Author: Eternity Lab

Wednesday brought a mix of good and bad injury news around the league as teams prepared for Week 9. 

The Baltimore Ravens traded for Jacoby Brissett after Lamar Jackson’s likely season-ending thumb injury. The Seattle Seahawks will be without Sam Darnold, and the Philadelphia Eagles are turning to Joe Milton at quarterback. 

Micah Parsons and Myles Garrett each returned to practice after long absences, while the Rams lost cornerback Jaylen Watson for the year. Brandon Aiyuk also filed for reinstatement with the 49ers.

Here’s the latest from around the NFL on Wednesday.

The Baltimore Ravens acquired quarterback Jacoby Brissett in a trade with the Arizona Cardinals on Wednesday following a potential season-ending injury to Lamar Jackson.

The move improves a depleted quarterback room with Jackson likely out for the remainder of the season. At 4-4 and with Tyler Huntley also sidelined with turf toe, head coach Jesse Minter needed more than undrafted rookie Joe Fagnano under center to stay competitive.

Although Jackson is expected to undergo thumb surgery and likely miss the rest of the season, the AFC North remains within reach. Trading for Brissett signals that the Ravens have no intention of waving the white flag.

The 33-year-old Brissett became available after being demoted to third-string with the Cardinals. Following a poor performance against the Dallas Cowboys, they benched Brissett for Gardner Minshew and promoted third-round rookie Carson Beck to back up.

Brissett has struggled this season with 10 touchdowns, seven interceptions and a bottom-10 48.9 QBR. Despite those modest numbers, acquiring a veteran with starting experience remains Baltimore’s only option to stay competitive down the stretch.

Myles Garrett is finally back on the practice field. 

The Rams defensive end returned to practice Wednesday after the team opened his 21-day practice window Monday, which starts the clock for Los Angeles to activate him from injured reserve. He hasn’t played since undergoing knee surgery shortly after the season opener in Australia, where he did not log a tackle.

The Rams (4-4) have won two straight for the first time this season and visit Washington on Sunday. They badly need help up front after sending Jared Verse and three high draft picks to Cleveland for Garrett, a two-time Defensive Player of the Year (2023 and 2025) with 125½ career sacks, third among active players. 

Los Angeles has just 12 sacks through eight games, 27th in the league, and Byron Young leads the team with 4.5, with nobody else above two. 

Garrett also has yet to play alongside Aaron Donald, who missed the Australia trip and has 12 tackles in six games. 

Sam Darnold will miss Seattle’s Week 9 home game against the Cardinals, coach Mike Macdonald said Wednesday, and Drew Lock will start in his place. 

Darnold is dealing with a quad injury, and Macdonald said he also cracked a rib on the second play of Monday night’s 34-17 loss to the Bears.

“Sam is going to be out this week and be week-to-week,” Macdonald said. “He’s not going to go on IR.”

Darnold played the entire game against Chicago, completing just 17 of 34 passes. He has thrown for 1,478 yards, 10 touchdowns and nine interceptions with a 79.5 passer rating this season, down from the 99.1 rating he posted in 2025 on the way to a second straight Pro Bowl and a Super Bowl LX title.

Lock has played well in limited action, completing 72.9% of his passes for 422 yards, four touchdowns and no interceptions, including a 31-7 win over Arizona on Sept. 20. Macdonald noted, though, that Lock has been dealing with an elbow injury and “hasn’t thrown much.” 

The coach said the team could add another quarterback, with second-year player Jalen Milroe also on the roster. At 4-4 and having lost three of four, Seattle hosts the Cardinals on Sunday at 4:25 p.m. ET on FOX.

Micah Parsons is back on the practice field. 

Packers coach Matt LaFleur said Wednesday that the All-Pro edge rusher would take part in individual drills, his first practice work since tearing the ACL in his left knee in a Dec. 14 loss at Denver. Returning to practice starts a 21-day window for Green Bay to activate him from injured reserve.

“It’s been a long time coming,” LaFleur said. “He’s put a lot of effort and work into this. To get him back out there will be a big boost to our team.”

Parsons had 12⅓ sacks in 13 games last season after Green Bay acquired him from Dallas just before the opener and signed him to a four-year, $188 million deal. 

LaFleur said the thing that impressed him most was Parsons’ “impact in the running game.” The Packers were 9-3-1 and leading Denver when Parsons went down, but they lost that game and didn’t win again all season. 

This year, they’ve still generated a strong rush without him, averaging 2.8 sacks per game, tied for seventh in the NFL, led by Lukas Van Ness with 4½.

While the Rams are set to get a boost to their pass rush, they are also losing a key piece of their revamped secondary. 

Cornerback Jaylen Watson is expected to have shoulder surgery that will end his 2026 season, coach Sean McVay said Wednesday, according to NFL Network. 

“He’s been such a stud for us, he wanted to be able to play through it but he’s kind of understanding the totality of it all and some of the different things recommended to get that surgery and that’ll put him on IR for the year,” McVay said.

Watson signed a three-year, $51 million contract with $34 million guaranteed in March, reuniting with former Chiefs’ teammate Trent McDuffie as Los Angeles rebuilt its cornerback room. 

He dislocated his shoulder in a Week 3 loss to the Broncos and missed the following week’s win over the Eagles. He returned in Week 5 against the Bills wearing a protective harness and came up with his first interception as a Ram.

Following offensive struggles under Tanner McKee, the Philadelphia Eagles are making a change at quarterback. Head coach Nick Sirianni will start former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Joe Milton against the Giants. 

Making the first start of his NFL career, Milton gets his first test against the NFC East first-place Giants.

A 2024 sixth-round pick out of Tennessee, Milton was drafted by the New England Patriots. He was traded to the Dallas Cowboys in the 2025 off-season, spending that season backing up veteran quarterback Dak Prescott. 

