Tag: FTW

The Jets are firing everyone who trusted Aaron Rodgers

Aaron Rodgers is quickly running out of allies on the Jets.

Once upon a time, the New York Jets brain trust put all of its eggs in the Aaron Rodgers basket. General manager Joe Douglas, who had 20 total wins in four years before acquiring the egotistical four-time MVP, thought Rodgers was his ticket to sustained success. Head coach Robert Saleh, a man who had witnessed the comical foibles of Zach Wilson firsthand, agreed. Despite all the glaring warning signs from a passive-aggressive end to his tenure with the Green Bay Packers, Rodgers was Douglas and Saleh’s golden goose at all costs of their professional reputations and self-respect.

Now, both Douglas and Saleh are unemployed because they gave Rodgers undue faith he didn’t deserve. On Tuesday, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported that the Jets had fired Douglas just about a month after they jettisoned Saleh for the same “Rodgers let us down … badly” reasons.

If you weren’t born yesterday, you saw this news coming awhile ago:

On some level, I do understand the inclination to label Douglas another Rodgers scapegoat while the woeful Jets flounder. Rodgers is one of the most prominent figures in football history. He has built up such a tremendous cache of goodwill over nearly two decades as a professional quarterback (on the field) that it would probably take a lot for an owner like Woody Johnson to ever (completely) punt on the (imaginary) possibilities he presents.

But I don’t think Douglas is a Rodgers scapegoat that lets the future Hall of Famer get off scot-free for incinerating any hope this Jets regime once had. That sentiment applied much more to Saleh, who was a vessel for Rodgers’ discontent because he had a precedent of showing that he thought he knew better than his coaches over the years. Saleh was someone who never vibed with Rodgers, so the Jets were happy to throw him under the bus without a second thought when their season still, technically, wasn’t over.

At 3-8, Douglas going down with the ship now feels very different. This is the Jets cutting everyone who bought Rodgers’ brazen snake oil loose without a second thought. It’s ownership making a tacit acknowledgment that acquiring a (then) semi-washed diva like Rodgers for multiple high-end draft picks was a mistake which wasted everyone’s time with the organization.

How do I know this for certain?

Well, dearest readers, that’s because Rodgers — a year after tearing his Achilles, mind you — is having the worst statistical season of his career.

Rodgers hasn’t thrown for 300 yards in a game all season. (The last time he threw for 300 yards in a game was in December 2021.) He’s also averaging his lowest yards per attempt and has his lowest passer rating since his two initial non-starter seasons in Green Bay in … 2005 and 2006. This is beyond a quarterback struggling. This is a player who is a hollow husk of the all-world talent he once was, now at the helm of the NFL’s 17th-ranked offense on an expected points added (EPA) per play basis. Any time you might think the Jets have a modicum of hope, at this point, Rodgers throws it away himself.

And I think it’d be silly to assert that Johnson and Jets ownership doesn’t recognize this grim reality. Rodgers will be 42 come December of next year. He has just one year left on his current contract. The Jets, as it stands, have the No. 7 overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft. Given the way Gang Green is in a complete nosedive now, don’t be surprised if that draft selection ends up being a top-five pick with the next Jets regime sticking its neck out for a new young quarterback to develop while Rodgers plays his usual brand of high-profile obscurity. That is, if they even keep him around for another season.

Nonetheless, until Rodgers’ fate is decided, the Jets will offload every way-too-willing sycophant who dared trust him in the first place. Without question. The likely next suspect on the list? Offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett, who has sworn by Rodgers’ antics for the last half-decade like a lowly barnacle attaches itself to the hull of a well-worn ship.

In the coming weeks, if I were Hackett, I would make sure to have my bags packed. Just in case. The Jets’ purge of everything and everyone even somewhat connected to Rodgers has likely only just begun.

The Bills have perfected the recipe to beat the Chiefs. Now they just have to do it in January

Josh Allen’s Bills can beat Patrick Mahomes’ Chiefs in the playoffs … with better luck.

Because of the incandescent Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes, there is nothing quite like the Buffalo Bills’ and Kansas City Chiefs’ rivalry in today’s NFL. Every time these two match up, we can expect an instant classic.

