In just his first career start, Shedeur Sanders tied the all-time NFL record for win percentage by a starting quarterback. Sanders became the first Cleveland QB to win his debut start since 1995, which is actually before this version of the Cleveland Browns existed. There have been so many Browns QBs since 1995, and all of them have started 0-1.
DO NOT ASK who the Browns were playing, or ask to see any highlights of his performance. Just enjoy the takes!
– Rodger Sherman
New low for the Vikings
It may be over for Vikings quarterback J.J. McCarthy.
Many people questioned whether McCarthy was the smart choice at 10th overall in the 2024 draft, but his first year as Minnesota’s starter has been significantly worse than anybody expected. He played his worst game to date Sunday in a blowout loss to the Packers, going 12-for-19 for 89 yards, no touchdowns, two picks, and 35 yards lost due to sacks.
McCarthy looks lost. His accuracy is a scatterplot. His mechanics are busted, even to a non-expert eye. He holds onto the ball for an eternity, as if he’s scared of what will happen when he throws the ball. (Same here, pal.) Once an aggressive passer, McCarthy now seems over-reliant on checkdowns … and he’s missing those throws, too.
All things considered, McCarthy is displaying some of the worst quarterback play on an NFL field in decades. And I’m not being hyperbolic! That’s just what the stats say! A quick rundown:
McCarthy is dead last in the NFL in passer rating, QBR, completion percentage, interception rate, adjusted yards per attempt, and adjusted net yards per attempt. Other than that, he’s doing great.
Haha, just kidding, he’s not doing great other than that. McCarthy is second-to-last in yards per attempt (ahead of Dillon Gabriel) and sack rate (ahead of Justin Fields).
In the categories in which McCarthy is dead last, he’s often significantly worse than the second-worst quarterback. For example, McCarthy’s 6.3 percent interception rate is exactly 50 percent higher than anybody else in the league. (Tua Tagovailoa is at 4.2 percent.) His completion rate is five full percentage points worse than anybody else in the league. His QB rating is 18 points lower than anybody else in the league. He is averaging 1.43 fewer adjusted net yards per attempt than anybody else in the league.
On Sunday, McCarthy averaged minus-1.58 adjusted net yards per attempt, which is 353rd out of 354 QB starts this year. (Tua hit minus-1.92 in his three-pick game against the Browns.)
To date, Justin Jefferson is averaging 93.5 receiving yards per game, the highest total in NFL history. With McCarthy at QB, he hasn’t hit his career average even once, topping out at 81 yards in a Week 2 loss to the Falcons. His five lowest receiving totals of the year have come in McCarthy’s six starts, while five of his six best games came in Carson Wentz’s five starts.
Carson Wentz: Yuck, right? But the Vikings offense was downright functional with Wentz, a 33-year-old journeyman on his sixth team in six seasons. They dropped from 24.2 points per game with Wentz to 17 with McCarthy.
And now the killer: According to The Ringer’s Danny Heifetz, McCarthy ranks 851st out of 852 qualifying passers since 2000 in EPA per dropback, ahead of only JaMarcus Russell.
EIGHT HUNDRED FIFTY FIRST.
Out of EIGHT HUNDRED FIFTY TWO.
Every bust, every nobody, every forgettable fill-in — all but one of them rank ahead of McCarthy. The Tim Tebows, the Zach Wilsons, the Josh Rosens? All those guys were more effective passers than McCarthy right now!
The context makes McCarthy look even worse. He hasn’t been thrown into an awful situation. He gets to throw to Justin Jefferson, one of the most talented receivers in NFL history. He is coached by Kevin O’Connell, who has become famous for getting competent quarterback play out of almost anyone. Remember when the Vikings had to play Josh Dobbs just a few days after he joined the team, and won? O’Connell has had two years to work with McCarthy, and the guy looks like he doesn’t know the playbook.
This team is built for McCarthy to succeed. The Vikings are #3 in money spent on offensive players, and if you scroll down the list, you’ll see basically every other team near them is spending $50 million-ish on a star QB. Not the case in Minnesota! The Vikings are near the top because they spent big on an exceptional supporting cast for their young quarterback.
And that’s why Minnesota need to move on ASAP. The team is currently wasting the prime of a Hall of Fame receiver, and playing sub-.500 ball with a playoff-caliber roster. McCarthy might still develop into a solid NFL quarterback, but it’s going to take him years — and the Vikings can’t wait.
Sponsored by Homefield Apparel
Black Friday Sale!
I got so caught up hollering about Tulane yesterday that I forgot to mention something important …
HOMEFIELD APPAREL’S BLACK FRIDAY SALE HAS ALREADY BEGUN.
No need to wait until after Thanksgiving! You can take 30 percent off almost every item in the Homefield collection using the promo code HOMEFIELD30.
Homefield gear is obviously a great gift for the college sports fan in your life, yada yada yada … but guess what! You can also use that Black Friday promo code for yourself and buy whatever Homefield items you’ve been thinking about buying! They’ll be 30 percent less than they normally are! Nobody can stop you! They can’t even call the cops on you for doing it! It’s totally legal!
