Our quarterback injury rankings AND a Week 2 awards rundown
Plus, our world-famous five-word recaps.
Ok, who’s the *most* screwed by Sunday’s quarterback injuries?
Within one hour of Week 2’s opening kickoffs, three different starting quarterbacks had limped to the sideline. By the end of the 1 p.m. slate, two more had joined them.
While big-name quarterbacks like Tom Brady and Dak Prescott were able to avoid the injury report, it was a brutal day for the league’s middle class of passers. Teams whose starters were unable to finish their games went 1-3 as ineffectual offense became an early trend across the league.
Here’s a rundown of the teams that suffered quarterback injuries today, ranked from most screwed to least screwed if their starters are forced to miss extensive time.
1. Indianapolis Colts
Lost Carson Wentz to dueling ankle injuries, severity yet to be determined
Backup: Jacob Eason
It was a tough situation for Eason. He had to come in, completely cold, to a two-minute drill trailing by three points against one of the league’s toughest defenses. His first throw was an off-schedule mess that fell incomplete. His second was worse:
His next drive was a no-win situation; he came back to the huddle with 24 seconds left and no timeouts. His day ended with two completions and an 8.3 passer rating in a very small sample size.
Fortunately, we’ve got four years of college ball that can help us judge him. He completed just 55 percent of his passes against the stout SEC defenses that came with playing at Georgia. He was better after transferring to Washington, but still had his share of clunkers there. Though he had five different games with at least three touchdown passes, he was also stymied by top 50 (Cal, Boise State), top 100 defenses (Stanford, USC) and, uh, Oregon State.
None of this suggests he’ll be the answer for an 0-2 team if Wentz misses extended time. Neither does the fact he spent 2020 as Indianapolis’ QB3 behind a guy who’ll show up next on this list.
2. Miami Dolphins
Lost Tua Tagovailoa to bruised ribs, MRI pending
Backup: Jacoby Brissett
Brissett is one of the league’s higher-value backups, or at least he was in stretches through his Indianapolis Colts tenure. The Brissett we saw Sunday was a far cry from the guy who got the Colts out to a 6-3 start in 2019 before being undone by a knee injury over the second half of the season.
Brissett’s second dropback of the season ended in a sack. His fourth resulted in an interception:
The veteran struggled with Buffalo’s pressure throughout the afternoon as the Bills combined for 17 sacks and quarterback hits in a 35-0 rout. No Dolphin recorded more than 48 receiving yards as Miami had just 145 net passing yards. While last week’s win was defined by Tagovailoa’s ability to make tough throws work in his favor, this week’s defeat was defined by the Dolphins’ inability to do much of anything under Brissett.
There’s precedent here for an improvement if Brissett has to come back in Week 3. His passer rating and completion rate each rose significantly between his first and second starts for the Patriots as a rookie in 2016. The same thing happened in 2017 when he was pressed into action for an injured Andrew Luck. His second start in 2019 was a win over the Titans in which he threw three touchdown passes.
Even so, it’s hard to be optimistic given his performance vs. Buffalo in Week 2, and that may be a brutal blow for a Miami team with playoff aspirations.
3. Chicago Bears
Lost Andy Dalton to a knee injury, MRI pending but he remained the team’s emergency QB Sunday
Backup: Justin Fields
Dalton was in the early stages of carving up his former team when he scrambled out of pressure, picked up 14 yards, and started hopping on one leg like an old-timey prospector who’d forgotten his “we found GOLD” jig:
Dalton had completed nine of 10 pass attempts and whipped a touchdown pass to Allen Robinson en route to his best start as a Bear to date (sample size: 1.3 games). That pushed rookie Justin Fields into the starting lineup, where head coach Matt Nagy steadfastly refused to alter his offense for the dual-threat rookie and forced him to be a Dalton-style pocket passer. It didn’t work out so well!
