It’s Thursday, but we don’t care.
Ya know how sometimes life makes you forget what day it is? It’s a thing. Anyway, we do the Wednesday Wraparound on a Thursday, and there’s plenty to talk about, so let’s get to it.
NFC South
The Falcons are making a quarterback change
The Falcons shocked the football world and made themselves the butt of many a joke when they used their 2024 first round pick on a backup quarterback. Now that pick is their starting quarterback after head coach Raheem Morris announced that Michael Penix will be taking over for Kirk Cousins. Cousins had gone five games without a touchdown pass prior to Monday night and threw eight picks in that span. He finally got on the board with a touchdown pass against the Raiders, but he was still outplayed by Desmond Ridder. Apparently seeing their former bad quarterback outplay their current bad quarterback was the final straw. Now it’s time to put Penix out there.
The Bucs are rolling, the Saints are not terrible again
The Bucs hit a rough patch in the middle of the season thanks in no small part to a series of injuries to key players. They’ve got Mike Evans back and have fully found their stride. They beat the Chargers 40-17 on Sunday. The Panthers are the only team that’s been remotely competitive against the Bucs in the last month or so.
Meanwhile, the Saints have gone 3-2 since firing their head coach in the wake of losing to the Panthers. Their only losses are by a touchdown to the Rams and by a single point to the Commaders. Spencer Rattler took over for Jake Haener at halftime and looked significantly better than he did in his first stint filling in.
The rest of the NFL
Quarterbacks are getting benched all over the place
The Falcons aren’t the only team to make a change at quarterback with their season falling apart. The Browns benched Jameis Winston during his third three interception showing in just seven starts. Dorian Thompson-Robinson did a lot of nothing in backup duty, but he’s going to get the starting nod against the Bengals on Sunday.
In the Meadowlands, the Giants are turning to Drew Lock after Tommy DeVito left his second consecutive start with an injury, this time a concussion. He was replaced by somehow-keeps-getting-jobs Tim Boyle against the Ravens, but Boyle is getting sent back to the bench in favor of Drew Lock, who started the last time DeVito couldn’t.
Lastly, the Titans benched Will Levis against the Bengals after his fourth turnover on just 15 dropbacks. They’ve extended that benching to include next week against the Colts. Mason Rudolph will get the start.
A whole lot of sad names in this section, but that’s why these teams are having problems.
The playoff picture is becoming rather clear
There’s still a good bit of shuffling that can happen with seeding, but we’re getting a good picture of which 14 teams will be involved in the postseason. The AFC is pretty much set with the Chiefs, Bills, Ravens, Texans, Steelers, Broncos, and Chargers. The Chargers are two games up on the Colts, Dolphins, and Bengals with three games to play, so it’d take a wild shift for them to fall out of the race.
In the NFC, the seven seed is up in the air. It’s currently between the Commanders and whoever loses out in the NFC West between the Rams and Seahawks. The Lions, Eagles, Vikings, and Packers are set. The Bucs seem destined to make it as well given how they’re trending relative to the trailing Falcons.
The MVP race is heating up
Josh Allen had a major letdown after throwing for three touchdowns and running for three more against the Rams. He only threw for two and ran for two in a win over the Lions. Meanwhile, Lamar Jackson had more touchdowns (5) than incompletions (4) against the Giants. He’s thrown an absurd 34 touchdowns against just three interceptions all season, and he’s going to finish with around 900 rushing yards as well. Then there’s Saquon Barkley, who had a quiet game against the Steelers but has three relatively easy games coming up to potentially break Eric Dickerson’s single season rushing record. If he were to do that, it would come against his old team.