2019 NFL: Previewing The NFC

One full week of preseason games and two episodes of “Hard Knocks” are in the books and the 2019 NFL preseason seems to be progressing nicely.

What’s more, I’m pleased to see the league start to follow the Sean McVay school of thought when it comes to exhibition games. I will scream this until the cows come home: There is no reason for any starter to play in the preseason.

What purpose does it serve? These are pro athletes. They don’t need the level of preparation that is necessary at the high school, or even college level. And whatever they do need to get ready for a season can be accomplished during training camp practices or even the joint scrimmages that have become all the rage in recent years.

If the NFL is determined to keep the exhibition schedule as is, teams don’t need to cooperate. There’s no point in someone valuable tearing up his knee during an August game in front of a sparse crowd.

That’s what the regular season is for. And at least he’ll get paid for his troubles. That being said, let’s break down the divisions in the NFC and rank the teams from first to last.

NFC EAST

1) Eagles

People panicked after backup QB Nate Sudfield went down with an injury in their preseason opener. After all, with Carson Wentz’s penchant for injuries, it would behoove Philadelphia to have a proper second-stringer in case of emergency. However, was Sudfeld really the answer? Cody Kessler will likely get the start this week and is an equal to Sudfeld in terms of talent.

But what people are worried about is true. If Wentz suffers another major injury, this season is over. And Nick Foles is gone. That’s a major bummer for a team with this much talent on both sides of the ball. Here’s hoping the Eagles have their offensive line ready.

2) Cowboys

So, is Dak Prescott a franchise quarterback? Should the Cowboys open up their wallets and find the money to pay Ezekiel Elliott? We’ve heard these questions on an endless sports talk show loop for months. OK, here’s my take.

Give Dak his money. He’s not a perfect quarterback, but what he does is good enough. He’ll never be the reason you lose a game and while people prattle on about leadership ability as if it’s a quantifiable thing, it’s plainly obvious that he’s a steady presence in the huddle.

And Zeke? Pay him, too. He’s the straw that stirs the drink, the engine that drives the train and whatever other cliche you want to pile on. He’s still just 24 years old, so you can safely give him a three or four-year deal and not feel worried about it. Yes, the Rams gave Todd Gurley big money and now his knee is reportedly arthritic. However Elliott doesn’t have Gurley’s injury history, so I would feel safe rolling the dice on a contract.

But, Sid! What about Amari Cooper?

What about him? The wide receiver is making nearly $14 million this season and will be an unrestricted free agent in 2020. The Cowboys are free to franchise tag him.

Anyway, that’s my take. This team also has a strong defense that will keep them in every game. They’ll be right there in playoff contention at the end.

3) Redskins

Remember Derrius Guice? He’s the running back the Redskins were all excited about until he tore his ACL during the 2018 preseason. Well, it’s a year later and he’s still not quite ready for contact. But there are reasons to be positive.

“He’s running around, cutting, and running fast, catching the ball, pass protecting. He looks good right now,” head coach Jay Gruden told reporters.

If he can come back healthy, the team will feature a pretty damn impressive three-headed monster at running back with Guice, Adrian Peterson and the versatile Chris Thompson.  The Redskins defense also looks stout with Jonathan Allen and Ryan Kerrigan leading a fierce front seven, while the addition of safety Landon Collins in free agency benefits a solid secondary.

My only question? Who is going to throw the ball? Alex Smith’s leg was blown to smithereens last year and Colt McCoy is dealing with setbacks to a broken leg he suffered in 2018. That leaves them with Case Keenum and first-round pick Dwyane Haskins, who was rag-dolled in his preseason debut.

You know the old saying … when you have four quarterbacks, you have no quarterbacks.

4) Giants

Speaking of quarterback situations, team president and CEO John Mara was asked recently what the ideal situation would be for the Giants in 2019.

“I hope Eli has a great year and Daniel never sees the field,” Mara said. “That would be an ideal world.”

I agree with him. People are eager for the Giants to close the book on the Manning era, but I say it’s not over yet. The team did take QB Daniel Jones with the No. 6 pick in the draft, and yes, I was as impressed as everyone else was by his performance in the preseason opener. But as impatient as fans can be, it would be wise to let him sit and learn, hopefully for an entire season.

