The NFL players we love to see thriving with a new team
A change of scenery is doing these players good this season. Plus, Week 6 picks and a eulogy for GLOW.
Le’Veon Bell was released by the Jets. In the process, he escaped a black hole of a head coach and will get the opportunity to show he can still play at a Pro Bowl level now that he’s joining the defending Super Bowl champs.
Even if he had signed with a team other than the Chiefs, Bell would’ve found himself in a better situation than he had in the past two seasons. Adam Gase could barely hide his disdain for the pricey free agent, both during press conferences and on the field. Bell’s usage dropped dramatically in New York. That, combined with a poor passing game, regretful blocking, and possibly some rust after sitting out the 2018 season, turned the former All-Pro into a gridiron also-ran.
A change of scenery is exactly what Bell needed to restore that value and show that, at age 28, he’s far from washed. While he might be the highest-profile veteran to see his fortunes improve on a new team, he’s not the only one. 2020 has presented several players the opportunity to rewrite their NFL stories.
These are our favorites.
Cam Newton, Patriots
Newton was swept out of Carolina after two injury-plagued seasons and one major change in ownership. David Tepper waited a year to make his mark on the Panthers after acquiring them in 2018, then presided over a large-scale rebuild in Charlotte. Newton, along with head coach Ron Rivera and longtime tight end Greg Olsen, all had to find new homes for 2020.
That wasn’t supposed to be a problem for a 31-year-old former regular season MVP whose ability to scramble and throw lasers on the run fits perfectly within the league’s offensive evolution. But it was, and while the Bears traded for Nick Foles’ $22 million salary and the Colts signed Philip Rivers to a one-year, $25 million deal, Newton languished as a free agent. He eventually signed an incentive-laden deal with the Patriots that could pay him as little as the veteran minimum.
Newton’s already exceeded the value of that deal, leading New England to a 2-1 start before testing positive for coronavirus and missing a Week 4 showdown with the Chiefs. His 68.1 percent completion rate is a career high, as are his 49.7 rushing yards per game. His four rushing touchdowns are more than all the Patriots’ running backs combined.
Most importantly, he *looks* like Cam Newton again. He’s a bulldozer in short yardage situations and has regained the downfield touch that made him 2015’s most valuable player.
It’s only been three games, but Newton has done wonders erasing doubts about his abilities as a player and making Bill Belichick look like a personnel genius. New England is riddled with flaws in 2020 — several key players opted out due to COVID-19, the team’s wideout corps is a wreck, and there are college teams with better tight end rotations — but quarterback, even after Tom Brady’s departure, is not one of them. — CD
Teddy Bridgewater and Robby Anderson, Panthers
Carolina gave up on one franchise quarterback by releasing Newton. The team may have found its next one by taking a shot on Bridgewater.
Bridgewater’s career was in jeopardy after a catastrophic knee injury took him out of the Vikings lineup in 2016. Backup roles followed in New York and New Orleans, and while he managed a 5-0 record in Drew Brees’ place last season, several questions remained about whether he was still capable of leading a playoff team full time. The Saints were already built for a postseason run, and head coach Sean Payton didn’t exactly push his second-string QB with a risky gameplan; Bridgewater’s average pass traveled only 5.8 yards downfield — lowest among starting quarterbacks by a significant margin.
The Panthers gambled on the former Pro Bowler anyway as part of their wholesale rebuild under new head coach Matt Rhule. The move has paid off so far. Carolina is 3-2 after an 0-2 start, even without All-Pro running back Christian McCaffrey, thanks in large part to its passing offense. Bridgewater is on pace to set career highs in passing yards per game (292 — his previous best was 224), yards per attempt (8.2), and passer rating (101.9). His average air yards per throw is up from 5.8 to 6.3.
An undeniable factor in Bridgewater’s early breakthrough has been Anderson. The former Jet has rebounded from a forgettable 2019 (under Adam Gase, shockingly) to emerge as a true top option at wideout. While the Jets were comfortable running the speedy receiver deep for the majority of his routes and hoping for the best, Rhule has used him more as an intermediate threat, cutting his average target distance down from 15.2 in his last two seasons in New York to 9.6 this fall.
