By: Andy Davies

It wasn’t supposed to be like this.

When the Denver Broncos fired head coach Vic Fangio, it was deemed that they were just a quarterback away from being contenders.

And then the Broncos made moves. Nathaniel Hackett was hired, after a spell as the Green Bay Packers offensive coordinator. Not long after that appointment, the team went big in their search for a new quarterback. They traded a 2022 and 2023 first-round and second-round pick as well as a fifth round from this year and gave away Drew Lock, Noah Fant and Shelby Harris in exchange for Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson and a fourth-round pick.

This was supposed to be the answer. However, so far it has been far from that.

The Broncos have lost their last two games and currently sit at 2-3 after their first five games with their new head coach and quarterback duo. Neither has set the world alight.

In five starts, Wilson has thrown for 1,254 yards, just four touchdowns and three interceptions. This would have projected to finish the season with 4,264 yards, 14 touchdowns and 10 interceptions. Whilst those projected yards would actually be a career best, it would be an all-time career low in touchdown passes, six less than his current worst in 2014. He would only have four seasons with more interceptions than nine. 

Russell Wilson is said to have requested the trade, and many felt Pete Carroll’s run-first offense was holding him back. However, all Wilson has shown us in 2022 is that perhaps Carroll was doing this for a reason.

Against the Colts, Wilson threw an awful interception and despite having 274 passing yards, he threw for zero touchdowns and two interceptions. With the exception of one great run and one great pass, Russ had no moments of excellence. He was incapable of getting it done in the red zone, seemed to force his passes to his target men, and often missed several open receivers.

Hackett came in as an offensive guy, one that worked with the current back-to-back MVP. Russ was meant to be allowed to cook, presumably one of the reasons if not the main one for Wilson agreeing to join the Broncos. With Jerry Jeudy, Courtland Sutton, and Tim Patrick, he was not short of receiving options. Patrick may have suffered a season-ending injury prior to Week One, but the team still has K.J. Hamler and Albert Okwuegbunam.

His ability to just throw it without properly looking through his reads may have been disguised in recent years due to D.K. Metcalf being the closest thing to Calvin Johnson we have seen since the Hall of Famer retired. Neither Jeudy, Sutton and Hamler have the strength and hands of Metcalf. 

Hackett deserves some portion of the blame, with his questionable play calling and poor time management. He could well be one and done as a head coach for the Broncos. His time so far reminiscent of Adam Gase, a star quarterback glossing over coaching deficiencies. However, he is not the one out there missing open players, making bad throws, and seeming scared to get hit. So far, Wilson looks to have made no difference. With the number of draft picks given up and the long term multi-million-dollar extension given to him, this trade so far looks to be one the team may regret.

Let’s not forget that Wilson still has to play the Chargers and Chiefs each twice.

Granted, a new head coach who actually knows what they are doing may be the difference they need and not every quarterback can do what Tom Brady and Matthew Stafford did on new teams.

Despite this, should Wilson play like this for the rest of 2022 and beyond this trade could be one that potentially affects the team long-term.

The post You Let Russ Cook, Everyone Gets Food Poisoning appeared first on Pro Football Mania.

By: Andy Davies

The AFC South has been won by the Tennessee Titans, but the addition of Matt Ryan by the Indianapolis Colts and the loss of A.J. Brown for the Titans means the division is as usual, very wide open.

Since 2013, all four teams in the AFC South have won the division. However, who has the best quarterback?

In our final quarterback ranking list, here are your AFC South quarterback rankings.

1. Matt Ryan (Indianapolis Colts)

The only MVP winner in this list, Ryan joined the Colts this offseason after over ten years with the Atlanta Falcons.

In 2021, he still managed to throw for 3,968 yards, 20 touchdowns and 12 interceptions.  Unless injury strikes, Ryan will reach the 60,000 career passing yards mark, currently being 265 away. Only seven players have previously reached the 60,000 mark and Ryan , who is currently eighth on the list for most career passing yards, can eclipse Phillip Rivers into sixth place on the list should he throw at least 3,705 yards or more.

A really good season, where he throws at least 33 touchdowns will also allow Ryan to reach 400 career passing touchdowns. He would become just the eighth player in NFL history to reach the 60,000

Whilst he showed signs of ageing last season, he still makes it as the best quarterback in this list, in what is a bad bunch.

2. Ryan Tannehill (Tennessee Titans)

Tannehill was an eighth overall pick in 2013, when he was selected by the Miami Dolphins. However, injuries and inconsistent play (as well as bad coaching) saw him eventually traded to the Titans in 2018.

He came in for Marcus Mariota mid-season and ended up winning Comeback Player of the Year. Over the course of his career, he has thrown for over 30,000 passing yards, 199 touchdowns and 102 interceptions. Despite this, he has shown signs of decline in the past twelve months. 