Of course, Eli Manning may not let that happen. If a majority of his throws are short dump-off passes to Saquon Barkley and he spends the rest of his time getting sacked en route to an 0-5 start, the team’s hand will be forced. Here’s hoping that doesn’t happen.

Meanwhile, the Giants are better on the offensive line, but are very thin at wide receiver. And their defense? Not great. NFL.com ranked it among the league’s thinnest position groups. Ouch.

NFC NORTH

1) Bears

There wasn’t a better team in the NFL down the stretch of the 2018 regular season. They won nine of their last 10 games with a defense that made people (OK, just me) recall the vaunted 1985 team. However, thanks to an idiot kicker, their playoff journey ended in the divisional round.

Head coach Matt Nagy couldn’t have asked for a better debut. He took a moribund franchise and made them contenders, while making QB Mitch Trubisky look competent. Now it’s up to them to take the next step. There’s no reason to believe they can’t build on their past success.

If they can just find a kicker, they should be golden.

2) Packers

Anyone else sick of Aaron Rodgers and his giant bucket of garbage? First, he’s slamming fired head coach Mike McCarthy for having a high football IQ. Then, he’s passive aggressively throwing new coach Matt LaFleur under the bus by saying he’s too intelligent for the team’s new audibles.

Then he’s slamming joint practices with the Texans. Sigh. Dude, can you just play football and stop with the yakkity yak?

Anyway, the Packers finally broke with their unexplainable tradition and actually spent money in free agency. They boosted their pass rush by signing Za’Darius and Preston Smith and added safety Adrian Amos.

Will that be enough for a playoff spot? We’ll see

3) Vikings

The Rams made their defense look like a joke on a Thursday night game last season, but the unit still finished in the league’s top 12. And they were able to make LB Anthony Barr change his mind about signing with the Jets this past offseason. That’s a win.

The Vikings still boast a solid receiving corps and Dalvin Cook anchors a running back group that features Alexander Mattison as a replacement for the departed Latavius Murray.

That leaves us with Kirk Cousins, who had an up-and-down 2018 campaign. He can still fill up the stat sheet, but even at this stage of his career, is questionable when a team needs him to make a play late.

4) Lions

I was watching “Friends” the other day. Specifically, the episode where Ross plays the “name the states” game. This is where you attempt to write down all 50 states in a certain amount of time. Sounds easy, right? It isn’t. There’s always one state you forget.

It inspired me to take a whirl. I got to 49 states and couldn’t go any further. The one I forgot? Kansas.

The Lions are the NFL equivalent to Kansas in the states game. I just forget they’re around. And they don’t do anything to make sure they’re memorable, besides having a head coach without the self-awareness to realize that appearance matters.

NFC SOUTH

1) Falcons

Welcome to the most annoying division in football, where it seems nobody is capable of winning the division two seasons in a row. And as far as I’m concerned, that tradition will continue.

The Falcons were an easy pick to win the division in 2018, until it seemed their entire defense was lost to injury. What followed was a trainwreck, as the unit gave up at least 30 points seven times en route to missing the playoffs. But everyone is back now, so we shouldn’t see this unit give up 37 points to the Bengals and 32 to the Buccaneers anymore.

On the other side of the ball, Atlanta still boasts arguably the deepest group of receivers with Julio Jones, Mohamed Sanu and Calvin Ridley. Running back shouldn’t be a problem either, despite the loss to Telvin Coleman to free agency. Devonta Freeman has had injury issues, but the team has depth with Ito Smith and Brian Hill behind him.

With a steady offensive line in front of Matt Ryan, this should be a bounceback season for the Dirty Birds.

2) Panthers

I’m the biggest Cam Newton apologist out there. He’ll never be Tom Brady. He’ll never be Peyton Manning. I don’t want him to be. Like Dak Prescott, what Cam does is good enough.

Newton is coming off offseason shoulder surgery, which is good because his arm was mincemeat by the end of 2018. It seemed he could hardly throw the ball 20 yards downfield. But things seem to be different. Just ask one of the Panthers’ defensive backs.

“It’s like night and day. His arm looks a whole lot better. You can tell he’s been working,” Captain Munnerlyn told The Athletic. “I’m expecting big things from him.”

So, while you can expect to see the standard swing passes to Christian McCaffrey again in 2019 (hopefully, not as often to manage McCaffrey’s touches), here’s hoping we see him do what he does best again: Sling the ball deep.

