By Brandon Simmons
Bengals Earning Their Stripes
The Cincinnati Bengals are making their presence known in the AFC North and in the league. Sunday, the Bengals beat the Baltimore Ravens 41-17 at home, sending them to the top of their division. Quarterback Joe Burrow has recovered from the knee injury that ended his rookie season last year and has the offense jumping. The main reason for his success is rookie wide receiver – and his former LSU teammate – Ja’Marr Chase, who has been shredding up defenses all year. Sunday, he posted a stat line for 8 catches and 201 yards receiving. He’s already proving to be among the top receivers this with his 6 touchdowns, which is 6th in the league and his 754 receiving yards, which his 2nd in the league.
There is a lot more football to be played this season, but the Bengals are early contenders for winning this division. Their schedule is going to have quite a few tough opponents down the stretch, but nothing that they can’t compete heavily in. They handled the Ravens mightily on the road and almost beat the Green Bay Packers a couple of weeks ago. Despite the Baltimore win, they will still have to deal with them for that AFC North crown. It’s a long season to go but the Bengals look like they are willing to go that distance at a high level.
Watson Trade Rumors: Trade Deadline Edition
As expected, the Deshaun Watson trade rumors have ramped back up at the trade deadline. The only thing that has really changed is the likeliness that teams will pull the trigger on a deal, despite the sexual assault allegations still waiting to be sorted out. The same teams are still in on the deal – the Philadelphia Eagles, Miami Dolphins and Carolina Panthers – with the Dolphins rumored to be a strong candidate to land the Houston Texans quarterback. An interesting thing to note is Panthers head coach Matt Rhule publicly sticking with quarterback Sam Darnold last week but benching him in Sunday’s loss to the New York Giants. It led to the New York Daily News reporting the Panthers could jump in as the primary contenders to land Watson with their assets.
Eagles Making Their Moves
The trade deadline is where all the teams get excited because they might stumble on a good deal, and this potential trade is no different. This latest round of trade rumors have been going on since last week, when it was predicted a deal could get done by the end of last week or by the November 2nd deadline. One of those marks have already passed so now all eyes are on the latter. So there’s still a real possibility this could fall apart at that moment as well. However, what really is keeping these teams’ names in the discussion is their assets as well as their QB situations, which all appear to be murky, some more than others. Even in the Miami trade scenario, the assets are there but so is the skepticism of taking Dolphins QB Tua Tagovoila. Right now, it makes sense for the Dolphins to pull this deal off. They have the assets and some pretty good players that they don’t have to give away, which could accelerate their rebuild. The only downside would be that the picks they possibly receive in return, would not be as high as they need to really build their roster up immediately. One of these has to pull the trigger on this trade soon and Miami seems as if they are the most likely to do so. T
With the trade deadline right around the corner, the Philadelphia Eagles wasted no time getting things on the move. A week and a half ago, they traded the tight end to the Arizona Cardinals in exchange for a 2022 5th round pick and rookie cornerback Tay Gowan. In addition to moving Ertz, the team sent quarterback Joe Flacco back to the New York Jets in exchange for a 2022 6th round pick.
The Eagles made some interesting moves during the deadline, especially as it pertains to QB Jalen Hurts. When the Flacco trade happened, it put Eagles QB Gardner Minshew into the number 2 spot, in which quite a few fans speculated he could be replacing Hurts. Hurts might be struggling thru a few games but there is no sign that Minshew is going to take over the starting job unless he finds himself in another blowout like the Dallas game. If anything, this could be just them collecting some capital to make moves at the deadline or in the offseason.
Shoutouts/Shutouts
Shout out to Tom Brady for trolling the Chicago Bears. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers QB posted a video to social media celebrating his team’s 38-3 win over the Bears, but while playing Chicago rapper’s Chief Keef’s “Love Sosa”. Brady had some reason to put a little sauce in the video since he also threw his 600th touchdown pass in this game as well.
Shut out to the Miami Dolphins for actually not achieving a comeback victory over the Atlanta Falcons. The Falcons jumped out to a 27-14 lead in the 4th quarter, until they blew the lead in typical Atlanta fashion, and found themselves giving up 2 touchdowns to fall behind 27-28, with 2:22 left in the game. However, the Falcons rallied back to kick the game winning field goal. There’s quite a few teams who have been in Miami’s position and got the job done, but it’s been a long time since we’ve Atlanta survive this.
We’re almost at the midway point of the season and teams are starting to figure out their positions. The Green Bay Packers are visiting the Arizona Cardinals for Thursday Night Football. It might be the first time a national audience will see Arizona this season. While their records are similar, the Packers will be without wide receivers Devante Adams and Allen Lazard, due to COVID protocols, so Green Bay QB Aaron Rodgers might have a rough night. The Tennessee Titans are clashing in an AFC South matchup with the Indianapolis Colts. The Titans are coming off big wins against the Buffalo Bills and Kansas City Chiefs; but the Colts have been playing solid football, also racking up a 2 game winning streak. But until then…I’ll holla.
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