The Cowboys are essentially locked into the No. 5 seed. They might as well play all their backups for the next three games.
Predicting success in the NFL based on college experience has always been a highly inexact science, particularly at quarterback. More scouting and better analytics in recent years don’t seem to have materially affected the success rate, even for teams that are generally felt to be among the best at it.
Vinny was an average-at-best QB for his career, but by far his best two seasons were with the Jets. That was during the Curtis Martin-John Abraham-Wayne Chrebet era. I remember liking that team. They always had some fatal flaw, but they were a scrappy bunch. And of course that Dolphins game…
I was at that game! So good.
EDIT: Oh this is embarrassing. I’m late in the 3rd, and Wilson has been pulled for sucking and replaced with the wildcat quarterback. Not even Joe Flacco. This guy looks like a TE trying to throw, but yet is wildly more successful than Wilson was to this point.
Dude looks like a rugby player. Crowd going wild for him after booing Wilson mercilessly all game.
This is true, although I can’t help but think of the 1998 Draft where it should have been blatantly obvious that Ryan Leaf was much worse than Peyton Manning when the two were asked what they’d do after being drafted and Peyton said he’d immediately pack his bags and head to Indy while Leaf said he’d go party in Vegas.
Sometimes, teams just fall in love with a player, and develop a blind spot on what (particularly in retrospect) should have been glaring warning signs. The Raiders, in particular, have often been guilty of this.
Agreed. After last night, I don’t think he ever starts another Jets game again.
This list from Wikipedia shows the most recent starting qb through week 15 for each team, and the pick in which they were drafted. Three of the 32 were drafted #1 overall (Burrow, Goff, Mayfield), while three were undrafted (Rypien, Heinicke, Huntley). And of course, Brock Purdy was taken with the last pick of last year’s draft. Mr. Irrelevant is 2-0 as an NFL starter.
Many NFL GMs and head coaches are convinced that if a player has outstanding physical tools (Leaf was 6’5", 240, and had a rocket arm), their genius coaching/guidance can handle the rest. Sometimes it works out (Josh Allen), sometimes it doesn’t.
I will also note the GM who drafted Leaf (Bobby Beathard) had a great deal of success (7 Super Bowl trips, 4 of them wins) and was inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame in 2018.
And, conversely, a number of quarterbacks who’ve excelled in the NFL slipped out of the first round, specifically because scouts and GMs had doubts over their height, arm strength, etc. Joe Montana, Drew Brees, Russell Wilson, and (most famously) Tom Brady all were drafted after the first round, largely because of how they were scored on their “physical tools”; Montana, Wilson, and Brady wound up being drafted in the third round or later.
A Texas judge has ordered Jerry Jones to submit to genetic testing to determine if he’s the father of a young woman.
Game in Nashville was delayed by an hour by request of the mayor due to power issues in the area. I think that’s a new one to me.
The temperatures in Nashville have been frigid, to say the least, and the state of Tennessee has had rolling blackouts due to demand exceeding supply. Similar to what happened in Texas back in 2021.
Of course, social media has been pointing out how Nissan Stadium and every bar in Nashville had all of their lights on at 6:30 AM, when nobody was around.
Well that was brutal. Daniel Jones looked like a real quarterback for most of that game, but what a heartbreaker at the end. Tip of the hat to the Vikings.
Giants still have not clinched a winning season.
So did Watson overthrow, or was it the wind?
And the Texans finally get a win. Titans have now lost five in a row. Jags lead the division with a 7-8 record.
Commanders have pulled Taylor Heinicke in favor of Carson Wentz.
Eagles Cowboys was the most exciting game in a long time.
The Commanders losing put Green Bay one step closer to actually making the playoffs, which would clear up my blackened heart right quick. Only four results matter, and Green Bay controls three of them. Win out, with the Commanders losing against either the Browns or the Cowboys, and they’re in. Unfortunately, winning out against Minnesota and Detroit at home and the Dolphins in Miami is a tall order, and I don’t trust either the Browns or the Cowboys to take care of business.
Also, am I the only one that thinks Deshaun Watson looks like hot garbage? Maybe the Browns should just cut him and hope they can find another worst person in the NFL to be quarterback. Or maybe I just want Watson to no longer play football for money.
If I calculated correctly (a dubious assertion), the Panthers will win their division if they win out. Brady not making the playoffs in perhaps his last season wouldn’t make me mad.