below-par passing offenses (Baltimore and Miami), helping them to a league-average ranking (17th) vs. wideouts (48/507/1). Diontae Johnson (9/105) and Marquise Brown (6/69/1) had the most success.
Both teams should move the ball well in this matchup, setting up plenty of chances for Allen.
The spotlight of a Thursday night game should shine brightly on Chase, and I expect him to rise to the occasion. The Bengals ruled Tee Higgins out again for this game, giving Cincy’s top two wideouts a two-way split for the bulk of targets. Over his first three games, Chase has 11 catches for 220 yards and four touchdowns on only 16 targets. His lack of chances falls on game flow and score. Joe Burrow only has 75 passing attempts over three weeks compared to his 2020 average (40.4).
The Jaguars struggled in all three games against quarterbacks (3311/2, 329/2, and 335/1), with wide receivers doing plenty of damage (44/654/2). Jacksonville allows 14.9 yards per catch to wideouts, with each opponent having success (HOU – 13/200/1, DEN – 14/216/1, and ARI – 17/238).
I see a winning play on his over in catches (4.5) and receiving yards (67.5) in the betting market. I have Chase projected for seven catches for 102 yards and a touchdown.
Value: Jakobi Meyers, New England Patriots ($5,200/$5,700)
After two quiet games (6/44 and 4/38), Meyers found himself on the bench on many rosters in the season-long games in Week 3. A chaser game vs. the Saints led to him seeing the most targets (14) of the year. He finished with nine catches for 94 yards. Despite gaining only 9.3 yards per catch, Meyers does have three catches over 20 yards. Over 32 career games, he has yet to score a touchdown.
Tampa plays well vs. the run, and Tom Brady should score on the Patriots’ defense. They’ve allowed a league-high in catches (63), receiving yards (871), and touchdowns (9).
Meyers should be active in this matchup while Mac Jones posts the best game of his young career.
More: Tyler Boyd – 21.94, Corey Davis – 19.91
Tight Ends
Top Tier: Darren Waller, Las Vegas Raiders ($7,100/$7,500)
The Steelers and Dolphins held Waller in check over the past two weeks (5/65 and 5/54) after busting out in Week 1 with a dominating game (10/105/1 on 19 targets). He dusted the Chargers in 2020 at home (9/150/1) after a short outing at home (5/22/1).
Tight ends have 19 catches for 207 yards and two scores on 24 targets against the Chargers. Most of the damage came against Logan Thomas (3/30/1) and Travis Kelce (7/104).
Waller should regain his stride in this matchup with a touchdown well within reach.
More: Travis Kelce – 23.54, George Kittle – 17.30
Value: Adam Trautman, New Orleans ($2,900/$4,300)
Three games into the season, Trautman only has three catches for 18 yards while being shut out in back-to-back games. He came into 2021 as an upside breakout option at tight end, but an August ankle injury put the start of his season in doubt. Trautman saw 82% of offensive snaps in Week 1 and Week 3, while a chaser game led to only 52 percent of the snaps against the Panthers. Over his 18 NFL games, Trautman has 18 catches for 189 yards and one touchdown on 23 targets.
The Giants allowed a touchdown each week to the tight end, leading to 21 catches for 191 yards and three scores. All three touchdowns allowed to tight ends came from TE2 options (Albert Okwuegbunam, Ricky Seals-Jones, and Lee Smith) on their team.
I expect Trautman to show a pulse this week, along with the Saints’ passing game.
More: Noah Fant – 14.75, Jared Cook – 12.11
My Week 4 projections are up with a second update coming Saturday in the morning after all practices close Friday night.
Senior analyst Shawn Childs is a multi-sport, high-stakes fantasy legend with lifetime earnings in the high six-figures. He has been providing in-depth, analytical break downs for years all while helping his subscribers to countless titles and winnings across season-long & DFS. An inaugural inductee of the NFBC Hall of Fame, Shawn can teach you how to prep like a champ!
Thursday Night Football Betting Guide: Jaguars-Bengals isn’t the best primetime game we’ve had this season, so why not place a few bets to make it more exciting? Jennifer Piacenti has picks for the spread, point total and player props. Place your bets over at SI Sportsbook.