Milton has appeared in five career games, completing 69.8% of his passes for 424 yards, two touchdowns, and two interceptions. With Jalen Hurts sidelined for the season, Milton offers a similar duel-threat playstyle for an offense desperately seeking a spark. 

After not being seen since the 2024 NFL Season, San Francisco 49ers wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk is filing paperwork for his reinstatement. 

With Aiyuk planning to report on Friday, the 49ers face a major decision. Head coach Kyle Shanahan must choose between activating him under his current contract, releasing him, or finding a trade partner before the Nov. 10 deadline.

Aiyuk has been heavily connected to the Washington Commanders via trade if he wants out. However, a reunion with quarterback Jayden Daniels will likely be put on hold, as the Commanders are relying on Stefon Diggs and Antonio Williams to lead their new-look offense. 

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Shanahan made his stance clear regarding Brandon Aiyuk’s potential return this season. Despite needing help at receiver, Shanahan said he has “moved on mentally” from the possibility of Aiyuk suiting up in San Francisco again. 

“I have no expectations,” Shanahan said. “I’ve kinda moved on with that mentally and everything, doing kinda how I talked to you two months ago. Nothing’s really changed for me.”

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Jose Mourinho hailed “extraordinary” Jude Bellingham after the midfielder scored a brilliant back-heeled goal against AEK Athens in the Champions League on Wednesday.

On a night when Bellingham became the youngest player to make 60 appearances in European club soccer’s top competition, the England midfielder scored and was named player of the match as Madrid rallied to a 3-2 win.

Get more from the UEFA Champions League Follow your favorites to get information about games, news and more

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This was too good a matchup for Week 8. But Chiefs vs. Broncos did not disappoint on Sunday evening, going down to the wire as ultimately one key play decided a winner.

Kansas City got another missed field goal from kicker Harrison Butker – that drama will continue to unfold this week – and it was Denver that got the long play and go-ahead touchdown in the final minutes.

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Martinsville Speedway (Martinsville, Va.) — William Byron somewhat salvaged his season with a victory Sunday at Martinsville. Kyle Larson somewhat punctuated his now that his third Cup title is firmly in his sights.

Byron snapped a 35-race winless streak, dating back to his win at Martinsville a year ago. He led 362 of the 500 laps on his way to the win. 

Byron entered the race 11th in the standings and was already eliminated from championship contention. 

He now has a trophy to remind him that this is a good time of year.

William Byron snapped a dry spell with his win at Martinsville (Getty Images)

“This definitely gives us that feeling that we know we can achieve,” Byron said in his post-race news conference, as he won a race for the seventh consecutive year. “Honestly, I know this group are winners.

“There’s a lot to be said about going and winning a race every year. It’s a really hard thing to do.”

Meanwhile, his Hendrick teammate Kyle Larson finished 10th and enters the season finale next Sunday at Homestead needing just eight out of a possible 20 stage points or a 28th-place finish (with no stage points) to win the Cup title. 

Christopher Bell and Denny Hamlin must win at Homestead and earn significant stage points to have a shot.

Here are my takeaways:

1. Kyle Larson Eyes Title

Kyle Larson didn’t clinch the title at Martinsville but his fate awaits at Homestead. (Getty Images)

Larson had a nerve-wracking day, as he and Hamlin tried to go the entire 130-lap opening stage without pitting for tires. 

That proved to be the wrong strategy and Larson ended up getting lapped.

He eventually got back on the lead lap on Lap 216 but never got back to the leaders. He finished ninth while Hamlin placed sixth. Christopher Bell was 11th. 

Larson has a 67-point lead on Bell and a 70-point lead on Hamlin heading into Homestead, where Larson has won two of the last four races.

“I trusted we’d get back on the right side of things if we could ever get back to the lead lap and fortunately we did,” Larson told me and other reporters after the race. “I could tell Denny wasn’t normal Denny [at Martinsville]. And Bell, I could tell, had better track position than us but wasn’t very good. … Once I just settled in being on the lead lap, I felt OK.”

2. Denny Hamlin Had Best Car, Not Best Strategy

Denny Hamlin’s chances of winning it all are even slimmer after another average day. (Getty Images)

Hamlin led 40 of the first 83 laps, but losing the track position — thanks to the strategy of not pitting in the first stage — doomed his chances. He was also collected by Bell when Joey Logano got into the back of Bell on Lap 216, the caution that allowed Larson to get the free pass.

It was just another day for the regular-season champion to wonder what could have been.

“The killer, by far, was Stage 1,” Hamlin told me afterward. “Obviously, pitting was the best strategy to do it and we chose not to. We go from leading or second to 15th. … It was just an impossible task when we lost that track position.”

Hamlin would need to win at Homestead and earn 17 stage points (or 16 stage points and the fastest lap point) for any chance to win the title.

3. Christopher Bell Couldn’t Capitalize

Bell’s attitude now is that he and his team have “nothing to lose.” (Getty Images)

Bell lost his track position when he ducked down pit road anticipating a caution and didn’t read his lights correctly that signify what RPM he needed to maintain to remain below pit road speed.

But he admitted he had a car that probably was top 10 but not a top-five car, so finishing 10th was pretty fair.

“We had nothing to lose and everything to gain,” Bell told me and other reporters after the race. “Same thing at Homestead. … It is what it is. We shook out where we should have.”

Bell would need to win at Homestead and earn 14 stage points (or 13 stage points and the fastest lap point) for any chance to win the title.

4. Carson Hocevar Not Sweating Austin Cindric Contact

Hocevar said he had fun, despite having an incident with Austin Cindric. (Getty Images)

Carson Hocevar appeared to ruthlessly brake check Austin Cindric a couple of times, ending Cindric’s day early. Cindric had gotten into the back of Hocevar a little bit prior to the exchange, but Hocevar appeared to take advantage of the changes NASCAR made this summer to the cars for short tracks — changes that weakened the front bumper so drivers wouldn’t run into each other as much.

