Ja'Whaun Bentley, Patriots MVP?
Impossible, you say. He hasn't played since the first half of week two's loss to the Seahawks.
But Bentley's injury — likely season-ending — may have been the final straw in the defense's unraveling. In the five games played without the veteran linebacker, the Pats have surrendered nearly 168 yards rushing per game. Sometimes, it's a big play - see Joe Mixon ripping off a 57-yard run in week six - and other times, it's just one successful play after another that shortens the field and shortens the game. The Jaguars had a 17-play drive eating up over 11 minutes of clock Sunday in London (though they eschewed points and ended up with nothing), and a couple weeks prior, the Miami Dolphins capped an 80-yard march that lasted 15 plays and nearly eight minutes before scoring the eventual game-winning touchdown. Emasculating is the word that comes to mind.
"You look at one game; it's the three big runs," said Jerod Mayo. "Then you look at this past game, and it's the 4-yard, 5-yard, 4-yard, 6-yard, just the continuous, slow bleed. We have to do a better job getting off blocks and going out there and tackling the ball carrier."
Added DeMarcus Covington, "It's really about the fundamentals on the football field, our defeating blocks, tackling, being able to tackle in space, making sure we know, alignment, assignment, communication, stuff like that."
Not having Christian Barmore on the interior has contributed to a run defense that is now 22nd in the NFL. Still, it's hard to read those quotes from Mayo and Covington and not immediately think of Bentley, a heart-and-soul player who not only brought the necessary thump - he adopted Dont'a Hightower's penchant for blowing up unsuspecting linemen and tight ends - but tied the front end to the back end as the green dot guy and chief communicator. Bentley is still trying to do his part, remaining heavily involved with this football team, even on IR. He was credited by several players as being a prominent voice in Thursday's team meeting. Perhaps we'll look back on the message sent - keeping in-house concerns in-house, for instance - as a turning point. Or, possibly, it still won't matter for a team short on talent and experience.
PLAYERS PLAY
The day after his fourth-recorded concussion, Tua Tagovailoa was symptom-free and cleared medically shortly thereafter. During that week, and now once again, the Dolphins quarterback has been a big part of the daily sports show cycle, with the common theme from all corners being that he should retire.
"I appreciate your concern; I really do," Tagovailoa said Monday. "I love this game, and I love it to the death; that's it."
The veteran signal-caller is back in front of the microphone because the clock has been started on his return from injured reserve. He could play as soon as this weekend against the Cardinals. In fact, that's the aim. Tagovailoa spent four weeks on injured reserve when, based on how he was feeling, he probably would have missed just one game (assuming he cleared the NFL's murky concussion protocol). But the team's medical staff, in conjunction with independent neurologists, convinced him that a break was needed.
"What I do know is that I think the team did what was best in the interest of me, knowing that I'm a competitor, and given what the doctors have told me that having a substantial amount of time to rest and recover would have been good for me, I think they did what was best in terms of protecting myself from myself."
Tagovailoa's 13-minute press conference had a weird air around it. He seemed annoyed at points, and some of his answers were, quite frankly, a little disturbing. The former Alabama star will not wear a Guardian Cap, calling it a "personal choice." He also referenced a "gray area." around the notion that once you have concussions, you're susceptible to more.
"I think the brain is – there's just a gray area when it comes to that," he said. "If you do know that you're going to get long-term disease from it, or if you're not, I just think there's a lot of gray with it. For me, this is what I love to do. This is what makes me happy, and I'm going to do it; that's it."
Tagovoailoa insisted that his return had nothing to do with the Dolphins' current state; they're 2-4, and the offense has been impotent since his departure. They have scored touchdowns on just three of 51 drives since his injury.
The final question asked of Tagovailoa was if he felt he was putting himself at risk by playing again.
"Well, how much risk do we take when we get up in the morning to go drive to work? Get into a car crash, I don't know. Everything I think takes risk," he said. "So, to answer that question, every time we all suit up, we're all taking a risk that we could potentially get hurt, whether it's a concussion, a broken bone, or anything. You get up off of the bed the wrong way, you potentially could risk you spraining your ankle.
"There's just risk in any and everything, and I'm willing to play the odds, that's it."
FIRE SALE
They're not having a lot of fun in Tennessee, despite Nashville being an party destination. The Titans moved on from a big piece of its history, firing Mike Vrabel this off-season. GM Ran Carthon immediately zeroed in on Bengals offensive coordinator Brian Callahan to be Vrabel's replacement. Callahan didn't call plays in Cincinnati - Zac Taylor does that - but he was well-respected and considered an essential cog in building that Joe Burrow-led offense. Well, year one with the Titans has been an abject disaster, and now they're selling off parts left and right.
“Year One is hard,” said Callahan. “There’s a lot of things that you’re trying to work through, there’s a lot of people you’re trying to get on the same page. You’re trying to build your program the way you want it, and there’s always gonna be difficulty."
I'd say, and now it just got a little harder. Carthon shipped DeAndre Hopkins to the Chiefs for a conditional fourth-round pick, then turned around and swapped linebacker Ernest Jones to the Seahawks for linebacker Jerome Baker and a fourth-round pick. The Titans acquired Jones in August, but at 1-5, they are in sell mode. Jones had played in 91% of the defensive snaps.
The Titans host the Patriots two Sundays from now. Both will look at that game as a chance to get right.