Sam Greene via Imagn Content Services, LLC
NFL Week 4 Line Movement: Where is the public putting its money? Frankie Taddeo is following the games that are on the move ahead of the weekend.
Start ‘Em, Sit ‘Em: Michael Fabiano picked Justin Herbert as his quarterback Start of the Week a week ago, and the sophomore responded with a season-high in points. See who Fabiano likes this week at quarterback and beyond.
Weekly Player Rankings: Shawn Childs foresees a big week for a pair of Bills players in his weekly projections and rankings. Check out who else Childs is high on.
Composite CFB Picks: Richard Johnson's college football picks model had a bounce back week, and with conference play in full swing, he's confident in another good week ahead as we learn more and more about teams.
College Football Futures: Frankie Taddeo checks in on which teams' odds to win the College Football Playoff are rising and falling. The SEC is on top, and the ACC is virtually out of the picture; see how the rest of the contenders from the Power 5 stack up.
What’s Going on With Kickers?
Week 3 was a highlight reel for kickers with walk-off field goals from Atlanta’s Younghoe Koo, Las Vegas’ Daniel Carlson, Green Bay’s Mason Crosby and Baltimore’s Justin Tucker, who set an NFL record with a 66-yard boot. So what’s going on with kickers as it relates to fantasy football three weeks into the season?
Well, the highest-drafted kickers have largely been disappointments. Of the 12 highest kickers drafted, only five are currently in the top 12 in scoring at the position. Kicker, like defense, can be a fickle position for fantasy.
Top 12 Fantasy Kickers
(Data via ESPN.com)
Tucker, true to form, is the third-best kicker this season and was drafted the highest. I wouldn't call that a disappointment. The next kicker off the board was Harrison Butker of Kansas City. The Chiefs, though 1-2, are still one of the highest-scoring offenses in football. Their 30.7 points per game are fifth-best in the NFL. But Butker has only attempted and made three field goals compared with 11-of-11 extra points, which are worthless for fantasy.
The same goes for Ryan Succop of the Buccaneers. Tampa Bay is the second-highest scoring offense, but Succop has only made two of three field goals this season and 13 of 14 extra points. He was the fifth kicker drafted but is tied for 22nd in scoring. Matt Prater, who kicks for Arizona, the NFL's highest-scoring offense, is tied for 11th.
Kickers with Top-12 ADPs not in the Top 12
(Data via ESPN.com)
Being a good fantasy kicker isn’t necessarily directly correlated with your team having a good offense. The offense just needs to be good enough to make it into field goal range but not good enough to always score near the red zone. Take the Patriots’ Nick Folk. New England has the 26th-best scoring offense, but he’s tied for fourth at the position because he’s attempted and made nine field goals.
Picking a kicker can be a crapshoot, and as shown by Jason Sanders and Koo, 2020’s top kickers, the continuity from season to season isn’t super sticky, either. They’re both tied for 23rd at their position. And players like Emmanuel Sanders and Derek Carr went well after each of them. All this to say, in-season adjustments at kicker (and every position) are vital to success. The Buccaneers could go out and score seven touchdowns this Sunday, but if they never attempt a field goal, that’s still only seven points for Succop.
Play of the Day and Games I’m Watching
Play of the Day: Can I interest you in Ja’Marr Chase against the Jaguars' defense? The Joe Burrow to Chase connection has been more than everyone had hoped for, even early after the draft when expectations were high. In the preseason, Chase's stock dropped dramatically after his drops became a huge storyline. Now, all he's done is catch touchdown after touchdown. He's averaging 20 yards per catch, and it's easy to envision him getting behind the Jaguars' secondary and linking up with Burrow. Lock Chase into all of your DFS lineups. I still feel that his price hasn't caught up to his production. He's a bargain.
Games I’m Watching: I don’t know about you, but I love some SEC football, and the game of the week is Saturday at noon ET between No. 8 Arkansas and No. 2 Georgia on ESPN. I don't know many people who could have predicted this would be a top-10 matchup before the season began, but the Razorbacks are legit, and they get another chance to prove their place among the SEC's elite when they travel to Athens to take on the Bulldogs.
Jim Dedmon-USA TODAY Sports
I’ll also be watching Boston College at No. 25 Clemson closely on the ACC Network at 7:30 PM ET on Saturday. The Tigers have the second-longest-running streak in the AP Top 25. A loss to a good Eagles team would end that this weekend.
