Coney starred at Notre Dame from 2015-2018, racking up 313 total tackles, including 23 for a loss and seven sacks.
Despite getting a fifth round grade from Draft Network, and getting lauded for his potential as an early-down, run-stuffing linebacker, Coney went undrafted in the 2019 NFL draft.
He managed to catch on with the Raiders as an undrafted free agent, but they waived him on August 31 and added him to their practice squad a week later, which he has bounced off and on throughout the season.
Raiders coach Jon Gruden promised Raider fans that some changes were coming, and while Coney’s path to the active roster is still blocked, his return to the practice squad gives him a better chance of making his NFL debut before the 2019 season is concluded.
Raiders wire looks at the winners and losers from the awful performance in Arrowhead against the Kansas City Chiefs.
Another week and another blowout for the Oakland Raiders. The Raiders ended up with an embarrassing loss at Arrowhead against the Kansas City Chiefs 40-9, adding to their awful point differential of -87.
The Raiders actually moved the ball pretty decent against the Chiefs with a strong running game out-gaining the Kansas City Chiefs 332-259 on the day but had 3 turnovers and allowed a defensive touchdown.
The penalties were too much to overcome with 12 for 99 yards with multiple penalties hurting the offense or continuing drives for the Chiefs. Just an all-around ugly day for the passing game with the receivers being lockdown throughout the game.
The defense actually didn’t have a bad showing. Holding a dynamic Chiefs offense to 4.3 yards per play is excellent for the outlook going forward, especially after a terrible game last week against the New York Jets.
The Raiders were able to generate pressure on Patrick Mahomes, causing the quarterback to airmail throws and pass off his back foot into traffic. The young Raiders’ defense continues to grow and looks ready to finish the season.
Who were the Winners and Losers for the Raiders against the Chiefs? Time to take a look and figure out who played well and who didn’t after an embarrassing Sunday.
The Raiders’ rushing attack performed poorly against the Jets, and coach Jon Gruden and his offense aren’t taking their bad day lightly.
The Raiders’ rushing attack had a disappointing game last week against the Jets, and though New York has the best run defense in the NFL, coach Jon Gruden and his offense are still smarting.
The group prides itself on running the ball, most notably with star rookie running back, Josh Jacobs, when the entire stadium knows what’s coming, let alone the defense. Gruden acknowledged the Raiders’ poor ground game in New York during his Wednesday press conference and said his team doesn’t take the lackluster performance lightly.
“I think we all take that personal. It’s a hard thing to do in this league, which is run the ball the way we run it. We’re not running options and scrambling for yards. We’re handing it to a back, and we’re doing it in some predictable situations. We just got to keep working. I love our line, and we’re going to need them to play great for sure on Sunday.”
This is an ideal week to get the ground game rolling again. Oakland’s opponent, the AFC West-leading Chiefs, have allowed the third-most rushing yards in the NFL. A punishing game from the offensive line and Jacobs is precisely what the Raiders need if they’re to draw Kansas City, who relies on their potent passing attack, into a tough, physical game the Raiders take pride in.
Regardless of the opponent, however, the Raiders feel like they can run the ball on anyone, according to offensive coordinator, Greg Olson.
“All the respect in the world to the teams that we played, but we kind of like to look at us and let’s just focus on us, look at what we’re doing and we think there’s some things that we can do better and we’ll continue to work on,” said Olson, addressing the team’s struggles in the run game of late during his Thursday press conference.
The coaching staff still knows if they’re to slow the Chiefs and escape a frigid Arrowhead Stadium with a win, the run game must play a starring role as it has for most of the season, leading the Raiders to a 6-5 record and an opportunity to tie Kansas City for first place in the AFC West.
Besides, Gruden and his staff built a physical identity for this football team, and this type of game is the reason why. When Oakland lines up in an obvious run formation against the Chiefs, at least early on, expect a run play. For the Raiders and their new persona, it’s personal.
Raiders wire looks at the Winners and Losers in an ugly loss in the Meadowlands against the New York Jets
The Oakland Raiders went into New Jersey and laid an egg in a disappointing 34-3 debacle against the New York Jets. The game was by far the ugliest of the season as the team didn’t look prepared for the Jets defense or offense.
The defense reminded us how inconsistent they have been all season being unable to slow down a hot Jets’ offense. The Jets averaged 6.6 yards per play, and Darnold finished with 315 yards passing completing 20-29 of his passes.
Darnold was making sandwiches with the team he had to throw the football, and created plays outside the pocket, picking the defense apart with great throws. With the Chiefs coming up next week, the defense can’t have another performance like this.
