Category: NFL News

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The Philadelphia Eagles will meet with Shaquille Leonard on Wednesday, according to CBS Sports HQ Senior NFL Insider Josina Anderson. The team is hoping to sway the former Colts linebacker to come to Philadelphia after he left his visit with the Dallas Cowboys on Tuesday without signing a deal.

The Eagles did reach out to Leonard’s camp to gauge his interest prior to Zach Cunningham suffering a hamstring injury in Sunday’s win over the Bills. Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni was the offensive coordinator in Indianapolis when Leonard was there. Being together for three years, Sirianni mentioned Monday he has a great relationship with Leonard. 

“Made a lot of plays, that’s for sure,” Sirianni said. “He had a knack for the football and how to get the football. What I remember is just how, as an offensive coordinator, how hard he was to throw around. His length was comparable to Jim Boeheim’s 2-3 zone at Syracuse. He’s going to make a play in the passing lane.

“He was a great teammate and I really enjoyed being around him. I still have a relationship with him. I think he is a great person, great teammate, and like I said, the main thing was the ball and the length that come to mind with that.”

The Eagles are already down a linebacker with Nakobe Dean (injured reserve) and could be without Cunningham for an extended period pending on his MRI results. If Cunningham is out, Christian Elliss would be next in line to start opposite of Nicholas Morrow at linebacker. 

Off-ball linebacker is a priority regarding all the injuries, but Leonard is the biggest prize left in free agency.

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Schrock’s Bears Report Card: Grading Justin Fields, offense, defense in win vs. Vikings originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — It wasn’t pretty. Monday’s primetime game between the Bears and Minnesota Vikings at U.S. Bank Stadium won’t land on many after-season highlight montages.

But in the end, quarterback Justin Fields did just enough to back up a dominant performance from the Bears’ defense and deliver a 12-10 win.

Fields and the Bears tried to combat the Vikings’ blitz-heavy attack with a giant dose of screens and horizontal passes. That game plan led to three hours of offensive football that wasn’t aesthetically pleasing.

But there are no style points in the NFL.

A win is a win, and this was a victory that head coach Matt Eberflus and the Bears desperately needed as they head into their bye week.

The report card reflects one unit that aced its primetime test and one that did just enough to pass with some last-minute extra credit:

Passing offense

Fields was blitzed on 52 percent of his dropbacks Monday night, per ESPN Stats and Info. The Bears countered that with 13 screen passes, which caused Fields to finish with 2.4 air yards per attempt and 1.9 air yards per completion. Both marks are the lowest of his career.

Fields threw 21 passes at or behind the line of scrimmage on Monday night. That’s the most in the NFL since 2020, according to ESPN.

But on the Bears’ final drive, the Vikings didn’t blitz Fields, and he completed two passes of 10 or more air yards on the drive, including a 36-yard strike to DJ Moore that set up the game-winning field goal.

“Everybody bailed out there and left me wide open,” Moore said after the Bears’ win. “I don’t think that was very smart.

“Maybe like 10 yards into the route, I was like, ‘something ain’t right about this.’” Moore said. “Then I was like, ‘shoot, there’s nobody in the middle. This deep in is going to be in the middle.’ We connected on it, and the rest is history.”

The Bears’ pass attack was an eyesore…

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The Carolina Panthers are the second team this season to let go of their head coach. Following the club’s Week 12 loss to the Titans that dropped them to 1-10 on the year, owner David Tepper fired head coach Frank Reich less than a full season into his tenure leading the organization. Carolina’s offense had particularly struggled under Reich and No. 1 overall pick Bryce Young had not taken encouraging steps in his development, which likely helped in the coach’s departure. Reich was hired by the Panthers in January after being fired by the Colts in the middle of last season. 

This is the second time in as many years that the Panthers have fired a head coach in-season and Tepper has now tabbed special teams coach Chris Tabor to be the club’s interim head coach the rest of the way. Who is Tabor? Let’s take a look at the new top of Carolina’s coaching masthead. 