I literally did this for myself a few years ago, back before Homefield sponsored the newsletter (pictured below)
Jameis Winston, WR1
The Giants are having the most fun 2-10 season ever. I’ve written about them seven times in 13 editions of this weekly NFL newsletter, despite the fact that they’re one of the worst teams in the league.
They’re even more fun now that they’ve turned to Jameis Winston, the league’s all-time leader in Doing Some Stuff. (Seriously, I have no clue how they started the season with Russell Wilson when they had Jaxson Dart and Winston as backups.)
On Sunday, he gave an impassioned pregame in which he told his teammates “WE OUTSIDE, BUT WE INSIDE.” Then he led the NFL with 366 passing yards. But most importantly, he made the greatest catch I’ve ever seen a QB make. I’ve watched the replay about 50 times.
Approximately 97 percent of all QB catches are trick plays from the 2-yard line in which they get wide open and a running back lobs the ball. Jameis would not settle for that. The Giants probably drew up the Philly Special and he specifically demanded to run a wheel route so that he could catch a jump ball over a linebacker.
The Lions aren’t fooled at all by the trick play, because they’re a Dan Campbell team and face like 37 trick plays every single practice. They flush the WR-turned-passer from the pocket and force him into a bad throw.
That means Winston has to come back to catch an underthrown ball. He runs the route from his pre-game speech — he was outside, then he was inside. He fights through contact from the defender before the catch, then keeps his balance and his feet moving through the reception. THEN the real party begins, as he powers past the linebacker standing between him and the end zone.
The result: A 33-yard touchdown with 18 yards after the catch. It’s one of the longest QB catches ever. (Tough to sort through all the Taysom Hill and Kordell Stewart, but it’s up there.) Impressively, Jameis launched into a coordinated celebration with his teammates without skipping a beat, as if he didn’t just make the highlight of the year.
And best of all? The Giants still lost to the Lions, 34-27, in overtime, to hold onto the #2 pick in the draft. Tune into Monday Night Football next week to see Jameis throw for 450 yards and four touchdowns in a 42-41 loss to the Pats.
Chipped away
(Credit: Luca Lodi / Flickr)
The Raiders fired offensive coordinator Chip Kelly after Sunday’s 24-10 loss to the Browns, and it’s easy to understand why.
Kelly was part of a franchise reboot after a dismal 2024 season in which the Raiders went 4-13 with a QB carousel of Gardner Minshew, Aidan O’Connell, and Desmond Ridder. They brought in the legendary Pete Carroll as head coach. They signed a reliable QB in Geno Smith. They drafted college superstar Ashton Jeanty at running back. They even added the expertise of Tom Brady, who bought a minority stake in the team and supposedly plays a large role in decision-making.
They also brought in Kelly, who was the highest-paid offensive coordinator in college football last year as he helped Ohio State win a national championship. The Raiders then made him the highest-paid coordinator in the NFL.
They did all that … and got worse.
Some key stats:
The Raiders are dead last in the NFL in points, averaging 15 per game. Traditionally, “points” is one of the most important stats in measuring offensive production.
They are also dead last in yards per carry (3.5), which feels particularly brutal after using the sixth overall pick on Jeanty.
On Sunday, Geno Smith was sacked 10 times for a loss of 77 yards, the third-most in any game this century. Smith also leads the league in interceptions with 13 (although hey, give J.J. McCarthy some time to catch up.)
The Raiders have declined from last year in points per game (18.2 to 15.0) and yards per play (4.8 to 4.5). Despite signing Smith, they’ve gone from 5.5 net yards per passing attempt to 5.2. Despite upgrading from Alexander Mattison to Jeanty at RB, they’ve dropped from 3.6 yards per rush to 3.5.
It’s tough to isolate exactly what went wrong for the Raiders. Is Geno washed? Was Jeanty a Mountain West merchant? Did the 74-year-old Carroll make a big mistake hiring multiple sons to help him run an NFL team? Is it weird to have your part-owner calling the offensive coordinator multiple times per week?
The people in charge of the Raiders clearly want to pin their problems on Kelly. But when you’re doing stuff like “hiring the highest-paid offensive coordinator in the NFL, then firing him after 11 games,” there’s something fundamentally wrong with your decision-making. Maybe the reason there’s so much wrong with the Raiders … is that there’s so much wrong with the Raiders.
🦴 Myles Garrett had another three sacks Sunday to give him 18 on the year. He only needs five in his last six games to tie the all-time record of 23 set by Al “Bubba” Baker (although people didn’t realize Baker had the record for a few decades.)
🇺🇸 The Patriots have now won nine games in a row. I’m pissed off about it! They were supposed to wander in the desert for a few years post-Brady/Belichick and they’re already back to being good! Infuriating.
🤠 The Cowboys rallied back from a 21-0 deficit to beat the increasingly frustrating Eagles. The win sets up a Thanksgiving game against the Chiefs that’s probably going to break every regular season TV rating record.
Sunday was a great “Cowboys dropping passes because of the sun glare in their own stadium” game. I’m gonna go ahead and bump my YouTube video about JerryHenge, even though I made it back before I realized “video editing” was an important aspect of making videos. (Next vid on the channel coming soon!)
