Week 9 is here, the trade market is closed until March and teams have a pretty good idea of what they have for the rest of the year. So here we go with the second half of 2023 …
• Jalen Hurts played a starring role Sunday in the Eagles’ 38–31 win over the Commanders, completing 29 of 38 passes for 319 yards, four scores, no picks and a 135.7 rating.
He also did it looking—from my perspective—hobbled. Last year, when Hurts played through a shoulder injury against Chicago, Nick Sirianni told me he saw it as “Michael Jordan–type s---.” And if you’ve watched Hurts the past two weeks against Miami and Washington, he’s clearly playing through injuries again.
So after the Eagles outlasted the Commanders, I asked Sirianni about Hurts.
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“You can ask him how he’s feeling,” Sirianni told me, knowing Hurts hates talking about his injuries. “There’s never been a question of his game status or his practice status. He’s got bumps and bruises right now, which a lot of our guys have. He has them. I’ll let you ask him how he feels and this and that, but he’s tough as heck. He shows that on a daily basis, consistently, daily, over and over and over again, how tough he is.
“His will to win, his toughness is unmatched. Obviously, I’m so excited that he’s our quarterback because he just finds a way. The flu, something sore on his body, us winning by a lot, us losing by two touchdowns, he just seems to find a way. That’s the type of guy we have in Jalen Hurts.”
He also sets the tone for a team that’s proved itself to be pretty tough, top to bottom.
• On the other end of that result was the Commanders, who came in 3–3 with a chance to get to above .500. And while I’d heard before the game that Washington’s approach with its defensive ends could be impacted by how the day went, one way or the other, I’m not quite sure eking out a win against the Eagles would’ve changed what happened Tuesday.
The reason? The discussion inside Washington’s building was very big picture, with the idea from owner Josh Harris to deal at least one of the ends and, without a good reason not to, explore moving both Montez Sweat and Chase Young. Obviously, the latter was the result, with Sweat going to Chicago for a second-rounder likely to be in the 30s, and Young headed to San Francisco for a third-round comp pick that’ll land around 100th.
It made sense, first, in that those two players are in contract years. But it also did match how Ron Rivera and EVP player personnel Marty Hurney built their teams in Carolina—with strength up the middle and around the quarterback. The Commanders have that on their defensive line already, with big contracts invested in Daron Payne and Jonathan Allen. And with Sam Howell playing well, choosing not to sink another big contract or two (at $25 million per year or so apiece) could help the Commanders to get him some more help, in particular, on the offensive line.
It also creates more flexibility for a new coach should that person arrive in January—obviously Rivera, Hurney and GM Martin Mayhew have some work to do if they’re going to prevent Harris from making such a change.
• I’ve been asked about why the Chiefs and Dolphins wound up in Germany, and I think it’s pretty easy to explain.
The first piece is this: Two Decembers ago, the NFL awarded international marketing rights to 18 teams across eight countries. In the process, the Buccaneers, Patriots, Chiefs and Panthers were awarded those rights in Germany. Accordingly, last year, the Buccaneers were the home team for the NFL’s first game there. Thanks to the success, and Mexico City being a no-go (stadium renovations), the NFL chose to play two games in Germany this year, so two of the three remaining in that cluster were going to be the home teams.
They chose to make those two the Chiefs and Patriots, sending Patrick Mahomes and Kansas City a nice reward to Germany for how well last year’s maiden voyage went.
As for giving them the Dolphins as an opponent, you have to consider how we were looking at all of this in April and May. Miami sank at the end of last year, and there was still a lot of concern over Tua Tagovailoa’s health—maybe not as much inside the Dolphins building but just about everywhere else. So with the Jets, Lions, Eagles, Bills, Bengals and Chargers twice on the schedule (again, before things such as Aaron Rodgers’s injury and the Chargers’ slump happened), the Dolphins made sense as a second-tier Chiefs game in Germany.
As it turns out, Germany will get a doubly good reward for last year, and the rest of us will get a pretty appealing wake-up call.
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• The Falcons (4–4) have emphasized that their decision to go with Taylor Heinicke over Desmond Ridder this week—and maybe this week alone—is not a benching. And that’s fine—they really do like Ridder, despite his struggles, and I get they want to do right by him, as they go into Sunday’s game with the Vikings (4–4) tied for first in the NFC South.
