Baker Mayfield and Lamar Jackson might have been first-round draft picks in the same division back in April, but no best-case scenario could have predicted where they both would stand on the last day of their rookie seasons. No one saw this happening this fast, at least.
But there they were Sunday in Baltimore, quarterbacking the Ravens and Browns, respectively, in a game that decided the AFC North title, with Mayfield’s team trying to spoil it for Jackson’s. (Mayfield didn’t. He got himself in position to do so. What Jackson had already done turned out to be enough for a narrow 26-24 win and another week to play.)
They weren’t there as emergency fill-ins. The Browns weren’t playing out the string on another lost season. The future was supposed to be somewhat distant for both, or so their teams had planned. It became the present quickly, and when the time came, they showed up and showed out.
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Jackson and Mayfield are now positioned to face off twice a year for the foreseeable future, possibly with the division crown on the line for both teams. They’ll be 22 and 24 next season; Ben Roethlisberger will be 37, Joe Flacco 34 and the Bengals’ Andy Dalton 31.
This season, the Ravens went 10-6 to the Steelers’ 9-6-1 … and the Browns were just two games back of Pittsburgh at 7-8-1. Jackson went 6-1 as a starter. Mayfield was 6-6. The best teams in the North the last month or so of the season were, by a healthy margin, the Ravens and Browns.
Both teams can’t afford to mess up this offseason if they want to make this the defining rivalry in this division. The Ravens have to navigate the end of Ozzie Newsome’s tenure as general manager, the likely-messy divorce with Flacco and possibly a departure by coach John Harbaugh. The Browns, of course, have to find a full-time coach and continue building around Mayfield.
If they manage that, though, this could become Jackson’s and Mayfield’s division to win or lose every year, with games like Sunday’s showdown becoming the norm. It would be must-see football. With the mixed reviews both picks got eight months ago, nobody could ask for more.
— Eagles and Foles are back for an encore —
This time, the Eagles aren’t sneaking up on anybody. Nick Foles absolutely isn’t sneaking up on anybody. Most of all, nobody’s counting either of them out as the playoffs begin.
That was the overriding theme last year, of course, when Foles “had” to start the postseason for the NFC’s No. 1 seed after Carson Wentz’s torn ACL, and was still being seriously, legitimately doubted as late as the nerve-wracking divisional playoff win over the Falcons.
The rest, as they say, was history. The Eagles get to try it all again in defending that improbable Super Bowl title and the MVP performance by Foles. Are the same signs showing again? Not quite. Philadelphia finished with three straight wins under Foles, all coming after what seemed like a crushing overtime loss in Dallas. They (and their stadium-hijacking fans) humiliated Washington 24-0 in the playoff clincher Sunday.
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Foles tied a record set earlier this season by Philip Rivers with 25 straight completions, before exiting with an apparent rib injury. Before that, he engineered a 19-play, 11-minute 49-second touchdown drive that essentially rendered the rest of the game irrelevant.
Before the very reasonable response arises that the Bears are not exactly Washington … Foles’ run started with the still-stunning obliteration of the Rams and continued with last week’s late rally to beat the Texans. This was almost Foles’ bye week by comparison.
The short version of all this: whatever Foles brought to the playoffs last year that worked, is working even better going into this year’s playoffs.
— The MVP debate is over —
The aforementioned Mayfield threw 27 touchdown passes, a new NFL rookie record previously shared by Peyton Manning and Russell Wilson, both eventual Super Bowl winners. Mayfield threw three against the Ravens Sunday, totaled 376 yards and finished with 3,349 yards, all in just 14 games and 13 starts. It’s a remarkable showing by any standard, but especially for someone facing the league for the first time.
This is all pointed out not to denigrate Mayfield at all, but to illuminate a fellow young quarterback.
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In his first year as the starter, albeit his second in the NFL (with one start). Patrick Mahomes threw for 50 touchdowns and 5,100 yards. The only other players with 50 touchdowns are Manning and Tom Brady. The only others with 5,000 yards are Brady, Manning, Drew Brees, Matthew Stafford and Dan Marino.; it’s the 10th 5,000-yard season in NFL history. Only Mahomes, Marino and Stafford did it before their turned 29. Mahomes is 23.
The Chiefs won 12 games and hold home-field advantage throughout the AFC playoffs. Not only did he throw a touchdown pass in each of their last 11 games, he threw at least two. He threw fewer than two only twice all season. He threw six twice. That included the record-setting 54-51 loss to the Rams, in which he was the best quarterback that night, even while turning the ball over.
Mahomes is the Most Valuable Player. To let a season this historic and unprecedented go unrewarded with the award would be borderline criminal.
— Cowboys play Dak and get away with it —
No team in Week 17 played with fire the way the Cowboys did. They sat Ezekiel Elliott against the Giants, but Dak Prescott, at his own request, played .. and played and played, to the point where he ran the bizarre additional risk of going to overtime in a game that meant nothing to their playoff positioning.
Earlier, Aaron Rodgers played in another game that meant nothing to his team’s immediate future: the Packers were already eliminated. He was knocked out of the game against the Lions with a concussion. It seemed unnecessary.
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So did the Giants’ decision to play Eli Manning all the way to the end. He shared the risk to Prescott, except that his own return next year for his 16th season was in question.