Cindric was irate on his radio, asking NASCAR to take action. NASCAR didn’t take action and Hocevar didn’t seem to sweat it too much afterward.

“It’s just Martinsville,” Hocevar told me and other reporters. “Everybody’s running hard and making moves and stuff. … Sometimes you’re getting hit and sometimes you’re causing it and vice versa. 

“I had fun.”

4 ½. What’s Next: Homestead

Up next … Homestead. (Getty Images)

The season concludes with the finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, a 1.5-mile oval that Cup teams last raced at in March 2025. It replaces Phoenix as the championship site and will do so again next year.

Larson is the defending winner of the event, which Tyler Reddick won in 2024, Chirstopher Bell won in 2023 and Larson won in 2022.

“I love Homestead,” Larson said. “It’s a great venue to host the championship.”

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NASCAR has a new headache after debates about the double-yellow lines and fuel mileage emerged after Talladega.

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In Washington, D.C., on the night of Nov. 18, 2018, the lights started to go out for Gonzaga College High School’s football team. 

The Eagles, who’d trailed 20-0 in the first quarter, fought their way back into the conference championship game against rival DeMatha Catholic. A touchdown gave them a lead with 29 seconds left … but then they allowed an 80-plus yard kickoff-return score with 15 seconds remaining.

Gonzaga trailed 43-40. No timeouts left. 

“We claw our way back into a winning position,” John Marshall, a Gonzaga receiver at the time, told me, “and then we’re kind of just like, ‘wow.’ A lot of defeat sets in on the sidelines.”

But with just 10 seconds left for the offense, Caleb Williams still saw opportunity. Between the time DeMatha scored and when his offense took the field, the sophomore quarterback — playing through a fractured ankle suffered on Gonzaga’s previous possession — exhorted the offensive line:

“I need you guys to block for me.” 

“I need a chance to get it down there.”

He went over to the wide receivers:

“There’s still a lot of time left.”

“We can make a play.”

Williams completed a deep out on the first play, leading his receiver out of bounds just inside the 50 to stop the clock at four seconds. Then he connected on a 53-yard Hail Mary heave to Marshall in the end zone as time expired, putting Gonzaga on the winning side of one of the greatest high school football games of all time.  

“I think he’s always known, I guess internally, that he has been special,” Marshall, who played college football at Navy, told me. “Understanding that, ‘I am special. I have these abilities, but I’m not gonna let it derail me from achieving more.’” 

Caleb Williams’ “Iceman” roots started in high school as the quarterback of the Gonzaga College Eagles in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Toni L. Sandys/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

This is the Caleb Williams that the NFL now knows. 

The “Iceman,” who’s ascending into superstardom in Year 3 with the Chicago Bears, is arguably the NFL’s most clutch performer. In 2025, Williams engineered seven comeback victories in which the Bears trailed in the final two minutes of regulation, including the playoffs, the most in a season by any quarterback under the age of 25 in league history. 

“I feel more comfortable in those moments,” the Bears quarterback said last year. “I think my heart rate drops. Everything kind of settles in. It’s gotta-have-it moments. I think I’ve done a good job with that over my career in those gotta-have-it moments.”

This year, the Bears haven’t yet needed WIlliams’ heroics late in games. What we’ve seen, primarily, are the major leaps he’s made playing on schedule under head coach and playcaller Ben Johnson. 

But he’s still lethal down the stretch. In his first primetime showdown of the season, the Bears’ 30-24 victory over the New England Patriots on Thursday Night Football last week, Williams completed more than 76.4% of his passes and led two scoring drives in the second half of the one-score victory. 

“I love just where he is mindset-wise right now,” Johnson said of his QB last week. “No one’s more critical of him than himself at this point. … He’s the first one to say it and we go through it and [detail] where [he] can improve while still highlighting the improvements we’ve already made along the way.”

Under the tutelage of Ben Johnson, Williams is becoming an elite NFL quarterback. (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images)

Williams’ next challenge: Mike Macdonald’s vaunted Super Bowl defense, as the Bears (5-2) travel to Seattle to face the Seahawks (4-3) on Monday Night Football in a matchup of NFC heavyweights. 

Williams’ former coaches and teammates shared what makes the quarterback uniquely capable of rising to the occasion in high-stakes scenarios. 

Former USC offensive coordinator and O-line coach Josh Henson sat in on Williams’ meetings with head coach Lincoln Riley and assistant Luke Huard, whose responsibilities were more directly tied to the quarterback. 

There were always mountains of film to watch. They talked through plays and coaching situations. Game knowledge was shared. These meetings were pushed, in part, by Williams. They didn’t force him to stay. He wanted to stick around until he felt he had all the answers he needed. 

That also meant randomly walking into Henson’s office, peppering him with questions: 

“Coach, can you teach me this protection you were talking to the offensive line about the other day?”

“Can you teach me why you guys ID the front like this in the run game?”

Williams was a sponge in meetings with USC coach Lincoln Riley and his staff. (Photo by Brian Rothmuller/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

“That type of curiosity and wanting to know all there is to know about football … really served him well to be able to go make those plays in those [clutch] moments,” Henson, now Purdue’s OC and tight ends coach, told me.

So much so that those around him grew numb to it. Williams regularly did the spectacular in practices and games. 

At the start of his junior season in high school, Gonzaga hosted national powerhouse American Heritage School (Plantation, Fla.). The visitors were befuddled at the crowd’s “Merry Christmas!” chants after taking a 7-0 and later a 14-7 lead. They thought the home-team fans were crazy. The reality is that they just knew what was coming. They wanted to congratulate the opponent on tasting what it felt like to be up. 

Williams led a 26-0 unanswered run by Gonzaga for the victory. 

“The dude is almost like a Jedi,” Randy Trivers, Williams’ coach at Gonzaga, told me. “He’s The One. He’s like Neo from ‘The Matrix.’

