Around the NFL: Cook Out for Vikings, Rodgers Update, Tate Talks Trash, More

Oct 19, 2018

Thursday was a great day for sports on TV as the NFL, MLB, NBA, and NHL were all in action. Almost makes me want to re-configure my basement to fit more screens, but days like Thursday don’t happen often. Nothing wrong with using the ol’ fashioned clicker to flip around to catch up on important action.

The Packers are on bye after beating the 49ers in come-from-behind fashion on Monday Night Football, and they’re hoping to get some good news on the injury front when they return to action. Quarterback Aaron Rodgers says he hopes to lose the knee brace that has limited his mobility (but not performance) since suffering a knee injury in Week 1 against the Bears. Rodgers tells the Wisconsin State Journal that he hopes to have it off after the bye week, which would be a remarkable turn of events after having a setback against the Lions the week before.

Here’s a stat that will surely annoy you: Rodgers has thrown for 867 yards and five touchdowns while posting a 104.4 passer rating in the last two weeks. This coming after he had some pretty harsh words about the game plans in place. Go figure.

Running back Dalvin Cook is OUT once again for a Vikings team that is growing accustomed to being without its second-year running back. Cook’s hamstring injury will keep him off the field against a surprising Jets team that enters Sunday’s matchup with a 3-3 record. It’s a step back for Cook, who was a full participant in practice on Wednesday, but left practices early the next two days. It’s a tough break for Minnesota, which will continue to lean on Kirk Cousins, Adam Thielen, Stefon Diggs, and the rest of the passing game.

Remember when ex-Bears receiver Kendall Wright was slated to slide into the slot for the Vikings this year? Well, that didn’t last long. And neither did his time in Minnesota. If Wright finds his way onto another roster, it will be his third of the calendar year because the Cardinals cut him before Thursday’s game against the Broncos in order to make room for some secondary help. Tough break for the Bears’ leading receiver in 2017.

We’ve got a little beef brewing between Lions receiver Golden Tate and Dolphins counterpart Albert Wilson. After winning the AFC Offensive Player of the Week award for his efforts in thrashing the Bears’ secondary, Wilson named himself the league’s best yards-after-the-catch receiver. It’s a title Tate (1) feels he has and (2) doesn’t want to relinquish so easily. “He had a really good game last week, especially after the catch,” Tate said about Wilson, via the Detroit News. “He’s talented. He’s a really, really, really good player. … You don’t get that title after five games, six games. I let the people decide.” Fair enough. My vote is for Tarik Cohen, but I wouldn’t mind seeing Wilson put the moves on the Lions on Sunday. Let’s move on.

Lions-Dolphins should have featured a pair of premier pass-rushers. Unfortunately, Ziggy Ansah hasn’t played for the Lions since Week 1 because of a shoulder injury and Cameron Wake of the Dolphins missed last week’s win against the Bears because of a knee injury. Both players are listed as questionable for Sunday, where Bears fans can only hope the heat takes the same toll on Detroit that it did on Chicago’s players.

ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports the Cardinals parted ways with Offensive Coordinator Mike McCoy and Byron Leftwich (the team’s QBs Coach) has taken over. The Cardinals offense has been atrocious, so someone was going to take the fall … but who expected it to come this soon?

I understand that making a change before things got worse for Josh Rosen makes a ton of sense, but this isn’t looking like the greatest environment for him as a rookie. There is value in stability and structure for a young quarterback and Rosen doesn’t have that at all, but these are the risks of pairing a young, developing quarterback with a defensive-minded head coach. Steve Wilks has his work cut out for him moving forward.

It’s been quite the fall for McCoy, who was John Fox’s OC in Denver when Tim Tebow engineered an AFC West title and playoff win. McCoy also coached the Chargers to back-to-back 9-7 records before the bottom fell out as the team went 9-23 in his final two seasons.

Maybe everyone can take quarterback pointers from Emmanuel Sanders:

TRICK PLAY ALERT! Sanders with a touchdown pass!

(Via @NFL)pic.twitter.com/Vy75ZBMHNh

— Pro Football Focus (@PFF) October 19, 2018

Set your faces to stunned:

A major discussion topic among NFL owners/executives at this week’s league meetings is the Chargers’ viability in LA. PSL sales have been a struggle and team is expected to revise its Inglewood revenue goals sharply to a more realistic number: $400m to around $150m, per sources
— Seth Wickersham (@SethWickersham) October 17, 2018

Something doesn’t feel right about this:

The player gets an envelope with a few $1000s. The coach gets tens of millions. Schools get…billions.

One of these is "illegal." Two of them are not.

On the felonious hypocrisy of college sports.

For the @WSJ https://t.co/FviVsJxTsb

— Jason Gay (@jasongay) October 18, 2018

written by

Luis C. Medina

Luis C. Medina, who you can find on Twitter at lcm1986, has been covering the Chicago Bears at Bleacher Nation since 2017. Since then, he has written about 3 head coaches, 5 play-callers, and 11 starting quarterbacks. Previously, Luis wrote about the Cubs and MLB at BN (2015-16) and worked in the Chicago Tribune sports department (2011-16). He also co-hosted a Cubs postgame show, Outside the Ivy, in 2019.

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