FMIA Week 17: Lamar Jackson, Ravens in league of their own; was Taylor Decker eligible?

Or, Things of a Wacky Week 17:

Week 18 drama? Three places.

Miami, for game 272. Buffalo (10-6) at Miami (11-5) for the AFC East Sunday night in the last regular-season game. Bills win the East with a second victory over the Fins.

The Bills’ road is a bit wild. They could win the AFC East and be the 2 seed … or they could lose to Miami and miss the playoff with Jags and Steelers wins. Pittsburgh is at Baltimore, which has zero to play for.

The AFC South. Jax, Indy, Houston all 9-7. Jags win-and-in at Tennessee Sunday. But a Jags loss would send the winner of the Texans-Colts Saturday night prime-timer to the playoffs as division champs.

The NFC South. Bucs and Saints 8-8, but Tampa’s got the tiebreaker and a road with zero potholes: at the 2-14 Panthers Sunday at 1 p.m. ET.

Super Bowl LVII alums Kansas City and Philly: 2-8 in December. KC’s sputtering; Eagles are hapless.

Hapless. Not an exaggeration. Philly just gave up 51 second-half points to the Giants and Cards at home in back-to-back weeks, the 31^st and 24^th offenses in football. Arizona emasculated Philly—449 total yards!

Pretty crazy to think Kansas City’s offense needs to start running through Isiah Pacheco, not Patrick Mahomes, to have a chance in the playoffs. The 10-6 Missourians got a weekend-high 130 rushing yards from Pacheco to clinch the West.

Lamar Jackson is verging on being a two-time MVP at age 26.

These Ravens are 4-1 against teams with 11 or 12 wins. Average margin of victory in those four wins: 27 points.

Best team in football entering the post-season? Irrefutable now.

David Tepper is one fine owner (sarcasm font), and now, hopefully, the NFL will fine him for his behavior Sunday in Jacksonville—if, as it appeared, he threw a drink into the stands during the Panthers’ loss to the Jags.

Keep digging that hole deeper, David Tepper. Nobody feels sorry for manchild jillionaires.

Shame on the Broncos for that November contractual strong-arming with Russell Wilson. A disgrace.

I’ve got a different view of the Saturday night two-point-play debacle in Texas. Yes, it appeared ref Brad Allen got it wrong. But the Lions were a little too cute there.

Rams didn’t have nine lives Sunday at the Meadowlands. They had 19. Kudos to them, though. What they’ve built without high picks and with major cap issues is amazing.

Brock Purdy set a single-season 49ers record Sunday for passing yardage (4,280), and as you may have heard, the Niners have had some decent quarterbacks.

Re: Christian McCaffrey … calf strain. Likely will sit out the meaningless finale vs. Rams and, with a 315-yard lead over Kyren Williams, coast to a richly deserved first NFL rushing title. His 1,459 yards, 5.4-yard average and 14 rush TDs have dominated the league. He’ll have 20 days to rehab the calf before the Niners play another game that counts.

Joe Flacco is on The Peter King Podcast this week. And just think: You can hear and watch for free! What a country!

“WE WANT FIELDS!” In year three, the Soldier Field crowd’s finally taking to Justin Fields. Good. Keep him.

Mike Tomlin clinched his 17^th straight non-losing season in Seattle with the 9-7 Steelers. He hates when this record’s brought up, but one day, maybe a day in Canton, Ohio, he’ll appreciate it.

Jimmy Johnson, we knew exactly how you’d end your speech on the field in Dallas Saturday night.

Jeff Schultz, thanks for the memories.

“Chief Happiness Officer.” Meet Ben, who has become quite famous.

Kirk Herbstreit

Shirtless Kirk Cousins. Image of the week. (After Ben’s credential, of course.)

Lesson learned. If, as feared, Miami has lost Bradley Chubb and Jaelan Phillips to season-ending injuries (Chubb may have a torn ACL) how will they chase Josh Allen Sunday—never mind Lamar Jackson or Patrick Mahomes in the playoffs?

My top 10 stories of 2023. Number one: Dog gone. Fans in the District of Columbia will understand.

On with the show, starting in Baltimore.

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Likely made one of the catches of the week Sunday. Baltimore led 21-13 late in the second quarter and had fourth-and-five at the Miami 35. The Dolphins sent five rushers. Likely ran an intermediate crossing route, left to right. Jackson, a little off-balance, looked like he didn’t love any of his options and slung a high ball a little far ahead of Likely. What followed looked so easy—Likely stretching his left arm up and plucking the line drive out of the air one-handed.

“It’s something I practice,” he said. “It feels like a natural thing.” He turned up field, didn’t shy from contact inside the 10-, and barreled in for his first TD of the day.

What the Ravens do better than almost every team is establish a continuum, so when a franchise tight end like Andrews is lost, young replacements are found. In Andrews’ 10 games this year, he averaged 54.4 yards per game, with six TDs. In Likely’s five games as the number one tight end, he’s averaged 56.6 receiving yards, with four TDs.

“It’s chemistry with Lamar,” Likely told me. “The goal is to get him to trust me, and it’s a blessing when it happens.”

The big accomplishment for Jackson, other than winning, has been staying on the field. He’s running a little less—9.2 times a game this year versus 11.7 times a game in his first MVP year, 2019—and what the Ravens hear from other coaches and players is in the realm of, We never get a big hit on him anymore.

Part of that is what you saw in the off-balance throw to Likely: Jackson’s increasingly comfortable throwing when blitzed. He was eight of 10 for 207 yards and three TDs Sunday when Miami sent extra rushers, per Next Gen Stats. The Niners and Dolphins both sent pressure in the past two games, and Jackson responded with a calm efficiency, hitting on 12 of 15 throws with three touchdowns. Nothing is bothering Jackson.

So it’s a good time for him to erase some bad memories. Jackson hasn’t played a playoff game in three years, and he’ll surely want another shot to be great in the post-season. He’s just 1-3 in the playoffs (0-2 at home), and he’s put up only 13 points a game on the board. That seems so far away. The Jackson who takes the field in 19 or 20 days seems better equipped, with better weaponry, to take the playoff heat.

Four stories from the weekend:

The Detroit officiating debacle. You’ve no doubt seen the end of Dallas’ 20-19 win over Detroit, and the Lions flying into orbit when referee Brad Allen disallowed the two-point conversion that likely would have won the game 21-20. I think there’s blame on both sides—the officials and the Lions. It’s too easy to demonize Allen, although he should have handled the play much better.

