Week 13: Some of my Favorite Storylines

Bonjour… quelque chose en français,

Why a greeting in French? Because Week 12 was the revolution of the in-division underdogs. The Browns stall the Steelers on a snowy TNF, the Titans get a fourth quarter win over the Texans, and the Cowboys give the Commanders a last-second chance that they didn’t need to give them, but then still close it out in a weird way. ‘Dem boys finally got a win. Who needs a good draft pick anyway?

For the most part, our fantasy teams are pretty locked and loaded for the playoff (or consolation) bracket at this point. If you have any byes next week and need the wins, grab your streaming options ahead of time. Grab those handcuff running backs we spoke about last week off. Otherwise, with all due respect to Raiders RB Ameer Abdullah, I probably don’t care about the top guy on the waiver wire anymore.  Instead, I want to talk some season narratives today.

Fantasy football is one of my favorite games because it tickles both parts of the brain. My analytical side loves the statistics and projections for how players will work in new situations. My creative side loves following my new team on Instagram to learn more about their personalities, drive, and families. The triumph of victory, the tragedy of defeat, and a chance every Sunday to change your life – that’s why I love football! See below for the usual week 13 things to know and then my favorite storylines of the season.

Week 13 Byes & Relevant Players:

• No Byes! Woohoo!

• But keep these byes in mind for next week: Baltimore Ravens, Denver Broncos, Indianapolis Colts, New England Patriots, Washington Commanders

Week 13 Over/Unders:

Highest (FanDuel Sportsbook)

• 49.5 – Philadelphia Eagles @ Baltimore Ravens

• 48.5 – Chicago Bears @ Detroit Lions

Lowest (FanDuel Sportsbook)

• 38.5 – New York Giants @ Dallas Cowboys – This is the 4:30pm ET Thanksgiving game. DeVito vs Rush. Don’t need dinner in front of the TV this year.

• 41.5 – Seattle Seahawks @ New York Jets

• 41. 5 – Cleveland Browns @ Denver Broncos

Week 13 Defenses for Beth:

Here are my favorites this week but also I don’t know!

1. Kansas City Chiefs

2. Denver Broncos

3. Houston Texans

4. Dallas Cowboys

5. New York Giants

The Revival of Bryce Young:

Carolina Panthers QB Bryce Young’s NFL story begins on March 10th, 2023. The Panthers were coming off a muddy 7-10 season, having fired HC Matt Rhule five games in, and shuffled through then journeymen QBs Baker Mayfield, Sam Darnold, and P.J. Walker for 6 or 7 games each. That 7-10 record, however, was just one win out of a playoff spot. Tampa Bay Buccaneers QB Tom Brady, had just retired (again) that offseason and the NFC South was up for the taking.

The Chicago Bears had earned the No. 1 overall pick of the 2023 draft on the back of rookie QB Justin Fields, who was not great, but at least showed some upside. With a strong QB crop of Alabama’s Bryce Young, Ohio State’s C.J. Stroud, Florida’s Anthony Richardson, and Kentucky’s Will Levis all projected in the first round, and happy enough with Fields’s debut season, Bears GM Ryan Poles was in a power position. The Bears could sell that #1 pick to the highest bidder. Ready to make their move, the Panthers and GM Dan Morgan gave them everything.

Chicago Receives:

-2023 NFL Draft No. 9 overall pick (traded down one slot, selected OT Darnell Wright)

-2023 NFL Draft No. 61 overall pick (CB Tyrique Stevenson)

-2024 NFL Draft first round pick (turned into the No. 1 overall pick and QB Caleb Williams)

-2025 NFL Draft second round pick

-WR D.J. Moore

Carolina Receives:

-2023 NFL Draft No. 1 overall pick (QB Bryce Young)

To summarize Young’s rookie season in short, it sucked. To summarize in a little longer, Bryce Young was surrounded with a subpar offensive line, had no weapons outside of 33-year-old WR Adam Thielen, was compared relentlessly to No. 2 overall Offensive Rookie of the Year QB C.J. Stroud, and lost ANOTHER HC Frank Reich 11 games into the season to Owner Dave Tepper’s infamous temper. Bryce Young was set up to fail and fail, he did. The Panthers finished 2-15 and earned the Bears another No. 1 overall pick, with which they got another crack at a generational QB prospect.

Over his first offseason, Bryce Young became everyone’s favorite guy to hate. The analysts told you they never actually believed in Young and the comment section overlords ridiculed a photo of him wearing a backpack to training camp. The Panthers did what they could to bolster their offense in the 2024 draft with the rookie skill players WR Xavier Legette, RB Jonathon Brooks, and TE Ja’Tavion Sanders, but again prisoners of their own impatience, the team decided to bench Bryce Young after just two games this season.

