Rodgers void exposes QB hell; how crushing blow could trigger wild $289m gamble: Talking Pts

Week 9

COULD VIKINGS MAKE ‘MAJOR’ GAMBLE AFTER CRUSHING INJURY?

When Justin Jefferson went down with a hamstring injury earlier this month, attention quickly turned to what it could mean for Minnesota’s season — both in the short and long-term.

With games against NFC North rivals Chicago and Green Bay on the horizon along with the vaunted San Francisco 49ers, it looked like the Vikings’ season was fast slipping away.

But on the back of some of the best football of Kirk Cousins’ career, Minnesota was able to steady the ship after a slow start to the season and has now won three on the trot.

The Vikings were heading back in the right direction, that was until Cousins collapsed with a non-contact injury in Monday’s win over the Packers.

Coach Kevin O’Connell would later confirm it was a feared torn Achilles for Cousins, who had previously never missed a game due to an injury in six years with the franchise.

Now, however, Cousins is staring at the possibility of having played his last game for Minnesota.

The 35-year-old is set to hit free agency after this season, leaving his immediate playing future — be it with the Vikings or not — unclear.

In the short-term though, Minnesota needs to find a new quarterback having now salvaged its season with star receiver Jefferson expected to return from injured reserve in the coming weeks.

O’Connell did not seem that confident rookie Jaren Hall would be the answer for next week’s game against the Falcons, with the team much more likely to turn to a more experienced option.

Fortunately, they already have one such solution on the roster in Nick Mullens, who is currently on injured reserve with a back injury.

Mullens was already the backup to Cousins coming into the season and is eligible to be activated from injured reserve as soon as Week 10.

Eight-year veteran Sean Mannion is the team’s third-string quarterback, although if Minnesota looked internally to replace Cousins it would undoubtedly be Mullens.

If not, there are plenty of directions the Vikings could go and some are riskier than others.

Starting with Case Keenum, Houston’s third-string QB has experience in O’Connell’s offence from his time at Washington and is a realistic target given how C.J. Stroud has performed.

It is not like the Texans are going to go away from the rookie anytime soon and Keenum isn’t the backup anyway. Dianna Russini of The Athletic though reported earlier this month that the Texans had been making it clear to interested teams that Keenum is not available.

Perhaps that would change if a desperate team like the Vikings came with the right offer?

In a similar vein, Atlanta backup Taylor Heinicke is another option but the Falcons would have to be hesitant to trade him given Desmond Ridder’s struggles this season.

The same goes for Jacoby Brissett at Washington. Sam Howell can play but he can also definitely take sacks and that puts him at increased injury risk as the season progresses.

Then there is Tennessee’s Ryan Tannehill, although he is dealing with an ankle injury of his own and the Titans may want to hold onto him in case Will Levis’ four-touchdown heroics in his starting debut were just a flash in the pan.

As for free agents, Carson Wentz, Matt Ryan and Joe Flacco are all available while Tom Brady’s name is obviously going to be mentioned even if it is unrealistic.

Colt McCoy though makes the most sense given his familiarity with O’Connell from his time at Washington.

However, if Minnesota is looking beyond just this season, could there be a left-field trade option? Mike Florio of PFT’s Pro Football Talk floated Arizona’s Kyler Murray.

“It would be a major commitment for the Vikings. Murray wouldn’t be a short-term option. It would be a long-term move,” he wrote.

“Murray has five years remaining on his current deal, with a payout of $184.12 million ($289m AUD). That’s $36.8 million per year. And the Cardinals would take a $46.2 million dead-money charge for Murray next year if they trade him.

“… There are probably too many moving parts to make this happen, even if both teams would be inclined to do it. But if the Vikings secretly covet Murray and believe he would enhance the Kevin O’Connell offense, it doesn’t hurt to at least ponder the possibility of putting Murray in purple.”

IS ARTHUR SMITH SERIOUS?