After Amon-Ra St. Brown scored to cut Dallas’ lead to one with 23 seconds left in the game, coach Dan Campbell kept the offense on the field, choosing to go for two and the win. Before the play, left tackle Taylor Decker (number 68) and right tackle Penei Sewell (58) walked over to Allen, while backup tackle Dan Skipper, number 70, jogged in from the sideline to join them with Allen for a moment. Then Allen jogged toward the Dallas defense and announced to the stadium, “Number 70 is an eligible receiver. Number 70 is eligible.”

Here’s problem number one: Decker, Sewell and Skipper all went to Allen—likely to try to confuse Dallas about who exactly the eligible lineman was. Allen should have been crystal clear with them and confirmed who the eligible lineman would be. Usually what happens is a lineman who is reporting as eligible will say to the official, I’m reporting as eligible, or something similar, while making a motion up and down his jersey, the motion that signifies a lineman who is eligible. If Allen was wrong in calling 70 as eligible, the Lions should have immediately objected and said, No! No! It’s 68 who should be the eligible lineman!

When Detroit lined up for the two-point try, it was 68, Decker, the left tackle, who had no one to his outside and was clearly able to be an eligible receiver—assuming he made it clear to Allen he was that person. Then the play happened, and the Cowboys didn’t pay attention to Decker until it was too later, and Decker caught the two-point pass from Jared Goff.

Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports

The Lions should feel angry because Allen seemed to be in a rush to get the play going, not to get the play right. But the Lions seemed to be so intent on fooling the Cowboys—and they did; no one covered Decker—that they confused the official in the process. And in not challenging Allen’s announcement of who was reporting eligible in the approximately eight seconds before the snap of the ball, the Lions were in effect saying that Allen was correct.

The NFL’s now going to have to create a clarification to this rule. Only players who are reporting eligible should be allowed to go to the referee before a snap, and players who report must make the motion on the front of their jerseys. It’s cool to try to pull the equivalent of the hidden-ball trick, but there’s too much that can go wrong with it in a rollicking football stadium, and we saw that Saturday night.

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On Flacco. Cleveland’s four-game winning streak behind 39-year-old quarterback Joe Flacco is one of the great stories in the league, obviously. The Browns are locked in as the AFC’s 5 seed now, with a Wild Card meeting at the AFC South champ. Interesting: Cleveland’s beaten all three potential foes—Indianapolis, Jacksonville and Houston—this season. Then … yikes. Could be Flacco and the Browns at Baltimore in the divisional round. The Ravens’ last Super Bowl, of course, was won by Flacco 11 years ago.

I enjoyed Flacco’s take on his role in Cleveland, and minimizing his own importance. He referred to his eight-yard TD route to Elijah Moore on Thursday night when we spoke the next day. It’s actually interesting:

“Playing quarterback has so much to do with the play caller, the offensive line, the running backs, the wide receivers all doing their job of getting open. I threw a corner route to Elijah Moore last night for a touchdown. Imagine if he doesn’t get open there. Then it’s just another incomplete pass. All my job was to do was to hit him once he got open. Kevin [Stefanski] called the play. Obviously you have to be able to do that in the moment and just play football and make the most of those opportunities when they come up. But I mean, this position is reliant on everybody. I think the fact that this is, like, the ultimate team sport has kind of gotten away from us to a certain extent. Everybody wants everything to come down to one guy or two guys. It’s just not the case, man. That’s why this sport is so special. That’s why winning a game at this level is so special.”

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I’m not sure the Eagles are fixable this year. I watched a good chunk of Arizona’s 35-31 win over Philadelphia Sunday, and what amazed me is something pretty simple—the Eagles defense could not get off the field. Three things I noted:

• The Cardinals had the ball all day. Imagine a team that hadn’t scored 30 all season scoring 35 against the conference champs who were playing to win the division with a prayer at home field—and holding the ball for 39 minutes and 39 seconds, some 66 percent of the game.
• The Eagles, with Haason Reddick and an infusion of quality youth up front, are 24^th in sack rate in the league and have given up 34 touchdown passes. That’s stunning. We all thought Darius Slay and James Bradberry could hold up another year, but they can’t; Bradberry’s tied for league-worst with nine TD passes allowed, per PFF.
• A sign of any bad defense is a poor third-down conversion rate, which takes into account pass-rush, whether linebackers can make plays sideline to sideline and pass-defense. The Eagles are 30^th in the league, allowing 46.4 percent conversion on third downs. That’ll drag down any team.

Barring a surprise Dallas loss in Washington Sunday, Philly will open the playoffs at the NFC South champ. Maybe they’ll find a way to win because they’ve got proud players. But that looked like a beaten team Sunday, losing to the previously 3-12 Cardinals.

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Ben the dog makes the column. Check out the media credential for Kirk Herbstreit’s dog Ben, a Golden Retriever, for today’s Rose Bowl (it’s under Boldface Names above if you missed it). If you watch the Alabama-Michigan game, you’ll probably see a shot or two of Ben, the 10-year-old star of the Herbstreit family. Turns out Herbstreit’s been taking him on the road this year as an emotional support animal after his son Zak was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy and the family went through some tough times.

“Just being on the road a lot,” Herbstreit told me. “People can talk about private planes and all that. You still are on the road and away from your family. I equate it to, from August to January, I’m on a treadmill at about 15 miles an hour for four-and-a-half months. I’m not complaining. I’m not saying woe-is-me. I’m just saying it’s a pretty good grind. When you’re away from your family, it’s challenging. Not to mention you live in the public eye and people have strong opinions about what you say or do. It’s just something about having him with me, it does give me peace of mind. As much as people have fun with it on social media and love watching him, for me, when it’s just me and him and it’s quiet, yeah it gives me I think a calming presence. I have four dogs. Of all my dogs, I don’t know what it is about him. My other dogs are wonderful. But Ben, it’s like he’s part human. It’s like he understands me. He can relate to everything I’m experiencing. If you’re a dog person, maybe you get that. But for me he’s just my companion. I look at it like he’s a blessing in my life.”

Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK

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1. Dog gone, July 20. Hours after selling the Washington franchise to the Josh Harris group for an American sports-franchise record $6.05 billion, Dan Snyder got one final good-riddance indignity from the NFL. Snyder was fined $60 million after a lengthy NFL investigation into sexual harassment and financial irregularities during his stewardship of the team.