As a result, Anderson’s catch rate has gone from 53.7 percent to 78.3. Despite shorter routes, his yards per target has gone from 8.1 to 10.6. His 489 receiving yards are fourth-most in the NFL. While he’s supplanted D.J. Moore atop the pecking order, he’s also given the third-year wideout better quality looks downfield; Moore’s 17.3 yards per catch are a full three yards more than his previous career high.
The Panthers’ run up the NFC South ranks may not last as their schedule gets tougher, but you can see how this group can push Carolina back into the postseason. That wasn’t entirely clear back when new owner David Tepper made sweeping organizational changes. You can attribute that clarity to the Bridgewater-Anderson connection. — CD
Nelson Agholor, Raiders
Last year, Nelson Agholor sprung into the national sports consciousness — and not for a good reason.
Eagles fan Hakim Laws was being interviewed on a local TV station about helping rescue kids from a burning building and said, with a perfectly timed Jim Halpert-esque look to the camera, “My man just starts throwing babies out the window. We was catching them ... unlike Agholor.”
This came after two weeks of Agholor making high-profile gaffes on the field. In Week 2, he dropped what would’ve been the game-winning touchdown against the Falcons. In Week 3, he had another big-time drop and a fumble in an Eagles loss to the Lions. Agholor — who, it should be noted, totaled 16 catches for 157 yards and three touchdowns in those two games — was already a scapegoat for the Eagles’ offensive troubles.
The Eagles fanbase is, let’s say, fervent and has been for longer than many of us have been alive (sorry, Santa). They had been on his case since before last season. The former first-round pick talked openly about seeing a sports psychologist in his second year in the league. The following year, he enjoyed a semi-breakout season, with a career-best eight touchdowns and 768 receiving yards as an integral member of a championship team. In that Super Bowl win over the Patriots, Agholor caught a team-high nine catches on 11 targets and led Philly’s wide receivers with 84 yards.
His numbers in 2018 were similar to 2017, and then in 2019 he took a step back. After the Lions game, Agholor’s production dropped and a lingering knee injury ended his season early. Even worse, Laws’ viral interview turned him into a meme.
From that moment on, many NFL fans were eager to dump all over Agholor with lame joke after lame joke, while Eagles fans went from annoyed with him to downright nasty.
A similar phenomenon plays out across all sports. We saw it most recently with Danny Green in the NBA Finals. He missed a wide-open three that would’ve given the Lakers their championship in Game 5, rather than two whole days later, and he and his fiancee received death threats afterward.
Jeff Van Gundy is right — we aren’t better than that. We should be, but at this point in time, we are not. The internet often amplifies the loudest and meanest (sometimes leading to narcissistic bullies in powerful positions). Craven social media managers desperately zero in on what brings the most engagement. Brain-poisoned fans want to feel like they’re part of the conversation, so they pile on.
That dehumanization is one of the many problems I have with the memeification of sports. Only a savvy few can strike that balance of biting, yet not malicious. Many others often come off as smarmy, unfunny, or just trying way too hard.
I watched this play out with Agholor last year, and it never sat well with me, even as an outside observer. It then made me really want to see Agholor ball out with whichever team he landed with next.
And well … so far, so good:
Maybe Agholor feels liberated in Vegas, far away from Philadelphia and the pressure of trying to live up to his draft status. Or maybe he just needed a fresh start in a new offense. Either way, Agholor has been a reliable deep threat for Derek Carr:
He has three touchdowns in five games — something no current Eagles receiver can say — and he’s putting up an impressive 18.5 yards per catch, a huge rise from his average (11.2 ypc) in five seasons in Philly.
Most notable is the hike in Agholor’s catch rate: 59.9 percent with the Eagles vs. a whopping 90.9 percent with the Raiders.
I hope he keeps it up and goes on to shatter all of his previous career highs, distancing himself farther from the criticism that thrust him into the spotlight.
