Sports

ATLANTA — The elevator beeped, and the doors opened. We had arrived on the 17th floor.

Fluorescent white lights hung from the ceiling of the office space. The sun, peeking in on this scorching summer day, brightened the gray walls. Past the expansive lobby and down a skinny hallway was a room with a cracked door. When the man inside heard the knock, he blurted, “Come on in!”

Fran Tarkenton’s glasses pressed up against the tip of his nose. He slouched in a chair, holding an iPad. Spotting me, he placed the tablet on his wooden desk, pulled the black frames off his face, set them down, then motioned toward the chair on the other side of the desk.

“Sit down!” he said. “What are you waiting for?”

On the wall behind him were dozens of framed photos: Tarkenton with revered Minnesota Vikings head coach Bud Grant, posing with the board of directors at Coca-Cola, standing next to former president George W. Bush. He didn’t acknowledge any of these pictures, the bobblehead of himself on his desk or the paintings leaning against the walls. He ran his hand through his wispy white hair and smiled.

He seemed amused, like he couldn’t wait to unfurl stories and explain why, at 84 years old — 63 years after his NFL debut — he still drives to this building in Buckhead to work almost daily. He would talk for hours, mentioning business titans (Warren Buffett and Steve Jobs), NFL players (Patrick Mahomes and Kirk Cousins), famed football coaches (Nick Saban and George Halas) and golf courses (Augusta National and Pebble Beach) in a fluid conversation that did not exhaust him for a second.

Tarkenton cursed, shrieked, eye-rolled and laughed. He even considered what it would be like to attend Week 1’s Vikings-New York Giants game as part of the latter team’s 100-year anniversary ceremony.

They’d asked him to go, which makes sense considering he is a Pro Football Hall of Famer who made four Pro Bowls with the Giants. That they played the Vikings, the franchise that bookended Tarkenton’s career and watched him set every significant NFL passing record at the time of his retirement, only made the trip to New York more sensible.

“I’m not going,” he said.

Why?

“I don’t need to do that,” he added, contorting his face and waving like a beauty queen atop a parade float. “I don’t have any interest,” he said plainly.

He’d rather work.

Fran Tarkenton, 84, at his Atlanta office in August. The photo at left is from the 2015 Pro Football Hall of Fame induction of former Vikings teammate Mick Tingelhoff. (Courtesy of Fran Tarkenton)

Tarkenton was scribbling his signature on a purple No. 10 jersey. When he finished, he handed the silver-inked Sharpie to one of his employees and immediately returned to our conversation as if he’d placed a bookmark in it and knew exactly where he’d left off.

He found his way to the subject of scrambling — of course he did. Search the internet for Tarkenton highlights, and you’ll find grainy footage of this tiny, 6-foot, 190-pound quarterback, dropping back in the pocket, spinning around, running to his left, sprinting back to his right and looking, play after play, like he was a father playing keep-away from his kids.

Tarkenton became known as “The Scrambler” or “Scramblin’ Fran” and was, in a roundabout way, Mahomes before Mahomes. Just like with Mahomes, who regularly and unbelievably escapes from defenders to fling the ball downfield, if you could find Tarkenton on television, you tuned in because the circus could begin at any time.

How do you think your scrambling would have gone over in today’s game?

“I would be more successful today,” Tarkenton said.

Why?

“Because the field is spread out more,” Tarkenton said. “I watch Patrick Mahomes. Patrick Mahomes doesn’t do anything I didn’t do. Nothing.”

You mea—

“Nothing,” Tarkenton interrupted. “I was just the first one who did it … with a fullback and two halfbacks!”

I invented scrambling. The two best quarterbacks this year played against each other in the Super Bowl. They’re both scramblers, and that started with me! pic.twitter.com/6bmwuHuoE6

— Francis Tarkenton (@Fran_Tarkenton) February 21, 2023

Necessity, the saying goes, is the mother of invention. And here was Tarkenton’s need as a child: to avoid getting pummeled into the pavement in a small alley behind his family’s apartment in Washington D.C.

His parents were preachers, and during the day, Tarkenton played with his brothers and evaded them by reversing, moving sideways and ducking them on the streets. Years later, after the family moved to Athens, Ga., and Tarkenton attended high school, a new need surfaced. Tarkenton, a quarterback at Athens High, attempted a tackle in practice and felt a pain in his right shoulder like he was being sliced open with a knife. Throwing hurt his shoulder, but he refused to sit out.

So he ran.

Once he secured the starting job at the University of Georgia and later as a third-round pick of the Vikings, the attribute prevented him from being swallowed up by defensive linemen. Once, in 1966, he scrambled for nearly 14 seconds, drifting left, then backward, then right, then back left, then back right again. The pass, which was tipped and caught in the end zone, ranked as one of the greatest 100 plays in NFL history.

Tarkenton retired in 1978 with the most rushing attempts (675) and rushing yards among QBs (3,674) in NFL history. How much has the game evolved since then? Well, four quarterbacks have amassed more attempts and yards in the last decade than in Tarkenton’s entire career.

“I don’t think you can play quarterback today without being mobile,” Tarkenton said. “Kirk Cousins has played really well the last four years and he’s not mobile. And I get on his ass about it.”

Really?

“Yes,” Tarkenton said. “I say to him, ‘Run! Pick up a first down! Quit standing there!’”

You yell that at the television? Or you’ve told him that?

“I tell him!” Tarkenton said. “He’s come and sat right where you are. He’s here in Atlanta now.”

So you keep up with it?

“Oh, I watch the games every weekend!” Tarkenton said. “I’d still play if I could!”

Tarkenton scrambles for yardage against the Miami Dolphins during Super Bowl VIII in Houston. The Vikings would go on to lose 24-7. (Dick Raphael / USA Today)

At the urging of a close family friend, Tarkenton attended the University of Georgia even though the Bulldogs had already secured commitments from two more highly regarded recruits. Tarkenton sat for a year and nearly transferred but ultimately stayed.

He stood on the sideline at the 1958 season opener against Texas and observed restlessly for three quarters. He frequently sidled up to the coaches and said, “I can do it, I can get you a touchdown in this game,” and they swatted him away like a gnat buzzing around their face.

In the fourth quarter, as legend goes, he sprinted out toward the huddle on his own volition. Georgia’s coach, Wally Butts, did not have time to pull him back. Tarkenton had taken a risk and made good on it, driving the Bulldogs down the field for a touchdown, inciting a loud cry from the fan base for the local boy to be a starter.

Twice during his NFL career, Tarkenton created pathways for the team he was playing for to trade him. This was long before agents disclosed trade requests to the media, before players realized they had the power to chart their own futures. Tarkenton pushed the envelope in ways that are eerily familiar to moves made almost 50 years later.

In the spring of 1966, having played five seasons in Minnesota for head coach Norm Van Brocklin, Tarkenton boarded a plane to Minneapolis, entered the team facility, walked into Van Brocklin’s office and said, “I ain’t playing here anymore. I’m not playing for you.”

“Why?” Van Brocklin responded.

“Because I have no faith or trust in you,” Tarkenton said. “You don’t want a quarterback who doesn’t believe in you.”

Their relationship had been rocky from the beginning. Ahead of the expansion Vikings’ first game in 1961, 63 years ago Tuesday, Van Brocklin told Tarkenton he’d be the starter. Then, in the locker room before kickoff, Van Brocklin said he’d decided to start George Shaw, a more experienced veteran.

“F— you,” Tarkenton told Van Brocklin at his locker. Later that afternoon, Tarkenton replaced Shaw and spurred the Vikings to a 37-13 victory.

#OTD 63 years ago, the @Vikings played their first @NFL game. Hall of Famer Fran Tarkenton came off the bench in his debut, throwing for four touchdowns and rushing for another, leading Minnesota to a 37-13 victory over the Chicago Bears. pic.twitter.com/gv7URFkgBl

— Pro Football Hall of Fame (@ProFootballHOF) September 17, 2024

Elevating the win was the fact that the Vikings had spotted a cameraman at practice during the week. They believed legendary Bears coach George Halas had dispatched the staffer to record the Vikings’ plays. “He cheated!” Tarkenton claimed.

Tarkenton’s initial success did not eliminate the lack of trust between him and Van Brocklin, and by 1966, the Giants ponied up four draft picks for the quarterback, including two first-rounders. Tarkenton enjoyed the glitz and glamour of New York, but in the end, the team’s struggles dragged him down. Once, shortly after Joe Namath had risen to prominence with the Jets, Giants owner Wellington Mara asked Tarkenton to come into his office for a meeting.

“Can you cut your hair real short?” the owner asked.

“Cut my hair? Why?” Tarkenton responded.

“We want you to be the anti-Namath,” Mara said.

“I don’t want to be the anti-Namath,” Tarkenton quipped. “I came here to win football games!”

“I want the image,” Mara said.

“The image?” Tarkenton asked. “I think you can help me with that. We’ve got to play the Cowboys twice a year. They have a defensive tackle named Bob Lilly and a linebacker named Lee Roy Jordan. We need players like that!”

Retelling the story, and the ensuing conversation with Mara that spurred a trade back to Minnesota, Tarkenton giggled. He would have the last laugh, playing in three Super Bowls for the Vikings and retiring with passing records (47,003 yards, 3,686 completions and 342 touchdowns) that he held for almost two decades.

“Do you think you can be too nice as a quarterback?” he asked.

Maybe. Is that a thing?

“Yes,” he said. “Remember, it all falls on your ass.”

Tarkenton spent five seasons with the Giants (1967-71) and was named to four Pro Bowls despite a win-loss record of 33-36. (Manny Rubio / USA Today Sports)

“I can’t play football,” Tarkenton said. “So I do this.”

He waved his hand from left to right like a blackjack dealer asking for insurance on a potential 21.

Tarkenton is the founder of … Tarkenton, a company that partners with smaller companies mostly in the technology sector.

“We own eight companies and partner with five or six others,” Tarkenton said.

And you’re still invested in the day to day?

“If I’m not here,” he said, “I’m on the phone with them.”

When reminded he could be on the golf course every day, he was quick to respond: “I have too much fun doing this,” he said.

His love of business was instilled early. There was a grocery store near his family’s apartment in Washington D.C., and on Saturdays, he’d haul a wagon over. When customers exited the store, Tarkenton offered them the chance to place their groceries in his wagon. Many took him up on it and, when they reached their apartments, they’d hand him nickels, dimes and occasionally quarters. At 8, he was hired to deliver newspapers.

Toting this money, he’d purchase bubble gum cards of his sports heroes. In college, during the summers, he huddled chickens on a farm. In the NFL, during the offseasons, he knocked on doors and offered truck-shipping services. His first NFL contract paid him $12,500 in 1961. Eighteen years later, he was making $180,000, the largest contract in the NFL. But he wasn’t satisfied.

Maybe that’s because he never won the NFL’s ultimate prize. Tarkenton led the Vikings to three Super Bowls (VIII, IX, XI), all of them losses. “A tragedy,” he said.

He has replayed the scenes of those games too many times to remember, but the one aspect he returns to most often is the preparation. In those days, teams usually had an extra week to prepare for the game, and it was always Grant’s perspective, according to Tarkenton, that they’d be fresher with a week off. Was that the right approach? It’s anyone’s guess, but Tarkenton wonders now, even if it was not so much top of mind when his career ended.

He waffled on whether or not to retire — sound familiar? — and then ultimately decided to call it quits, creating a pathway into entertainment. He hosted a reality show called “That’s Incredible!” He was a commentator on “Monday Night Football.” He steeped himself in sales and marketing with Coca-Cola, where he met Buffett’s son. Then in 1996, he started his own company that specialized in digital marketing.

