By Brandon Simmons
Playoff Scenarios
Playoffs are now set with the Wild Card kicking off this weekend. It was a crazy finish to the regular season as far as lining these matchups up. The Miami Dolphins got in on a game winning field goal in a defensive battle with the New York Jets. The Detroit Lions were eliminated from postseason contention right before their game with the Green Bay Packers, due to the Seattle Seahawks winning earlier that afternoon. However, the Lions beat the Packers – who only needed to win and get in – crushing their postseason hopes. Another headline that stood out was the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles securing the number one seed in their conferences. The Chiefs were competing with the Buffalo Bill’s and Cincinnatti Bengals for that spot and things kind of tipped into KC’s favor after the Bills-Bengals game ended up being cancelled after being stopped for the Damar Hamlin injury. The Eagles finally wrapped up home field advantage after losing 2 straight and missing QB Jalen Hurts, who missed those 2 games while dealing with a shoulder injury.
Looking forward to the playoffs there are quite a few things to make note of. A lot of the quarterbacks for these teams are going to be relatively new and inexperienced. Justin Herbert, Trevor Lawrence, Geno Smith, Tua Tagovoiloa, Brock Purdy and Daniel Jones are making their postseason debut this weekend. Herbert will lead his Los Angeles Chargers against Lawrence’s Jacksonville Jaguars, just like Purdy will help his San Francisco 49ers face off against Smith’s Seattle Seahawks. So there’s already a guarantee for one of these guys to get their first playoff win right off the bat. Now once they move on to the second round, their inexperience can work against him as the degree of difficulty of defenses will raise up in addition to the pressureable moments.
Chicago at the 1 pick
The Chicago Bears found themselves as the recipient of the number one overall pick, thanks to the Houston Texans. Houston was the perennial favorite to land the number one pick, if they would have lost to the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday. However, in pure ironics fashion, the Texans beat the Colts – a team they tied with in their season opener – when they scored a touchdown and instead of tying with the extra point to do overtime, they scored a 2 point conversion to win. Another funny tidbit was that former Bears head coach, Lovie Smith, was coaching the Texans while he did this but he ultimately was fired later that evening. So while the Bears fans enjoyed their gift from their beloved coach, the Bears front office have to find out how to use this gift wisely.
It’s a number of ways that Chicago can go with this pick. If they decide to trade down, there are some places they can go in terms of acquiring a wide receiver for their quarterback. They can try to lure Seattle Seahawks wide receiver D.K. Metcalf by enticing the team with the number one pick, which would give the Hawks a chance to draft their franchise QB, while the Bears remain in the top 5. They can also simply do a pick swap with the Texans, given the fact that both teams really have different needs at this time. That brings up the point of why they would stay. Alabama Crimson Tide quarterback Bryce Young is projected to be the number one overall pick, but this was also based on the notion Houston would be at that spot. The Bears selected Justin Fields in the first round of the 2021 draft and he continues to improve. While he has shown a supreme ability to scramble with the football, Fields has shown strides in his passing game improving in passing yards, touchdowns and completion percentage. To draft a quarterback would kind of be a waste of time, when that pick could be used on a defensive player such as Georgia’s Jalen Carter or Alabama’s Will Andersen. That would be a boost to their defense which has lost both Roquan Smith and Khalil Mack in the past 2 seasons. This would probably be their best move, since they can begin work on their defense and build the rest of this team up.
Fired Coaches
It’s that time of year where the NFL witnesses the annual coaching carousel. Sunday night, the Texans fired head coach Lovie Smith after only one season, where the team went 3-13-1, ironically winning their season finale and missing out on the number one draft pick. The Arizona Cardinals waited a little more for the day to get started before firing head coach Kliff Kingsbury, who signed an extension last season through 2027. The Cardinals finished 4-13 in addition to their franchise quarterback suffering a season-ending injury, that’s supposed to keep him out through October of next season. These are the lates coaches to get the axe as the Carolina Panthers and Denver Broncos made their coaching dismissals – Matt Rhule and Nathaniel Hackett, respectfully.
Smith and Kingsbury both shared similar paths to their eventual coaching demise: both of their teams had high expectations but failed to meet them, partly due to quarterback play. For the Texans, QB Davis Mills was had a strong finish to his 2021 rookie season, but that never translated over into 2022. His regression largely affected the team’s performance, which included the defense being atrocious against the run and multiple instances of questionable playcalling. It also didn’t help that the locker room reportedly stopped responding to him. For the Cardinals, QB Kyler Murray started the season in controversy and struggling. After signing his contract extension, Murray was accused of not preparing well after a clause in his contract was revealed that he had study a certain amount of hours. Murray predictably struggled as Cardinals wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins was missing for 6 games, while suspended for violating the league’s PED policy. Murray suffered his injury when Arizona was out of the playoffs, which subsequently sealed Kingsbury’s fate.
While those 2 coaches met their fates at the immediate conclusion of the season, there could be more on the way. Las Vegas Raiders head coach Josh McDaniels was trending with the hashtag, #firejoshmcdaniels on Monday. The Raiders had very high expectations after bringing in wide receiver Davante Adams. However, the season just did not turn out that way and things ended even worse when McDaniels benched Raiders QB Derek Carr in favor of examining the younger talent. That move rubbed a lot of fans the wrong way, when they were already frustrated with the outcome of the season. At this time, nothing has been announced but it would not be surprising if he joined the unemployment line, especially if there is a chance Sean Payton could be wanting to come back to coaching.
Shoutouts/Shutouts
Shout out to Demar Hamlin for being released from the hospital. Last week, the Bills safety suffered cardiac arrest on the field during the Buffalo Bills-Cincinnati Bengals game, when making a normal tackle. He had to get administered CPR on the field and taken to a nearby hospital, where he stayed up until Monday. He was listed in critical condition upon arrival but made progress each day, and eventually woke up that Friday. But if anything, this shout out is for every fan, or non-fan, that has prayed for his recovery. To everyone that has donated to his toy drive, that resulted in millions. This was a story that brought the emotions out of everybody and it resulted in a feel-good moment that we can all be proud of.
Wild Card Weekend has arrived and while there are exciting matchups across the board, the main one will probably be on Monday Night. The Dallas Cowboys will visit the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in a game that is a rematch from Week 1. The Cowboys was close to getting the number one seed had they won on Sunday and Philadelphia lost, but that was not the case in either scenario. The Buccaneers did win their division but not as domineering a fashion as we’re used to seeing from Tom Brady-led teams. However, they’re getting a Cowboys team that has had some ugly wins and equally some bad losses, which could make them vulnerable for a first round exit. The same could be said for Tampa Bay, who has the NFC South crown with an under-.500 record. The Dallas Cowboys going against Tom Brady is enough to get any fan’s attention that night but until then…I’ll holla.