But more than most, it seems like the Bills have the Chiefs’ number … in the regular season. There’s no other reasonable conclusion after watching Allen cruise in for an awesome clutch touchdown run to salt away the Bills’ fourth straight regular-season win over their biggest rivals, ending their once-undefeated season.

The Bills have perfected the recipe to beat Kansas City better than anyone. It’s just that beating Patrick Mahomes when he still has more medium-stakes games to play as opposed to beating him with his team’s season on the line feels like a different animal:

Sunday’s Buffalo game-plan was no different from any of its previous wins over Kansas City.

The Bills relied on a technically sound defensive performance that forced Mahomes to play a dink-and-dunk game and play within himself rather than take meaningful chances downfield. The Chiefs averaged just five meager yards per play, while Mahomes averaged less than six yards per pass attempt. His longest pass completion of the day was a 31-yard dart to Xavier Worthy in the first quarter.

Mahomes is arguably the greatest quarterback of all time. But any time you force an electric maestro like him to play at a slower, more methodical pace with more patience, you’re asking for perfection. You’re asking him to work harder against some of the finest athletes on the planet. When it comes to the Bills, it also happens against some of the brightest defensive coaches in the sport. It’s a volatile mix. You’re asking for trouble without the consistent capability to create chunk plays. And the Bills know this.

While the Chiefs were undefeated entering Buffalo, Mahomes hasn’t done well with this kind of responsibility in 2024. Mahomes is tied for the league lead in interceptions with 11 (he threw two more on Sunday), and he has seen the highest interception percentage (2.9) of his career since his rookie season in 2017 (where he started just one game). It’s starting to seem like he can’t help himself, which the Bills know how to optimize.

Buffalo knows that if you keep the Chiefs’ receivers in front of you, Mahomes will give you a chance at a turnover because of his generally aggressive mentality:

Beyond the Bills’ timely defense usually taking over against the Chiefs in the regular season, it’s Josh Allen’s signature heroics that elevate his team over the top. Against the team almost always standing in Buffalo’s way en route to a potential Super Bowl, Allen is simply nails. This is especially the case when playing on the road in one of the NFL’s toughest environments for opposing teams.

On the road in Kansas City in 2021, Allen created nearly 370 yards of offense by himself and four touchdowns (three in the air, one on the ground) in a blowout victory. In 2022, once again in Kansas City, Allen was masterful from start to finish in a tight game. He threw the game-winning touchdown to Dawson Knox in the final minutes. In 2023, in a defensive road battle, Allen took the Bills on a game-winning field goal drive.

And now, you had Allen putting his team on his back in the fourth quarter with that mentioned magnificent fourth-and-short touchdown run to clinch another win over the other best team in the NFL:

So, if the Bills have the recipe to beat the Chiefs in the regular season — timely defense combined with a top-three quarterback doing his thing — what goes wrong in the playoffs?

Well, during the 2021 AFC title game, the Bills frankly didn’t belong on the same field as the Chiefs in a 38-24 blowout loss that wasn’t all that close. That was the end of the first year of Buffalo’s ascension. They needed that kind of lesson to learn how to compete with the NFL’s big dogs.

During the 2022 AFC divisional round, Allen played a perfect game from start to finish and even gave the Bills the lead with just 13 seconds remaining. To this day, it’s still one of the most remarkable performances I’ve ever seen from a quarterback, win or lose. Somehow, the Chiefs managed to create a game-tying kick at the end of regulation anyway before winning in overtime thanks to a fortuitous coin toss based on archaic possession rules that were later changed.

And in 2024, after Allen and the Bills put their hearts on the line for nearly 60 minutes, kicker Tyler Bass missed a 44-yard game-tying attempt in the waning moments … “wide left.” (Bills fans, I’m sorry for the double trauma.)

In other words, Allen’s Bills didn’t necessarily do anything wrong in each of the three times they’ve lost to Mahomes’ Chiefs in the playoffs.