“Last year, somebody interviewed 1,500 billionaires, asked them what their No. 1 goal was and wrote about it,” Tarkenton said. “You know what the most common No. 1 goal was? They don’t want to lose money.”

Eight years ago, he became interested in Apple. He moved most of his investments there and said he reads two hours a day about the company on his iPad.

“See this here?” he asked, lifting a piece of paper and showing it to me. “That’s the price of Apple (stock) this morning at 9:50 a.m.,” he said. “$228.496.”

You wrote that down?

“Yeah,” he said. “And when you get out of here, I’ll go back and check it again.”

You check it multiple times a day?

“I would say I check it 20 times a day,” he said. “Because it’s fun!”

I celebrated 84 years of life on Saturday. I couldn’t be more excited about where I’m at today and the potential for the future! pic.twitter.com/867UWf4Mxh

— Francis Tarkenton (@Fran_Tarkenton) February 5, 2024

Tarkenton has been traveling. He went to Paris with his wife, Linda. He stayed at his lake house, where he lives close to Saban, who has become a close friend. He even played golf at Pebble Beach.

“My last hole-in-one was in 2022,” he said. “At Pebble. I had one at Augusta National, too, years ago. I asked the guys at Augusta and Pebble how many people have had a hole-in-one at both courses. Small number,” he said, smiling because he knows how he’s coming off.

It was confidence bordering on arrogance. Tarkenton often blurs this line, and who could blame him? He went from preacher’s son near the country’s capital to a symbol of hope at a huge university in the South. He went from third-round draft pick to one of the most recognizable athletes of his generation.

He acted brashly, and it worked. He wanted to make money and he did. Now eight decades in life’s pursuit, he liked going where he wanted to go, doing what he wanted to do, telling the stories he wanted to tell. And who could blame him?

The most interesting aspect of it all was how vivid everything was. It felt like he could go for days, but he needed to get back to work. He walked up the narrow hallway and through the lobby. He pointed me toward the elevators.

One of his employees was about to press the down arrow, then quickly asked me, “How was he?”

Indescribable. How does anyone have that kind of energy at 84?

The employee pointed back at the office.

“This place and these people keep him sharp,” the employee said. “They keep him young.”

(Top photos: Focus on Sport / Getty Images, John Bazemore / Associated Press)

The miracle of Shohei Ohtani is his extraordinary skill level at everything a baseball player does. Seven seasons into a career like no other, he hasn’t even shown them all.

“What he’s doing, he’s a freak of nature,” said Andruw Jones, who finished his standout career a decade ago in Japan. “I saw this kid at 18, 19 years old and I knew what kind of player he was. He didn’t stand out much as a hitter yet, but defensively, as an outfielder, he was very, very good. I would go out after batting practice, when they were taking infield, just to see him throw. He was that impressive.”

Maybe someday, Ohtani will play outfield in Major League Baseball and unleash throws like we’ve never seen. This season, though, has been a wholly unique showcase for his speed. Ohtani, the Los Angeles Dodgers’ wondrous designated hitter, has 48 home runs and 48 stolen bases through Tuesday, and should soon become the founding member of the 50/50 club.

48/48 FOR SHOHEI OHTANI! pic.twitter.com/QoXCvhkrHI

— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) September 17, 2024

It’s another mind-bending trick from baseball’s master magician, who had never recorded more than 26 steals in a season, in the majors or Japan. And it’s even more amazing, perhaps, to players who have done one or the other, or both.

Just two players in MLB history have hit 50 homers and stolen 50 bases in any season, let alone the same one. One is Barry Bonds, who swiped 52 bases for Pittsburgh in 1990 and clubbed a record 73 homers for San Francisco in 2001. The other is Brady Anderson, who had 53 steals in 1992 and 50 home runs four years later, both for Baltimore.

Historically, far fewer players have hit 50 homers in a season than have stolen 50 bases. Even Ohtani has not done either just yet.

“When I did it, I think there were 14, and there’s probably over 30 now,” Anderson, who maintains a deep interest in baseball history, said of his 50-homer season. “But even if it’s 30 or 40, it’s still very few. I’m sure the number of guys stealing over 50 bases is in the hundreds. So the homer part is the hard part. And then, typically, guys that have 50 homers are bigger guys.”

Anderson was, indeed, the 14th different player to hit 50 home runs in a season. (Well more than 100 have stolen 50 bases.) While 31 players have now reached the mark, some of the game’s most celebrated sluggers — Hank Aaron, Frank Robinson, Albert Pujols — never did.

“It’s got to be a synched-up year where a lot of things go right,” said the New York Yankees’ Giancarlo Stanton, who connected 59 times for Miami in 2017, his only season with more than 37 home runs.

“You have to keep your balance and timing the whole year, not too many lulls. And even when you’re not feeling good, you’ve got to be able to have your few hits be homers; instead of having two singles in your 2-for-20-something stage, you’ve got to squeak out those as homers. The whole rhythm of your season has to go right.”

In 2021, the first of Ohtani’s two MVP seasons for the Los Angeles Angels, he homered just twice in his last 21 games to finish with 46. Last year, when he was MVP again, Ohtani hit his 44th and final homer on Aug. 23, before an elbow injury ended his season.

That injury, which required reconstructive surgery, has kept Ohtani from pitching or playing the field in 2024. It has made this the perfect season — and perhaps the only one — to maximize his speed.

“I think there’s going to come a point where the Dodgers are like: ‘We like the stolen bases, but cut it down to 25 or 30 and we can still win,’” said Juan Pierre, who had five seasons of 50 steals, tied with Carl Crawford for the most in the 2000s.

“It’s something I think (the Atlanta Braves) will do with (Ronald) Acuña (Jr.) as well. I don’t think he’ll steal 73 bases again. With his knees, they’re going to be like, ‘Look, you’re valuable to us, we’ll get somebody else to steal the bases.’ A lot of guys start out that way — like Matt Kemp — but as you get older, guys just shut it down, especially if you can hit for power. There’s no reason to be out there with a chance to get hurt.

“And once Ohtani starts pitching again, do you really want him running, maybe mess up his shoulder? I don’t think he could put up these numbers and pitch.”

Good assumption. As Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told The Athletic’s Fabian Ardaya on Sunday, “It’s a big, physical toll. I don’t see how he’d be able to do this if he were pitching. I don’t think he would.”

When Pierre stole 64 bases for the Dodgers in 2007, he hit zero home runs. Fourteen others have stolen 50 for the Dodgers, and the most homers by any of them was Davey Lopes’ 10 in 1974.

When Jones played for the Dodgers, in 2008, he had essentially stopped stealing bases. He had 56 steals in 1995, his last full minor-league season, but topped out at 27 in the majors. Only one Atlanta player — Otis Nixon in 1991 — ever had 50 steals during Bobby Cox’s quarter-century as Braves manager, and Jones prioritized defense, anyway.

“I wanted to save runs,” said Jones, who hit 51 homers for Atlanta in 2005 and won 10 Gold Gloves. “At my young age, I stole 20 every year, basically. But the older you get, it’s like, should I continue stealing or save my legs to run down fly balls in center field? My team counted on me for that.”

No player has ever had more than 24 stolen bases while also hitting 50 home runs. In Anderson’s big power season, he said, a torn quadriceps muscle limited him to 21 steals. Had Anderson been more of a running threat, though, pitchers might have worn him down with repeated throws to first.

“The beating was way worse on pickoff attempts than stolen bases,” Anderson said. “Ohtani’s a big guy and that could have worn him out, repetitive pickoff attempts.”

Since last season, pitchers have been limited to two disengagements from the rubber; if they try a third without picking off the runner, it counts as a balk. Yet even with that rule — and the bigger bases, which players believe has had little impact — just three players stole 50 bases last season, and only Cincinnati’s Elly De La Cruz has done so this season.

Baseball can change the rules, but not the risk-averse nature of the modern game. Two of the last four Dodgers with 50-steal seasons (Steve Sax in 1983 and Eric Young Jr. in 1999) had success rates of less than 70 percent.

“I’ll ask some guys today, ‘Hey, man, why don’t you steal more? The bag’s bigger, they can only throw over twice,’” said Pierre, who had a 75.1 percent career success rate but led the league in caught stealing seven times.

“And their biggest thing — and it’s not from the team, it’s from the guy — they’re like, ‘It’ll hurt my WAR if I get thrown out, so I don’t even want to take the risk.’ Wow, that’s something I would have never thought of. Those stats weren’t even around when I played, maybe on the back end of my career. But this is (Ohtani) saying, ‘If I’m gonna steal a base, I’m gonna make it.’”

To Anderson, Ohtani’s success rate — 48 for 52, for 92.3 percent — stands out most. Only two players in history (Max Carey in 1922 and Jacoby Ellsbury in 2013) have stolen 50 in a season without being caught at least five times.

“If he doesn’t steal another base this entire year, 47 and four — that’s unusual in the history of this game,” Anderson said last week, before Ohtani stole his 48th base. “I mean, 40 and 10 is great, and he’s 47 and four. That’s Carlos Beltran stuff.”

Beltran — who had 312 career steals with an 86.4 percent success rate — peaked at 42 steals in 2004 and 41 homers two years later. With today’s disengagement rules, Anderson said, Beltran might have had a 50/50 season. But the best candidate, perhaps, was Eric Davis.

Davis had it all — except durability. After a 27-homer, 80-steal season for Cincinnati in 1986, he slammed 37 homers with 50 steals in 1987. But in a 17-year career, Davis never played more than 135 games. He spent his prime on the unforgiving AstroTurf of Riverfront Stadium.

“It was a double-edged sword, because that old turf, that’s the best thing ever for stealing bases,” Anderson said. “You’re so much faster with that little synthetic turf laying on top of cement. It beats you up, but definitely it’s a faster track.”

Primitive turf surfaces are long gone, of course, and Dodger Stadium has natural grass. Ohtani’s spikes never touch it in fair territory, since he never plays defense, but that presents its own challenge as a base stealer.

Juan Pierre stole 50 or more bases in five of his 14 MLB seasons. He finished his career with 18 total home runs. (Gary A. Vasquez / USA Today)

“He doesn’t have to run on the field and stand out in the elements, but what he does, I think, would be hard as well — sitting and then having to go out there and run,” Pierre said. “I’m sure he rides the bike and does his exercise, but it’s still not like on defense to keep you loose.”

No pitching, no fielding, no AstroTurf, no endless pickoff attempts — no matter. To those with the power or speed to put a 50 on their stat sheets, it’s still a stupendous feat to deploy both skills so prodigiously at once.

And remember this: All those homers cost Ohtani some steals, too.

“Hitting 50 home runs, that’s 50 less times you’ve got to do anything on the bases,” Pierre said. “He’s just trotting, so he’s good.”

Pierre laughed. The Dodgers are in Miami this week, not far from Pierre’s home. He’s never seen Ohtani play, and thinks he might check out the show.

“You almost get jealous, like how could you be that fast and then hit the ball 500 feet?” said Pierre, who hit 18 home runs in 14 seasons. “It’s just not fair, the things he’s doing. He’s literally changing the game.”

(Top photo of Shohei Ohtani: Todd Kirkland / Getty Images)

It’s officially that time of year — when your social media timeline is flooded with posts about 0-2 starts and your team’s dwindling chances of making the playoffs.

For the uninitiated, the outlook is bleak. Since 2015, fewer than 11% of NFL teams have made the playoffs after starting 0-2.

However, that number is missing context in that it includes an awful lot of awful teams. For example, this year’s Carolina Panthers and New York Giants will soon be a part of that stat, and they didn’t have high expectations heading into the season.

So, we’re going to focus on the somewhat surprising 0-2 starts to see how dire the situation really is. Which of these teams should be panicking? How likely are they to make the playoffs at this point? Or should they be looking forward to next year’s NFL Draft? These are the questions I will try to answer using my NFL projection model.

