News, Notes & Rumors for Week 3

News:

We heard from both NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti. Both took questions but neither got high grades for their answers. Bisciotti said it never occurred to him to ask for a copy of the elevator tape of Ray Rice hitting Janay. My question is how did he ever make enough money to buy an NFL franchise with that small a level of curiosity?

Lots more injuries this week.

Redskins lost CB DeAngelo Hall for the season with an Achilles inury.

Ravens lost TE Dennis Pitta for the season with a dislocated hip.

Chargers lost RB Danny Woodhead for the year with a broken Fibula.

Steelers lost LB Ryan Shazier with a sprained MCL and CB Ike Taylor with a broken arm.

Bucs lost QB Josh McCown to a thumb injury.

Vikes lost QB Matt Cassel to a broken foot and TE Kyle Rudolph to a sports hernia. Cassel has been put on IR.

On Monday the Panthers lost 2 running backs.

The Titans will start QB Charlie Whitehurst because of the injury to Jake Locker. That is the wrong choice. Whitehurst is a decent backup but 6th round pick Zach Mettenberger is the real deal. If Mett is healthy, he should be the starter. He lead the NFL in preseason yardage and completed 70% of his passes. Whitehurst has not thrown a regular season pass since 2011 and has a QB rating of just 64.6.

Notes:

Saints 20 Vikes 9 – The Saints are going to be fine. They are in a weak division and will make the playoffs. I will be very interested to see what Vikes QB Teddy Bridgewater can do. I projected him as the most NFL ready and wondered why the Vikes would not start him over Cassel.

Giants 30 Texans 17 – Giant fans should enjoy this win because there won’t be many the rest of the year. Both of these teams are frauds. The 2-0 record of the Texans was exposed by the G men.

Lions 19 Packers 7 – The Packers are wasting QB Aaron Rodgers by trying to protect him with “has- beens and never-wases.” The line can’t block for the run or the pass. Lions need to continue to keep a lid on penalties. Lots of talent in Detroit that has been wasted by bad coaching. We will see how the new staff does.

Pats 16 Raiders 9 – This was my only loss with 6 wins against the spread. Pats seem to play down to competition. The thought in NE has always been “We can turn it on for the playoffs.” But they have not won a Super Bowl in 10 years.

Falcons 56 Bucs 14 – This game said a lot more about how bad the Bucs are than how good the Falcons are. Neither team is going anywhere. The Falcon D is not NFL quality. The Bucs are a couple of good drafts away from contending for a playoff spot.

Cardinals 23 49ers 14 – I said last week that the issue of the 49er O line would come back to bite then in the posterior. It did against a good Cardinals team. QB Colin Kaepernick just can’t trust the O line to protect him. The run has disappeared from the playbook. The 49er D is not nearly as strong as it was last year. They are very likely not making the playoffs.

The Cards are winning despite a nerve issue for their starting QB

Ravens 23 Browns 21 – Check out my article about this game Browns: Better but not good enough. http://wp.me/p2d2Uz-2Ed on fryingpansports.com.

Rumors:

There are calls for NFL Commissioner Goodell to resign or at least fine himself a substantial amount of money. Since the league paid him 44 mil last year to be a deterrent to further missteps it would have to be very substantial. He loves his power and the owners will have to yank the emperors’ crown out of his hand.

Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti held a presser on Tuesday that did not go over well. ESPN OTL issued a report that Bisciotti and others in the organization tried to influence both the NFL and law enforcement to reduce the charges against Ray Rice. If it can be proven that Bisciotti was successful in influencing Goodell to issue a 2 game suspension, it could lead to both being out of the league.

Several teams are thinking about changing QBs.

The Dolphins are not that satisfied with QB Ryan Tannehill. The issue is not his turnovers but rather that he doesn’t make the plays that are available to him that win games. Too often Tannehill will check his first read and then watch the rush. His replacement would be long time backup Matt Moore.

The Jags are also not happy with starter Chad Henne. They drafted Blake Bortles in the first round (2nd pick overall) in 2014 and want to see if he can turn the team around. He won’t be able to and they risk burning him out.

The Jets are seriously thinking about benching QB Geno Smith in favor of Mike Vick. Smith looked bad in the Monday night game and has not progressed. In fact the team believes he has regressed. The coaching staff is on the hot seat and are looking at Vick to turn the team around. In my opinion the staff should be fired for not installing Vick as the starter day 1.

It is unlikely that Robert Griffin will get his QB job back any time soon. Kurt Cousins is a better fit for the Skins’ offense and seems to be more durable. The most valuable ability in the NFL is availability. No player does the team any good in the training room.

Don’t expect to see Vikes QB Matt Cassel any time soon despite his broken toes. Once the team sees Teddy Bridgewater play Cassel will be super glued to the bench. His 4 TO game in week 2 did not help his cause.

That is what I think. Tell us what you think by commenting here or tweeting me @NNRonDSN.

NOTE: Check out the live News, Notes and Rumors show on Monday, Thursday and Friday at 6 PM Eastern on or https://fryingpansports.com/radio-show/. On Samantha Bunten of NBC Sports, former NFL scout Kelron Sykes and I talk football with just a little Indians and Cavs thrown in. The archive is available on https://fryingpansports.com/radio-show/. Please join us.

Bill Smith is a former coach of several semi-pro teams, has officiated both football and basketball, done color on radio for college football and basketball and has scouted talent. He edits https://fryingpansports.com. He has also published several novels on and a non-fiction work at http://www.merriam-press.com/. Follow him on twitter @NNRonDSN to get the schedule of Special News, Notes and Rumors broadcasts. You can hear the previous shows on https://fryingpansports.com/radio-show/ and the live show Mondays at 6 PM Eastern time on .

He also edits .

To keep up with the News, Notes & Rumors podcasts, follow me on twitter @NNRonDSN.

 

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