Post by spiderfan on Oct 9, 2023 20:59:08 GMT -8
Howdy SCtoC, Spiderfan here, your official NFL analyst, back with the Week 5 edition of Red Hot Gridiron. Without further ado, let us begin!
The Hackett Bowl
Irony is a really funny thing. This time last season, the Denver Broncos then coached by current Jets OC Nathaniel Hackett, were 2-3 with two of their losses being close games that they could have won if not for Broncos QB Russell Wilson being washed up. Hackett ended up being the fall guy for Russell Wilson being washed up and was fired before the 2022 season ended. In the process of the Jets building their team around Aaron Rodgers, the Jets brought on Hackett to the offensive coordinator as Hackett is not only well liked on a professional basis by Rodgers, but also a personal one.
After being hired by the Broncos this past offseason, current HC Sean Payton decided to go on record and say a lot of negative things about the 2022 Broncos most notably that "It might have been one of the worst coaching jobs in the history of the NFL." This of course blatantly ignoring that Russell Wilson is washed up and would be working as a studio talking head if it weren't for the morbidly obese contract that the Broncos gave him upon being traded from the Seahawks. Whether Payton ignored it when he took the job because he realized he could basically scam the Broncos new ridiculously rich ownership group for a lot of money and chance to live the mountains or because he genuinely couldn't see what the rest of the football world saw, is still uncertain event at this point.
What is certain is that the Broncos are currently 1-4 with their only win coming in spite of the fact they were outplayed for 55 minutes by the Chicago Bears. Not to mention that the losses have progressively more humiliating as the season has gone on, whether it be Russell Wilson's washed up lack of talent costing them against the Raiders, having a complete second half meltdown against the Commanders, giving up 70 points against the Dolphins (which should have been 73 except Mike McDaniel is a nice guy), and now have lost to the team who's offensive coordinator is the guy who as previously mentioned Sean Payton said led one of the worst coaching jobs in the history of the NFL.
The cherry on top on all of this is that the Broncos play only 4 teams that are currently under .500 in the next 12 games meaning that unless they pull an upset or two it is very possible that the Broncos finish with a 5-12 record, which is exactly what they had last year, although admittedly one of those wins came after Hackett was fired. Considering that Sean Payton is known for his sideline outbursts, including one that he had at the end of the Hackett Bowl, has never coached a team with this bad of a record before, and is already wearing thin on the local media in Denver, despite his belief against tanking, I think it is fair to say that by season's end the 2023 Denver Broncos may have at least partially been the product of one of the worst coaching jobs in NFL history.
Hall of Fame Quarterbackless Head Coaches
New England Patriots HC Bill Belichick currently has a record of 80-92 with one playoff win without Tom Brady as his quarterback. Denver Broncos HC Sean Payton has a record of 18-16 with zero playoff wins without Drew Brees as his quarterback. You can argue all you want these statistics and claim they are cherry picked and/or misleading, but the fact of the matter is both records are only getting worse. Tom Brady led the previously rudderless Buccaneers to a Super Bowl win and a couple of playoff appearances minus Bill Belichick. While Drew Brees didn't play for anyone after Sean Payton like Brady did, he did have a Pro Bowl appearance prior to his Saints quarterback and is the main focal point of the now legendary "if Brees had gone to the Dolphins instead of the Saints in free agency in 2006, Nick Saban would still be coaching in the NFL" argument (full disclosure I don't agree with that argument because Nick Saban was never a fit to be a NFL HC in my opinion, and I think Brees' presence would have only caused locker room drama as Saban wouldn't have liked playing second fiddle to Brees in all likelihood, but we'll never know).
Compare that to someone like Andy Reid (I know Chiefs fan but the facts are facts) or even John Harbaugh who has had considerable success with various different quarterbacks throughout his head coaching career in the NFL. Makes you really appreciate the coaching ability of someone like them.
The Overhyped Big Game
After 49ers RB Christian McCaffrey scored a TD for the 14th consecutive game in the 1st quarter of Cowboys-49ers, there were punches thrown and a considerable amount of jawing from Cowboys players. I thought at that moment, "Hey how about instead of being mad that McCaffrey scored, why don't you do something about it?". In preparation for writing this segment, I thought back to Cowboys QB Dak Prescott being offended when asked about his poor performance in last year's playoff game against the 49ers, earlier in the week. Instead of talking about using that game as fuel to lead a different outcome, he was offended that someone would ask something that was entirely relevant to the conversation. Weak as far as I'm concerned. But I shouldn't be, nor am I really surprised, that the 49ers blew out the Cowboys in front of the entire football viewing world.