Week 12 was the worst performance by the offense this season. Carr completed less 60% of his passes for the first time since Week 2, and the Raiders could not run the football, which is their bread and butter.
Drops were a big issue as well stalling too early drives with receivers not able to hold onto the football. Ugly performance all around but this is more of an outlier when it comes into the offense on a week to week basis
This week’s winners column will be short, but there were plenty of losers. Let’s look at the winners and losers from Week 12.
Touchdown Wire’s Pat Yasinskas shares 9 things we learned from Sunday’s Week 12 NFL games.
The NFL results from Week 12 were supposed to set up two huge matchups for Week 13. Umm, looks like that may not happen.
The big games were supposed to be Mason Rudolph and the Pittsburgh Steelers and Cleveland Browns in a rematch after the Week 11 game in which Cleveland defensive end Myles Garrett clobbered Rudolph over the head with a helmet in a melee that caused Garrett to be suspended indefinitely and 33 players to be fined for their roles in the incident. Cleveland fans set the stage by hitting a Rudolph pinata with a helmet. That seemed to set up a monster rematch for next week.
The other huge game that seemed to be looming was an AFC West showdown between Kansas City and Oakland. The Chiefs, 7-4, were on bye Sunday. The Raiders entered the day at 6-4 and all they had to do was beat the lowly New York Jets to enter next week’s game in a tie with the Chiefs.
But, suddenly, some of the luster was taken off both games by what happened Sunday. Let’s take a closer look at that we examine nine things we learned from Sunday’s games of Week 12.
9. The Raiders aren’t as good as we thought
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The Raiders had seemed to turn the corner and had a shot at winning the division or at least making the playoffs. People were talking about Jon Gruden as Coach of the Year. Those things still could happen, but they’re not nearly as likely after a 34-3 loss to the Jets. Gruden, who seemed to have the perfect relationship with Derek Carr, benched his quarterback in the third quarter. Carr had thrown for just 127 passes and an interception. There’s no question Carr will be back as the starter against Kansas City. But things aren’t looking as rosy for the Raiders as they would have been with a victory over the Jets.
The Raiders (6-4) and Jets (3-7) jostle Sunday afternoon at MetLife Stadium. Oakland leads the series 25-19-2, including a 45-20 victory in 2017. The home team has won the last four meetings, which bodes well for the Jets.
Oakland won their third game in a row after a 17-10 defeat of the winless Bengals at home. Derek Carr was nearly perfect throwing the ball. He completed 25 of 29 passes for 292 yards, one touchdown, and one interception. Three wide receivers had over 60 yards, including Tyrell Williams, who led the team with four catches and 82 yards. Rookie Josh Jacobs continued to dazzle on the ground with his fourth 100+ yard game of the season to bring his total to 923 yards, fourth best in the NFL.
The defense wasn’t exactly tested against the Bengals and if you asked most people three weeks ago, they wouldn’t be too concerned about the Jets. However, this is an offense that has seen a rejuvenated Sam Darnold and the team has put up 34 points in back-to-back games. Oakland’s defense ranks 27th in passing yards allowed, so don’t expect it to be a walk in the park for the team on Sunday.
It wasn’t long ago the Jets were mentioned in the same sentence as the Bengals, Dolphins, Redskins, and Giants. However, they have won their last two games, including a 34-17 win over Washington on the road. Yes, their prior win before that was against the Giants, but the offense is finally scoring points and that’s always a good sign. Sam Darnold threw for 293 yards, four touchdowns, and one interception. Le’Veon Bell and Bilal Powell combined for 101 yards and another score. Ryan Griffin led the team with 109 yards receiving and a touchdown.
While the Jets offense is working its way up from the bottom of the NFL rankings, the defense continues to be a bright spot. The unit is ranked 13th in yards allowed (332.4) and first in rush defense (79.1). Against Washington, they racked up six sacks and recorded one interception. James Burgess notched nine tackles and half of a sack, while Jamal Adams picked up three sacks to go with his four tackles in the game. If this group can limit Josh Jacobs and the run game, it has a chance to pull out the win.
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Touchdown Wire ranks the 32 NFL teams in terms of stability and potential at the game’s most important position over the next 3-4 seasons.
Tom Brady might be the best quarterback ever, but he’s not the best in the NFL right now. He certainly won’t be the best in 2022.
