The final weekend of NFL play before the trade deadline wrapped up with an uninspiring matchup between the Detroit Lions and the Las Vegas Raiders on Monday night. But with every team playing in week 8, Sunday gave us enough headlines and injuries to satiate even the most diehard NFL fans.
Notable Injuries
Kirk Cousins (QB) – Minnesota Vikings – Torn Achilles
As expected, the Vikings announced on Monday morning that Kirk Cousins suffered a torn achilles during the team’s 24-10 win over the Green Bay Packers. After starting the season 0-3, the Vikings had put together an impressive 5 game stretch, going 4-1 and currently hold the final wild card spot in the playoffs. When Justin Jefferson was placed on IR, many expected the Vikings to fold the rest of the season and even shop some of their bigger pending free agents at the deadline.
Instead, Cousins kept the team alive, and with Jefferson just two short weeks away from being eligible to return, hopes were rising amongst the Vikings faithful. Without Cousins, the team looks to be in line for a massive step back. They currently have 5th round rookie Jaren Hill in line to be their starter after coming in and finishing the game against the Packers, and newly acquired Joshua Dobbs waiting in the wings. Cousins was the QB6 on the season in fantasy, and is in the final year of his contract – the injury could not have come at a worse time for the 35 year old.
Matthew Stafford (QB) – Los Angeles Rams – Thumb
Stafford was clearly playing through pain after it appeared like he banged the thumb on his throwing hand at least twice during the Rams defeat at the hands of the Cowboys Sunday. Stafford still managed to catch a two point conversion, but was eventually replaced by Brett Rypien. It seems likely that Stafford could miss this Sunday’s matchup against the Green Bay Packers, and as of this writing, the Rams have not ruled out placing Stafford on IR. Rypien is the only QB on the Rams current roster, as rookie Stetson Bennett is on the non-football injury/illness list. Stafford was in the midst of a bounceback season after an injury plagued 2022, and, although he wasn’t getting as many touchdowns as fantasy managers would like, his strong season was coinciding with the breakout of rookie Puka Nacua. All Rams players will get a big downgrade in the rankings if Stafford misses time.
Tyrod Taylor (QB) – New York Giants – Ribs
Tyrod Taylor suffered a serious rib injury in Sunday’s snoozer against the Jets that led to him spending the night in a New York hospital. After losing his starting job previously due to a trainer mishap, Taylor was looking to be a more competent quarterback in New York as he filled in for Daniel Jones. Jones has a chance to return next week and any type of quarterback controversy that was brewing will be put to rest as the Giants have already listed Taylor’s injury as “week-to-week”. For better or worse, Giants fans have to start hoping that Jones is recovered from his 2nd neck injury if they have any hopes of salvaging the season. With only Tommy DeVito on the roster to replace Taylor against the Jets, the Giants finished the game with negative passing yards as DeVito threw just 7 passes over the final 37 minutes of the overtime game.
Kendrick Bourne (WR) – New England Patriots – Torn ACL
DeVante Parker (WR) – New England Patriots – Concussion
Just when the Patriots seemed to start opening up their offense and utilize Bourne as a WR1, the veteran receiver, who is on the final year of his deal, suffered a season ending ACL injury on Sunday. I thought Bourne would actually be a prime trade target for teams looking to upgrade at receiver as the Pats sit at 2-6 and at the bottom of their division. With fellow veteran DeVante Parker suffering a concussion, the window is open for rookie Demario Douglas to take on a lead role over the remainder of the year. He started off slowly, dealing with his own injuries, but has increased his snap count each week and is one of the few Patriot receivers capable of creating his own separation.
Drake London (WR) – Atlanta Falcons – Groin
London suffered a groin injury in the 3rd quarter in the Falcons game against the Titans and was unable to return to play with Taylor Heinicke at quarterback. Early reports are promising, however, as the team has said that the injury doesn’t seem as serious as originally thought. With Desmond Ridder being benched after clearing concussion protocol on Sunday, there are more questions than ever at quarterback for the Falcons.
