MONDAY MORNING QUARTERBACK

C.J. Stroud working with first-team offense and is “way, way ahead of pace”



Texans rookie C.J. Stroud took first-team reps this week in organized team activities. Although it has been billed as a quarterback battle between Stroud and Davis Mills, the No. 2 overall pick is expected to start.

Stroud, who was second in the rotation behind Mills last week, has done nothing in practice to disappoint.

“C.J. is progressing well,” Texans coach DeMeco Ryans said this week, via Brooks Kubena of the Houston Chronicle. “Each day, he continues to get better, continues to get more comfortable with the verbiage of the offense and his command of the huddle. I thought this week he has been really good, coming off of a long weekend. It was very eye-opening how on it he was. . . . He did an awesome job in our situational periods, So, he is definitely progressing in the right direction, and the sky is the limit for him.”

Texans quarterbacks coach Jerrod Johnson seconded that assessment, saying Stroud is “already way, way ahead of pace” with his footwork and timing.

Stroud has spent his first few weeks in the NFL picking anyone and everyone’s brain. That includes Texans defensive coordinator Matt Burke and the team’s veteran defensive players.

He has impressed with his football IQ and his thirst for knowledge.

“His deliberateness and intent to try to get better — he’s literally grabbing everybody he can on the field,” Burke said. “So, he’s been very sort of intentional about learning and just learning defense, too, like what did you call there, what was that coverage, or what did you do here. I respect that from him.”

PFT

 

Romeo Doubs on Aaron Rodgers and Jordan Love: “I don’t really see what’s the big difference”



Many people expect the Packers to regress following the departure of Aaron Rodgers. Green Bay receiver Romeo Doubs is not one of those people.

Doubs seems to think the Packers will be fine following the shift from Rodgers to Jordan Love.

“I think Jordan is a really good quarterback,” Doubs recently told Dennis Krause of SpectrumNews1.com. “When you go from Aaron Rodgers to Jordan, Aaron was a really great quarterback, but I believe Jordan can do the same exact thing. So I don’t really see what’s the big difference.”

Doubs also doesn’t believe there will be a regression. At all.

“I see a progression,” Doubs said. “I see it going up. I don’t see the Packers going down. I only focus on our room and our team in this organization. This organization is historic, and it’s only winning. That’s all. When you hear Green Bay, it’s no losing, it’s only winning.”

Well, from Bart Starr to Brett Favre, it was a lot of losing in Green Bay. From Favre through Rodgers, it has been a lot of winning. The key is the quarterback. If Love can get it done, the winning will continue.

PFT
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No doubt. Love paid him to say that!

 

I have yet to see evidence that Jordan Love is actually an NFL quarterback. We’ll find out soon enough.

 

Trevor Lawrence: Feels good to focus on my game this offseason



Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence is savoring stability this offseason.

Lawrence made the transition from college to the NFL after being drafted first overall in 2021 and then had to go through another transition last offseason when the Jaguars hired Doug Pederson to clean up after the failed Urban Meyer experiment. The Jaguars wound up winning the AFC South under their new coach and this offseason featured none of the tumult of the last two years as the team kept its coaching staff and offensive scheme in place.

That has created a “different feel” for Lawrence, who said he’s been “able to unwind a little bit and then disconnect” in a way he couldn’t the last two years.

“To have the same staff, to have a lot of the same players, to have that carryover, and the system, that feels good having that and being able to focus on little parts of my game instead of just making sure I got the installs and know the plan coming into practice,” Lawrence said, via Michael DiRocco of ESPN.com. “Not having that stress of just learning the playbook, I can just really focus on my game and my mechanics. . . . Now we have our culture set, we have our staff, we have our system. It feels good having that in place.”

Lawrence took big strides in the second half of last season and having an entire offseason to hone his game should allow for further improvement by the time the Jaguars hit the field in September.