GO DEEPER

NFL playoff projections 2024: Ravens, Bengals in trouble at 0-2

Playoff hopes for the Ravens didn’t seem grim after losing on the road to the Kansas City Chiefs by a toenail, but after blowing a double-digit fourth-quarter lead at home to the Las Vegas Raiders, the 2023 AFC runners-up have seen their playoff odds plummet from 78% to start the season to 41%.

Last year’s MVP, Lamar Jackson, has been solid, but the team’s main issue right now is scoring chance efficiency. I define a scoring chance as any play inside the opponent’s 40-yard line, as this is when teams are in a realistic range for points, whether by field goal or touchdown. Through two games, Jackson ranks 29th in EPA/dropback and 26th in dropback success rate during scoring opportunities among qualified quarterbacks, according to TruMedia. Last year, Jackson ranked 14th and 16th respectively. We’re still dealing with a small sample and considering the Ravens were a couple of plays away from being 2-0, I don’t think there is reason to panic just yet.

GO DEEPER

NFL Power Rankings Week 3: Cowboys, Ravens in trouble? Are Saints, Vikings for real?

That said, I am concerned about the defense. Through two weeks, the Ravens have been a bottom-10 defense against the pass, including surrendering the highest rate of 10-plus-yard passing plays. Part of that is playing Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs on the road, but that’s not the start you wanted after losing defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald and promoting Zach Orr.

Similarly to their aforementioned AFC North rival, the Bengals have seen a large drop in playoff odds after their 0-2 start to the season. Before the season, the Bengals were projected to make the playoffs 73% of the time. That number is now 44%.

Cincy fans need to RELAX.

This is what you guys do. Under Zach Taylor, yall are 1-11 the first 2 weeks of season.

Plus, Joe Burrow looks much better. If he stays healthy….dont freak out!

New episode of Scoop City👇

🎧 https://t.co/BiR1Neg2CF
📺 https://t.co/6Ls6PCpYjK pic.twitter.com/ZabNgs3qbe

— Chase Daniel (@ChaseDaniel) September 17, 2024

The primary reason for the Bengals’ drop in playoff odds is their home loss to the New England Patriots in Week 1. That would be concerning, except the Bengals always seem to struggle in Week 1. They also almost pulled off an upset on the road in Kansas City. So, am I worried about them? Not yet. They’ve been without wide receiver Tee Higgins to start the season, and his return should boost quarterback Joe Burrow’s efficiency.

I’m not really a believer in the defense despite its performance against Mahomes — the Bengals have his number, I guess — but I haven’t seen anything that makes me want to change my mind

On the bright side for the Bengals, three of their next four opponents are the Washington Commanders, Panthers, and Giants. A home showdown with the Ravens will have huge playoff implications in Week 5, but the schedule works in their favor to get back on track pretty quickly after a poor start.

The Colts started the season with just a 26% chance to make the playoffs, and after an 0-2 start, including a humbling loss to a Malik Willis-led Packers team, the Colts now have a mere 8% chance to make the playoffs.

Anthony Richardson has had a tough start to his sophomore season, as he’s only completed 49.1% of his passes. There is some context needed as he’s tied for third in percentage of attempts that have gone 20 yards downfield, and the Colts had a handful of drops Sunday, but no matter how you spin it, completing less than 50% of your passes isn’t going to work in the NFL.

That all said, the offense isn’t even my main concern. It’s the defense.

Through two weeks, the defense is giving up more five yards per carry on the ground, and that includes a full game against a non-existent passing offense. Injuries are starting to pile up on that side of the ball, too. My model currently projects the Colts to have the fourth-worst defense, and that’s not a recipe to overcome an 0-2 start.

GO DEEPER

QB stock report, Week 3: Kyler Murray surges into top 10; Sam Darnold too low?

Where they can find hope is in their schedule. It’s not too bad over the next month. Home games against the Chicago Bears and Pittsburgh Steelers are certainly winnable, but they’ll need to at least split road trips to Jacksonville and Tennessee to keep their heads above water. After that, they start a stretch of vs. Miami, at Houston, at Minnesota, vs. Buffalo, at New York Jets, vs. Lions. Stacking some wins in the next four week is vital.

The Rams couldn’t have had a worse start to the season. Not only are they 0-2, but they’ve been decimated by injuries. Their tattered roster and winless start have compounded into just a 9% chance to make the playoffs after starting the season at 45%. There aren’t many teams in the NFL that would be able to survive this level of injuries across the offense, let alone one with a so-so defense.

Frankly, it is tough to project the Rams because of the injuries and the guess work involved with when players will return. A Week 6 bye might do them some favors, but there aren’t many games on the schedule where the Rams will be clear favorites. My model currently has the most likely record for the Rams as 6-11.

If you would have asked me about the Jaguars through the first half of Week 1, I’d have told I thought they had a chance to win the AFC South. Unfortunately, since halftime against the Dolphins, the Jaguars have been absolutely dreadful on offense. The poor play has caused their playoff odds to drop from 40% to 19%.

Am I worried? Yes. The offense looks broken. I’m not sure what it is, but when you look at the New Orleans Saints under new offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak and the Minnesota Vikings with Sam Darnold, you wonder why the Jaguars haven’t been able to get more out of their offense with Trevor Lawrence. This will be the second year in a row the Jaguars offense has underwhelmed. The Jaguars have actually lost Lawrence’s last seven starts.

Either the coaching staff needs a change, or you need to start thinking about a quarterback change, and I’m not ready to give up on Lawrence.

Scoop City Newsletter

Free, daily NFL updates direct to your inbox.

Free, daily NFL updates direct to your inbox.

Sign Up

Road trips to Buffalo and Houston over the next two weeks make an 0-4 start a real possibility, and the schedule doesn’t let up too often before their Week 12 bye. The Jaguars can still salvage the season, but they’ll need to win one, if not both, of their next two games to stay alive. I’m not betting on it.

(Photo of Lamar Jackson: Michael Owens / Getty Images)

Noah Powell was sitting in his usual chair by the TV at his home in the suburbs north of Chicago, surrounded by a close-knit group of family and friends.

The group hadn’t travelled to Vegas for the 2024 NHL Draft. Powell kept the gathering small because he had no idea if he’d even be picked. He’d passed through drafts — plural — before, going unselected into the USHL and missing out at the NHL level once already. He still wasn’t among the 223 North American skaters ranked by NHL Central Scouting for 2024, despite having just led the USHL in goals with 43.

As the captions rolled below the broadcast in the fifth round, Powell reading along with them, his phone buzzed with a text from his agent Ryan Barnes.

“I think Philly’s going to take me,” Powell told the room.

Moments later, the Philadelphia Flyers on the clock, Powell’s name popped up on screen.

Screams and “surreal, over-the-top-exciting” feelings — feelings that have filled so many homes during that moment — followed.

Except Powell’s story is unlike those of the 147 players who’d heard their names called before him.

Shortly after his name flashed across the TV, Powell’s mom sent a message to her son’s old speech pathologist. “You were instrumental in helping Noah,” she wrote.

Powell, taken with the 148th pick in the draft, wants to become the Flyers’ next hard-to-play-against forward, a physical energizer first and a scorer second. He also hopes to follow in the footsteps of Jim Kyte, the first legally deaf NHL player.

He says getting here, and eventually there, all starts with the people around him.

“I’ve had to lean on the people closest to me, whether that be friends, family, coaching,” Powell said. “I’ve been fortunate enough to have a very supportive family.”

Powell was born with bilateral sensorineural hearing loss. His parents, Maria (who works in pharmaceutical sales) and Anthony (who works in finance), didn’t learn about it until he failed his kindergarten hearing exam — a test they didn’t even know the state of Illinois required until he’d failed it twice.

At the time, it explained a lot of things. Powell had been working with a speech-language pathologist since he was 3 because he wasn’t talking much and his parents felt something wasn’t right.

They didn’t know how resourceful he’d become, though — that he’d learned to lip-read. The multiple pathologists who came through the house and told them “he’s great, he’s caught up to speed, he’s good to go” after two or three months of working with him didn’t realize that was how he was learning, either.

Ever since those failed tests, Powell has worn hearing aids. When he was a child, he’d use an assisted listening device to hear mic’d-up coaches and teachers so he didn’t have to rely on lip-reading from a distance.

“His hearing loss is such that the common phonetic sounds used in the English language happen to be the sounds that he has a hard time hearing,” Maria said. “Every day we use our language to communicate and he struggles to hear those sounds. So if he’s not wearing his hearing aids he’s either got to rely on lip-reading or pure context to make sure that he’s understanding what’s being communicated to him. And no two hearing losses are the same, which a lot of people don’t understand. We’re still learning more to this day about his hearing loss and how it impacts his development and him on the ice and in the classroom and even in a social environment.”

Over time, Powell asked if he could stop wearing his hearing aids during hockey.

Maria and Anthony, who were by then spending a lot of time repairing them because of sweat and the impact on the ice — “people don’t realize that these cost about $3,000 each, so they’re really expensive and hard to maintain,” Maria said — came to an agreement with him. So long as he was either making sure he was close to coaches when they were talking so he could lip-read or waiting until the end of the line during drills (especially when the coach was at the opposite end of the ice), he could take them out on the ice.

“If he loses sound or it stops working, then now it’s plugging that ear. So now it’s making it even that much harder to hear. And it’s not like you can just take off your hockey glove and put it somewhere,” Maria said.

“I do not want families or impacted players to think it’s not possible to wear hearing aids while playing hockey. But with a visor helmet and increased intensity of the game, we did support Noah’s decision not to wear his hearing aids.”

Powell, left, with “lifelong friends” he has known since 2011 through the American Hearing Impaired Hockey Association. (Maria Powell)

These days, Powell wears a brand of inner-ear hearing aids rather than over-ear ones, popping them in when he gets off the ice.

Maria said getting to this point was “a learning curve for all of us.” Because he wasn’t always comfortable saying, “I’m hard of hearing,” many didn’t even realize until he started to learn to advocate for himself in the seventh or eighth grade.

Today, Maria describes her son as animated, free-spirited, intense and competitive.

“He loves to debate,” she said, laughing. “He’s a big debater for sure. But I guess that goes with being competitive. When he’s set out to do something he takes it seriously. You tell him he can’t do something and he will prove to you that he can. He’s very driven, very determined. He can be a little stubborn at times but I guess that that also helps him be successful and got him to where he is now.”

But it took a lot of his parents telling him, “This is what you have, you were born with hearing loss, it doesn’t mean that you won’t be capable of doing things that you love to do like hockey” to get there.

“It’s not a visible disability where if he had a limp or he had crutches or was in a wheelchair it would be a constant reminder, so oftentimes folks would forget, including his own friends,” Maria said. “It wasn’t easy. As a family, we’ve always supported Noah through the lows and highs. At times he would get in trouble for doing the wrong thing on the ice. (And) he never wanted to use it as an excuse and never wanted that kind of attention. So he just over the years figured it out and has definitely come a long way. It’s kind of cool to see that level of maturity and you kind of have to just accept what you have.”

It also, Maria insists, took being “so blessed in just a number of people that we have been surrounded by.”

Among the first people Maria and Noah point to are Mike and Nancy Nelson, his billet parents the last two seasons in Dubuque in the USHL.

Mike and Nancy are season ticket holders who years ago billeted future NHLer Tyce Thompson. They’ve got seats in the first row behind the net, and one of the Powells’ favorite photos is of Noah crashing into Mike for a high-five after a goal. The Nelsons are family-centered and never missed a game unless they each had a unique conflict, according to Maria.

