NFLRT 9/20/2024

The questions and discussion…

1) In winning the first 2 games of the  NFL season game against the Carolina Panthers and the Dallas Cowboys the New Orleans Saints scored on 16 of their 21 drives with touchdowns on 11 of those drives.

In short…

Are the New Orleans Saints destined to be this year’s best offense in the NFL this year? Why or why not?

I don’t think the Saints are going to end up being the best offense in the NFL, but I think that they’re going to be in the top ranking. There’s other teams, including the Cowboys that they just beat, that I believe will end the season as a better overall offense after the Saints’ hot start.

However, Derek Carr is running the offense fantastically for New Orleans as he finally looks comfortable, is spreading the ball around, and the biggest key for their offense; they don’t need to rely on one main wide receiver. They can get other players involved. With the explosive start to the season in Week 1, the Saints barely used Chris Olave. Week 2 got him more involved, but Shaheed has been an explosive threat with back-to-back weeks of very long touchdown receptions. Alvin Kamara is looking like his old self once again, scoring four touchdowns last week, and getting very comfortable after a couple of seasons that seemed to see him slowing down and dealing with suspensions and injuries.

The Saints are the best offense in the NFL through two weeks of football. End of the season? I think top five is the realistic goal for them. 

The Saints’ offense has been a big part of the team’s early success, with 91 points scored in the first two games of the season. This is more than the team scored in the first two weeks of last season, and since the 1970 merger only the 2009 Saints scored more points in their first two games.

And right now the biggest reason for this hot offensive start to the season is probably due to how QB Derek Carr has performed in those games especially in last week’s win against the Cowboys when he went 30-of-39 passing (77%) for 443 yards with 5 touchdowns and just 1 INT for a NFL-high 142.4 passer rating while also leading the league in yards per pass at 11.4.

But Carr has been here before and the end of the season results have not been exactly sparkling.

A recent post on X kind of makes my point…

57 QBs started a season 2-0 from 2017-23. 39 of those teams made the playoffs that season. The only QB to miss the playoffs more than once following a 2-0 start in that span: Derek Carr: 2017, 2020, 2023.

But the Saints have a new offensive coordinator in Klint Kubiak who has taken a a somewhat moribund New Orleans offense and simplified things which seems to have sort of energized the players. The offensive line in particular has looked, and played, a lot better than it did last year… at least it has up to this point in the season. And the receivers are doing a great job running their routes and finding openings in opposing defensive backfields for Carr to deliver the ball to them for long gainers.

Simply put, when a team puts all those components together… the receivers run the right routes and get open, the QB delivers the ball, the running backs pick up key yardage and keep the chains moving downfield and the OL provides exceptional protection… it allows for the team to perform at a high level.

And right now that is where New Orleans is at. This is a better Saints team than last year… better players; better system… and so far it shows this season.  

But…

It’s early.

And Carr, during his NFL career, has rarely put it together and kept it together for an entire season.  

But again this is an improved Saints team from last year with better players and a better offensive coordinator and if Carr performs at a decent level… he doesn’t have to have All-Star numbers every game… then the Saints offense will be good. Top Five good, maybe. Just not the Number 1 Offense in the NFL good, however.

2) In the Miami Dolphins Thursday Night Football Tua Tagovailoa suffered his third concussion of his NFL career and at this time the team has placed Tagovailoa on the IR until at least Week 8.

During Tagovailoa’s absence can the Dolphins, as presently constructed, play well enough that if he comes back in Week 8  that they can be a playoff team this season? Why or why not?  

And what are the Dolphins best options to replace Tagovailoa as their starting QB either during his present estimated absence, or if the worst case scenario should come to pass that he is declared unfit to play for the remainder of this season? Why?

And…

Seeing that this is his third concussion, should Tagovailoa retire from the NFL? Why or why not?

I don’t think the Dolphins can play well enough to remain in the playoff hunt when Tua Tagovailoa comes back from his concussion injury. He’s a great, almost-perfect quarterback for the offense they run. However, they’re dealing with injuries at running back as well, but Skylar Thompson isn’t the quarterback that Tua is.

