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One In, One Out: Two pressure-packed QB situations
Justin Fields will start this weekend, a welcome sight for a Bears team that needs him in order to win games — and to help decide the team’s future. This is a front office under fire, after all.
The same can be said for the Browns — whose outrageously expensive quarterback is out for the season — for much different reasons.
Let me explain:
Fields will return after missing four games with a thumb injury. There are just seven games left on the schedule. The 3-7 Bears are on pace to have two top-five selections. There are currently two star quarterbacks entering the draft. For the second straight offseason, Chicago must decide if Fields is worth turning down high-value QB prospects.
The Bears will simply hope Fields shows enough progress in these seven games to warrant skipping out on USC’s Caleb Williams or North Carolina’s Drake Maye. Last offseason, Chicago traded the No. 1 pick instead of taking Bryce Young, who’s been underwhelming — but imagine if the Bears had No. 2 overall pick C.J. Stroud, who’s been amazing. If Fields flounders down the stretch (which could also move the Bears into position to take Williams or Maye), I’d expect them to part ways with him.
In Cleveland, Deshaun Watson is done for the year after a shoulder injury. On the field, he has been a major disappointment, especially considering the Browns’ outrageous investment in a quarterback with an enormous scandal. They’ve paid him nearly $100 million of his fully guaranteed five-year, $230 million deal.
It’s hard to imagine Cleveland actually severing ties with Watson — his cap hit next year is $64 million, not to mention a dead cap number of $200 million — but what if Watson returns even more diminished? You’re possibly looking at three of the most expensive lost seasons in NFL history. Woof.
Also tough for the 6-3 Browns: losing steam in what’d looked like a promising year.
News to Know
A pitch clock tweak
Next season, MLB is planning to shorten the pitch clock to 18 seconds when runners are on base, down from the 20-second allotment implemented this past season, sources confirmed to Jayson Stark and Evan Drellich yesterday. It’s part of an initiative to get game times closer to 2 hours and 30 minutes — as the season wore on, games got slightly longer, a sign that players were able to control the clock. We’ll have more on rule changes tomorrow.
Northwestern removes the tag
David Braun will become the permanent head coach at Northwestern, Chris Vannini and Nicole Auerbach reported yesterday. The Wildcats have have been a big surprise under Braun this year, going 5-5 thus far after longtime head coach Pat Fitzgerald was fired for off-field matters. This is a team that went 1-11 last season. Braun joined in January as defensive coordinator. Quite impressive.
More news
Circling Back: The Timberwolves have the juice
Tuesday night’s brouhaha between the Minnesota Timberwolves and Golden State Warriors continued to reverberate yesterday, with memes and gifs of Draymond Green’s sleeper hold spreading far and wide on the internet. Expected, really.
The thing I didn’t expect: the Timberwolves to come out on the winning end of all this. Both on the court and in public opinion:
Rudy Gobert, a man dragged up and down social media over the last few years, unloaded on Green after the game. His comments are worth a read. Gobert has long been panned for being soft, but he sounded charged Tuesday night. He called Green a clown and accused the Warriors of knowing as much. And he might be right! It’s a dynamic change from Gobert, if anything.
Tuesday’s T-Wolves win marked two straight games in which Green chirped at basically the Minnesota entire roster — and two straight Minnesota wins. The faded Golden State dynasty slips to 6-6, while a talented Minnesota team that’s failed repeatedly in the postseason shows some mettle while improving to 8-3. The T-Wolves are early surprise title contenders.
Yesterday, the NBA suspended Green five games for his role in the brawl. It could be a rough stretch for Golden State: two games against the 7-4 Thunder, one against the 6-3 Rockets, one against Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs, plus a road game against the 5-6 Suns, who will finally see their big three play at the same time. Steph Curry is injured, too, set to be re-evaluated this week. Imagine if Golden State goes 1-4 in that stretch. Woof.
The Western Conference power structure might be changing, and it took a chokehold to show us. Minnesota lost to Phoenix last night, 133-115, but that’ll happen to anyone when Devin Booker and Kevin Durant score 30-plus. I stand by the above point.
Watch This Game
NFL: Bengals at Ravens
8:15 p.m. ET on Prime
This is probably our juiciest Thursday night game yet. Both teams are coming off surprising losses, but both are theoretically Super Bowl contenders in a division where anyone can finish first — or last. Put it on.
NBA: Thunder vs. Warriors
10 pm ET on NBA TV
Before Tuesday’s shenanigans, this was an interesting matchup between the young, talented Thunder and those Warriors who could use a palate cleanse. Golden State won’t have Green or Curry for this one.
Pulse Picks
Christian McCaffrey knew about Brock Purdy long before most of us did. When the 49ers traded for the superstar running back on a Thursday, he was able to learn enough of the playbook to play that Sunday, thanks to a guy who — at the time — was a little-known backup quarterback. David Lombardi has a really cool story on the bond between these two, who are producing one of the best QB-RB production stretches in NFL history.
Would Jim Harbaugh actually return to the NFL? Mike Jones reports there would be interest on both sides, for multiple jobs. Hmmmm.
I loved Ken Rosenthal’s column on the NL Cy Young trap this year and his explanation for why innings should matter more in the discussion. Baseball nerd heaven in there. Also, he has a sleeper team for Shohei Ohtani.
Was F1’s Netflix Cup smooth? Not at all. Was it fun? Absolutely, write Madeline Coleman and Luke Smith.
I thought this was lovely: Jonas Siegel writes about William Nylander, a hockey player “born in Canada, raised all over, forever at home in Sweden.” This week, he’s home.
Who could trade for the Brewers’ Corbin Burnes, a “rental ace”? Jim Bowden has five ideas. Burnes’ situation is one to watch over the next two seasons.
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(Photo: Scott Taetsch/Getty Images)
2023-11-16 15:25:17
#NFLs #biggest #predicaments #Minnesotas #title #chances