But it does underscore where the franchise is in Year 3 for coach Arthur Smith and GM Terry Fontenot, who’ve built up the roster, and the program, and still are looking for their quarterback of the future. Now, to be fair, it’s not like there’s some big miss here. In 2021, they passed on Justin Fields and Mac Jones with the fourth pick. In ’22, they passed on Kenny Pickett with the eighth pick. In ’23, they passed on Will Levis at eight.
They also took a swing at Deshaun Watson two offseasons ago, passed on pursuing Lamar Jackson last spring, and now they’re still nowhere at the position.
So it sure looks like there’s going to be a lot of pressure on the current brass to find a quarterback in the coming offseason. Especially if they don’t find a way to get into the playoffs coming out of a relatively mediocre NFC field.
• Credit to Derek Carr for his response to the firing of Josh McDaniels and Dave Ziegler in Las Vegas.
“I’ve been through it, and this business is so tough that we forget the human side of things,” Carr told reporters Wednesday. “So, my heart is with Josh and Dave and with my friends over there dealing with another change. I lost count of how many coaches it was for me at that point. There’s another change for those guys to go through—a new scheme to learn, a new philosophy. That doesn’t make it easy as a player, but at the end of the day, nobody cares. You keep pushing.
“I wish Dave and Josh the best. As they know, and I’ve told them, I wish them the absolute best. So, to see that, it’s hard. It breaks your heart for their families.”
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•.Two things I find interesting about Raiders owner Mark Davis promoting Antonio Pierce to interim coach …
First, there’s the fact that Pierce was at the center of an NCAA investigation fewer than two years ago at Arizona State, seen as the mastermind of a scheme to break rules on getting recruits on campus during COVID-19. Last weekend, NFL Network had a story that the league would not provide safe harbor to Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh were he sanctioned by the NCAA. But that’s exactly what the NFL did for Pierce, who was hired by the Raiders in 2022 before the NCAA could sanction him. And now Pierce is one of 32 coaches in the league.
Second, he has a shot to continue a pretty interesting trend of former players becoming successful coaches. Tennessee’s Mike Vrabel and Detroit’s Dan Campbell were able to quickly get their footing in leading programs after long careers as players, and quick ascensions through the coaching ranks. Minnesota’s Kevin O’Connell and Houston’s DeMeco Ryans have gotten off to good starts. Jeff Saturday was probably an example of taking a trend too far. And Pierce—who has fewer than two years of NFL-coaching experience, but played nine years in the league—should be an interesting test case.
• While we’re on the Harbaugh case, it prompted me last week to ask a question I’d never asked before of a couple of personnel people: When advance scouts are at a game, are they trying to steal signals?
The answer? Yes, it’s a small part of their jobs. These scouts watch the game from the press box. They’re not allowed to record video. But much of their time is, in fact, spent watching the sideline, which is stuff you don’t get on the game film. They’re trying to gather information on injuries, personnel groupings and, yes, signals.
Now, because of the helmet radio technology, you’re not going to get much in the way of actual play-calling signals. But what they can steal is personnel signals. Getting those can help make a team more efficient on game day—if you have a jump on who the opponent is subbing into the game, it’ll allow you to match those subs easier. Ultimately, the difference it makes probably isn’t huge. But in a league where winning happens on the margins, it’s another way of trying to win on the margins.
• The Bills’ first-round miss on Kaiir Elam loomed this week as Buffalo flipped a third-round pick to the Packers for veteran Rasul Douglas and a fifth-rounder. On paper, the fact that the team spent the 22nd pick on a corner 18 months ago should have been an elixir for the injury loss of Tre’Davious White. Instead, Elam’s struggles (he’s been a healthy scratch for games this year and just went on injured reserve) have only made the loss of White worse and necessitated the Bills making a move at midseason with a top-100 pick.
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• Vrabel’s always going to do what he thinks gives his team the best shot to win, as simple as that sounds. But at 3–5, it sure feels like Will Levis has done enough where the Titans should give the second-round pick the rest of the season to show whether he can be the quarterback the team can build around. Ryan Tannehill will likely be healthy enough to go soon, and then Tennessee will have a decision to make.
• Good to see Treylon Burks on his feet after the Thursday night game. A buddy of mine put it perfectly—“hate to see these regular plays turn into a disaster.” I’m glad it looks like a little less of a disaster than it did in the moment.