It turns out it’s not just fantasy football managers who hate Arthur Smith. Now Atlanta’s own fanbase has more reasons to really start to turn on the Falcons coach, if it hadn’t already.

First there was the whole Bijan Robinson saga last week, when the Falcons star running back was inexplicably a non-factor in the team’s win over Tampa Bay before it was later revealed he had been dealing with headaches.

The source of the frustration being the fact that information was not disclosed earlier along with Smith’s subsequent reaction to the criticism, which seemed completely detached from reality.

“Teams have to prepare for our three running backs, right?” Smith asked reporters.

“It’s whoever has the hot hand. Maybe I’ll have to go tell [Titans coach Mike Vrabel], ‘Hey, [Tyler] Allegier got the hot hand. I’m gonna give him fifteen carries.’

“Maybe that’s what I need to do. If that’s where we’re headed. Just make sure I don’t upset anybody and their fantasy team.”

Smith is one of the most creative playcallers in the league but comments like this only give further validity to concerns that sometimes he tries to be too smart for his own good.

Forgetting the headache, Robinson’s usage at times this season has been baffling to say the least.

Obviously Tyler Allgeier was productive in his rookie season and still has a role in this offence but sometimes it can be just as simple as using your most talented player.

And Robinson wasn’t just talented. He was described as one of the best running back draft prospects the NFL has seen in a decade.

Robinson won the Doak Walker Award for the best running back in all of college football, with over 4,000 total yards and 41 touchdowns in 31 games.

It is moments like the one in Monday’s loss to Tennessee, where Robinson was replaced in the backfield by Jonnu Smith who threw an incomplete pass intended for Mycole Pruit, that must give Atlanta fans a headache of their own.

Of course, this is nothing new to them. Even last year at times Smith was criticised for not getting the ball in the hands of the team’s two most talented receivers (Drake London and Kyle Pitts) more often.

That was somewhat excused by the fact both Marcus Mariota and Desmond Ridder had glaring problems which made Atlanta’s running game all the more valuable.

But there has to come a point in time where the quarterback play has to improve to get the most out of what is on paper a very talented roster.

Ridder, who has actually shown promise at times this season outside of a few turnover issues, missed the second half of Monday’s game after a head knock.

There were suggestions he had been benched but Smith, who blamed “toxic groupthink” for the criticism of his starting quarterback last week, insisted that was not the case.

“We’ve got a lot of confidence in Des. We didn’t take him out for performance reasons,” Smith said, adding the teams didn’t think Ridder “was right” to go back in.

Ridder completed 8-of-12 passes for 71 yards and a lost fumble, with the more experienced Taylor Heinicke taking over and completing 12-of-21 for 175 yards and a touchdown in the second half.

JETS WIN UGLY AS OFFENSE CONTINUE TO SPUTTER

The Jets were on the verge of one of the worst losses in franchise history on Sunday.

If they had lost to the Giants, who had minus-9 yards passing, there would have been hysteria among Jets fans this week.

Instead, the Jets pulled out a 13-10 overtime win that even the players admitted they were trying to figure out exactly how they won it.

But if the Jets are being honest with themselves, they know they are going to need a better effort from their offense than what they got on Sunday to actually make a playoff push.

It is fun to talk about the Jets being in the AFC playoff race at 4-3, but how long can the Jets lean on their defense to hold opponents to 13 or 14 points and then try to steal the game in the final minutes as they have in their last two wins?

“I think it’s imperative that we improve as an offense every single week, every single day,” wide receiver Allen Lazard said. “There’s definitely going to be a game or two by the time the season ends where as an offense we’re going to need to be relied on a lot more to extend a drive, to get a field goal out of it or, more importantly, get touchdown to keep us in the game or extend a lead.”

For 59 minutes on Sunday, the Jets’ offense struggled to move the ball outside of Breece Hall racing 50 yards through the Giants’ defense for a first-quarter touchdown.

They managed just 58 rushing yards, averaging 2.8 yards per attempt.