PFT

 

Derek Carr: Everyone loves working with Mike Thomas



Saints quarterback Derek Carr and wide receiver Mike Thomas haven’t practiced together for long, but they already have a connection.

“If he went out there and ran certain routes right now, I’d know exactly what he was going to do and I’d put it on him,” Carr said. “It’s just cool to have him in the building. Everyone was excited to see him. Everybody loves him here, they love his work ethic, they love his competitiveness, his leadership, the way he practices, the way he prepares.”

Thomas was the NFL’s offensive player of the year in 2019 but has had a bad run of injuries and has played in a total of just 10 games over the last three seasons. But Carr sees a silver lining even in that injury history, saying that it reflects how hard Thomas pushes himself.

“He’s such a worker, that’s probably why injuries happen, when you play that way and work that hard,” Carr said. “You don’t ask a guy like that to tone down.”

It may be unrealistic to expect Thomas to ever be the same player he was in 2019. But if he could even come close, that would go a long way toward helping Carr find success in his new home.

PFT

 

Commanders' Jacoby Brissett makes starting intentions clear


Washington Commanders journeyman quarterback Jacoby Brissett isn't handing the starting job to 2022 fifth-round draft pick Sam Howell this summer.

"For sure. I wouldn’t be here if it was something else," Brissett told reporters Tuesday about competing for the starting gig, per Josh Alper of Pro Football Talk. "If I thought otherwise, then I’d have a problem."

Washington signed Brissett in March presumably to have the 30-year-old serve as Howell's primary backup. By all accounts, the Commanders never actively pursued available veterans such as Baltimore Ravens star Lamar Jackson or Aaron Rodgers now of the New York Jets ahead of the 2023 NFL Draft, and Washington also passed on the chance to use a first-round choice to grab prospect Will Levis.

Commanders head coach Ron Rivera previously indicated Howell is his starter but raised eyebrows when he said on Tuesday the 22-year-old may not finish the preseason as his QB1. Brissett sounds confident he could leapfrog Howell on the depth chart between the first Tuesday of June and the last day of August.

"Anybody that steps on the field, we’re all in competition," Brissett continued during his comments. "Somebody is trying to take our jobs, somebody’s trying to earn a job. That’s what it is every day in this league. I’ve been in this league a while and that has always stuck with me and this year is no different."

Howell attempted a total of 19 regular-season passes as a rookie and remains, at best, an unproven signal-caller, while Brissett first entered the league back in 2016 and most recently made 11 starts for the 2022 Cleveland Browns. According to ESPN stats, Brissett ended this past campaign ranked eighth among qualified players with a 60.0 adjusted QBR, 20th with an 88.9 passer rating and 22nd with a 64.0% completion percentage. Across his 11 starts, he tallied 12 touchdown passes and six interceptions with two rushing scores.

YARDBARKER

 

BLAH,BLAH,BLAH. This is the same guy that waited until June to get his ankle surgery. And missed 10 weeks of that season, and then had to go back and do it a second time. I'm still a little shocked that Sean Payton didn't can him for waiting so long.

 

Well, he is back and healthy, so my question to you as a fan, what do you think they will be like under Carr and company? Will they be a Playoff caliber team?

 

Willie? You bastard. You're going to make me think about all this again. The NFC South (i think) is a crapshoot. Not expecting much from the Bucs. The Panthers? I just don't know. Now those damn Falcons? They brought in a couple of busloads of new guys. The question is can they get all those new parts and pieces to fit together. Should be fun to watch. I think we can hold our own.

 

The question is can they get all those new parts and pieces to fit together. Should be fun to watch. I think we can hold our own.


Week # 1 Sept.10th in New Orleans.......good luck SCS and Go Titans Go

 

It was so egregious, apparently, that he felt the need to be frank about it with reporters in Green Bay.

