Denver’s nugget. The Broncos are still a little clunky on offense, but the two games against Kansas City in the last 17 days proved this is a competitive, feisty team. Who holds Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes to 28 points in eight quarters? With disappointing vets Frank Clark and Randy Gregory cleared off the roster this month, young defensive playmakers like 24-year-old outside ‘backer Baron Browning (two sacks and a forced fumble) will have every chance to form a needed nucleus. Seems much longer than five weeks ago that the Broncos lost, 70-20, at Miami. After this game, coach Sean Payton said he reminded his players Detroit was 1-6 a year ago this week, and things change pretty fast in the NFL. “Enjoy this one,” Payton told the team, “but remember—we’re gonna play in bigger games than this one.” We talked for a few minutes about how Kansas City, and every good team, will have one or two of these games a year. At least. “Miami’s record [17-0 in 1972] is going to be around for a long time,” he said. “This league is just too hard.”
A.J. is OK. Philadelphia’s A.J. Brown plays bigger than 6-1 and 226. He seems 6-4 and 240, almost tight end in stature. He is such a great competitive catcher of the ball that even double-teams, like the one he beat on his second touchdown catch in the Eagles’ 38-31 win over Washington Sunday, are often fruitless. Next Gen Stats had a great example of Brown making catches so many receivers wouldn’t. His 25- and 16-yard catches for touchdowns against Washington had completion probabilities of 23.8 percent and 26.5 percent, respectively, per Next Gen. Easy to say now, but what a great trade GM Howie Roseman made on draft weekend 2022, dealing the 18th and 101st picks to Tennessee for the 24-year-old Brown. On Sunday, he became the first NFL player to have six straight games of at least 125 yards receiving. For some perspective, I went back and looked at the best six-game stretch of Jerry Rice’s career, and was a bit startled to see that Brown’s is better:
- Brown, weeks 3-8, 2023: 49 catches, 831 yards, 17.0 yards per catch.
- Rice, weeks 11-16, 1995: 45 catches, 819 yards, 18.2 yards per catch.
Cousins’ pain. When Kirk Cousins suffered a suspected Achilles tear Sunday late in the game at Green Bay, it marked the first time in the 35-year-old quarterback’s life that he’s had any significant injury. Before now, he’d missed two games in nine years as a starter. ”It’s surprising and it hurts,” said tackle Brian O’Neill. “He lives and breathes being durable and available and out there for us.” The narrative around Cousins was changing this year. In opening his football life and real life to the Netflix doc on quarterbacks, lots of fans saw a more intense, serious-minded, playing-with-pain, likeable guy than they believed Cousins was. Then the year began, and the same old questions about Cousins kicked in with Minnesota’s 1-4 start, and the season seemed lost in Week 5 with the hamstring injury to Justin Jefferson. Without Jefferson, Cousins and the Vikings have won three in a row, and he’s been on fire, with 74-percent accuracy. Overall, this was turning into his best season as a pro, even without the elite WR. Now the ball is handed to rookie fifth-round QB Jaren Hall from BYU, unless the Vikings choose to navigate a picked-over free-agent market or trade for one. A brutal blow for the team, and for a quarterback headed to free agency after the season. It won’t be great for Cousins, on the free market heading into his age-36 year, coming off a torn Achilles.
Levis levitates. Tennessee rookie Will Levis looked a lot more like the first pick in the draft than the 33rd, which he was last spring. Excellent deep arm, good presence, calm in the pocket in his first start in the NFL. Per Next Gen Stats, Levis became the first quarterback since the organization began keeping its detailed stats in 2016 to throw three touchdowns in a game that traveled at least 50 yards each. His superb play might give the Titans pause at Tuesday’s trade deadline. They may not want to trade DeAndre Hopkins after Levis and he connected for TD throws of 47, 16 and 33, among Levis’ four scores.
On Derrick Henry. Of all the players who could be traded this week, there’s only one true star on the market who makes sense for both the trader and the tradee: Titans running back Derrick Henry. Adam Schefter reported over the weekend the Titans told Henry they don’t plan to trade him before Tuesday’s 4 p.m. ET trade deadline. That might be true but means nothing. And it’s a good way for Titans GM Ran Carthon to be able to say to interested teams like Dallas and Baltimore: “If you want him, you better pony up because we intend to keep him.” Henry turns 30 in January but could be a difference-maker in two or three games down the stretch for a contender. What’s better—taking what you can get for Henry, or letting him play out his last 10 games as a Titan and ensuring the franchise will get nothing in return for him? Now, coach Mike Vrabel might push hard to keep Henry, because he’d give the Titans the best shot to play for a Wild Card this year. One more note: In the first three rounds of next year’s draft, the Titans have two picks—their own in Rounds 1 and 2. (They traded their third- to Arizona on draft weekend last April.) In all, they have seven picks—but only two in the first 100, overall. Let’s say Tennessee has the 12th pick in the draft. That’d mean the Titans would pick 12th, 44th and then not till 114th. For a team in certain rebuilding mode in 2024, that’s bad. It’s why Carthon should be motivated to get a Day 2 pick for Henry.