NFL - NEWS & NOTES

Ja’Marr Chase might play on Sunday, has chance to break 61-year-old rookie receiving record



One of the NFL’s oldest records is the most receiving yards in a rookie season. Ja'Marr Chase could break that record on Sunday — if he plays.

The Bengals have already confirmed that starting quarterback Joe Burrow will sit out on Sunday, as the Bengals have clinched the AFC North and are getting ready for the playoffs. Chase, however, could “potentially” play, according to head coach Zac Taylor.


It’s unclear how hard Taylor would be willing to try to get Chase that rookie receiving record of 1,473 yards, which was set by Bill Groman of the Houston Oilers in 1960. Groman set that record while playing in the first season of the American Football League, but the NFL has accepted all AFL records as official NFL records since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger.

Chase has 1,429 receiving yards this season, so he needs just 45 receiving yards on Sunday against the Browns to break Groman’s record. Chase has gained more than 45 yards in 12 of his 16 games this season, so he has a good chance of breaking the record. But breaking the record will be harder with Brandon Allen, rather than Burrow, passing him the ball. And harder still if Taylor doesn’t want to give Chase too big a workload on Sunday to keep him fresh for the playoffs.

If you’ve never heard of Groman despite his rookie record, that’s because he suffered a serious knee injury in his second season and was never the same player again. Every promising young player is one play away from a potentially career-altering injury, which is why Taylor may decide not to give Chase a chance to break that record.

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Kenny Golladay: My first season with the Giants was just not good enough



When the Giants signed Kenny Golladay to a four-year, $72 million contract, they were expecting him to be one of the NFL’s elite wide receivers. He has not been.

Golladay hasn’t even been close, with just 34 catches for 499 yards and zero touchdowns. Today he acknowledged that his season was a disappointment.


“Just not good enough on my part. I wasn’t playing terrible, or anything, but just not good enough,” Golladay said, via Matt Lombardo.

There’s no way out of Golladay’s costly contract in 2022, as his cap hit is $21.2 million — and would actually rise to a dead cap hit of $23.6 million if the Giants were to move on from him. So Golladay will be back next season, and the Giants will be hoping he’s good enough to justify that contract.

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Arizona Cardinals' JJ Watt designated to return from IR, eyeing playoff return

In a career filled with unfortunate injury news, J.J. Watt has finally received some positive feedback.

The Arizona Cardinals defensive end was officially designated to return from injured reserve on Friday, meaning he can return to practice and must be activated in the next 21 days.

Watt suffered a torn labrum, rotator cuff and biceps in late October and, according to the man himself, was planned to return for the Super Bowl if the Cards made it. Today's news sets up the possibility for him to return for Wild Card Weekend, a possibility that seems to be a reality, according to NFL Network's Ian Rapoport.

After 10 seasons with the Houston Texans, Watt joined the Cardinals last offseason. He started the first seven games of the season, totaling 16 combined tackles, five tackles for loss and one sack.

The Cardinals face the Seahawks in Week 18, and they could still win the NFC West if they win and the San Francisco 49ers beat the Los Angeles Rams.

Yahoo.com

 

The Texans signed running back Rex Burkhead to a one-year contract extension through the 2022 season, Aaron Wilson of SI.com reports.

Houston ranks last in the NFL in rushing, but Burkhead leads the team with 403 rushing yards and has three touchdowns. He is averaging 3.7 yards per carry.


Two weeks ago, Burkhead rushed for a career-high 149 yards and two touchdowns in the Texans’ upset of the Chargers.

The Texans traded Mark Ingram to the Saints after seven games and released Phillip Lindsay after 10 games. David Johnson has rushed for 200 yards and no scores.

Burkhead, 31, played this season under a one-year, $1.15 million deal.

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Olin Kreutz: Bears offered me a job at $15 an hour, they have to change how they do business



Olin Kreutz played center for the Bears for 13 seasons and went to six Pro Bowls, and he has a message for team ownership if they want to change the franchise’s fortunes: Stop being cheapskates.

