QBs take center stage in a wild Week 8

Week 8 was supposed to be subdued. We finally knew who was good, and many of those teams were playing bad opponents, resulting in multiple, old-school, 10+ point lines. We were in for a bunch of snoozers, right? Wrong. Most definitely wrong. The NFL script writers had other things in mind, and Week 8 might have turned out to be the wildest week of football yet.

With no teams on byes, the morning slate saw a flurry of games that came down to the wire, with Scott Hanson losing his mind during NFL RedZone’s “Witching hour.” We had back-up quarterbacks beating huge favorites (and quoting Eminem), starting quarterbacks voluntarily pulling themselves out of games, and rookie quarterbacks throwing hail marys while the defender who was supposed to be covering the guy who caught the touchdown inexplicably had his back turned to the play for about the first 6 seconds of it!

And it is in Washington where we start our Week 8 takeaways, but not for the reasons you might think.

1. An inflection point for the Commanders (and Bears): I’m not going to take the bait here and break down the hail mary, or Tyrique Stevenson’s bone-headed play. It has already been done enough, and the reality is, the better team and the team that should have won this game won this game. What I WILL talk about is just how critical that one play will end up being for both of these teams moving forward. The Commanders have the feel of a team of destiny. Not Super Bowl destiny (let’s be honest here, they are not that good), but we’re going to look up and find this team in the second round of the playoffs, and no one will be surprised. Call it luck. Call it a new culture under a new coach. Call it the new normal with the dynamic rookie quarterback they’ve found themselves with. I’ll call it the importance of a last place schedule that looks easier than everyone else’s from here on out. The Commanders are 6-2, and they still have the Giants, Titans, Saints and Cowboys twice on their schedule. I expect the Eagles to come back and win this division, but it will be really hard for the Commanders not to end up with 10 wins and make it in to the tournament. The Bears on the other hand? They really, REALLY needed this game (somebody should have told Tyrique Stevenson). Why? Their remaining schedule includes the Vikings twice, Packers twice, Lions twice, as well as the 49ers, Cardinals and Seahawks. Yikes. There is no way they are making it through that gauntlet with their head above water. Especially with the flaws they showed on the offensive side of the ball. See you later Caleb Williams and the Bears (at least for this season).

   

2. Stick a fork in the Jets (and Aaron Rodgers): As long as we’re sticking forks in QBs, let’s move from the youngest quarterback in the league to the oldest. It is with absolutely no pain at all that I say that the Jets, and likely Aaron Rodgers career, are officially done for the 2024 season. I agree with Mike Greenberg’s take that this has been a colossal failure and embarrassing for the Jets organization, but for reasons that are different than what he laid out. I never expected the Jets to be good, and what is embarrassing is not that they are a bad team, but how they have handled being a bad team. Finger-pointing, assigning blame, firing people, promoting people, demoting people, grasping at straws, mortgaging your future to win with a team that is CLEARLY flawed behind a quarterback that is CLEARLY well-beyond his prime. These are all the things that a terribly run organization does. But more importantly, the great Julius Campbell from Remember the Titans once said, “Attitude reflects leadership,” which seems particularly appropriate here. Aaron Rodgers is the leader of this team, and the attitude and behavior follows his lead. Aaron Rodgers doesn’t take accountability, he assigns blame. It turns out, so does his team. It’s somewhat sad for Rodgers – he could have gone down as one of the legends. Perhaps the most talented quarterback ever, with 4 MVPs and one Super Bowl to his name. Instead? He tried to submarine one franchise (only for them to get better once he left), and went to another where he made it all about himself, didn’t perform, and blamed it on everyone else while the franchise went down in flames. He’ll be remembered for his (lack of) leadership, not his play – which is unfortunate, even if it is of his own doing.

