Andrews injury a blow for Ravens
Mark Andrews’s injury Nov. 16 got overshadowed by the season-ending wrist injury suffered by Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow in the same game. But Andrews’s ankle injury, suffered on a hip-drop tackle from linebacker
Logan Wilson in the first quarter, has the potential to sway the balance of power in the AFC.
The 8-3 Ravens, tied with the Dolphins as the AFC’s No. 1 seed entering Sunday, are one of the NFL’s most balanced teams, ranking in the top five in points scored and allowed. Lamar Jackson is having one of his best passing seasons under new coordinator Todd Monken, completing a career-high 69.5 percent of passes and compiling a 100.1 rating, second best to his 2019 MVP season. And Andrews is Jackson’s security blanket, second on the Ravens with 45 catches and 544 yards and first with six touchdown catches.
Andrews has been Jackson’s favorite target since they came into the league together in 2018. Per Pro Football Reference, Jackson in six years has completed 301 of 445 passes to Andrews (67.6 percent) for 3,862 yards, 33 touchdowns, 0 interceptions, 8.7 yards per attempt, and a 119.3 passer rating. Overall, Ravens quarterbacks have thrown 40 TD passes and 0 interceptions to Andrews.
Now they move forward without their top target, with tough games against the 49ers, Jaguars, and Dolphins in December.
The Ravens need a couple of young tight ends to step up, including Cambridge’s Isaiah Likely, but coach John Harbaugh is mostly counting on receivers Zay Flowers, Odell Beckham, Nelson Agholor, and Rashod Bateman to help fill Andrews’s production. Flowers, a rookie out of Boston College, leads the Ravens with 53 catches, 72 targets, and 588 yards.
“I do believe, more than we have been in recent memory, we’re probably more prepared to deal with something like this than we have been,” Harbaugh said.
Deadline in need of QB exception?
The trade deadline was Oct. 31, just eight weeks into an 18-week season. The NFL likes the earlier trade deadline because it doesn’t want teams waiving the white flag and giving up. But the owners may want to consider an exception specifically for quarterbacks.
The quarterback injuries are piling up, affecting teams’ playoff hopes and making certain games unwatchable. The Bengals are stuck starting Jake Browning or Drew Plitt for the rest of the year. The Browns are forced to go with Dorian Thompson-Robinson and
P.J. Walker. The Jets are wasting a top defense with Zach Wilson and Tim Boyle. The Colts have to keep playing
Gardner Minshew, and the Giants have to play Tommy DeVito.
But there are several quality quarterbacks sitting idly on the bench that could help teams. The Raiders could probably get a mid-round pick for Jimmy Garoppolo right now. Same with the Titans and
Ryan Tannehill, the Commanders and Jacoby Brissett, Lions and Teddy Bridgewater, Panthers and Andy Dalton, Texans and Case Keenum ,and Steelers and Mitchell Trubisky.
A trade deadline exception just for quarterbacks — say, Week 13 or so — would help maintain the quality of games and keep the league more competitive later in the season.
No-win situation for Boyle
The Jets lost the first-ever Black Friday game, falling, 34-13, to the Dolphins.
The loss was nothing new for quarterback Tim Boyle, who got his fourth career start in place of Zach Wilson (and Aaron Rodgers).
Boyle, a native of Middletown, Conn., hasn’t done much winning since being named Connecticut High School Coaches’ Association Player of the Year in 2012. He is 4-19 as a starter after Friday’s loss — 0-8 for UConn from 201315, 4-7 as a transfer at Eastern Kentucky in 2017, 0-3 in for the Lions in 2021, and 0-1 with the Jets. Boyle has thrown 16 touchdowns against 37 interceptions in his college and pro career.
But Boyle made the Packers as an undrafted rookie in 2018, struck up a friendship with Rodgers in three years as a backup, and that friendship helped Boyle land with the Jets.
Extra points
The Cowboys are starting to look super. Seven of their 10 wins have been by at least 20 points, including Thursday’s 45-10 dismantling of the Commanders. The Cowboys are the 20th team since the 1970 merger to have a point differential of at least plus-160 through 11 games (plus-162), and nine of the previous 19 won the Super Bowl. Of course, two of the Cowboys’ three losses have come on the road against the 49ers and Eagles, and, as of now, both playoff matchups would be on the road, too . . . Justin Jefferson is set to miss his seventh straight game with a hamstring injury, and it’s hard not to wonder if he’s taking his time because the Vikings haven’t rewarded him with a contract extension. Jefferson, arguably the best receiver in the NFL, is making $2.4 million this year and $19.7 million next year under his fifth-year option, with the top receivers in the NFL now averaging $28 million-$30 million per year. The Vikings have gone 5-1 without Jefferson, which likely has helped minimize the drama . . . Jim Irsay is one of the few owners willing to talk to media and provide insight into the decisions of the 32 owners, so we don’t want to encourage muzzling him. But someone needs to take away Irsay’s Twitter/ X account and get him away from all microphones for now. Irsay does himself and the NFL no favors by saying he was arrested in 2014 for being a “rich, white billionaire,” and for threatening lawsuits against ESPN personalities . . . With the Saints leading the division at 5-5 and the Falcons and Buccaneers at 4-6, it’s shaping up to be the third straight season that the NFC South doesn’t produce a wild-card team . . . Florida State quarterback Jordan Travis was trending upward as a mid-round draft prospect, but now his stock has crashed and his career is in jeopardy after suffering a gruesome leg injury last week when taken down by a hip-drop tackle, which the NFL says has a 25 times higher injury rate than a normal tackle. Even though Travis wasn’t in the NFL at the time, his injury should put the decision over the top for the NFL to band the hip-drop tackle for 2024.