Welcome back to the NFL Weekly Roundup. I was unable to get a blog up last week, so I going to include action from week 9 and 10 in this weeks blog. So, without further ado, lets get started. Harbaugh's a winner. He changed the niners when he started there in 2011, he turned Michigan into a powerhouse, winning the natty, and now he's inherited an absolute mess from Brandon Staley and he has turned this group into a tough, hard-to-beat pack of wolves. Now don't get me wrong, it helps having some of the best arm talent in the NFL behind center, but, it cannot be denied how good they have looked in comparison to last season. The decision to select Joe Alt in the draft this year was frowned upon, but thus far, I think it has been a master stroke. The tackle partnership Alt can build with Rashawn Slater is going to elevate the play of Justin Herbert immensely. Now, to the actual game, it was a pretty straight forward dismantling of an abysmal Cleveland Browns. Herbert threw for over 280 yards and 2 TD's, while Quentin Johnston continued on his sceptic silencing mission dropping a 118 yard, 1 TD game.
Does Bryce Young have a future in the NFL? I think he does. Young has shown flashes of the talent that got him drafted throughout his NFL career, but he has just been so inconsistent. However, behind the emerging run game that has developed in Carolina, I think the best of Bryce Young as a Panther is definitely still to come. Chuba Hubbard, who has been on a warpath recently, is clearly taking the pressure off young, therefore, the Panthers front office have to continue to invest in talent to support Young, instead of shifting all the blame on him and moving on. Their first round pick next year has to be a premium tackle, and going after Tee Higgins in free agency is the ultimate priority. Young needs an established WR1 talent next year, and as good as I think Xavier Legette can be, he is nowhere near the level of Higgins.
Buffalo might be legit this time. They still have some of the same problems that have ruined them over the last few years. They still rely heavily on Josh Allen heroics, they don't have an established run game, and they don't even have an established WR1 anymore, but I just feel a different aura from the Bills this year. Allen has cut down on the turnovers which has haunted him his entire career and it seems to have drastically improved his overall play. I'm still slightly sceptical whether he can do it in the playoffs, but all signs are pointing to a deep playoff run this year. Mahomes has always been the barrier, and they have started the season off 9-0, but I feel that record is extremely flattering, so maybe there's a chance Allen can push Buffalo over the edge this year.
I'm going to move onto the week 10 action now and there is nowhere else to start other than Baltimore. I'm actually sick of saying how bad the Bengal defence is but my good god it is brutal. Now the Raven secondary may be the worst in their history, but that Bengal secondary is beyond a joke, and the fact that they worked out Xavien Howard and let him walk out of the building without a deal just shows that the Bengal front office isn't serious at all. Cam Taylor-Britt has been without doubt the worst CB1 in the league and Geno Stone who balled out for Baltimore last year has clearly lost all ability to tackle the other teams players. With the way Burrow, Chase and Hendrickson have been playing this year, there are absolutely no excuses to be sat with a 4-6 record, absolutely none. Burrow leading the league in pass yards, and touchdowns, Chase currently on course for the triple crown and Hendrickson leading the league in sacks, its actually baffling how bad that means the secondary is. Higgins is going in the summer, Chase has added about another 5 million per season onto his contract clearly there is no ambition to do well by anyone in the front office, so honestly, I think the Bengals Superbowl window has been and gone. I hope I'm wrong, but I really don't think I am.
Onto another terrible team, it could only be the Cowboys. They are in such a bad situation with Dak's contract. They gave him the kitchen sink this summer and it hasn't paid off even a small little bit. Jerry is slowly sinking that organisation. I think a full rebuild shouldn't be out of the question. Obviously Dak going down for the season does not help, but they were not good even before that. CeeDee is clearly getting disgruntled, it's just not a good time to be a Cowboy right now, and the way to fix it is by being aggressive, which Jerry is incapable of doing. For a man that talks such a big game, I've never seen anyone be so conservative with his team building. He never goes after big free agents and decided to not draft a running back which was a glaring hole in the offence, but decides to fill the gap with 2 washed up former stars in Dalvin Cook and Zeke. Now, if this was 2018, that may be the most frightening backfield ever, but it's not. It's 2024, and they aren't going to run you to a division title, never mind a Superbowl.
Photos: USA Today, CBS Sports, Sky Sports, ESPN, Sports Illustrated.
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