In 2021, he threw for 3,734 touchdowns, 21 touchdowns and 14 interceptions. This is a stark contrast to the 33 touchdowns and 7 interceptions he threw in 2022.

His position as the Titans’ starter is also in question, with the team choosing to draft Liberty QB Malik Willis in the third round of the 2022 NFL Draft. He showed his potential in Thursday night’s preseason game against the Baltimore Ravens, completing 6 of his 11 passes for 107 yards  as well as a 7-yard touchdown run.

Tannehill has proved to be a good quarterback for Tennessee, excelling in particular when using RPO plays. However, he has yet to prove he can be the guy to take the Titans to the next level. 

This was proved in their Divisional Round when the number one seed Titans lost to the Cincinnati Bengals, despite Joe Burrow being sacked nine times. Tannehill threw three costly interceptions, and his future has been questioned ever since.

Despite having running back Derrick Henry and a brilliant head coach in Mike Vrabel, the loss of A.J. Brown could end up being the final nail in the Ryan Tannehill Titans coffin.

3. Davis Mills (Houston Texans)

Houston could be a realistic destination for Tannehill should the team decide they don’t want to pursue long term with their current starter Davis Mills. 

Mills was drafted 67^th overall out of Stanford and actually had a solid first NFL season in 2021. He was arguably the second-best rookie quarterback in a class that albeit did not exactly light up the league. In 13 games, he threw for 2,665 yards, 16 touchdowns, and 10 interceptions. 

These are neither outstanding nor terrible stats. He did a solid job in a season of turmoil, with everything that went on off the field. 

Solid is exactly why Mills is third on this list. He wasn’t terrible but also hasn’t quite done enough to break into the top two.

4. Trevor Lawrence (Jacksonville Jaguars)

The 2021 first overall pick had a torrid rookie year but is now free from a dysfunctional Urban Meyer. He threw for 3,641 yards, 12 touchdowns, and 17 interceptions.

However, he can no longer use the Meyer excuse with new head coach Doug Pederson. Should Lawrence have another bad year, there will be more and more usage of the word “bust”. 

Right now, it is hard to put him anywhere but the bottom of this list. Despite this, should he fulfill the potential that we all saw in Clemson, then he will certainly be a lot higher than fourth.

The post Ranking the AFC South Quarterbacks right now appeared first on Pro Football Mania.

By: Noah Nichols

The Indianapolis Colts finished the 2020 NFL regular season in disappointing fashion. It started with a 21-0 lead on the Pittsburgh Steelers in the second-to-last game of the regular season. The Steelers would rally, and the Colts would falter, ultimately losing to the Steelers 28-24. The Colts would then wallop the Jacksonville Jaguars the following week, but then lose the week after in the playoffs to the Buffalo Bills. The loss against the Bills showed that the Colts had mostly everything they needed to win playoff games. And perhaps even win a Super Bowl. But Phillip Rivers retired in the off-season, which led to Carson Wentz being brought in to be the starting quarterback.

This leads to a few questions. First of all, can Carson Wentz play to the same level as Phillip Rivers did in 2020? Can the Colts improve on being good everywhere, and ascend to great? There are a few reasons to believe that the answer to those questions might be yes. And if the Colts can improve in those areas, then the Super Bowl is certainly not out of the question. And the fact that almost no one is talking about the Colts should provide a little fuel to the fire. The Colts have been pushed aside, left aside by the media in favor of flashy teams like the Bills, or Tennessee Titans.

That might be a mistake.

“You move teams. You go through what Carson has gone through, and an opportunity like this presents itself you use it for what it is. It’s time to hit the reset button. If you know Carson the way I know him, he’s embracing that.” Frank Reich knows that Carson Wentz struggled in 2020. Reich was not going to ignore it, probably because there was no way he could deny how awful Wentz was in 2020. But that does not mean that Reich no longer believes in Wentz. If that was the case, Wentz would not be a Colt.

Wentz could be, scratch that, is the x-factor for the Colts in 2021. His job is to replace Phillip Rivers’ level of play with something similar, and hopefully, better. A new situation is good for Wentz. He needed out of Philadelphia. Especially after these stats which he posted last year. Wentz led the NFL in interceptions (15) and sacks (50) while posting career-lows in completion percentage (.574), touchdown-to-interception ratio (16-to-15), and yards per attempt (6.0). Not looking so good.

But the Eagles had drafted a quarterback in the second round, and faced injuries on offense that, at times, seemed insurmountable. But that begs the question, can Reich fix Wentz? Possibly. But Reich doesn’t need to fix Wentz. He just needs Wentz to produce like Rivers did in 2020. Rivers threw for roughly 4,200 yards, 24 touchdowns, and 11 interceptions. His completion percentage was 68 percent, a career high by four points.