Kreutz said the Bears need to be willing to spend the money to bring in good people, and they currently aren’t. Kreutz cited his own example of being offered $15 an hour (which is currently the minimum wage in Chicago) to work with the team’s offensive linemen.


“The last time they offered me a job they offered me $15 an hour,” Kreutz said on 670 The Score. “That’s the way they do business. Those are the things that have to change.”

Kreutz said that in 2018, then-Bears offensive line coach Harry Hiestand wanted Kreutz to work with the offensive linemen, but the financial portion of the offer was insulting.

“Harry wanted me to come in and help with the offensive line development, help coach the offensive line,” he said. “They offered me $15 an hour to come in there as an independent contractor.”

Kreutz indicated that the Bears made a similarly lowball offer to Donovan Raiola, who did accept a job with the team but left this season to become the offensive line coach at Nebraska for a guaranteed salary of $325,000 a year.

If the Bears keep lowballing assistant coaches, then the Bears are going to keep having assistant coaches leave in the middle of the season to take college jobs. Kreutz is right that if the Bears keep doing business that way, they’re going to keep struggling to build a winning franchise.

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It’s win and get in for the Chargers, Raiders, 49ers and Colts.

Not much more you can ask for as the NFL completes its first 17-game regular season.

The brightest spotlight is on Sin City, where the winner of Chargers-Raiders takes a wild-card berth. LA is done if it loses, but Las Vegas has ways of advancing to the playoffs with a defeat and help.

Never mind that. This is all about moving on, whether or not it prevents your longtime rival from doing so, too.

“We know what’s at stake here,” Chargers defensive lineman Justin Jones said. “We knew what was at stake last week as well, so it’s the same type of preparation and same type of mindset going into this game. Every week is a playoff game for us. ... The guys on the team know the gravity of this game. You win, you’re in. If you lose, you’re going home. We’ve known that since last week. It’s all the same for us.”

Brandon Staley is trying to become the fourth coach since the merger to lead the Chargers to the playoffs in his first season with the franchise. Meanwhile, Raiders interim coach Rich Bisaccia has done a solid job helping the team overcome all the turmoil in 2021.

AP

 

So, tell me why Dallas and Philly get a Saturday game? Its basically meaningless, right?

 

There's some seeding implications but that's it. The same with KC-Denver(for the Chiefs anyway).

If they put Colts-Jags and Rams-49ers on and the Colts and 9ers win, you lose a bit of intrigue for a couple of tomorrow's games. That's the only logic to it that I can see.

 

I don't like any team playing on Saturday this week. Gives them an extra day of rest prior to playoffs.

 

7-0 , Chiefs... 1st quarter. Patrick Maholmes has a very quick release.

If your watching this game... chime in, im home-bound, watching football and bored.

 

Denver scores...kick is good... 7-7.

 

I’m out on the tiles Willie. I don’t understand putting meaningless games on Saturday either

 

Chiefs defeat Broncos 28-24, stay in contention for AFC’s No. 1 seed



It wasn’t easy, but Kansas City continued its long winning streak over Denver on Saturday with a 28-24 victory.

The Broncos led for much of the game after Kansas City took an early 7-0 lead. But edge rusher Melvin Ingram made the play of the day, forcing his former Chargers teammate Melvin Gordon to fumble near the goal-line in the fourth quarter. Linebacker Nick Bolton picked up the loose ball and ran 86 yards for a touchdown. And with the two-point conversion, Kansas City had a 28-21 lead.


Denver had a shot to tie, but head coach Vic Fangio elected to kick a field goal on fourth-and-9 from the Kansas City 13 with 4:41 left in the contest. Brandon McManus’ 31-yard field goal was good, but the Broncos never got the ball back.

Kansas City’s ensuing drive started with a swing pass from quarterback Patrick Mahomes to receiver Mecole Hardman for 44 yards on the left side. That gave Hardman 103 receiving yards — the first time he’s ever eclipsed 100 yards receiving.

