After Houston's loss to the Jaguars dropped them to 2-9, Andre Johnson implied that the Texans are the NFL’s worst team. The Bucs have won three games in a row. Which team has the new favorite to win the Teddy Bridgewater sweepstakes?
JAMES CARR: I hate to break it to Washington, but they're in prime position to land Teddy Bridgewater and they don't even need him. They have a game up on some of the other woeful squads mentioned thus far, but the DC ballers have the toughest schedule out of any of them. They've already lost their last two and face the 49ers, Giants and Chiefs next. They get one cupcake game from hear on that, but even that game is on the road in Atlanta, before playing the Cowboys and Giants, two teams fighting for playoff positions. Could be Jadaevon Clowney's lucky day after all.
RICHARD BOADU: The Jaguars have the worst QB of the bottom three teams in the NFL which are the Jags, Texans and Falcons. It's a quarterback league so the team with the weakest QB has the best chance to get the first pick in the draft. While I'm here, I think it's fishy that Houston, a playoff team last year with the same damn roster, is playing so bad this year. Did they tank for Teddy? I doubt it, but it's fun to speculate.
DJ DUNSON: Rich, you may be onto something. However, the Falcons and Vikings have the toughest remaining schedules so it’s hard not to root against the Vikings so that Adrian Peterson finally gets a quarterback that can stretch the defense. Unfortunately, their tie with the Packers may actually hurt them in the long run.
Is Geno Smith at the root of the Jets passing woes or is the JV talent around him to blame for his mediocre showing as a starter?
CARR: Does it matter? The Jets might as well pull up in a clown car for their road games. It's not really the 2013 team's fault though. Rex and Woody compiled an aging, expensive roster that didn't pan out in the long-term, so many of the vets bailed. So 2013 was always about rebuilding, whether the team admitted it or not, and it certainly became so when Mark Sanchez went down with injury. So I wouldn't put this on any of the players. They were kidding themselves if they expected more from this year, but that's the life of a Jets fan. Better luck in 2014, when Geno's made his rounds and the offseason doesn't involve their best player wanted to GTFO.
BOADU: Tom Brady was playing with JV receivers at the beginning the season and found a way to win. Andrew Luck plays with a JV offensive line finds a way to complete passes. It's Geno's fault. He's a rookie, and he's a rookie that wasn't ready to start in the NFL in the first place.
DUNSON: Which came first, the chicken or the egg? The Jets have been terrible for a while, but their power running game is actually decent this season. Still, Geno is in way over his head. He’s completed just 47 percent of his passes, thrown seven interceptions and no touchdowns in his last four games. For the foreseeable future, inaccurate throws should be referred as Tebows and interceptions that look like pop-up flies are Genos.
The Fritz Pollard Alliance has urged the NFL to ban the N-word following the verbal confrontation between Trent Williams and NFL umpire Roy Ellison. Should the NFL heed their advice by punishing players for uttering the N-word and is that even possible?
CARR: Freedom of speech is really all I have to say. The NFL can take a walk on this one.
BOADU: The NFL should tell the Fritz Pollard Alliance, thanks but no thanks. Football is an emotional game, over half the league is made of young African-Americans who grew up in an era where the N-word is as common as the word "the." And who is the NFL or any league to tell African-Americans what they can and cannot say? Especially with the "n" word.
DUNSON: The N-word’s history is like the term Redskin, but in reverse (or the word Tebow for Jets fans). We didn’t create the term like the Native Americans did Redskin, but we twisted its meaning around like Chip Kelly designing a halfback misdirection to give it positive meaning. The NFL banning it while allowing pretty much any other profanity would be like Instagram telling women they can’t call each other #BadBitches or Publix telling black Southerners they can’t eat chitlins.
There’s just one rule with the N-word these days: Context is important. Don’t go throwing it out around at people you don’t know in a professional or leisure setting. That’s the mistake Trent Williams made.