As I wrote at the time: “The fine might make the NFL feel good because the league’s all about money anyway. But it was a nick-cut on the neck of a man who is singularly responsible for taking a flagship NFL franchise and turning it into a tarnished national embarrassment. One other thing: Snyder’s exit statement led the league in tone-deafness. The second sentence in it: ‘We are proud to have built the most diverse leadership group of any NFL team, including having the highest representation of women, underrepresented groups, and the first full time black female coach in league history.’ You built nothing, man, other than your investment portfolio.”

Now, Josh Harris, make a deal to move the franchise back into the District of Columbia, where it enjoyed its only greatness. Do the right thing. Bring it home.

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2. The Aaron Rodgers drama, Sept. 11. Nineteen minutes after leading his new team, the Jets, onto the field in New Jersey carrying a huge American flag, Rodgers crumpled to the turf with a torn Achilles on the fourth snap of his post-Green Bay career. Rarely has there been as audible a gasp nationwide over a sports happening as there was on this night. Now, the Jets hope Rodgers can be his old self when he opens the season as a 40-year-old guy with a bad offensive line and a team more reliant on a single person than any other team in football.

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3. The Damar Hamlin story, Jan. 8. Hamlin’s heart stopped on the field in Cincinnati Jan. 2, and the Buffalo safety had to be brought back to life by CPR. On Jan. 5, Hamlin woke up in a Cincinnati hospital and re-took his place in the land of the living. On Jan. 8, some incredible karma happened. In the Bills’ last game of the regular season, New England won the coin flip in Orchard Park and deferred. Buffalo would receive the opening kick. Standing at the goal line, Bills return man Nyheim Hines said to himself, “All right, Nyheim, let’s give ’em something to cheer about.”

Hines took the ball at the Buffalo 4. He told me after the game he felt he had Hamlin’s wings on his back. Hines ran 96 yards, untouched, for a touchdown at 1:03 p.m., and I’ve never seen a crowd go as berserk. Grown men wiping away tears in the stands.

Hamlin’s Twitter feed at 1:06 p.m.: “OMFG!!!!!!!!!”

Hines ran another one back 101 yards in the third quarter. The emotion in that place … sheer relief for Hamlin recovering in a hospital 425 miles away, sheer joy for the moment no one in the stadium would ever forget.

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4. Tom Brady retires, Feb. 1. A jillion things to note about the life and times of Tom Brady, far beyond his seven Super Bowls and league-record passing yards. This is probably my favorite factoid: In his last 14 seasons as a football player, from age 32 to age 45, Brady played 258 football games and missed none due to injury … while John Elway played 256 in his entire NFL career. One other fun Brady-Elway note: Brady threw 15 more touchdown passes after turning 36 than Elway threw in his career.

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5. Rise of the Rust Belt. This is the 90^th season for the Lions in Detroit, and the 75^th season for the Browns in Cleveland, and it is the first time each has won 11 games in the same year. Detroit won a division title for the first time since 1993. Cleveland made the playoffs for the third time this century. And this part of Rust Belt lore is pretty cool, too: The five rusty franchises stretching from the shores of Lake Erie (Buffalo and Cleveland) over to the old steel town of Pittsburgh and out west to Detroit and north to Green Bay all were either in the playoffs or in playoff contention entering week 17.

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6. A Corn Dog Super Bowl, Feb. 12. Eagles 27, KC 21, 13 minutes left, Super Bowl LVII. Andy Reid called Duo Left 35Y Corn Dog in Kansas City’s opening game of the NFL season. Then he didn’t call it for the next 1,241 plays, until the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl five months later. Then he called Corn Dog twice in four plays. Each resulted in a touchdown—the first to Kadarius Toney, the second, to win the game, to Skyy Moore. It’s a Reid weirdo special: jet motion from the wide side of the field to the tackle, then reversed back at the same breakneck speed, in hopes that the defense can’t catch up. It worked twice, to the shame of the Eagles D.

Where’d the name Corn Dog come from?

‘’Well,” said offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy, “we like to eat.”

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7. Happily ever after for Lamar, April 27. The debate over the Lamar Jackson contract stalemate with Baltimore was misconstrued for months. Many shouted, “How can all these teams not pursue a young former MVP in a league desperate for franchise QBs?” And it was true—Washington and Atlanta, in foresight and hindsight, should have tried to make something work with Jackson. But Baltimore had the right of first refusal on Jackson, and it was likely to match all but a gargantuan offer to Jackson. And did a team want to give a player who’d missed 34 percent of his offensive snaps over the previous two seasons a fully guaranteed contract? Seemed foolish.

I applaud Jackson here. For months, he’d sought a fully guaranteed contract. His union wanted it. But Jackson wasn’t the right person for such a deal because he’d missed so much time. After months of pushing, he realized it wasn’t going to happen, so he did a contract 71 percent guaranteed for injury and 52 percent ($135 million) guaranteed the day he signed. It’s fair to both sides.

Jackson, of course, has gone out and earned his $80 million in 2023 compensation ($72.5 million bonus, $7.5 million salary), leading Baltimore to the top of the AFC and being a prime MVP candidate entering the final week of the season. With his next free-agent bite at the apple coming at age 31, Jackson very likely will have at least one more huge payday coming.

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8. The downfall of Russell Wilson. In an early-morning meeting last Wednesday, Broncos coach Sean Payton told the 35-year-old Denver quarterback he was being benched for Jarrett Stidham for the final two games. Two points to be made here:

• Wilson alleged that Broncos GM George Paton asked or demanded that Wilson adjust the injury guarantee in his contract in midseason, to delay for a year major guarantees in his contract; if he didn’t, the quarterback would be benched. That’s outrageous. It’s the ultimate example of a bad-faith threat. The Broncos agreed to terms of a contract in 2022, and then, in middle of the 2023 season, when they’d just beaten Super Bowl champ Kansas City, they asked Wilson to change his contract to make it easier for Denver to cut him after the season. “It was a low blow,” Wilson said. The lowest. Mark Maske of the Washington Post reported Sunday that the NFLPA threatened legal action against the Broncos at the time, and that the threat violated the CBA. Of course it did. The Broncos backed down, but the NFL should discipline the franchise for this.
  
