Week 9 NFL Takeaways: Jim Harbaugh’s Chargers Look Very Familiar

The coach has a rock-solid defense, a run-game-driven offense, and a smart, efficient quarterback at the controls. Plus, what we’re hearing as the trade deadline nears and more.

The Chargers are rolling under Harbaugh and Herbert, who threw for 282 yards and two touchdowns against the Browns on Sunday. / Ken Blaze-Imagn Images

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1. Los Angeles Chargers
2. Trade deadline buzz
3. Philadelphia Eagles
4. Dallas Cowboys
5. Baltimore Ravens
6. Los Angeles Rams
7. Cincinnati Bengals
8. New York Jets
9. NFL’s handling of the election
10. Quick-hitters
11. More NFL on Sports Illustrated

More from the MMQB: Recap | Playoff picture | What we learned | Trade deadline buzz | Derrick Henry cashing incentives | Lions solidify Super Bowl contender status | AFC midseason grades | NFC midseason grades

We’re working our way through Week 9, with Tuesday’s NFL trade deadline fast approaching. As we’ve been doing all season, we’ll publish the takeaways Sunday and update them live through Monday morning. So come back again if not all 10 are here yet …

Los Angeles Chargers

If you’ve watched Jim Harbaugh’s teams over the years, then the Los Angeles Chargers are becoming exactly who you thought they’d be. And that starts with having torchbearers like Derwin James on the roster.

I was at the first day of Chargers camp this summer and heard, from more than a few people, this running joke that Harbaugh wanted everyone to do as James would do. The serious part of it: In James, the new coach had found a kindred spirit, the same way he did with guys such as Patrick Willis and Frank Gore in San Francisco 13 years ago.

So where Willis and Gore set the foundation for Harbaugh’s San Francisco 49ers, James is doing the same for the Harbaugh’s Chargers. Oh, and as for that joke? James laughed when I asked.

“He’s like a father away from home—he’s that role model, that big uncle, everything I need,” James told me from the postgame locker room Sunday in Cleveland. “Having a coach like that who’s experienced, that’s been to a Super Bowl, knows what it takes, won a national championship, he’s serious about winning. Every day, you see it in his message and how his other coaches coach.

“When you got a leader like that leading, you see the team that we have, with the guys we have. You can see the team we’re forming over here. Coach Harbaugh’s around us to give us that chance.”

It’s what Harbaugh’s done everywhere he’s been—and is doing again in Los Angeles.

Sunday’s 27–10 rout of the Cleveland Browns was just more evidence of what’s been quietly developing along over the past few months. The Chargers didn’t run all over Cleveland, but J.K. Dobbins was effective when he needed to be, churning out 85 yards, and scoring on runs of 16 and seven yards. Justin Herbert only threw 27 times, but was incredibly efficient with his opportunities. And as long been the case, Harbaugh also has a kickass defense.

At Stanford and San Francisco, he delegated that phase to Vic Fangio. At Michigan, it was D.J. Durkin, Don Brown, Mike Macdonald and Jesse Minter. Minter came with Harbaugh this time around and has shown, again, how good Harbaugh is at finding the right people to handle that side of the ball, and fit it to his overarching vision for the team.

“Jesse Minter is the GOAT. Jesse Minter has been one of the best coaches I’ve had,” James says. “Since OTAs, we’ve been training the way we train as DBs. We don’t just play one position. Everybody can play everywhere in our secondary. That’s what’s helping us communicate. We’re making it tough on the opposing team because they don’t know where everybody’s going to be at.”

Nor do they know what’s coming. As James explains it, the opponent’s offense, has to react later than it wants to. “When you can make everything look the same and make the quarterback play quarterback postsnap,” James says, “I feel like it’s hard, with the rush we have coming.”

It was hard for Jameis Winston this week (235 yards, 1 TD, 3 INTs, 50.5 passer rating) versus how he looked last week (334 yards, 3 TDs, 0 INTs. 115.3 rating).

