MONDAY MORNING QUARTERBACK

Thought this was stupid before the move and of course it looks even worse after.

This one is a no brainer and they need to just go ahead and say he is the starter for the rest of the year.

 

As soon as they do that he will suck ass.

 

Report: Paxton Lynch will start for Broncos this week

The Broncos will have a new offensive coordinator when they face the Raiders in Oakland.

They’ll reportedly have a new quarterback as well. According to multiple reports, the team plans to have Paxton Lynch replace Brock Osweiler and make his first start of the 2017 season. Broncos coach Vance Joseph, who said he’d discuss the quarterback choice with new offensive coordinator Bill Musgrave, is expected to make the announcement on Wednesday.

Osweiler started the last two games after taking over for Trevor Siemian, but the team’s offense hasn’t taken a step forward as a result of the change. Lynch has been practicing for several weeks after getting over a right shoulder injury and he served as the backup for the first time last Sunday, which makes his move to the first team no surprise given the desire to change signaled by Mike McCoy’s firing.

Lynch, a first-round pick last year, started twice during his rookie season and went 49-of-83 for 497 yards, two touchdowns and an interception.

 

Then you can make the change with no problem either way you win

 

These weeks will be big for Denver and Paxton Lynch. Denver will be looking for a new QB if Lynch doesn't do well.

 

It feels like GMs are already anticipating the possibility of going after one of a number of signal callers that may be available in the draft. Denver and Buffalo seem to be signaling it by how they are handling their quarterback situations.

The list of teams that will likely consider drafting a passer at some point in 2018 -

1. Jets
2. Cardinals
3. Browns
4. Bills
5. Dolphins
6. Jaguars
   
7. Giants
8. Broncos
9. Redskins
10. Chargers
11. Packers
    
12. Colts
13. Ravens
    
14. Patriots
15. Steelers
16. Saints

We'll likely see some of these spots filled or solidified through free agency, but with half of the league in a potential 'drafters market' there is some real potential to see a bonanza of throwers get selected early in the draft.

There have been 6 quarterbacks drafted in the top 3 rounds of the last two consecutive drafts. The average number of quarterbacks selected in the first 3 rounds since 2012 is just over 5 (5.16). At this point in the year 2016, there were only two quarterbacks that were being discussed as potential first round picks. Mahomes was considered a 3rd round prospect in mid-November of last year and rose up most boards towards the end of the season and throughout the off-season process. To start 2018 there were 3 quarterbacks that were discussed as possible first round picks but there are already two more passers that are getting some consideration. Being that it is still early it lends towards the potential for a lot of arms to get pushed up draft boards and for several passers to be drafted in the top 3 rounds. It's not out of the realm of reality, dependent on who all declares, that 10 quarterbacks could be selected by the end of the third round.

 

Guys are sneaking into the 1st round but there is a lot of day 2 talent out there.

 

Teddy Bridgewater has been out of the game so long that my brother forgot he was black.

 

Eli Manning feeling worn out after latest loss

After the Giants beat the Chiefs in Week 11, players said that quarterback Eli Manning gave a “fiery speech” that got the team going before the game.

Manning isn’t known for such speeches and Thursday night’s performance in a 20-10 loss to the Redskins suggests that he may not have taken his soapbox with him to Washington for the holiday. Manning had a miserable game, going 13-of-27 and crossing the 100-yard mark for the night on the team’s next-to-last offensive play.

That 27-yard completion to Tavarres King was the team’s biggest gain of the night and Manning followed it with an interception that effectively ended the game. Manning was asked after the loss, which dropped the Giants to 2-9, if he was feeling worn out following another rough night.

“Yeah, yeah, it definitely does,” Manning said, via the New York Post. “It’s no fun losing, it’s no fun not scoring enough points offensively, so yeah, it can wear you out. It’ll test you, but just gotta keep going to the drawing board and find ways to play better and move the ball and score some points.”