After a 26-3 routing from the Los Angeles Chargers, Young was reportedly blindsided by the news that he was made the backup for former Cincinnati Bengals franchise QB Andy Dalton. Since his own Cincci benching in 2019, the 36-year-old Dalton played stints in Dallas, Chicago, and New Orleans, never reaching the same franchise level he showed early in Cincinnati. So if Dalton actually produces in Carolina, then it was Bryce Young’s fault all along. In his first start, Andy Dalton was electric in a 36-22 victory over the Las Vegas Raiders. And the insults continued over the broken promise that was Bryce Young’s career.

That is until another wrench. On October 22nd, Andy Dalton was involved in a minor car crash, sprained his thumb, and put Bryce Young back under center for their following game against the Denver Broncos. Since returning to the starting lineup Bryce Young is 2-2, including a revenge win over the division rival Saints, a win over the New York Giants in Munich, and a very, very, very close loss, just the other day, to face-of-the-league QB Patrick Mahomes and the back-to-back Super Bowl defending Kansas City Chiefs.

It remains to be seen what the Carolina Panthers will do at quarterback this offseason but it at least appears now that Bryce Young will have the chance to prove his worth in their last 6 games and keep his job into his third season. I, for one, am rooting for him. With all the expectations in the world and none of the support, it’s a cautionary tale for the state of young quarterbacks across the NFL. If Bryce Young is able to right the ship on his career, be it in Carolina or elsewhere, this Shakespearean story will be told for years to come.

The Jets Lost Their Bet:

The New York Jets last made the playoffs in 2010. That was with 2009 first round pick and Masked Singer contestant QB Mark Sanchez. In the decade since Sanchez’s release on March 21, 2014, the Jets have been looking for their next franchise quarterback. Their 2013 second-rounder QB Geno Smith had a chance. Same for 2016 second-rounder QB Christian Hackenberg. Surely the 2018 No. 3 overall QB Sam Darnold will be the guy, right? No. Then 2021 No. 2 overall QB Zach Wilson, it is. Not him either.

2022 was a tumultuous year for the organization, as most are. It started with a few absolute smashes in the draft, including the Offensive AND Defensive Rookies of the Year in WR Garrett Wilson and CB Sauce Gardner, who brought a whole new sound to the franchise. Their sophomore frontman Zach Wilson, however, leaved much to be desired. He was inconsistent on the field and the center of much drama off the field, leading to his replacement, locker room guy QB Mike White and eventually QB Joe Flacco to end of the season.

Entering 2023, they were at a crossroads – can we possibly give up on another first round quarterback so soon into their career? Skkkrrrrt, yes we can! Because after a long-drawn falling out with the new front office of the Green Bay Packers, QB Aaron Rodgers was available. An MVP-caliber quarterback was on the market and the New York Jets pounced. The trade was significantly less consequential than the Panthers-Bears debacle above, but after a very long, public, and complicated arbitration, the Packers let Rodgers go and he became a New York Jet.

The offseason prior to Rodgers’s debut, the team was featured on HBO’s Hard Knocks, a docuseries following the training camps of NFL teams primed for a statement season. HC Robert Saleh celebrated the competent, new look of their offense and many in the media landscape even took the Jets to win the Super Bowl. The Jets also surrounded Rodgers with familiar Green Bay WRs Allen Lazard and Randall Cobb, to go along with their already young and studly skill players. They were ready. Then, after carrying an American flag out of the tunnel on September 11th, 2023, Aaron Rodgers tore his Achilles on the fourth snap of his Jets career and QB Zach Wilson was back at the helm. Unbelievable.

Every Tuesday throughout his recovery, Jets fans tuned into The Pat MacAfee Show where Aaron Rodgers would call in and discuss his experimental surgery. Though he refused to put an exact date on his recovery, it seemed the 39-year-old was going to return from this injury faster than anyone in history. A medical marvel – if only the Jets could stay in the playoff hunt. After starting 4-4, Robert Saleh was answering questions week in and out about the inconsistency of Zach Wilson once again. Regardless, it was all very much on the table. A 4-game skid thereafter ended their hopes, and in fact sidelined Rodgers for the year.

But that was 2023. Entering 2024, the arrow was pointing all the way back up. With the big bad Bills and up-and-coming Dolphins losing pieces in free agency, the New York Jets were once again favored to win the AFC East. By October 8th, they were 2-3, and Owner Woody Johnson fired Robert Saleh. One week later, they were 2-4, and traded for Rodger’s close friend and best career pass-catcher WR Davante Adams. Later, they changed the play caller, then they fired the General Manger that made all of those moves, and the Jets have won only one more game after that 2-3 start. At 3-8, and with former US Ambassador Johnson potentially returning to a role in the White House, the future is murky.