"That's a mortal sin — late and over the middle. That's exactly what I did," Love said, via Jonathan Jones of CBS Sports. "There is a time and a place depending on the coverage, things that are going on, if the DB falls. Given the circumstances, that was exactly a mortal sin right there. Late, over the middle, ball kind of floats [and] the DB has a chance to go get it."

 

Gotta rant again about the major media outlets. The nitwit du jour is Seth Walder, whose by-line lists him as "ESPN Analytics". That's misleading, as it falsely implies that BSPN is even capable of analysis.

He's had it in for the Falcons the entire offseason. This is the guy who tweeted that "The Falcons taking Bijan Robinson at #8 is a brutal, brutal decision." He also tweeted that Atlanta "gave the Patriots a seventh rounder for the right to pay Jonnu Smith almost double in cash what New England later gave to Mike Gesicki" - even though it was already known that Smith had agreed to a restructure with the trade, cutting his cap cost roughly in half.

He also had a bug up his ass that the Falcons absolutely HAD to go after Lamar Jackson, who wasn't really all that available in the first place due to the tag. And that bias against Desmond Ridder and Taylor Heinicke still shows. His latest missive from behind the ESPN+ paywall is a ranking of each team's "core".

In his own words: "A core was defined as the five most important players to a team -- the guys each roster is built around. The ranking is for 2023, but there was a consideration of age in deciding which players made each team's core."

The catch is that he decides entirely on a whim who the five most important players are for each franchise. Hmmm.... no chance of bias here, right?

Roster core: QB Desmond Ridder, WR Drake London, G Chris Lindstrom, DT Grady Jarrett, TE Kyle Pitts


Obvious flaw #1: Atlanta runs the ball more than any other team in the league. Atlanta just added the most highly rated RB in the draft in several years. And there are teams where he put rookies in his top five. So.... no Bijan Robinson in the core? No Tyler Allgeier?

Obvious flaw #2: it's going to be the defense that determines the team's fate, and between recent drafts and free agency the team has totally rebuilt that half of the roster. Only one defender in the top five?

He at least acknowledged in his writeup that safety Jessie Bates III was a candidate for inclusion. He says the team "not pursuing real alternatives" at QB this offseason is why he chose Ridder over Bates.

During the draft, Walder tweeted that the six most important positions for a team in some order are QB, WR, OT, edge, DT, and CB. So he broke his own guidelines on who/what is important to push guard Chris Lindstrom, who he doesn't like so much ("the pass and run block win rates aren't anything special") into his top five instead of cornerback A.J. Terrell, who has already been named All Pro and is one of PFF's top 25 players under age 25.

Hmmm... the guy who bashed Atlanta for trading the #245 pick (a gift from Buffalo for trading backup safety Dean Marlowe at the trade deadline) for Jonnu Smith went out of his way and broke his own guidelines just to bash the team once again? Shocker. Never would have seen THAT coming.

Let's try that list again without the bias, shall we?

Roster core: CB A.J. Terrell, S Jessie Bates III, RB Bijan Robinson, TE Kyle Pitts, WR Drake London.

The team's "commitment" to Ridder was Walder's false pretense for forcing him into the core over Bates. (Ummm.... since when is building a powerhouse running game a sign of commitment to a third rounder on a rookie deal?) Okay, you want commitment? My list has the team's last four first round draft picks plus the biggest splash free agent signing this year.

I'm going with Bates instead of Jarrett (one of my personal favorites) because he's younger. Walder did say that age was a consideration. Bates is also going to be more of a focal point for the defense than Jarrett going forward, now that Jarrett finally has help on the defensive line. So it fits in terms of more "important" as well.

It also brings the list more into balance, with two defensive players rather than just one.

I'm guessing Walder would still find reasons to bash this core and drop it into the bottom five in the league. He even managed to bash Kyle Pitts, in spite of Pitts racking up 1000+ receiving yards as a rookie in 2021, calling Pitts' career to date "disappointing". Well, yes, Falcons fans were disappointed that Pitts had hamstring injuries to start the 2022 season and then tore his MCL. But along the way he still managed a 76.6 receiving grade from PFF. It's not like he's maxed out - Pitts doesn't even turn 23 until October.

