NFLRT 11/1/2024

The questions and discussion…

November 5^th is this year’s NFL trade deadline but already there have been some significant deals that have been transacted and so… 

1) On Thursday the Kansas City Chiefs traded a 2025 fifth-round pick (that can potentially become a fourth-round pick) to the Tennessee Titans and acquired DeAndre Hopkins in return. 

What is your assessment of this deal? Why? 

I really like this trade for the Chiefs and the Titans.

The Titans, while it’s only a Day 3 pick for the draft, they get to offload an older player who wants to win before he hangs up his cleats. They’re doing right by DeAndre Hopkins.

The Chiefs, however, improve a receiving core that badly needs help after multiple injuries between Rashee Rice and Hollywood Brown. It also is going to boost up Patrick Mahomes in a season that hasn’t been what we’ve grown accustomed to seeing. Hopkins will be able to thrive with not only the experience he has, but the experience in winning from Mahomes, Kelce and Andy Reid along with a fantastic organization that gives him the ability to chase a ring that he’s wanted. Mahomes already got him integrated into the offense last week with four receptions and you should see his role evolve more each week. Hopkins being added as the number one receiver should also help expand Xavier Worthy’s role on the offense and let them unleash his speed and playmaking ability better now that he’s not going to be focused on as much.

Adding more weapons and dimensions to an offense, while your quarterback is having a down year yet still haven’t lost, only makes a two-consecutive-season-winning Super Bowl champions just that much more dangerous heading into the second half of the season.  

I’ve said this before but…  I have no idea what in the world is going on in KC that the Chiefs have such a hard time keeping a full complement of wide receivers healthy for Patrick Mahomes to throw to.

Somehow Mahomes and the Chiefs won their second consecutive Super Bowl despite what was essentially a walking wounded wide receiver room last season. Now after they took steps this past off-season to fix that issue it seems as if its Ground Hog Day all over again in KC as Hollywood Brown and Rashee Rice are either lost for the season or out for an extended period of time while Worthy has been slow to develop so far.

Enter the Titans and DeAndre Hopkins into the mix.

Tennessee is 1-5 and the team is not anywhere near being a contender right now; Hopkins is pushing 33-years of age and given his age and contract, the Titans felt it was h right move to trade him for whatever they could reasonably get in return and took the best deal that they could find with KC.

Yes, Hopkins is not the all-star player he one was, but he is still a solid receiver, and he gives Mahomes a healthy receiver to throw to.

Regardless of what Hopkins has to offer I would be willing to wager that KC is not done improving their wide receiver corps. 

2) On Monday (10/28) the Kansas City Chiefs traded a 2026 sixth-round pick to the New England Patriots and received LB Josh Uche in return. 

What is your assessment of this deal? Why? 

What a steal for the Chiefs. To give up only a sixth-round draft choice for someone who had double digits sacks last season in New England and pair him up on a defense with Chris Jones and George Karlaftis is a steal.

Uche is young still and is a very good pass rusher. He’s going to make a huge impact paired up with some other solid rushers and complete the Kansas City defense. They only get stronger on both sides of the ball, and Uche was on his way out the door in New England. They didn’t want him there anymore and wanted to build in a different direction on defense. Uche didn’t want to be in New England anymore either. So this was an easy target and Kansas City capitalized on it and really bolstered up their front seven with him.  

I will say this about the Chiefs as the trade deadline draws near… they are going all in on their shot at three-peating…

While Uche has been inconsistent throughout his to a degree he is still a very good player who has upside sack potential… he had 11.5 sacks in 2022.

The Patriots took a shot in the off-season on signing Uche to an under market deal for his position and he declined the offer making him a pending free agent.  And since it was no guarantee they would get a compensatory pick for Uche if they kept him then he walked it was sort of a no brainer to trade him. But to get just a 6^th round pick?

Sorry I think the Pats could have found a team that would have been willing to offer up a better pick that the 6th rounder the Chiefs were offering up to get Uche.