Of course, Agholor will probably drop a pass again eventually, but before you send out some “Agholor drop, drink” tweet, please stop for a second and reconsider. Who is that for? Because it’s probably not as amusing as you might think. — SH
Cody Parkey, Browns
Cody Parkey will never live down the “double doink” (which was later ruled a blocked kick) that sent the Bears packing two seasons ago in the Wild Card Round. He wasn’t the first kicker to miss a potential game-winning field goal in a playoff game. He won’t be the last, either. However, he is the only one who was maligned for appearing on The Today Show to discuss it.
I understand why Matt Nagy and Bears fans were upset with the loss. Their team won 12 games that season and hosted a wild card team that just sneaked into the postseason. The game never should’ve come down to a field goal try with 10 seconds left. That part is not Parkey’s fault. Blame Nagy’s offense, which couldn’t move the ball consistently. Blame the defense, which had been stout all year but gave up the go-ahead touchdown with 56 seconds left. Blame the front office, which drafted Mitchell Trubisky instead of Deshaun Watson or Patrick Mahomes.
But I will never understand why Parkey publicly owning his failure and refusing to be defined by it was ever a point of criticism. A vitriolic point of criticism, at that. I would think his message would resonate with a national audience, whether they’re football fans or not.
Instead, it was painted as a “selfish” act by a player soon after a heartbreaking loss, and while I disagree with that assessment, here’s a reminder: professional athletes don’t work for us. They’re allowed to be people outside of their sport, and if that was Parkey’s way of finding catharsis after a low point in his career, then more power to him.
A month later, Parkey was released and the Bears’ kicking woes continued. Parkey eventually signed with the Titans for three games in the middle of the 2019 season. He made all three of his field goal attempts with them, though he missed one of his six extra point tries (and yes, it doinked off the uprights). Then Ryan Succop was activated off injured reserve and Parkey was a free agent once more.
Before this season, Parkey returned to the Browns, first as a member of the practice squad and then, once Austin Seibert struggled in Week 1, to their active roster. Parkey has been perfect since taking over kicking duties, connecting on all seven of his field goal attempts and all 17 extra point kicks.
That includes a doinked kick that went in last week against the Colts, a 46-yarder that put the game away:
Parkey and the Browns have been good for each other. Both know what it’s like to be a punching bag, and they have yet to lose a game together this season. It’s a nice redemption story, like one worth highlighting on The Today Show. — SH
Week 6 picks
Well, last week served as an important lesson in the art of picking games: stick with your first instinct! I decided to go against (my own) protocol and changed three of my picks before Friday’s column. That was mostly a mistake. I only ended up getting one of those games right (Rams-Washington), and it was the one I switched because I accidentally wrote the wrong team in the first time (I meant to choose LA all along).
This week, I decided not to overthink any of my picks. We’ll see how that works out:
Our guest picker for Week 6 is Kaleel Weatherly, a former SB Nation intern turned newsdesker who now works as a Business Journals associate editor. Kaleel, aka K Man, is one of the most genuine and enthusiastic people you could ever meet. He uses exclamation points liberally, yet sincerely, a difficult feat that not many can pull off.
K Man is also a huge Rams fan who thinks Aaron Donald is the best player in the NFL (it’s hard to argue with that) and believes Jared Goff deserves much more credit than he gets.
But even Kaleel can’t defend Goff’s laughable spiking abilities.
Or, as he put it, “Lol that was a bad spike! I'll never mistake him for Gronk.”
Kaleel, like the rest of our panel, is taking the Rams against the 49ers on Sunday. He’s also the only one of us brave enough to go with the Bengals over the Colts. You’ve gotta love K Man’s optimism! — SH
The “someone has to win it” game: Washington vs. Giants
I guess someone doesn’t have to win it. There would be nothing more NFC East-like than the Giants and Washington Football Team finishing Sunday’s slap fight tied. There’s really no part of either one of these teams that’s very good. Washington started the season with a decent pass rush, but injuries wrecked that. The Giants at least had Saquon Barkley, but he tore his ACL in Week 2. And the most fucked up thing is that either one of these teams STILL has a decent claim to being the best team in the division (now that the Cowboys are without Dak Prescott).