I'm guessing he wouldn't have anything positive to say about the "brutal, brutal decision" Robinson or Terrell either.

Atlanta was already tied for the third youngest core on Walder's list. My version of the core list is even younger. Terrell, Pitts and London are all on the PFF list of top 25 players under age 25. Bates is all of 26, and Robinson is a rookie.


If you want to see what the "analyst" wrote about your favorite team, you probably don't need to subscribe to The Worldwide Leader In Compost to read it. There's a good chance SI's page for your team has a recap of it. Since we're in the dead zone before training camp, one media outlet's hot takes are enough to count as newsworthy for the other outlets.

 

I really enjoyed your 'rant', AKA - 'truthful, sensible, accurate observations'.

First thing to pop into my mind was Walder has lots of company, especially with his own constituents at the BSPN Network. Frankly, they are one of the worst out there just based on my past experiences in reading and listening to their banter, not just on football, but baseball and hockey also, hence I tend to ignore them whenever possible. On a sidenote, in todays day and age, I would never pay a penny for an opinion from a talking-head whether its sports and/or news. Too much discernment is necessary to obtain the actual truth... they ought to be paying me for that.

Secondly, I had another pop-up in my insane brain... Im not buying the core as just 5 members of a 22 man team. Just doesnt always work that way and shouldnt be a dogmatic prerequisite per team, but based more on a handful of said teams investments, Draft prospects and established/proven vets. The heart and soul of a team doesnt always have to be an analytical/statistical approach either. Sometimes a team captain can be a club-house leader, an on-field crazy bastard that just fires up the team by his attitude and attack level, its all variant and doesnt always have to have tangibles.

If it was like playing a game and you could only pick 5, well its his game, I guess, but too me a core is way deeper than that.

Ive also noticed on Social Media, that there are a whole lotta pretenders that are just opinionated and use that given opportunity to just spew out of their heads what they think is the gospel. Factual, researched data is very thinned out these days and I'll be damned if 8 outa 10 so-called beat writers were even close to being non-biased. I take it all with a grain a salt, consider the source and the sources MO and I hope I can discern what is actually going on. The best bet for me is to see it myself, i.e. witness it, then form my own conclusions.

I might also add - I really like the 'tell me the scores' type stuff over personal analogies. Show me the 'box-score and standings stuff is basically all i care for or look for. Over the years the talent pool (and gene pool) have really plummeted to rock bottom when it comes to sports reporting and commentaries, click-bate stuff and controversy is whats spinning the world these days... I like to just keep it simple and form my own assertations. Maybe Im old-school or something, but Im not interested in theatrics, controversy, or any glamorizing of a sports report, just the facts will do.

 

Mac Jones out-playing Bailey Zappe in minicamp



Patriots coach Bill Belichick has been tight-lipped about whether Mac Jones or Bailey Zappe is the starting quarterback in New England. But all indications are that Jones is looking like the starter this offseason.

Zappe has consistently taken reps behind Jones this spring, and on Monday Jones out-dueled Zappe on the first day of mandatory minicamp, according to Mark Daniels of MassLive.com.

Those in attendance at the Patriots’ offseason have reported that Jones has looked sharp in new coordinator Bill O’Brien’s offense and is showing more of the confidence he demonstrated as a rookie in 2021, and less of the confusion he showed in 2022.

Zappe hasn’t been bad in practice, but he would have to be significantly better than Jones to beat him out for the job. If it’s close, any team is going to go with the 2021 first-round pick over the 2022 fourth-round pick.

So whether Belichick names Jones the starter at some point or just lets everyone see Jones take the first snap in Week One, it appears that something significant would have to change for anyone but Jones to be the Patriots’ starter.

PFT

 

The always criticized Cousins is now taking shots from Cam Jordan.