It’s that they couldn’t be more snakebitten if they tried. Football is a cruel game, dearest readers:

Nothing is a given in the NFL. Nothing guarantees we will see Allen and the Bills square off with Mahomes and the Chiefs again this January in a game that would likely decide the AFC representative in Super Bowl 59. But there’s something cosmic about the way these two teams’ fates seem forever intertwined. Another rematch between two of the best quarterbacks we’ve ever seen feels inevitable. It feels written in the stars.

Whether that rematch takes place in Buffalo or Kansas City, the Bills should feel good about their chances. All they have to do is hope the football gods finally smile upon them and give them a break.

Jim Nantz got caught in the moment when he called Josh Allen’s TD run the play of the year

Jim Nantz was a little too rash about Josh Allen’s clutch TD run.

For the fourth straight year, the Buffalo Bills managed to beat their top rival, the previously undefeated Kansas City Chiefs, in the regular season. The game was officially salted away when Josh Allen converted an incredible 26-yard touchdown run on a fourth-and-short play late in the fourth quarter.

Beyond thinking about another potential classic playoff matchup between Allen and Patrick Mahomes this January, it was pretty weird hearing CBS announcer Jim Nantz call Allen’s touchdown run “the play of the year” in that moment.

While it was indeed the final turning point between two of the NFL’s very best teams, I don’t think anyone in their right mind would’ve called that run the best play of this entire NFL season. And Nantz’s explanation about the stakes doesn’t really track for me, either.

I think Nantz got a little caught up in the emotion of the moment:

Look, in a year that featured a remarkable Hail Mary win from the Washington Commanders, it’s gonna take a lot to top that individual moment. For me, a play of the year should be unbelievable and have a lot of stakes. The Commanders’ Hail Mary slayed a then-good Chicago Bears team on the most unlikely play to score in football.

Allen’s run was a big moment for the Bills and the league, but it was otherwise a pretty standard run by a great athlete if you strip away its situational context. He found open space and made a good defense pay in a mostly standard fashion to win the game. I can usually imagine Allen making this run in a clutch situation. It’s not the play of the year.

It’s as simple as that.

The Raiders ended Brock Bowers’ media availability after question about Donald Trump TD celebration

The Raiders handled Brock Bowers’ Donald Trump TD celebration in the weirdest way.

Despite a blowout 34-19 loss to the Miami Dolphins on Sunday, Las Vegas Raiders tight end Brock Bowers was a bright spot. The young playmaker caught 13 passes for 129 yards and a touchdown. But after he scored said touchdown, Bowers mimed one of president-elect Donald Trump’s dances in the end zone to celebrate.

In the post-game locker room, Bowers was asked about the sequence.

According to USA TODAY reporter Safid Deen, Bowers said he was just copying people he had seen do it before, particularly UFC fighter Jon Jones. Bowers said that he thought the celebration was “cool” and wanted to do it himself.

What’s particularly weird about this is that, per Deen, the Raiders cut off Bowers’ locker room availability after this question. Uh, why would they do that? Were they afraid about any follow-ups to Bowers’ initial explanation? That’s probably not the ideal way to cut off any potential controversy.

Montez Sweat sounded so disheartened after the Bears blew another winnable game under Matt Eberflus

Montez Sweat can’t believe how inept the Bears are.

Over the last few weeks, as their 2024 season spirals down the drain, the Chicago Bears have found very creative ways to lose football games.

On Sunday against the Green Bay Packers, it was Matt Eberflus refusing to direct his team to play more competitive offense with plenty of time on the clock after incredible late-game heroics from Caleb Williams. It shows that even in a year where they showed so much promise at the start, the Bears have not been able to shake the specter of their woeful coaching.

As the Bears continue to tumble down the NFC standings, Pro Bowl defensive end Montez Sweat said he can’t believe how Chicago manages to continue blowing winnable games. In fact, the 28-year-old star defender went as far as to say that he’s never seen a football team as futile as the Bears in crunch-time situations to this point:

Ouch. When you see Sweat make these kinds of statements, it is a good reminder that he played for the Dan Snyder Washington Commanders, which was one of the most hopeless operations in NFL history. If Sweat really thinks the way the Bears have sometimes lost in 2024 is worse than that, Chicago’s rock bottom might be an abyss.

