Russell Wilson has led the Steelers to a 6-1 record in seven starts, but his numbers have been middling. , with episodes released once a week. Barnwell joined ESPN in 2011 as a staff writer at Grantland. Follow him on Twitter here:after making offseason upgrades at the league's most important position. Changes at quarterback can turn bad teams around quicker than anybody expects and help mold flawed teams into Super Bowl contenders.
The full gamut of coach Kevin O'Connell's tricks to both create space for Jefferson and use the gravity of his star receiver to create space for everyone else was also on display. On Jefferson's first touchdown, O'Connell used late motion from Jefferson out of the slot to guarantee outside leverage from the cornerback and then ran Jefferson through a couple of picks to create a throwing lane for Darnold.
Facing an Eagles defense Sunday that had ranked second in the league in Total QBR allowed since Week 5, Young was going to be put to the test. And while his numbers weren't otherworldly, he answered the challenge. Spending much of the day running for his life, he battled throughout and made plays in adverse situations.
Winston has been good there. He ranks ninth in the NFL in QBR since taking over on play-action, mostly because he's averaging 12.5 yards per attempt when he uses a play-fake, the second-best mark over that stretch. With the Browns unable to block the Steelers up front for most of the game, though, he was only 3-of-5 for 17 yards on play-action, which basically forced him to live in the quick game and dropback universes. Winston was 11-of-16 for just 55 yards and a pick throwing within 2.
Given that the Steelers are paying a combined $4.5 million or so for the combination of Fields and Wilson this season, it's hard to argue they're getting anything less than great value. Average-ish quarterback play for whatmakes once every six quarters on his new deal is a bargain. Wilson is getting paid the vast majority of what he's owed this yearRussell Wilson finds Pat Freiermuth with a few defenders around him for a 20-yard Steelers touchdown.
Well, this week, it wasn't the quarterback. In what clearly has already been a lost season for several weeks now, Rodgers delivered his first 300-yard game in nearly three full calendar years.
It has been clear for a while now that the relationship between Rodgers and the Jets has fallen apart. The expectations were too high, the sacrifices made to accommodate Rodgers too significant and the results unacceptable. He simply hasn't been good enough on a week-to-week basis, and as a now-41-year-old starter, it's hard to imagine he would be better at 42.
A 44.7 QBR is bad, but it's hardly unprecedented for Cousins' career or the sort of performance that would necessitate an immediate benching. Switch to EPA per dropback and he ranks 29th. Bad, of course, but he's nestled in betweenat 30th over that time frame, and nobody is calling for either of them to be benched. There's a disconnect between what we're seeing with our eyes and what the numbers seem to be suggesting.
There were more near-misses against the Vikings. A slant to London from the 2-yard line was batted down by linemanon a throw to the sideline and then dropped a fourth-and-3 throw in garbage time that would given Cousins a pity score, butWith the numbers saying what they say, I'd argue Cousins certainly doesn't look like he's even the player we saw earlier this season.
Cousins has slowed down further over the past month. He has basically been hopeless against pressure, going 9-of-24 for 114 yards with two picks, eight sacks and a league-low 3.7 QBR. He's still spending a fair amount of time in the pistol, but on Sunday, he was only in that alignment for one snap and otherwise took 32 of his 36 dropbacks out of shotgun. The play-action attack he thrived with in Washington and Minnesota has already come out of the playbook.