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The NFL is two divisional-round playoff upsets this weekend away from potentially playing a postseason game in the Los Angeles area.
The Los Angeles Rams are the NFC’s No. 4 seed and will be on the road Sunday to face the second-seeded Philadelphia Eagles. The Rams could host the NFC championship game next weekend if they beat the Eagles on Sunday and the sixth-seeded Washington Commanders defeat the top-seeded Detroit Lions on Saturday night at Ford Field.
That’s the only scenario by which the Rams could be the home team for the NFC title game. The Lions, as the No. 1 seed, will host the game if they beat the Commanders.
The NFC championship game is scheduled for 3 p.m. Jan. 26.
The NFL moved the Rams’ opening-round playoff game Monday night against the Minnesota Vikings from SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, to Glendale, Arizona, because of the wildfires in Los Angeles. The league said it made the decision in consultation with state and local authorities, the two participating teams and the NFL Players Association. The Rams said they agreed with the move and had recommended that the game be relocated.
The Rams won Monday’s home-away-from-home game, 27-9, at State Farm Stadium, home of the Arizona Cardinals. The Cardinals sent two planes to help carry Rams staffers, family members and even pets to Arizona. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell estimated that 45,000 Rams fans were in Glendale for the game. The league had the field painted in Rams colors and had Rams signs around the stadium.
The NFL has not specified whether it would play the NFC championship game in Inglewood or consider moving it to Arizona or elsewhere. The wildfires had burned approximately 40,000 acres and reportedly had killed at least 27 people as of Friday.
The NBA has resumed playing games in Los Angeles. The PGA Tour announced Thursday that it would relocate the Genesis Invitational golf tournament scheduled for Feb. 13-16 from Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades to an alternate site, which it did not immediately identify.
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Rams-Lions trade was a QB win-win
The blockbuster trade in 2021 that sent Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford to the Rams for a package of draft choices and quarterback Jared Goff has turned out to be one of those rare deals that is a win-win for both teams involved.
The Lions had agreed to consider trade offers for Stafford that offseason as part of deliberations, initiated by him, designed for the two sides to part ways. It was a seize-the-moment trade for the Rams, part of their “eff them picks” approach to stockpiling veteran talent in pursuit of a Super Bowl title in the very short term. That paid off handsomely, as Stafford helped the Rams to a Super Bowl triumph in the 2021 season.
Even if that had been the end of it, the trade would have been a major success for the Rams. They wanted to get a highly accomplished veteran quarterback to win a Super Bowl, and that’s exactly what they did. But Stafford, who turns 37 next month, has continued to play at a high level. The Rams, after a down season in 2022, are in the playoffs for a second straight season. And now they’re two victories from getting back to another Super Bowl.
The Lions received two first-round picks and a third-round choice as part of the trade package for Stafford. At the time, Goff’s inclusion in the deal was widely regarded as an afterthought and a throw-in. The Lions were taking what many observers considered to be a cumbersome contract off the Rams’ hands. Goff had signed a four-year, $134 million extension with the Rams in 2019. The deal was to run through this season.
Instead, Goff has become one of the league’s most productive quarterbacks with the Lions. He has been selected to the Pro Bowl twice in the past three seasons. The Lions signed him to a four-year, $212 million contract extension in May. He was in the league MVP conversation for much of this season. He was the NFL’s second-rated passer during the regular season. He led the league’s highest-scoring offense. The Lions, after reaching the NFC championship game last season before losing to the San Francisco 49ers, are well positioned in their bid to make the first Super Bowl appearance in franchise history.
Each team can point to that trade as a significant factor in getting to this point.
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Darnold’s two-game woes
Quarterback Sam Darnold may have played his way out of the Vikings’ starting job and a significant amount of money on his next contract during the two miserable games that ended the team’s once-so-wondrous season.
For the season’s first 16 games, Darnold and the Viking were among the league’s best success stories. For the two games after that, they were something very far from that.
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Darnold was signed in the offseason, following the free agent departure of Kirk Cousins, to be the veteran quarterback who could serve as a placeholder for a prized rookie. The rookie ended up being J.J. McCarthy, who was chosen 10th overall in last year’s NFL draft. But after McCarthy suffered a season-ending knee injury during the preseason, the Vikings needed Darnold to thrive, and he did. He reassembled his once-broken career and helped the team go 14-2.
But it all came undone as the Vikings lost the winner-take-all showdown with the Lions for the NFC North title and the conference’s No. 1 seed in the final game of the regular season, then were ousted from the playoff Monday night by the Rams. Darnold struggled in both games. He completed only 18 of 41 passes against the Lions. Then he was sacked nine times, threw an interception and lost a fumble that was returned for a touchdown by the Rams. The Vikings were outscored in the two games by a combined 58-18.
Darnold is eligible for unrestricted free agency this offseason. When he was playing well and the Vikings were winning big, there was a persuasive argument to be made that the team should re-sign Darnold, leave him as the starter going into next season and allow McCarthy to ease his way into his return from his injury and the onset of his tenure as a starter. But now that’s a more difficult case to make. It feels more like the Vikings need a fresh start, with a move to McCarthy as the opening day starter next season. That could leave them trying to re-sign Darnold to be a backup, for backup-quarterback money.