After making the Broncos use all three of their timeouts, Mahomes hit tight end Travis Kelce on third-and-8 from the Denver 17 with a 12-yard pass to move the chains and effectively end the game.

Kelce limped off the field on the last third-down catch. But according to ESPN’s Laura Rutledge, he suffered only a hip tweak on the play. The Chiefs played most of the game without receiver Tyreek Hill, who was dealing with a heel injury, according to Rutledge. He had only one 2-yard catch on three targets.

Darrel Williams also suffered a toe injury and didn’t receive a carry in the second half. But Jerk McKinnon had five carries for 24 yards and caught three passes for 26 yards and a touchdown.

Mahomes finished the game 27-of-44 passing for 270 yards with a pair of touchdowns. He also was the Chiefs’ leading rusher with 54 yards on nine carries.

Kansas City finished with 28 first downs and was 8-of-14 on third down.

The Broncos ran the ball well for much of the game — finishing with 191 yards and 6.8 yards per carry. Gordon had 110 yards on 12 attempts, including a 47-yard touchdown. But his fumble was the key turning point of the second half.

Quarterback Drew Lock had a pair of rushing touchdowns and made a few key throws. But he finished just 12-of-24 passing for 162 yards for an unimpressive stat line.

With the win, the Chiefs will finish no worse than the AFC’s No. 2 seed entering the playoffs next week. They’ll be the No. 1 seed if the Titans lose to the Texans on Sunday. They’ve now defeated the Broncos 13 consecutive times.

Denver ends its season 7-10 and could be on the verge of a coaching change.

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Dak Prescott throws five touchdown passes as Cowboys cruise to a 51-26 win over Eagles



The Eagles were missing 16 starters Saturday night. The Cowboys played most of their regulars, though they were without three of five Pro Bowlers.

The result was predictable.


The Cowboys gained 475 yards and scored on eight of nine possessions, not counting kneel downs to end the game, in beating up on the Eagles 51-26.

The Cowboys moved to 12-5 and remained alive to move up as high as the No. 2 seed, though it will take a lot of help. The Eagles finish the regular season 9-8 and are headed to the postseason as a wild-card team.

Dak Prescott completed 21 of 27 passes for 295 yards and a career-best five touchdowns. His 37 touchdowns for the season broke Tony Romo’s franchise record of 36 set in 2007.

Ezekiel Elliott went over 1,000 yards for the season, gaining 87 yards on 18 carries.

Cedrick Wilson caught five passes for a career-high 119 yards and two touchdowns, and Dalton Schultz had three catches for 21 yards and two touchdowns. Amari Cooper caught five passes for 79 yards, and CeeDee Lamb contributed two receptions for 45 yards.

The Eagles hung with the Cowboys until the final two minutes of the first half when Dallas broke a 17-17 tie with two touchdowns in the final 1:45 of the second quarter.

Gardner Minshew, starting for Jalen Hurts, completed 19 of 33 passes for 186 yards with two touchdowns and an interception.

The Eagles gained 315 yards against a Dallas defense missing Micah Parsons, the presumptive defensive rookie of the year, and its starting secondary.

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DeVonta Smith sets franchise record for receiving yards by a rookie



Eagles receiver DeVonta Smith set the franchise record for receiving yards by a rookie, which has ended his night early in the second quarter.

Smith caught passes of 12 and 4 yards on a 10-play, 44-yard drive that saw the Eagles tie the game 10-10 with a 38-yard Jake Elliott field goal. The Eagles removed him from the game to protect him from the risk of injury for next week’s wild card playoff game.


He finishes his night with three catches for 41 yards.

Smith has 64 receptions for 916 yards and five touchdowns in 17 games.

DeSean Jackson made 62 receptions for 912 yards and two touchdowns in 16 games as a rookie in 2008. In his second season, Jackson earned the first of three Pro Bowls.