“It’s an ordinary thing for Caleb to do extraordinary things.”

As a true freshman at Oklahoma, in his first extended action as a college football player, Williams replaced starter Spencer Rattler in the second quarter and led the Sooners on a 21-point comeback and the game-winning drive to beat Texas 55-48 in the 2021 Red River Rivalry game. 

Williams entered the 2021 Red River Rivalry game against Texas in the second quarter and led a 21-point comeback for Oklahoma. (Photo by Tim Warner/Getty Images)

“I think people deep down, at the end of the day, they can say what they want, but people either don’t love those moments and don’t relish them, or they do,” Lincoln Riley, who coached Williams at USC and Oklahoma, told me. “And I think he has always relished those moments, wanted to be in them, and is willing to pull the trigger and be willing to kind of put himself out there to make the play, knowing that sometimes it’s going to happen and that’s great. And sometimes you’re not going to make it, right? 

“There’s going to be failure associated with that, too, and you can’t be scared of that failure. And I don’t think he ever has.” 

USC pass-catchers would do extra conditioning to prepare themselves for whatever Williams might do during a game — or even in practice. In a third-down period in one USC practice, Williams got pressure from the right side, rolled left and instinctually switched hands to rip a left-handed pass, hitting a receiver over the middle. 

Receivers knew a routine dig route could turn into a 60-plus yard explosive play in a scramble drill. His offensive linemen knew to block for four to six seconds rather than three or four. 

“You never saw what was happening,” Rams offensive lineman Justin Dedich, who blocked for Williams at USC, told me, speaking from the OL perspective. “You just knew something great was about to happen.”

Offensive lineman Justin Dedich (No. 57) knew to hold his blocks for Williams, always expecting the unexpected. (Photo by Keith Birmingham/MediaNews Group/Pasadena Star-News via Getty Images)

Williams’ offensive coordinator at Gonzaga, Danny Schaechter, would always end his play calls to the quarterback with a similar message: “Stay on the beach.” It was a reminder to remain even-keeled. There might be big waves and storms in the game action. But on the beach, we’re good. We’re enjoying this. All is calm. 

“I’ll still message him before games and stuff,” Schaechter told me.  “Like, ‘Hey, man, have fun. Stay on the beach.’”

Even without the reminders, that’s how Williams operated. He’s always had a stoic demeanor in high-stakes moments, according to former coaches and teammates. He treated practices like games. He took pride in how he went through his reads, how he’d look off defensive backs. He didn’t want to waste energy on anything except what was in front of him. 

“He would always tell us, ‘Everybody breathe. Take a deep breath,’” former USC wide receiver Brenden Rice told me.

Williams wanted the whole game on his shoulders, badly. 

Texans Pro Bowl safety Calen Bullock remembers Williams’ first day at USC in 2022. The two went out to eat with a couple teammates. They sat in the car, talking and getting to know each other. 

Williams’ message to the group: 

I’m going to go win the Heisman.

“He said it, and he went out and did it,” Bullock told me. “I will always remember that.” 

To understand Williams, Riley explained, you must know how long he’s been intentionally designing his life.  

“He decided a long time ago, he and his family, that this is what he wanted to do for a living,” the USC coach told me. “And so everything they’ve done has been to try to position himself to be able to do it, and with the belief that he was going to be able to do it. And so I think a lot of his preparation started years and years and years ago, and it’s kind of been just a big, constant, steady build-up to these moments now.” 

That belief became fuel for others. 

“No question, it affects how you call a game or some of the decisions that you make in a game, knowing that you have a guy that is capable of, and is not going to be scared of, those types of moments,” Riley told me. “I’m sure Ben [Johnson] would say the same thing right now. It’s a huge advantage feeling like that. … If we can just get the ball and in this type of situation with the game in reach, we like our chances.”

In May, Gonzaga College High School unveiled a statue of a rising Eagle on campus. Inscribed at the bottom: “11.18.18,” commemorating Williams’ last-second Hail Mary that won the school the conference championship that year. It’s meant to serve as encouragement for future generations of Gonzaga students. 

For the football world, it’s also a permanent reminder of what Williams is capable of at any moment. 

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The Red Sox and Diamondbacks led all teams with three Gold Glove winners apiece when the awards were announced Sunday.

First basemen Christian Walker of Houston and Matt Olson of Atlanta each won the honor for the fourth time while Boston right fielder Wilyer Abreu won the fielding honor for the third year in a row.

Red Sox center fielder Ceddanne Rafaela earned the honor for the second straight season and third baseman Caleb Durbin was a first-time winner.

Diamondbacks catcher Gabriel Moreno won his second Gold Glove, his first since 2023, while shortstop Geraldo Perdomo and right fielder Corbin Carroll were first-time winners.

Walker added to Gold Gloves he won in 2022, ‘23 and ‘24. Olson also earned the honor in 2018, ‘19 and ‘25.

Braves utility man Mauricio Dubon won his third Gold Glove after 2023 and ‘25.

Other second-time winners included Chicago Cubs third baseman Alex Bregman and center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong; New York Yankees left fielder Cody Bellinger; Detroit catcher Dillon Dingler; and Milwaukee second baseman Brice Turang.

Additional first-time winners included Cleveland pitcher Tanner Bibee; Milwaukee left fielder Jackson Chourio; Texas utility man Ezequiel Duran; New York Mets pitcher Nolan McLean; Tampa Bay shortstop Tanner Walls and Seattle second baseman Cole Young.

Voting was conducted among managers and up to six coaches from each team, who can’t select players on their own club. Since 2013, voting has been factored with a Society for American Baseball Research defensive index, which comprises about 25% of the total.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Superstar quarterback Lamar Jackson once looked like he was headed toward a lucrative contract extension after this season. Some thought he might even be the first NFL player to hit $70 million per year. Such a deal once looked like a no-brainer for the Baltimore Ravens. 