It showed up in a big way, too, on Winston’s final pick of the day, one that essentially locked up the Chargers’ win in the fourth quarter. The Chargers gave the quarterback a presnap look that they’d only played zone out of all day. Postsnap, they went to man coverage, with double teams underneath. The switch led to Winston throwing into coverage. The double team gave rookie Tarheeb Still the freedom to undercut the route.

It was Still’s first career pick. It showed, too, how the defense could work for a rookie, the same as it does for a seasoned vet such as James or Khalil Mack, giving the players a shot to play fast and physical while the offense tries to figure out what’s happening. Which, of course, is a big reason why no team has given up fewer points per game than the Chargers.

And it all fits into this big picture Harbaugh is painting once again, with a rock-solid defense complementing a physical, run-game-driven offense, with a smart, efficient quarterback at the controls.

That’s the vision, and genius of Harbaugh, even if you might see it a different way.

“They don’t understand the quirkiness—the weirdness is in the details,” James says. “That’s how he’s so successful. You may look at him as quirky, but he really loves football. I’ve never met a coach that loves football as much as coach Harbaugh. He would die for football. He loves it that much.”

It shows in how his 5–3 team is playing now.

“We’re having fun,” James says. “We have a camaraderie. We can play tough if we need to play tough. We can match up guys and play finesse, too. We can play whatever type of game, and I feel like that will allow us to be who we are. As long as we keep finding our identity, the tough team will win out.”

And it looks like the tougher team most weeks, once again, is the one coached by Harbaugh.

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Trade deadline buzz

Slayton could get dealt by the Giants by Tuesday's trade deadline. / Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images

The trade deadline got a little more interesting. We have a full rundown that went up on Sunday afternoon. The main point I make in it: That this year will probably be like most others, with far more rumors and talks than actual action.

That said, the deadline is a week later this year—thanks to the Browns for proposing the move—which does allow for teams to have a bit more of a full picture of where they’re at ahead of it. And so it’s at least interesting to consider where teams are now against where they were a couple of days ago to assess whether there’s a difference in the extra week.

Let’s take a look …

• The Denver Broncos really took one on the chin. While still at 5–4, they’re still very much in the playoff race, so the idea of going out and renting, say, another receiver may not make as much sense after seeing the gap between where they are and a team such as the Baltimore Ravens. It also could push them to move a player such as Baron Browning.

• Conversely, the Atlanta Falcons are now 6–3, and Arizona Cardinals are 5–4, both are in first in their divisions, and both carry a lot of momentum at the season’s turn. So each could redouble the efforts already made to go and get pass-rush help, with opportunity in front of them.

• It sounds funny, then, not to include the 7–2 Washington Commanders in that group. But my sense is they are committed to building the team a certain way, and they still have big enough holes at premium positions, where if they stand pat and sit on the capital they have … I’d get it.

• The Browns (2–7) are on the other end of the spectrum. They have a first-round pick this April for the first time since making the Deshaun Watson trade. They have uncertainty at quarterback. So moving guys such as Za’Darius Smith and Greg Newsome II, who may not be part of the long-term picture, to start building toward the draft does make sense.

• The Giants (2-7) were already exploring moving guys such as Darius Slayton and Azeez Ojulari. Maybe they should be more aggressive. And the Raiders (2–7) strike me as another team that should be making moves (because of the amount of holes they have to fill)—but they haven’t sent out a lot of signals, at least not yet, that they will be.

We’ll see over the next day and a half what kind of difference the later deadline makes.

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Dean celebrated with teammates and fans after an interception late in the fourth quarter against the Jaguars on Sunday. / Bill Streicher-Imagn Images

Philadelphia Eagles

The Philadelphia Eagles seem to be hitting their stride. It wasn’t long ago that Jalen Hurts wasn’t playing well, there were legitimate questions about the makeup of Nick Sirianni’s coaching staff, injuries were mounting, and Philly was headed for its bye at 2–2.

