All summer we spend way too much time analyzing what's going to happen in an upcoming season, and a lot of times we focus on the wrong things and miss many others. This season was no different as takes you were so sure of fell apart while you missed on the next big thing. So let's look at what we saw in the 2023 season.
AARON RODGERS: If you watched ESPN from, oh, March to September then I'm sure you got absolutely beat over the head about Aaron Rodgers' move from the Packers to the Jets. Mike Greenberg exhaustively turned "Get Up" into "Jet Up" to the point he made analysts talk to a framed Rodgers jersey if they dared suggest the Jets would struggle at all. It didn't help that ESPN had Rodgers' first Jets game on Monday Night Football. And you know how that went.
Four plays in and Rodgers tears his Achilles and the Jets season turned into .... well ... a normal Jets season. Of course that didn't stop ESPN with keeping Rodgers content on air (especially his regularly scheduled interviews on Pat McAfee's show).
The story turned out to be, though, that Jordan Love ended up taking the Packers to the playoffs this season ... while Rodgers and the Jets sit home to watch. While Love has had an up and down season, he grew with a young offense and got better each week. Who knows what 2024 holds for the Jets and Rodgers but we do know the Packers are fine with their decision.
NFC EAST GETS A NEW CHAMPION: The NFC East hasn't had a repeat champion since the Eagles won four straight division titles from 2001 to 2004. For the 20th straight year, the NFC East has had a different champion.
About a month ago, that seemed impossible. Dallas was busy getting spanked on the road while the teetering Eagles was staring down a schedule that had the Cardinals sandwiched between two games against the Giants. After struggling to beat New York, Philly inexplicably lost to Arizona and the return game against the G-men to finish second in the division. After starting 10-1, the Eagles lost 5 of their final 6 games.
AFC NORTH FINISHED WINNERS: We all felt the AFC North was going to be good, but every team finished with a winning record. What you wouldn't guess is that the one team that didn't reach the playoffs was the Cincinnati Bengals. The defending two-time defending division champions finished 9-8 and misses the postseason. Now, you can say that having a banged up Joe Burrow to begin the season and then losing him with a wrist injury in the middle of the year tanked their hopes, but that excuse doesn't work as well when you consider the Browns used four starting quarterbacks -- including Joe Flacco, a guy who was unemployed -- and the Steelers cycled through Kenny Pickett, Mitchell Trubisky and Mason Rudolph.
Let's also acknowledge the great coaching jobs done in Baltimore, Cleveland and Pittsburgh. All dealt with devastating injuries but fought through the reach the postseason.
BILL BELICHICK ERA OVER IN NEW ENGLAND: The expectation is that Bill Belichick has coached his last game for the Patriots in the 17-3 loss to the Jets. All those wins and six Super Bowl rings made his time there arguably the most successful run a coach has ever had at a stop.
That's what makes the ending so sad. Look, there's not much I hate more than when people feel storybook endings in sports are "how its supposed to be". It rarely is. A lot of people felt/hoped that Belichick's final game was going to end with New England adding yet another beating on the Jets and he'd walk off the field triumphantly one final time. Instead, the Jets ended a 15-game losing streak to the Pats on a snowy day and ended this era.
Belichick will be the head coach somewhere next year. And that will be a strange site.
YOUNG VS STROUD: Whenever you have two quarterbacks selected with the first two overall picks, we always seem to compare their careers.
2021: Lawrence, Wilson
2016: Goff, Wentz
2015: Winston, Mariota
2012: Luck, RGIII
1999: Couch, McNabb
1998: Peyton Manning, Leaf
1993: Bledsoe, Mirer
1971: Plunkett, Archie Manning
We got it in 2023 when the Panthers took Bryce Young while the Texans took CJ Stroud with the top two picks. So far, Stroud is winning this battle by a mile. Stroud's Texans won the AFC South while Young's Panthers finished with the worst record in the NFL and got his coach fired in the middle of his first season. What makes this worse is that Carolina traded its best receiver (DJ Moore) and their 2024 first rounder for the privilege of drafting Young. As you can guess, that pick will be the top overall selection in 2024.
SPEAKING OF QUARTERBACKS, DID TEAMS LEARN ANYTHING?: There are plenty of teams that were hoping they already had the answer to the quarterback question. Most found out that they didn't.
The most notable example of this is Russell Wilson in Denver. The Broncos gave the Seattle Seahawks a haul (and Wilson's bank account a ton of money) to make him their guy in 2022. After a disastrous 2022 season, the Broncos hired Sean Payton to get it turned around ... and that didn't work either. Wilson didn't play horribly this season, but he wasn't playing at the level they needed and Payton moved on. Wilson will likely be cut before the new league year begins in March and the Broncos will look for their new guy.
Chicago also wanted to know if Justin Fields is their guy. After a robust ending to last season, the feeling was that the Bears figured out how to use Fields and be successful. And then that didn't happen. Once again, Fields and the Bears had a strong finish to the season, but with the Bears holding onto the top overall pick in the draft (which is likely USC's Caleb Williams) the organization must make a huge decision in the coming months. Do you extend Fields or do you move on?
The Steelers cobbled together Kenny Pickett, Mitchell Trubisky and Mason Rudolph to reach the playoffs, but they have to know that this may need to change in 2024. The Commanders punted on drafting a QB in 2023 to see if 5th round pick Sam Howell could be that guy for them. Howell looked the part over the first half of the season before completely falling apart over the last several weeks. With Washington holding onto the 2nd overall pick and the prospect of drafting either Williams or North Carolina's Drake Maye with that pick, you'd have to think they'll be moving on from Howell.
The Patriots will seemingly move on from Mac Jones. The Raiders ditched Jimmy G. The Falcons know that Desmond Ridder isn't their guy ... and Taylor Heineke couldn't come and save and the day this time.
Of course, the Cardinals went from moving on from Kyler Murray after the season started to now he's back as the future of the team. It also seemed like the Vikings and Kirk Cousins may part after the season, but that now seems less likely. And the Buccaneers may have found their guy with Baker Mayfield's comeback year.
JOE FLACCO: Let's talk about Joe Flacco. The Browns had spend a ton of guaranteed money on Deshaun Watson, who suffered various injuries all season. When he missed time, Dorian Thompson-Robinson had to start. Then P.J. Walker would start. Once Watson was declared out for the year after Week 10 and the Browns' offense struggling with the backup QBs, Cleveland brought in Joe Flacco off the street to be their starter. Flacco went 4-1 with the Browns, throwing for 1,616 yards (323.2 ypg) and 13 TDs.
So has Flacco's career been revived? Even if the Browns have to stick with Watson next season, I just laid out the quarterback situations around the league. Someone will go after him.
JOSH ALLEN IS SO FUN TO WATCH: Allen gives us that Brett Favre type fun to watching football. He could throw the most amazing passes you've ever witnessed ... and some of the more puzzling interceptions you'll see. And that could be in the same game. Even if you don't care about the Bills, his games are always fun to watch.
PUKA NACUA: From out of nowhere, the Rams' Puka Nacua sets the NFL rookie record for catches in a season and receiving yards in a season. The 5th round pick did that while first round pick, the Chargers' Quinton Johnson, caught 33 passes all year.
No comments:
Post a Comment