The Nelsons, Powell’s billet parents, have been big believers in his talents. (Maria Powell)

“Mike and Nancy played a huge role for me,” Powell said. “Me walking in there, I didn’t know anything (and) they knew the ins and outs of what to do. I leaned on them for help and they welcomed me into their home.”

Last season, nobody expected him to break out like he did, finishing fifth in the USHL in points with 74. Not Maria. Not Kalle Larsson, who was his general manager in Dubuque before recently taking a job with the Edmonton Oilers. Not even Powell himself.

The previous season, in his first year of eligibility for the draft, Powell had scored just 19 points in 53 games. Before that, the only reason Larsson had added him as a free agent was because one of their draft picks, Aron Kiviharju, signed in Finland and they had seven days to add another player. Larsson laughs about having seen Powell play for the Chicago Mission that September, knowing he was local, and thinking, Why not?

Even through the first couple of months of last season, Powell wasn’t on anyone’s radar for the draft and scored just one goal in his first 16 games.

The Nelsons believed, though.

“I just remember (Mike) was so supportive and would say to me and his dad, ‘It’s going to happen, it’s going to happen, the floodgates are going to come,’” Maria said.

And eventually they did. After losing a group of players in December and January to the World Junior A Challenge and the world juniors, Powell was elevated in Dubuque’s lineup and took off, one big night following the last. He had a 10-shot game on New Year’s Eve, scored four hat tricks and put together one of the best goal-scoring runs in USHL history, scoring 42 times in his final 45 games.

“I would be lying if I thought that he was going to score 43 goals and be the leading scorer in the whole league,” Larsson said. “He wasn’t even drafted in the league and becomes the league’s leading scorer, which is pretty impressive. I knew he was going to be a good player but maybe that jump would have been to 25 goals and 50 points. And you can probably put that on us too, where early in the season we didn’t put him in situations that obviously in hindsight he had earned.”

Powell and his mom both point to Larsson and Dubuque coaches Kirk MacDonald (“KMac,” they call him), Evan Dixon and Alex Kromm for “transforming” him as a player and helping him “make the transition from youth to junior and eventually able to dominate the junior level.”

Larsson says if he wasn’t told that Noah was hearing-impaired he might not have ever known because his lip-reading is so strong, his hearing aids are hidden and he “never once brought it up — like never once ever.” When NHL scouts started to call him in the New Year and they’d ask about how he did with it in the dressing room, Larsson would tell them the same thing: “You wouldn’t even really know.” He’d also tell them of a fun, funny, likeable kid who was loved by his teammates and very competitive.

Said Larsson: “There are times when you’ll talk to Noah and you’ll be having a conversation and he’ll be like, ‘Please repeat that,’ and you’ll just have to slow down a little bit. If the coaches have to talk to him, they’ll tap his shoulder so that he turns around instead of a lot of times where a coach will just lean down and talk into a player’s ear. That obviously doesn’t work for him. Sometimes if you’re talking to him and you tell a joke you don’t see him laughing with you and that’s because he’s reading your lips so he doesn’t pay attention to your facial expressions sometimes. That’s about it.”

For support, Powell has also worked with both a strength and conditioning coach and a mindset coach since the age of 12, and over the last four years a video coach who helped him review his games so he didn’t fall behind in coaching.

Both Powell and his mom talk about the “huge role” the people at JET Hockey Training Arena — strength coach Barry Brennan and skills coach and former NHLer Ben Eager — have played in his development. Brennan (who also used to work with the Blue Jackets) trained Eager before he played for the Blackhawks and together they converted a portion of the rink, which is just seven or eight minutes from the Powells, into a gym.

Powell said Eager “basically taught me how to rip the pill” and Brennan introduced him to boxing and high-level Olympic weightlifting, sprinting, and even using cycling and swimming for conditioning.

Maria said the gym has become the place Noah goes to release tension. Noah called it his “quiet space.”

“I go there and there’s not too much that I have to worry about,” Noah said of unplugging sound-wise during his lifts.

Working out and martial arts have become his second love. On top of boxing with Brennan, he trains in jiu-jitsu under Ronaldo Candido, who competed on season 24 of “The Ultimate Fighter” and was a multi-time International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation world champion. During the pandemic, he also built a gym in his garage.

Larsson jokes Powell is “built like Hulk Hogan.”

“I mean, he’s jacked,” Larsson said of the 6-foot-1, 210-pound winger.

Some of the athleticism is genetic: Anthony grew up playing baseball and basketball and his grandfather was a Division I track athlete. But nobody in the family played hockey. Maria is Colombian and Anthony is half African-American and half Polish. His mom tried to push him to soccer but he loved wearing hockey gear.

On the ice, his strength shows up in a power forward game and an ability to “really, really, really shoot the puck,” according to Larsson.

Said Larsson: “He’s really fast when he gets going but will probably have to work on lateral movements and acceleration to take the next steps. I also like his versatility. Not that fighting is something that I think is a huge deal in hockey anymore, but he’s willing to do whatever it takes to contribute to the team. Like he’s not just a goal scorer. If you need a fourth-liner who is a crasher and banger, Noah can crash and bang or move up the lineup and help your power play.”

Powell will head to Ohio State after Flyers training camp in September. (Rena Laverty / USA Hockey)

That game earned him an invite from USA Hockey to this summer’s World Junior Summer Showcase, the start of the audition process for the under-20 world championship in December.

In camp, he made an immediate impression on head coach David Carle, who “knew he was a big power forward type” but was pleasantly surprised by his poise on the puck and credited him for breathing energy into the team.

At his next camp — training camp with the Flyers in September — he’ll continue to work toward a vision Maria said he’s had since he was 5 years old of playing in the NHL.

A picture Noah drew in first grade. (Maria Powell)

After that, he’ll join the Buckeyes as freshman at Ohio State under head coach Steve Rohlik.

Rohlik’s daughter Erin, a sophomore at OSU, is coincidentally also hard of hearing and relies on lip-reading. Powell didn’t even initially know that when he committed to the Buckeyes.

“He knows different approaches as to how to communicate with me,” Powell said. “(Rohlik’s) been nothing but amazing. He’s made me feel nothing but welcome. I was only there for eight days (earlier this year) and I walked away feeling like I’d known him for eight months.”

Erin played field hockey growing up and used to also go to the back of the line. Rohlik, like Maria, mentioned it to coaches when Erin wasn’t yet confident enough to do so.

“I really have some personal experience every day,” Rohlik said. “You would not know anything talking with (Erin) and facing and having a discussion, but now you throw Noah on the ice during drills, during games, there’s lots of noise, probably lots of ringing, and you’ve got to be understandable as a coach that sometimes you’ve got to grab him and make sure that communication process is delivered maybe in a little bit of a different fashion. You’ll still get great results if you understand how the communication process needs to be done for them.”

After getting to know Noah a little more during an eight-day visit to campus earlier this summer, Rohlik can’t wait to work with him.

“He was on an absolute tear there at the end of the year. It was absolutely unbelievable. And he scored ugly goals, pretty goals, you name it,” Rohlik said. “And he doesn’t know how strong he is at times. He’s a bull in a china shop. I just think there’s so many things we can help with his development. That’s the exciting part.”

But they’ve also fallen in love with the kid — as everyone does.

“He’s a tremendous person and in the perfect world you want to get the best hockey player and the best person possible, and I think we got both,” Rohlik said. “He has persevered, I think he’s a tremendous competitor, and I think he’s just scratching the surface of where he can be.”

(Photo: Rena Laverty / USA Hockey)

What does the old Nationwide Insurance commercial say? “Life comes at you fast.”

Indeed it does.

Just ask Bryce Young, the quarterback once heralded as the savior of the Carolina Panthers. Sunday afternoon, despite another poor outing from the 2023 No. 1 pick, Panthers coach Dave Canales pledged loyalty to Young. Less than 24 hours later, Canales announced he had decided to bench Young in favor of 14-year NFL veteran Andy Dalton.

“Bryce is our quarterback” quickly changed to “Andy gives us the best chance to win,” as Canales desperately seeks to stop the bleeding after the 0-2 Panthers got outscored 73-13 in the season’s first two games.

Young endured a tumultuous rookie season and is already playing for his third head coach in 17 months. His rookie performance struggles have carried over into Year 2. In his 2024 starts, he has completed only 55.4 percent of his passes for 245 yards, no touchdowns and three interceptions.

Young’s benching just two games into yet another Panthers rebuilding season raises a whole slew of questions about the wisdom and foresight of Carolina’s brass. Young’s rapid fall from grace also serves as another example of the impatience and impulsiveness that far too often governs (and muddles) quarterback decisions across the NFL.

Another once-promising prospect is at risk of ruin. Another franchise remains stuck in purgatory. As a familiar storyline plays out, and as other young quarterbacks stumble out of the gate this season, it feels like the NFL has a quarterback development crisis on its hands.

GO DEEPER

Is Bryce Young’s benching the beginning of the end for last year’s No. 1 pick?

A national champion and Heisman Trophy winner at Alabama, Young seemed destined for NFL stardom. His diminutive stature (5-foot-10, 204 pounds) did cause pause for some talent evaluators. But many also believed the accuracy, poise, athleticism, tireless work ethic, exceptional football IQ, keen instincts and competitive fire that Young displayed in college would more than help him compensate for a lack of size.

Instead, Young hasn’t even sniffed proficiency.

Does he deserve blame for some of his shortcomings? Sure. But Young was destined to fail during a rookie season with a franchise and coaching staff plagued by dysfunction. He wound up going 2-14 while throwing 11 touchdown passes and 10 interceptions. C.J. Stroud, taken by the Texans one pick after Young, went on to win Offensive Rookie of the Year.

It’s highly unlikely, however, that Stroud would have had the same kind of success in Carolina as he did with Houston, which went 10-7 and advanced to the divisional round of the playoffs under new coach DeMeco Ryans. In Carolina, there were:

1. Far too many cooks in the kitchen among hands-on owner David Tepper, coach Frank Reich (who lasted only 11 games), offensive coordinator Thomas Brown, senior offensive assistant Jim Caldwell, quarterbacks coach Josh McCown and assistant head coach Duce Staley.

2. So many roster holes. Few (if any) quarterbacks could succeed with such a shaky supporting cast.

Canales was supposed to help Young reset, similar to how as an assistant he helped Geno Smith in Seattle and Baker Mayfield in Tampa Bay revive their careers. But he already made one confusing decision by holding Young out of the first two preseason games rather than give him game reps to help his growth, and now this.

Panthers coach Dave Canales will start Andy Dalton (right) in Sunday’s game at the Raiders. (Stephen Lew / Imagn Images)

Will time as an observer help Young better understand NFL quarterbacking? Time will tell.

We do know that benching Young, who has been sacked 68 times in 18 career games, will not fix the Panthers’ other talent deficiencies on offense. Yes, some oft-sacked quarterbacks deserve blame for holding onto the ball too long. But Carolina’s offensive line is not very good.

A switch from Young to Dalton will not suddenly help improve the tackling of a defense that has surrendered a league-high 36.5 points per game. But the Panthers, like so many teams before them, seem to think that a quality quarterback can mask a host of deficiencies. Yes, a great quarterback can elevate a team, but not even Patrick Mahomes could cure all of Carolina’s ills.

We don’t know how Young’s story will play out, but based on his handling last season and Monday’s surprise decision, the Panthers have committed quarterback malpractice.

And they’re not alone. Just look at the 2021 NFL Draft class. No. 1 pick Trevor Lawrence remains with the Jaguars, but fellow first-round quarterbacks Zach Wilson, Trey Lance, Justin Fields and Mac Jones have all moved on from the teams that drafted them.