Despite my view that 49ers HC Kyle Shanahan is overrated, I won't deny that the 49ers are a talented roster who have so far done a great job, I mean they are only one of 2 remaining undefeated teams after all. Meanwhile, the Cowboys are even more overhyped than usual primarily because they managed to completely dominate some of the worst possible competition they could have had scheduled. The Tinys are a complete joke like they always are, the Jets offense is trying to function with a QB who wasn't even supposed to take the field for the next couple years, and the New England Patriots have shown their near complete inability to play quality football against anyone who isn't the Jets. If the Cardinals a team with a bad record who looks aesthetically better than any bad record team in the league beat the Cowboys by multiple touchdowns no less, a quality team like the 49ers wasn't going to have a problem.
Offensively and defensively the Cowboys weren't in the same stratosphere as the 49ers and since the Cowboys aren't in the same stratosphere as the 49ers, it is fair to say they'll have as much, if not more of a hard time going against the division rival Eagles who are now in great position to win the NFC East and put the Cowboys in Wild Card position, if playoffs are even on the table by seasons end. Don't worry though! Cowboys DE Micah Parsons will get a bunch of sacks and Cowboys G Zack Martin will make another Pro Bowl, and that is what Cowboys football is all about in the end.
Other thoughts:
-Wouldn't ya know it right after I have a whole segment going on and on about how terrible the Bears are they win a game. That's just how the NFL goes sometimes. Good for them!
-Jet lag turned out to the biggest Bills opponent and lack of jet lag turned out to be the Jaguars biggest ally. No wonder why the NFL talks about their being logistical problems with putting a team in London.
-Hopefully Anthony Richardson can stay healthy, because it is a real shame to the game of football when he is hurt.
-In the long run the Steelers are going to wish they had lost to the Ravens. OC Matt Canada was getting closer and closer to being fired and then was bailed out at the literal last minute by WR George Pickens. Win the battle, lose the war!
-Either Desmond Ridder is finally entering his stride as the Falcons quarterback or he'll eventually get benched for The Taylor Heinicke Experience. Regardless of which scenario plays out the Falcons look like a playoff team for the first time since Steve Sarkasian was their offensive coordinator.
-The Dolphins are so good that they actually seemed to give the Tinys brief moments of hope before making it clear that that hope should never been existing in the first place.
-It is absurd that Tinys-Bills wasn't flexed out of Sunday Night Football.
-My biggest hot take coming out of Week 5 is that the Bengals look like they are finally back to form.
-Maxx Crosby is a beast. Enough said.
Will the Carolina Panthers go 0-17?
Much to my surprise, the ROAD TO 0-17 has narrowed to just the Carolina Panthers. I really thought that the Bears would become the focal point of this segment for a large chunk of the season. I really wish the Bears hadn't choked against the Broncos because then the Broncos could have been a part of this segment, but we don't always get what we want. The reality is that despite a bunch of a bunch 1-4 teams each with their own aesthetic appearance in on field product, the worst team in the NFL is currently the Carolina Panthers.
While I didn't buy into the preseason Panthers hype, on paper of all the teams in the NFL it really does feel weird that the Panthers have the worst record. They are actually worse right now then they were when current Nebraska Cornhuskers HC Matt Rhule was fired through 5 games last year. Because they traded up to get Bryce Young, they have no reason to tank, and because they traded a lot of draft capital to get Bryce Young, they can't use next year's draft to build the team nearly as much as a team would like to do. Regardless of how the Bears season turns out, they'll have that capital to build and make their team better, making their trade of last year's #1 pick potentially one of the best trades a team has done in a long time.
When this segment came down to one team last year, the Las Vegas Raiders, it didn't last another week. We'll see what happens this year.
ROAD TO 17-0
2 teams are currently 5-0. I will keep doing this segment until every team has a loss or a tie. Teams currently without a loss or tie are:
Philadelphia Eagles
San Francisco 49ers
Call it Seahawks fan bias, but even coming off of a blow out win on Sunday Night Football, I'm still inclined to think that the Eagles are the team that IMO is most likely to go 17-0. They look about as dominant as they did last year and they suffered only one loss with Jalen Hurts leading the team last year. Credit to the 49ers though, they are in the conversation and have exceeded my expectations for them thus far.
With all of that said that is all for this week's Red Hot Gridiron. As always I hope ya enjoyed and I hope to see ya again next week. Remember, football is the greatest game in the world. This is spiderfan out.