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Scoreboard shows nothing. Dallas was playong their starters start to finish while the Eagles played 2md and 3rd stringers all game except for Smoth for that record. Dallas disnt get the 3 score differentoal score until the 4th and then the 3rd stringers got lit up.

 

Vita Vea can confidently call Tampa his home for years to come.

The defensive tackle and the Buccaneers have agreed to terms on a four-year extension, the team announced Saturday. The deal is worth over $73 million, according to NFL Network's Ian Rapoport and Tom Pelissero.

Vea has become an essential part of Tampa Bay's defense in his first four seasons. The former 12th overall pick of the 2018 NFL Draft has blossomed into a stout, powerful interior lineman capable of taking on double teams, plugging gaps and perhaps most importantly, getting significant push on centers and guards in pass-rushing scenarios. He's developed a reputation for being an interior wrecking ball and helps solidify the strength of the Buccaneers' defense between the tackles, while teammates Shaquil Barrett and Jason Pierre-Paul handle the edge rushing.

At 26 years old, the former University of Washington star has proven to be worth the high pick the Buccaneers spent on him. Vea has been reliably productive, tallying 11.5 sacks in 49 games played, including a career-high 4.0 sacks in 2021, to go along with 104 tackles (16 for loss). His only hurdle has been intermittent injuries not uncommon to players who call the interior home.

With the Buccaneers again looking to make a Super Bowl run in 2022, they're also not forgetting about their future. And after coming to terms on an extension, it's clear Vea will be a key part of it.

NFL.com

 

Ja’Marr Chase sets Bengals single-season receiving record



With the AFC North already clinched, the Bengals are resting several starters for Sunday’s game against the Browns — including quarterback Joe Burrow.

But rookie receiver Ja'Marr Chase is active and started the game in part because he was so close to setting the team’s single-season record for receiving yards.



Consider the mission accomplished.

On the first play of Cincinnati’s second drive, quarterback Brandon Allen tossed a short pass to Chase on the right side, and Chase darted up the field for a 24-yard gain. That gave Chase 26 yards on the day and 1,455 on the season for the franchise record.

Chad Johnson was the previous record-holder with 1,440 yards in 2007.

Though Chase is approaching the all-time rookie record of 1,473 yards, he was on the bench with a coat over his shoulders at the end of that drive. It appears his day is done.

Neither the Browns nor the Bengals are playing their starting quarterback, as Baker Mayfield is also sidelined for the season finale.

The two teams are scoreless midway through the first quarter.

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That game was on drugs

 

NFL announces wild card weekend schedule



The NFL announced the schedule for wild card weekend, with playoff games on Jan. 15-17.

Two games will be played on Saturday (at 4:30 p.m. ET and 8:15 p.m. ET), three on Sunday (1 p.m. ET, 4:30 p.m. ET, and 8:15 p.m. ET), and one on Monday (8:15 p.m. ET).


Saturday, Jan. 15

AFC: 4:30 p.m. (ET) 5 (Las Vegas/New England) at 4 Cincinnati (NBC, Peacock, Universo)

AFC: 8:15 p.m. (ET) 6 (Los Angeles Chargers/New England) at 3 Buffalo (CBS, Paramount+)

Sunday, Jan. 16

NFC: 1 p.m. (ET) 7 Philadelphia at 2 Tampa Bay (FOX, FOX Deportes)

NFC: 4:30 p.m. (ET) 6 San Francisco at 3 Dallas (CBS, Paramount+, Nickelodeon, Amazon Prime Video)

AFC: 8:15 p.m. (ET) 7 (Las Vegas/Pittsburgh) at 2 Kansas City (NBC, Peacock, Telemundo)

Monday, Jan. 17

NFC: 8:15 p.m. (ET) 5 Arizona at 4 Los Angeles Rams (ESPN/ABC, ESPN2, ESPN+, ESPN Deportes)

The NFL will announce the schedule for the divisional rouund next weekend.

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