By Brandon Simmons
What was the Colts Play About?
It’s hard to believe the Indianapolis Colts lost the game on a play where they didn’t have their best player in the game, but they did. The Colts lost to the Houston Texans on Saturday night after failing to convert a 4th and 1. On the play, Colts QB Gardner Minshew threw a pass to running back Tyler Goodsen, who dropped the ball. A lot of the narrative has been around whether it was Minshew’s bad pass or Goodsen’s drop that shpuld take the blame. However, the focus should be on why the Colts did not have running back Johnathan Taylor in the game, since he was their best player in this game.
The unofficial theory that can be had is this: the Colts intentionally left Taylor put for a myriad of business reasons. Taylor started the season off in a contract dispute with the team that left him on the PUP list for most of the beginning of the year. He came back midseason to sign an extension that would keep him through the 2025 season. While it wasn’t an astronomical deal, it’s still a significant amount of money for this upcoming season, but also something that can be leveraged for trade situations. Should the Colts convert that 4th down, then tie and eventually win the game, they would be in the playoffs, but facing a much tougher opponent. Why risk having Taylor getring a serious injury – such as a knee or achilles – and paying him tons of money when he is not playing? He was already dealing with ankle and heel injuries coming into this game, despite him putting on an amazing performance. Plus, it would be a postseason game the Colts would likely lose, so why go through that disappointment while affecting your draft position, especially when you’re still trying to build this team around your new franchise QB.
Taylor is still a young player NFL-wise, but in running backs have a shorter lifespan in this league. It’s part of the reason he fought for that new deal at the top of the year. But it could be the reason the Colts move on from him if given the right offer.
Only 2 Names Should Be Mentioned with Atlanta
The Atlanta Falcons fires head coach Arthur Smith on Sunday. It was a move that was long expected to happen, so the only mystery should be who will fill that role. Honestly, that should be a very short mystery because only 2 names should be associated with Atlanta in the coming weeks: that is Washington Commanders offensive coordinator Eric Bienemy and Chicago Bears quarterback Justin Fields.
If Atlanta can land both individuals it would send the Falcons into the stratosphere. Bienemy has always been a highly anticipated head coach candidate but has never landed a job. This past season he switched from the Kansas City Chiefs to the Commanders, where there were early flashes of development with Washington QB Sam Howell. It would certainly be worth it to see what he can do with Falcons tight end Kyle Pitts and running back Bijan Robinson, whom many fans felt were under-utilized in Smith’s offense. Bringing in Justin Fields would also be a perfect piece for this offense. With the Bears holding the number one overall pick in this year’s draft, there have been rumors swirling that they could move on from Fields and draft a QB, likely USC’s Caleb Williams, who is still considered the best prospect in this upcoming draft. It would probably be nothing for them to trade Fields and hopefully Atlanta would take advantage of this opportunity. Fields has shown flashes of being a dual threat, but he could use some guidance as being a better passer from the pocket. Bienemy can provide that and use it to orchestrate this unit of explosiveness. Just like Fields, there has been questions around whether or not Desmond Ridder is the answer for Atlanta at QB, so if they don’t acquire the Bears QB, Ridder can benefit from what Bienemy offers as well. Either one or both guys should be in the immediate future plans of the Atlanta Falcons.
Eagles Will Have a Tough and Short Postseason
The Philadelphia Eagles ended their season flying downward. At Week 15, they made a personnel adjustment, moving defensive coordinator Sean Dessai to the coach’s booth and letting defensive assistant Matt Patricia call the plays from the sideline. Since that has happened, the Eagles have gone 1-4. But it’s not just the defense that has had issues. Offensively, the Eagles have not been playing their best either. This unit has 28 turnovers on the season, with QB Jalen Hurts attributing 24 of them. This play has resulted into the defending NFC champions looking shaky as a 5th seed heading into the playoffs.
The Philadelphia Eagles did not have the finish that they wanted and they might be finished even quicker in the postseason. They have a first round matchup with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, a game they should win on paper. But if you look at that paper, you’re going to think about the team that beat the Kansas City Chiefs in their stadium and who held the Miam Dolphins to only 17 points. Instead, the reality the team that opens up the postseason for Philly, will be the team that has blowout to San Francisco and Dallas, in addition to last minute losses to Seattle. When it comes to the playoffs, a lot teams’ success can be attributed to how well they play late in the year. That is why some teams that are lower seeds can make a big run in the postseason, because they probably had to play their behinds off all December to get in those spots. Totally different story for the Eagles; they got their behinds outplayed by lesser competition in the 2nd half of the season. This Eagles team does not look like it can turn off their problems in time to go on the road and beat the Bucs, despite the talent they have on both sides of the ball.
Shoutouts/Shutouts
Shout out to New Orleans Saints QB Jameis Winston for being teammate of the year. Sunday, in a win against the Atlanta Falcons, Winston was inserted into the game, in which the Saints were up 41-17, and was supposed to just run the victory formation. However, Winston called a run for running back Jamaal Williams so he could get his first touchdown of the season. The move did not go over well with Arthur Smith, who was the Falcons head coach at the moment, as he approached Saints head coach Dennis Allen. Winston later explained that he took it on himself to call the play, with the approval from all of his teammates and he also apologized to Allen. Only Jameis Winston could pull off this act with very little push back for disregarding a coach’s orders. Probably because that coach was Dennis Allen which is a whole other story.
Shut out to the Jacksonville Jaguars for losing the AFC South. Jacksonville was a favorite to win the division for most of the year but was caught up to by the Indianapolis Colts and Houston Texans, who ended up winning the AFC South. The Jaguars dealt with plenty of injuries to their receiving group and to QB Trevor Lawrence towards the end of the year. What really did them in was the season finale loss to the Tennessee Titans, which gave Houston the division and the Jaguars an early exit.
And that’s a wrap on the regular season. It has been a tremendous and fun year delivering my football takes to you all and looking forward to it next year as well as with the playoffs this weekend. Speaking of the postseason, all the games have the potential to be exiting. The Rams visiting the Lions, will be the first time Matthew Stafford returns to Detroit as an opponent. The Lions traded him to Los Angeles in 2021 in exchange for Jared Goff and 3 draft picks, which resulted in a Super Bowl for the L.A. The true game of the week will be with the Kansas City Chiefs hosting the Miami Dolphins. It’s actually going to be Miami with explosive offense but the Kansas City defense has shown to be much impressive this year than previous seasons. This game unfortunately will be exclusively on Peacock so hopefully a sports bar will have finagled something together by then. But until then…I’ll holla.