That's all for today. Enjoy your college football Saturday, and I'll talk to you Sunday morning.
pick every single NFL game and, sometimes, you finish a project like that feeling like the league may as well not play the season since you already cracked the code. This year, through three games, my expectation that many of the teams we’ll talk about below would struggle this year has me reeling. In my initial projections, I had the Raiders, Cardinals and Panthers all finishing last in their respective divisions. They are all currently 3–0.
But is this just a mirage?
That’s what we’re here to examine about each of the NFL’s five surprise teams so far. Are they for real? Are they riding a soft schedule? Have they benefited from some oddly fortuitous on-field occurrence? Are they, despite a soft schedule, going to maintain their grip on first place?
Join us on a spin through the proverbial desert, where we’ll discuss whether this crystal blue pool and fully stocked ice chest we’re seeing through the heat and haze is coming upon us, or if it’s destined to vanish, the product of some timely early-season mental trickery.
Isaiah J. Downing/USA TODAY Sports
Broncos (3–0)
Wins over: Giants (27–13), Jaguars (23–13), Jets (26–0) Are they for real?YES
Teddy Bridgewater is not only playing good enough football for the Broncos this year, he is playing like one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL. He has the league’s third-best total quarterback rating and is sixth in expected points added per dropback.
Offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur’s career has been strange in that way. Both with Case Keenum and Bridgewater, he’s been able to find a quarterback who can stretch the outer limits of his system despite a lack of pedigree coming in (relatively speaking).
The real story here is obviously the defense, which hasn't truly been been tested but came into the season as one of the most talented units on paper. The Broncos are fifth in Football Outsiders’ latest DVOA rankings, and while they have faced Trevor Lawrence, Zach Wilson and Daniel Jones, Vic Fangio’s track record gives us more confidence that their ranking will hold. A win over the Ravens would shoot the Broncos into a far more legitimate stratosphere, but at the moment, they have not fallen into the pitfalls of recent past, losing games to inferior opponents because of a lack of punch on offense.
Raiders (3–0)
Wins over: Ravens (33–27, OT), Steelers (26–17), Dolphins (31–28) Are they for real?MAYBE
Derek Carr is certainly for real. It’s hard to overstate just how enjoyable it’s been watching him come into his own as a quarterback, which, as I’ve said before, is a strange thing to write about a 30-year-old. Carr took some massive shots against both the Ravens and the Steelers, with both coordinators’ assuming his penchant for grabbing at the safe throw was still true. In those games he began to resemble a more dependable veteran player who can rip teams apart with a well-timed deep shot.
Gus Bradley has been able to schematically cover up for some of the team’s glaring weaknesses in the secondary, and their pass rush has performed so far above expectation that both Yannick Ngakoue and Maxx Crosby are among the league leaders for pass rush and run stop win rate, respectively. Ironic, isn’t it, that the year Jon Gruden reportedly tried to get Khalil Mack back, he finally found a combination of edge rushers who make the defense tick?
Bengals (2–1)
Wins over: Vikings (27–24, OT), Steelers (24–10) Are they for real?NO
A Week 5 date with the Packers will be a measuring stick game for the Bengals, but there’s a good chance they'll go into that one 3–1 with the Jaguars coming to town Thursday night. Now that the Bengals have flashed some competency, the beginning of their schedule looks far different than it did back in July, when I picked this team to finish dead last in its division (a trend that will continue throughout the early season, by the way, with games against the Lions and the Jets still lingering before the bye week). While I tried to be clear in some preseason writing that the “Ja’Marr Chase can’t catch” narrative seemed silly, the Joe-Burrow-is-hesitant-in-the-pocket narrative was worth keeping an eye on, mainly because the Bengals didn’t do much to upgrade their offensive line.
What’s giving me pause and should prevent anyone from shifting the Bengals from no to maybe is that Burrow is still being pressured at an identical rate to where he finished the 2020 season (24%). At the moment, the Bengals are a respectable 12th in pass block win rate, and Burrow has been in the upper-middle-tier of quarterback efficiency. But their wins are against a Vikings team that missed a field goal in overtime and a Steelers team that looks completely punchless offensively. Further down we will get more excited about some teams that have beaten opponents with less than sparkling résumés, but Cincinnati’s roster doesn’t yet get the benefit of the doubt. This is especially true on defense.