Development-wise, Young didn’t look ready last season, and he looks no closer to ready this year. Carolina in 2023 committed the all-too-familiar transgression of drafting a prized quarterback and throwing him to the wolves before he was ready to execute at a high level and before the roster around him was strong enough to help compensate for his deficiencies. This season’s Panthers roster remains riddled with holes. Young’s struggles, coupled with Canales’ decision to bench him so quickly, suggests the kid should have never opened this season as the starter.

Many teams feel pressure to anoint a star quarterback the starter from Day 1, even though these prospects remain raw and their new teams have the shakiest of foundations. It defies logic. You wouldn’t hand a teenager with his learner’s permit the keys to a sloppy jalopy and expect him to safely navigate an interstate. So why expect miracles from a first-year pro quarterback?

Scoop City Newsletter

Free, daily NFL updates direct to your inbox.

Free, daily NFL updates direct to your inbox.

Sign Up

There certainly are instances when a rookie quarterback doesn’t help himself. Maybe he’s not studying as much as he should. Maybe he’s repeating the same mistakes. Many times when a quarterback experiment goes south, the whispers about poor work ethic and discipline surface. But if a young quarterback isn’t carrying himself like the ultimate pro, and if he’s not exhibiting the growth, discipline and dedication necessary to hold onto a starting job, don’t give him that nod to begin with. Make him earn it.

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with telling a quarterback he’s not ready. But do that from the start instead of ignoring all of the red flags and justifying a decision to start him because of the premium pick used to acquire him.

Indecisiveness and impatience does no one any favors. A team with a young quarterback has two choices:

• Commit to developing him on the fly and living with the fact that things will get ugly before they improve. Remember: The great Peyton Manning led the NFL in interceptions (28) and won only three games as a rookie. Troy Aikman went 0-11 as a rookie before going on to win three Super Bowls.

• Or, play the long game. Redshirt and develop the quarterback while fortifying the roster he will eventually inherit, and THEN start him once growth is evident.

Far too many NFL coaches struggle to embrace conservative approaches for their young quarterbacks.

It’s well documented that a young passer’s best friend is a strong rushing game and the play-action passing attack that comes as a byproduct of the run. But instead of going with a run-first mentality to both lighten the load and put a defense on its heels to buy a quarterback more time, play-callers have young, underdeveloped quarterbacks dropping back 30 and 40 times a game. That’s when the crippling mistakes come.

Passing on early downs (and the incompletions that follow) leads to third-and-long situations, which forces a quarterback to hold onto the ball longer while plays develop. That puts more pressure on an offensive line (which may or may not be very good), and makes the quarterback an easy target for sacks.

Most young quarterbacks also lack the initial understanding of defenses necessary to thrive. On many of Young’s interceptions, it’s clear he’s either not seeing defenders or doesn’t have a clue that he’s being set up by a disguised coverage. He’s throwing these interceptions with conviction — riffling the ball downfield without hesitation … only for a defensive back to swoop in and pluck it out of the air.

Eventually, young, error-prone quarterbacks get cussed out for a bad decision or get the hook. In truth, they never should have been in those situations in the first place.

Broncos coach Sean Payton has had rookie Bo Nix drop back 77 times, third most in the league. That has set Nix up to make some perplexing decisions en route to a league-high four interceptions (tied with the Colts’ Anthony Richardson) and an atrocious 51.0 passer rating. Bears 2024 No. 1 pick Caleb Williams, overwhelmed by a heavy passing load and the speed of the NFL game, has struggled to promptly get rid of the ball. Meanwhile, Titans second-year pro Will Levis has committed some fatal mistakes while looking like a quarterback who would greatly benefit from a year or two as a backup.

Why can’t coaches recognize how their ultra-aggressive tactics are handicapping their quarterbacks? We have plenty of examples of how effective a quarterback even of average skill set can be when his play-caller is committed to supporting him with a balanced game plan.

Take Sunday in Green Bay, where Matt LaFleur positioned the much-maligned Malik Willis for success just three weeks after he was traded to the Packers. LaFleur fed running back Josh Jacobs 32 times, and Jacobs finished with 151 rushing yards. The Packers executed 21 additional run plays (six for Willis) and finished with 261 rushing yards. Meanwhile, Willis was asked to throw the ball just 14 times. He completed 12 passes for 122 yards, a touchdown, no interception and a passer rating of 126.8.

Contrast that with the workload and ineffectiveness of Richardson, his game-day counterpart. The second-year pro, making only his sixth career start, dropped back 34 times and completed only 17 passes for 204 yards, a touchdown and three interceptions. It wasn’t the most dazzlingly entertaining performance, but Willis helped the Packers win 16-10. Give me ultra-conservative and a victory over three confidence-bruising interceptions and a loss any day.

Maybe the NFL needs an application process where quarterback-needy teams have to lay out a clear and effective plan for developing a prized prospect to gain approval to draft him. I kid. But now more than ever — when quarterbacks spend less time in college and come into the NFL more raw than ever — NFL decision-makers need to exercise more patience when developing and managing young quarterbacks.

The impulsive and impatient approaches are killing careers and dooming franchises to continued years of floundering. When that happens, heads roll — and rightfully so.

(Top photo: Chris Graythen / Getty Images)

The Grand Slam season is over, and the WTA and ATP Finals are rapidly approaching.

These next two months can be a strange period for tennis — especially in an Olympic year — with some players keeping their powder dry for the following season while others desperately try to finish the year strongly.

Here, The Athletic looks at some of the main storylines we expect to play out between now and the end of 2024.

How bothered is Alcaraz about ending the year as world No 1?

After winning the U.S. Open, Jannik Sinner has a big lead in the race to be the year-end world No 1. He is just under 2,900 points ahead of the No 2 Alexander Zverev and then a touch further in front of the No 3 Carlos Alcaraz.

That may seem strange given Sinner and Alcaraz have shared the year’s two Grand Slams, but the latter has been far less consistent throughout 2024.

With two Masters 1000 events to come, plus the year-end ATP Finals in November (worth a potential 1,500 points), there is still time for Alcaraz or Zverev to reel in Sinner.

But how much does Alcaraz want to make that kind of charge? In the equivalent swing last year, he struggled — he didn’t make a final and was thrashed by Novak Djokovic in the ATP Finals semis to end his year with a whimper. Alcaraz, despite being only 21, is doing a very good job of managing his mind and body to peak at the Grand Slams.

So what will his priorities be for the next few months? Will he want to correct the wrongs of his early exits in Cincinnati and the U.S. Open, of which he spoke again last week about how he let himself down? Or will he largely see the end of this year as a cooling-off period before really going for it again at the Australian Open in January?

Alcaraz exited the U.S. Open in the second round (Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty Images)

With the chance in Melbourne to become the youngest man to complete the career Grand Slam, it would be little surprise if he opted for the latter. Last year, Alcaraz’s indifferent form at the end of the previous season bled into the Australian Open, so a charge for the finish line this year would be an interesting change-up. For all he’s won, Alcaraz is still tweaking things as he adjusts to the rhythms of tour life.

How much will Saudi Arabia dominate the tennis landscape?

For this year’s WTA Finals in November, this issue is less about who qualifies and more about the sideshow around the event.

Last year’s equivalent in Cancun was a shambles, with stormy weather and substandard facilities driving the players to distraction. Expect no such logistical issues this time, with Riyadh taking over as hosts and sure to put on a fine show.

(Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)

The issue is everything that goes around hosting a women’s sporting event in Saudi Arabia — a country with an “abysmal” record on women’s rights (according to Amnesty International this year). The country has introduced some reforms over the last few years, and points to the “personal status” law established in 2022 as evidence of progress in women’s rights. But this law stipulates that a woman has to obtain a male guardian’s permission to marry, and has to obey her husband in a “reasonable manner”. Women have only been permitted to drive in the country since 2018.

These are hugely complicated issues that can’t be fully examined here, but the eight WTA players in Riyadh will be asked about them and the appropriateness of hosting the event in Saudi Arabia. How many will put their head above the parapet and engage? Not that they are the ones who should necessarily have to — it was not their decision to host the event there.

Saudi Arabia will also host the ‘6 Kings Slam’ exhibition in October, featuring Alcaraz, Sinner, Novak Djokovic and Nadal, and the ATP Next Gen Finals in Jeddah in December. Meanwhile, discussions rumble on in the background about the nation hosting a Masters 1000 event. It promises to be a big few months in the burgeoning relationship between Saudi and tennis.

What next for Nadal?

Speaking of Nadal, will we see him in competitive action again this year? The 22-time Grand Slam champion has already pulled out of this weekend’s Laver Cup, and does not have a tour-level event on the horizon. He was last seen in singles action taking a battering from his old rival Djokovic at the Olympics in late July, and of his Laver Cup withdrawal he didn’t mention any specifics, saying vaguely that: “I need to do what’s best for them and there are other players who can help the team deliver the win.”

(Miguel Medina/AFP via Getty Images)

With accumulated injuries and fitness concerns forcing Nadal out of the U.S. Open (he said with similar vagueness that he would not “be able to give my 100 per cent”), you wonder what he is building up to. We don’t know if this will be his last year on tour, but the Davis Cup finals in his home country in November feel like an appropriate, and possibly realistic, target to work towards.

Elsewhere, the rest of the year will also see tennis say farewell to some other very popular players — including Dominic Thiem, 31 (at the Vienna Open), and Danielle Collins, 30 (at the Billie Jean King Cup Finals).

More of the same from Swiatek?

World No 1 Iga Swiatek has already pulled out of the Billie Jean King Cup finals in November (as well as this week’s Korea Open) to give herself a proper off season, but generally the expectation is that she’ll go full throttle between now and the end of the year.

Swiatek doesn’t really know another way. In Cincinnati last month, she spoke out about the jam-packed schedule, particularly the increased number of mandatory events, and said it risked burning the players out. “It’s not going to end well,” she said. “It makes tennis less fun for us. I love playing in all these places, but it’s pretty exhausting and most of the WTA players would tell you that, especially when you’re playing at a high level.”

A few weeks later, after her tired-looking defeat to Jessica Pegula in the U.S. Open quarterfinals, you would not have blamed Swiatek for taking some time off. “I don’t think it would make sense,” responded an almost affronted sounding Swiatek. “If you’re out of tour, then it’s pretty hard to come back… I’m ready for playing till November, I guess, unless I’m going to get injured.”

Swiatek between games during her defeat to Pegula in New York (Kena Betancur/AFP via Getty Images)

Swiatek’s approach has generally been to just keep going, and her overall consistency is why she is more than 2,000 points clear at the top of the rankings, despite winning one Grand Slam to Aryna Sabalenka’s two in 2024. It’s the approach that saw Swiatek pip the Belarusian to the top spot at the end of last year after a surge at the WTA Finals.

This time around, will Swiatek’s mind start to wander to next year?

It will also be interesting to see whether Swiatek starts to play with a bit more freedom and variety with less on the line these next few months. She’s retreated more and more into sticking with Plan A even if it’s not working, and it’s not been working as well since Roland Garros (no finals in her four events since).

Incidentally, much of the above could also be said of Coco Gauff, who has veered badly off course since the French Open.

Will Sabalenka cement herself as de facto No 1?

There was some suggestion after winning her second major of the year at the U.S. Open that it was Sabalenka rather than Swiatek who was now the woman to beat on the WTA Tour — despite what the rankings suggest.

That probably overstates it given Swiatek’s staggering overall consistency on the tour and huge ranking points lead — but if Sabalenka can have the upper hand in these closing couple of months to add to her superior Grand Slam performance this year, then she really will go into 2025 with the aura of the player the others’ most fear.

Sabalenka is playing some of her best tennis (Timoty A Clary/AFP via Getty Images)

If that’s not the case already.