But they can’t possibly justify giving him a contract like that anymore.

Because as valuable as Jackson may be as a player, he is becoming more of a liability with his never-ending list of injuries. The Ravens quarterback has now torpedoed a second straight season in Baltimore after suffering what might be a season-ending thumb injury on his first pass Sunday in what resulted in a 36-10 loss to the Buffalo Bills.

Baltimore’s Week 8 showdown with Buffalo was supposed to be Jackson’s grand return from a high ankle sprain that cost him three games. But instead of riding in like the cavalry and saving his team’s season, he will instead land on injured reserve. And that leaves the Ravens reeling, again. They’re now 1-3 when Jackson doesn’t play (or barely plays) this season, after going 2-2 last year when he was sidelined by hamstring and back injuries. (It’s worth noting the Ravens went 1-4 without Jackson in 2021 and missed the playoffs entirely. In 2022, they went 2-4, which includes a wild-card loss.) 

Of course, even after he returned last season, he wasn’t the same player. He slumped in the passing game and wasn’t nearly as effective rushing. Baltimore went 5-4 in his final nine starts, losing its division lead and a playoff berth in the regular-season finale.

And that’s the problem. A fully healthy Jackson is as good a quarterback as there is in football, but over the past two seasons he’s rarely been healthy. So the Ravens have to be concerned about his long-term future. He’s 29 now, and injury issues don’t usually get better with age. In a league where, as the cliché goes, availability is the best ability, they can’t hand him a $300 million-plus deal and spend the next half decade keeping their fingers crossed.

That’s not to say the Ravens should be done with Jackson — not by a long shot. It was just three years ago that he won his second MVP award. Two years ago, he was runner-up. He’s always a threat to give an MVP-worthy performance when he’s on the field.

But who knows at this point if he can ever get back to that level, or sustain it for long if he does? That’s why Ravens general manager Eric DeCosta must start thinking about the future and preparing for life without Lamar. 

Here’s how, specifically: Let Jackson play on the final year on his contract in 2027 and prove he can stay on the field, while also identifying and grooming his potential replacement. Then, if Jackson stays healthy and looks like MVP self again in the first half of next season, the Ravens have options. They can try negotiating to bring him back on a somewhat reasonable deal. If that looks unlikely, they can always try and trade him before the 2027 deadline to a club that will give him what he wants (since Jackson has a no-trade clause). Or the Ravens can ride out his comeback campaign before letting him hit free agency. But at least by then they’ll be ready to move on if they have to.

It’s an expensive and tricky play, of course. Jackson is due $51.25 million in salary and an $8 million Option bonus next season, when his cap hit will be an enormous $84.3 million. And with no extension — and no agent to help him out — it seems doubtful Jackson would be willing to help them out and restructure some of that cap hit into the three voidable years already in his deal.

And the closer they push him toward free agency in March 2028, the less of a chance there will be that his next deal will be reasonable. He also has a clause in his contract that prohibits the Ravens from using the franchise tag on him. It’s possible that $70 million per year could look like a bargain for a player like him by then. 

But Jackson would be 31 by then, and there’s just no erasing his extensive injury history. Sure, it would hurt the franchise to watch a player as great as Jackson walk away. But it would hurt Baltimore even more to pay him as he stands on the sidelines.

The Ravens have done way too much of that in four of the past six seasons and they should be tired of it by now. Jackson may be an integral part of their franchise, but they can’t afford to tie themselves down to an oft-injured quarterback. He may be capable of lifting them to great heights, but his constant absences just keep dragging them down.

Kyler Murray Isn’t The Answer In Minnesota. Is Kirk Cousins?

The shame of the Minnesota Vikings season is that they seem to have one of those truly special defenses capable of carrying a mediocre quarterback all the way to the Super Bowl.

If only they had a mediocre quarterback.

Kyler Murray is proving to be something worse.

That’s why it’s time the Vikings end this quixotic experiment and do whatever they can to trade for a quarterback before the deadline next Tuesday. And their target seems obvious. They need to call the Raiders and try to shake Kirk Cousins free.

Cousins, at age 38, is playing some of the best football of his career for a Raiders team that is going nowhere, even after they got back to .500 with a 38-35 win over the Jets on Sunday. He’s been a valuable addition for Las Vegas. He’s helped jumpstart new coach Klint Kubiak’s program. But he’s not the future and the Raiders aren’t going to sustain any success against a schedule that is about to get especially tough.

But Cousins could help the Vikings straighten out an offense that has been one of the NFL’s worst despite occasional flashes of competence from the 29-year-old Murray. Overall, Murray has barely been an adequate game manager. Yes, he’s thrown only three interceptions, but he’s also thrown just five touchdown passes. The Vikings can’t survive in the postseason with a paltry output like that.

And they have too many offensive weapons to keep letting Murray waste them. Justin Jefferson remains one of the league’s best wideouts. Receiver Jordan Addison, tight end T.J. Hockenson and running back Aaron Jones are dangerous, too. But Murray just can’t hit them with any regularity. He’s hesitant in the pocket, erratic under pressure, and most of his throws to even open receivers are painfully off the mark.

Yes, the Vikings are 6-1, as Murray has done just enough to win on a few occasions. But more often than not, he hurts them, like he did Sunday in their first loss of the season at Detroit. Murray’s numbers looked OK — 17 of 29, 210 yards, two TDs, one interception — but his actual performance was ugly. He was missing targets constantly, despite opportunities being there.

These Vikings should have a championship in their sights, and they just can’t count on Murray to lead them there. Carson Wentz, his backup, didn’t look like a viable option, either.

But Cousins could be. And he wouldn’t take long to get up to speed since he was thriving in Minnesota head coach Kevin O’Connell’s offense before tearing his Achilles midway through the 2023 season. Cousins might be a bit expensive, especially since the Raiders have given no indication they’re ready to trade him and hand over the reins to rookie Fernando Mendoza. 

