NFL Winners and Losers: New Orleans clinches playoff berth as Taysom Hill plays well, what's next for Saints?
It sounds weird to ask, but are we sure Drew Brees gets his job back when he’s ready to return for the New Orleans Saints?
Yes, of course. Let’s not get crazy. Brees is a Hall of Famer, one of the greatest quarterbacks ever. You don’t just make a change because Taysom Hill has looked good in two of his three starts.
Right?
Ah, let’s not question this anymore. Brees, who was recovering from 11 broken ribs and a collapsed lung, was getting loose in pregame warm-ups and reportedly could be available as early as next week. When he can come back, he’s back as the starter. Still ...
A few things are presumably clearer after Hill played well again in the Saints’ 21-16 win over the Atlanta Falcons, which clinched a playoff spot for New Orleans. Hill can play the position. He was 27-of-37 for 232 yards, two touchdowns, no interceptions and added 83 yards rushing. Sean Payton was right about Hill’s ability. The Saints are 3-0 since Brees went down. Brees doesn’t need to hurry back; the Saints can afford to give him an extra week or two. And the Saints will have a very interesting offseason ahead.
Brees is at the age in which retirement is an annual question. That won’t go away until the decision is made. After seeing what Hill can do, maybe the Saints want to speed up the process.
There will also be an annual question about Brees’ ability to maintain his high level. He could hit the wall at any time, and on a few occasions this season, it looked like the end might be coming fairly soon. Hill isn’t all that young, but at 30 years old he still has plenty of good quarterback years left. He is under contract next year, as well. If the Saints want to move on from Brees, they could go into next season feeling good about Hill and his potential.
That’s a discussion for down the road. There is a more pressing issue in the present: If the Saints don’t win a Super Bowl and Brees is a reason for that, there will be second-guessing about the decision to go back to Brees. Assuming that’s what Payton does.
That would have sounded crazy a few weeks ago, but Hill has done very well in two of his three starts. His second start was an ugly one against the Denver Broncos, but the Saints had a conservative game plan against a Broncos team that didn’t have a quarterback. Hill deserves a pass.
Hill can throw well enough and like some other dual-threat quarterbacks, his value comes as a runner. His ability as a dual threat makes the Saints a much different offense. Not necessarily a better offense but a different one. When Brees is at quarterback, opponents need to worry about Brees’ accuracy and ability to find holes in coverage. With Hill they have to defend the entire field and worry about being gashed with a big run if a lane opens up for a quarterback run. Hill doesn’t need to be Joe Montana in his prime as a passer, he just needs to be able to take advantage of what’s given to him. And he has done that.
Payton has been infatuated with Hill for years. Numerous broadcast teams have shared that Payton has gushed about Hill in production meetings. Payton used Teddy Bridgewater when Brees got hurt last season, but this season he turned to Hill instead of Jameis Winston.
Two good starts out of three doesn’t mean that Hill has definitely proven he can be a high-end starter. He still misses some throws and his lack of experience as a full-time quarterback isn’t something the Saints want to roll the dice on this postseason. The Saints had to get a stop in their own territory and knock down a Hail Mary at the end after Hill and the offense couldn’t put the game away in the fourth quarter. There are still things to work on.
But Hill’s play has made things more interesting for the Saints in the future, and maybe the present.
Here are the rest of the winners and losers from Week 13 of the NFL season:
WINNERS
Bill Belichick: If you had a choice, you’d take the Los Angeles Chargers’ roster over the New England Patriots’ roster. You wouldn’t think twice.
The Chargers are 3-9. The Patriots are 6-6 and shellacked the Chargers 45-0 on Sunday. That’s what happens when there’s a huge difference in coaching.
Anthony Lynn is probably on his way out in Los Angeles. His team is underachieving. It finds ways to lose close games. On Sunday it wasn’t even close. The Patriots led 28-0 last the half, with a punt return touchdown and a blocked field goal returned for a touchdown on the final play of the half. The 2020 Patriots shouldn’t dominate anyone like that.
But they do have Belichick. He has been great for two decades straight, and even though this season’s record is the worst for New England in a long time Belichick has done a great job. He does not have .500 talent, yet the Patriots are at the break-even mark with four games to go. That’s the sign of great coaching.
Aaron Rodgers’ MVP chances: It’s Patrick Mahomes’ award to lose, but Rodgers can make it interesting with a great finish.
Rodgers was great again Sunday. He had 290 yards and three touchdowns in a 30-16 win over the Philadelphia Eagles. The Packers have all but put the NFC North title away and are still in the mix for a No. 1 seed in the NFC.
Rodgers has been brilliant all season. It’s not like he was bad the past few seasons but he wasn’t at an MVP level either. He is at that level this season, though Mahomes has been better. But there’s still time, and Rodgers is doing everything he can to keep the pressure on.
New York Jets: Sure, the Jets lost in the final seconds Sunday. But what’s another loss for that terrible team?
A Jets win might have been something the organization as a whole regretted for the next decade. They were in danger of letting the Jaguars back in the Trevor Lawrence sweepstakes, but a 46-yard touchdown to Henry Ruggs with seconds to go saved the Las Vegas Raiders a 31-28 win.
It saved the Jets, too. They still have the inside track to get the first pick and, assuming Lawrence doesn’t pull a John Elway/Eli Manning and refuse to play for the Jets, they can have some renewed hope. When Lawrence arrives, they can thank a blown coverage and a miracle touchdown by Ruggs on Sunday.
