NFLRT 10/18/2023

The questions and discussion…

1) The season is now six weeks old, or about a third of the way completed for the regular season.

At this point which player has been the MVP of the NFL so far? Why?

Right now, there are good candidates and I’m at a struggle for putting these two players in a specific order, but I think Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry are leading the way right now. The tough situation between the two players is that they both play for the same organization (Baltimore) and are both benefiting significantly from each other. But I’m going to put Derrick Henry as the leader.

He’s leading the league in rushing first downs (36), rushing touchdowns (8) and yardage (762). He’s been dominant including an 87-yard rushing touchdown in which he went untouched. He torched the Cowboys and routinely has been a dominant force in the backfield for Baltimore all year and is the biggest reason why they are winning along with excellent play from Lamar Jackson. They had a slip up against the Raiders, but outside of that, have been taking care of business against every opponent, including a tough match-up against Cincinnati. I’d be in favor of co-MVP awarding Lamar and Derrick.

Derrick Henry.

He presently leads the NFL in rushing yards (704) average run yards per game (117.3), rushing TDs (8) and is on pace to put up a season with 1,994 rushing yards and a nifty little total of 22 rushing TDs.

Those projected numbers are significant because with an extra big game or two (of which Henry is very capable of doing) he could pass 2,000 years on the ground which would be his second career 2,000 yard season and only the 9^th time ever accomplished in NFL history… and… also give him a shot at Eric Dickerson’s single season record of 2,105 yards.

As for those possible 22 TDs on the ground… that would be the 5^th highest total ever recorded in the history of the NFL and would put him within spitting distance of LaDainian Tomlinson’s single season record of 28 rushing TDs.  

Of course these are just possibilities and who knows what while happen down the road this season for Henry but with his present numbers putting him on pace to achieve those potential final season stats and possibly having a shot at some all-time records… that right now makes him my leading candidate for the MVP in the NFL at this point in the season.   

2) In Sunday’s (10/3) 47-9 loss to the Detroit Lions the Dallas Cowboys had the team’s largest home loss (38 points) in a game since Jerry Jones bought the team in 1989. Counting their playoff loss to the Packers last season, the Cowboys have now been outscored 167-85 in their past four home games.

So far this season Dallas’ offense has been lacking while the defense has been porous… a bad combination for any NFL team.  

Considering the talent that the Cowboys have on their roster it would not be unfair to believe that Jerry Jones is looking at all his options including  coaching changes…

At what point does Jerry Jones fire HC Mike McCarthy? Or is McCarthy’s job safe for the remainder of this season? Why or why not? 

I think Jerry Jones doesn’t fire Mike McCarthy at all this season and lets his contract run out.

There’s one main reason for this, and a big reason why teams won’t fire head coaches throughout the middle of the season; nobody to take over. There’s nobody on the Cowboys’ staff, currently, who is next in line for the head coaching position. The Cowboys are going to be better off with McCarthy as head coach for the remainder of the season. Nobody is going to improve their defense this year stepping in. Nobody is going to make this offense click and get going. The rush defense in Dallas is atrocious this season, and putting an interim head coach in place of McCarthy isn’t going to solve the problem. Their best-case scenario for the rest of the season is sticking with Mike McCarthy and running out the remaining 11 games on his contract (not including potential playoff games). 

From what I have been seeing all over the internet and reading in the newspapers unless the Cowboys season goes totally in the toilet that Mike McCarthy’s job is safe for the entirety of the season. And the biggest reason being given for that thinking is due to the fact that owner Jones doesn’t have anybody in place that could easily step in and replace McCarthy and have the team doing any better than what they are now doing with the present players the Cowboys now have.

But when the season is over… especially if the Cowboys aren’t in the playoffs.. all bets are off and McCarthy is most likely toast.

 3) At six games into the season the Houston Texans already lead the AFC South by two games over the Indianapolis Colts for the division title.

Can any team in the AFC South catch the Texans or is Houston already a lock to win the South and coast into the playoffs this year? Why or why not?

With how the AFC South is looking, no team is going to catch the Houston Texans.

The Indianapolis Colts aren’t good. They’re not terrible, but they’re not good this year. The Packers, with everybody already aware of their running the football down the Colts’ throat plan, gauged the Colts’ defense without Jordan Love.