Darnold probably can do better than that, even after his issues in the final two games of the Vikings’ season. Other veteran quarterbacks eligible for unrestricted free agency this offseason include the Pittsburgh Steelers’ Russell Wilson and Justin Fields, Vikings third-stringer and former New York Giants starter Daniel Jones and the Cleveland Browns’ Jameis Winston. Cousins could be traded or released by the Atlanta Falcons after they benched him late in the season in favor of rookie Michael Penix Jr., although that’s not certain. Aaron Rodgers could move on from the New York Jets if he does not retire. Darnold would be a candidate for a starting job with another team if he does not remain in Minneapolis.
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Will Russ keep cooking in Pittsburgh?
Wilson said following the Steelers’ season-ending defeat last weekend in Baltimore that he hopes to re-sign with the team.
“It’s such a blessing to be here,” Wilson said. “The guys that we have, the organization, it’s truly first class. We love the city, obviously, and what it means. … It’s a special place, special guys. We’ve got a special coach in Coach [Mike] Tomlin. … It’s been truly a blessing in my life and one of the best years for me personally to be a Pittsburgh Steeler. Obviously I hope I’m here.”
It will be interesting to see what the Steelers do. They remade their quarterback position entirely last offseason, trading for Fields and signing Wilson as a free agent while saying their farewells to Kenny Pickett, Mitch Trubisky and Mason Rudolph.
Things went well for most of the season. The Steelers won four of their first six games with Fields as the starter while Wilson worked his way back from a calf injury. Tomlin made a bold switch from Fields to Wilson that initially paid off handsomely. Wilson jump-started the downfield passing game. The Steelers were 10-3 in early December and had positioned themselves as a surprising Super Bowl contender.
But they lost their final four games of the regular season to drop out of the AFC North lead and fall to wild-card status. They were eliminated from the playoffs by the Ravens and remain without a postseason victory since the 2016 season. Thanks largely to Tomlin’s prowess as a coach, they are too good and too competitive annually to start from scratch and get the sort of lofty draft choice that could yield their first franchise quarterback since Ben Roethlisberger’s retirement. But for eight seasons, they haven’t been good enough to win in the playoffs. They need to find a way to break that cycle.
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Flowers’s status
The Ravens probably will be without wide receiver Zay Flowers for a second straight game in Sunday’s divisional-round playoff clash with the Buffalo Bills in Orchard Park, New York.
They listed Flowers as doubtful on their injury report Friday. That came soon after Coach John Harbaugh had left open the possibility of Flowers playing in the game.
“I think he’ll have a chance,” Harbaugh said at a news conference at the Ravens’ training facility in Owings Mills, Maryland.
Flowers didn’t practice all week because of the knee injury that he suffered in the regular season finale. He missed last weekend’s triumph over the Steelers.
His return this weekend is unlikely but would be significant, with the stakes raised considerably in Sunday’s highly anticipated quarterback showdown between the Ravens’ Lamar Jackson and the Bills’ Josh Allen. Flowers just became the first Ravens wide receiver ever selected to a Pro Bowl.
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And also …
The Ravens claimed wide receiver Diontae Johnson off waivers this week after he was released by the Houston Texans. That may have seemed odd, given that the Ravens had waived Johnson last month after suspending him for one game for conduct detrimental to the team. The Ravens said Johnson had refused to enter a Dec. 1 game against the Eagles.
But this week’s move was purely procedural. Under NFL rules, Johnson will not officially be awarded to the Ravens until Feb. 10, the day after the Super Bowl. He’s eligible for free agency in March. So his prospective departure could figure into the NFL’s complicated formula of gains and losses in free agency that determines the awarding of compensatory draft picks to teams …
The Tennessee Titans made their general manager selection Friday, choosing Mike Borgonzi. He had been the assistant GM of the Kansas City Chiefs. Borgonzi replaces Ran Carthon, who was fired after the regular season. The Titans retained Brian Callahan as their coach following a 3-14 season. They possess the top overall pick in this year’s NFL draft …
NFL teams with head coaching vacancies can begin conducting in-person interviews next week with assistant coaches from other teams. All interviews had to be conducted remotely to this point, under NFL rules.
Some people connected to the leaguewide hiring process believe that Lions defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn and Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores are the favorites for the Jets’ head coaching job. Glenn and Mike McCarthy, who parted ways this week with the Dallas Cowboys, are regarded by some as the front-runners for the New Orleans Saints’ job. McCarthy interviewed this week with the Chicago Bears and could be a top candidate for them. Some connected to the process are convinced that Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson will end up with a head coaching job, but there are differing opinions as to whether that will be with the Las Vegas Raiders, Jacksonville Jaguars or Bears. Some believe the Jaguars will hire Tampa Bay Buccaneers offensive coordinator Liam Coen if they don’t get Johnson.