Are the New York Jets truly cursed by the football gods? Or is their problem very tangible in the team leadership making the wrong decisions every time? As they watch their own draft picks Geno Smith and Sam Darnold on potential playoff runs with other teams, the Jets find themselves at yet another crossroads - Rodgers retirement speculation brewing again, a so-so QB class in the next draft, upcoming contract negotiations for those young stars, and Sauce Gardner is finally getting called for holding. The playoff drought continues into year 15. I am rooting for you Jets fans. You have been through enough.

The Giants Fold on Daniel Jones:

After a consistent playoff presence in the mid 2000s-mid 2010s, the New York Giants were finally ready to turn the page from QB Eli Manning in 2019. With the No. 6 overall pick in the 2019 draft, even Duke University QB Daniel Jones was surprised. That was sooner than anyone expected for the young man. But there were parallels. Both Manning and Jones played under coach Daniel Cutcliffe in college, entered the draft with arm talent concerns, but were praised for their strong leadership qualities. So the Giants got their guy.

The parallels continue into their early careers. It appeared, three seasons into the Daniel Jones era, that the Giants had whiffed on the draft pick. GM David Gettleman got the axe for that. But, like his predecessor, Daniel Jones broke out in his fourth season, took the Giants back to the playoffs, and defeated the Minnesota Vikings in the Wild Card round. After previously declining Jones’s fifth-year contract option, the Giants changed their mind, bet on Jones again, and that is when it all fell apart.

The Giants signed Daniel Jones to a significant, four-year, $160 million contract. Jones’s contract was not only hefty at the time, it was also unforgiving to the team’s salary cap. The team struggled, thereafter, to surround Jones with a stout offensive line or any outstanding pass-catchers. The brightest spot of their offense through Daniel Jones’s tenure was RB Saquon Barkley. When both healthy, those two best friends could lead a strong offense. But the contract even split them up.

This past summer, HBO released a new Hard Knocks: Offseason focused on the real conversations of NFL coaches and front office making personnel decisions through a draft cycle and free agency. They chose the New York Giants to be their guinea pig. Included in the series, HC Brian Daboll stated that he would trade up in the draft for LSU QB Jayden Daniels, putting unnecessary pressure on Daniel Jones to perform. We saw phone calls between Giants GM Joe Schoen and then free agent Saquon Barkley, Schoen asking Barkley if he would even get a chance to match the best offer Saquon received elsewhere. That and Owner John Mara stating that he would be unable to sleep if Barkley signed with the rival Philadelphia Eagles. Which he did, in part because, the Giants had their hands tied in Jones’s contract. All of this is to say, the vibes for the 2024 season – horrendous from the start.

It was only a few games into the year that news started “breaking” that Daniel Jones would continue to be the starter in New York. That finally changed after the 2-7 Giants lost to the Carolina Panthers, 20-17, in Munich, Germany. That very same game that may have resurrected Bryce Young’s career, ended Daniel Jones’s – at least his career with the Giants. The team announced last week that they would be turning to QB Tommy DeVito for the foreseeable future, a move to keep Jones healthy and ensure they would not need to pay him any of the injury-related guarantees in that generous contract. To Daniel Jones’s credit, stories have emerged from the locker room of players upset by the decision. They liked Danny “Dimes,” a testament to that leadership the Giants saw in the draft six years ago. Last week, after a brief stint as the third-string quarterback and practice squad safety, Jones requested a release and the Giants obliqued.

As of 11:05am on 11/26/24, Daniel Jones is still a free agent. He has cleared the waiver process, meaning any team that wants to bring him in can avoid his big contract and write up a new agreement. There are rumors of multiple teams being interested in Jones and it seems he has a choice. Jones has stated that he wants to go to a contending team, which would likely mean a backup role, but maybe that’s what is best for him – time out of the spotlight, in a competent organization, where he can clear his mind, and have some fun.

As an Eagles fan who has lived in New York the last few years, Daniel Jones has always been an intriguing figure to me. I’ve seen the fanbase turn on him and patiently await the end of his Giants tenure. He seems like a nice person, and certainly has upside as a football player, so I doubt we have seen the end of his  story. I think Giants fans would agree with that too. Maybe he’s just a piece in a different puzzle.

I had some more storylines in mind for this section but ended up going longer than expected with those three. So I’ll leave it there and maybe do some more over the offseason. Thanks for reading! Kind of a different issue today so let me know what you think. See the catalog and more of my writing on my website here: https://scottkauffman4.wixsite.com/my-site (but please don’t do that on mobile). Good luck in Week 13!

Get Down,

Scotty “Disco”