• It’s hard to shake the impression that Wilson’s play, despite being an improvement over his disastrous 2022 debut in Denver, wasn’t a fit with Payton’s offense. Denver had averaged just 20 points a game while losing three of four at the time of the benching, and the Broncos were 30^th in total yards for the season. When Payton screamed at Wilson on the sideline at Detroit 16 days ago, it seemed clear the coach was upset about one or more cardinal rules of the offense Wilson hadn’t followed.

The upshot is that Denver will be moving on from Wilson in 2024. My bet is Payton will choose Stidham as his QB1 to start 2024 unless Stidham totally bombs in the season finale at Vegas Sunday. Wilson? Way too early to tell, but I’m sure the Raiders, Steelers, Falcons and Patriots will kick his tires.

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9. Motion offenses rule the world. Orbit motion, jet motion, reverse motion (like the Corn Dog plays in the Super Bowl) … The Dolphins of Mike McDaniel and Niners of Kyle Shanahan entered Sunday 1-2 in the league in pre-snap motion plays (Miami 79.9 percent and San Francisco 79.3 percent, per Next Gen Stats), both with 11-4 records. The rebuilding Rams, 8-7 and on a playoff path, were third. I love the orbit motion. McDaniel’s mastering it, trying to give Tyreek Hill and even his tight ends a running start, almost like Canadian football, when the ball is snapped. No surprise here: Miami’s first and San Francisco second in the league in total yards.

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10. Brock Purdy sticks it, pleasantly, to us all, Oct. 8. In the span of 17 months, Purdy went from the last pick in the draft to inheriting the Niners’ QB job, to leading the Niners to the NFC title game, to suffering a serious elbow injury, to recovering and beating out the third pick in the draft and forcing the trade of Trey Lance, to leading an offense putting up 33 points a game on a 5-0 team, to the cusp of MVP contention. Now, Purdy probably won’t win the MVP after his four-pick debacle on Christmas night, but his approach to football will serve him well. As he told me after the 42-10 vanquishing of the Cowboys in week five:

“Every level that I’ve played at growing up it’s like you get to that level and at first you may think it’s a big deal but then once I start playing it’s like, ‘Man this is just football. Youth to high school, high school to college, and college to NFL. Just football. Yes, everyone’s better at every level but at the end of the day, man, you’re throwing a football to some guys trying to get open and catch it. And that’s really how I look at it. Try to keep it simple. This is a simple game.”

A recurring element in the column this year: a video memory of one of my favorite memories of 40 years covering pro football.

Each week back in the day for the Greatest Show on Turf Rams—in the whereabouts of 23 years ago—coach Mike Martz would give physical gameplans each week to players in blue three-ring binders. And when I covered his dismissal, he handed me one of them.

“You covered us so much, I wanted you to have one,” Martz said.

My favorite memory was a Chargers-Rams game in 2000 at the Jones Dome in St. Louis. Rams nipped ’em, 57-31. And the Chargers had defensive glitterati Junior Seau and Rodney Harrison on defense! Martz never called a run in the first quarter—and he had running back Marshall Faulk, who’d win the MVP that season, on his team!

I had lunch in the Rams cafeteria two days before the game with a humble Kurt Warner, 29 then, with a stubby salt-and-pepper beard. His numbers were video-gamish in the first four games of the season—389 passing yards a game, 40 points a game. John Madden called the Rams the best offense in NFL history.

“Nothing I have done surprises me, because it’s all in the realm of my ability,” Warner said.

On Sunday, he’d do it again. It was one of the most interesting games I’ve covered.

Offensive players of the week

James Conner, running back, Arizona. Played one of the best games any player played this weekend, running all over the Eagles 26 times for 128 yards and the winning two-yard TD with 32 seconds left; and his one-handed catch of a Kyler Murray throw in the end zone enabled Arizona to tie it at 21 in the third quarter after training 21-6 at the half.

Lamar Jackson, quarterback, Baltimore. Perfect passer rating for a passer playing near-perfect football right now. In the 37-point vanquishing of the Dolphins, Jackson completed 86 percent of his throws with five TDs and no picks. Of course no picks. These days, Jackson just doesn’t throw them.

CeeDee Lamb, wide receiver, Dallas. With his 13-catch, 227-yard game Saturday night in Dallas’ 20-19 win, Lamb broke Michael Irvin’s franchise record for catches and receiving yards in a season. He did it in 16 games, too. His 122 catches and 1,651 yards are career bests. Lamb looks so hard to cover right now.

Joe Flacco, quarterback, Cleveland. The first quarterback in the august history of the Cleveland Browns—the franchise began playing football in 1946—to throw for 300 yards in four games in a row led the Browns to their third playoff appearance this century with a 37-20 win over the Jets. The fourth starting quarterback for Cleveland this year shredded what once was one of the best defenses in the league with 296 yards and three TD passes in the first half alone.

Defensive players of the week

Rasul Douglas, cornerback, Buffalo. Question: You think Rasul Douglas, since being traded from Green Bay at the Halloween deadline this year, has proven his worth? His worth being Buffalo’s third-round pick in the 2024 draft (with the Bills getting a fifth-rounder back from Green Bay). Douglas had two interceptions, one returned for a touchdown in a six-point Buffalo win over New England. Pretty good value for a player who’s played 92 percent of the Buffalo snaps since arriving in early November—and who will cost the team only a late day-two pick next April.

Aidan Hutchinson, defensive end, Detroit. What a game Hutchinson had in the loss against the stout Dallas offensive front Saturday night. He made five tackles behind the line of scrimmage, including three sacks, the second three-sack game of his young career. His pressure of Dak Prescott led to a hurried first-half interception by the Lions’ Ifeatu Melifonwu. Considering the stage and the fact one sack came on the highly respected Tyron Smith, this had to be the best game of Hutchinson’s two-year career.

Josh Allen, edge rusher, Jacksonville. The Jags, even against the woeful Panthers, had to win with defense Sunday with Trevor Lawrence out with a bum shoulder. Allen helped, with three sacks and six tackles in the Jacksonville shutout.

Special teams player of the week

Gunner Olszewski, punt-returner, N.Y. Giants. His 94-yard kick return for touchdown with 3:27 left in the game brought the Giants to within 26-25—but Tyrod Taylor’s pass for the two-point conversation was thrown behind his receiver in an unforced-error kind of way. Great runback, though.