The Missouri native broke into the NFL as an assistant special teams coach for the Chicago Bears in 2008. Before that, he’d worked at the collegiate level, most notably as the running backs coach and special teams coach at Utah State (2002-2004), and then held the same positions at Western Michigan (2006-2007) before jumping to the pro ranks. He was the assistant head coach and wide receivers coach at Utah State from 2002-2004 and the only time he’s been a head coach in title (outside of interim status) came in 2001 when he was the head coach of Culver-Stockton, a private liberal arts college in Missouri. 

After three seasons as the assistant special teams coach with the Bears, Tabor left Chicago to become the special teams coordinator of the Cleveland Browns in 2011. He held that title through…

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Scott Hanson, seen here with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell at Super Bowl LVI in 2022, was just as stunned as fans were at home when alarms started going off during the RedZone broadcast on Sunday afternoon. (Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images) (Kevin C. Cox via Getty Images)

Scott Hanson ran into an issues on Sunday afternoon that left both him and NFL fans stunned.

During the late slate of games, a building alarm started going off in the background of the NFL RedZone broadcast. Hanson then announced that he and the rest of the crew had to evacuate the studios in Inglewood, California, for an unknown reason.

The plan, he said, was just to stick with the Philadelphia Eagles-Buffalo Bills game the rest of the way.

Thankfully just moments later, Hanson was back on the air and said that everything was fine. Everyone in the building was safe, and he started powering through the rest of the broadcast despite the alarm — which included a loud voice telling people to find the nearest stairwell — going off in the background.

“I am reminded of an old Chinese proverb which says, ‘May you live to see interesting times,’” Hanson said. “I’ve never had this happen before, I’m pretty sure all of our professionals haven’t either, but we soldier on …”

The NFL Network’s studios — where Red Zone originates — are located at SoFi Stadium. The Chargers are hosting the Ravens on SNF. Huge place, but figured it makes sense to relay that.

— A.J. Perez (@byajperez) November 27, 2023

It’s still not clear why the alarm was going off in the first place. Hanson, however, handled the unusual situation perfectly.

Well, that was…. interesting.
Alarm has stopped.
Apparently all clear.
Still waiting on details.

Thanks for watching NFL RedZone week 12 ! One to remember.

— Scott Hanson (@ScottHanson) November 27, 2023

Hanson has been the host of NFL RedZone since it first launched in 2009. The show, which has quickly become a fan favorite, bounces around from game to game every…

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Who’s Playing

Baltimore Ravens @ Los Angeles Chargers

Current Records: Baltimore 8-3, Los Angeles 4-6

How To Watch

When: Sunday, November 26, 2023 at 8:20 p.m. ETWhere: SoFi Stadium — Inglewood, CaliforniaTV: NBCFollow: CBS Sports AppFubo (Try for free) Fubo’s holiday offer just kicked off – For a limited time, new subscribers can save $40 on Fubo’s Pro, Elite, and Premier plans ($20 off the first and second months)

What to Know

The Ravens have enjoyed a three-game homestand but will soon have to dust off their road jerseys. They will square off against the Los Angeles Chargers at 8:20 p.m. ET on Sunday at SoFi Stadium. The Ravens know how to get points on the board — the team has finished with flashy point totals in its past five contests — so hopefully the Chargers like a good challenge.

Last Thursday, the Ravens strolled past the Bengals with points to spare, taking the game 34-20.

Lamar Jackson looked great while leading his team to the win, throwing for 264 yards and two touchdowns. The Ravens also got help from Odell Beckham Jr. who showed off his sure hands for 116 receiving yards.

Meanwhile, it looks like Los Angeles got the smaller half of the wishbone at Thanksgiving dinner. They fell just short of the Packers by a score of 23-20. The matchup was as close as the oddsmakers predicted, but Los Angeles was the slight favorite coming in.

Despite the defeat, the Chargers got a solid performance out of Justin Herbert, who threw for 260 yards and two touchdowns. Keenan Allen was another key contributor, picking up 116 receiving yards and a touchdown.

Baltimore is on a roll lately: they’ve won five of their last six games, which provided a nice bump to their 8-3 record this season. As for Los Angeles, this is the second loss in a row for them and nudges their season record down to 4-6.

Odds

Baltimore is a 3.5-point favorite against Los Angeles, according to the…

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On Tuesday, Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers tried to characterize his team’s glass as 10-percent full. After Friday’s loss to the Dolphins, which dropped New York to 4-7, it’s maybe five-percent full.

