Links to stories, pods and pictures to help you keep up with NFC East and the NFL in general
NFC East links
Pro Football Talk
Eagles held Cowboys and Giants to NFL’s only games this season with under 50 passing yards
Only two teams this season have been held to under 50 net passing yards in a game, and both of them played the Eagles.
On Sunday, Cowboys quarterbacks Cooper Rush and Trey Lance went a combined 17-for-29 for 66 yards, while taking three sacks for -17 yards against the Eagles, a net of 49 yards passing.
That would be the worst performance in the NFL this season if not for what the Eagles did to the Giants in Week Seven, when quarterbacks Daniel Jones and Drew Lock also combined to go 17-for-29, with 105 yards passing but 62 yards lost on eight sacks. That’s a net of 43 passing yards.
Those are the only two times all season that an NFL offense has finished with fewer than 50 net passing yards. The combination of the Eagles’ stout defense and the Giants’ and Cowboys’ offensive incompetence led to stats that you just don’t see in the modern NFL.
In fact, they were numbers that no one has ever seen in NFL history: Only two teams ever have completed at least 17 passes but netted fewer than 50 passing yards, and those were the Cowboys and Giants against the Eagles this season.
NFL.com
Giants GM Joe Schoen says any determination on Daniel Jones will be about ‘football decisions,’ not injury guarantee
When asked about the future of quarterback Daniel Jones, Schoen was anything but emphatic.
With a decision on Jones remaining the Giants’ starter looming over New York’s bye week, Schoen did say that any determination would be about the on-field product rather than financials, specifically the quarterback’s $23 million 2025 injury guarantee.
“We’re going to evaluate everything the rest of the week,” Schoen said Tuesday, “and the decisions we make will be football decisions.”
Big Blue View
Giants’ GM Joe Schoen insists ‘we’re not far off’ despite team’s 2-8 record, more takeaways
Schoen believes in the foundation being built despite the record
There will be some who think he is delusional, but New York Giants general manager Joe Schoen said on Tuesday he believes the 2-8 Giants are “not far off” from being a good team.
“I like the direction we’re going,” a somewhat defiant Schoen said during his bye week press conference. “I like my team. I like my strategy, the groups that help me in research and strategy, my scouting department, we’ve got a good coaching staff, and I truly believe we’re heading in the right direction.”
Schoen, of course, understands that it doesn’t look that way with the team at 2-8 and having lost five straight games. Especially on the heels of a 6-11 2023 season.
“Nobody’s happy that we’re 2-8,” Schoen said. “I believe in the process and, again, I believe where we’re going.
“Building it, sometimes it hurts and it’s painful and it’s hard to go through it, but we’re going in the right direction.”
Blogging the Boys
3 things we have learned about the Cowboys entering Week 11
Another Cowboys loss has put some things into perspective.
A top-five draft pick in 2025 is a real possibility
Dallas has dug itself into a huge hole. On top of that, they just aren’t a good football team. Their offense was stagnant even with Prescott at the helm, and that will continue under Rush and Lance. Defensively, the Cowboys are at the bottom of the barrel in most categories, and they were awful even when they were healthy. To top it all off, there’s not a single team left of the Cowboys schedule that they are better than at the moment except maybe the Carolina Panthers, and even that’s a toss up right now. Anything can happen, of course, but it just seems like wins for the Cowboys will be few and far between from now until January when their season ends.
Blogging the Boys
The McCarthy Chronicles: What, exactly, is the Cowboys head coach supposed to do?
It’s a never ending circus in Dallas, and Mike McCarthy is just along for the ride at this point.
It should be noted that AT&T Stadium does, in fact, have curtains to cover the windows through which sunlight comes in. These curtains have been used for non-football events held in the stadium, such as Wrestlemania or a Taylor Swift concert.
Even if that weren’t the case, Jones’ insistence against doing this is embarrassing. The owner and general manager has repeatedly said that there’s not a thing he wouldn’t do to help his team win at the highest level, but his actions say something else entirely. This is far from the first time a Cowboys player has been blinded by the sun, and Jones still refuses to make any changes or even admit that there might be an argument for doing so.
This arrogance and stubbornness from Jones is yet another embodiment of the real problem in Dallas. McCarthy has received plenty of heat, but his hands are largely tied. The head coach took a subtle jab at his boss’s uninspiring offseason strategies in the run-up to this game, and then went to work trying to upset the Eagles with a backup quarterback. Even when things went right – his much-maligned defense got a takeaway and Lamb came wide open in the endzone for the lead – they still didn’t work out, because the owner is fundamentally unwilling to do the things it takes to win.
So what, exactly, is McCarthy supposed to do? Sure, he could’ve done more to help Rush out, or played Trey Lance more/sooner. But this game made very clear the limitations both quarterbacks have. And, again, even when things go right for this team it still doesn’t work out.
By now, everyone knows McCarthy is gone after this year. Nobody inside the building will admit it, though Parsons sure seems to have already moved on from his head coach, but it’s painfully obvious that McCarthy has fallen perfectly into the trap this front office laid to justify moving on from him when his contract expires after the year.
Losing Prescott only accelerated the level of bad football we’re going to see the rest of the year, but McCarthy is certainly still trying to win games. The problem is he’s doing so with both arms tied behind his back while Jones pries his eyes open, Clockwork Orange style, and beams the sun directly into his retinas.
NFL league links
Articles
ESPN
Shane Waldron fired: What’s next for Bears, Caleb Williams
Tuesday…the Bears fired Waldron, who was in his first year on the job.
Waldron replaced Luke Getsy — who coincidentally was fired from the same position with the Las Vegas Raiders last week — and his primary role was to maximize Williams’ talent the way he did with Seattle Seahawks quarterback Gen
o Smith, who was named Comeback Player of the Year in 2022.
