Almost halfway through the season, Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes and Lamar Jackson are quarterbacking three of the eight first-place teams, which was perfectly predictable. The other five current starting passers in first place: Jalen Hurts, Kirk Cousins, Geno Smith, Marcus Mariota and rookie Malik Willis, who made his first career start for the Titans filling in for an injured Ryan Tannehill.
What to know from NFL Week 8: Christian McCaffrey was worth it
Here is what to know.
Christian McCaffrey is fitting in just fine. The appeal of McCaffrey landing with the 49ers centered around the way Coach Kyle Shanahan would use him alongside Deebo Samuel and George Kittle in an essentially positionless system. In just his second game with San Francisco, McCaffrey took that idea to the extreme.
McCaffrey became the first player since LaDainian Tomlinson in 2005 to score a touchdown throwing, running and catching: He completed a 34-yard halfback pass to Brandon Aiyuk, made a leaping grab in the corner of the end zone and slammed in a touchdown from the 1. He compiled 184 total yards as the 49ers smoked the Rams, 31-14. Thanks to McCaffrey, the 49ers dominated without Samuel or fullback Kyle Juszczyk, a crucial piece of their offense. The performance validated the 49ers’ belief that McCaffrey is not just a running back butan outlier offensive weapon.
Maybe the Rams regretted not trumping San Francisco’s trade offer to Carolina for McCaffrey. More likely, they were thankful they held on to their draft picks during a season going nowhere. Getting blown out at home coming out of their bye week may have been the clearest sign yet the Rams, now 3-4, are not going to repeat. The loss turned into a disaster when Cooper Kupp caught a late pass down 17 points and required attention from trainers on the field.
The Falcons and Panthers played a game worthy of the NFC South. There were 34 points scored in the fourth quarter, P.J. Walker completed a Hail Mary, D.J. Moore became infamous, and the Falcons moved into first place. That doesn’t cover it all, but it’s a start.
The Falcons outlasted the Panthers, 37-34, in overtime despite Mariota heaving what appeared to be a backbreaking interception. The Panthers have fired their head coach, benched their quarterback and traded one of the best players in franchise history. If kicker Eddy Pineiro had made a 48-yard extra point in regulation or a 33-yard field goal in overtime, they would be in first place.
Yes, that’s correct: A 48-yard extra point. Moore hauled in a 62-yard prayer with 12 seconds left to tie the score at 34. In celebration, Moore ripped off his helmet and scaled the wall behind the end zone, drawing a 15-yard personal foul. Keep your helmet on, kids.
As it stood, Mariota led the Falcons down the field after Pineiro’s smother-hook miss from 33. Younghoe Koo was true from 41, pushing the Falcons into first place in the NFC South at 4-4. The 3-5 Buccaneers’ spiral has left the division without any credible contenders or any teams with a positive point differential. For now, after a preposterous game, the Falcons stand atop the heap.
The Packers have a lot of work to do this offseason. The Packers showed they have heart Sunday night in a 27-17 loss in Buffalo, outscoring the best team in the NFL, 10-3, in the second half despite a barrage of injuries. They just don’t have enough talent, from the offensive line to the skill positions to the coaching staff. This season is on the brink of being considered a lost cause – they are 3-5, 3 ½ games and a head-to-head loss behind the 6-1 Vikings. Their task now is not to waste another season of Aaron Rodgers’s twilight during the three-year, $150 million extension he signed this offseason.
Where to start? They attempted to replace Davante Adams with Sammy Watkins, rookies and spare parts, and it has gone as well as expected. Romeo Doubs, who made a remarkably athletic touchdown catch Sunday night, has potential. But Christian Watson can’t stay healthy and may top out as a gimmick player, and Watkins has been invisible.
The Packers also need better production out of a defense stocked with six first-round picks. Defensive coordinator Joe Barry does not have a strong record, and it isn’t getting better in Green Bay given the talent at his disposal. He can’t necessarily be blamed for lack of fundamentals; the Bills exposed the Packers as a horrible tackling team. For Rodgers’s days as a winning quarterback to continue, assuming he returns, the Packers need a big offseason.
Trevor Lawrence is not making the leap. It seemed like it would be a big season for Lawrence after three weeks. The Jaguars were 2-1, and with proven quarterback developer Doug Pederson having replaced walking fiasco Urban Meyer, Lawrence showed significant improvement from his rookie season.
About a month later, Lawrence is starting to invite questions about whether he will fulfill, or even validate, his expectations. Entering Sunday, Pro Football Focus graded Lawrence 28th out of 36 quarterbacks who have taken 20 percent of their team’s dropbacks. He completed 18 of 31 passes for 133 yards in a London loss to the Broncos, and those dismal numbers didn’t begin to tell the story.