Will Tiafoe ‘turn the page’ or ‘half-ass it’?

Over the last couple of years, Frances Tiafoe has essentially built his year around two tournaments: the U.S. Open and Wimbledon. There are some other important ones, sure, but none that compare to those two.

This year has been another example of this, with Tiafoe playing by far his best matches in New York and south-west London. At the latter, this still ended up in a defeat — in five sets to Alcaraz — but it reignited the flame in Tiafoe and set him up for that semifinal run at the U.S. Open this month.

After his tournament eventually ended with a defeat to compatriot Taylor Fritz in the semis, Tiafoe vowed that he would tweak his approach. That he would put in the work all year round to give himself the best possible chance of peaking at his two favourite events. “I’m gonna turn the page, I’m going to try to end the year strong,” he said in New York. “I’m going to go to Asia, do the whole thing, do it the right way and not half-ass it.”

(Jamie Squire/Getty Images)

Now the adrenaline has worn off, will Tiafoe make good on that pledge? It’s exciting to think of Tiafoe being a greater factor on the tour. Not just because it would mean we’d get to see one of the most magnetic players on the ATP Tour, but also because it would set him up much better for those clutch matches, and potentially make encounters at the slams with players like Alcaraz even more epic.

How many Americans will reach Turin?

The race to Turin, where the best eight players from the year will compete in the ATP Finals, offers a good indication of the state of American men’s tennis. Taylor Fritz is fifth in the race and behind him, there’s a clutch of four players between No 11 and No 20 (ie, very good but not yet elite).

Fritz looks a good bet to make the finals in Italy after his U.S. Open final run, but will any of Tommy Paul (No 11), Tiafoe (14), Sebastian Korda (17) and Ben Shelton (20) will be joining him?

Doing so would do plenty for any of those players’ confidence, while also leaving them most likely as a top-eight seed for the Australian Open, and ensuring themselves a slightly easier draw.

Which of the team events will stand out?

This section of the year is when team events are most prominent. The Davis Cup and Billie Jean King Cup are in a constant battle to stay relevant, so it’ll be interesting to see how many top players turn out for the finals in Malaga at the end of an arduous season. Swiatek and Gauff have already pulled out of the BJK Cup finals. Alcaraz played for Spain in the Davis Cup last week so, barring an injury, the expectation is he will do so again in November. Maybe Nadal will join him.

As for the Laver Cup, this will be the second year in a row with none of the ‘Big Three’ in action. Alcaraz being in Berlin will help but for an event that has always been so driven by star power, it will be interesting to see how it evolves over the next few years.

Will any players have late breakthroughs?

With players regularly running out of steam at this time of year, there is an opportunity for some of the fresher figures to make hay in the final two months of the season. That could be someone more established, such as Pegula, who looks recharged after taking time off earlier in the year, pushing for a top-three rankings finish (possibly even top two), or someone younger, such as Diana Shnaider (20 years old), who has plenty of momentum behind her and not many miles on the clock, going after a statement victory.

On the men’s side, Britain’s Jack Draper has a game that looks well suited to indoor tennis and has the chance to build on his excellent showing in New York and push towards the world’s top 10.

Draper reached the U.S. Open semi-finals (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

In the immediate term, the main focus on the women’s side this week is on the Korea Open 500 event in Seoul. For the men, the Laver Cup, starting on Friday, promises to dominate.

Even with no more Grand Slams this year, there are plenty of talking points between now and the end of the season.

(CARL DE SOUZA/AFP via Getty Images)

The Champions League is back, with a new format, more games and lots more goals.

There were 28 scored across six matches, with blistering Bayern Munich scoring almost a third of that total.

In fact, in Champions League history, only one more night (in October 2014) has seen a higher goals-per-game ratio than the 4.7 per game we saw on Tuesday.

Tuesday’s action was about much more than goals though. Real Madrid and Liverpool kicked off their campaigns with identical scorelines but very different victories, plus a Champions League legend even popped up to announce his new TV show.

Here are the highlights…

Endrick and Mbappe strike after Real Madrid’s stuttering start

On the opening Champions League night, we got our first look at the reigning champions and they looked… shaky.

Real Madrid may have the most imposing front line in European football – Kylian Mbappe, Vinicius Junior and Rodrygo, backed up by Jude Bellingham – but it was Stuttgart who were playing carefree, attacking football for much of this entertaining match.

Mbappe scored Real’s first in the win against Stuttgart (Thomas Coex/AFP via Getty Images)

The 3-1 scoreline suggests a relatively comfortable home victory but with seven minutes left on the clock Madrid, were probably lucky to be level at 1-1. The enterprising German visitors created chances, particularly in the early stages when they hit the bar and spurned two one-on-one opportunities.

Thibaut Courtois needed to be on top form, bailing out Madrid along with, well, a superstar striker, an old bloke and a child.

Mbappe was brilliantly set up by Rodrygo to score his first Champions League goal for Real Madrid just after half-time and then, after Brighton reject Deniz Undav had shocked the Bernabeu by levelling the scores with a header, the 39-year-old Luka Modric crossed for Antonio Rudiger to restore Madrid’s lead. Then their 18-year-old Brazilian wonderkid, Endrick, made it 3-1.

He became Real’s youngest Champions League goalscorer when driving this one home from range after breaking forward with the ball.

Video for UK readers

Endrick sealed a 3-1 win for Real Madrid against Stuttgart with this strike from long range on his Champions League debut.#UCL

🎥 @footballontnt pic.twitter.com/ITquGmvEHR

— The Athletic | Football (@TheAthleticFC) September 17, 2024

Video for U.S. readers

A #UCL debut to remember for 18-year-old Endrick! 🤯🇧🇷 pic.twitter.com/vP5jiqkval

— CBS Sports Golazo ⚽️ (@CBSSportsGolazo) September 17, 2024

Points off because the ‘keeper palmed it in. Points back on for the crowd-pleasing celebration.

This week, Endrick married Gabriely Miranda, and when asked about the forward’s goal tonight and wedding a few days ago, a grinning Carlo Ancelotti replied: “He has shown to be very brave in these two days.”

Bellingham made his return from injury, playing 80 minutes, in what finished up as a satisfactory night in the Spanish capital. They will need to improve if they want to hold on to their title — but then again, they always do.

A record-breaking night for Kane and Bayern Munich

One of Madrid’s challengers could be Bayern Munich, whose incredible 9-2 victory over hapless Dinamo Zagreb was the standout scoreline of this or pretty much any night. Bayern became the first team to score nine goals in a Champions League match.

They had already seen two goals disallowed for offside when Harry Kane opened the scoring with a penalty after 19 minutes. Bayern were cruising at half-time, 3-0 up, but by the 50th minute, it was 3-2. Dinamo put two past substitute ‘keeper Sven Ulreich (on for the injured Manuel Neuer at the interval).

Then the goals dropped like a hailstorm. Kane scored four, including three penalties that he put in the same corner.

Raphael Guerreiro (more on him later), Leroy Sane, Leon Goretzka and two from ex-Crystal Palace man and Champions League debutant Michael Olise gave Dinamo a night to forget.

Ravenous Bayern were still careering forward in stoppage time trying for double figures, with Kane just clearing the bar with the last kick of the game.

It capped a pretty astonishing eight days for Kane, who last Tuesday scored twice for England in their 2-0 win for Finland, before notching a hat-trick for Bayern in their 6-1 rout of Holstein Kiel in the Bundesliga on Saturday.

He has become the record English goalscorer in the Champions League (33), overtaking Wayne Rooney (30), and he now has 53 goals in 50 games for Bayern since joining the club just over a year ago.

Pulisic on target but Liverpool coast to victory at San Siro

The heavyweight contest of the night was in Italy – but despite an early scare, Liverpool breezed past AC Milan to pile the pressure on new manager Paulo Fonseca.

U.S. men’s national team star Christian Pulisic continued his recent good form (he had been player of the match with a goal and an assist against Venezia at the weekend), taking advantage of space vacated by Konstantinos Tsimikas to put Milan ahead in just the third minute with a fine goal.

But Arne Slot’s team, who had 23 shots to Milan’s eight, were dominant thereafter. They scored carbon copy goals from set pieces, with full-backs Trent Alexander-Arnold and Tsimikas floating deliveries towards centre-backs Ibrahima Konate and Virgil van Dijk to head two goals before half-time. Liverpool’s superiority was reflected in the stats (below).

After the break, Dominik Szoboszlai secured the victory after a dazzling run and pass from Cody Gakpo to make it 3-1. Liverpool also gave a late debut to Federico Chiesa, rounding off a satisfactory night’s work — but unlike Madrid’s performance, this one was much more convincing.

As for Milan, they were whistled off the pitch at full time. Fonseca was appointed in the summer but with his team 10th after four Serie A matches, the early signs aren’t good.

“After we conceded the second goal, the team stopped playing, and it becomes difficult after that,” he said. Yes, quite.

The other Italian side on show, Juventus, made light work of Dutch champions PSV Eindhoven, who were beaten 3-1 in Turin. American midfielder Weston McKennie was on the scoresheet for the Old Lady.

Gyokeres continues flying start to 2024-25 — with ninth goal in six games

Fifteen months ago, Viktor Gyokeres was a Coventry City player in the Championship, English football’s second tier.

He was hardly an unknown youngster — the Swedish striker was 25 when Sporting snapped him up for around £17million ($22m at current rates) — and since then, well…

Gyokeres scored 29 goals in 33 league games last season, plus five in nine in the Europa League.

He has notched eight in five games in Portugal’s Primeira Liga this season and, on his Champions League debut last night, he scored again, giving Sporting the lead against Lille in the 38th minute. It was a true striker’s goal, hit on the turn in a crowded penalty area — that €100million (£84.5m; $111m) release clause is looking cheaper by the day.

Video for UK readers

It just HAD to be him! 💥

Viktor Gyökeres gives Sporting the lead with a magnificent finish 😮‍💨🇸🇪

📺 @tntsports & @discoveryplusUK pic.twitter.com/Pkj2l62vAG

— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) September 17, 2024

Video for U.S. readers

Viktor Gyökeres picks up where he left off! ⚽

The Swedish international stays hot for Sporting 🔥 pic.twitter.com/vTwFqAVadD

— CBS Sports Golazo ⚽️ (@CBSSportsGolazo) September 17, 2024

Like Undav, Gyokeres was discarded by Brighton. That club just doesn’t know talent when it sees it…

Sporting went on to win 2-0, their cause helped by Lille playing for 60 minutes with 10 men after England international Angel Gomes was sent off for two yellow cards. Sporting were also helped by scoring arguably the goal of the night, talking of which…

Debast’s rocket and Musiala’s sensual chest  — and a comedy goal for Villa

If you’ve got a name as striking as Zeno Debast, you have to be great at hitting a football and even though he’s only a defender, 20-year-old Belgian Debast delivered with “de blast” of the opening round of Champions League fixtures. Pick this out…

Video for UK readers

What a goal!

An early contender for the Champions League goal of the season as Zeno Debast doubles Sporting’s lead with a thunderous strike. #UCL

🎥 @footballontnt pic.twitter.com/zeV47hiurY

— The Athletic | Football (@TheAthleticFC) September 17, 2024

Video for U.S. readers

WHAT A WAY TO SCORE YOUR FIRST-EVER GOAL! 🚀

Zeno Debast UNLEASHES ONE from distance for an unforgettable GOLAZO 😱 pic.twitter.com/aMVOLYWBst

— CBS Sports Golazo ⚽️ (@CBSSportsGolazo) September 17, 2024

You know a goal is good if not one but two team-mates instinctively put their hands on their heads in awe and disbelief after witnessing it.

But was it even the goal of the night? There were some ridiculously good goals on show.