Fields completed only six of his 13 passes for 60 yards. The interception above gave the Bengals new life late in a game where their offense did this:
But Fields scrambled for a key first down on third-and-9 the ensuing drive, helping ensure a Chicago victory. His run game remains more impactful than his passing game, and if Dalton misses time, Nagy is going to have to overhaul his offense to take advantage of that. If he can’t, it’ll not only delay Fields’ development but also serve as the prelude to the Bears’ coach’s firing this fall.
4. Houston Texans
Lost Tyrod Taylor to a hamstring injury, will miss at least one game
Backup: Davis Mills
Taylor has some of the worst injury luck in the NFL. He gave up his starting role in Los Angeles after a team doctor punctured his lung in Week 2. He made it slightly farther in 2021 before a hamstring strain knocked him out of a game with the Browns in the second quarter.
Taylor had completed 10 of 11 passes for 143 yards, a touchdown, and a stellar 144.3 passer rating when he was forced to the locker room. He gave his team an early 14-7 lead with this smart 15-yard scoring scramble:
That injury gave way to Mills, a developmental prospect who absolutely looked the part Sunday. Mills’ limited NCAA resume — he appeared in only 14 games in three years at Stanford — made him a long-term investment forced into the spotlight by bad luck. He completed less than half his passes, averaged fewer than six yards per pass, and displayed some, uh, limited pocket awareness:
Mills could one day be a viable NFL starter, but barring some explosive growth he won’t be one in 2021. This should be completely fine with Houston, who has been more competitive than expected but still very much in the midst of a gap year while it figures out what to do about Deshaun Watson. If David Culley can win games with Mills playing extended snaps this fall, give him Coach of the Year honors.
5. Cleveland Browns
Briefly lost Baker Mayfield to a shoulder injury.
Backup: Case Keenum
Behold! The most Cleveland Browns sentence ever written:
Anyway, he’s fine. He didn’t miss a snap, ran for a touchdown, and threw for another after this. Probably gonna be uncomfortable Monday morning, though. — CD
And the Week 2 award goes to …
Last week, I recapped some of the best and worst highlights I saw in Week 1. I didn’t plan to repeat myself this week with another superlative section, but then I changed my mind. In honor of the Emmy Awards that aired at the same time as Sunday Night Football (alas, only one of them paid proper tribute to Michael K. Williams), I decided to make a sequel of sorts, this week with a slightly different format.
Most Outstanding Drama: Ravens-Chiefs
Sunday’s early slate did not make for riveting TV, unless you enjoy injuries (why?) and sloppy football (again, why?). The late-afternoon games were almost exclusively bangers, with all but one (more on that later) decided by a kick.
Somehow, the drama only ramped up after the Titans came back from a 15-point deficit to shock the Seahawks in overtime. That’s all thanks to Lamar Jackson and Patrick Mahomes.
The Ravens, with a litany of injuries and coming off a gutting, incredibly dumb loss to the Raiders, were hosting the team Jackson once called “our Kryptonite.” This matchup looked like it was headed for the same result as the previous Jackson-Mahomes meetings when the Chiefs immediately picked off Jackson and took it to the house. But the Ravens refused to go away. Every time Mahomes and Co. pulled off an absurdly athletic feat, Jackson and the Ravens answered, including the only 42-yard jump-pass touchdown I have ever seen:
Jackson rebounded from a couple of early turnovers and put the team on his back for a three-touchdown game (1 passing, 1 running, 1 back-flipping) and the clinching first down. Meanwhile, the Baltimore defense kept attacking, eventually forcing two late turnovers, most notably Clyde Edwards-Helaire’s fumble with just over a minute left.
This was everything an NFL primetime contest should be: two big stars battling back and forth in a high-stakes matchup that features countless swings and game-defining plays.
Most Outstanding Comedy: Bucs-Falcons
This was the only game in the late-afternoon window that didn’t go down to the wire. But what it lacked in tension, it made up for in humor.
The Falcons fell into a big hole early until two straight touchdown drives in the third quarter narrowed their deficit to 28-25. Just when they maybe gave their fans a little hope they could finally take down Tom Brady, and that this time it would be Brady’s team cursed by the “28” next to their name, the Falcons went full Falcons.
