Carson Wentz fully moved into his backup era when he signed with the Rams last year and he’ll be the No. 2 behind another Super Bowl winner this season.
Wentz signed with the Chiefs earlier this year, which puts him on a team looking for a third straight title with the league’s best quarterback at the helm. Given that status, Patrick Mahomes isn’t a player who would seem to be in need of much assistance but Wentz vowed to find ways to boost his teammate this season.
“I’ll find a way to help him whatever way I can, whether that’s off the field, on the field, whatever,” Wentz said, via Adam Teicher of ESPN.com.
While Wentz is in Kansas City to support Mahomes, he still hopes for a chance to play a bigger role again in the future and wants to “keep getting better on the field” despite the backup role. The close view to Mahomes may help on that front.
“He just processes the game really quickly,” Wentz said. “He calls protections, he’s in and out of the huddle and throwing anticipatory throws, all that stuff, all that stuff you see from afar. But it’s just fun to see it and in some respects just see different windows on plays that maybe you didn’t see before because he’s playing so quickly out there.”
Wentz may not get another look as a starter after failed runs in Philly, Indianapolis and Washington, but anything he can glean from Mahomes should help his chances of continuing to find work around the league in the years to come.
AI might be able to do many things, but the art of coming up with clickbait headlines is uniquely human.
And it’s getting worse.
The term often gets misapplied. For every link that shows up on social media or in search engines, the outlet that posted it hopes someone will click on it. But there’s a difference between enticing engagement through transparency and candor and luring folks to click on an article by making it seem like something it isn’t.
That’s clickbait. The link to the article is presented in a way that’s misleading or confusing. The tipping point for me came this morning, when I saw this ridiculous headline from SI.com: “Steelers Intentionally Cut Super Bowl Winning QB.”
“What the hell is that?” was my reaction, with a four-letter word other than hell. I clicked it mainly because I had no idea what it meant.
Inside was six-paragraphs of word slaw framed around quarterback Chris Oladokun saying on a podcast that Steelers coach Mike Tomlin cut him earlier than necessary in 2022 to give him a chance to land elsewhere.
And while Oladukon, who ended up in Kansas City but has never played in a game that counts (he’s been on the active roster only once), has two more Super Bowl rings than Dan Marino, Dan Fouts, Jim Kelly, Fran Tarkenton, and Warren Moon combined, Oladukon is hardly a “Super Bowl winning quarterback.”
Of course, an accurate and non-misleading headline wouldn’t have gotten the job done. Absent clickbait, people would have concluded they don’t care before, not after, clicking the link.
Prior to that came the ridiculously misleading headline from the Clarion-Ledger aimed at commemorating the 75th birthday of Archie Manning while also creating the impression that he had died.
“Archie Manning: Ole Miss football legend, dad of Eli, Peyton, grandfather of Arch, is 75,” the headline declared. When we (and many others) saw it, the first thought was that it was an obituary. (We reposted it with a classic clip from The Office, where Michael Scott creates the impression that Meredith died after he hit her with his car.)
In the Oladukon case, the headline was aimed at creating enough confusion to get readers to take a closer look. As to Archie, the apparent goal was to get people to think he had died, harvesting a click that would then leave them feeling more relieved than deceived.
Regardless, it’s bullshit. The people who are doing it know what they’re doing. And those who do it need to be called out and criticized, or they won’t stop.
It probably won’t stop. That’s why I fully expect to see this headline on September 3: “Chris Oladukon, Super Bowl-winning quarterback who was once intentionally cut by the Steelers, is 27.”
After last year’s successful debut of Quarterback on Netflix, the producers couldn’t find enough quarterbacks for season two. So they moved to a new position.
And in compiling the roster for Receiver, a highly popular pass-catching tight end had a chance to join the fray.
Appearing on the Bussin’ with the Boys podcast, Travis Kelce said he declined the invitation to be one of the subjects of the show.
“After [Patrick Mahomes] did it, I did get asked about it,” Kelce said, via USA Today. “I’d rather just play ball, man; I’m already doing enough with the podcast and everything. I’m way over the reality shit, dude. I’m out on that shit.”
The subjects of Receiver are Justin Jefferson of the Vikings, Davante Adams of the Raiders, Amon-Ra St. Brown of the Lions, and Deebo Samuel and George Kittle of the 49ers. If Kelce had done it, there’s a good chance (given everything that happened last year), that he would have become Bruce Springsteen and the rest of the bunch would have been the E Street Band. Or maybe it would have been all about Kelce and only Kelce.
The show debuts, without Travis Kelce, on July 12.
Before the Giants decided to trade with the Panthers for edge rusher Brian Burns, they considered pursuing a couple of disruptive defensive linemen who would have been available for no compensation to their prior teams.