Bayern Munich’s second goal by Portuguese defender Raphael Guerreiro was a thing of beauty, coming via a sensual chest pass from Jamal Musiala before Guerreiro unleashed a nonchalant rocket on the half-volley.

Somewhat annoyingly, the goal didn’t get the celebration it deserved because the assistant referee rather inexplicably flagged for offside, before the video assistant referee did something good and intervened.

Video for UK readers

Raphael Guerreiro’s celebrations were cut short by the offside flag, but this wonderful strike put Bayern 2-0 up before Michael Olise added a third.#UCL

🎥 @footballontnt pic.twitter.com/8RgPKrFFwy

— The Athletic | Football (@TheAthleticFC) September 17, 2024

Video for U.S. readers

RAPHAËL GUERREIRO WITH A GOLAZOOOOO 🚀 pic.twitter.com/PYhCWJrEfG

— CBS Sports Golazo ⚽️ (@CBSSportsGolazo) September 17, 2024

From sublime goals to the ridiculous and a comedy caper from the Young Boys defence against Champions League debutants Aston Villa.

Quite what Mohamed Ali Camara was thinking when he paused, surveyed the scene and then still decided it was a good idea to pass the ball to his ‘keeper is anyone’s guess.

Goalkeeper David von Ballmoos almost certainly conceded a penalty as the tomfoolery continued before Villa’s Jacob Ramsey hurdled over his own player and stuck the ball in the net. It probably serves Camara right for wearing the No 13.

Youri Tielemans and Amadou Onana also scored as Villa marked their return to Europe’s top club competition for the first time in 41 years with a resounding 3-0 victory in Switzerland.

Very much a case of men against Young Boys.

Beckham announces watchalong show for final rounds of Champions League

Amid the drama and the goals, a member of footballing royalty tried to steal the show by announcing, well, a show.

David Beckham popped up as a surprise guest on CBS Sports Golazo to reveal that he’ll host an alternate Champions League telecast on CBS.

Introducing Beckham and Friends 😍

The LEGEND David Beckham will host a #UCL altcast for the second leg of the semifinals and final on @ParamountPlus 📺💫 pic.twitter.com/X91SmbHOxg

— CBS Sports Golazo ⚽️ (@CBSSportsGolazo) September 17, 2024

Beckham & Friends will be a watchalong, ManningCast-type show that will be screened during the Champions League final and the semi-final second legs.

Beckham has promised to rope in some famous A-list friends. But not Gary Neville.

Tuesday’s results

• Juventus 3 PSV Eindhoven 1
• Young Boys 0 Aston Villa 3
• AC Milan 1 Liverpool 3
• Bayern Munich 9 Dinamo Zagreb 2
• Real Madrid 3 Stuttgart 1
• Sporting Lisbon 2 Lille 0

What’s next?

There are six more games to come on Wednesday.

• Bologna vs Shakhtar Donetsk (5.45pm BST/12.45pm ET)
• Sparta Prague vs Red Bull Salzburg (5.45pm BST/12.45pm ET)
• Celtic vs Slovan Bratislava (8pm BST/3pm ET)
• Club Bruges vs Borussia Dortmund (8pm BST/3pm ET)
• Manchester City vs Inter Milan (8pm BST/3pm ET)
• Paris Saint-Germain vs Girona (8pm BST/3pm ET)

And then another six on Thursday.

• Feyenoord vs Bayer Leverkusen (5.45pm BST/12.45pm ET)
• Red Star Belgrade vs Benfica (5.45pm BST/12.45pm ET)
• Atalanta vs Arsenal (8pm BST/3pm ET)
• Atletico Madrid vs RB Leipzig (8pm BST/3pm ET)
• Brest vs Sturm Graz (8pm BST/3pm ET)
• Monaco vs Barcelona (8pm BST/3pm ET)

(Top photos: Getty Images)

Texas is back … at No. 1.

For the first time in nearly 16 years, the Longhorns are atop the Associated Press Top 25, surpassing Georgia when the latest poll was released on Sunday. That achievement has little tangible meaning now for the Longhorns; how they fare in their inaugural season of SEC play will determine how realistic their national championship expectations are. Still, it’s a landmark achievement for a program that has been through the wringer since its last appearance at No. 1 on Oct. 26, 2008.

Through the first three weeks of this season, Texas has been dominant. But there’s still a lot to learn about the 2024 Longhorns, who host Louisiana-Monroe in their nonconference finale on Saturday before their SEC schedule kicks off on Oct. 5.

And last Saturday, they got even more interesting, when starting quarterback Quinn Ewers went down with an oblique injury and Arch Manning came in to lead the rest of a blowout win against UTSA.

Let’s assess what we know — and what we don’t — about what is currently the best team in the land.

What we know

We can stop asking if Texas is back.

For years after ESPN play-by-play man Joe Tessitore declared, “Texas is back, folks!” when Tyrone Swoopes scored a game-winning touchdown against Notre Dame to open the 2016 season, the phrase was used as a punchline by opposing fans while the Longhorns spun their wheels.

Last year’s appearance in the College Football Playoff was Texas’ best season since 2009, and three games into this year, the undefeated Longhorns show no signs of slowing down. The roster is loaded, the coaching staff is stable and Texas’ recruiting is top notch. It’s still premature to say the Longhorns will repeat their 2001 to 2009 run, when they went 101-16. The new 16-team SEC will be a bear for years to come.

But the foundation is set and the pieces are in place for Texas to consistently be in the hunt for championships if the Longhorns can keep the machine running the way it is now.

The Longhorns are in great hands at QB.

Texas already had one of the best quarterbacks in the country in Quinn Ewers. He was playing better than he ever has in a Texas uniform before an oblique strain knocked him out of the Longhorns’ 56-7 win over UTSA on Saturday.

But all is well because the Longhorns also have Arch Manning.

The redshirt freshman with the famous last name has been the subject of intense curiosity ever since he emerged as a recruit, but before this season, he only had 27 college snaps to his name. His appearance in the season-opening 52-0 win over Colorado State included four series, 26 snaps and his first career touchdowns, but on Saturday, we got a real dose of what Manning looks like with the first team.

In just 29 snaps across two-plus quarters, he was magnificent. He threw four touchdown passes and showed off impressive speed on a 67-yard touchdown run. He operated the offense cleanly and efficiently, took care of the ball and didn’t commit major unforced errors.

Yes, it was an overmatched UTSA team that Manning faced, and no, it’s not always going to look as easy for him as it did on Saturday night. But so far, Manning’s skill set and command of the position is impressive. He looks plenty capable of leading the Longhorns for however long they need him to if Ewers is out for a game or two.

Don’t expect this to become a quarterback controversy while Ewers is sidelined. Ewers, who has three years of experience in this offense, is one of the team’s leaders and one of the best quarterbacks in the country. He, too, was once the No. 1 recruit in the country and is a potential first-round NFL Draft pick.

Manning is superbly skilled and talented but has only taken 82 college snaps. When Ewers returns from injury, he will still be QB1.

GO DEEPER

Arch Manning transferring from Texas never would have made sense

The new receivers are stellar.

One of the Longhorns’ biggest questions entering this season was how they would replenish their receiving corps after all three of their 2023 starters — Xavier Worthy, Adonai Mitchell and Jordan Whittington — were drafted. Texas coach Steve Sarkisian hit the portal and the recruiting trail to address those losses, adding transfers Isaiah Bond (Alabama), Matthew Golden (Houston) and Silas Bolden (Oregon State) and signing four high school receivers, headlined by five-star prospect Ryan Wingo.

Through three games, Bond and Golden have quickly established themselves as impact players. Bond leads the team with 13 catches for 215 yards; Golden is second on the team with 12 catches for 125 yards. Each have three touchdown catches, and Golden also serves as the primary kickoff returner.

Bolden has been a rotational receiver but has been a reliable punt returner, a role he starred in at Oregon State. The biggest revelation at the position has been Wingo, who has quickly become a big-play dynamo. Six of his seven receptions have been for 15 or more yards, including three for 30 or more yards. He also had a 55-yard run against Michigan on a reverse. Wingo is averaging 31.5 yards per touch.

“I don’t know that I’ve ever been around a guy, through three games, that has had the explosive play ability that he’s possessed,” Texas coach Steve Sarkisian told reporters on Monday. “He’ll tell you … he’s not a finished product. We’re still working on a lot of the details in his game, but he definitely has a very, very bright future.”

At tight end, the absence of Ja’Tavion Sanders, another NFL Draft pick, has also been smoothed over, but not with a transfer. Senior Gunnar Helm has emerged as a reliable pass catcher with 10 receptions for 189 yards.

So far, the passing game hasn’t missed a beat.

Texas’ depth is as advertised.

Coming into the season, Sarkisian said he wanted give snaps to as many players as possible early in the season — including first-half snaps — to help solidify depth for what he hopes is a title run deep into January. So far, that plan has played out as he hoped.

Through three games, no defensive player in the front seven has played more than 40 snaps in a single game, according to Pro Football Focus. Much of that is a function of the Longhorns gaining commanding leads, but even in the Michigan game, where Sarkisian shortened the rotation on both offense and defense, most of the defensive players played 40 snaps or fewer.

Texas went three-deep at most positions on defense against Colorado State and UTSA and in a handful of areas on offense in those two games. Even against Michigan, the Longhorns were able to get a solid helping of second-teamers in the game.

Sarkisian pointed out that against UTSA, 77 of Texas’ 120 players played, six players scored touchdowns, nine players carried the football and 11 caught a pass. On defense, 28 players recorded a defensive statistic.

They have a capable defense.

Losing key players like defensive linemen T’Vondre Sweat and Byron Murphy, linebacker Jaylan Ford and cornerback Ryan Watts to the draft left at least some doubt as to whether the Longhorns would be as stout defensively as they were in 2023, when they ranked third nationally in run defense and second in third down conversions. It’s not as dominant as it was then, but it’s still a solid unit: The 2024 Longhorns rank 11th in third down defense and 44th in run defense.

And in the most important area — points allowed — Texas has excelled. The Longhorns have allowed just 6.3 points per game.

“We tackle really, really well,” Sarkisian said. “We’re attacking the football right now. Defensively, we’re creating turnovers and they’re having a lot of fun.”

They’re much better in the red zone.

Last season, red zone offense was one of the Longhorns’ biggest weaknesses. They ranked 120th nationally in red zone touchdown rate, finding the end zone on just 50.8 percent of trips inside the 20. This year, they’ve completely reversed the trend, ranking seventh nationally by scoring touchdowns on 14 of their 16 red zone trips. Sarkisian attributed the improvement to his team’s discipline, minimizing self-inflected errors in that part of the field, as well as simplifying his red zone call sheet to focus on a smaller set of plays that Texas has feverishly repped.

What we don’t know

How will Texas hold up in the SEC?

So far, everything points to the Longhorns being an SEC title contender. The Longhorns are big in the trenches, fast on the perimeter and deep at key positions thanks to the roster Sarkisian and his staff have built since his first year at Texas. But it’s one thing to prepare for the grind of an SEC schedule and another to endure it. Will the run defense hold up every week? Can Texas win its clunkers in conference play the way it did in its final Big 12 campaign, particularly against Houston and Kansas State? The Longhorns will need the mental discipline to get up for every opponent.

Can the Longhorns play from behind?

The Longhorns have not trailed in a game all season. Over 180 minutes of game action, Texas has only been tied for 21 minutes and 43 seconds, according to TruMedia. The Longhorns have led the rest of the time they’ve been on the field. How will they respond when they are in a hole, particularly in the second half?

How good is the run defense?