The Titans are a dumpster fire of a roster on offense and their defense isn’t much better.

The Jaguars are a mess and can’t seem to figure out their roster, just letting the Bears and their rookie quarterback pass all over them and move at will. They got torched by the Bills. Yes, they had luck against the Colts, but the Colts can’t seem to figure out a way to win in Jacksonville.

That division is the Texans to lose, and the rest of the three organizations are fighting to stay out of the cellar. 

I gotta say with the level of competition of the other teams i the AFC South… and barring CJ Stroud suffering a season ending injury…  

This division is essentially already over and is pretty much the Houston Texans to lose.

4) So far this season Chicago’s Caleb Williams and Washington’s Jayden Daniels have led their teams to 4-2 records.  

Drake Maye started his first game for New England and while the Pats lost the game Maye himself did well in his debut as a starting QB in the NFL.   

Simply put the top three QBs taken in this year’s draft have made an instant impact for their teams and with that in mind…

Is this the NFL’s best rookie class ever? Why or why not?

I don’t think this is the best rookie class ever, but I feel like this is a high quality group of rookies who entered the season through the draft.

Having the top two quarterbacks excel is always encouraging. Having Caleb Williams get better with each week of the season is very encouraging, especially for an organization that hasn’t been able to find a reliable quarterback since…..ever.

Jayden Daniels is on pace to win the Offensive Rookie of the Year award handily, leading the Commanders from a bottom-dweller to a competitive team, fighting for the NFC East divisional title. He went toe-to-toe with MVP-candidate quarterback Lamar Jackson.

Drake Maye looked very good with an awful New England Patriots’ team on Sunday.

This was a very strong quarterback class heading into the draft, and they’ve definitely lived up to that high mark set upon them through six weeks of NFL action. 

While two of the top QBs taken in this year’s draft are having excellent seasons, and are even sparking some MVP talk, and others have had some decent to very good game performances… it’s a little too soon to call this the greatest quarterback class of all time.

The 1983 and 2004 quarterback classes would like a word…  

For the record…

The 1983 quarterback class was the first year six quarterbacks were taken in the first round. (the 2024 class tied that record) and three of those 1983 QBs went on to be Hall of Famers… John Elway, Jim Kelly and Dan Marino who also combined to go to 23 Pro Bowls. The rest of that class included Ken O’Brien, Tony and Todd Blackledge.

The 2004 draft had four first-round picks, with three of those QBS.. Eli Manning, Philip Rivers, and Ben Roethlisberger… likely to get enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame one day. Third-round pick Matt Schaub also had a nice career with two Pro Bowls.

5) Last season the Bears went 7-10 and finished last in the NFC North.

With Caleb Williams now starting at QB can the Bears go from last to first in the NFC North? Why or why not?

I don’t think the Bears are good enough to surpass the three other teams in their division. They’re not good enough to surpass the Lions or Packers or Vikings (how they’ve been playing to start the season).

The Bears have a good team, but the running game needs to establish themselves with consistency. We’ve seem Caleb Williams getting better each week, but how will he play against divisional opponents? He hasn’t seen Brian Flores’ defense in Minnesota yet. He hasn’t faced the Packers and their greatly improved defense yet. He hasn’t faced the Lions and had to go toe-to-toe with high-point scoring yet. He lucked out in getting a victory over the Titans, who blew the game away by stupid mistakes. The Texans almost coughed up the game on Sunday Night Football, but still won. They lost against a bad Colts’ defense. The last three weeks for Caleb Williams came against Jacksonville, Carolina and the Rams. Three of the worst defenses in the NFL, with Caleb Williams throwing a very bad interception against the Jaguars in London last Sunday. The Bears aren’t there yet, and the league will correct themselves out to the record they should be, but while they’re not going to fight for the divisional title this season, they definitely should feel good as an organization that they have a future quarterback they’ll be able to rely on for the future. 

The Bears are going to be a much improved team his season and who knows with a break here and there might even have an outside shot of being a Wild Card team but going from last to first in the NFC North? Fuhgeddaboudit!

Between the Vikings, Packers and Lions there is no way the Bears will be able to surpass all three of those teams and win the division.

Sorry Bears fans but it ain’t gonna happen.