As for the Chiefs, getting at least one receiver was a no-brainer. Rashee Rice is done for the year with a knee injury, and Hollywood Brown has a slight chance of being back for the playoffs, but GM Brett Veach can't bank on that. So, after kicking the tires on a potential Cooper Kupp trade, Veach plucked the 32-year-old Hopkins from Tennessee.
While not the same player he once was, Hopkins still managed a 1,000-yard season a year ago and has 15 catches in five games playing alongside the scattershot Will Levis and journeyman Mason Rudolph. The difference now is that Hopkins can't be a sidecar in Kansas City; he must be their top option at wide receiver. That might be asking too much at this point in his career. Still, considering that he's replacing snaps that would typically go to Skyy Moore and Justin Watson, it's a definite upgrade for head coach Andy Reid and quarterback Patrick Mahomes. There's also no question that Hopkins still has an incredible feel for the passing game, which should work nicely with Mahomes and fellow football savant Travis Kelce. This would hit a bit differently if it was a few years ago, but at 6-0, the Chiefs remain the team to beat, and I trust they'll be able to squeeze out every last ounce of Hopkins.
"I think he's a good, veteran player who's seen just about everything over 12 years," said Reid. "He's a good space player, so he's very good understanding how to work in space. At the same time, he's a tough matchup because of his size, arm length, big body that knows how to play that low-post area very well."
Reid said they'll push to get Hopkins ready for this weekend's game, and the three-time All-Pro thinks he can absorb the offense fast enough to get out there.
"I've been in the NFL for 12 years," Hopkins said. "I know football, so hopefully I can go out there and make some plays wherever I fit in, wherever I'm needed."
The Chiefs face the struggling Raiders on Sunday.
HEAR HIM ROAR
Is there any quarterback playing better than Jared Goff? In three of his last four games, he's gone through the entire first half without throwing an incompletion. Goff has an 83.5% completion percentage in those four contests, setting an NFL record for the highest completion percentage over any four-game span (the record was set earlier this year by Jayden Daniels).
The Lions improved to 5-1 after beating the previously undefeated Vikings on Sunday, and Goff's ability to handle Brian Flores' aggressive defensive scheme played a massive role in that victory. His improvement versus pressure has been stark. His failings in that regard doomed him in Los Angeles despite Sean McVay's help, but under the watchful eye of coordinator Ben Johnson, Goff is handling the rush better than anyone.
"I think it's the accuracy, man. I think it's the ability to process what the defense is doing to you and, in a split second, to make an accurate throw," said Lions coach Dan Campbell. "I think to be able to, I said this the other day, what certain players have in their head and what they've got in their heart is what separates guys in this league."
It's not as if Goff didn't have talent. He was the 1st overall pick in 2016. But the Rams had no vision for him in his rookie season, entrusting his development to Jeff Fisher and a coordinator whose name I didn't recognize (Rob Boras, now an assistant in Buffalo). Fisher didn't make it through Goff's rookie season, and that's where McVay entered the picture. He got the young signal caller to make a considerable leap in year two (3,804 yards/28 TDs/7 INTs), and then they were Super Bowl-bound in 2018.
But after being shut down by Bill Belichick and Flores, the shine came off the Goff/McVay relationship. When Matthew Stafford became available in 2021, the Rams jumped, including Goff and his recently signed contract. Lions GM Brad Holmes, formerly the director of college scouting in LA when Goff was drafted, insisted he believed in this 'distressed asset' and that it wasn't a salary dump. No one believed Holmes. They do now, none more than Campbell, who sees something in his quarterback that McVay and others certainly didn't.
"Look, I was fortunate to be around Drew Brees as a player and as a coach for a combination of six years," he said to 'The Rich Eisen Show.' "When you're around that type of player, it's rare to see the professionalism, the work that goes into it, the process, the competitiveness, and things about Goff that remind me of him.
"He just, he's got a workman's attitude, he's blue-collar in that way. A quiet confidence, he doesn't get frazzled. He's tough, he's seeing it, and because of that, we put a lot on him."
Goff and the Lions face a Titans defense this weekend that allows just 272 yards per game, the best in the NFL.
NERD NUMBERS
- Drake Maye is the 5th 1st-rd rookie since 1970 with 2+ pass TDs in each of his first 2 starts. The others: Marcus Mariota, Jay Cutler, Matt Leinart, and Dan Marino. Only Mariota, Cutler, and Marino did it in each of their first 3 starts.
- Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins have combined for 707 receiving yards since Week 4. Both Chase and Higgins have had 55+ receiving yards in each of the last four games.
- David Montgomery and Jahmyr Gibbs have played in the same game as teammates 18 times. Montgomery has 18 TDs in those games, and Gibbs has 15. Montgomery and Gibbs are the first RB teammates since at least 1991, each with 15+ TDs in their first 20 games played together.
- Josh Allen is the only qualified QB not to throw an interception in 2024. He had a career-high 18 INTs in 2023 (2nd-most in the NFL behind Sam Howell). Allen already has more games without an INT in 2024 (7) than in 2023 (3).
- Allen has completed 27 of 28 pass attempts when targeting Khalil Shakir this year.
- Patrick Mahomes has thrown a league-leading 8 interceptions. Since the 1970 merger, the only other team to start 6-0 with a QB leading the NFL in INTs was the 2015 Broncos with Peyton Manning.
- George Kittle has 34 receptions, 375 yards, and 5 TDs. That's 2nd among tight ends in catches and yards and 1st in TDs. Of TEs, only rookie Brock Bowers has more receptions and yards than Kittle.