The first episode of the first season of offseason Hard Knocks includes footage from an early-January meeting in which the Giants ponder pursuing Chiefs defensive tackle Chris Jones and Dolphins defensive tackle Christian Wilkins, with the idea of pairing one of them with Dexter Lawrence.
As to Jones, director of pro scouting Chris Rossetti says this, “Future Hall of Fame player. Still game-wrecking talent. Makes football look easy at times. When he’s dialed in, playing within the scheme and he’s unblockable, it’s hard not to imagine the good things that would come with him and Dex together in the middle. They’re the two best defensive tackles in football. You watch the tape and you see Chris Jones getting double-teamed every snap, and the guy on the other just having one block. You just imagine that’s Dex with one guy on him every time. You know, the possibilities, the game-wrecking capability is there. Financially, is it possible where we’re at? You’re looking at like a $35 million cap hit next year.”
As to Wilkins, who is Lawrence’s “best friend,” Rosetti says, “I don’t think he’s a difference-making pass rusher on third down. Which is what we need opposite Dex. But a really good football player who will do well for himself.”
G.M. Joe Schoen then remarked that Dexter had texted recently to ask “what we thought” of Wilkins.
They ultimately traded for Burns, giving him a five-year, $141 million contract ($28.2 million per year) and giving up a second- and fifth-round pick to Carolina. Jones stayed put for five years and $158.75 million ($31.75 million). Wilkins went to the Raiders for four years and $110 million ($27.5 million).
Rosetti was right about the Jones cap charge. It’s $34.85 million in 2025. For 2024, however, it’s only $7.35 million.
Burns has cap charges of $15.5 million this year, $29.75 million in 2025, and $30.75 million in 2026.
Of course, the Giants could have kept the second- and fifth-round picks by signing Jones.
That said, it would have surely cost more to get Jones to leave the Chiefs. And it’s unknown whether he would have wanted to join a team that is a long way from being as good as the Chiefs have become.
Regardless, Jones and to a lesser extent Wilkins were on the Giants’ radar. And we know that because the Giants decided to open up their internal process to cameras and microphones.
After watching the first episode of offseason Hard Knocks twice, I’ve got some more thoughts about whether it makes sense to allow so much offseason candor to make its way into view. I’ll type them up later.
Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes is favored to win his third regular season Most Valuable Player award in the upcoming season.
Mahomes’ odds to win MVP are +450 if he wins it at DraftKings.com. If Mahomes does win the award, he’ll join Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, Brett Favre, Johnny Unitas and Jim Brown as the only three-time winners of the Associated Press MVP award.
In a sign of how much optimism there is after his stellar rookie year, Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud is tied for the second-shortest odds to win MVP, at +850. Bills quarterback Josh Allen is also at +850.
Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow has the next-best odds, at +900.
Reigning MVP Lamar Jackson is listed at +1400, as are Packers quarterback Jordan Love and 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy.
Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers and Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts are at +1600.
The non-quarterback with the best odds to win MVP is 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey, at +4000.
Defensive end Charles Omenihu helped the Chiefs get to the Super Bowl last season, but he wasn’t able to join in the fun on the field in Las Vegas.
Omenihu had a career high seven sacks in the regular season and he had a key strip-sack of Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson in the AFC Championship Game, but he would later depart the win over Baltimore with a torn ACL. Recovering from that injury has been the focal point of Omenihu’s offseason and he gave an update on how things have gone over the weekend.
“It’s going good,” Omenihu said, via Aaron Wilson of KPRC. “Slow process, everybody told me it was going to be like that, but it’s been decent. . . . Honestly, right now, I’m steady, I’m cool. I got to be like this. I kind of keep myself like that, just stay plain and we’ll get to the point where I ramp it up like that.”
The timing of the injury may not allow Omenihu to be in action early, but he said he plans to pick up where he left off “whenever I come back” during the 2024 season.
If the NFL ever puts a team in London, plenty of players won’t be interested in moving there. One player is ready to sign up.
“I’m waiting for that team to play for another team other than the Chiefs,” Travis Kelce said, via USA Today. “That’s the only situation is if I get to play abroad.”
The comments came as Travis and Jason Kelce were discussing their recent trip to London for Taylor Swift shows at Wembley Stadium. Travis made an on-stage appearance before 90,000 fans during one of the concerts.
Travis suggested that a team could end up in London in less than 10 years. It would have to happen soon if he’s going to sign with the London team. He turns 35 in early October.
For at least 10 years, there’s been a vague sense that London could get a team within 10 years. With the Jaguars, who have established a partial foothold in London, staying in Jacksonville — and likely to continue to play at least one annual “home” game in London indefinitely — there’s no obvious team to make the move. Absent expansion, it’s not likely to happen.
