¡LA PRESIÓN DE AARON DONALD! #NFLxFOX El cuadro por cuadro de la lesión en el pulgar derecho que sufrió Drew Brees. pic.twitter.com/Zphp65FprS
— FOX Sports MX (@FOXSportsMX) September 15, 2019
Week 2 is over, and this is Friday, so technically Week 3 is underway 1. Here are the teams that are already on at least their second QB!
- Miami: Ryan Fitzpatrick
1 TD, 4 INT, 6 sacks Josh Rosen - New York Jets: Sam Darnold Mononucleosis Trevor Siemian Ligament damage in ankle Luke Falk
- Pittsburgh: Ben Roethlisberger right elbow surgery Mason Rudolph
- Jacksonville: Nick Foles broken left clavicle Gardner Minshew
- New York Giants: Eli Manning 89 attempts, 2 TDs Daniel Jones
- Carolina: Cam Newton foot injury Kyle Allen
- New Orleans: Drew Brees right thumb surgery Teddy Bridgewater/Taysom Hill
That’s seven teams right there. Can we get nine more to bring the total to 50% of the league?
- New England: Tom Brady is 42 years old, his offensive line is missing three starters, and Brady is already complaining about penalties.
I’m turning off this game I can’t watch these ridiculous penalties anymore #TENvsJAC
— Tom Brady (@TomBrady) September 20, 2019
- Cleveland: Baker Mayfield has been sacked on nearly 10% of dropbacks, and the Browns have not made it through a whole season without a backup QB starting since 2001.
- Houston: Since the start of the 2018 season, Deshaun Watson has been sacked at least 13 times more than any other passer.
- Indianapolis: We honestly could include them now in the wake of QB Andrew Luck’s retirement, but Jacoby Brissett was their opening day starter.
- Tennessee: We’re going to get to that below.
- Denver: The Broncos drafted Drew Lock to eventually take over for Joe Flacco. Lock is on injured reserve to start the season, and Brandon Allen isn’t a threat to Flacco’s job, but Flacco’s pass protection is sorry when they’re not holding.
- Washington: They drafted a QB in the first round, and they’re 0-2. It’s only a matter of time until Case Keenum passes the sticks to Dwayne Haskins.
- Chicago: This is a stretch with Chase Daniel as the backup, but Mitchell Trubisky has looked like your typical underwhelming third-year Bears starter through two games.
- Tampa Bay: Jameis Winston is in a contract year, is turnover-prone, plays behind a shaky offensive line, and is in a new offense. If you’re betting on 16 starts in 2019, then it’s because his backups are Blaine Gabbert (injured) and Ryan Griffin 2.
- San Francisco: Colin Kaepernick (2014) was the last 49ers QB to start all 16 games, Jimmy Garoppolo is just now approaching the one-year mark of his season-ending ACL tear, and LT Joe Staley is out until November with a fractured fibula.
Daniel Jones has been named Giants starting QB
— New York Giants (@Giants) September 17, 2019
In the cases of the Saints, Giants and Steelers, all of those teams have prepared appropriately for the event that they’d have to use their backup QB, even though those teams don’t have injury-prone players. New Orleans prioritized Bridgewater, a 2014 first round pick and 2015 Pro Bowler, by trading for him in 2018 and re-signing him in 2019. New York drafted Jones sixth overall despite having two first round picks. Pittsburgh used a third round pick in 2018 on Rudolph. As illegal as it is to touch QBs, it is a fool’s errand to not have multiple QBs adequately prepared to play over the course of the regular season.
All this to say – I expect to hear no excuses for any of these teams.
TEAMS OF THE WEEK:
NE, BAL, IND, KC
DAL, GB, TB, LA
TOP PERFORMERS:
TB pass rush (OLB Shaquil Barrett)
BAL run defense (OLB Pernell McPhee)
SF run offense (RB Matt Breida)
DET pass rush (CB Darius Slay)
GB pass rush (CB Kevin King)
HOU pass rush (OLB Whitney Mercilus)
NE run offense (RB Sony Michel)
BUF run offense (RB Frank Gore)
SEA pass offense (TE Will Dissly)
IND pass defense (ILB Ben Okereke)
DAL pass offense (WR Devin Smith)
KC pass offense (WR Demarcus Robinson)
CHI special teams (K Eddy Pineiro)
LA run offense (RB Todd Gurley)
ATL pass defense (CB Desmond Trufant)
CLE pass defense (DE Chris Smith)
Looking ahead to Week 3
Titans at Jacksonville: Come for Florida Man QB Godner Minshew II … stay for Sacksonville burying Tennessee QB Marcus Mariota in Jacksonville’s 20-7 #ThursdayNightBeatdowns win under an avalanche of nine sacks, 3.0 by DE Calais Campbell. Mariota’s production has been inconsistent right at a time where he’s supposed to be in the prime of his career. The Titans missed the playoffs last season because they had to start Blaine Gabbert in Week 17 against the Colts. In fairness to Gabbert, even he had a higher TD% than Mariota last season — and now Mariota has only 1 TD pass in 68 attempts in Weeks 2-3 this season. Ryan Tannehill was signed as an upgrade over Gabbert, but now the Titans have a quarterback controversy if Mariota continues to look incapable of moving the ball.
Ravens at Kansas City: Baltimore has only lost one regular season game out of nine with Lamar Jackson as their starting QB. Of course, that one loss came at Kansas City last December in OT, courtesy of this absolutely disrespectful completion by Kansas City QB Patrick Mahomes on fourth down. Mahomes won’t have Hill this time around, but that hasn’t mattered through two weeks. Kansas City will need to Mahomes to keep rolling, because their run offense has averaged only 3.0 yards per attempt, while Baltimore is allowing only 1.8 yards per attempt on the ground.
Saints at Seattle: The Saints stayed in the Pacific Time Zone after losing in Los Angeles, and while all eyes will be on how they use their quarterbacks, New Orleans also needs to improve against the run. New Orleans is allowing 5.6 yards per run, while Seattle runs more than they throw. The Saints are also allowing 9.5 yards per pass attempt, so Seattle QB Russell Wilson will be looking for rookie WR D.K. Metcalf down the field.
Rams at Cleveland: The Browns are hosting a Sunday night game for the first time since 2008. They have won one non-TNF primetime home game over the last quarter century. The Rams will likely get RB Todd Gurley 15-20 touches while getting WR Cooper Kupp close to ten targets. It might get ugly, as the Browns are coming off a short week and already have depth issues at TE, LB and DB.
Bears at Washington: While Cleveland rarely hosts primetime games, Washington is just dreadful at home on Monday nights. Since 1998, only Philadelphia and Denver have hosted more MNF games than Washington (17). Washington is a sparkling 1-16 in those games – and the one win was a 17-16 barnburner led by Robert Griffin III. Chicago is fortunate that they’re not 0-2, as they narrowly gave K Eddy Pineiro a chance to make a game-winning FG in Denver. Washington represents a chance for Chicago to get their abysmal pass offense going, but the Bears are the only team in the NFL without either a TD pass or a 30-yard completion.