They failed to convert on their first 12 third-down attempts and ended the game just 2 of 15 on third down.

One of those conversions was a Zach Wilson scramble and not a designed play.

The Jets have been terrible in situational football this season.

They are the worst team in the NFL in both third-down conversions and red-zone touchdown percentage.

Offensive co-ordinator Nathaniel Hackett made some strange play calls on Sunday and players failed to execute.

Wilson missed a simple throw to Hall that would have been a first down.

Coach Robert Saleh expressed faith that the offense will figure things out, but we’re about to enter November and the offense is still floundering.

“Everyone can point at reasons why things aren’t clicking the way they are, but it’s a collective effort,” Saleh said. “I have unwavering faith that they are working hard, they are putting things together, and eventually things are going to click and it’s going to look pretty cool.”

So far, the offense has not been cool, just ice cold.

They have the fewest first downs in the NFL (102) and are tied with the Giants for the fewest offensive touchdowns (8) this season.

It feels a whole lot like the middle of last season when the Jets relied on their defense to shut the opponent down, counted on Hall to make a big play and hoped Wilson did not turn the ball over.

That formula worked for a while and the Jets got to 6-3 before everything fell apart and they lost their final six games.

Saleh said the weather was a factor on Sunday in why the offense did not play better.

He also credited the Giants’ defense.

“I think it was more of a defensive deal than it was anything else, but at the same time, from an offensive standpoint everyone knows the deal,” Saleh said. “You still got to score points in this league, but the positive thing is that I know we’ll be in every game. We’re going to fight our tails off, our defense, our special teams, our kicking game, our run game.”

– New York Post

NFL IN GOOD HANDS WITH THIS SEASON’S ROOKIE QB CROP

During the Week 8 slate, we saw the debut of another rookie QB. After a dazzling performance, he quickly entered the race for the top first year signal caller of the season.

Titans QB Will Levis was outstanding for the Titans in the win over the Falcons, throwing for four touchdowns, doubling the season output of Tennessee’s regular starter Ryan Tannehill.

Levis is just another in a long line of rookie QBs to impress this season. He’s the seventh to start a game after Bryce Young (Carolina), CJ Stroud (Houston), Anthony Richardson (Indianapolis), Tyson Bagent (Chicago), Dorian Thompson-Robinson (Cleveland) and Aidan O’Connell (Las Vegas).

Out of those listed, Stroud has looked the best over the course of the season and is the deserved favourite for Offensive Rookie of the Year.

However, first overall pick Bryce Young, who has struggled at times, played the best game of his NFL career to lead Carolina to their first win of the season over Stroud’s Houston Texans in Week 8.

For Panthers fans, it would have been more of a relief than anything else. Not so much because their team won as it was to see Young show why their team were so keen to trade away the farm to pick him first in the NFL draft.

While Young, Stroud (2nd overall) and injured Colts QB Anthony Richardson (4th overall) were all drafted early on, Levis waited much longer to hear his name on draft night.

The former Kentucky QB, who was expected by some experts to be drafted in the first round, ended up being taken in the third by the Titans.

Despite the disappointment of falling down the draft board, Levis ended up in a pretty good situation at the Titans.

The oft-injured QB Ryan Tannehill is in the home straight of his career while second year QB Malik Willis has shown very little when given an opportunity.

It took seven games before the Titans needed to make a change at QB with Tannehill injuring his ankle last week, and the team turned to Levis instead of Willis.

What a choice it turned out to be.

Levis threw three touchdowns to Deandre Hopkins, who exploded for his best game since being traded from the Cardinals in the off-season.

“He‘s a very talented quarterback, confident,“ said Hopkins on Levis.

“He plays the game like he‘s been here.”

Levis has a bit of ground to make up on Stroud, but if he holds onto the starting QB position for the remainder of the season, he could throw his name into the ring for Rookie of the Year.

One thing is for certain though. With Stroud, Levis, Young and Richardson, the NFL’s future is in good hands.