By Brandon Simmons
Is Russ Cooked?
Russell Wilson has thrived under the phrase “Let Russ cook”, but these days people are flaming him for what he has brought to the table this season. The Denver Broncos QB has not played his best football this season and it has the Broncos sitting at 2-3. Last Thursday’s game against the Indianapolis Colts, in which they lost, after Wilson threw a pick into the back of the endzone. The growing consensus of Russ playing poorly has been on the rise since that game.
Russell Wilson’s only chance of getting out of this is to play better. He can put up the high passing numbers and he has the receivers to make that happen, but he just has to make better decisions with the football. His 3 interceptions are already half of his total from last season and he’s dealing with the lowest completion percentage of his career. When the Broncos traded for him in the offseason, they knew they were getting an upgrade at the QB position, so much to the point that they went ahead and gave him a $245 million contract. So far, they have not gotten a return on their investment. Denver has only scored more than 20 points once this season, something they probably did not envision when bringing in a signal caller of Wilson’s caliber. Russ can still cook, he just needs to be more careful in his recipes. He has no problem digging into his playbook – or cookbook for thematic purposes – so figuring out this offense will come easy to him. No matter what kitchen they’re in, a great chef will also deliver a wonderful meal Russ is due to bringing 5 star main course consistently soon enough.
NFL Has Taken it Too Far…Predictably
In the wake of the fallout from the Tua Tagavoiloa concussion situation the league has taken its course of action a little too far. In the Atlanta Falcons vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers game, Falcons defensive tackle Grady Jarrett sacks Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady – in the same manner that Tua was tackled a week before when suffering his injury – and was called for a roughing the passer call. Monday, during the Las Vegas Raiders vs. Kansas City Chiefs game, Chiefs defensive tackle stripped and recovered the ball from Raiders quarterback Derek Carr but was hit with unnecessary roughness for having his body weight come down on Carr. It’s understood why those plays were called but it’s still as egregious of those to even be considered.
The NFL should be ashamed of itself for playing catch up with their rules. Those two calls were in response to their shortcomings during the Tua situation. While they want to show the world that they’re making progress, they still must be realistic about the situation. Obviously, the Unofficiated Neurological Consultant messed up in his evaluation, which brought about his firing. When Tua took that hit, he clearly already had some sort of concussion, hence why his body responded the way it did from just a simple tackle that saw his head slightly hit the ground. What makes these calls even worse is they can affect plays down the line. We’ve seen it for years with defensive backs when they brough in rules for holding receivers 5 yards past the line of scrimmage or penalizing for hitting defenseless receivers. If a defensive lineman grabs a QB but doesn’t bring him down for fear of a penalty, then he’s likely going to give up a big play, or a touchdown at worst.
The NFL has put in enough measures to make sure the sport can be as safe as possible, but this game is violent in nature. When you have 200 pound grown men running towards at least 3 grown men who weight between 250-300 pounds per person, while wearing plastic armor, someone is going to get hurt. However, compared to 30 years ago, the game is much more advanced, especially when it comes to treating injuries. There is also much more information being put out surrounding head trauma and CTE that was not made aware of during that time. The NFL does respond to incidents on player make changes where needed, just like they did with this concussion controversy, but it’s important not to take things to the extreme and make a bigger problem that you don’t need.
Ron Rivera was right…but also wrong
Washington Commanders head coach Ron Rivera put his foot in his mouth, but not before putting that same foot on the gas pedal of his bus to run his quarterback over. Monday, a clip of Rivera in a press conference made its rounds on social media after he was asked about why Washington wasn’t doing so well as the other teams in the NFC East, to which he simply replied, “quarterback”. He went on to explain aforementioned teams had their QB’s longer to work with as opposed to the Commanders, who just got QB Carson Wentz this year. Somebody should’ve explained to him simply, he shouldn’t have said that, but was it the risk that he need
While Rivera was wrong for seemingly throwing his QB under the bus, he might have been right in his assessment. Those other teams have all had their quarterbacks for a while now, so there’s a certain familiarity within the locker room, which means it’s business as usual. The Dallas Cowboys example was perfect because Cowboys QB Cooper Rush, who’s filling for the injured Dak Prescott, has been a backup with the team for a very long time now. The only exception to this might be the fact that New York Giants quarterback Daniel Jones has had the most turnover between the Commanders’ division rivals, including working with a new head coach in Brian Daboll this season, but he seems to be picking things up in the offense and playing better than previous seasons. Wentz has had some good games and put some great numbers. He’s currently 4th in the league in passing yards and his 10 touchdowns are 6th overall. However, his 6 interceptions are 3rd highest in the league and only 1 shy of his total from last season.
However, the principle of this matter kind of overrides whether or not Rivera had a point to make. You don’t want to publicly embarrass players in that fashion, the same way he would not want any of his players to throw him or the other coaches under the bus like that. If he would’ve said offense this would be a non-story; but to single out one player on the team – especially at the QB position – is alittle over the top. Rivera will have to wonder if his comments are going to be worth it going. This is something that can risk his credibility with the locker room and also damage a relationship with your quarterback. Wentz does not have the experience with Washington that the other QB’s in the division have with their teams, but he’s been in the league for a while now and there’s a reason that Washington even chose him. Rivera might’ve took a hit to his job security just to make a hot take.
Shoutouts/Shutouts
Shut out to the Carolina Panthers for firing their head coach after 3 seasons of a 7 year deal. The Panthers let go of head coach Matt Rhule after a 1-4 start, which included Sunday’s 37-15 loss to the San Francisco 49ers. Rhule finished his tenure with Carolina with a record of 11-27.
Shout out to Matt Rhule who was fired by the Panthers after over 2 seasons. The former college coach is ousted before finishing the 3rd year of a 7 year, $62 million contract, which means he could reportedly receive well over $40 million for compensation. Not to mention, he is already on the radar to return to the college ranks and lead a program, where he could get another bag. So he’ll be okay in life at the moment.
Week 6 is here and there’s 2 games that will be intriguing to every fan’s eye. The Philadelphia Eagles are hosting the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday night and it’s a big matchup for both teams. These two teams will be fighting for the top spot in the NFC East and will probably be each other’s first taste of stiff competition in a long time. The Cowboys have won 4 straight under backup QB Cooper Rush but their defense has really been the star, led by linebacker Micah Parsons. However, the Eagles have been playing high-level football on both sides of the ball and quarterback Jalen Hurts has some wide receivers at his disposal that will let it fly. That will be an exciting matchup, but before that, the game of the day might have already happened. The Kansas City Chiefs will host the Buffalo Bills in a rematch of last season’s divisional round game, in which the Bills and Chiefs traded shots in the final seconds of the game. Buffalo QB Josh Allen has played at a MVP level so far this year. However, Kansas City QB Patrick Mahomes is still that guy and continues to make spectacular plays with his arm. This game could determine the number one seed at the end of the year. But until then…I’ll holla.