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We’re back for another edition of Overreaction Monday, and you know Week 1 overreactions in the NFL are still the best overreactions.
More this year than ever, week 1 means next to nothing. There are still 16 games left in each team’s season (17, in fact, for the Raiders and Ravens, who play Monday night), so there’s more time than ever for things to have gone wrong over the course of time. week 1 is going well, or things went well in week 1 to go bad.
Having said that, you know we’re still going to do it. And you know you’re always going to read it. Because it’s so good, and you can’t help but overreact to Week 1. It’s human nature combined with the nature of the NFL to form a delicious mix of soon-to-be-outdated commentary and conclusions. .
This week, we remain focused on the quarterback position, as no position lends itself more to overreaction. And we’ll start in Jacksonville, where the hurricane-displaced Saints “harbored” the Packers and beat them so badly that Aaron Rodgers is going to have to schedule a whole series of new press conferences to tell everyone who it’s all about. was the fault.
Jameis Winston is going to get paid, high time, next offseason
In case you haven’t seen what happened at Packers-Saints: The Saints defense made NFL MVP Rodgers look like a guy who skipped the offseason schedule to host game shows and a vacation in Hawaii while trying (and failing) to get traded out of town.
Winston, meanwhile, made a memorable first start as the Saints quarterback. Former Bucs Specialist YOLO was – get this – 14 passes for 20 for 148 yards and five touchdown passes. Yes. Five. Over 148 meters. So now you’re setting there wondering, “My God, Dan. Is this the lowest yardage ever for a quarterback who threw five touchdowns in an NFL game? And the answer is, “Yes, reader. Yes, that’s it.”
Winston totaled 44 aerial yards in his first 13 goals. For the game, he averaged 7.0 yards in the air per pitch, the third-lowest average of his career in a single game, and that included his last, which flew over 50 yards in the air. It was like Winston and coach Sean Payton knew you were looking and thinking, “Dang, Payton turned Jameis into late career Drew Brees”, and so they signed with a long bombshell like the one Brees did. hadn’t pitched since her San Diego days and called it a very satisfying day. The Saints beat the Packers 38-3 and second-year quarterback Jordan Love finished the game for Green Bay in relief for Rodgers. It was, to say the least, an absolutely stunning result.
The verdict: NOT AN OVERREACTION. I don’t expect Winston to have five 148-yard touchdown passes every week. I don’t expect him to go all season without throwing an interception. I don’t expect the Saints to be as good as they looked on Sunday, because no one could be. But I think it’s possible that Payton, such a sharp attacking spirit as in today’s game, has spent the last 18 months working with Winston to perfect his game to the point where talent can come to the surface. while the former, crippling turnover issues fade away just enough to allow the Saints to win games.
And if the Saints have a big year – if they win their division for the fifth year in a row, for example – I would expect Winston to be a very attractive free agent in a 2022 quarterback market that could include some guys like Russell Wilson, Deshaun Watson and Rodgers mentioned above as business targets. And that would mean a big contract.
The Browns are not really AFC contenders
Sunday’s most heartbreaking result came, of course, from the league’s most heartbreaking team. The Browns came out on absolute fire against the Chiefs in Kansas City, scoring touchdowns on each of their first three discs and building a 22-10 halftime lead against an exhausted Kansas City defense. Baker Mayfield threw it deep at rookie speedster Anthony Schwartz and hit them. Nick Chubb crushed the Chiefs to the ground. Coach Kevin Stefanski was to feel it, to the point where the Browns went for two on the first touchdown of the game and got it.
It was the Cleveland game all the way. It looked like a busy, hungry team like hell, still mad at the Chiefs in the divisional round in January. The Browns were set to win their opener for the first time since 2004. They had that thing in their pockets.
And then Cleveland returned the ball three times in the second half and lost 33-29.
The verdict: OVERREACTION. I’m going to sink with this ship. I still think the Browns have a better roster than the two AFC North teams that won on Sunday, and maybe the one that plays Monday night. I still think Stefanski is lively and impartial and the right coach for this team. I still think Mayfield is good enough to win them games as a quarterback if they can continue to handle it well and the line remains intact. (Although I admit it’s a concern that left tackle Jedrick Wills Jr. got injured in this game.)
This isn’t the first team to get Mahomesed and it won’t be the last. The Browns won’t be afraid the next time they face the Chiefs, and they have the firepower to beat them. Are they “better”? No. But they’re good enough to beat them one-on-one one of these days. And as beautifully brave as the Bengals and Steelers comebacks on Sunday, I still think, over a 17-game season, the Browns will prove to be a legitimate contender for the AFC title. I think all of that, although I really understand that it would be easier to sell if, you know, they didn’t miss that game on Sunday.
