Every week in “4-Down Territory,” Touchdown Wire’s Doug Farrar and Luke Easterling of Bucs Wire and Draft Wire go over the things you need to know about, and the things you need to watch, in the NFL right now. With Week 7 of the 2022 NFL season in the books, there was a lot to cover!
This week, Doug and Luke discuss:
- Among surprise disappointments at 3-4, whether the Green Bay Packers or the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have more to deal with on the way back up;
- If Dak Prescott looked about like we expected in his return from injury;
- If Tua Tagovailoa can take the Dolphins to the top (or near-top) of the AFC East;
- Between the Houston Texans and the Seattle Seahawks, which team has had the best 2022 draft class so far?
You can watch this week’s “4-Down Territory” right here:
Buccaneers and Packers, oh no!
Two NFC teams – the Green Bay Packers and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers – are off to unexpectedly slow starts with 3-4 records. Both teams have struggling top-three all-time quarterbacks, defenses that are surprisingly off the mark, and overall, two teams we expected to win their divisions are struggling just to bail water. Between these two teams, which has problems that look tougher to overcome?
Doug: The Packers’ problems seem more fixable. You have a backfield with Aaron Jones and A.J. Dillon. Aaron Rodgers’ deep ball isn’t what it used to be, but as far as the passing game, this could just be a waste year, because general manager Brian Gutekunst thought he could get by with a below-average group following the Davante Adams trade. And the defense could perhaps be solved with a bit of heat under defensive coordinator Joe Barry’s butt.
With the Buccaneers, it seems to me that you’re dealing with a quarterback in Tom Brady who really doesn’t want to be there, an offensive line that has given him no help, a run game that wavers between inconsistent and nonexistent, and the defensive falloff has been extreme. The Packers seem to be a good team with a few fixable dings. The Bucs appear to be a team in major transition, and that could take longer to fix.
Luke: The Packers definitely feel like the team that’s closer to ironing out their problems and still pushing for a playoff spot. Tampa Bay has run out of excuses for how bad they’ve been. It’s one thing to struggle against the Chiefs, it’s another to do it against the Steelers and Panthers. There’s plenty of blame to go around; coaches, players, management. The offense looks stale and boring, the defense is banged-up and pressing too much, and Brady obviously isn’t the cure-all some might think. It’s gonna take a miracle for the Bucs to be a serious contender after what we just saw over these last two games.
Dan Dak bring the Cowboys to the top of the NFC?
Dak Prescott returned to the field for the first time since Week 1, and the Cowboys beat the Lions, 24-6, in Prescott’s first game back. Dallas’ franchise quarterback completed 19 of 25 passes for 207 yards, one touchdown, no interceptions, and a passer rating of 113.2. Did you see enough of what you needed to see from Prescott to believe that the Cowboys can challenge the undefeated Eagles and the 6-1 New York Giants as the season goes along?
Doug: Prescott was a bit hesitant at the start of the game, which is understandable. But as things progressed, you saw more of the Dak you’d expect to see. As the Cowboys are facing the Bears in Week 8, I’d expect to see even more of ideal Dak, and that defense which recovered nicely from getting rolled by the Eagles in Week 6. I don’t put that loss entirely on the defense – eventually, when Cooper Ruah is your quarterback, your defense is going to break from having to hold everything up. Once Dak gets back to his ideal form, I think the Cowboys will be fine. The primary thing that could keep them from establishing control of the NFC East is the head coach. When you have Mike McCarthy going up against Nick Sirianni and Brian Daboll, that puts the Cowboys at a distinct in-game disadvantage.
Luke: This is exactly the kind of performance I expected from Dak. More of a game-manager look, with flashes of what he brings to the table that Cooper Rush just couldn’t replicate. The NFC East is gonna be fun to watch all year long (well, except for the Commanders), and Dak’s return should ensure that the Cowboys stay in the thick of that race. The defense is balling, the offensive line is starting to improve, and Dak’s got enough playmakers to keep the offense humming.
