Ten Thoughts on the NFL

1) The Green Bay Packers have been lauded for their ability to draft and develop their own players for a number of years now. They’ve been one of the most successful franchises in the NFL since 1992. That just so happened to be the year that Brett Favre took over at quarterback, a job he would hold until 2007. During the Farve era, the Packers only had one season with a losing record.

From 2008 to 2016, Aaron Rodgers has been the number one quarterback for the Packers, and during that time they’ve only had one season with a losing record.

That’s two great quarterbacks in Green Bay, so it begs the question; Are these QBs elevating the play from the players around them or are the Packers just finding an outstanding supporting cast to play with their QBs?

The general consensus is that the Packers will fall apart without Rodgers at the helm.

With him reported to be out for the remainder of the season, we’ll find out just how resilient these great Packers are without their field general. The last time Rodgers missed significant time, the team went 2-4-1 in his absence, and they also lost the game in which he was injured.

2) With Rodgers out, the NFC North seems to be wide open and the odds on favorite for the division has to be the Minnesota Vikings. On Sunday they beat the Packers, but also found out that their #1 quarterback, Sam Bradford, may not be able to come back from his knee injury. But on Monday, they found out that their starting QB from the 2014 and 2015 seasons, Teddy Bridgewater, has been cleared to practice after rehabbing his own knee injury.

In the meantime, they’ll keep Case Keenum at QB, and all he’s done is put up a career high 93.1 passer rating.

3) The Detroit Lions missed out on a big opportunity to stay even with the Packers and the Vikings, when they were shellacked by the New Orleans Saints, 52-38. The Lions may have some QB issues of their own as Matt Stafford wasn’t 100% in that game after suffering an ankle and hamstring injury the previous week.

4) The other team in the NFC North, the 2-4 Chicago Bears, could make things interesting if they could stack a win atop of a win, but the last time they’ve won consecutive games was November of 2015.

5) Blowing leads is becoming an Atlanta Falcons thing. We all know about the Super Bowl, but on Sunday they were victimized my Mr. Fourth Third Quarter himself, Jay Cutler. Atlanta was up 17-0 at the half, but then two Cutler TDs in the third quarter, followed by two Cody Parkey field goals in the fourth quarter gave the Miami Dolphins the win. Miami’s D also came up with some big plays and running back Jay Ajayi had 26 rushing attempts for 130 yards.

6) New York Jets quarterback Josh McCown gave a valiant effort with 354 passing yards, but they came up short against Rob Gronkowski and the New England Patriots. Even with the loss, the Jets, a team many claimed was “tanking” this year, are 3-3.

7) It wasn’t quite as rosy for all former Bears quarterbacks, as the San Francisco 49ers benched Brian Hoyer after a 4 for 11 start. Rookie C.J. Beathard, who was a surprise pick in the third round of the 2017 NFL Draft, came in and threw for 245 yards on 19 of 36 passing. The former Iowa Hawkeye has already been named the starter moving forward for the ‘Niners.

8) Adrian Peterson has some juice left in the tank. The new Arizona Cardinals starting running back went for 134 yards on 26 carries (5.2ypc) and 2 TDs. I think the 32 year old surprised the Tampa Bay Buccaneers defense.

9) The Pittsburgh Steelers, behind a hard nosed defense, 179 rushing yards from Le'Veon Bell, and 155 receiving yards from Antonio Brown, knocked the Kansas City Chiefs from the ranks of the unbeaten.

Are the 1972 Dolphins still doing the champagne thing?

10) I wonder how many fantasy football players won their games this week thanks to this Monday night run?

I had Derrick Henry on my bench, so it didn’t help me...