The cost shouldn’t matter to the Vikings, though. They’ve never won a Super Bowl, and they haven’t been to one in 50 years. Their defense is giving them a real chance to end that drought this year.

They can’t put a price on that.

There’s No Defense For Keeping DC Christian Parker

Jerry Jones has been hinting at defensive changes for weeks, even threatening to do something with his “old man” money to fix it. But at this point he only has one option and has to stop resisting it:

He needs to fire defensive coordinator Christian Parker. It may be the only way to salvage the Cowboys’ season and save head coach Brian Schottenheimer’s job.

The final straw should have come on Sunday when the Cowboys blew a 17-3 lead in the second half, ultimately losing 33-30 in overtime to the lowly Cardinals. The floodgates somehow opened when backup QB Gardner Minshew replaced Jacoby Brissett and led the Cardinals on four straight touchdown drives while covering 288 yards.

The Cards added 44 more yards on their way to the game-winning field goal, but by then, the damage had been done. The Cowboys are averaging 27.4 points per game, but they are still just 3-5, staring at the backsides of the New York Giants in the standings solely because their high-priced defense stinks.

The only trade Jones can make to fix this is to swap out Parker for Mike Pettine, the veteran coordinator who was hired as a senior assistant three weeks ago. Maybe he’ll have better luck than the 34-year-old Parker, who increasingly looks like an overmatched first-year coordinator. If nothing else, Pettine would give the Cowboys a much-needed fresh look.

Packers Should Send Josh Jacobs Packing, Trade For Jonathan Taylor

There is no shortage of teams interested in running back Jonathan Taylor if the Indianapolis Colts decide to trade him. But no team needs to get him more than the Green Bay Packers.

It’s not just that the 27-year-old Taylor could be a huge boost to the Packers’ pathetic rushing attack, which is averaging a league-worst 60.6 yards per game. It’s clear that three-time Pro Bowler Josh Jacobs isn’t worth the tiny boost he can give them. He also might not be available much longer after the revelation over the weekend that three women had previously accused him of domestic violence, separate from the incident that landed him on the Commissioner’s Exempt List for the first six games of this season.

The NFL says its investigation into Jacobs remains open and they’re looking into the new information. The Packers seem unlikely to do the right thing and punish him or cut him themselves. But he didn’t give them the kind of production in his first two games to make it worth the public relations flak they’re facing.

Acquiring Taylor would give them a clean break, not to mention one of the best running backs in football to go with a quarterback (Jordan Love) who is having an elite season and a strong defense that is about to get star pass-rusher Micah Parsons back. Taylor could be the missing piece for the Packers in more ways than one.

The Colts apparently want a package similar to what the Panthers got when they traded Christian McCaffrey to the 49ers four years ago: a second-, third-, fourth- and fifth-round pick. It’s a high price to pay, but it would be worth it to both as a means to move on from Jacobs while getting their struggling running game on track.

The Broncos Can’t Win It All With Bo Nix Playing Like This

The Denver Broncos still have a Bo Nix problem. 

Yes, they are 6-2 and one of the best teams in the AFC. But the third-year QB looks nothing like he did a year ago when he helped lead Denver to the AFC Championship Game.

The Broncos have now won four straight after rallying to beat the Chiefs, 28-24, on Sunday. Head coach Sean Payton continued to find ways to squeeze just enough out of his offense, and Vance Joseph’s defense made it hold up with a terrific, game-ending goal-line stand.

But if the Broncos are going to make a Super Bowl run, they’re going to need more out of their 26-year-old quarterback. They can’t expect him to game-manage them through the powerful AFC all season long.

And that’s what he’s doing. Even though they went out and got him speedy receiver Jaylen Waddle to add a new dimension to their offense, Nix hasn’t taken advantage. The 222 yards he threw for against the Chiefs in Week 8 was tied for his second-highest total of the season. In four of eight games, he didn’t even top 200 yards.

Yes, Denver won three of those games, but too many of Nix’s big plays are fluky or short throws that his running backs turn into big gains. At some point, almost all championship teams need their quarterbacks to carry them. Nix, who has been bailing out on too many plays and making too many questionable decisions, doesn’t look capable of that right now.

The winning, of course, is good. So is him going five consecutive games without an interception. But the Broncos goals are much higher. If they want to reach them, they’ll need Nix to give them more.

• Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles has set offensive football back 60 years, but he might have saved his job in the process. It was crazy enough last week when the Bucs ran on 49 of 60 plays (for 258 yards) in a shocking 43-13 win over Carolina. But on Sunday, on a rainy day in Tampa, Bowles topped that with 56 runs on 60 plays in a 16-0 win over the Falcons. QB Baker Mayfield dropped back to pass just four times, going 0 for 3 and getting sacked once, while the Bucs ran for 324 yards. Good thing they just gave Mayfield three years and $165 million.
• There were a few eyebrows raised when the Cardinals hired Mike LaFleur as their head coach. He wasn’t exactly in demand, and it looked like the Cards were just grabbing a cheap option. But give him some credit. The 39-year-old former Rams offensive coordinator is proving to be a good coach. The upstart Cards are 3-5 with wins over the Rams and the Cowboys in the past three weeks. Imagine what LaFleur would do with a legit starting quarterback.

In NFL Fallout, Ralph Vacchiano breaks down the impact of the biggest events every Sunday.

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Raymond James Stadium (Tampa) — This was a strange game.

In today’s NFL, we might take things like the forward pass for granted, presuming them to be at least a small ingredient in the recipe for winning football. Never again.

A week ago, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers ran the ball so well (258 yards!) in a lopsided win at Carolina that quarterback Baker Mayfield, in his first game back from a thumb injury, attempted only 11 passes, one more than the fewest ever in the franchise’s 51-year history.

And the Bucs clearly looked at that game, stepped back and decided they needed to focus much, much more on running the ball.

