September 26, 2024
Corey Perrine/USA Today Sports
It's not looking great for Doug Pederson and the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Before Week 4 begins on Thursday evening, here are five current thoughts I have on the NFL from former Eagles coaches to television schedules and more...
If you think I'm partial to Nick Foles and the run that the 2017 Eagles went on, the same courtesy gets applied to Doug Pederson. After burning out in Philadelphia in 2020 as the Carson Wentz era evaporated, Pederson took a year off and returned with the Jacksonville Jaguars. It made perfect sense. The Jaguars had a highly touted young quarterback in Trevor Lawrence and the thought was that he could work the early magic he made with Wentz now with Lawrence.
That was the case, for a bit.
Pederson and the Jaguars won a weak NFC South in 2022, and overcame a 27-point Wild Card Round deficit to win the franchise's first playoff game in five years. A 9-8 season where the Jags missed the postseason followed in 2023, but the wheels are coming off this whole operation right now.
Jacksonville is 0-3 and is coming off a 47-10 shellacking on Monday Night Football against Buffalo. Lawrence, once thought to be a generational QB prospect, isn't even a top-two quarterback in his division. He's averaging 6.2 yards per pass attempt. Is Lawrence just bad or is Pederson washed? The answer to those types of questions is usually a little bit of both.
Pederson never expanded upon his coaching matrix following those down years with the Eagles. Press Taylor is his offensive coordinator. Come on.
The future is not looking bright for Pederson in Jacksonville. I can't speak to his job security from afar, but, unfortunately for Eagles fans who still have a soft spot for Pederson due to his Super Bowl heroics, I can't imagine it's in a good spot.
Hey, he'll always have 41-33 at least. On his best day, he out-smarted the greatest defensive mind of all time.
Speaking of Monday Night Football, why are there overlapping games on Mondays? Previously, the NFL had done some MNF back-to-backs where one game would start at 7 PM and another West Coast one would kick off at 10 PM. That made sense! Six hours of football on a gloomy Monday? Sign me up!
We're on the heels of one such week and this upcoming Monday for Week 4 features Titans-Dolphins, a complete snoozer, at 7:30 PM on ESPN and a much better Seahawks-Lions game at 8:15 PM on ABC. Why? I'm genuinely asking. There has to be a reason why the television executives are doing this. I guess I'm not privy to that information.
The Robert Griffin III era did not last long in Washington. Kirk Cousins was always pretty good, but never quite good enough to lead a real contender. With second-overall pick and reigning Heisman Trophy winner Jayden Daniels running the show, however, Washington may have finally solved its long-lasting QB issue.
Daniels led the Commanders to a 38-33 win over the Bengals on Monday Night Football that sunk Cincinnati, an assumed Super Bowl threat, to 0-3. Excluding defensive scores, those 38 points were the most the franchise had put on the board since Week 11 of the 2016 season.
Daniels had gained 171 yards on the ground while rushing for three touchdowns on the young season, but his pinpoint precision as a passer in Week 3 is what truly stood out. Daniels was 21-for-23 as a passer (91.3 percent) while averaging a whopping 11.0 yards per pass attempt. Daniels is the only rookie in league history to complete 91.3 percent of their passes or better on 23 or more attempts, per Stathead.
Things can change quickly in the NFL, obviously. After throwing for four TDs and rushing for 84 yards in a win over the Eagles as a rookie back in 2012, I assumed RG3 would own the NFC East for the next decade. Even with that caveat, Daniels looks like the real deal.
To the dismay of Eagles fans, Giants rookie wide receiver Malik Nabers, the sixth-overall pick out of LSU, is legit. Through his first three career games, he's totaled 23 catches for 271 yards and three touchdowns. No player has ever matched or better Nabers in all three of those categories in their first three career games, per Stathead.
It reminds me of Anquan Boldin bursting on the scene back in 2003 as a second-round pick, winning Offensive Rookie of the Year and putting up a 101-1,377-8 stat line. The more recent comparison, especially given the New York connection, is, of course, Odell Beckham Jr., who won ROY honors in 2014 while leading the NFL in receiving yards per game at 108.8.
Fortunately for Eagles fans, however, Daniel Jones is under center for the Giants and that will limit New York's ceiling for the immediate future despite Nabers' elite start.
Between Nabers and Daniels, the two perennial afterthoughts in the NFC East between New York and Washington appear to have found franchise cornerstones in this year's NFL Draft.
I can't get enough of college basketball broadcaster, and hardcore Cleveland Browns fan, John Fanta. He's been posting these angry videos online following Browns losses this year. Now, this isn't some Ronnie Raven-style absurdity. Fanta is completely rational about the state of the organization while maintaining a visceral bite:
Ticked off and chuckling at this point. pic.twitter.com/XKiiiElnfo
— John Fanta (@John_Fanta) September 22, 2024
The Browns are a disaster and Deshaun Watson has what could go down as the worst contract in the history of the sport. That's not good, but maybe it's deserved for a franchise that went out of their way to acquire Watson in such embarrassing fashion.
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