Rodgers apparently still intends to keep trying to return in 2023.

“When we get a doctor’s note that says he’s clear, he’ll be cleared for practice then,” coach Robert Saleh told reporters on Saturday morning.

Saleh had no update as to when that might occur. Last Sunday, Jay Glazer of Fox Sports reported that Rodgers hopes to return to practice on December 2, which is both Rodgers’s 40th birthday and the day before the Jets’ next game, against the Falcons.

It makes no sense for Rodgers to hold out hope for returning in 2023. The better play would be to use the next appearance on his weekly in-season platform with Pat McAfee to say he’s not coming back this year but he is coming back next year, and that everything he and the team do for the rest of the season should be done with the full knowledge that, no matter what happens this year, he’ll be a Jet next year.

Although anything can happen, nothing is currently happening for the Jets. Tim Boyle isn’t the answer. Trevor Siemian can’t even earn a chance to be the answer. And Zach Wilson is only the answer to one specific question: Which quarterback currently on the roster has a less-than-zero-percent chance of being on the team next season?

The sooner the Jets pivot to 2024, the better off they’ll be. The sooner Rodgers abandons his pipe dream about playing in 2023, the sooner they all can pivot to 2024.

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Getty

The star of the NFL’s first-ever “Black Friday” game was Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel. The reason, however, had nothing to do with Miami’s 34-13 thumping of the Jets. 

During Amazon’s broadcast, play-by-play legend Al Michaels divulged considerable air time to Miami’s second-year head coach. After breaking down McDaniel’s unique wardrobe, Michaels shared a story about how McDaniel met his future wife after threatening to cut a player. 

The story dates to 2010 when McDaniel was the running backs coach for the United Football League’s Sacramento Mountain Lions. That season, the team went to a club to celebrate a win over Omaha. 

We’ll let Michaels take it from here. 

“One of the running backs that he coaches is dancing with a girl, and Mike says, ‘Listen, you’re not dancing with her anymore or you’re not playing with his team next year. So the guy says, ‘What can I do? 

“So then McDaniel starts dancing with her. That’s the beginning of the story. Four years later, they’re married. Katie, that’s how he met her.” 

Michaels’ story only adds to the legend of McDaniel, a former Yale walk-on receiver whose first taste of the NFL was as a ballboy for the Denver Broncos in the mid-1990s. 

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If Kyle Shanahan is being honest — and this Thanksgiving, he was — he thinks the talk is “ridiculous.”

The San Francisco 49ers head coach doesn’t value categorizing quarterbacks as “elite” or “Super Bowl-caliber,” he explained after a 31-13 win over the Seattle Seahawks improved his team to 8-3.

He doesn’t view playoff success nor quarterback talent in such black-and-white terms, and he doesn’t recommend you do either.

“There [have] been a lot of great quarterbacks who haven’t won Super Bowls,” Shanahan said Thursday night. “And the ones who do, don’t win them on their own. They’ve got to be on a good team and they’ve got to have good defenses and there’s so many things that go into it. So I always kind of hate that conversation.”

The conversation will nonetheless follow the 49ers in the leadup to their next game, a Dec. 3 NFC championship rematch with the Philadelphia Eagles. Because it’s obvious to any NFL fan that San Francisco fields a very good, very successful team this season. It was obvious, too, that the 49ers carried a very good, very successful team to the conference championship game last season.

San Francisco’s Brock Purdy completed 21 of 30 passes for 209 yards, a touchdown and a pick 6 in Thursday night’s victory against Seattle. (Photo by Jane Gershovich/Getty Images) (Jane Gershovich via Getty Images)

Then starting quarterback Brock Purdy tore the UCL in his throwing elbow and backup quarterback Josh Johnson suffered a concussion, and rapidly the Eagles overpowered an otherwise powerful 49ers team. Which brings us back to Shanahan’s sermon.

“You’ve got to have a really good football team to talk about even having a chance to get there,” Shanahan said. “And when you have a really good football team, you better have a really good quarterback. And when you do that, you still better have luck with injuries. You’ve still got to play good defense. You’ve got to play better with everything.”

Against the…

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