By Brandon Simmons
The Earl Thomas Weekly Mystery
Safety Earl Thomas has not played a single snap this season, but he has been trending each week since Week 1. The last time he was seen on a football field, Tennessee Titans running back Derrick Henry hit him with a vicious stiff arm that pushed him and the Baltimore Ravens out of the playoffs. But he has been in the headlines since then. Thomas was the victim of a domestic dispute when his wife allegedly shot him after catching him in a sexual act. Right before the season started, the Ravens cut him after he got into a fight with a teammate. Despite all that, his name becomes hot commodity on Sunday afternoon postgame discussions.
It seems there are 2 mysteries at play on the Twitter timeline: when will the Dallas Cowboys sign Earl Thomas and who else other than the Dallas Cowboys will sign Earl Thomas? The Thomas to the Cowboys talk has been going for so long now. In his final year with Seattle, many people expected Cowboys owner Jerry Jones to swoop in and make a midseason trade for the plyer who was seemingly disgruntled with the Seahawks organization. It led to the picture of Thomas flipping off the Seattle sideline. As time went on, Thomas went to the Ravens and the Dallas talk went away. Now that he’s been released, the Cowboys rumor resurfaced, especially after their games in which they have been gashed by opposing offenses these past 3 3 games.
As of right now, Thomas remains a commodity for teams to pick up. The Houston Texans were bringing in Thomas for a workout but things got derailed to COVID concerns. There are a few other teams that would welcome his defensive presence, especially in their secondary. For some of the teams ranking near the bottom of pass defense, Thomas can improve that as soon as he steps on to the field. All those headlines and antics really pale in comparison the talent he possesses. He is a 6 time Pro-Bowler and 3 time First Team All Pro. It’s no mystery that Earl Thomas can get on any team right now and return to being one of the best safeties in the league.
The Texans Should Take Notes from the NBA
In the NBA, a coach can reach the Conference Finals and still be handed his walking papers. Houston Texans head coach Bill O’ Brien should probably be glad he learned the shotgun over the pick and roll. Even before blowing a 24-0 lead in last season’s divisional round loss to the Kansas City Chiefs, O’ Brien has been on the hottest of seats in the league for a long time. Criticisms surrounding his playcalling, coupled with his inability to take his team deep into the playoffs have hinted that his job was on the line.
O’Brien’s accomplishment of giving the franchise 6 division titles sounds good; but as the subtitle suggests, this does not bode well if he is a NBA coach. Look at the Los Angeles Clippers and how. When Doc Rivers was the coach, he had some talent in his hands starting his tenure with Chris Paul, Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan; then finishing with Paul George and a Finals MVP in Kawhi Leonard. While he did keep the Clippers competitive throughout his years, they could not get past the hump of anything. This included Rivers going into the playoffs and blowing 3-1 leads in the 2nd round at 2 separate times. On Monday, they fired him. Mind you, this was a Clippers team who has not been competitive in any other decade outside of the 2010’s. And there have been other NBA coaches who received similar fates. The Toronto Raptors fired Dwane Casey, the season he won Coach of the Year, when he could not get them past Lebron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers in the 2nd round. A few weeks ago, in O’ Brien’s backyard, the Rockets parted ways with Mike D’Antoni when his “small ball” lineups could not get it done in the playoffs.
The point is, O’Brien has garnered quite a bit of success in his time with the franchise but that should not warrant him the reward of invincibility. Based off the critiques on the coaching level, one would think that would caution management on giving him more responsibility within the organization, but they rewarded with him the General Manager position, and that has not gone over so well at the moment. He traded away playmaking wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins in exchange for some draft picks and a washed up David Johnson at running back. How is that turning out? The Texans are 0-3 with an absent running game, low-impact receiving group and one of those draft picks got ejected in Week 2 as well as missed their first game in Week 3. It’s amazing how long he has kept his job up until this point. The NBA coaches I mentioned at least touched the 3rd round at some point or another. However, O’Brien went to the 2nd round twice and got blew out each time. The Texans recently signed their franchise QB Deshaun Watson to an extension through 2024. However, fans have to wonder how long they will enjoy Watson before feeling like the current coach could ruin his career inadvertently with his playcalling. But before it even gets to that point, if the Texans continue these losing ways, it will be a slam dunk on what ownership decides to do with O’Brien.
The One Takeaway from Lamar vs. Mahomes
Monday, the Baltimore Ravens hosted the Kansas City Chiefs for a much anticipated clash between Ravens QB Lamar Jackson and Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes. Instead, the matchup turned out to be a 34-20 Ravens loss that was nowhere close as imagined. Mahomes looked his usual self, throwing 31 out of 42 for 385 yards, 4 touchdowns and no picks. Jackson had a less than stellar performance, throwing 15 out of 28 for 97 yards, 1 touchdown and also 0 picks. While the Ravens defense had no answer for anything that Mahomes was doing, the Chiefs defense implemented everything they could in stopping Jackson and rewarded themselves with 4 sacks on the dynamic signal-caller.
The one takeaway from this game simply comes down to this: Lamar Jackson must become better with throwing the ball to his wide receivers. The Ravens have established they can run the football, whether with their running backs or with Jackson himself, but airing it out to the outside is going to lift this team past an opponent like the Tennessee Titans or Kansas City Chiefs. It’s vital that this part of the game develops as quick as possible. Monday was the 2nd straight game that Jackson was sacked 4 times, which means defenses are finding ways to contain him and keep him from breaking out for big plays. Those 97 yards won’t get it done unless the defense is slowing down the opponent’s offense; obviously that was not the case this past Monday. The flip side of this observation is he might need a more established receiver to help out with this effort. Ravens wide receiver Marquise Brown is still developing in his own right as well, so he would benefit from some veteran advice. Jackson has the arm to put the ball anywhere on the field, and when he achieves that with his outside targets he will become more dangerous than what his opponents fear now.
Shoutouts/Shutouts
Shout out to Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes and the new teammate he will be receiving. Tuesday, Mahomes’ fiancée took to Twitter to announce that they are expecting. Congratulations to the young couple!
Shut out to COVID-19 for making its appearance during the regular season. It was reported Tuesday that 8 members of the Tennessee Titans – 3 players and 5 employees – tested positive for the Coronavirus. This came in the wake of the Sunday’s win over the Minnesota Vikings, which prompted both organizations to shut down their facilities and suspend all in-person activities. This will likely affect a lot of things going forward, as the league has tried to move as cautious as possible, but still ended up with cases. Last week, Atlanta Falcons cornerback A.J. Terell became the first player that tested positive for COVID and was the only one on the team that had done so. The games in which the Titans and Vikings are participating in are still on schedule but will be worth keeping an eye on. The Vikings will be visiting the Texans, who are expected to hold fans in the stadium for the first time all season.
Assuming there are no more COVID cases, the NFL should be in full swing this weekend. The Tennessee Titans are still on to host the Pittsburgh Steelers. Two teams enjoying some early season, undefeated success and looking to move forward by capitalizing off their momentum. The New England Patriots are going to get a 2nd test of their season when they visit the Kansas City Chiefs. Chiefs are coming off of their monster win over the Ravens, as well as the Patriots coming off of their impressive victory over the Las Vegas Raiders. It will be the first time Patriots head Coach Bill Belichick’s is facing Chiefs QB Pat Mahomes since Tom Brady left New England. Expect Belichick to throw everything he can to slow down the Chiefs offense. But until then…I’ll holla.
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