Did anyone look better on Sunday morning than Murray and the Cardinals? Maybe the Eagles, but we’ll get to that in a second. Murray did everything but steal goals and hit home runs in a 38-13 win over Tennessee.
He was 21 for 32 passes for 289 yards and four touchdowns and ran for another score as the Cardinals dominated the Titans on both sides of the ball in Nashville. Yeah, yeah, Chandler Jones helped with five sacks and the defense kept the Titans 248 yards and flipped them three times, but the star of the show was Murray, and he was at his most sensational in this one.
The verdict: NOT AN OVERREACTION. Look, there’s a long way to go here, and the thing with Murray is going to keep him healthy. He was in that conversation for a minute last season, but fell late while playing injured. But a guy who’s been a first-round pick in baseball and football is capable of a lot of very exciting things, and if Murray stays healthy there’s no reason to think he can’t keep going. play like that in Kliff Kingsbury’s bespoke offense. .
Part of the problem with her case is that, as good as Arizona is, they could still be the fourth-best team in their division (all four NFC West teams won on Sunday). It could also be a division that puts its four teams in the playoffs. It wouldn’t be a major upset for the Cardinals to win it either. I bet that’s the choice of Tennessee coach Mike Vrabel if you ask him this morning.
The Jets should have kept Sam Darnold
Raise your hand if you haven’t seen the Sam Darnold Revenge Game coming. Post-Adam Gase, in a new system, armed with better passing game targets than he ever had in New York and able to pass it on to Christian McCaffrey? Darnold may never be a Hall of Famer, but you have to understand that he has a chance to be better with the Panthers than he was with the Jets. Sunday it was.
Darnold went 24 for 35 passing for 249 yards and a touchdown (to fellow former Jet Robby Anderson) in the 19-14 win over his former team, and not to be outmatched by Kyler Murray, he has that too. ran one. Nothing too striking, but he was snappy and certainly good enough to beat Zach Wilson, the new apple of the Jets, in Wilson’s shaky first start in the NFL.
The verdict: OVERREACTION. The Jets have nothing against Darnold, who they drafted No.3 overall in 2018. They just have new people in charge who felt it was worth starting over with a new guy since they were picking. n ° 2 in total. Cheaper that way, and Wilson is a really talented guy.
Wilson had a rough start – 20 of 37 assists with two touchdowns and a pick – but he had passer who ate through his face mask pretty much every pullback and lost his left tackle to injury during the game. He was much better in the second half, and one game is not enough to judge him. Plus, again, it’s not like Darnold is Patrick Mahomes.
It was a fun day for Darnold to beat his old team, but better days are ahead for Wilson. And even if Darnold turns things around in Carolina, it’s a bad guess to say the Jets should have kept him. They no longer believed in him, and that is not a recipe for success.
Hurts and Wentz played in different cities at the same time – Hurts led the Eagles to a 32-6 loss to the Falcons in Atlanta and Wentz failed to the Seahawks, 28-16, in his Indianapolis debut. Hurts had 27 passes on 35 passes for 264 yards and three touchdowns, and added 62 rushing yards in seven carries. Wentz was 25-for-38 for 251 yards and two touchdowns. He added 23 rushing yards in four carries.
Similar stats, but the main difference was the relentless pressure Wentz took from the Seattle defense, especially in the second half. Wentz wasn’t bad, he was doing pretty well. Hurts was fun, however, and the Eagles won their game somewhat crucially, rather than losing it.
The verdict: NOT AN OVERREACTION. First off, after last season and the way he forced himself out of town, what makes us think the Eagles aren’t doing it? want to forget Wentz? Hurts has a lot of wrinkles in his game to iron out, but guys to do iron them very often. He has the tenacity that teams want in their starting quarterbacks, and his ability to beat teams with his legs should help cover some of the flaws as he develops.
The Eagles have (probably) three first-round picks in next year’s draft and are set to move on to quarterback if they need to, but it’s not too hard to imagine a world in which Hurts proves he can be their answer. It all came from the Eagles this week. Every other team in the NFC East lost and the Colts lost while Wentz played the entire game. This last part is important because the second round the Eagles got for him becomes a first round if Wentz plays 75% of Indy’s offensive snaps. And it becomes a better first round every time the Colts lose.
A long way to go, as we keep saying, but it has been a good start to the season for the Eagles and Hurts, who surely believe he can make them forget Wentz before long.
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