The Bengals are currently fourth in DVOA, which feels like an early season anomaly. If it holds, Zac Taylor and defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo deserve some Coach of the Year love. But, with a second half of the season that includes dates with the Chargers, 49ers, Broncos, Ravens, Chiefs and Browns, do we think it will?
Michael Chow/USA TODAY Network
Cardinals (3–0)
Wins over: Titans (38–13), Vikings (34–33), Jaguars (31–19) Are they for real?MAYBE
Kyler Murray is playing lights out football right now, with the third-highest completion percentage above expectation in the NFL, behind only Bridgewater and Dak Prescott. Because of the presence of Murray, the Cardinals are never not going to be considered for real. While he is not yet on the level of Lamar Jackson as a singular game plan destroyer, Murray is good enough that you should never discount his team against any opponent, which is a heady thing to say about a third-year player.
My concerns with their record thus far are as follows: Their game management skills are still wonky. They nearly lost that game to the Vikings. And like a few other teams that got the first crack at last year’s unstoppable outside zone offenses, the Cardinals guessed right and walked into that matchup against the Titans with a bulletproof game plan, giving them the kind of single-game, non-replicable edge that we may have otherwise tabbed as an offseason evolution for the unit as a whole.
Let’s see how Arizona does with back-to-back games against divisional opponents. The NFC West is the best division in football, and it would still seem the Cardinals lack the overall heft to hang with the Rams or 49ers for four quarters. If we’re wrong about this too? Look out.
Panthers (3–0)
Wins over: Jets (19–14), Saints (26–7), Texans (24–9) Are they for real:YES
The C.J. Henderson trade may end up being a stroke of genius that shows how committed the Panthers are to racking up wins while the schedule allows. The Panthers are currently the league’s No. 1 defense, and Sam Darnold, while not playing nearly as well as his predecessor in Carolina, is still an upper-middle-tier player with arguably as good a showing this year as Justin Herbert and Joe Burrow.
Here’s why I feel safe with a yes call right now. The Panthers’ schedule is breaking incredibly favorably. The Falcons are going to be a nonfactor in 2021, and before their Week 13 bye week they only have two games against opponents with winning records (the Cowboys and Cardinals). The only hesitancy here is wondering if offensive coordinators can finally figure out Panthers’ defensive coordinator Phil Snow, who has emerged as an early darling of the 2021 season thanks to his Rolodex of pressure packages and fronts (a nice primer here). Joe Brady is also continuing his rapid ascent up the NFL coaching ladder, with a notable performance against a superior Saints defense in Week 2.
The NFL's Week 3 action was nothing short of spectacular. Justin Tucker walked things off for the Ravens in Detroit with a legendary 66-yard game-winner, while the Packers' Mason Crosby did the same in San Francisco. The upcoming Week 4 slate promises more dramatics.
Kyler Murray and the Cardinals travel to Los Angeles to take on Matthew Stafford's undefeated Rams. Then on Sunday night, Tom Brady makes his return to Gillette Stadium to face Bill Belichick and the 1–2 Patriots for the first time since his departure.
Kansas City's wide receivers have struggled to earn consistent production early in the season. In the Chiefs' 30-24 loss to the Chargers on Sunday, tight end Travis Kelce led the team in receiving yards (104) while all other receivers combining for a total of 156 yards.
"Everywhere he's been, he's kind of dominated,'' Mahomes told reporters on Wednesday about Gordon."He can make plays in one-on-one coverage.
"He's a big receiver. Even if he's covered, he's not covered. You can kind of throw it up there and he can make plays.''
Gordon practiced with the team on Wednesday. However, Gordon will start off as a member of the practice squad. He was reinstated by the league after being suspended indefinitely in December 2019 for violating the league's substance-abuse policy.
Chiefs head coach Andy Reid said it would take a while before Gordon would be elevated to the team's active roster.
"He's probably not going to play this week," Reid said. "We'll just see how it goes over the next week or two."
Mahomes told reporters that he expects Gordon to be used in multiple roles in the Chiefs' offense.