Jalen Reeves-Maybin, linebacker, Detroit. Eleven years ago, Reeves-Maybin was a high-school quarterback in Clarksville, Tenn. That training came in handy Saturday night at Dallas. As the personal protector on a second-quarter punt for the Lions, Reeves-Maybin took the direct snap, rolled right on the fake punt and looked like he was going to try to run for the first down on fourth-and-two. Instead, he launched a 31-yard pass, a beauty, down the right sideline to Khalil Dorsey for a first down. Lovely throw, great chance to take.

Jalen Reagor, returner/receiver, New England. Returned the opening kickoff at Buffalo 98 yards for a touchdown, and gave the Patriots the lead for all of eight minutes. Great runback, eluding two tacklers just inside the New England 30-yard line.

Coach of the Week

Sean McVay, head coach, L.A. Rams. I know the Rams were hardly a powerhouse in New Jersey in the 26-25 win over the Giants, but this is an award for recent history. The Rams, 9-7, clinched a playoff spot Sunday in the midst of one of McVay’s best coaching jobs in his seven seasons with the Rams. L.A., 3-6 in midseason, has gone 6-1 since (the only loss a painful overtime job in a shootout at Baltimore), with McVay re-crafting some of his offense to the skills of his players. What’s great about McVay as a coach is he’s more than willing to play kids, and one could argue that two of his three most important offensive players have been the 164^th and 177^th picks of the last two drafts—running back Kyren Williams and wide receiver Puka Nacua.

Goat of the Week

George Paton, general manager, Denver. This is what good GMs do NOT do: Go to the starting quarterback after the biggest win the team has had in years (over KC in week eight) and ask to re-do his contract in a team-advantageous way, so the quarterback loses all faith in the team and so that the players unions threatens legal action for such a bush-league maneuver. Just in case Paton needs some advice on good GM-ing.

I.

--Niners fullback Kyle Juszczyk to Mike Silver of the San Francisco Chronicle, after watching the end of the Cardinals’ shocking upset at Philadelphia. That, combined with San Francisco winning at Washington, gave the 49ers a much-needed first-round bye in the NFC playoffs.

II.

--Baltimore wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr., who was on the Rams’ Super Bowl team in 2021.

III.

--Jimmy Johnson, upon entering the Dallas Cowboys Ring of Honor Saturday night.

Think I’ve heard that somewhere before.

IV.

--Al Michaels in Amazon Prime Video’s Jets-Browns game, after Joe Flacco led the team to a 37-20, playoffs-clinching victory.

V.

--Michaels in the first half of Jets-Browns, as fans were pounding on a something that sounded like a trash-can lid in Cleveland.

No. Never apologize for a great line.

VI.

--Steelers quarterback Mason Rudolph, the third Pittsburgh starter this year, after he followed up a 34-11 win over Cincinnati with a 30-23 victory at Seattle Sunday.

A tale of two Cleveland Browns quarterbacks since opening day 2022:

*Minimum due to Flacco, with incentives based on games won in regular season and playoffs.

I don’t mean to always pick on Watson. But for Flacco to get similar production in five games as Watson gave the Browns in 12—for a fraction of the cost—is at the very least interesting.

I.

Sunday’s Chargers-Broncos game was the first since 2004, when Russell Wilson was a 15-year-old sophomore quarterback at the Collegiate School in Richmond, Va., that he was healthy and did not play in a football game when he was eligible to play.

Wilson started every game in his last two high school seasons. He redshirted his first year at N.C. State, then played in all of his 51 college games (50 starts) there and at Wisconsin. Before Sunday, he had missed five of 209 regular- and post-season games (finger and concussion) and started the other 204. So, Sunday in Denver was a historic day, in a bad way, for Wilson’s football life.

II.

While the world focuses on the bad trade Denver GM George Paton made for Russell Wilson—not that it matters, but I would have been willing to make the same trade as Paton did, because the Broncos were in a seven-year wasteland of quarterback-seeking—some praise is in order for Seattle general manager John Schneider. As much as the Seahawks felt Wilson’s best days were behind him, Schneider had to know that gambling on life without him in a division that had the NFC’s Super Bowl rep in two of the previous three seasons was a dangerous prospect.

In a practical sense, let’s assess what Seattle has gotten from the trade in the last 20 months:

• Three solid starters:
  
  • Left tackle Charles Cross, PFF’s 29^th-ranked tackle (among qualified players), with just five sacks allowed and four penalties incurred this season
  • Cornerback Devon Witherspoon, with a 53-percent completion rate when targeted
  • Edge-rusher Boye Mafe, who entered the weekend with a better PFF pass-rush grade than Danielle Hunter, Haason Reddick and Rashan Gary.

  Cross and Witherspoon are 23 years old, Mafe 25, and these are three young players filling crucial long-term positions for the Seahawks.
  

• A serviceable tight end, Noah Fant, who has 77 catches in 31 starts for Seattle.
• A quality-caliber backup quarterback in Drew Lock, whose clutch touchdown throw to Jaxon Smith-Njigba in the final minute beat the previously 10-3 Eagles in week 15.
• A cap savings of roughly $14 million at the quarterback position from 2021 to 2023. Wilson and Geno Smith had a combined cap number of $33.2 million in 2021. Smith and Drew Lock, combined, are at $14.1 million this year. Wilson’s cap number this year, had he stayed in Seattle, would likely have exacerbated this situation, both this year and into the future.

Seattle does have a blank future slate at quarterback, because Smith’s likely not the long-term solution. But Schneider is the guy who drafted Russell Wilson 75^th overall in 2012. Seattle fans should trust his chance in the next couple of drafts to find a logical candidate to be the next Russell Wilson.

Overall, it’s a tremendous job by Schneider taking Wilson and turning him into five players between useable and star-status, plus five years or so of potential huge cap relief at the most expensive position in the game.

III.

Thirteen quarterbacks who started in week 17:

Trevor Siemian, Joe Flacco, Bailey Zappe, Taylor Heinicke, Aidan O’Connell, Gardner Minshew, Tyrod Taylor, C.J. Beathard, Mason Rudolph, Easton Stick, Jarrett Stidham, Jake Browning and Jaren Hall.

And you want to play an 18-game schedule.

I.

