CALUM MARSH GOES ... YES ... GAGA OVER MOVIE REMAKE.
McCARTHY IN NO-WIN SCENARIO IF SPAT WITH RODGERS WORSENS
News and views from around the NFL this week:
1. Packers’ star quarterback looking to sack his coach?
NEWS: Central Wisconsin has been abuzz all week over concerns that longtime Green Bay Packers head coach Mike McCarthy and longtime quarterback Aaron Rodgers are on the outs again. Both denied it Wednesday, three days after Rodgers termed the Packers’ attack “terrible” in a 22-0 victory over Buffalo. McCarthy is the Packers’ chief offensive strategist.
“Mike and I talk all the time. We have a great relationship,” Rodgers said at his weekly news conference. “There’s always been great communication between us even if there (are) things that we need to talk about that are tough subjects. We’ve never had a problem finding time and talking. That’s the way it’s been for 10-plus years.”
VIEW: McCarthy is continuing proof that if an NFL head coach has a surefire, future Hall of Fame quarterback on his roster who continues to produce, it doesn’t matter how meagre the other talent on the roster is or how poor his schemes are, his job is safe so long as he doesn’t completely screw it up.
McCarthy has never completely screwed it up. But does he frustrate Rodgers at times with his scheming and play-calling? No doubt. Neither man even denies it anymore.
Perhaps never was that more the case than in the second half of the NFC championship game during the 2014 season. The Packers led the host Seattle Seahawks by multiple scores for most of the game — 16-0 at halftime and 19-7 with three minutes left — only to lose 28-22 in overtime.
McCarthy had turned conservative as an offensive play-caller in the second half, hoping to coast home. That decision backfired horribly. “I have no regrets. I don’t regret anything,” McCarthy said defiantly afterward. “We had opportunities to get that thing done and we came up a little short.”
Rodgers didn’t seem to agree.
“At times we just weren’t playing. We weren’t playing as aggressive as we usually are,” he said afterward.
Look, as we are now seeing with New England head coach Bill Belichick and his own, even longer-tenured, future Hall of Fame QB in Tom Brady, when you mix two ultracompetitive, headstrong men with particular ideas, there will be disagreements. Sharp ones. And personality conflicts. Even spats, sometimes over petty stuff.
It happens.
To keep it from festering, as Rodgers said, communication between coach and QB must always remain if not completely healthy then at least open so that the two men can talk it out and move on.
Rodgers and McCarthy still seem to be able to do that. McCarthy surely understands mutual coexistence between the two requires at least passably healthy communication.
Because once that goes, guess who’s next? Hint: not the superstar quarterback.
2. Is the Chiefs’ Mahomes already the best in the biz?
NEWS: Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Doug Marrone said this week secondyear Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes “right now (is) playing better than any quarterback who has ever played. He’s an MVP quarterback.”
VIEW: It’s setting up as the NFL’s game of the young season on Sunday, when the 3-1 Jags visit the 4-0 Chiefs. These are arguably the two best teams in the AFC so far. So, of course, before these teams play one another you can expect mutual-admiration-society comments from both coaches. Such as the above from Marrone. And these additional ones from him on Mahomes: “The question is what he can’t do. I don’t know. I don’t think words can really put in perspective how great he’s playing. That’s really all there is to it.”
Look, there’s a lot to what Mr. Awkward with the Media is saying. The 23-year-old Mahomes has thrown 14 touchdown passes through four games and has yet to be intercepted. His completion percentage is good (65.2) as are his yards per attempt (8.7). And his QB rating (126.5) is on pace to set a new NFL single-season record. Aaron Rodgers is the current record-holder with 122.5.
Until Mahomes screws up repeatedly in a game or looks anything other than otherworldly, the fact is Marrone’s assessment cannot be fairly disputed.
Incredible, eh?
3. Is Watt getting enough credit for his comeback?
NEWS: On Thursday, Houston Texans defensive end J.J. Watt was named AFC defensive player of the month for September.
VIEW: This is Watt’s sixth such player-of-the-month award. Hall of Fame defensive end Bruce Smith, formerly of Buffalo, is the only other defender in NFL history to win as many and only three NFL players have won more: Brady (10), Peyton Manning (eight) and Rodgers (eight).
That Watt won his sixth player-of-the-month award in his first month back after missing most of the last two seasons with serious injuries is all the more head-shaking.
He missed all but three games in 2016 (after undergoing surgery to repair a herniated disk in his back) and all but five games last year (after suffering a fracture to his leg, where the bone connects to the knee).
Watt didn’t play a down in four pre-season games, so no one knew entering Week 1 whether he could regain his form as one of the most effective interior defensive linemen in pro football history.
No one needs wonder anymore. In fact, Watt hasn’t been getting enough press for his accomplishments so far in 2018.
In four September games, Watt had five sacks (second most in the NFL) and four forced fumbles (tied for most in the NFL). Only five NFL players in weeks 1 to 4 recorded as many as six tackles, two tackles for a loss and a forced fumble in a game and Watt did it twice in back-to-back weeks.
Up this week: Eli Manning and the New York Giants. Duck, Eli.