Last season, Texas was elite at stopping the run, allowing just 2.9 yards per rush and 82.4 rush yards per game. This year, opponents have found more room to run, averaging 3.5 yards per rush and 108.7 rush yards per game. It’s not as though the floodgates have opened. Texas is still in the top half of Power 4 teams in run defense, and the Longhorns held the one ranked opponent they faced, run-heavy Michigan, to just 80 rushing yards. But it will be worth watching how the Longhorns fare when they face higher-caliber opponents who try to run right at them.

Can the running backs hold up?

Texas has had significant hits to the running back depth chart this season.

The Longhorns lost starting running back CJ Baxter and true freshman Christian Clark to season-ending injuries in training camp. Jaydon Blue was next up as the starter and has performed well when available, but he missed the UTSA game.

Sophomore Tre Wisner has been solid, and Gibson has been an encouraging option as a true freshman. Getting Blue back to full health will provide a boost. The longer Texas can keep the trio of Blue, Wisner and Gibson healthy, the better.

Beyond those three, Sarkisian moved receiver Ryan Niblett to running back and has also given carries to walk-on Colin Page and transfer Velton Gardner, a former SMU running back that Texas pulled from the portal in August after the Baxter and Clark injuries.

How will they fare in crunch time?

In each of their first three games, the Longhorns entered the fourth quarter leading by at least three touchdowns. As they enter SEC play, those margins won’t always be so wide, and their mettle will be tested. Texas’ mid-October two-step against Oklahoma and Georgia figures to be first true challenge on the schedule.

(Photo: Tim Warner / Getty Images)

Rogers Communications Inc. is buying out Bell’s 37.5 per cent share of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment for $4.7 billion, giving it 75 per cent ownership of the sports conglomerate.

Rogers and Bell had held equal shares of MLSE, which owns the NHL Maple Leafs, NBA Raptors, CFL Argonauts, MLS Toronto FC and AHL Marlies.

MLSE chairman Larry Tanenbaum, via his holding company Kilmer Sports Inc., owns a 20 per cent stake in MLSE after selling a five per cent share to OMERS, a Canadian pension fund, in the summer of 2023.

“MLSE is one of the most prestigious sports and entertainment organizations in the world and we’re proud to expand our ownership of these coveted sports teams,” Rogers president and CEO Tony Staffieri said in a statement.

“As Canada’s leading communications and entertainment company, live sports and entertainment are a critical part of our core business strategy.”

Rogers, which owns Sportsnet, already owns Major League Baseball’s Blue Jays and its Rogers Centre home.

1:51
‘Just win’: MLSE President and CEO Keith Pelley speaks on future of the Maple Leafs

The deal, subject to league and regulatory approvals, provides Bell with the opportunity to “renew its existing MLSE broadcast and sponsorship rights long-term at fair market value.” This includes access to content rights for 50 per cent of Maple Leafs regional games and 50 percent of Toronto Raptors games for which MLSE controls the rights.

Get daily National news

Get the day’s top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.

Rogers said the purchase will not affect its debt leverage “and financing will include private investors.”

“MLSE continues to appreciate significantly, and together with our sports and media assets, we plan to surface more value for shareholders long-term,” said Staffieri.

“This agreement also ensures long-term Canadian ownership and investment of these iconic teams.”

Rogers also has “strategic partnerships” with the Vancouver Canucks, Edmonton Oilers, Calgary Flames and NHL. When the transaction closes, Rogers will be the largest owner of MLSE with a controlling Interest in 75 per cent of MLSE.

1:45
Questions raised over Toronto’s deal with MLSE to host FIFA World Cup games

Rogers and Bell closed their deal to acquire an ownership position in MLSE in August 2012 after announcing the purchase from Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan in December 2011.

In acquiring 75 per cent equity ownership in MLSE, they formed a holding company to govern their combined ownership position.

At the time, Kilmer Sports increased its 20.5 percent ownership stake to 25 percent.

&copy 2024 The Canadian Press

It is the week when Manchester City begin another assault on the Champions League against the backdrop of a legal battle with the Premier League, yet Rodri, the club’s star midfielder, managed to take the conversation in an unexpected direction on Tuesday.

A question on the increasing demands being placed upon Europe’s elite players brought a pointed response. “We’re close to (strike action),” Rodri told reporters during a press conference previewing City’s clash with Inter Milan. “It’s the general opinion of the players and if it keeps this way, we’ll have no other option.”

The debate over football’s calendar has rumbled on and on, but Rodri’s words felt like a significant moment. One of the Premier League’s most gifted stars, a leading candidate for the Ballon d’Or prize next month, willingly made it known that industrial action has become a consideration for him and his peers.

A genuine threat or an idle bluff? The Athletic assesses how realistic a players’ strike might be in the ongoing battle to be listened to.

Why are players like Rodri angry? 

Footballers, at least at the game’s summit, believe too much is now being asked of them. Expanded competitions have squeezed the opportunity for rest and ensure established international stars regularly go beyond the threshold of 55 games a season recommended by FIFPro, the global players’ union.

This season has only deepened misgivings. A new format in UEFA’s Champions League adds two more group games to a participating club’s schedule and the summer sees FIFA launch its new Club World Cup between June 15 and July 13.

The 2024-25 campaign began with Rodri and his Manchester City team-mates theoretically facing as many as 75 games for club and country. “It is too much,” Rodri said on Tuesday. “Not everything is about money or marketing. It is about the quality on show. When I am not tired I perform better.”

Rodri, in a few short sentences, pointed out the nuclear button in the players’ armoury. There has long been the belief that their views are not heard, a feeling entrenched by the creeping expansions overseen by both UEFA and FIFA. Pre-season and end-of-season tours involving extensive travel are also an uncomfortable norm that players are asked to swallow.

Rodri made 50 starts across six competitions for Manchester City last season (Justin Tallis/AFP via Getty Images)

The last six months, though, have brought an orchestrated response.

Two of the biggest players’ unions in Europe, the English Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA) and the Union Nationale des Footballeurs Professionnels in France, launched legal action against FIFA in June, challenging the legality of the governing body “unilaterally” setting football’s international match calendar.

A month later, it was the European Leagues, representing professional football in 30 European nations, including the Premier League, teaming up with La Liga and FIFPro Europe to file a formal complaint to the European Commission against FIFA.

The new Club World Cup, FIFPro said, was the “straw that broke the camel’s back” and deep battle lines, with players at the heart of the fight, have now been drawn. Enough, they argue, is enough.

How would a strike actually work in practical terms? 

Rodri might have suggested strike action was “close”, but the train is still a good few stops from arriving at that point. This would have to be coordinated through either the PFA or FIFPro and would be considered a last resort should all negotiations with stakeholders fail.

The PFA, as English football’s only players union, would theoretically have to ask its nearly 5,000-strong membership base if they supported a strike and that would then require a majority backing from the ballot to proceed.

Any competitions impacted, whether run by the Premier League, the English Football League, the Football Association, UEFA or FIFA, would also have the option to take retaliatory legal action blocking any planned strikes.

“We’ve really tried hard to engage with the relevant stakeholders,” Maheta Molango, the PFA’s chief executive, told The Athletic FC podcast last week. “So we’ve tried to do our best to reach a diplomatic solution — legal action is always a defeat for everyone.

“But sometimes when adult people cannot reach a solution, you need to have a third party deciding for you.”

The PFA’s chief executive, Maheta Molango (Steven Paston/PA Images via Getty Images)

Has it ever happened in English football before?

Go back to November 2001 and there was a very real danger of English football’s biggest names downing tools. The PFA had grown tired in negotiations with the Premier League, which wanted the traditional cut of domestic broadcast deals sent to the union reduced from five per cent to two.

Three months of discussions had come and gone without an agreement, leading to a strike ballot being called. Ninety nine per cent of players were in favour of boycotting any televised fixture. A date for strike action — December 1 — was even put in place. Gordon Taylor, head of the PFA, claimed Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson and players, including Roy Keane, Gary Neville and Ryan Giggs, were supportive of their position.

There were legal threats and injunctions, but the strike was eventually averted after eight hours of discussions between the Premier League and PFA in Manchester. Taylor did not get all he had wished for, but the £17.5million ($23m at current rates) offer was eventually deemed satisfactory.

Gordon Taylor in 2001 announcing that over 99 per cent of PFA members had voted in favour of strike action (Phil Noble – PA Images/PA Images via Getty Images)

And dig further into English football’s history, all the way back to 1960, and you arrive at a far more significant moment. The PFA, with Jimmy Hill as their flagbearer, sought to abolish the wage limit of £20 a week for players and relied upon the threat of strike action to force the FA and Football League to eventually relent in 1961.

What about in other countries or other sports?

Industrial action is far more common in the US, where the strength of players’ unions is felt with greater force.

The National Basketball Association (NBA) endured three lock-outs in the second half of the 1990s and another, lasting for five months, in 2011. That was the same year the National Football League (NFL) had its own when players and owners failed to agree a revised collective bargaining agreement.

Major League Baseball endured a lock-out as recently as 2022, the ninth in the organisation’s history. And then there is the National Hockey League (NHL), another well-versed in strained negotiations, player power and owners not blinking.

Comparisons with European football, however, carry little weight. An elite player in England will feature in games organised by the Premier League, EFL, FA, UEFA and FIFA in a season and the presence of multiple stakeholders will always complicate negotiations over the welfare of a union’s members.

Which competitions could be vulnerable to a player strike? 

That is the great unknown, but what we can be sure of is the strength of relations between the PFA and the Premier League at present. For all the two were at loggerheads 23 years ago, with Taylor butting horns with Richard Scudamore, the two have become closely aligned in recent times. Do not see it as coincidence that that the PFA began one legal case against FIFA in the same summer months that the Premier League helped form a separate one.

The PFA — and, by extension, FIFPro — does not have an issue with domestic programmes, which broadly remain unchanged. There is also sympathy for the FA and EFL, whose competitions have been squeezed to the point of enforced reform in the modern era. It would, therefore, seem unlikely that any strike threat would have such a target.

Relations between the PFA and UEFA are more harmonious given the sense of greater consultation, so might the crosshairs instead fall on FIFA?

FIFA shapes the international calendar and is the focus of so much ire after introducing a revamped Club World Cup. Its defence might be well-versed and robust, pointing out that the games it organises account for a fraction of a player’s workload, but the unions have made their dissatisfaction clear.

The Club World Cup is also the competition that has struggled to attract broadcast and sponsorship deals before next summer. It has the feel of the softest target for any players wishing to make their feelings known.

GO DEEPER

One year until the Club World Cup in the United States – what’s going on?

How likely is a strike? 

The easiest move would be to dismiss Rodri’s comments as hot air, but the concerns are too deep-rooted. Without meaningful change to the calendar, unions stress, there will come a time when players take a stand.

How that will look and when it will come, though, are questions not easily answered. The issues on workloads are the making of multiple stakeholders wanting more and the next challenge will be how to put the toothpaste back in the tube.

The players’ unions ultimately want a more prominent seat at the table of governance. It is why they have taken legal action against FIFA; a move to make their voice heard and reduce the demands placed upon its members.

The initial action against FIFA tabled at the Brussels Court of Commerce in June will likely end up in the European Court of Justice at some point next year and the eventual decision will shape where all parties go next. The players’ unions will hope that marks a dilution of FIFA’s powers in charge of the international match calendar, leading to long-term reform.

Strike action, regardless of its likelihood, would remain problematic. It is worth ending with a comment from Stephen Taylor-Heath, head of sports law at JMW Solicitors, who spoke to The Athletic in June.

“It really drills down to issues of employment law between players and clubs,” he said. “There’s always been an uneasy alignment between employment law and football.”

And perhaps about to get a bit less straightforward, too.

(Top photo: Getty Images. design: Dan Goldfarb)