"I'm sure they'll incorporate him with a couple roles in the offense as the season goes on, as we get him up to speed, and we'll see where that takes us."
Currently, Kansas City (1-2) sits last in the AFC West for the first time since 2015. The Chiefs will go on the road to face the Eagles on Sunday.
"Nothing Tom does surprises me," Belichick told reporters, per ESPN. "He's a great player, works hard, takes care of himself. He's talked about playing until 50. If anybody can do it, he probably can."
The two won six Super Bowls together with the Patriots. In Brady's first year in Tampa Bay, he won his seventh Lombardi Trophy.
"Tom's had an unbelievable career," Belichick said. "There's not enough superlatives and adjectives to compliment him on everything that he's achieved and continues to achieve. It's unbelievably impressive."
Brady, 44, is just 68 yards away from becoming the NFL's all-time leader in passing yards. He will most likely pass Drew Brees's mark of 80,358 this Sunday in the same stadium he played in for 20 seasons. Kickoff is set for 8:20 p.m. ET.
"He's done more than any other player at that position in whatever measurement you want to take—whether it's yards, completions, touchdowns, championships, you name it," Belichick said. "Put anything out there that you want; it doesn't get any tougher than that."
Nagy said that he’s not concerned about potentially sitting Fields back on the bench after the quarterback endured one of the most horrific first starts in recent memory. Fields was sacked nine times and completed just six of his 20 passing attempts. Analysts loudly pointed out the number of times Fields was left behind basic, five-man protections despite the rickety state of Chicago’s offensive line and the presence of generational pass rusher Myles Garrett on the other side (Garrett had 4 ½ sacks on his own). It was a game plan that seemed doomed from the beginning. He also intimated that Fields is on board with the direction the franchise is heading in.
These must be heady times for Fields, who got a chaotic taste of the NFL from an on-field perspective and is now seeing its business machinations first hand. Does what happened this week instill confidence?
If it doesn’t, Fields shouldn’t be shy about having raw and honest conversations of his own. In fact, no rookie quarterback should. After watching Fields flounder this week, after watching Zach Wilson toss four picks against the Patriots, after watching Trevor Lawrence try and sling his way through a Madden ’08 offense, it became clear that young quarterbacks should begin to exercise the kind of nomadic powers their veteran counterparts have.
Simply put: If they feel like the ship they’re on is really headed in the right direction, they’ll put their heads down and endure. If they feel like it’s sinking, they should be more inclined to request permission to seek a trade before their careers are irreparably damaged.
Erick W. Rasco/Sports Illustrated
Before dismissing this as some kind of click grab, consider the finite timeline quarterback prospects have to cement their perception around the NFL and how that ultimately affects their ability to attain a second contract that aligns with the top of the market. I would imagine, for example, that even if Sam Darnold continues to play as well as he has for Carolina over the remaining 14 games of this season, he will still be forced to prove his worth once again the following year on his fifth-year option before staging an epic battle for fair, market equivalent wages. The millions he’ll likely lose, along with the number of anonymous NFL types who have now populated and reproduced, whispering about his negative qualities and spreading those biases to other front offices around the NFL, was the tax he paid for patiently trusting that the Jets would eventually take care of him. They did not.
Quarterbacks who wait for the organization to catch up to their skills—as opposed to finding an organization that can already accentuate them—seriously increases the risk of their career washing out before it has the chance to begin. A player has little control over where and when they are drafted, and yet we all unconsciously label them busts when the situation does not work out. In many cases it was not a deficient player, but a coach or general manager unwilling to provide the right system or attain the right complementary personnel.
Baker Mayfield and Josh Allen may be two of the only quarterbacks in recent memory who waded patiently in murky waters before the best possible situation enveloped them, allowing their financial futures to become far more stable than they would have been otherwise. (Mayfield, unfortunately, still has not fully recovered from the errors made during the Freddie Kitchens era and went into this season without a contract extension.) Any team that is bad enough to draft a franchise quarterback is going to have some growing pains, but there is a difference between a stable rebuild and entering Dorothy Gale’s house in the middle of a twister.
