It is starting to feel stressful how quickly this NFL season is flying. We are kind of almost at the halfway point. How is this possible?
Maybe it is all of the London games that are making time pass by more quickly and slowly at the same time. Whatever the case, the NFL is fully rocking and rolling and soon enough players will be showing up to games in Halloween costumes to prove it.
As we prepare to slide our clocks one hour back on Nov. 2, we can do so with a whole fresh batch of NFL opinions. This is exactly what we here at The Skinny Post, Michael Peterson and RJ Ochoa, do on a weekly basis.
Should we start taking Drake Maye and the 5-2 Patriots seriously?
So much has been made about their schedule this season and how Not Intimidating it looks. I think that this is an important detail when discussing New England as it helps fortify how we view the rest of their season to look.
However you want to look at whatever with the Pats… they are very much for real. The Bills were on bye in Week 7 so it is a bit easy to get REALLY caught up in things, but I definitely believe that the AFC East is a bit of a competition.
More than anything I am fully buying in to the notion that Mike Vrabel has turned them around. It had to be miserable for the Titans to watch him thrive after pushing him out the door.
I think I have no choice but to buy the Patriots and what they’ve got going on right now. Drake Maye is playing at a stellar level and the entire team seems to be raising their game to match his. Their record of 5-2 is no joke and Mike Vrabel seems to have clicked with his guys at a high level.
I recently read Vrabel told his team that every single game on their schedule should be taken “personal” and that motivational tool seems to be working like a charm.
Is Colts RB Jonathan Taylor the current MVP favorite?
After watching Taylor gash my Chargers for three touchdowns, going nearly untouched on all of them, I’d say ABSOLUTELY. I know this tends to be a quarterback conversation, but we have to be able to compare the season a running back is having to what an equally-productive quarterback would be having, along with any other position that’s having a hell of a year. Taylor leads the league in both rushing yards and rushing touchdowns on a 6-1 team. They are NOT a 6-1 team without him.
If the award is simply a quarterback honor, then rename the whole thing. It’s utter nonsense to think because he plays running back that he’s somehow at a disadvantage. The system around the MVP award is broken right now if Taylor isn’t among the top three guys gunning for it right now.
I’m in no way opposed to Taylor’s inclusion here, but to call him the favorite is a bit of a stretch for me.
I feel it important to note that when I discuss MVP I am doing so through the lens of how I understand the award to work. It goes to a quarterback traditionally, and very often it goes to one who is on a team who is having serious success. We can add additional details like how it is difficult for a player to win it multiple times, that there has to be some sort of narrative involved, and all of that jazz.
Understanding this reality I once again feel that Taylor is important to involve, but if Saquon Barkley didn’t win it last year then no running back will ever again. Baker Mayfield, Dak Prescott, Matthew Stafford, and Taylor’s teammate in Daniel Jones would all be ahead of Jonathan in my book if we are playing by the rules of engagement.
Which team(s) need to make a move before the trade deadline?
For me this ultimately boils down to who we think has a chance to win the Super Bowl that has arrived at inclusion on the list after not necessarily being on it in August. I’d throw out teams like the Colts, Steelers, Rams, and Cowboys.
Indy is riding a magic train and has to do everything they can to keep the party going. Pittsburgh and Los Angeles are both clearly near the end of their rope with their quarterback situations and therefore have to try to find a way to capitalize while the iron is hot. Dallas has something beautiful working with Dak Prescott, CeeDee Lamb, and George Pickens and not doing what they could to amplify that would be criminal.
I think if the Colts want to try and ride this train as far as it can possibly go for them this season, they’ll need to find some help at cornerback, especially after veteran Xavien Howard retired just a few games into the season. That offense is way too good for them to potentially lose because they can’t stop the forward pass well enough.
Now another who definitely should be active during this deadline is the team who just got shredded by the Colts in the Chargers. They’ve been devastated by injuries at offensive tackle and running back. Joe Alt is expected back this week against the Vikings but neither Omarion Hampton or Najee Harris are walking in the building without a boot anytime soon. Being able to land someone like Breece Hall from the Jets would go a long way to keeping them in the hunt for a playoff spot despite the massive injury report each week.
Who will be the next head coach to be fired before season’s end?
I’m going to Mike McDaniel because I’m personally against seeing head coaches not even get the chance to finish a single year before being shown the door. The Jets are a terrible team and Aaron Glenn deserves some blame, but let’s not play musical chairs on hyper-speed this early.
McDaniel, on the other hand, has some serious talent on his roster and he’s failed to keep them amongst the AFC’s contenders. The years where Tua Tagovailoa got hurt are simply unfortunate, but if the team is this bad, even when Tyreek Hill was healthy, then you’ve got problems that are plaguing them down to the foundation.
As a fan of a team that drafted a quarterback right after Tua, I can say that Herbert has never come even close to saying the wrong thing at the podium and the Dolphins were just in the headlines because their team leader started passing the buck off to someone that wasn’t him. Good teams don’t have these problems. McDaniel has created a weak culture and I truly would not be surprised if he was shown the door following another loss in Week 8.
The easy answer here is Mike McDaniel. I feel like everyone agrees with that.
If we are offering opinions that are a little different for sake of discussion, I wonder how safe Brian Daboll is at this point. Sunday’s loss to Denver was an absolute disaster and the Giants have clearly learned what they need to about their young weapons at quarterback and running back. On some level it would be fascinating to turn the keys over to them across the rest of the season and set things up for their new head coach starting in 2026.
