By Brandon Simmons
Do OBJ a Favor and Trade Him
This past week, trade rumors popped up around Cleveland Browns wide receiver Odell Beckham, Jr. As soon as they jumped up, they quickly got knocked down. The story came in wake of the Browns’ 35-30 win in which he had 4 catches for 74 yards. It seems inopportune for these rumors to pop up after a great game by OBJ, but here we are with the opportunity for Cleveland to do OBJ a great service.
OBJ is a great talent and the Cleveland Browns are the Cleveland Browns. The quarterback has been with a different head coach and offensive coordinator each of his years in the league, so why share that wasted time with a star like OBJ. Sure, it’s a little too early to spell the demise of Browns QB Baker Mayfield, but it’s not like we haven’t seen this movie before. It’s best to cut your ties now before OBJ goes back to his old instead of remaining in his silent, mature persona. You will get some hefty picks in return so you can draft a young receiver that doesn’t know any better. Beckham has not been around some quality QB play in a long time and did not even have a legit choice in picking a new team. He deserves to be catching passes from a solid QB at least once in his career.
Injuries for Week 2
A ton of players went down due to injuries this past week. New York Giants running back Saquon Barkley tore his ACL and will miss the remainder of the season while Carolina Panthers running back Christian McCaffrey suffered a high ankle sprain and will miss 4-6 weeks. The San Francisco 49ers got hit the hardest with the injury bug as defensive linemen Solomon Thomas and Nick Bosa had season-ending ACL injuries, running back Raheem Mostart suffered a high ankle sprain and quarterback Jimmy Garropolo suffered a a high ankle sprain. Barkley, Thomas and Bosa all suffered season-ending ACL injuries while McCaffrey suffered a high ankle sprain. Coming into the week, New Orleans Saints wide receiver Michael Thomas also had a high ankle sprain.
Besides the obvious waiver wire spree for fantasy football owners, this presents a conundrum for all the teams losing their players to injury. The 49ers will take a huge hit with Bosa. Mostert and Jimmy G out, but they were already dealing with not having defensive end Dee Ford, tight end George Kittle and cornerback Richard Sherman. It’s too early to count out their return to the playoffs but this is a heavy stack against them. The Panthers need all the help they can get right now, but McCaffrey was the help they had. The same can be said for the Giants. Even though they are signing former Atlanta Falcons running back Devonta Freeman, it can be demoralizing to see a franchise player like Barkley suffer a huge setback. Best of wishes to all the player who suffered injuries, whether this past week or the week before.
Falcons Doing Falcon Things
The Atlanta Falcons just could not help themselves and blew another double-digit lead late in the game, in the state of Texas. After going up 39-24 in the 4th quarter, they blew the 15 point lead to the Dallas Cowboys which included one of the wildest onside kicks ever in NFL history and propelled the Cowboys to victory on game winning field goal. So the internet wasted no time in letting the Falcons have it and remind them of the infamous 28-3 lead they blew in Super Bowl LI against the New England Patriots. In this case, it was a 29-10 lead that Atlanta held at halftime, but before that, they went up as far as 20-0 on the Cowboys.
There are so many things wrong it’s not even funny. Not only did you blow a huge lead and squandered the game away in the 2nd half, but you did it to the team with the most obnoxious fan base in all of football, so this will not go away. Also, in the same week that the Los Angeles Clippers lost Game 7 of their playoff series against the Denver Nuggets, blowing a 2nd 3-1 lead under head coach Doc Rivers, you turn around and pull this. There’s a lot of blame to go around whether it’s the Falcons defense not making stops on those long Cowboys drives the Falcons offense not being able to secure one more field goal or the special teams players not jumping on the onside kick quick enough. Since it’s a regular season game, it won’t be heralded as much, but it is going to be a stain on Atlanta’s reputation, as well as head coach Dan Quinn, for a long time.
Shoutout/Shutout
So shout out to the Dallas Cowboys for rallying in that Falcons game and getting the win. It doesn’t matter what mistakes Atlanta made, or any team for that matter, there should be some credit given to the team that was down and found a way to be on top in the end.
Shut out to LA Clippers forward Montrezl Harrell who was reminded of his own blown lead blunder. Last week the Clippers were bounced out of the 2nd round by the Nuggets after blowing a 3-1 lead in the series. Harrell was apparently watching the Falcons/Cowboys game and tweeted: “Swear to god I am done with NFL @atlantafalcons my goodness!!” This did not go over too well with Twitter users who quickly reminded Harrell that he might want to relax on criticizing who squandered away leads:
Shout out to Hall of Fame cornerback Deion Sanders for being hired as Jackson State University’s head football coach. According to ESPN, Sanders is currently the offensive coordinator at Trinity Christian School in Cedar Hill, Texas but will take over the JSU head coaching duties when the program resumes in the Spring. Until then, Prime Time wasted no time in being introduced the only Prime Time can be introduced:
Shut out to the Philadelphia Eagles fans. There are reports of a petition going around to bench quarterback Carson Wentz in favor of rookie Jalen Hurts. The petition popped up on change.org in the wake of Philly’s loss to the Washington Football Team. Total Pro Sports reported the petition to being at 1,000 signatures. If you’re an Eagles fan who wants to check it out for yourself, then click here.
Quite a few games this weekend where teams will get an early test for the season. The Dallas Cowboys will be coming off of their comeback win and visiting the undefeated Seattle Seahawks, who staved off a mini-comeback of their own. The biggest game of the week will be on Monday Night Football as the Baltimore Ravens host the Kansas City Chiefs. The last 2 MVP’s will go head to head under the bright lights which should keep the scoreboard well lit. Even though Ravens QB Lamar Jackson has exceptional mobility, his passing is quickly improving and could be a tremendous equalizer in this matchup. Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes is just…Patrick Mahomes. Of course he has his arm, but when you couple that with wide receiver Tyreek Hill, it becomes a hard time for a lot of defenses. These two quarterbacks will be putting on a show. But until then…I’ll holla.
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