Now that Tua Tagovailoa is back, how big a threat are the Dolphins?
Speaking of quarterbacks who returned to the field and returned to form, the Dolphins broke their three-game losing streak they incurred when Tua Tagovailoa was either concussed in-game (against the Bengals in Week 4), or out entirely (against the Jets and Vikings). With Tua back in the fold, Miami beat the Steelers 16-10. And Tagovailoa completed 21 passes in 35 attempts for 261 yards, one touchdown, no interceptions, and a passer rating of 92.7. The Dolphins now stand at 4-3 – can they be taken seriously as a playoff contender with Tagovailoa at his best?
Doug: I’d say that Tua was hit and miss. As we’re taping this on Monday morning, I believe the Steelers dropped two more potential interceptions. Against a more effectively opportunistic defense, he may have put up a performance that had us wondering if he should have sat out another week. And can he please stop ramming head-first into defenders as a runner? It’s frightening. That said, Tua did make some nice, well-placed intermediate and deep passes. You can see his development as a passer there, helped ably by Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle blasting off against just about any defense.
What does it all mean? The Dolphins are better off with Tua Tagovailoa than they were with Teddy Bridgewater or Skylar Thompson. But I’m a bit hesitant to put the Dolphins in the NFL’s top tier due to their quarterback. Now, Tua gets a get-well month with the Lions, Bears, Browns, and Texans coming up. Then, the Dolphins finish their regular season with games against the 49ers, Chargers, Bills, Packers, Patriots, and Jets. That will be the crucible for the 2020 Dolphins and their franchise quarterback.
Luke: It was great to see Tua make some plays, though I definitely cringed on those extra-effort runs where he tried to run over a defender. He definitely had some “oh no” moments, but got bailed out time and time again by the cinder blocks the Steelers’ DBs seemed to have in place of their hands. I hope he’s able to stay healthy, and I hope he continues to settle in and eliminate those head-scratching throws that could have led to much different result Sunday night. The defense should keep them in contention, and Tua’s got a great scheme and plenty of weapons to keep making big plays all year.
Between the Texans and Seahawks, which team has the best 2022 draft class?
Both the Seattle Seahawks and Houston Texans have done something interesting, especially given their recent draft classes before 2022 – each team selected multiple impact starters in the 2022 draft. You could argue at least four for each team. For the Texans, it’s been cornerback Derek Stingley Jr., guard Kenyon Green, safety Jalen Pitre, and running back Dameon Pierce. For the Seahawks, it’s been offensive tackles Charles Cross and Abe Lucas, running back Kenneth Walker III, and cornerbacks Coby Bryant and Tariq Woolen. If you could take either of these draft classes for a team you’re running over the next five years, which would be your pick?
Doug: It’s a close one, because the Texans got Pitre, who I think could be the next Tyrann Mathieu, and Dameon Pierce was my top running back in this class – which has borne out on the field in his brief NFL career. And Stingley has looked like the 2019 college version of himself, which is exactly what the Texans hoped. But how can you not love what the Seahawks have done, adding five plus starters in this draft class, when they didn’t have five plus starters from their last five drafts combined? When you factor in the addition of two high-quality offensive tackles – and the Seahawks are the first team since the 2009 Jacksonville Jaguars to start two rookie tackles from Week 1 – I think Seattle gets the edge here. But I’d be perfectly happy with either one.
Luke: Yeah, I’d give the edge to the Seahawks, even though I’m probably a little biased because of how much I banged the table for Woolen heading into this draft. You can’t go wrong with either group, but what the Seahawks are doing after all of the flak they took following the Russell Wilson trade has been incredible, and those rookies are a huge part of that success. Both of these teams have accelerated their rebuilds with stellar draft classes that are making a big impact on both sides of the ball. That’s what every team should be aiming for in every draft.