Lawrence threw an interception on first and goal from the 1, a continuation of how careless he has been with the ball. He couldn’t even get a game-winning drive going before throwing an interception late in the fourth quarter. He missed key throws throughout the game even as Travis Etienne rushed for 156 yards.
Lawrence was billed as a generational prospect, but his raw physical tools in the NFL have been more solid than spectacular. Lawrence isn’t in the best of circumstances, but they’re good enough to expect much better from the No. 1 overall pick halfway through his second season.
Lawrence is not alone among struggling second-year quarterbacks. Zach Wilson, picked second in 2021, threw three interceptions, two on utterly reckless throws downfield after scrambling to the sideline. The Patriots still only scored one touchdown and beat the Jets, 22-17, because 2021 15th pick Mac Jones, while reclaiming his starting job from Bailey Zappe, passed for 194 yards, threw an interception and took six sacks. And the idea that Houston’s Davis Mills is anything other than a career backup is dying a slow death.
A.J. Brown was a steal. When big-name wide receivers switched teams this offseason, Davante Adams and Tyreek Hill attracted most of the attention. Brown cost the least to acquire and to extend, and yet he has been the best player.
Brown caught touchdown passes of 37, 27 and 29 yards in the 7-0 Eagles’ 35-13 victory over the Steelers, two of them while surrounded by two Pittsburgh defenders. On the first, he took the ball away from Minkah Fitzpatrick, one of the NFL’s best defensive backs at playing the ball.
Brown has provided the star wideout Philadelphia lacked, allowing DeVonta Smith to be an overqualified No. 2 rather than an underqualified No. 1. Hurts deserves full credit for his improvement at quarterback, but Brown has made all the pieces of the Eagles’ explosive offense fit. Given how wide receiver pay is exploding, his four-year, $100 million contract extension already looks like a massive bargain.
The Patriots are failing their biggest test. Bill Belichick’s quarterback shuffle last Monday night obscured the more troubling issue for New England. After Josh Allen shredded the Patriots in the playoffs last year, their most important offseason task was to construct a defense capable of handling a big, athletic quarterback. Their collapse against the Bears — even if they followed it with the victory over the Jets — showed they have not done so.
Nobody can stop Allen, but the Patriots have to contain him if they want to be competitive in the AFC East, both this year and for the next decade. If the Patriots could not handle Justin Fields’s scrambling and strong-armed throws, what’s going to happen when they face Allen again? And this is not a short-term problem; Allen isn’t going anywhere, but Belichick seems to have no answers against that style of quarterback.
Whether it’s Jones or Zappe or Drew Bledsoe behind center, the Patriots must figure out a better defensive plan — and acquire better personnel — for athletic quarterbacks.
What is Derek Carr’s future in Las Vegas? The Raiders signed Carr to a three-year, $121 million contract extension that ostensibly tied him to the franchise through 2025. At the time, Carr said he would rather “play golf” than play for another franchise, but the Raiders-Carr marriage no longer seems like a long-term certainty.
In Coach Josh McDaniels’s first season with Las Vegas, Carr has led the Raiders to a 2-5 start after a 24-0 loss in New Orleans. With 10 weeks left, the Raiders have tumbled out of realistic playoff contention. Carr isn’t the problem, but he hasn’t been the solution. He owns an 86.8 quarterback rating, his worst since 2017, and Sunday he passed for 101 yards and an interception before getting mercy-benched with 3:33 remaining.
The Raiders can get out of the contract after this season for only $5.6 million in dead cap money, according to Spotrac. Assuming he can make the choice independent of ownership, McDaniels may want to find his own quarterback rather than tying what will probably be his final head coaching opportunity to an immobile quarterback who turns 32 in March.
Moving off Carr could cause friction with Adams, who signed a long-term deal to play with Carr, his college teammate at Fresno State. It’s still worth wondering how many more times the Raiders want to try to win with Carr, who is still looking for his first career playoff victory.
Tony Pollard might be switching places with Ezekiel Elliott. Pollard has been the complement to Elliott in Dallas’s backfield for four seasons. Despite Elliott’s stature and contract, those roles might flip. Pollard became the Cowboys’ featured back Sunday when Elliott missed just the second game of his career, out with a right knee injury. In a 49-29 victory over the Bears, Pollard rushed for 131 yards and three touchdowns on 14 carries.
Pollard always seemed to inject more speed and energy into the Cowboys’ offense when he subbed for Elliott, but it stood to reason that the Cowboys believed he would lose some of that impact with a full load of snaps. Even with just 14 carries, Pollard proved he can be the man. Elliott, meanwhile, may be energized by a reduced role and would be an excellent short-yardage specialist.
Elliott’s contract complicates the situation. He is in the middle of a six-year, $90 million contract and carries an $18.2 million cap hit. It would be tough to lessen the role of a player with that deal, but it would be best for the Cowboys. It’s almost as if teams that hand out massive extensions to running backs are asking for trouble.
Source: WP