Tua Tagovailoa: He hasn’t played great since taking over as the Miami Dolphins’ starting quarterback. He missed a few passes badly on Sunday. But there’s a (flawed) golden rule for quarterbacks and the analysis of them: If you win, all else is forgotten.
And Tagovailoa’s Dolphins won again on Sunday. It was against a terrible Cincinnati Bengals team, but nobody will care because the Dolphins won 19-7 and improved to 8-4. They’re right in the AFC playoff mix. It buys Tagovailoa time to improve.
Tagovailoa has played like a rookie. Fellow rookies Joe Burrow and Justin Herbert were so good this season that the expectations for Tagovailoa have been inflated. Tagovailoa has made enough plays that it’s clear he belongs in the NFL. He makes enough mistakes to remind everyone he’s a rookie. As long as the Dolphins keep winning, he will have endless chances to work through those mistakes.
T.Y. Hilton: For most of this season, Hilton looked like a non-factor for the Indianapolis Colts. The past two weeks, he has looked more like the receiver we all remember.
Hilton had a huge impact on a big 26-20 Colts win Sunday. He had seven catches, 101 yards and a touchdown in the first half. That came after an 81-yard game last week against the Titans. That game was a loss, but it got Hilton going again.
The second half of Sunday’s win was more about the Colts’ running game and defense, and Hilton finished with 110 yards. The Texans lost when Deshaun Watson mishandled a bad snap and the Colts recovered deep in their territory.
Hilton made his impact in the first half, and it looks like he’ll be a key down the stretch as the Colts chase a division title. That AFC South crown is more realistic after Indianapolis’ win and the Titans’ loss in Week 13.
LOSERS
Kyler Murray: Remember when Murray was being touted as an MVP candidate?
Murray has slumped the past couple weeks. Perhaps a shoulder injury he sustained against the Seahawks in Week 11 is an issue. Whatever is going on, Murray looks like a different player.
The Los Angeles Rams cut off Murray’s running game, and the he hasn’t thrown it well enough lately to make up for it. Murray is a fantastic talent but he’s scuffling and that continued in a 38-28 loss to the Rams. Murray was held to 173 yards passing and 15 yards rushing, and plenty of his passing yardage came long after the game was decided.
At 6-6, the Cardinals find themselves tied with the Vikings in the wild-card race. The 49ers, who play Monday, could make it a three-way tie with a win over Buffalo. The three-game losing streak has put the Cardinals’ playoff hopes in danger, and they’re not digging out of it unless Murray finds his form from the first half of the season.
Seahawks’ grip on first place: With one big upset loss, the Seahawks were no longer on top of the NFC West by themselves.
The New York Giants pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the season, going to Seattle with Colt McCoy replacing injured Daniel Jones at quarterback, and soundly beat the Seahawks 17-12. New York’s defense did a great job shutting down Seattle.
Between Seattle’s bad loss and the Rams’ win over the Arizona Cardinals, there is now a tie for the NFC West lead. Seattle and Los Angeles are 8-4. Seattle lost to the Rams earlier this season and play them again in Week 16.
The Rams probably didn’t expect that kind of help on Sunday. They can think the Giants for helping them to a share of first place.
Tennessee Titans: With an overtime win over the Baltimore Ravens and a dominant win over the Indianapolis Colts in back-to-back weeks, the Titans looked like they had taken over the AFC South.
That’s what made Sunday so baffling. The Titans looked horrendous as they were carved up by the Cleveland Browns. The final score was 41-35 but that came after a furious rally in the second half after Tennessee dug a huge hole. Baker Mayfield had four touchdown passes in the first half, and the Browns added a fifth TD on a Nick Chubb run before halftime. The Browns are a good team, but Tennessee shouldn’t be allowing 38 points in a half to them.
The Titans could still go on to win the division, but their inconsistency has been maddening. Some weeks they look like a playoff threat and others they look like they don’t belong in the playoffs. If they keep playing like they did Sunday, they could find themselves at home in January.
Mitchell Trubisky and Matt Nagy: It’ll be another long week in Chicago for the Bears coach and quarterback.
The Bears somehow blew a 10-point lead with less than three minutes to go against the Lions and lost in brutal fashion. The Lions scored before the two-minute warning to cut Chicago’s lead to 30-27. On a third-and-4 after that, Trubisky held the ball too long and was stripped on a sack. The Lions recovered at the Bears’ 7-yard line, and a few plays later, they scored the go-ahead touchdown.
The Bears had a chance to answer, but a predictable fourth-and-1 run up the middle was stuffed. The Bears were aggressive when they should have been conservative and conservative when they should have been creative. That sums it up well. The Lions won 34-30.
There wasn’t much question that Trubisky wasn’t the Bears’ answer at quarterback, and Nagy’s seat is hot, too. Sunday’s fiasco won’t help either of them.
Mike Glennon: Like the Jets, a loss is good for the Jaguars. It keeps them in the hunt for Trevor Lawrence.
Glennon and the rest of the Jaguars players don’t care about draft position. They wanted to win Sunday and battled hard. They tied it up with less than two minutes left and got the game to overtime. They even forced a stop on Minnesota’s first possession.
But Glennon threw an interception to Harrison Smith that set up Minnesota in Jaguars’ territory. After a short drive, the Vikings won 27-24 on Dan Bailey’s short field goal.
The Jaguars stuck with Glennon even though Gardner Minshew II is healthy enough to be their starter again. That can change at any time. Minshew will presumably get another shot before the season is done. For Glennon, opportunities to start don’t come along often and will only continue to come due to injuries in front of him. Seeing Sunday’s game slip away after he and Jacksonville played pretty well had to be crushing.
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