There’s a reason Tua just signed a massive contract extension this off-season. He knows how to move fast, get their explosive offense moving down field and utilize the speed of their offense to their advantage. I think Thompson is going to end up slowing the team down, be way less effective, and with the pass game less effective, I don’t believe the rush game is going to be able to pick up the slack enough to keep them in the hunt.

Either Buffalo was very upset with how they played against Arizona in Week 1, or the Dolphins have a very hard time on defense, but Miami looked awful for most of the game. Couldn’t move, kept allowing Buffalo to move down the field at-will and was not a playoff team.

As far as the options, Miami has two options, overall. Skylar Thompson is their quarterback and ride with him. Or, they can look into signing Ryan Tannehill, who wants to go to a competitor. And I think they need to look at Tannehill if Tua is uncertain on returning to the field this season. But they need to fix the quarterback situation pronto and I feel like Tannehill will fit better than Skylar Thompson. 

I don’t believe that Tua should retire from the league. However, I think he should do whatever is suggested by doctors as well as what’s agreed upon with his family. While I think he needs to start utilizing the slide a lot more effectively and reduce the amount of head hits he takes, I think he still can provide quality years of quarterback play without suffering long-term consequences. 

The Dolphins have a very good offense even without Tagovailoa.  But there is a reason the Dolphins signed Tua to his recent big bucks contract.. he is a top of the line QB who produces week in and week out  and is a prime reason why the Dolphins’ offense runs as efficiently as it does and puts up the big offensive numbers.

Can they win with back-up QB Skylar Thompson?

This is now that Thompson’s job to run the offense until supposedly Week 8 when Tua is scheduled to come off the injured list.

Every  Miami player now needs to redouble, if not retreble, their efforts. The special teams need to outdo the opponents special team.

The defense needs to step it up big time, too. They can’t have games like they just did versus the Bills.

And the playmakers on offense that Thompson will need to lean on to make plays and score points… they need to not take off any games or even a single play during games. Tyrek Hill and Jaylen Waddle can’t have the “quiet performances” that they just put up in Miami’s loss to Buffalo. Miami’s best players need to be even better. It’s time for everyone on Miami’s team to step up their games.  

And then it’s up to Thompson to just go out and do his job and be a competent NFL QB. Hell, show the world why he was selected in the draft before Mr. Irrelevant Brock Purdy was selected.  

As far as Tua retiring…

I would hope that he listens to his advisors, especially the doctors and medical people that are involved in his care and then makes the best   decision to either play or not paly in the NFL.

It’s up to him.

But hopefully common sense prevails, and he makes the right decision based on the facts that come out of the daily testing and rehab tha the will be going through.

But the final decision should be his to make.  

3) With this being the New York Giants’ 100th season the team honored the top 100 players from the franchise’s history before the team’s first game of this season. Among those players honored were defensive stalwarts and two of the NFL’s all great players in linebackers Carl Banks and Lawrence Taylor. On Bank’s podcast “Bleav in Giants,” Banks told podcast cohost Bob Papa that Taylor turned to him at halftime and said, “‘Carl, I could pick 22 of us right now and go out and play better than these guys. We’d be in this game.’ The youngest guy in that line was probably 50 years old. Lawrence Taylor looked at me and said, ‘I can get 22 of us right now and go out there right now and whoop these guys’ ass.’”

Now after losing their second game of the season to the Washington Commanders and their rookie QB Jayden Daniels, the Giants stand at 0-2 for the 2024/25 season.

Last week NFLRT did ask… “What is your over/under for the Giants’ wins this season?” however…

Are the Giants, as Taylor’s comments to Banks appear to indicate, just a badly constructed team who are going to be one of the worst teams, if not the worst team, in the NFL in the 2024/25 season? Why or why not?

The Giants are just an awful team.

Their offensive line can’t stop blocking sleds. Daniel Jones looks panicked in the pocket. They messed up with not re-signing Saquon Barkley and letting him go to a divisional rival. The defense doesn’t look strong. The Giants are not a good team, and I don’t expect them to surpass four wins on the season.