The NFL likes to tease the possibility of moving a team to London, because it generates more interest in the NFL in London. At some point, folks are going to realize it’s not realistic. Especially with the one team that would have made the most sense soon to be tied to its American home for another several decades.
There’s a chance you haven’t heard of Joe Delaney. That’s why we do this, every June 29.
On this day in 1983, Joe Delaney tried to save three drowning boys in a man-made pond. Delaney didn’t think twice about trying to help.
“I can’t swim good, but I’ve got to save those kids,” Joe Delaney said. “If I don’t come up, get somebody.”
One survived. Two died. Delaney drowned, too. He was 24, and he left behind a wife and three daughters.
Here’s the original AP story about the incident.
Four years ago, the diver who retrieved Joe Delaney from the pond successfully lobbied for a permanent memorial to Delaney at Chennault Park in Monroe, Louisiana, Joe’s hometown.
“It’s never left my mind,” Marvin Dearman said at the time. “Basically, he died in my arms, and it’s something I’ve never forgotten.”
I’ll never forget reading about it in the newspaper, 41 years ago. For longer than I can remember, we’ve written something about Joe’s sacrifice, every June 29.
Every year, we hear from people who didn’t know about Joe Delaney.
He’s a member of the College Football Hall of Fame, for his achievements at Northwestern State. He was a second-round pick of the Chiefs in 1981. He rushed for 1,121 yards as a rookie, winning the AFC rookie of the year award. Injuries limited him to eight games in 1982, but his career was still promising. And in many ways his life was still beginning.
After rushing for 193 yards against Houston as a rookie, Oilers defensive end Elvin Bethea said this of Delaney: “I’ve played against the best — O.J. Simpson, Gale Sayers, Walter Payton and [Delaney] ranks right up there with them. He is great with a capital G.”
Joe Delaney is also great with a capital G because he was selfless with a capital S. He saw that three boys needed help, and he acted.
Joe Delaney is a member of the Chiefs’ Ring of Honor. The NFL should have something that honors Joe Delaney for what he did, so that more people will know about him. Even if it’s something as simple as an award given to the top rookie running back every year.
While few ever make the extreme sacrifice, Joe Delaney’s story hopefully inspires others to make smaller sacrifices in the name of doing the right thing, whenever there’s a choice to be made between doing the right thing and doing the safe thing.
The Chiefs failed in their effort to get voters to support taxpayer financing of Arrowhead Stadium renovations, but competition between Missouri and Kansas may help the team get the money it wants.
After the governor of Kansas signed legislation that would finance most of the costs for stadiums for both the Chiefs and Royals to move out of Missouri and into Kansas, Missouri Governor Mike Parson said today that his state is committed to keeping the teams.
“We’re going to make sure that we put the best business deal we can on the line,” Parson said, via the Associated Press. “Look, I can’t blame Kansas for trying. You know, if I was probably sitting there, I’d be doing the same thing. But at the end of the day, we’re going to be competitive.”
Voters have been largely unpersuaded by teams’ efforts to get tax money for stadiums, but Parson said, “the Kansas City Chiefs and Royals are big business,” and that public aid to keep them could be beneficial. He also said a stadium deal “has to work out on paper, where it’s going to be beneficial to the taxpayers of Missouri.”
When I spoke to Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes after last December’s win over the Patriots, he had to ask himself whether he’s 27 or 28.
He’s 28. He’ll be 29 on September 17. And as he gets closer to 30, the questions about how long he’ll play are inevitable.
They’re inevitable for two other reasons. First, the latest Mahomes ad for Coors Light, which has a recent habit of cheekily tiptoeing around the prohibition on active players doing beer commercials, says that the commercial will be put in a time capsule until Mahomes retires.
So when will that be? Will he pull a Tom Brady and play until he’s 45?
That leads to the second reason. Via Marca.com, Mahomes’s mother recently suggested in a podcast appearance that Patrick might not stick around until he’s halfway to 90.
“I hear him, you know, make comments like, ‘If the game takes away from my kids, I might not play as long as Tom Brady,’ and I’m like — I’m so proud of him for that,” Randi Mahomes said on The Mom Game podcast.
Much of it might depend on whether he catches Brady’s seven Super Bowl wins before Mahomes gets to 40. In six years as a starter, he has three rings; his floor is losing in overtime of the AFC Championship. Maybe Mahomes will be content to get to seven (or eight) and walk away.
Another factor will be whether Mahomes can manage to strike the right balance between football and family. It eventually got out of whack for Brady. Mahomes might be able to figure out how to prioritize family without undermining football.
Regardless, expect Mahomes to get plenty of questions about his long-term plans.