Darren Waller (TE) – New York Giants – Hamstring
Waller was touted as a breakout tight end for this coming season with a caveat that he would have to stay healthy. Unfortunately his injury history is repeating itself, as Waller has been dealing with a nagging hamstring injury for a couple of weeks now. He was active on Sunday against the Jets, but was forced out of the game early and did not return. It wouldn’t be a surprise if the team opted to protect their investment and left him out of their upcoming matchups. At 2-6, the Giants aren’t likely to make a return to the playoffs this season so forcing Waller back too soon isn’t beneficial to anyone, despite the fact that the Giants are playing Waller’s former team the Raiders in Week 9.
What Has Happened to the Quarterbacks?
This is definitely an old man yelling at the clouds post, but back in my day, teams had a solid starting quarterback and a capable backup who could step in and run the offense. That seems like a pipe dream now. The quarterback play overall this season has been horrible, and the league better hope that the 2024 draft class lives up to its hype (a hype that is already beginning to fade this college season) because the league desperately needs an influx of talent.
Granted, C.J. Stroud has looked spectacular in his rookie season in Houston with a roster that was expected to do nothing and suffered major injuries to its offensive line. Will Levis just had a smashing debut with 4 touchdowns for the Titans, but he was the team’s third string quarterback until 2 days ago. It’s very possible that was just an aberration against a team that was preparing for a gimmicky offense with the combination of Levis and Malik Willis handing the ball off to Derrick Henry. I’m not convinced he’ll be a real difference maker, and will ultimately be more in line with what we saw out of him on Thursday night. Anthony Richardson was as advertised in his short time in the NFL – insanely athletic, exciting, but lacks accuracy and will struggle to stay healthy in the NFL due to his aggressive playstyle. He’s already on IR and missing the majority of his rookie season – so suffice to say we don’t have many quarterbacks in house ready to bust down the doors.
The other later round rookie quarterbacks who have managed to earn a snap (Aiden O’Connell for the Raiders, Dorian Thompson-Robinson of the Browns, Jaren Hall for the Vikings) have looked absolutely shell shocked in their brief appearances.
But it’s not all on the rookies. There are plenty of quarterbacks who just haven’t taken the next step. Daniel Jones – who I am certain the Giants regret not just franchise tagging and signing Saquon Barkley to a long term deal instead – has been awful this year after looking like a capable mobile quarterback last season. You would be hard pressed to find someone who doesn’t think that Tyrod Taylor was running the offense much better than Jones, and he put up a combined 25 points over the two full games he played. That’s how low the bar is for Jones right now.
Jordan Love started the season off strong with a touchdown rate that was guaranteed to regress, and the Packers offense has been horrible to watch for the past few weeks. Sam Howell can be exciting, but he’s also getting sacked at a record pace. Sack numbers belong to both quarterbacks and the offensive line, true, but the Commanders offensive line has only been credited with 12 of the team’s sack total – Howell is simply just holding onto the ball for an insane length of time, something he finally figured out this past Sunday against the Eagles.
Desmond Ridder keeps getting asked to throw the ball 35+ times a game and responds by turning the ball over at key times. Mac Jones, Kenny Pickett, Zach Wilson are clearly never going to take the next step in their development while veterans like Derek Carr, Jimmy Garrapolo, Ryan Tannehill all look completely replaceable. Even cult leader Brock Purdy has come crashing back down to earth the past couple weeks and has cost his team dearly with some ill-times turnovers.
Justin Herbert and Joe Burrow should be amongst the leaders of the new wave of quarterbacks, but both have had rough seasons due to injuries (Burrow with the calf and Herbert is still barely taking snaps under center with a broken finger) so they get an “incomplete” grade on their 2023 report card.
When you take out all of the quarterbacks mentioned above, there aren’t many teams left. Patrick Mahomes, Jalen Hurts, Lamar Jackson, Tua Tagovailoa and Josh Allen are the only 5 that have been great in fantasy production this year, and even they’ve had their disappointing weeks (shoutout to Cousins, but he’s no longer a factor).
Maybe after years of the NFL changing the rules to aid the offense, defenses have caught up and are just able to read the quarterbacks better. The level of athleticism on the defensive side of the ball is definitely something to behold this season. But for viewers sake, I really hope something improves from watching the likes of Tommy DeVito (again, he threw for negative passing yards in 37 minutes) or Tyson Bagent (up to a whopping 3.7 air yards per attempt after only 2.1 in his 1st game) play quarterback on a weekly basis.
-Devon Gallant
Twitter: @DevGallant
Photo: All-Pro Reels. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.