Imagine you were a promising grade school student who was accepted into an elite boarding school to prepare you for college. The school had undergone some management changes since its reputation had been established, so it came as a surprise that, on your first day in the classroom, there was simply a man with his boots up on the desk smoking a Parliament light and thumbing through Reddit on his iPhone. After a few minutes of silence, he frisbees a textbook at your head, uses the lit cigarette to light off some fireworks and yells “LEARN IT ALL BEFORE THE SPRINKLER SYSTEM SOAKS YOU TO THE BONE” before running out of the school.
Would you come back the next day, knowing that four years of this may greatly affect the way top universities think of you? Or, would you make the initially difficult, but ultimately satisfying choice of touring a few more schools and seeing if there’s something better out there?
This decision would be unpopular with a segment of the NFL, but that would be the same group that wouldn’t be interested in tailoring a scheme to fit a player’s best interests anyway. Fields, Wilson, Lawrence and the rest are also at the dawn of a new era of quarterback empowerment, where the likes of Russell Wilson, Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady have all publicly explored the free-agent space. Sooner or later, these decisions aren’t going to make us flinch as much as they used to. Players want to get paid, have fun and win football games, though for most, one of those components is necessary to fulfill the others. It is up to the franchises to create a hospitable environment conducive for success, just like it is the job of every business, competitive university, social club or piece of software, to start with the basic understanding that, in order for this to work, you’re going to need people to like it and be able to function comfortably with or within it.
Before the Bears named Fields the starter, I wrote that Nagy was right in keeping Dalton as the starter because it was clear that the offensive line could not buoy a rookie quarterback who does not get the ball out of his hands faster than almost any quarterback in the NFL (like Dalton does). And, after watching the Bears get shellacked by the Browns this past weekend, what was said at the time remains true. But Nagy was also wrong in not having a vision for Fields to begin with, or any kind of system in place to protect the quarterback.
This, if I’m Fields, is what would concern me the most. Not that I wasn’t chosen initially, but that when I was, I was thrust into a role designed for a completely different person playing at a completely different level of experience and possessing a completely different set of unique skills. I would also be wondering why there was not a Fields playbook being developed on cocktail napkins the second my franchise turned in the card to select me.
Nagy, like a lot of coaches, alluded to things happening behind the scenes that he won’t get into or that we’ll never understand. There is probably some truth here. Maybe there is a very good reason why some of this did not happen that we cannot know. Maybe a sprinkler alarm is going off and everyone is running around the building.
The reaction to suggesting a player should consider looking at a trade after one poor start will likely be vitriolic, contain some accusation of drumming up controversy and touch the nerve of the “these kids need to toughen up” crowd. But I honestly believe that, in a few years, this won’t be a strange occurrence. Teams will have figured out how to dump dead cap space more effectively. Owners will realize that fans are not going to stop coming, out of protest for some organizational incompetence. (Franchises have done far more twisted and cruel things to their fanbases and still watched as they loyally trudged back to the stadium—perhaps in a different state than it used to be!—every Sunday.) And from the opposite side, accommodating such trades earlier, before the organization diminishes their asset beyond the point of receiving a fair return (hello Cardinals!) will eventually look smarter as well. Plus, from the perspective of ownership, you get to draft another quarterback next year. That is almost always good for someone who pedals hope for a living.
Erick W. Rasco/Sports Illustrated
Right now, Fields and some of his fellow rookies have just finished their first day at the fireworks school. They are soaked, sore from where the textbook struck them and are no better equipped to handle the next outing, whenever that might be.
Fields’s options are twofold: Stick it out, which, in Chicago, means dealing with an embattled head coach, a diminished offensive line, the subsequent hiring of a new coach or the turbulent retention of the embattled coach, and all the other issues that almost always contribute to the downward spiral of the quarterback caught in the rapids. We’re not saying that Nagy can’t figure this out. He has become a convenient target to dunk on this week despite lifting some bad teams to the playoffs in the past. He could very well install the Fields offense we’d been waiting for and shake the world off his back, eventually eliminating the confusion as to why it wasn’t utilized in the first place.
The second option is that Fields can start to look at how the rest of the league has worked forever before it’s too late. Coaches almost always have a chance to move on and coach elsewhere, even after sinking a rookie passer. Rookies who underperform high expectations do not. If they do, they are almost permanently relegated to a depth chart basement somewhere.
It’s not unreasonable to want to level the playing field a bit—to stay dry while you can.