Within a four-minute span, Bucs safety Mike Edwards scored two pick-sixes off of tipped Matt Ryan passes. The second, like any good callback joke, was the funniest, due to both its slapstick nature and impeccable comedic timing:
And just like that, Edwards himself was responsible for more points than two AFC East teams (Dolphins and Jets) combined for on Sunday.
Most Outstanding Lead Performance: Kyler Murray
I could’ve easily picked Lamar Jackson for this award, but unlike the Emmys, I prefer to spread the love. While Kyler Murray wasn’t perfect in the Cardinals’ nail-biting win over the Vikings (he threw two interceptions), he came through when his team needed him most — specifically on this gutsy fourth-down call in the fourth quarter that put the Cardinals in position to take a lead they would not relinquish:
Murray did more than connect with Christian Kirk on a key down, however. He threw for 400 yards and three touchdowns (more than any other quarterback on Sunday), and ran for 31 yards and another touchdown, the 17th rushing score of his career — and a Cardinals franchise record for a QB. He capped it off with a little silliness in the end zone to remind viewers that he’s got range.
He also used his sack evasiveness and peerless scootin’ ability to extend a couple of big plays, like this 77-yard touchdown to Rondale Moore and another touchdown to DeAndre Hopkins.
Although it’s too early to trust Murray’s and the Cardinals’ hot start — they were 2-0 at the same point last year before fizzling out — Murray has given an all-around impressive performance so far this season.
Most Outstanding Supporting Performance: Derrick Henry
In today’s NFL, quarterbacks are the main characters, but I’m cheating a little bit by labeling Derrick Henry as a “supporting” player. If any running back deserves top billing, it’s Henry. Yet, he’s still a running back, one who took a backseat last week and in the first half of this week.
Then Henry turned it on, contributing in both the running and passing games:
Henry carried the Titans to the upset win in Seattle, accounting for all three of the team’s touchdowns (including an elusive, weaving 60-yard run that a man his size should not make look so easy) and setting up the game-winning field goal with all 21 yards on their final drive.
Most Outstanding Jameis Winston impersonation: Jameis Winston
The Jameis Winston Experience is always going to be a roller coaster. Even after his five-touchdown, zero-interception game last week, it was only a matter of time until his inner Jameis came out:
Most Outstanding Nathan Peterman impersonation: Zach Wilson
Thankfully for the Jets, Zach Wilson didn’t quite match Nathan Peterman’s abominable record-setting debut (five interceptions in one half). Wilson came close, though, with four picks in the first 34 minutes of his first clash with the Patriots. That was more than Wilson threw all of last year at BYU.
Wilson’s performance was such a horror show that it brought out the rare Bill Belichick smile, which is usually reserved for his dog or when Thanos snaps his fingers at the end of Infinity War.
Most Outstanding Reaction: Kevin Stefanski
The Browns head coach utters a subtle yet perfectly baffled “what?” around the 20-second mark:
Like most of what the Texans do, it made no sense whatsoever.
Most Outstanding Decision: John Harbaugh
Granted, when your fourth-and-1 decision comes down to 1) let Lamar Jackson gain one yard to ice the game or 2) punt it away to Patrick Mahomes, then it’s hardly a choice. You still have to love that Harbaugh checked with his quarterback and neither hesitated:
The math never lies! — SH
Week 2 results, in 5 words or fewer
Browns 31, Texans 21
Bears 20, Bengals 17
Rams 27, Colts 24
Bills 35, Dolphins 0
Tua leaves, Buffalo defense achieves
Patriots 25, Jets 6
49ers 17, Eagles 11
Raiders 26, Steelers 17
Raiders are rolling … in September
Panthers 26, Saints 7
Shorthanded Saints sputter in Carolina
Broncos 23, Jaguars 13
Cardinals 34, Vikings 33
Cowboys 20, Chargers 17
Chargers’ fourth-quarter woes back?
Buccaneers 48, Falcons 25
Falcons weren’t boring at least
Titans 33, Seahawks 30 (OT)
Ravens 36, Chiefs 35