But Waldron could only get sporadic moments of excellence from Williams, the No. 1 pick in April, who seemed to be regressing in recent weeks.
Waldron was Eberflus’ top choice “because of his ability to communicate and his ability to make things clear and concise.” On Monday, Eberflus promised to make changes to spark one of the NFL’s least efficient offenses, highlighting the biggest problem area as “in-game communication.”
Eberflus is now on his third offensive coordinator since he was hired by Chicago in 2022. Amid a three-game losing streak and back-to-back O-coordinator hires that have backfired — Getsy and Waldron — Eberflus finds himself on the hot seat as the Bears enter the toughest stretch of their season with the most difficult remaining strength of schedule in the NFL.
In taking over playcalling duties, Brown inherits an offense in disarray. Over their three-game losing streak with losses to Washington, Arizona and New England, the Bears are the only team in the NFL that does not have a passing touchdown. In that same stretch, Chicago ranks last in points per game (9.0), yards per play (3.7), third-down conversion rate (15%) and touchdowns (2).
During that losing streak, Williams ranks near the bottom in nearly all major passing stats for QBs that have made at least two starts. He’s 32nd in completion percentage (50.5), yards per attempt (4.9) and sacks (18), and he’s tied for 31st in passing touchdowns (0) and 30th in Total QBR (21.2).
Caleb Williams isn’t progressing. The Bears’ offense is going nowhere and their season is coming unglued. That cost Shane Waldron his job today…. https://t.co/aoLSqkSwQv
— MarkMaske (@MarkMaske) November 13, 2024
Windy City Gridiron
NFL Toxic Differential Plus Through Week 10
Tracking team health throughout the entire NFL by tracking the big plays!
Click Here to get a more detailed explanation of the stat or roll with the equation below:
Explosive Play Differential + 2(Turnover Differential) + Sack Differential = Toxic Differential Plus
Pro Football Talk
The pivot to streaming has happened, as evidenced by the audiences attracted by NFL games televised on cable and streamed by Amazon Prime
Last week, the overnight numbers for Bengals-Ravens on Thursday night showed an audience of 13.63 million. Last night, the game on ESPN between the Dolphins and Rams racked up only 12.2 million viewers.
The reality is that the ESPN-only broadcasts are struggling in comparison to Amazon Prime’s Thursday night broadcast, which surely prompted the feather-ruffling decision to move most remaining Monday night games to ABC, too.
The Dolphins-Rams game fell into the small handful that won’t be simulcast. And, lo and behold, Amazon Prime has already caught ESPN. The only question is whether and when Prime games will perform like three-letter broadcast networks.
Over the Cap
Top Injury Guarantee Considerations for 2025
This is the time of year where contract considerations may possibly play a role in a teams decision about how much longer they play certain players. He is a look at the top five players whose teams could have concerns simply due to the player’s contract for 2025.
Derek Carr, QB, Saints- $30 Million Injury Guaranteed
Carr has not had a standout run in his two years with the Saints and right now his career arc seems to be at a similar place as Ryan Tannehill’s was with the Titans two years ago when it was clear the Titans needed to begin to rebuild. Carr has a $51.5 million salary cap figure in 2025 and $10 million is already guaranteed to him. On the 3rd day of the 2025 league year the remaining $30 million of his salary will be guaranteed, tying the Saints to Carr and his massive cap hit for at least one more year. The Saints cap troubles and need to rebuild should make them strongly consider finding a way out from the Carr contract and save that $30 million. A late season injury would lock that money in for Carr and force the Saints into another contract restructure for Carr next season.
Daniel Jones, QB, Giants- $23 Million Injury Guaranteed
Jones’ struggles with the Giants have been well documented and the organization likely wants to turn the page on him next year. Jones’ 2025 salary cap figure is $41.6 million while his salary is worth $30.5 million. If he is uninjured the rest of this season they can release him with a $22.2 million salary cap charge and owe him no additional salary.
Trevon Diggs, CB, Cowboys- $9 Million Injury Guaranteed
The Cowboys are crashing this season and their defense has been downright abysmal. The team is likely having some level of buyer’s remorse over big contract extensions handed out to Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb and they could certainly be looking to cut some salary next year. Diggs has a $9 million injury protected salary that becomes guaranteed in March of 2025. I would consider this one less likely, but I do think it can be open for discussion as the season winds down.
Pro Football Focus
Ranking the best NFL rookies after Week 10
With another week in the books, the sample size for most rookies around the league continues to grow. That allows us to check in and see who the highest-graded first-year players are after the season’s first 10 weeks.
1. QB Jayden Daniels, Washington Commanders
PFF Grade: 87.2
Daniels had one of the lowest-graded games of his career so far in the loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers, but he is still the third-highest-graded quarterback in the NFL. The second overall pick has graded below 60.0 just once this year, and his 1.4% turnover-worthy play rate is tied with Lamar Jackson for the lowest in the NFL.
2. EDGE Jared Verse, Los Angeles Rams
PFF Grade: 86.9
Rookie pass-rusher Jared Verse continues to live up to the hype, delivering another standout performance in the Rams’ Monday Night Football loss to the Miami Dolphins. In a highlight-reel play last night, he recorded a sack, forced a fumble and recovered the fumble himself. Verse now has 44 total pressures on 236 pass-rushing snaps this season, along with an impressive 82.5 PFF pass-rushing grade.
3. TE Brock Bowers, Las Vegas Raiders
PFF Grade: 86.7
With the Raiders on the bye, we didn’t see Bowers in Week 10, but he remains the second-highest-graded tight end in the NFL behind George Kittle of the San Francisco 49ers. The rookie tight end has racked up 580 receiving yards this season, the most at the position.