They really screwed up and Hard Knocks exposed their faults in the offseason. The Giants are not good. They need an entire roster overhaul to improve. And, as the season goes on, we’ll see them get exposed week in and week out. 

This Giant team may wind up being the worst team in the entire NFL before all is said and done in the 2024/25 season. Bar none. Worse than even Carolina.

So far this year they look incapable of putting together a consistent game plan either on offense or on defense on the field of play and even resembling being just a run of the mill NFL team.

I’m going to say that this Giants team will be lucky to four or five games this year… maybe.  

4) And…

In the history of the NFL teams beginning the season 0-2 and reaching the playoffs is not very good. Since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger out of the 407 teams to start the season 0-2 only 39 of those teams, or just 9.6% of those teams, made the playoffs.

As of Tuesday morning (9/17) the Baltimore Ravens, Cincinnati Bengals, Jacksonville Jaguars, Tennessee Titans, Denver Broncos, New York Giants  Carolina Panthers and Los Angeles Rams are all 0-2 on the season…

Will any of these current 0-2 teams be a playoff team this season? Why or why not?

The Ravens and Bengals look like the two best opportunities to make the playoffs.

They both played the Chiefs tough.

The Bengals have Joe Burrow. They’ll be at the top of the AFC North. You know who will be right with Cincinnati at the top? The Ravens.

Lamar Jackson and Joe Burrow are the two difference makers.

Right now, the Bengals are playing without Tee Higgins. Jamar Chase wasn’t a big participant in off-season training camp and preparing for the season. So he needed a couple of weeks to get back integrated into the offense and with Joe Burrow. I feel like the Bengals can be a Super Bowl contender this season, and they’ll be a playoff team at the end of the season.

 The Ravens, while they did lose some key pieces this past off-season, the Ravens still have an explosive offense. They can still make plays on defense. While they let one go against the Raiders, that type of stuff is allowable early in the season. However, they only lost by a toe against the Chiefs in Week 1. If that doesn’t provide a sense of hope, I’m not sure what would.

These two teams will compete for the AFC North crown and the loser will end up a Wild Card team. 

I just don’t see the Baltimore Ravens or the Cincinnati Bengals continuing to go down the losing path they are both presently on.

Those are two very good offense with two of the better NFL QBs in game today in Lamar Jackson for the Ravens and Joe Burrow for the Bengals and both these teams will put it together in Week 3 to start winning streaks that will thrust both teams back into contention to be at least Wild Card teams.  

5) In Week 2, Denver’s HC Sean Payton hand-selected rookie quarterback, Bo Nix, appeared to take another step in the wrong direction in their game versus Pittsburgh as he continually threw the ball into ill-advised places and should probably consider himself lucky that he only had two INTS. Those INTs now give him four in the first two weeks of this season.

With Nix as the Broncos’ starting QB, will Payton last out the season as Denver’s Head coach? Why or why not?

I don’t think so.

This is Bo Nix’s rookie season. While some expected growing pains are going to happen, I don’t think we’re going to see a full season of mistakes from Bo Nix. I also think that Sean Payton will have a leash to let the team build and develop.

They have a lot of dead cap after the failed Russell Wilson experiment and ended in them cutting him while eating money. They’re going to give Payton time to rebuild the offense and give them an identity. Give Denver, give Bo Nix and give Sean Payton some time to grow and develop as the season grows and develops.

Nobody expects them to be a playoff team. They don’t expect them to compete with the Chiefs for the top of the AFC West. But they will be a spoiler team come the second half of the season. They might be able to fight for a playoff spot (I think they’ll fall short), but Bo Nix will be okay. Patience is needed for this year and next year in Denver with Bo Nix and Sean Payton. 

After the Bronco’s fiasco with trading for QB Russell Wilson and their failure to return to being a relevant NFL team once again, Controlling Owner & Chief Executive Officer Greg Penner didn’t hire Sean Payton to rebuild the team to wind up firing him if the results aren’t immediately seen.

Penner might not be giving Payton a blank check to do as he pleases, but he is certainly going to give Payton every opportunity to begin a serious rebuild that  begins with developing Bo Nix as the Broncos’ franchise QB.

 Sean Payton’s job is safe for the foreseeable future.