The Giants only managed 12 points in that win over the Chiefs, so there’s a limit to how much Manning’s motivational speeches can accomplish given the cast of characters on hand. That will likely make trips to the drawing board fruitless ones until the Giants hit the reset button at the end of the year.

 

Jay Cutler out, Matt Moore will start for Dolphins vs. Patriots

 

Tom Brady: I feel great, ready to go

The Dolphins won’t have Jay Cutler on Sunday, but the Patriots will have Tom Brady.

Any doubt that might have existed about the Patriots quarterback getting the start due to the Achilles injury that kept him from practicing at all of Wednesday or practicing in full on Thursday were alleviated on Friday.


“I feel great,” Brady said in comments distributed by the team. “Yeah, ready to go, so I’ll be excited for Sunday. It was good just to get a little extra treatment, and I’m feeling great this time of year. So, it’ll be a fun week. Nothing to worry about.”

Brady said he thought the team has recovered most of the energy drained from their extended road trip through Denver, Colorado Springs and Mexico City for their last two games, but added that “the next 48 hours are really important” to finish the preparations and rest for the game against Miami.

 

Russell Wilson becomes the 10th quarterback with 3,000 career rushing yards

Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson hit an overlooked milestone in Monday night’s loss to the Falcons.

Wilson, who ran for 86 yards, now has 3,065 career rushing yards. That makes him just the 10th quarterback in NFL history to reach that mark.


Last year Wilson played through an ankle injury and had his worst rushing season, with a career-low 259 yards and a career-low 3.6 yards per carry. This year Wilson is having one of his best rushing seasons (in part because he’s had to when Seattle’s running backs have struggled) and has 376 rushing yards and a 6.5-yard average. Wilson is second only to Cam Newton among quarterbacks in rushing yards this season.

Here are the Top 10 rushing quarterbacks in NFL history:

6,109 Michael Vick
4,928 Randall Cunningham
4,239 Steve Young
4,002 Cam Newton
3,674 Fran Tarkenton
3,590 Steve McNair
3,459 Donovan McNabb
3,407 John Elway
3,128 Tobin Rote
3,065 Russell Wilson

Wilson is likely to surpass Rote for No. 9 on the career quarterback rushing list within the next few games. He probably won’t pass Elway for No. 8 until next year, but by the end of next season he has a good chance of moving into the Top 5 for quarterback rushing yards in NFL history.

 

Vikings will wait on making a quarterback decision for 2018

When it comes to their 2017 starting quarterback, the Vikings are taking it one week at a time. When it comes to their 2018 starting quarterback, the Vikings aren’t taking it, at all.

Per a source with knowledge of the situation, the team intends to wait to decide on their 2018 quarterback after the 2017 season fully plays itself out. It’s a risky strategy, given that none of the quarterbacks under contract for 2017 — Case Keenum, Teddy Bridgewater, Sam Bradford, and Kyle Sloter — has a deal beyond the current season. (Sloter will be an exclusive rights free agent, which means the Vikings can control his rights with a minimum-salary tender.)


Another source tells PFT that the Vikings and Keenum have had no conversations about a contract that would replace the one-year, $2 million deal he signed in the offseason. Forced to bet on himself, Keenum keeps flipping solid cards, week after week.

Remember when the Vikings entered the bye week at 6-2 and some pointed out that he’d beaten a revolving door of young and unproven quarterbacks, from Jameis Winston to Mitchell Trubisky to to Brett Hundley to DeShone Kizer? Since then, Keenum has pushed the team to an average of 30.6 points per game, outdueling the likes of Kirk Cousins, Jared Goff, and Matthew Stafford, the highest-paid player in the game.

The Vikings have at their disposal the protection of the franchise tag, which would give Keenum a gigantic one-year salary but also provide the Vikings a chance to assess whether 2017 was a fluke. However, with both Bridgewater and Bradford available to be re-signed, spending that much to keep Keenum virtually guarantees the other two will be gone.

The best outcome for the Vikings would be to find a way to keep two of them around, ideally Keenum and Bridgewater. But both guys will want to play. With a shortage of competent quarterbacks throughout the league, the Vikings likely won’t be able to afford two of them.

