By Brandon Simmons
Trade Deadline Update
The trade deadline has come and gone but here are some of the more notable headlines from trade season:
- The Tennessee Titans have decided not to trade Derrick Henry or DeAndre Hopkins.
- Montez Sweat traded to the Bears. Chase Young traded to the 49ers.
- Leonard Williams traded to the Seahawks
- The Green Bay Packers trade cornerback Rasul Douglas to the Buffalo Bills.
- Cleveland Browns trade wide receiver Donovan Peeples-Jones to the Detroit Lions
- Davante Adams is not being traded from the Las Vegas Raiders. Thi comes in the wake of his disappointing performance on Monday Night Football, where he recorded just one catch. Mike Evans stays as well.
- The Minnesota Vikings traded for QB Josh Dobbs in the wake of Vikings QB Kirk Cousins suffering a season-ending achilles injury.
The 49ers have gotten tougher, hands down. No matter what you think about how Brock Purdy will pan out the rest of the season, Chase Young is the firepower added to this defensive unit that will make them scarier to opposing offenses than what they already are. No disrespect to the other trades that happened, but this was the most-watched move to of this trade season. And even though Young has battled through injuries in his first couple of seasons, it’s still crazy that he was sent away for only a 3rd round pick. It kind of makes you wonder if the Washington Commanders are in the business of cleaning house at the end of the year.
Only the Las Vegas Raiders can be absent from trade rumors and run to the forefront of being the biggest losers at the deadline. Obviously, they were going through it this season, but after Adams had that poor stat line, fans have been on their head for not getting a deal done for the star wide receiver. Adams arrived to the Raiders via trade from the Green Bay Packers last season and he balled out with 100 catches for 1,516 yards and 14 touchdowns. The Raiders ended disastrously last season with their handling of Derek Carr and now that seems to have spilled over into this season with their handling of…everything. Adams will have 3 years left on his dead after this season so it’s going to be interesting to see if he still has that same energy to want out.
Cleveland Browns are Cursed
There is no other way around saying it: somehow the Cleveland Browns are cursed with quarterbacks. The latest example is this Deshaun Watson situation in which the Browns QB has been sidelined with a puzzling shoulder injury. Even though he has tried to play through it, he has been mussing games as of late. This is Watson’s first full season with the team after they traded for him in 2022 and signed him to a $230 million guaranteed contract. This was also in spite of them knowing he would serve a 10 game suspension last year for violating the NFL’s personal conduct policy. But Watson is just the latest QB to be featured in the house of QB Hell.
Since returning to the league in 1999, the Cleveland Browns have started over 30 different quarterbacks. Former number one overall pick Tim Couch was the first on this journey. After he didn’t pan out, it was just a long list of backups, failed free agents and underachieving draft picks. Probably the more notable instances came within the past decade. In 2012, the Browns selected Johnny Manziel out of Texas A&M. While Manziel was a talent on the field, he could not out scramble his partying ways and it eventually led to Cleveland parting ways with him in just a few seasons. Then Came Baker Mayfield, who the Browns selected number one overall and looked to be going places with him. Mayfield led the Browns to one postseason appearance but was injured the following year and never got back on track. Once Watson became available, the Browns acquired him with a bevy of draft picks and a huge contract, while Mayfield bounced between the Carolina Panthers and Los Angeles Rams last season. Now, the former number one overall pick finds himself leading the Tampa Bay Buccaneers amongst the top of the NFC South, while the Browns are figuring out another blunder at the QB position.
It wouldn’t be such an egregious act if this was another team, but the Cleveland Browns have become a running joke with this situation. The best move they ever made since 1999 was going after a quarterback of Watson’s caliber. They were being iffy on Mayfield and a solution just happen to fall out of the sky for them. The Browns have put together a very good team, especially on the defensive side of the ball, which is led by defensive end Myles Garrett. Cleveland is not the first team to fumble on choosing a quarterback, but it has become the signature problem for them, if that’s even all possible. This Deshaun Watson injury just embellishes the misfortunes that has plagued this team in finding a signal caller that would make them competitive. As the situation lingers on, it just looks like the curse will continue.
Kirk Cousins Out for Year
Minnesota Vikings QB Kirk Cousins suffered a season ending achilles injury on Sunday. This comes at the worst possible time, as questions surrounding his future have certainly been brought up, considering this season is a contract year, but also he had the team on a 3 game winning streak, going from 1-4 to 4-4. Cousins has a lot of football left, and if he wasn’t going to return to Minnesota, then some team was definitely going to bring him on. It’s messed up that this sort of puts him at the mercy of the Vikings, depending on how well he heals up with this injury. A similar situation happened to Dak Prescott with the Dallas Cowboys. Prescott suffered an ankle injury that ended his season, which was also his contract year. Eventually, the Cowboys re-signed Dak to a new deal, which he is currently under. The difference is that Prescott was a younger player at the time that happened, was coming off of his rookie deal and had his whole career ahead of him. Cousins is in his mid-30’s so the window for him to deliver a championship is closing quick, especially when the Detroit Lions are positioning themselves to take over the NFC North. No matter how you feel about Kirk Cousins, it’s tough watching take this injury at a time when he’s proving his value to this team and leading them on a 3 game winning streak.
Shoutouts/Shutouts
Shout out to Tennessee Titans rookie quarterback Will Levis, who had an impressive debut. Sunday, in a win against the Atlanta Falcons, Levis threw for 238 yards and 4 touchdowns. Heading into the game, Levis was named the starter in place of the injured Ryan Tannehill, but was told he would be sharing time QB Malik Willis, who only had 2 rushing attempts. With a performance like that, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Titans head coach Mike Vrabel go back to him to start the next game.
Shut out to the NFL and the Titans for hogging the Oilers olor scheme. This past week, it was reported the NFL wanting the University of Houston and Rice University to stop wearing the light blue and red color scheme famously donned by the Houston Oilers, who are now known as the Tennessee Titans. This season, the league announced several team will be bringing back some old school versions of their jerseys, including the Kelly Green unis of the Philadelphia Eagles. Since this announcement the Oilers color scheme has been a point of contention, particularly for the Houston Texans fans, who feel those colors belong to the city rather than the team who deserted city some 20 odd years ago. This color scheme has also been adopted by the NBA’s Houston Rockets as part of their jersey rotation. The NFL could do whatever with the pro teams involved in this dispute, but leave the colleges out of it. There are universities that literally copy the same logos as some pro teams so adopting colors from a team that doesn’t even exist in ame at the moment, should be no big deal.
Week 9 is here and the matchups are going to be a little more interesting. The Monday Night Football game between the Los Angeles Chargers and the New York Jets is indeed intriguing. Both teams have had some obstacles early on in this season and now they are trying to turn things around. This is especially true for the Chargers, who are entrenched with reports about head coach Brandon Staley potentially getting the axe. The game of the week won’t even be in the country. The Miami Dolphins and Kansas City Chiefs will play the first ever NFL game in Frankfurt, Germany. Since scoring 70 on the Denver Broncos, the Dolphins have been humanized a couple of times, being held to 20 points and under twice. As for the Chiefs, They seem to still have issues with getting rhythm on offense but have still shown flashes that they can get it done. Both teams will present as challenges to the other in some form or fashion. But until then…I’ll holla.