East Coast football on New Year’s Eve: Rams-Giants in northern New Jersey, Cards-Eagles in south Philadelphia, Dolphins-Ravens in downtown Baltimore, 49ers-Commanders near the Washington beltway, 32 miles south of the Ravens—all with 1 p.m. starts. All reachable by rail on Sunday morning from New York. I was set to do the Manhattan-to-Baltimore-to-Manhattan commute by Amtrak: 9 a.m. to Baltimore, cab to M&T Bank Stadium, game coverage, back to Manhattan on the 7:52 p.m. train Sunday night, home to finish the column by 11 p.m.

“Signal problems” put an end to that, with a frozen Amtrak system on all trains moving south. Moynihan Train Hall in New York was packed with frustrated travelers—many of them fans. I saw jerseys of Kayvon Thibodeaux and Saquon Barkley (Giants), Puka Nacua (Rams, and a credit that guy), Jalen Hurts (Eagles), Terrell Suggs (Ravens) and Deebo Samuel (Niners). No idea if they made it to their games, but I didn’t. By 10:40 a.m., with no trains moving south from New York, I got on the subway home to Brooklyn. I really wanted to see the game for AFC home-field, but we’ll all live.

--

II.

A sports highlight from our visit to California for Christmas to see daughter Laura and her family—wife Kim, son Freddy and daughter Hazel:

We had a Warriors experience. I went to Wizards-Warriors with Freddy, soon to be 7, and Kim. Freddy is into Pokemon cards and some top-spinning venture called Beyblades, and he watches the Steelers in his T.J. Watt jersey because his mom Laura loves the Steelers. He’s into soccer and basketball and baseball, too. Anyway, I’d never been to Chase Center: very cool spot with good concessions. Steph Curry did not disappoint. He was on fire midway through the game, making seven threes in 14 minutes.

Freddy was totally into it. “DEE-fense! DEE-fense!” he said, dutifully, when the scoreboard exhorted him to say so. I told him we’d get a souvenir, so we went into a Warriors superstore of sorts. So many choices. The variety of Steph Curry jerseys … off-putting. Never-ending. Anyway, we were in this place for 30 seconds, and Freddy pointed to the corner of the store, to a display of Wilson basketballs. Some in Warriors blue, some just orange. We walked over. “I want that,” he said. He picked out one of the classic orange balls and started dribbling.

I said, “Okay, let’s walk around and see if there’s anything you like better.”

We walked for a couple of minutes. Freddy looked at me when we were in the middle of the hat stand and said, “I want the ball.” The ball it was.

Let’s just say the ball got plenty of use, daily, on our five-day stay.

Reach me at peterkingfmia@gmail.com.

On the Russell Wilson decision. From Joe Lazarevic, of Tucson: “Does the Broncos’ decision to move on from Russell Wilson have any ramifications on how free agents view Denver in upcoming years? Is this the end for the current GM George Paton?”

Joe, players usually go where the money and the opportunity is. The only ramifications here will be the cap money that’s not available in the next two free-agent seasons because of the immense dead-money charges for cutting Wilson. As for Paton, I would think his future is up in the air. Sean Payton is the clear power player in the organization right now, and I don’t see that changing unless Jarrett Stidham is awful and/or Russell Wilson goes somewhere and regains his Seattle form of three to five years ago.

Cam I. From Rev. Brian Burke, of Wellington, Ohio: “The feature on Cam Heyward was outstanding. Would that all of us could appreciate that breadcrumbs are sometimes more important than the loaf or the entire bakery. I think there is going to be a sermon attributed to you in the near future! Grace and peace to you.”

So nice of you to say, Reverend Burke. Cam Heyward’s the kind of genuine guy who deserves sermons about him.

Cam II. From Terry Cornwell, of Oakton, Va.: “As someone who grew up without a father, your touching tribute to Cam Heyward hit me in the heart like nothing I’ve read in years. What a tribute, what a man! Thanks for making a grown man cry!”

I’m passing along a few of the emails I got about Heyward to him. Yours will be in the bunch. Thanks a lot. Many times in this job, we need to just tell the story and get out of the way. That’s what I tried to do with the column last Monday.

What is forward progress? From Stephen Faber, of Longview, Texas: “Watching games every weekend, the scenario that absolutely irks me to no end is the ability of the offense to push a runner forward after forward progress is stopped. I have seen countless times where the runner is held up and the offensive lineman trailing the play push him forward another five to 10 yards, many times for a crucial first down. Yet, if the defense pushes them backward, the ball returns to the furthest penetration by the runner. I don’t think the offense should be allowed to push forward if the defense is not allowed to push backward. Too many times refs don’t blow forward progress dead when they should, as if they are waiting for the offensive lineman time to perform this maneuver. It’s just another unfair advantage for the offense and too often impacts the outcome and strategy of the game.”

Stephen, you’re preaching to the minister here. I love your email and couldn’t agree more. The “art” of pushing the pile in any direction isn’t real football to me.

I love tributes to teachers. From Ted Miller, of Florida: “I wanted to share an amazing story about my 9-year-old son Jack’s third-grade teacher Mary Martinez. She uses football to teach the kids about life skills, math and facing adversity. Dolphins wins get them 20 minutes extra recess on Mondays. Losses are a life lesson. They track Tyreek Hill’s yards as part of their math work. I’m the father of two boys, both of whom have special needs. Jack was diagnosed with autism at age 4 and he’s come a long way. He’s in public school, and it’s teachers like Ms. Martinez that are making a huge impact on him and his growth as an amazing young man — and with a little fun, too! Jack didn’t like football before Ms. Martinez, and as much as it pains me as a lifelong member of the Bills Mafia (from Rochester), I’m OK with him liking the Dolphins.”

Outstanding. It’s so good to see teachers like Mary Martinez getting appreciated.

1. I think the NFL cannot allow this David Tepper incident from Jacksonville to be minimized. It appeared that Tepper threw the contents of a drink cup either at a fan or a group of them from his box at the Panthers-Jags game on Sunday. Tepper comes from a world of high finance where there aren’t cameras following one’s every move. So when you buy an NFL franchise, you’re going to get shadowed. People will watch you. They’ll know who you are. Tepper’s going to have to learn to deal with it and not be a hot-tempered lout. Roger Goodell needs to fine him significantly for the tossed drink—unless there’s something about the video we don’t know—and soon. This week.