Wentz does not have to play that much better to reach those stat lines. He wont be running for his life in 2021. Instead of playing behind the worst offensive line in the NFL last year, he will be playing behind one of the best. To make this clear, the Eagles gave up 65 sacks in 2020. The Colts gave up 21. With the statue at quarterback that is Phillip Rivers. The pressure wont be all on Wentz. He not only will be able to have more than 0.3 seconds to throw the football, but have a capable running back to hand the ball off to. Jonathan Taylor will lead a Colts rushing attack that is growing to be one of the best in the league. Taylor will most certainly improve in 2021, and he had the 3rd most rushing yards in the NFL in 2020.

To switch gears momentarily, that rushing attack will certainly propel the Colts into the dark-horse-Super-Bowl- contender category. With one of the best offensive lines and running backs, in the NFL, the Colts could be a lot to handle on the ground. Taking even more pressure off Carson Wentz and allowing him to succeed. Admittedly, there is no way to prove that Wentz will be better in 2021 and near the level of Rivers. However, with the way 2020 went, there seems no place for Wentz to go than up, because he definitely hit rock-bottom in 2020. Hopefully.

Sarcasm aside, the pieces surrounding Wentz in Indianapolis are much better then in Philadelphia. There is little real pressure on Wentz, because expectations are so low. And he has been reunited with his old quarterbacks coach. Wentz should perform better in 2021, and there is little reason to expect that he will be as bad in 2021 as he was in 2020.

But Wentz playing at an average level, or even above average, might not be enough to take the Colts to the Super Bowl. The Colts are searching for players on both the offensive and defensive side of the ball that can be star players. Not pretty good, or really good players. They need stars. And they have some.

To begin with, Jonathan Taylor looks like he might be one of the best running backs in the NFL in 2021. He was third in the NFL with roughly 1,200 yards rushing and had 11 touchdowns. He also caught the ball 36 times- something he never did at Wisconsin, for 299 yards. He averaged exactly five yards running the ball, and eight catching it. Heading into 2021 Taylor looks to be ready to explode onto the scene. He will have a year under him to learn the nuances of being a running back, and there is almost no reason for the Colts to limit his touches. Most likely, the Colts will increase his touch total from 268 to over 300.

The Colts also are expecting, and rightly so, that their passing game improves. At least, they are right to expect their receivers to improve. T.Y. Hilton is still a good receiver, but he has never been a true number one. However, the Colts have high expectations for second-year player Michael Pittman entering into 2021.

“There was a conscious effort to get the ball to him in the way that we did,” Reich said of Pittman. “We saw this in his college days. I remember Chris (Ballard) and I talking a lot about this, but this guy is fearless, now. He’s fearless in every way, but when the ball is in his hands, he wants to hurt somebody. ” Reich continued to heap the praise on Pittman. “That wasn’t possession-type stuff, that was big-play receiver stuff,” Reich said. “And we need to see more of that.”

The 6″4 223-pound wide receivers certainly should improve from his 40 receptions, 503 yards, and one touchdown. Pittman looks to blossom into a star on offense. And that’s all the Colts really seem to need. Darius Leonard leads a solid defense. The Colts are looking for first-round draft pick Kwitty Paye to add to their pass rush. If Paye can compliment Leonard, the Colts could suddenly have a darn good pash rush tandem. Their secondary is deep, but with no real star player.

But the Colts cannot have everything, like every team in the NFL. And the Colts don’t need everything to win the Super Bowl. If Carson Wentz can play like an average NFL quarterback, then the Colts passing game will not really lose its luster. Pittman should take a big jump in year two, and become the clear number one wideout that T.Y. Hilton never was. And Jonathan Taylor should become one of the best running backs in the NFL.

What more does it take? Not much. The Colts nearly beat the Bills in the playoffs last year, and the Colts have certainly improved at almost every position since that point. The biggest question is really Carson Wentz. The Colts Super Bowl hopes ride on his shoulders. His expectations are low and perhaps he will use that to his advantage.

The Colts certainly are being forgotten in the Super Bowl discussion. Probably because of Wentz. But all the Colts need is for Wentz to be OK. Throw the ball up to Pittman on crucial downs, and hand the ball off to Jonathan Taylor every-other snap. The rest will take care of itself. The media has forgotten the Colts. Don’t make the same mistake. They are too strong of an organization, head coach, and team, to fall off a cliff. If Anything, they will improve from 2020 and could potentially win the Super Bowl in 2021. They wont be the most flashy team in the NFL. But they have the playmakers, potential and determination to do it. And that’s all it takes.

The post The Colts are the Super Bowl Darkhorse in the AFC appeared first on Pro Football Mania.