The Buccaneers faced one of the NFL’s top-five run defenses in the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday, but with a constant downpour creating nasty weather from the very start, they sought to assert themselves on the ground and run the ball behind Bucky Irving and Kenneth Gainwell, and an amazing thing happened.

They ran the ball and played defense at such a high level that Mayfield threw only three passes and did not complete one to notch a 16-0 victory. They became the first NFL team to win a game without completing a pass since the 1974 Buffalo Bills, who did so in a win over the New York Jets, two years before the Bucs existed.

“Listen,” Mayfield said after the game. “I’ll do whatever it takes to win. That’s all that matters to me.”

Mayfield went 0-for-3 and easily had the better passing game Sunday, as Atlanta’s Michael Penix Jr. threw four interceptions, two in the first quarter, finishing 8-for-24. That completion-less 1974 Bills win was much the same way, as Joe Namath went 2-for-18 with three picks in the loss.

A game with 56 running plays and three passes is almost perfect for an offensive lineman, mauling the guy in front of you, always on the attack, just physically imposing your will on the opponent over and over for three hours.

“It’s been a blast, these last two weeks. It’s every offensive lineman’s dream,” Bucs guard Ben Bredeson said in a joyous locker room. “That’s what we strive for, being able to run it when everybody knows it’s coming. We were able to do that today. It was fun. It was a muddy game out there, a little backyard ball for sure.”

This was old-school, grind-it-out football, uniforms dirty and everything soaked through, so you just embrace the soggy discomfort.

“At halftime, people are like, ‘Oh, should I change my socks?’ Buccaneers guard Cody Mauch said. “I was like, ‘It’s not even worth it. You’re going to get right back out, and they’ll just get wet again. Who cares?'”

Buccaneers offensive tackle Tristan Wirfs said there were puddles big enough that he would line up in stance, put his hand in the ground, and his hand would get stuck in the mud. “It feels like you’re a kid again,” he said.

There are 285 NFL games in a season these days, and yet I’m consistently amazed how often you can cover one and see something that’s either never happened or last happened to a team so old you barely knew it existed. Last time an NFL team rushed for 300-plus yards and didn’t complete a pass? That would be the 1933 Boston Redskins, who did so in a game at … Fenway Park. This is the random stuff that lets the game still surprise you.

How good has the Buccaneers’ run game been of late? Until a month ago, they had rushed for 240 yards or more just once in a span of 173 games, going back to 2016. When they did so Sunday, it marked the third time they’d done it in the last four weeks. Bucky Irving reset his career high with 170 rushing yards, and then backup Kenneth Gainwell took over and did the same with 140 rushing yards. The last time an NFL team had two guys get 25 carries in the same game? It’s been 48 years, with Walter Payton and Roland Harper being the last to do so in 1978 with the Chicago Bears.

You’d think the sloppy conditions would also make it easy for the Falcons — the highest-scoring team in the NFL in the last five weeks — to do the same, especially with Bijan Robinson leading the NFL in yards from scrimmage coming in. Atlanta had 10 plays on Sunday that were third or fourth down and needing 2 yards or fewer to move the chains, and they went 2-for-10 in converting on those plays, gaining a total of 4 yards.

The novelty of zero pass completions in a game took away from a dominant game by the Buccaneers’ defense, which had a 16-3 lead on the Pittsburgh Steelers in the fourth quarter two weeks ago, but lost in overtime. There was no such letup Sunday, and the end result was just the 12th shutout in franchise history. The last time the Bucs had a shutout on their home field was Dec. 5, 2004, also against the Falcons, and four months before rookie Buccaneers’ linebacker Josiah Trotter was born.

Mayfield couldn’t have asked for an easier day as any NFL quarterback in a win, but he found ways to stay busy. With seven minutes left in the third quarter, it was still a precarious 9-0 lead for the Bucs when Irving broke loose for a 46-yard gain. Two plays later, Gainwell had a 28-yard run, and as he cut back, Mayfield was motioning him to run his way, and he blocked Falcons safety Jessie Bates back straight into the end zone, the two of them landing in a puddle on the sidelines, a testament to the toughness of the day.

“You know, if I’m not going to throw the ball, I have to get active somehow,” Mayfield said. “Me and Jessie were out there playing in the mud.”

Two weeks ago, the Bucs were 1-5 and alone with the worst record in the NFC, and with a combined 64 passing yards in two games, they’ve beaten their top divisional rivals in Carolina and Atlanta and find themselves a half-game out of first place. The Bucs now have the Bears on the road on Sunday night. But the Panthers and Falcons are home underdogs this week against the Bengals and Broncos, so the Buccaneers could lose and still be a half-game out when they get to their bye in Week 10.

The emphasis on the run game was clear from the Bucs’ opening play, when Irving went for 24 yards, setting the tone for a day so dominant they didn’t need to complete a single pass to win.

“It takes everybody. It takes all 11,” said Kevin Carberry, the team’s offensive line coach and run game coordinator. “I’m so proud of them. It was exciting. Playing aggressively, and they just played well. Both runners ran their butts off.”

Buccaneers RB Bucky Irving had a career day on Sunday. (Photo by Cliff Welch/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Nobody enjoyed the win Sunday more than Tampa Bay’s offensive line, but they’ve been doing that all week. On Wednesday, the folks from Nickelodeon honored Irving as their weekly “NVP,” which meant a box of goodies sent to the team. In the locker room, Wirfs had a neon-orange T-shirt that said “MY GUY WON THE MVP AND ALL I GOT WAS THIS SHIRT,” and the linemen got jars of green slime to pour on Irving’s head as the award’s trademark celebration.

In the process of slinging slime on Irving, Wirfs accidentally sent some toward center Graham Barton and it actually got in his mouth. 

