By Brandon Simmons
Too Early to Tank?
Heading into Week 3 of the season, the league has seen 4 starting quarterbacks go down: Indianapolis Colts’ Andrew Luck retired, Jacksonville Jaguars’ Nick Foles is out for the year with a broken clavicle, Pittsburgh Steelers’ Ben Roethlisberger is done for the season with an injured elbow and New Orleans Saints’ QB Drew Brees is expected to miss the next 6 weeks because of a thumb injury. As expected, all four of these teams will go with their backups, but how will they play this season out? Do they feel their backups can make them competitive or is this a chase for the highest pick they can get?
All these teams share something very similar: they don’t have any immediate QB plans for the future. Given that fact, it’s a good time to throw out there whatever they have now. The Colts have an experienced started with Jacoby Brissett, but he hasn’t won them anything and never really taken a competitive snap in his career. The Jaguars have rookie Gardener Minshew, so they might just give him a real shot this year to earn the job going forward. The Steelers have come around to using Mason Rudolph, who was their 2018 3rd round pick. The Saints have a situation slightly different from what the others are going through. Brees is only going to miss a portion of the season, for now, but that’s enough to be on the outside of the playoff race, and his time in the NFL isn’t going to be much longer.
It’s only Week 2, and losing will just make this an extra long season. For the Saints and Steelers, they should exhaust these guys’ abilities the best you can then decide whether or not you need to sign or trade for a QB. Big Ben and Brees plan on making their return next season and this year, respectively. The Colts and Jags might not have that same luxury so they should move accordingly.
What is Going on in Miami?
The Miami Dolphins are going through some thangs right now. The 0-2 Dolphins have been getting beat senselessly the first 2 weeks of the season. Last week, it was a 59-10 to the Baltimore Ravens while this week was a 43-0 shutout at the hands of the New England Patriots. None of it is sitting right with the players either. After last week’s loss it was reported that several players were requesting trades out of Miami, in the wake pf the team trading Laremy Tunsil and Kenny Stills. Later in the week, it was revealed the Dolphins were trying to trade 2018 draft pick Minkah Fitzpatrick, who they eventually sent to the Pittsburgh Steelers.
It’s not unusual for players to get frustrated about a season not going well but this hints at something deeper going on within the organization. The Dolphins just got a new head coach in Brian Flores, and he has already lost the players if these reports turn out to be true, which is obviously not a good sign. When a new coach comes in, there should be some type optimism, but that has been the exact opposite. After one game the whole franchise has went into a going-out-of-business sale. It kind of makes sense, because the Dolphins have been bad for a while now, and could just be in the hunt for a new franchise QB. But if they lose too many games, will the coach still be around after his lone season?
Curtains on the Steel Curtain?
Monday, it was revealed that Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlesberger suffered an elbow injury that would require him to have surgery, effectively ending his season. At the experienced age of 37, Roehtlisberger might be facing an uncertain playing future after having a long, storied career. Should the latter happen, the Steelers would have lost Antonio Brown and Le’Veon Bell within the same year; it also confirms that this could be the last season for head coach Mike Tomlim. While he is a winning football coach, a lot of issues have popped up on the Steelers within the past few seasons. When mentioning Antonio Brown, a lot of people point to Tomlin for allowing his behavior to go unpunished when he was with the team. In addition to that, they missed the playoffs last season and lost the division to a rival Baltimore Ravens team led by a rookie QB.
It seems fitting to expect Tomlin’s exit as Big Ben’s career is winding down, but he hasn’t done anything to warrant that feeling of imminent expectation. He has never had a losing season in his coaching stint with the team. He’s also getting a lot of young talent coming to the team including rookie linebacker Devin Bush and the recently acquired Minkah Fitzpatrick. If there is expected to be a drop off of the Pittsburgh Steelers, it will not be a long one.
How will the Eli Era conclude?
Monday, it was announced that the Eli Manning era was over, when the New York Giants named rookie quarterback Daniel Jones as the starter going forward. Jones was the number 6 overall pick in this year’s draft and many people were down on him being selected that high. However, many people were down on Manning playing QB for the Giants. The last couple of seasons, Giants have not been enamored with the same guy who won them 2 Super Bowls. It got to the point where rumors started flying about finishing his career in Jacksonville. Now the possibilities are endless for where he may end up.
Unfortunately for Eli, this is not going to end well as it should have ended. This is a quarterback who has brought a lot of success to this team but has not been able to play up to par in recent memory. After leading the Giants to a Super Bowl win for the 2011 season, New York has only made the playoffs twice and his QBR has been under 50 for the past 3 seasons. It would be nice if he could be sent off like his brother, Peyton, riding off into the sunset after a Super Bowl win, but the Giants don’t really have the capacity to get to the playoffs. Eli has been around for a long time, and in this instance, probably too long, but the fans are going to embrace him for his longevity. However, he will have to embrace the not-so-great end on a great career.
Shout outs/Shut outs
Shout out to all the football players getting out of the state of Florida. Late Monday, the Dolphins traded cornerback Minkah Fitzpatrick but at the end of August, they traded their best offensive lineman, Laremy Tunsil and wide receiver Kenny Still to the Houston Texans in exchange for some draft picks. Also on Monday, it was reported that Jacksonville Jaguars cornerback Jalen Ramsey wanted a trade. This came about after Ramsey and head coach Doug Marrone got into a heated spat on the sideline during their 13-12 loss to the Houston Texans. It has been rumored that the cornerback has had issues with the defensive philosophy and wants to go elsewhere suited for him. Jaguars are currently for a first rounder in exchange for Ramsey.
Shut out to whoever is dressing Cam Newton. The Carolina Panthers quarterback never ceases to amaze with what off-the-wall, janky outfit he will show up to in his postgame. This week he had on a scarf with some sort of suit; something just all over the place.
On paper, there’s not a lot of games to be excited about. The Baltimore Ravens will be visiting the Kansas City Chiefs as two undefeated teams square off. It will be Ravens QB Lamar Jackson showing off his newly developed throwing skills against the Chiefs’ QB Pat Mahomes, who is coming off a 4 touchdown game of his own. The skies and scoreboards will be busy for that game but until then…I’ll holla.