Ten Thoughts on the NFL and the Bears

1) Patrick Mahomes’ special season continues as he went over 300 yards passing for the seventh straight game. He leads the league in both passing yards (2,526) and touchdowns (26). There’s no question the Kansas City Chiefs’ second year quarterback is the front runner for league MVP.

Spending a full year working with his knowledgeable offensive coordinator in 2017 has him really playing at a high level in 2018.

2) The Baltimore Ravens have lost 3 of their last 4 games after a 3-1 start and they may be inching closer to a quarterback change. Joe Flacco isn’t going to be more than what he’s shown throughout his 11-year career, and that’s an average QB. You can win with him, and the Ravens have, but I wonder if it would be best to get rookie Lamar Jackson some consistent playing time. Inserting him would require a tweak to the offense, but he might provide the O a spark that they’s been missing.

3) The Cleveland Browns have fired head coach Hue Jackson after a disastrous 3-36-1 record during his two and a half years with the franchise. Even with his .500 stint as head coach with the Raiders, Jackson is still one of the worst of all time.

From Pro Football Talk:

The Browns’ loss today drops Jackson to 11-44-1 as an NFL head coach: 8-8 in Oakland and 3-36-1 in Cleveland. That’s a winning percentage of .205.

How bad is that? There have been 219 coaches in NFL history who coached at least 40 games in their career. Jackson ranks 218th in career winning percentage.

Shortly after the Jackson news was announced yesterday, it came out that the Browns’ also fired offensive coordinator Todd Haley. Then it was revealed that they named defensive coordinator Gregg Williams (yes, that Gregg Williams) interim head coach.

This organization is set for a complete overhaul in 2019, and my guess is that they build the coaching staff full of guys that can get the most out of quarterback Baker Mayfield.

4) The Packers lost to the Rams on Sunday, partly because when the Rams kicked off to Green Bay with about two minutes left (with a 2 point lead), Ty Montgomery ran the kickoff out of the end zone when he was instructed to take a knee.

Aaron Rodgers was not pleased.

I think Adam Rank’s Tweet speaks for all Bears’ fans.

5) It may not last, but I’m glad to see Ryan Fitzpatrick back at quarterback for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. His run to open the season was fun, and if it wasn’t for the buzz-saw defense he ran into week 4, he may have kept the starting job over Jameis Winston.

Fitzmagic came off the bench in Cincinnati and went 11 of 15 for 194 yards and 2 TDs, but a field goal as time expired won it for the Bengals.

5a) Fitzpatrick is going to look great with Jon Gruden and the Raiders next year.

6) A bit more on Jameis Winston from Peter King...

Interceptions, game by game, by NFC South QBs in their last 5 games:

Brees: 0, 0, 0, 0, 1.

Ryan: 0, 0, 0, 0, 0.

Newton: 0, 2, 1, 0, 0.

Winston: 3, 2, 2, 2, 4.

Sort of says it all.

That lone Drew Brees interception was his first of this season.

7) Pittsburgh Steelers’ running back James Conner is a great story.

He’s only playing because Le’Veon Bell is holding out, but he’s the NFL’s third leading rusher with 599 yards (9 TDs) through 7 games, and he has 31 receptions for 323 yards.

And did I mention he beat cancer?

8) Adam Thielen > Randy Moss

9) The Washington Redskins lead the NFC East with a 5-2 record, but I’m not even sure if they’re any good. They do have solid line play on both sides of the ball, so I guess that’ll keep then in most games. I guess I just keep waiting for 33-year old Adrian Peterson to go back to playing like a running back over 30. If he can sustain this type of production, then maybe they hold off the Philadelphia Eagles to win that division.

10) This is a crazy stat...

Mitchell Trubisky is playing pretty good football this year for the Chicago Bears, but his best is yet to come. This season is still a journey, but it’s going to be a record setting journey.

Yes, much of that has to do with how mediocre Chicago’s QB play has been through the years, but that doesn’t change the fact that he’s primed to become the best to play the position in Chicago since the 1940s.

Anyone shitting on his play is either still mad that the Bears moved up in the 2017 draft to get him, or still trying to prove how right they were that he’s going to be a bust.

Get over it.

I wasn’t happy with the trade up, and he wasn’t my favorite QB in that class, but I’m not going to sit here and drive my personal agenda into the ground like some whiny child not getting my way.

The 2017 quarterback class could go down as a damn good one, which is funny, because we had to listen to internet scouts tell us how awful it was going to be.