3) Saints

They should be fine on paper. They just gabe WR Michael Thomas a big contract, Drew Brees is still a legend, and Cameron Jordan is a beast of a pass-rusher.

That being said, they’re not making the playoffs. No team can rebound from not one, but TWO heartbreaking playoff losses. And while Brees did his best to put that non-call in the NFC championship game behind, head coach Sean Payton spent too much time whining and crying. And normally, I would have been on his side.

However, there isn’t a coach in the NFL that’s a bigger douche when his team is winning than Payton. He had this one coming. Nobody should feel sorry for him.

4) Buccaneers

I knew Bruce Arians couldn’t stay away from the game that long. His retirement from coaching lasted exactly one season and now he’s back, and tasked with fixing Jameis Winston.

Arians is always reliable for a good quote, but even he can’t work miracles. One season of dealing with Winston’s nonsense might send him back into retirement.

NFC WEST

1) Rams

The last we saw of this team, they were shamefully soiling themselves at the feet of Bill Belichick. That’s fine, we’ve seen that happen to worthier teams before.

It’s true that many teams who lose a Super Bowl fail to even make the playoffs the following year. I don’t believe this squad is one of them. Again, there’s still too much talent on this roster, despite the loss of two starting offensive linemen this offseason.

Is Todd Gurley healthy? Is he not? Is he faking it? Is Sean McVay lying about him? How about we just let the season start and see how the team uses him? There’s no question that he shouldn’t be the only one carrying the running back load this year and the Rams made sure he won’t be by drafting Darrell Henderson and making sure the brought back capable backup Malcolm Brown.

Don’t forget, the Rams are also getting Cooper Kupp back, who suffered a knee injury last season and missed all of the playoffs.

Defensively, the loss of Ndamukong Suh could be made up by a rotation of young talent and they added some experienced veterans in Clay Matthews and Eric Weddle. So, is this team good enough to return to the Super Bowl?

They’re indeed good enough. I have my doubts they’ll get there, but they should at least be around come playoff time.

2) 49ers

Do you realize that QB Jimmy Garoppolo has only started 10 games in his NFL career? Remember, he got drafted in 2014. There’s a lot of expectations thrust on a guy who hasn’t even played a full season’s worth of games yet.

That being said, word out of 49ers camp is that Jimmy G is looking good and hasn’t had any setbacks after tearing up his knee in 2018. Here’s hoping he learned how to get out of bounds instead of trying to get a couple of meaningless extra yards. More good news is his receivers Deebo Samuel and Jalen Hurd are looking like the real deal.

New defensive coordinator Kris Kocurek is bringing a “Wide 9” concept to a defense that was alarmingly soft. And while first-round pick Nick Bosa has looked good when he’s on the field, he’s been laid up with a high-ankle sprain and the team is hoping he’ll be ready for Week 1.

Speaking of injuries, players have been dropping like flies. If they keep going at this rate, it won’t matter if Garoppolo is healthy.

3) Seahawks

This team figured out who they were halfway through 2018. They pounded the ball on the ground behind an improved offensive line and relied on their defense to make plays. Which, if you look back, is the standard Pete Carroll formula for success.

The only bummer for the Seahawks is their division should be improved this season. They’re going to need to be a consistent threat in the passing game if they want to get back to the postseason. So, that means, maybe, just maybe, they should throw the ball on first down occasionally.

4) Cardinals

Good lord, Kyler Murray looks small out there.

He made some nice throws in his preseason debut and he wisely took a sack and avoided a big hit on a third down. His speed also seems to translate to the pro level, which is good because his offensive line is putrid.

I’m just afraid he’s going to get hurt out there.

WHAT TO WATCH FOR IN PRESEASON WEEK 2

More young QBs: We got a little taste last week, now I’m ready for a full course. Hopefully, we get to see at least a few drives from the likes of Kyler Murray and Daniel Jones.

More injuries: It’s a fact of life. People get hurt playing football and it’s a bummer when it happens during games that don’t count.

Raiders: The Silver and Black play the Cardinals on Thursday night. That means for fodder for “Hard Knocks.”

Kenny Stills: His political feud with Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross isn’t going away. Here’s hoping he brings it on the field. Although what’s working in his favor is the team doesn’t have good options at wide receiver.