“You can’t ingest that stuff!” the Duke grad said, all of this on camera and posted on the team’s social media accounts. Barton was a late addition to the injury report due to illness, and it was safe to wonder if the slime had gotten him.

“I said last week: ‘It doesn’t get better than that,'” Barton said. “It got better. Super-fun, mud bowl. I remember looking up at halftime and seeing zero pass yards and whatever rush yards and I was like ‘Oh. Oh well.’ You go through the second half and I don’t even know if we attempted one. You’re cognizant of it, but we were like, ‘Hey, if it keeps working, let’s keep pounding the rock.’

“It’s awesome.”

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Week 8 proved there’s more than one way to make NFL history.

The Buccaneers found a way to win that had been done just once before in the Super Bowl era, while Joe Burrow put on a passing clinic that landed him in rare company. Bo Nix added another comeback to his growing collection, and Josh Allen and Ja’Marr Chase reached new milestones.

Elsewhere, the Cardinals pulled off a comeback the Cowboys had never allowed at home, Bhayshul Tuten delivered a first for the Jaguars, and Dylan Laube ended the NFL’s wait for a kickoff return touchdown.

Here are the numbers that defined Week 8:

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No Passes Needed

• The Buccaneers became just the second team in the Super Bowl era to win without completing a pass, joining the Bills, who beat the Jets 16-12 on Sept. 29, 1974.
• Baker Mayfield finished 0-for-3 passing in Tampa Bay’s 16-0 win over Atlanta.
• Tampa Bay became the first team with at least 300 rushing yards and negative net passing yards in a game since Washington on Nov. 27, 1955.
• The Buccaneers also became the first team to win by double digits without completing a pass since the Steelers beat the Chicago Cardinals 23-0 in Week 8 of 1945.
• Tampa Bay has rushed for 925 yards over its last four games, shattering the franchise record of 768 set from Nov. 24 to Dec. 15, 2024.
• The Buccaneers have also rushed for a franchise-record 582 yards over their last two games (258 against Carolina and 324 against Atlanta), surpassing the previous mark of 437 set in both 2012 and 2024.

• Josh Allen threw his 259th and 260th career touchdown passes, including the playoffs, surpassing Jim Kelly for the most in Bills franchise history.
• Allen also scored his ninth rushing touchdown of the season, taking sole possession of the NFL lead.
• The Bills won their 12th consecutive game following a bye, the second-longest streak in NFL history behind the Eagles’ 13 straight from 1999 to 2011.

Home Cookin the Browns

• The Browns have lost 23 consecutive regular-season games at Pittsburgh, tying the NFL record for the longest road losing streak against one opponent. The Lions lost 23 straight at Green Bay from 1992 to 2014.
• T.J. Watt recorded two sacks against the Browns, passing Terrell Suggs for the most career sacks against Cleveland. He also became the ninth player in NFL history to hold the career sack record against multiple teams.

• Joe Burrow accounted for six touchdowns against the Titans, joining Norm Van Brocklin (Week 1, 1951) as the only players in NFL history with at least 450 passing yards, five passing touchdowns and a rushing touchdown in a single game.
• Ja’Marr Chase became the fourth player in the Super Bowl era with at least 60 receiving touchdowns through his first 85 career games, joining Jerry Rice (77), Rob Gronkowski (67) and Randy Moss (66).
• The Bengals are 5-2, their best record through seven games since 2021.

• Bo Nix earned his 12th career regular-season fourth-quarter comeback win against the Chiefs. Including the playoffs, he now has 13, breaking a tie with John Elway and Derek Carr (12 each) for the most through a player’s first three seasons in NFL history.
• Nix now has 16 career game-winning drives in the fourth quarter or overtime, the most through a player’s first three seasons since the stat was first tracked in 1950.
• With the win, Nix became the ninth quarterback since starts were first tracked in 1950 to win 30 games in his first three seasons.

• With the Titans’ loss to the Bengals, Cam Ward tied Bryce Young for the fewest wins through 25 career starts by a quarterback selected No. 1 overall in the Common Draft Era, with four.

Historic Collapse

• For the first time in franchise history, the Cowboys lost a home game after leading by at least 14 points in the fourth quarter. They had been 202-0-1 in those situations, including the playoffs.
• Entering today, the Cardinals were 1-147-1 since 2000 when trailing by at least 14 points in the fourth quarter. Over that same span, the Cowboys were 69-0 at home when holding such a lead.
• The Cowboys have lost three games when scoring at least 30 points over the last two seasons (one in 2025, two in 2026), tied with the Bengals for the most in the NFL.
• The Cardinals improved to 5-0 against the Cowboys at AT&T Stadium, extending their NFL record for the most wins without a loss at the venue.

• Dylan Laube’s kickoff return touchdown against the Jets was the NFL’s first of the season.
• This is the first time since 1979 that the NFL’s first kickoff return touchdown of the season came in Week 8 or later. That year’s first also came in Week 8.

• Bhayshul Tuten became the first player in Jaguars history with at least 100 rushing yards, 50 receiving yards, a rushing touchdown and a receiving touchdown in a single game.

Ugliest Game Ever?

• The Buccaneers and Falcons combined for just eight completions, the fewest in an NFL game since the Bills and Baltimore Colts combined for eight on Dec. 17, 1978.
• Michael Penix Jr. went 8-for-24 with four interceptions. Penix and Mayfield combined to complete 8-of-27 passes.
• Penix threw more interceptions (four) than Mayfield attempted passes (three).

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The Commanders have their first victory in more than a month.

Coming out of its bye week, Washington took care of business at home, beating the division rival Philadelphia Eagles 27-10 at Northwest Stadium. It marked the second win of the year for the Commanders (2-4-1) – their first came on Sept. 27, when they stunned the reigning Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks at home.

The Eagles’ season, meanwhile, continues to implode. Philadelphia (2-6) has lost six straight games, trailing only the 0-7 Los Angeles Chargers for the NFL’s longest skid.

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