2. I think it’s hard to imagine Lamar Jackson not winning his second MVP now.

3. I think these four things are evident after Sunday’s games:

• The Bears are 7-9, and I think Justin Fields has done enough to earn the 2024 QB job. I’d like to see GM Ryan Poles turn that first overall pick (from Carolina) in 2024 into either three high picks or Marvin Harrison Jr. and one first-round pick
• Tyrod Taylor, 34, will be a solid NFL backup for as long as he can throw a football.
• James Conner, he of the one-handed catch in the end zone to shockingly tie the Eagles at the Linc, is one of the great players we don’t appreciate enough.
• On my Offensive Rookie of the Year bingo card, I never thought with one week to play I’d have the 177^th pick in the draft a whisker ahead of the second. But I do. Precocious Rams wideout Puka Nacua (101 catches, 1,445 yards) trails only CeeDee Lamb and Tyreek Hill in receiving yards after another great game against the Giants. C.J. Stroud’s very deserving of the award, and shouldn’t lose it because a concussion robbed him of two games. But Nacua’s been so good, with only four games under 50 yards receiving and seven over 100. Good race.

4. I think the Lions are pretty darned happy Jacksonville opened the 2022 NFL Draft by picking Travon Walker. Delirious, I’d say.

5. I think there is no ceiling for NFL TV ratings, apparently—up 8 percent over last year, and the highest since 2015. Each of the three Christmas games outrated the telecast of the Oscars by 10 million viewers or more. And those three Christmas games all landed in the top 10 of this season’s highest-rated games.

6. I think Mike Florio’s right: There should be football next season on Christmas, even though Christmas is on a Wednesday. But I don’t need football all day. One game. Christmas night.

7. I think—no, I know—that I have an odd solution for it. Take two pretty good teams in the same division. Say, the Seahawks and Rams. Have them play their one required short-week Thursday game on Dec. 19. Then have them come back for their second meeting of the season the next week, on Wednesday, Dec. 25. You’ll say you can’t play back-to-back games against the same team. Why? Give me one reason why. There’s not a good one. The benefit to these teams, to me, is that the two road trips are relatively short, say two hours and 20 minutes, and then both teams have 10 days off before the final game of the season, at a time of year when the importance of rest is paramount. I think the players would be for it. Anyway, send me your thoughts on Christmas football 2024 if you have interesting ones (peterkingfmia@gmail.com).

8. I think year three is a good time to judge young football players. In fact, Jets coach Robert Salah said that early in 2020 first-round tackle Mekhi Becton’s career. Because of a couple of injuries, let’s give Becton a fourth year. He’s played 30 games now, including 15 starts this year at tackle, mostly on the left side. Becton leads NFL tackles this year with 16 penalties taken and 12 sacks allowed. He’s allowed a ghastly 50 quarterback pressures in 920 snaps played, per PFF. The Jets have seen enough of Becton, surely. I keep hearing of the prospect of the Jets chasing Davante Adams to add to the Aaron Rodgers Alumni society in 2024, but forget that. The Jets should go all-in on trying to lure free-agent-to-be Tyron Smith from Dallas. He’s 33, and he’s missed 34 starts over the past four years due to injury, but he’s been a brick wall in 12 starts at left tackle for the Cowboys this year. Because of his injury history, he won’t be a break-the-bank player—maybe two years, $30 million, with $18 million guaranteed—and the Jets could backstop him with a day-two tackle in the draft.

9. I think, as much as David Bakhtiari would be a good option in his prime to rejoin Rodgers as the Jets’ blindside tackle in 2024, Rodgers’ best football friend just isn’t a solid option at this point, except as a roster longshot. Bakhtiari is a solid guy and great teammate, but he’s been able to play one game in 2021, 11 in ’22 and one this season because of persistent knee issues.

10. I think these are my other thoughts of the week:

a. It was strange, and superb, to have Christmas weekend off with the family in California. Missed most of the first half of Ravens-Niners because “Elf” was the TV choice that evening with the kids. Went to a Warriors game. Played backyard soccer. Threw the football to the kids. All fun stuff.

b. Greatest bowl mascot in the history of the world:

c. The Pop-Tarts Bowl. The Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl. The (defunct) Poulan Weed-Eater Independence Bowl. The Bad Boys Mower Bowl. I don’t watch a snap of any of them, but I do love the names.

d. Football Story of the Week: Jourdan Rodrigue of The Athletic on the Rams’ pro scouting department, and how they unearth gems necessary to win for a team that is cap-strapped and playing without the normal complement of high draft choices because the team has traded them for years.

e. I like Rodrigue so much because she is superb at explaining how the sausage gets made in such a complicated game, particularly when, as Rodrigue reports, the team is anchored down by $80.3 million in dead money—more than a third of the salary cap.

f. How the Rams settled on starting guard Kevin Dotson—acquired in a low-round draft-pick swap with Pittsburgh—and how they picked up veteran cornerback Ahkello Witherspoon for just $1.08 million this year—were particularly telling. Dotson and Witherspoon buttressed need positions and have helped keep the Rams in contention.

g. Wrote Rodrigue:

Witherspoon, for example, was a player with whom [director of pro personnel John] McKay and the coaching staff had been familiar for years because he spent his rookie contract in the division with the 49ers before playing in Pittsburgh from 2021-22.

“I had probably evaluated him seven or eight times,” McKay said, “knew exactly what kind of player he was, what he could bring that we didn’t have. And then another benefit was that he had a lot of crossover (with our coaching staff).”

Defensive coordinator Raheem Morris noted the Rams’ own position group was a little “height-challenged” (his words; prior to Witherspoon the Rams didn’t have a cornerback above six feet) and opened a project with McKay to see if they could find a good addition within their salary cap constraints. Morris wanted to cover more aggressively than the Rams had in 2022.

“It’s a true collaboration and what is really helpful is those guys (in pro scouting) do a great job of diving deep, having a good feel for the landscape,” McVay said.

… It still took some time. Morris had to convince Witherspoon to sign a low-cost deal, after McKay and Witherspoon’s agent had an open conversation about the Rams’ 2023 financial limitations just hours after Witherspoon’s release from Pittsburgh.

“He’s such a good fit. I think the heartbeat of pro scouting is really being dialed in on your own team, your own ecosystem of what kind of human beings work in here, what kind of players work,” McKay said. “What works for our coaches, what do they want? When you have that kind of understanding, it makes bringing in players a lot easier … Ahkello has been all of that, and then more.”

Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports

h. One of the things I appreciate about how the Rams operate is they don’t make excuses about what they don’t have. They figure out ways to stay competitive with the flotsam floating around the NFL landscape. Good job by Rodrigue explaining it all.

i. New Year’s Advice of the Week: Neuropsychologist Julia DiGangi, writing in the Wall Street Journal, on why going all-in on New Year’s resolutions isn’t such a great idea:

j. Great headline: “For Happiness in the New Year, Stop Overdoing Everything.”

k. Writes DeGangi:

Each New Year, we pledge to transform our bodies, improve our careers, organize our homes and develop new hobbies. We dedicate ourselves to doing more—more exercise, more work, more activities and social engage-ments. On its face, striving for more sounds pretty good. But it also has a dark side that we need to resist.

As a neuropsychologist, much of my work focuses on how people respond to stress. I often find myself helping people understand the effects of self-defeating behaviors that I call the Overs. It’s a familiar list: overwork-ing, overachieving, overthinking, overexplain-ing, overgiving, overcommitting and overaccommodating.

All too often, however, the Overs themselves become a primary source of psychological danger in our lives. In my work with high-achieving individuals, they often agree that all their overfunctioning feels bad to them, but they insist they need to continue overdoing it in order to stay safe—or, as they put it, to stay “relevant” or “on top.” Regardless of the semantics, the underlying neurobiology is the same: Overdoing is a form of self-protection. The problem is, it becomes bad for us.

… So much about changing habits for the New Year is based on the conventional wisdom that you need to do more to be better. And yes, growth is desirable. But often we say we’re after growth when the truth is we’re running from fear. When we pay more conscious attention to how our brains drive our behavior, we have the opportunity to build what we’re all really after: an enduring sense of inner security.

l. Not certain I agree totally with DeGangi, but I do think one thing is important in life: That’s taking quiet time to either just be bored, or to do some menial task that can be fulfilling—doing dishes, folding the laundry—in a task-completion sort of way. Maybe not for everyone, but for me it gets my mind in a different place.

m. My wife and I are big crossword-puzzle people. I know I’ve asked this before, but I forget the answer. Why, in doing a challenging crossword, does it help to walk away from the puzzle for a day or two, then come back and look at the same clues again—only this time, you figure it out?

n. An example. The Dec. 18 New Yorker crossword was labeled “moderately challenging.” (Uh-oh.) And I’d look at it for a few minutes before bed. The first day, I got only six answers. (Six letters, “Four hundred metres on a track,” for instance. Easy. ONELAP.) Puzzled by “watering hole near a pool, perhaps” on night one. Two nights later, I got it: TIKIBAR. Next night: Angling for a deal, with a “G” in the middle: HAGGLING. And I swear, every night I add three or four, and now I’ve got only one major blank area, the lower right, that confounds me. (Seven letters, “Desertlike.” Clueless. All I can think of is ARIDDDD.)

o. Anyway, it’s a curious thing, how the mind works with crossword puzzles.

p. Steve Hartman is at it again. His piece from Friday night, from Marshalltown, Iowa, is one of his best. It’s about geese:

q. “Blossom welcomed Frankie with open wings.”

r. Retiree of the Week: Jeff Schultz, longtime Atlanta-based columnist and scribe, with a great farewell column at his latest employer, The Athletic:

s. In his farewell column after 42 years in the business, Schultz wrote:

There are so many gratifying days. But the time between the columns can wear on you. Going to sleep at night and waking up the next morning with the same questions — “What do I write about next? How do I serve my readers?” — is draining.

I’ve missed too many holidays and too much time with family and friends. My wife has tried to have too many conversations with me when I was on the phone or looking at my laptop. One year, I missed Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s. She should’ve left me. Even the dog should’ve left me. I would’ve left me.

“What are you going to do? You need to do something,” Arthur Blank said to me the other day.

“Arthur, I can’t work at the age of 81 like you,” I said.

“Okay,” he replied, “but when you wake up, you need to have something to do. You can’t let yourself get bored.”

Which is funny because the one thing I keep telling my wife is, “Let me get bored. I want to know what that feels like.”

t. Beautiful.

u. Observation of the Week by a 66-year-old man (who is me): I continue to be astounded at all times of day and evening how many people simply walking down the street in my neighborhood in Brooklyn are smoking marijuana. The smell is rancid. I guess that’s just a thing I’ll have to get used to.

v. Do I have to?

w. Podcast of the Week: David Remnick of the New Yorker Radio Hour with a smart 22-minute look at the U.S.-Mexico border crisis, including an insightful take on life at the border from New Yorker staff writer Dexter Filkins:

x. “There’s no way I could have imagined what I saw,” Filkins said. People from Mexico and South America, but there’s more. “About 4 million people have come into the country. They’re coming from everywhere in the world—Tajikistan, Burkina-Faso, China. The number are amazing, but also the diversity of people coming across.”

y. Sobering topic, but an important one.

z. Happy 2024. Hope it’s a rewarding one for all of us.

Six of 16 games in the final week leave both teams with nothing to play for. The other 10 are interesting in a variety of ways. Three of them:

Houston at Indianapolis, Saturday, 8:15 p.m. ET, ESPN. Love this game. Second-best game of the weekend. Win and you’re in. Amazing to see both of these teams 9-7 entering the last weekend, with the victor headed to the playoffs—and as division champion if Jacksonville loses Sunday in Tennessee. Which is very possible.

Philadelphia at N.Y. Giants, Sunday, 4:25 p.m., CBS. It’s a crummy game, really. Eagles have lost four of five, Giants four of six. But this the How Stella Got Her Groove Back game of the week, with the Eagles being forced to play it like a playoff game, just to see if they can figure out some reason why they stink right now. My advice: The secondary’s so bad that whoever’s calling the defense should blitz early and often, and then blitz some more. And try to figure out why A.J. Brown has disappeared. Last seven games: one TD catch, and 63 receiving yards per game.

Buffalo at Miami, Sunday, 8:20 p.m., NBC. Buffalo’s 8-1 in their last nine against Miami, including 3-1 in south Florida. The Dolphins, 5-4 since Halloween, have been a tad mortal, and now their pass-rush in the dumps with Jaelan Phillips (Achilles) and Bradley Chubb (suspected ACL) sidelined.

To me, the Eagles
look just like lost sheep in the
green pasture of life.