New Orleans Saints defensive end Cam Jordan gave some advice to the pass rushers. When talking about decision-making, Jordan took a shot at Minnesota Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins. Specifically, Jordan said, “Slow, right decisions, we love them, call them Kirk Cousins.”


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Cousins helped lead the Vikings to an upset victory over the Saints in the Wild Card Round in the 2019 season. In the 26-20 overtime, the quarterback completed 19-of-31 pass attempts for 242 yards and one touchdown. That score came in overtime when Cousins hit tight end Kyle Rudolph in the end zone. New Orleans was the No. 3 seed in the NFC that year and was expected to go on a run.

In his five career starts against the Saints as a member of the Vikings and the now-Washington Commanders, Cousins threw for 1,569 yards, 13 touchdowns, and two interceptions while completing 70.620-percent of his passes and posting a passer rating of 117.6.

So, see you in week 10, Cam, ya big mouth jerk!

 

Joe Burrow thinks Patrick Mahomes is the best QB in the game right now. Joe know's football.

Josh Allen think its Patrick also ~ "Until me or Joey or anybody else can win a Super Bowl, I think Pat's kind of the clear No. 1 right now," Allen said. "He's been playing at such a high level for so long, and he's got the rings to kind of prove it."
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I know, I know... thats not news, but hey, its a slow day!

Hope you all enjoy yours!

 

Mahomes has been a starter for five seasons, he has five AFCCG appearances in that time, three SB appearances and two championships. I’d say he’s the best right now. He’s definitely the only Quarterback in the league right now with any chance of catching Brady for titles.

 

Well, Gidion and all of you peoples, I dug these tid-bits up with the help of NFL.com. These facts really put things into perspective... I found this data to be unreal and extremely interesting.

"What Tom (Brady) has done is historic, but if there's another player who could do it, it's Patrick Mahomes."

As Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Bruce Arians alluded in his Jan. 28 press conference, Super Bowl LV offers a quarterback showdown between one who is routinely referred to as the greatest QB of all time and another often cited as the best in the sport today. But as the 43-year-old Brady continues to pad his plethora of all-time NFL records, does the 25-year-old Mahomes have a chance to track him down one day?

NFL Media researcher Cole Jacobson explores several of Brady's all-time NFL records and reveals what Mahomes would have to do over the rest of his career to catch them.

NOTE: All statistics are regular-season only, unless otherwise mentioned. All numbers also assume the NFL expands to a 17-game regular season in 2021.

581 career passing touchdowns
Mahomes is off to the hottest start of any QB in NFL history, with 114 passing TDs in 46 career games (the next-most through 46 games: Dan Marino's 108). Mahomes is 467 passing TDs behind Brady, meaning that even if Brady didn't throw another touchdown pass, Mahomes would have to average 29.3 passing TDs per season over the next 16 seasons to surpass Brady. If Mahomes were to keep this pace, he would be 41 years old when he passed Brady's current mark, in the 2036 season.

Good news for Mahomes? In three seasons as a full-time starter, he's averaged 38.0 touchdown tosses per season.

230 QB wins
While Brady's 230 wins are 44 more than second place (186, by both Brett Favre and Peyton Manning), Mahomes' win percentage of .826 is the best of any QB since starts were tracked in 1950, among those with a minimum of 25 starts. Mahomes has a 38-8 record, putting him 192 wins behind Brady. If Mahomes managed to keep his .826 win percentage intact, it would take him 234 more starts to reach 231 career wins. Even if Mahomes started all 17 games every season for the rest of his career, he wouldn't reach this mark until the 2034 season, at age 39.