All told, there were very few games in which little or nothing was at stake and the benefit of resting was clear. The Saints-Panthers game was one. The Saints sat Drew Brees. Prescott became the hero at the Meadowlands. The Cowboys still dodged a huge bullet.
— Steelers: curtains —
There was one final bad omen for the Steelers to wrestle with this ultimately underachieving season. This, on top of the obvious one of the Curse of Le’Veon Bell’s Locker pointed out previously (the final tally: 3-4 after the ransacking of the locker while the Ravens went 6-1). Three days before their finale against the Bengals, defensive coordinator Keith Butler singled out tight end Tyler Eifert, who was on injured reserve, as “a problem for us to cover” on Sunday.
They held the Eifert-less Bengals in check and won 13-10, but it was the fifth time in that final seven-game stretch that they scored 21 points or fewer.
The Steelers’ season actually ended twice — on the Heinz Field turf as several players stayed to watch the Ravens eliminate them from the division title hunt, then hours later when the improbable last thread they clung to for a wild-card berth, a tie between the Colts and Titans Sunday night, snapped.
— Cousins disaster is in Vikings' lap —
Mocking Kirk Cousins and the Vikings for that $84 million guaranteed contract and the plunge from one game short of the Super Bowl to out of the playoffs on the final day … it’s understandable and, frankly, pretty fair. Give the Vikings the bigger share, though, and give Cousins at least some admiration for understanding the market and exploiting it.
The big deals for quarterbacks have always been extensions, to keep them out of free agency. Cousins and Washington never agreed on one, so off he went to free agency, and that contract was the result. A player with his value hitting the open market is rare, and now it might be a while before the next one does because of this. But timing and leverage are everything; very few players end up getting it and benefiting from it, and it’s usually quarterbacks who do.
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Thus, we get Cousins, throwing to two 1,000-yard wideouts and a Pro Bowl tight end, backed by a rugged defense and coached by one of the most respected men in the game … and face-planting in the very sort of game for which he was brought in to win. Or, to at least give his team a chance to win.
Instead, against Chicago when a win meant they were in, Cousins threw for 132 yards. That’s the lowest total of his 73 regular-season starts. Plus, he had the animated sideline argument with Adam Thielen. On a team whose talents at the skill positions and coaching were obvious upgrades over the team he’d left — one that reached the NFL title game — his 4,298 yards was the second-most of his career, and his 30 touchdowns were his most in one season.
His team still languished around .500, and he disappeared in the biggest games. Nothing much changed about him … except his salary. And he didn’t make that offer to himself.
— Two full years of blackballing —
Sunday officially ended the second straight season that Colin Kaepernick was out of the NFL, despite being a fully healthy and capable free agent quarterback in a league that can’t supply enough of them to go around.
Kaepernick’s last game, for the 49ers, was two years ago Tuesday; he was 29 then and 31 now. These are some of the quarterbacks who started season finales Sunday, including games that determined playoff berths: Josh Johnson, Blaine Gabbert, Blake Bortles, Jeff Driskel, Kyle Allen and Nick Mullens. Those who finished games for injured starters included Nate Sudfeld and DeShone Kizer.
Gabbert was Kaepernick’s backup in that last appearance two seasons ago. The backup for that Seahawks team that beat the 49ers, Trevone Boykin, has been under contract more recently as well (Seattle cut him last March, around the time he was arrested on domestic violence charges.)
— Decisions, non-coaching division —
Quarterbacks dominate the list of players who now enter questionable offseasons. Not surprisingly, many of their fates are tied to the future of their teams’ head coaches or executives. They include:
Jameis Winston, Buccaneers. Dirk Koetter was the first head coach to get the ax Sunday. Koetter, of course, was promoted three years ago, after Winston’s second season, specifically to steer his development. Winston’s ups and downs in his fourth season more or less mirror the ones throughout his career. Skeptics may not like the Bucs’ future if they commit further to him, but picking a replacement would be a chore.
Blake Bortles, Jaguars. He started the finale against the Texans and, again, played badly. Contrary to the Bucs’ overhaul, the Jaguars announced immediately after their game that Tom Coughlin, Dave Caldwell and Doug Marrone are all returning. They all enabled Bortles’ return this season and, apparently, will suffer no consequences for how his play was the biggest factor in the team’s backslide.
Eli Manning, Giants. The speculation leans toward him returning. He’s another one for whom it’s easier to talk about replacing than to actually replace. Nevertheless, he threw two atrocious interceptions in the Cowboys game, and took the Giants nowhere on the final attempt to win after the go-ahead Dallas score.
Teddy Bridgewater, Saints. Some team starving for a quarterback will make a big offer for Bridgewater, and the Saints will have to decide whether to listen, as the Jets listened last summer when the Saints called. It’s hard to fathom that his touchdown pass against Carolina was his first since the end of 2015, but that’s the journey he’s been on.
Ryan Tannehill, Dolphins. Reports increased all last week that the Dolphins would move on from their former first-round pick. They’ll be hiring a new top executive this offseason along with a new head coach. Tannehill’s not the only problem Miami has to solve, but this time (as was the case with Ndamukong Suh not long ago), he’s the most expensive.