3. Anthony Richardson, high school QB: Let’s stay on the theme of quarterback leadership, just for a second here. Yes, we could talk about Anthony Richardson’s 44% completion percentage on the year, his 10-32 performance against Houston on Sunday, or his inexplicably bad interception. But none of those are remotely as important as what happened when Richardson tapped himself out of the game on 3rd and goal, in the middle of a tight divisional game in Week 8 of the season because he was….tired. I don’t have to repeat what everyone else has already said. You. Can’t. Do. That. Not as an NFL quarterback who makes millions of dollars a year to do what he does. Not as the leader of a billion dollar team. Not as someone who has 52 other guys on the team who are busting their asses every play. Not as a professional athlete, who’s job it is to be in shape for the biggest moments. What is perhaps most disappointing about the this situation is that Anthony Richardson clearly just doesn’t have the maturity to understand all of this. To understand that EVERYONE is looking at him to lead. Nothing is more important than a quarterback's competitive will to win – because everyone sees it, and it rubs off on the rest of the team. The fact that Anthony Richardson doesn’t understand this is as alarming as his inaccurate passing (maybe more so). I’m not ready to write Anthony Richardson off yet – he’s got tantalizing talent, and he’s right…he can do things on a football field that almost no one else can. He still has time to mature. But this is the first time we’re questioning his leadership, maturity and his competitive spirit. Let’s hope this is a learning experience for Richardson – I just worry this is type of thing that might be more nature than nurture.

   

4. A troubling trend for the Ravens: Cleveland beat Baltimore on Sunday in what, to be honest, was a result that wasn’t as surprising as the +8.5 line would suggest. The Browns we’re at home, with a solid defense, a quarterback everyone knew was better than Deshaun Watson, and the motivation that comes with the entire world writing you off. I wanted this take to be about Jameis, I really did. And it’s worth mentioning that he was lights out, was head and shoulders better than Deshaun Watson, and was the type of leader at the quarterback position that the Browns have DESPERATELY needed for years now. That’s a great story – its’ just, I’m still not ready to put the Browns back into the ‘serious contender’ discussion. The Ravens, however, we’re a team that was supposed to be the best team in the league. They catapulted over the Chiefs in most people’s power rankings this week. The thing that most people forgot, and was exposed on Sunday, is that this team has serious flaws on defense, particularly in the secondary. If you can subdue their rushing attack (which good defenses will do) and keep the game in the 20s, there’s a good chance you win. We saw it against the Browns. We saw it against the Chiefs. We saw it against the Raiders. And to be honest, mostly saw it against the Bengals (only for the Bengals to blow it late). If you get this team into a dog fight, they’re in trouble because their defense isn’t built for a dog fight. And you know when those types of fights happen? Against good teams, in January, in the playoffs. If I’m Baltimore, I’m worried.

5. The Rams might win the NFC West: Let’s end the takeaways where we started the Week – with the Rams in Los Angeles. We started Week 8 talking about potential landing spots for Cooper Kupp as a trade asset. We ended the week with the Rams 3-4, and essentially tied for the lead in the NFC West with just about everyone else. Talk about leadership? It doesn’t get much better than Sean McVay. This team has been absolutely ravaged by injuries, and it would have been easy to fold up shop, sell your aging pieces off for parts, and rebuild for next year. Instead, McVay hunkered down, circled the wagons, and found a way to buy just enough wins while waiting to get his team healthy. And on Thursday, we finally saw what this offense can look like when it has it’s full complement of players available. With Kupp and Nacua in the lineup, Kyren Williams at running back, Stafford doing Stafford things and McVay dialing up the plays, this offense is still meaningfully dangerous, and cut up what was supposed to be the league’s best defense on Thursday night. Their defense is young, but growing by the day, and Jared Verse is the real deal. I don’t trust anyone else in the West, and the Rams might just have the best head coach and best Quarterback in the division. They are setup for a MASSIVE game in Seattle this coming weekend. If the Rams manage to steal that one on the road, look out.

I think that’s all for now. What a wild Week 8. After waxing poetically about running backs last week, the QBs took center stage in Week 9. Some of them delivered meaningful performances, and some of them did not (we’re looking at you Rodgers, Richardson).

Until Next week, we look forward to the conversation, debate and your feedback. Hit us at @fieldvisionmi on X, @fieldvisionsports on Instagram, or on our website www.fieldvisionsports.com.