Six Super Bowl wins/10 Super Bowl appearances
The outcome of Super Bowl LV will play a major role in this one. With a Chiefs win, Mahomes would be "only" four Super Bowl wins behind Brady, and he would become the first QB in NFL history with two Super Bowl wins prior to his 26th birthday. But with a Buccaneers triumph, Brady would win his seventh Super Bowl, giving Mahomes the daunting task of winning six more Lombardi Trophies just to tie Brady. Independent of this Chiefs-Bucs result, though, Mahomes is eight Super Bowl appearances behind Brady's 10. Mahomes, who will be the only quarterback all-time to start two Super Bowls at age 25 or younger, would need to reach the Super Bowl in exactly half of the next 18 seasons to surpass Brady's mark of 10 appearances -- which could theoretically happen at age 43, in the 2038 season.

Four Super Bowl MVPs
As with Super Bowl wins, the result of Super Bowl LV will play a major factor in Mahomes' hunt. Should Mahomes earn his second consecutive Super Bowl MVP, he would become the first player ever to have two of them before turning 26, and he would already be halfway to Brady's total of four. Should Brady earn another one, Mahomes would instead be four behind him. But even that wouldn't be a death sentence: Brady's first Super Bowl MVP came at age 24, just like Mahomes, and Brady didn't earn his second until age 26 (the age Mahomes will turn in September).

33 playoff wins

With a win in Super Bowl LV, Mahomes would match Russell Wilson as the only QBs with seven playoff wins in their first four seasons. But even in that scenario, Mahomes would finish this postseason 26 playoff wins behind Brady. Mahomes has averaged 2.0 playoff wins per season since becoming the starter in 2018, tied with Brady for most in the NFL in that span. If Mahomes manages to keep that torrid pace going, he still would need 14 more years to surpass Brady's 33 playoff wins, giving him the new record at age 39 in the 2034 campaign.

80 playoff passing touchdowns
Stop us if you've heard this one before, but Mahomes is off to a record pace here: His 17 playoff passing TD are the most by any player in his first four seasons. Entering Super Bowl LV, Mahomes is still 63 playoff passing TDs behind Brady. If Mahomes were to keep pace with his record-setting career averages of 2.43 passing touchdowns per playoff start and 2.67 playoff starts per season (including this coming Super Bowl), he would need 10 more seasons to surpass Brady's mark, which would happen at age 35 in the 2030 playoffs.

14 Pro Bowls
In terms of ranks through a QB's first four seasons, Mahomes' three Pro Bowl nods sit behind only Dan Marino's four (though Mahomes has made the Pro Bowl in every season in which he's started more than one game). Mahomes needs 12 more Pro Bowls to surpass the current record of 14, which is jointly held by five people: Brady, Tony Gonzalez, Peyton Manning, Bruce Matthews and Merlin Olsen. If Mahomes keeps his pace of making the Pro Bowl in 75 percent of his seasons, this would happen in the 2036 season, at age 41.

11 consecutive division titles
The Patriots' 11 straight division titles from 2009 through 2019 are an all-time NFL record, and Brady was the starting QB for each one. The Chiefs have already tied the AFC West's record with five straight division titles (matching the 2011-15 Broncos and 1972-76 Raiders), though Mahomes has only been the starter for three of them. If Mahomes leads the Chiefs to seven more consecutive division titles, they would break the Patriots' record in the 2027 season, with Mahomes at age 32. But for Mahomes to have 12 straight division titles as a starter, he would need to win nine more in a row, which would happen in 2029, Mahomes' age-34 season.


Where Mahomes already tops Brady
To his credit, Mahomes already sits above Brady in a number of notable figures. I'll leave you with those:

• Career winning percentage: .826 to .769
• Completion percentage: 66.0 to 64.0
• Passing yards per game: 307.7 to 263.1
• Passing yards per attempt: 8.4 to 7.5
• Touchdown-to-interception ratio: 4.75:1 to 3.04:1
• Passer rating: 108.7 to 97.3
• Passing touchdowns per game: 2.5 to 1.9

 

This is the same loudmouth who said Big Ben isn't an HOF level QB. We all have opinions, but I suspect Ben will manage to get inducted.