And while I know football isn’t played in a vacuum, if Eberflus had managed the Bears’ losses to the Packers and Washington Commanders better, they would be the NFC’s sixth seed right now. Now that really stings.

Matt Eberflus ruined Caleb Williams’ heroics (again) before the Packers’ late FG block

Caleb Williams deserves so much better than the NFL’s worst coach.

For the second time in a month, Caleb Williams inconceivably put the Chicago Bears in a position to win in the final moments of a close game against the Green Bay Packers. And for the second time in a month (remember that disastrous Hail Mary defense?), Matt Eberflus seemingly did everything possible to throw it all away with horrific game management.

Let’s take it to the Bears’ fateful last possession, with Chicago down 20-19.

Williams broke contain after taking back-to-back sacks to set up a 3rd-and-19 and found Rome Odunze for a dart of 16-yard pass. Then, on fourth and short, Williams delivered a magical 21-yard back-shoulder pass to Odunze to keep the Bears’ hopes alive.

Please note the clock after Odunze catches the ball. There is 1:27 left. Even with the Bears in a good position for a potential game-winning field goal at the Packers’ 42-yard line, this would’ve not been the time to turtle for a rational team. Instead, Chicago officially ran just two more offensive plays after this sequence — a short 12-yard pass to Keenan Allen along with a Roschon Johnson run right up the middle to nowhere.

The key distinction here is what happened after Allen’s catch. When the Packers took a timeout with 35 seconds left, Chicago probably should’ve run a couple more real plays to get closer to a game-winning attempt for kicker Cairo Santos. The Bears even had a timeout in their back pocket in a worst-case scenario. Williams deserved to help his team more after being the one to put the Bears in position to win with his heroics in the first place.

Instead, Eberflus had the Bears completely turtle and settle for a 46-yard field goal. Now, listen, 46 yards for professional kickers is very doable. That is an attempt a professional kicker should make a majority of the time without breaking a sweat. But the thing is, the Bears could’ve gotten closer and had plenty of time to do so. The football gods do not smile upon that kind of conservative thinking.

Eberflus forced the Bears to stop playing, and he got what he deserved when Santos’ kick was blocked:

The actual margin in talent between most NFL teams is minimal. If you look at the scoreboard every week, most games finish within one score for a reason. That’s what makes a coach’s game management paramount — especially in the clutch — because every strategic decision counts. They are often the literal difference between winning and losing.

That is now twice in a month where Eberflus has let the Bears and Caleb Williams down with a genuinely foolish end-game thought process right after Williams put his teammates on his back. It’s why the overmatched coach has to be fired at all costs — and sooner rather than later — for Williams’ talents to really flourish on a potentially great Bears team in the future.

Jameson Williams hilariously channeled Marshawn Lynch on an electric TD vs. the Jaguars

Marshawn Lynch should be VERY proud of Jameson Williams.

Once upon a time, Marshawn Lynch captivated the NFL world with his electric “Beast Quake” touchdown run against the New Orleans Saints during the 2011 playoffs. The play became synonymous with Lynch’s NSFW celebration, where he grabs his groin while leaping backward into the end zone.

Young Detroit Lions star receiver Jameson Williams saw an opportunity to perfectly channel that famous moment against the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday.

With the Lions already laying a beatdown on Jacksonville in the early third quarter, Williams took an intermediate pass and turned it into an electric 64-yard touchdown when he ran past the entire Jaguars defense. And as he crossed the plane, Williams leaped backward and recreated Lynch’s hilarious taunt.

It doesn’t get better than that:

Somewhere, you better believe that Lynch saw this Williams replay and smiled. As he should.

Ian Eagle sounded so concerned about Justin Tucker after his second brutal miss against the Steelers

Something is seriously wrong with Justin Tucker.

For over a decade, we’ve grown accustomed to Justin Tucker being absolutely automatic from any distance while kicking field goals for the Baltimore Ravens. For all intents and purposes, his resume is that of one of the best kickers of all time.