Chief win this deal by a lot.  

3) On Tuesday (10/29) the Baltimore Ravens acquired WR Diontae Johnson and a sixth-round draft pick from the Carolina Panthers for a fifth-round draft pick. 

What is your assessment of this deal? Why? 

Diontae Johnson wasn’t going to do anything in Carolina. Instead of losing him in free agency after the season, they offloaded him.

While it makes no difference for Carolina as they have yet another lost season, the Ravens really opened up their offense adding him to their receiving corps with Zay Flowers and Rashod Bateman, which is going to help Lamar Jackson get the ball around to more weapons. The big knock on the Ravens’ offense over the past couple of seasons has been their weapons that Jackson has at his disposal. Outside of Zay Flowers, Mark Andrews and Isaiah Likely, who else was Jackson going to throw to unless he elevates lesser-known players into well-known players. This is going to open up the offense as we saw Johnson open up in Carolina when they made the quarterback switch to Andy Dalton. While early reports have indicated the Ravens’ top two receivers will still be Zay Flowers and Rashod Bateman, I think they’re going to slowly integrate him to the offense for Week 9 against Denver. However, I expect this to change and  become the number two receiver and pair up with Zay Flowers on competing to be number one receiver week in and week out. After the loss to the Browns last weekend, they needed some offensive help, and this is the help they needed.  

And since we are talking about trade steals…

This a great trade for the Ravens.

It provides QB Lamar Jackson with another excellent wide out to go along with what was already a very good one-two combination at wide receiver with Zay Flowers and Rashod Bateman.

As for the Panthers…  

I understand the Panthers are going nowhere this seson and that  Johnson will be a free agent, and the Panthers will have little to no chance of resigning him, so, yeah, trade him and at least get something in return for him that might be of some value in what now seems to be the Panthers yearly rebuilding of the team.

But just a 5^th round pick? And then they send one of their own picks… a 6^th rounder… over to the Ravens with Johnson?

And to top it all off and put the cherry on top of the sundae… the Panthers also are picking up a huge portion of Johnson’s remaining salary for the year.  

Ravens get an “A” for fleecing the Panthers pockets.

4) On Sunday (10/27) the New York Jets their fifth straight game on Sunday, this time to the rebuilding New England Patriots who were playing their back-up QB for the majority of the game. The Jets now stand at 2-6 and tied for last in the AFC East. 

Are the Jets playoff hopes all but lost at this point? And if so what’s next for the Jets? Why? 

And… 

Is this it for QB Aaron Rodgers? Is this how the future Hall of Fame player’s career ends? Why or why not?

I think the Jets’ playoff hopes are all but lost at this point in the season. They’ve started 2-6. They have a tough match-up against the Houston Texans on Thursday Night Football this week. A loss to Houston basically crashes their season. If they’re able to pull out a win against a team that’s missing their top two wide receivers in Nico Collins and Stefon Diggs, it might give them a boost and give them a little momentum. Letting the Patriots come back and be able to take the lead at the end where a lot of critics have stated they felt the Jets’ defense gave up at the end, it’s not a good sign. They’ve already made changes to the play-caller on offense as well as head coach. They made a big move for Devante Adams and got back Haason Reddick. Those two players didn’t make a lick of difference against New England, which is a huge sign for concern.

While it’s not the ideal situation for the fans, especially in a season that had such high expectations, but they need to start building for the future and looking towards next season and beyond. If that means acquiring a quarterback that can learn and possibly be the future franchise quarterback, then go and do it.

And speaking of quarterbacks and Aaron Rodgers, I don’t think he’s going to go out on a season like this. If he would call it quits after this season, he’s going to turn and look and say “I should’ve just retired after my last season in Green Bay” because losing a season to an Achilles tear four play into 2023 season, then having an awful team result for this season would be just devastating for him. I think he’s giving it another go next season and hope that his connection with Adams can last for an entire season and really elevate the Jets to a division title and a deep playoff run. 

