It would be refreshing if NFL fans viewed quarterback debates in the same way NFL teams viewed hotshot coordinators vying for head coaching opportunities.
Ben Johnson and Aaron Glenn had rough playoff performances during the Detroit Lions’ upset loss against the Washington Commanders. But that didn’t stop the Chicago Bears from hiring Johnson as their head coach two days later. Glenn is still being courted by multiple teams and it wouldn’t be a surprise if he’s hired as a head coach by the time (or shortly after) this story is published.
A handful of costly play calls last week didn’t suddenly mean Johnson wasn’t one of the best offensive minds in the NFL. And Glenn didn’t just forget how to coach because his defense couldn’t stop Jayden Daniels and Washington’s red-hot offense.
Most teams focus on overall résumés when hiring their next head coach. But I get it. Public opinion of quarterbacks isn’t close to being the same thing. I guess Lamar Jackson has now lost his talent after the Baltimore Ravens lost to the Buffalo Bills, and Jared Goff is the sole reason why the Lions can’t get over the hump.
Playoff losses make people forget quarterback résumés. It’s strange and understandable at the same time. But hot takes can get out of control and analyzing playoff losses isn’t as simple as pointing to the quarterback.
Anyway, let’s get to our winners and losers from the divisional round and the past week in the NFL.
Winners
Jayden Daniels
There were some snickers out there on social media after I wrote it’s time to stop calling Daniels a rookie. Hold the jokes, captains of the obvious.
Obviously, Daniels is still technically a rookie, but I don’t care. What he has done isn’t normal for a first-year signal caller and it’s not just about the two playoff wins—including one giant road victory vs. the No. 1 seed armed with the No. 1 scoring offense. It’s the poise in big moments, the green lights from coaches on fourth downs and operating a high-flying offense, one that just dropped five touchdowns and racked up 481 total yards in a hostile environment in Detroit. The Commanders are a real threat to the Philadelphia Eagles for Sunday’s NFC title game because of Daniels.
Jackson didn’t operate this type of offense until his second year when he won league MVP. C.J. Stroud quickly developed into a pocket assassin as a rookie last season, but even his offensive attack had limitations. Joe Burrow and Justin Herbert also had prolific rookie years, but they didn’t make the playoffs and weren’t operating game-winning drives at a frequent rate.
Again, this is a special rookie year from Daniels, one that we haven’t seen before when you combine productivity and playoff wins. Shaun King, Ben Roethlisberger, Joe Flacco, Mark Sanchez and Brock Purdy are the other rookie quarterbacks who have led their teams to championship Sunday. If you’ve been following football the past 25 years, you’ll quickly notice that each of those quarterbacks had stout defenses and ideal surroundings.
This is not to say Daniels is doing it on his own, because the Commanders’ defense did its part by generating five turnovers against the Lions. But Daniels is already the centerpiece that makes this franchise go.
Perhaps now the critics who say they’ve seen this movie before in Washington with Robert Griffin III’s short-lived success 12 years ago will start to separate the two teams and two quarterbacks because Daniels is in a class of his own.
Saquon Barkley and his teammates
It must be nice to be teammates with Saquon Barkley.
His current Philadelphia Eagles teammates were treated to 205 rushing yards and two touchdown runs that went over 60 yards in a playoff game that might not have gone their way if it weren’t for the New York Giants letting him walk in free agency months ago. Sorry, Giants fans. I couldn’t help myself. But it was nice to see ex-Giants Daniel Jones and Sterling Shepard cheer on their former teammate from Barkley’s suite at Lincoln Financial Field.
Current and former teammates got to see Barkley’s greatness on the big stage. The epic performance was certainly needed with the tough weather elements and sluggish outing from Jalen Hurts and the Eagles’ passing game.
It helps to have Philadelphia’s stout offensive line, but there’s no stopping Barkley once he finds the second level of the defense. The Los Angeles Rams must hate that they’re scheduled to face the Eagles next season after allowing 460 rushing yards to Barkley in two games this season.
Rising star defenders: Jalen Carter, Jared Verse, Will Anderson Jr.
The next generation of game wreckers was on full display during the divisional round of the playoffs.
Second-year star defensive tackle Jalen Carter was just as important to the Eagles’ win as Barkley’s prolific performance. Carter lived in the Rams’ backfield with two sacks, three quarterback hits and one perfectly timed punch to force running back Kyren Williams to fumble in the fourth quarter. Carter’s second sack derailed Matthew Stafford’s potential game-winning drive in the final two minutes of regulation.
Sooner than later we’ll be talking about Carter, a second-team All-Pro, the same way we do about first-team All-Pro defensive tackles Chris Jones and Cameron Heyward.
Rams edge rusher Jared Verse, the presumptive Defensive Rookie of the Year, also flashed in Philadelphia with two sacks and three tackles for loss. He embraced the villain role by calling Eagles fans annoying and backed it up with a dominant performance. Hopefully the Rams didn’t tell him to tone down the trash talking. As long as it’s not costing them yards on the field and he continues to wreak havoc in the trenches, Verse’s energy seems to be a good thing for a rising L.A. defense.
Houston Texans edge rusher Will Anderson Jr. was also a force and gave the Kansas City Chiefs’ offense plenty of fits during Saturday’s loss, recording two sacks and three tackles for loss. Houston got it right when it traded a future first-round pick to the Arizona Cardinals to select Anderson with the No. 3 pick in the 2023 draft.