Another factor will be the future of offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur. He’s getting more and more buzz for a second shot at being a head coach (in hindsight, a 10-23 record during two years with the Browns doesn’t look all that awful), and if he leaves the Vikings will need a new coordinator. That person, whoever it is, will have plenty of influence over who the quarterback will be, especially since the head coach is a defensive specialist.

Also, don’t rule out Shurmur making a run at Keenum, as his first order of free-agency business as a second-time head coach.

For now, the Vikings aren’t worrying about any of that. With a 9-2 record and a balanced team that has outperformed all expectations against three playoff contenders only 11 days apart, the franchise currently is in the middle of something potentially special for 2017. The impact of a special season on 2018 becomes an issue for 2018, when the Vikings almost certainly will have to pick one of their three veteran quarterbacks to be the guy moving forward.

 

Keep Keenum and let the rest walk. Keenum is better than Bridgwater and Bradford.

 

Keep Keenum and get Bridgewater to stay for a bridge. Let him know it is in his best interests. It probably is.

 

Andy Reid: Alex Smith is my guy

Chiefs coach Andy Reid said after Sunday’s 16-10 loss to the Bills that he didn’t think about pulling quarterback Alex Smith from the game and wasn’t thinking about making a quarterback change heading into Week 13.

A night’s sleep and a chance to review the latest tape didn’t do anything to change his mind. Reid said at a Monday press conference that Smith “is my guy” and said that the problems with the offense can’t be solved by making a change at one position.

“Without getting philosophical, and I’m not sitting here with a crystal ball or projecting things like that, that’s not how I roll,” Reid said, via Pete Sweeney of Arrowhead Pride. “We’ve all got a responsibility to do our job at all positions, starting with me, and that’s not getting done the right way. Right? It’s not one guy, and that has to be understood. It’s not one person. We’ve all got to pull together as a football team, in this case, an offensive football team, right now, and get that taken care of as a team. Not one guy. And that’s about as clear as I can be.”

Reid said the Bills “brought five, played zone behind them and pressed on the outside” during Sunday’s game and that the team has to do a better job of beating that kind of defense. The best way to do that is going to come via the air, something the Chiefs were able to do in the early weeks of the season far more often than they have while losing five of their last six games.

Plenty of people doubt Smith will be able to do that, but Reid is either not one of them or unconvinced that rookie Patrick Mahomes will fare any better.

 

Jameis Winston on track to be cleared Wednesday

The Buccaneers expect to have quarterback Jameis Winston back in the lineup this week.

Buccaneers coach Dirk Koetter said that Winston had an MRI and did rehab work on his right shoulder Monday and that doctors will clear him to return to football activities on Wednesday as long as he doesn’t experience soreness related to his rehab activities. Koetter said Winston would get full reps if he is indeed cleared, which suggests that he’ll be starting in Green Bay next Sunday.

Winston has missed the last three games and parts of two others while dealing with the injury. A report on Sunday indicated that he’d seen improvement in recent days after having platelet rich plasma treatments done in hopes of speeding up his recovery time.

Winston has seen a rise in completion percentage, yards per attempt and quarterback rating from last season, but he’s had a couple of clunkers among his eight starts and the Buccaneers were 2-6 when he was lifted from the lineup to let his shoulder heal. He’s also been dealing with an NFL investigation into groping allegations that seem likely to stretch into the offseason, so there’s been more down that up overall for Winston so far this season.

 

Trevor Siemian back as the starter for Denver. Paxton Lynch is out 2-4 weeks with an ankle injury. Guy just can’t stay healthy this season. Not like he did anything on the field anyways. Elway is going to clean house the Monday after the season...if Elway is still the GM that is.

 

Elway ain't going nowhere. They will draft a QB after this season.

 

I don’t think he will either, but his drafting hasn’t exactly been lights out...That being said I believe he has had a hand in every Super Bowl the Broncos have been to, so he is likely safe.