One of the pluses of being the editor of this volume is I get to wait until the very last moment to enter my thoughts and as it turns out his time it read me a big benefit in that prior to that game I was going to write that after the Jets were suckered punched by the Parties last weekend and were in last place at 2-6 their seson was suck and they should start prepping  their off-season plans and figuring out which QB they wanted to target in the next draft.

But on Thursday Night Football they pulled of upsetting the Texans although it did take two outstanding, near miraculous one-handed catches by WR Garrett Wilson to pull it off.

New York now sits at 3-6 with chance.. a very slim chance but a chance to still make the playoffs.  

Right now the Jets are the No. 10 seed in the AFC. Seeds 5-7 make up the wild cards — positions currently held by the Denver (5-3), Baltimore (5-3) and the LA Chargers (4-3) and with Indianapolis ((4-4) and Cincinnati (3-5) ahead of them to take the last spot if it should become available.

Essentially the Jets need to win out to make the playoffs, they can’t afford to lose any more ground in the standings…  winning out would put them at 11-6 to end the regular season and would mean they would likely capture a wild card slot but that is a lot easier said than doing it.

But here is where they kind of, sort of catch a break… their remaining schedule is one of the easiest there is among the contenders.. they face only one team that right now has a winning record… Buffalo at 6-2. Evey other team they will face is presently at .500 or below that mark.

Bottom line?

More than anything the Jets need to hold to the old maxim of taking it “one game at a time.” They do that and take care of business in each of those games as best they can  and they got a shot of still making the playoffs.

Slim but it is actually there.

As for Rodgers and his legacy taking a hit… if the Jets blow this seson off and miss the playoffs again no way he doesn’t come back and take at least one last shot at turning things around in NY.  I don’t think he would just leave  if the Jets miss the playoffs; I think he would want to run it back at least one more time.  

5) On Monday Night Football the Pittsburgh Steelers beat the New York Giants 26-18 and combined with the Baltimore Ravens being upset by the Cleveland Browns 29-24 are now in sole possession of first place in the AFC North with a 6-2 record.

As the NFL enters the second half of 2024 NFL season are the Steelers legitimate contenders to be this year’s AFC team in the Super Bowl? Why or why not?

The Steelers are legitimate Super Bowl contenders this season, and while I was very against Russell Wilson taking over quarterback duties from Justin Fields, it’s turned out to be the right move. While Fields was getting wins and getting the offense to do enough to pull out victories, Russell Wilson has unleashed the full potential of the offense. Najee Harris is going. Jaylen Warren is handling business when he needs to. The entire offense is clicking, and they have a top defense that’s shut down almost every opponent they’ve faced, even in their losses.

TJ Watt had a very quiet first half against New York, he exploded in the second half including the strip-sack fumble that essentially ended the game for the Giants. They’re also getting back Cam Sutton, who was reinstated from his eight-game suspension, which is going to really help out the pass defense alongside Beanie Bishop Jr, who has been getting picks (three in last two games) and emerging as a viable cover corner in Pittsburgh. This is a very dangerous defense, and unleashing their offense gives them the best shot at making the Super Bowl since they had Big Ben at quarterback. 

I agree with Dan that Coach Tomlin should have left Justin Fields in at QB.. after all they were winning those games. But as Dan points out Russell Wilson was the right move due to the fact that Wilson has added a big play dimension to the Steeler offense that wasn’t there before and has taken the teams offense to another level of play.  

Besides Wilson pepping up the passing game big time the Steelers have a balanced attack as they have a much improved offensive line that has been not only protecting their QB but has been opening holes for Najee  Harris who has now run for more than 100 yards for three consecutive games.

Add in a defense that will bend but not break as it comes up with the big play when it needs it and, yes…

This Steelers team is a real contender for the playoffs and being a possible Super Bowl team.