And let’s not overlook Chiefs edge rusher and 2022 first-round pick George Karlaftis, who had three sacks against the Texans.
Bills’ defense
Turns out the Bills’ defense had enough size to contain Ravens running back Derrick Henry.
It took a collective effort, but the Bills often made the right reads to minimize the damage from Henry, who was held to 84 rushing yards and one touchdown. And it helped that they forced three takeaways against the Ravens.
Buffalo might not have a star player on its defense, but it has several savvy players with plenty of playoff experience. It also helped to have a healthy unit with linebackers Matt Milano and Terrel Bernard, along with cornerback Taron Johnson. Bills coach Sean McDermott deserves plenty of credit for having his team prepared and executing in crucial moments. It paid off for the Buffalo coaching staff to watch every single offensive play from the Ravens this season.
Caleb Williams
It said plenty that Johnson chose to work with rookie Bears quarterback Caleb Williams over Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence and the Las Vegas Raiders’ enticing offer of having a say in a GM search.
Williams deserved some criticism for how poorly the season went for the Bears, but he often battled behind a poor offensive line and still kept his team in one-score games. You can fix the poor decisions and bad body language in crunch time. But you can’t teach the elite skill set that Williams possesses.
Williams, the No. 1 pick in last year’s draft, made many dazzling throws this season that only four or five quarterbacks are capable of making. I’m not sure what this says about Lawrence, who hasn’t shown enough flashes since being the No. 1 pick in the 2021 draft. Maybe Williams is benefiting from a small sample size, but he now gets to work with one of the best offensive minds in the NFL to help him reach his potential.
Losers
NFC North
It wasn’t that long ago when there was chatter about the NFC North possibly being the first division to send four teams in the postseason after the Bears improved to 4–2 to keep pace with the Lions, Minnesota Vikings and Green Bay Packers.
The Bears ruined that by taking a nose dive in the form of a 10-game losing streak, but it didn’t take the other three teams long to join them as spectators for the playoffs. The Lions, Vikings and Packers had a combined 40 regular-season wins only to finish a combined 0–3 in the postseason.
The Lions were the biggest disappointments after clinching the No. 1 seed and getting a bye week before the playoff stunner against the Commanders. For such a talented roster, the Lions still have plenty of holes on the defensive side and will now need to replace two coordinators after Johnson joined the Bears and Glenn likely headed to the New York Jets or New Orleans Saints.
The Vikings have the defense (they could lose defensive coordinator Brian Flores to a head coaching job) and will benefit from left tackle Christian Darrisaw returning to health. But, again, they will have question marks at quarterback with J.J. McCarthy recovering from a torn ACL and Sam Darnold coming off of two brutal performances before heading into free agency.
As for the Packers, they’ll need to find out why Jordan Love took a few steps back in his second season as a starter. Also, it’s not a given that these three teams will be back in the playoffs. Oftentimes, football is about which teams can capitalize in the present because second opportunities aren’t guaranteed.
Who knows, maybe only Johnson’s Bears will make the playoffs from the NFC North next season. You never know, as the Commanders reminded us by reaching the NFC title game.
Lamar Jackson and Jared Goff
It seems unfair to single out Jackson and Goff for their respective playoff losses, but that just comes with the territory of playing quarterback.
Ravens tight end Mark Andrews had the dropped pass on the potential game-tying two-point conversion and a costly lost fumble earlier in the loss against the Bills. Johnson made a few questionable play calls for the Lions, including allowing Jameson Williams to throw for an interception against the Commanders.
Again, it’s not all on Jackson and Goff, but we can at least agree they did not play well. They probably didn’t even need to be great to possibly get to the next round, as Josh Allen showed with his clean performance for the Bills.
But Jackson didn’t protect the football with two turnovers that led to a slow start for Baltimore and didn’t allow Henry to establish a rhythm until it was getting too late. Perhaps the Lions would have gone blow-for-blow with Commanders if Goff didn’t have the four turnovers and handed it off more to running back Jahmyr Gibbs—another mistake by Johnson.
Jackson didn’t deliver, but he’s still one of the most talented quarterbacks in the league. And if you want to say he’s not elite because of the lack of playoff wins, then go ahead. But let’s not pretend he’s some ordinary quarterback.
Goff also didn’t deliver, but he’s still in an ideal scenario and has already proved he’s capable of leading a team to a Super Bowl. Yes, that was with the Rams nearly seven years ago, but it was just last year Goff helped win two playoff games in Detroit. It’s unfair to group Goff with Darnold given the playoff résumé he’s built.
NFL officiating
I try my hardest to avoid mentioning NFL officials because too much occurs in games to say one or two questionable calls were the reasons why a team won or lost.
For example, the Texans had plenty of opportunities to defeat the Chiefs despite a few questionable calls. It’s hard to vouch for them with only 13 points scored.
But I’ll say this, NFL officiating has been consistently subpar this season, to put it nicely. It’s hard to ignore all the questionable calls that occurred in the four playoff games last week. Hopefully the league will stop staring at its TV ratings and lucrative contracts with networks and begin to put more focus into improving the officiating. I won’t hold my breath, though.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as NFL Divisional Round Winners and Losers: Jayden Daniels Is in a Class of His Own.