He’s human, after all, and at age 42, regression is inevitable even for someone with six Super Bowl rings. That puts the New England Patriots in an uncertain situation at quarterback two or three years down the road. The New Orleans Saints, with 40-year-old Drew Brees under center, find themselves in a similar scenario.
Other teams, such as the Chicago Bears and Carolina Panthers, likely will face difficult personnel decisions at the quarterback position much sooner than that. Only a handful of teams, notably the Kansas City Chiefs and Seattle Seahawks, appear secure in their quarterback situation for years to come.
All this got us thinking about the quarterback situations of the future — and where each of the NFL’s 32 teams ranks in terms of preparedness at the game’s most crucial position.
By quarterback situations, we mean the full overview of each team’s quarterbacks group, including backups and a potential succession plan, if necessary. For this exercise, we will define the future as three to four years down the road.
To help form these opinions, we consulted with a blue-ribbon panel of one former head coach, two former general managers and one current general manager. They were asked for their thoughts on each team’s quarterback situation. They provided insight to inform our rankings.
With that in mind, we present Touchdown Wire’s future quarterback rankings for every NFL team, from worst to first:
32. Miami Dolphins
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Earlier this season, many observers accused the Dolphins of tanking to earn the No. 1 pick in the 2020 NFL Draft and presumably select a quarterback. Since then, Miami (2-8) has been eclipsed by the ineptitude of Cincinnati (0-10) and Washington (1-9), so the Dolphins might not get the first QB off the board. Currently, the Dolphins have Ryan Fitzpatrick and Josh Rosen on their roster. Rosen has failed in his playing time. There’s no way he’ll be back next year. The Dolphins have the option to hang onto Fitzpatrick, 36, who’s currently under contract next season at $5.5 million. It makes sense to keep Fitzpatrick around for one more year to help groom a young quarterback. That could be LSU’s Joe Burrow, Alabama’s Tua Tagavailoa (although his recent hip injury now complicates his draft status), Oregon’s Justin Herbert or Oklahoma’s Jalen Hurts. Two members of my panel said they like Burrow better than Tagovailoa. Either way, it’s going to take some time to develop a young quarterback.
31. Chicago Bears
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For the moment, Mitchell Trubisky is Chicago’s starting quarterback. But it doesn’t appear that he will be in that role next year — although he remains under contract and the team holds a fifth-year option on the No. 2 overall pick from 2017. Given his level of play this season, it’s highly unlikely he will receive the option year, and he might not even see 2020 with the Bears — although the cap hit for cutting him would be slightly more than $9 million. The Bears are 4-6 after going 12-4 last year. There’s one main reason for the decline. That’s Trubisky. My panelists say he’s holding the offense back and could end up keeping a good team out of the playoffs. All four panelists agree Trubisky should be nothing more than a backup. Current backup Chase Daniel’s contract expires after this season. So there’s no telling who will be Chicago’s quarterback next year. Maybe the Bears will draft a quarterback. But with a talented roster already in place, the Bears should be first in line to sign New Orleans backup Teddy Bridgewater as a free agent.
30. Cincinnati Bengals
David Kohl-USA TODAY Sports
Veteran Andy Dalton has been benched, and the Bengals are giving rookie fourth-rounder Ryan Finley a shot. There should be no turning back to Dalton, even though he remains under contract for 2020 with a $17.5 million scheduled salary. The Bengals can cut Dalton after the season without any salary cap ramifications. It’s too early to judge Finley. Cincinnati is going to end up with an early draft pick and could have a shot at Joe Burrow, Tua Tagovailoa, Justin Herbert or Jalen Hurts. The Bengals will be starting over. But, given their current state, that’s not a bad thing. “Dalton had more than enough time and couldn’t win consistently,” one panelist said. “I have no idea what they have in Finley. But they have to draft a quarterback if they’re sitting there at No. 1 or 2.”
29. Washington Redskins
Rich Barnes-USA TODAY Sports
The current situation is a mess. Veterans Colt McCoy and Case Keenum, who clearly aren’t the answer, each is in the last year of their contract. The Redskins have little choice but to play rookie Dwayne Haskins, who has five interceptions and two touchdown passes, the rest of this season. Call it an audition for Haskins. But this situation is complicated because the Redskins currently have interim coach Bill Callahan, who took over when Jay Gruden was fired. There will be a new coach next year, and he might not like Haskins. With an early draft pick likely, the new coach might want his own guy. Give up on Haskins after only one season? Arizona did it with 2018 first-round pick Josh Rosen after drafting Kyler Murray. All four of our panelists said Haskins was overrated when he was drafted.