For me it’s down to Daniel Jones and his unapologetic love for giving the other team the ball — five interceptions and four fumbles so far this season. The best part about a Washington win here is that it would give them two on the season, thrusting them into first place and leaving the NFC East in full on Thunderdome mode. — RVB
The “I’m not giving them any ammunition” game: Texans vs. Titans
Earlier this week in our first Tuesday night NFL game since 2010, the Titans destroyed the Bills in a battle of unbeaten teams. The Titans had 24 players and personnel test positive for Covid-19, and hadn’t played for 16 days and had only held three (sanctioned) practices in that time.
After the 42-16 win, the Titans players leaned heavily into the narrative that they had overcome adversity and proved the “doubters” wrong, which isn’t the tone *I* would choose if my team had been at the center of the NFL’s first Covid outbreak and was lucky to have seemingly escaped punishment.
I don’t want to give the Titans any more motivation — not that they need my help if they’re grossly using this pandemic as fuel — so I won’t pick against them when they host the Texans this weekend.
Plus, y’know, I just don’t trust Houston’s defense to stop Tennessee. — SH
The “I have a feeling about Andy Dalton” game: Cardinals vs. Cowboys
Can Dalton, no longer carrying the eternal stink of the Bengals, rally a Dallas team whose only wins have come over the 0-5 Giants and the 0-5 Falcons? He’d have a better shot if he could play linebacker, but I’m weirdly optimistic.
Dalton looked solid in relief of Dak Prescott last week, even if it came against New York and its 21st-ranked passing defense. He’s steady and stable enough to utilize all the Cowboys’ passing game weapons, including Amari Cooper, CeeDee Lamb, and Michael Gallup (with whom he did this with the game on the line last week):
The Cardinals have faded after their 2-0 start, and their passing defense rates out as even worse than the Giants. They’ll also have their hands full trying to stop Ezekiel Elliott and, to a lesser extent, Tony Pollard on the ground. This game has all the hallmarks of a high-scoring affair, which means the pressure will be on the Dallas defense to step up and make some stops.
That’s … less than ideal for a group that’s given up more points than anyone in the NFL (and 34+ in each of its last four games). But bad defenses have already slowed Arizona this season. The Lions and Panthers, ranked 30th and 23rd in defensive efficiency by Football Outsiders, each did enough to escape their matchup with the Cardinals with a win. The Cowboys, playing at home, clock in at 24th. That should be enough to keep Dallas atop the NFC East for at least another week. — CD
Say it ain’t GLOW
Covid-19 has changed everything about our lives, and TV production, while extremely minor in the grand scheme of things, is no exception. That includes everything from talk show hosts filming from inside their homes, to soap opera actors making out with mannequins, to unfortunately, shows getting cancelled that had previously been renewed.
This reverse renewal trend has affected an increasing number of shows, a majority of which feature women in starring roles, like I’m Sorry, Stumptown, and On Becoming a God in Central Florida.
The one that hurts the most, at least for me, is GLOW, which Netflix had renewed for a fourth and final season a year ago. Now, its third season finale will serve as a series finale, and we won’t get to see how the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling’s stories played out.
On the surface, GLOW was a fictional take on what was a real women’s wrestling organization in the 80s. But most of all, the show was about the women themselves and their complicated relationships — romantically, familially, and with each other. You didn’t have to be a wrestling fan to enjoy it (I’m not), and while those wrestling scenes were often fun, their true purpose was what they revealed about the characters, who were all just trying to figure out who they wanted to be and what their place in the world was.
It was undeniably feminist in that way. It also deftly handled issues like workplace harassment, racism, and sexuality, and it shined a light on the progress we’ve made in 30+ years and how far we still need to come.
GLOW boasted a strong ensemble, led by a complex performance from Alison Brie and a star-making turn from Betty Gilpin. It was atmospheric, with the neon-bright costumes, big hair, and killer soundtrack (Roxette! Jesus and Mary Chain! Fleetwood Mac!).
Even though the show ends in a somewhat unsatisfying fashion, I’d still recommend adding it to your watch list if you’ve never seen an episode. It was a smart, funny, sometimes strange, sometimes poignant series that deserved a better ending than it got. — SH