But something appears to be off about the five-time First-Team All-Pro this season. And we saw it firsthand in an important AFC North rivalry game with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

In a matchup where it seemed like points were at a premium, Tucker missed not one but two early field goals on the road in Pittsburgh. While a 47-yarder and 50-yarder are by no means “easy kicks,” they usually have been for Tucker. That’s the concerning part.

This led to CBS announcer Ian Eagle acknowledging the elephant in the room after Tucker came up empty for the second time:

Tucker’s overall resume means he has earned some grace when he’s not up to snuff. But the last time the 34-year-old kicker missed more than a handful of kicks was in 2015. He already has four misses so far in 2024. This is probably something to monitor moving forward if you’re the Ravens.

Caleb Williams actually apologized to Bears teammates for his part in Shane Waldron’s firing

Kudos to Caleb Williams for acting like a mature adult.

It’s been a tumultuous few weeks for the Chicago Bears. They haven’t scored a touchdown since before Halloween, they haven’t won a game since mid-October, and head coach Matt Eberflus’ seat is now scorching hot after the dismissal of former offensive coordinator Shane Waldron.

However, part of the microscope still has to center on No. 1 overall pick Caleb Williams. While there were flashes of Williams’ individual talent and gifts in the early season, the hopeful franchise quarterback has been a shell of himself as the Bears offense has cratered at midseason. For reasons related to him (and his general supporting circumstances), Williams has not looked like the player many believed would pull Chicago out of the NFC’s basement. He should really know “it’s not his fault.”

And as reported by Fox’s Jay Glazer, Williams did not shy away from this reality. He apparently apologized to the Bears for playing so poorly lately that he helped Waldron get fired:

I give credit to Williams for acknowledging the elephant in the room and taking some responsibility as the quarterback of the team. This is especially the case in knowing that it isn’t all his fault. Still, in the end, the NFL is a results-driven business. Actions speak so much louder than words.

For the Bears, it’d be nice if Williams started backing up these kinds of gestures with stellar play on the field.

Packers’ Xavier McKinney questioning D.J. Moore’s character is just cruelly kicking the Bears while they’re down

Everything Xavier McKinney said is true because the Bears are hopeless.

Amid a catastrophic three-game losing streak, nothing is going well for the crumbling Chicago Bears right now. They haven’t scored a touchdown since before Halloween, head coach Matt Eberflus’ seat is hotter than ever, and there were questions about potentially benching No. 1 overall pick Caleb Williams.

In other words, things couldn’t possibly be worse for a Bears team that looked like an NFC playoff dark horse just three weeks ago.

Enter Green Bay Packers safety Xavier McKinney to kick the Bears while they’re down.

In an interview with The Athletic’s Matt Schneidman, McKinney took aim at Bears No. 1 receiver D.J. Moore’s questionable effort on a scramble drill play during a blowout loss to the Arizona Cardinals earlier this season. He didn’t appreciate Moore brushing him off in the offseason and saw fit to rip the Bears’ apparent No. 1 receiver for quitting in the middle of a play as the Packers get ready for Chicago this Sunday.

Honestly, is McKinney wrong? What are we doing here? I get the current NFL interception leader felt (rightfully) disrespected, but he says these kinds of things as if the Bears don’t have enough problems in themselves.

More from The Athletic:

“I hope so, but I don’t give a damn about what he knows,” McKinney said about Moore’s dismissive offseason comments. “This dude walked out on … I’ve been playing (NFL) football for five years now, and I’ve been watching football for longer than that, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a … You’re supposed to be the guy, and you’re just walking off the field. You’re walking off the field on a rookie quarterback that you’ve been praising, so it’s like, that’s a whole other story.”
You know what really stings about McKinney calling Moore’s character into question? Knowing the Bears won’t do anything about it. Not one modicum of fight. There isn’t a single player on Chicago’s active roster that has beaten the Packers as a Bear. The Bears also haven’t beaten Green Bay once this decade. Most of the time, the games in this “rivalry” lately resemble a glorified scrimmage for the Packers.
The Bears are already in the NFL’s dark abyss by their own doing. Nothing some Packers veteran says will do anything to make their suffering or frustration any worse.