The team hasn’t lost since, and the turnaround, as the guys see it, started before the bye, with the team lacking an identity, new systems still taking hold, and the record .500.

It was then that the coaches took the players into a couple days of reflection. Sirianni and new coordinators Kellen Moore and Vic Fangio took their share of responsibility for the uneven start. Teams leaders, with captains/cornerstones Jason Kelce and Fletcher Cox gone and retired, did the same.

“We had real conversations with each other,” third-year linebacker Nakobe Dean says. “We all said we can do better, with everybody in our [position-group] rooms.  We talked about what others could do better, where we thought ourselves individually could do better. We got real with each other, and we made adjustments. Coaches knew they had to do better, just like we knew we had to be better.”

Now, Sunday wasn’t ideal—the Eagles were up 22–0 midway through the third quarter, and needed a Dean pick in the end zone with 1:38 left to preserve a 28–23 win. But having the cushion in the first place, and closing it out in the end, again, put Philly’s growth on display.

Both, in fact, went back to where the reflection of early October led them.

“The big thing was fundamentals, tackling and then executing,” Dean says. “Fundamentals, executing and communication. That was the thing that we didn’t have, that we weren’t as good at. That was more detrimental to us. We harped on the details and the fundamentals.”

That showed in how the Eagles outrushed the Jaguars 237–60, and how Jalen Hurts played within himself—throwing for a tidy 230 and two touchdowns without throwing a pick.

It also showed in how Dean finished the Jaguars off. The linebacker’s pick came on a play that, conceptually, was very much like one Saquon Barkley scored on for the Eagles in the first quarter, with the tailback running a stutter-and-go. In studying the Jags, Dean saw a similar play, repeatedly, on tape. It was just from before this year.

“They haven’t done it this year, I don’t think, but I knew their team had it with their running backs,” Dean says. “They dynamic out of the backfield. When I saw him stutter-and-go, I knew he was a primary read. That’s how offenses are. … When he threw the ball in there, I was able to make the play."

And where there was detail in Dean’s study, there was also detail to actually going up and high-pointing the ball. In fact, he credited assistant special teams coordinator Joe Pannunzio for helping him with it. Dean dropped an easy pick in the opener against the Packers. He was pretty mad about it, so he got Pannunzio to throw to him every day.

“He throws a lot of balls at me post-practice,” Dean said. “That [play] was for him, to be able to get up and get the ball for him."

Dean did, and thus preserved what had been a good effort until the Eagles eased a little too much off the accelerator in the fourth quarter. Meanwhile, the team, again, got a little snapshot of good it can be.

Next up? A trip to Dallas before coming home for a Thursday nighter against the division-leading Commanders. So soon enough, as they continue to learn about themselves, we’ll learn a lot more about them, too. For now, though, you can be assured this isn’t the same team it was a couple of months ago. Which is a good thing.

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Prescott left Sunday's game against the Falcons with a hamstring injury. / Brett Davis-Imagn Images

Dallas Cowboys

While we’re in the NFC East … the Dallas Cowboys are really on the ropes. I was texting with a pro scout late Sunday afternoon just to see what his perception of the Cowboys, a team he’d studied a bunch of late, is with teams right now. “It’s just an accumulation of blows,” he responded, “with the injuries over the course of the year.”

So where has it created problems? Along the lines of scrimmage, primarily.

And it showed in a 27–21 loss in Atlanta, one that wasn’t as competitive as the score.

Dallas is still without DeMarcus Lawrence and Micah Parsons on defense—and they weren’t playing great under new coordinator Mike Zimmer even when those guys were healthy. Against Atlanta, the Cowboys’ two sacks of Kirk Cousins belonged to Carl Lawson, who was on the team’s practice squad a month ago. Sitting comfortably in the pocket most of the afternoon, Cousins posted a 144.8 passer rating, while tailback Bijan Robinson wound up with 145 scrimmage yards on 26 touches.

Meanwhile, Dak Prescott banged up his throwing hand, and left the game with a hamstring injury, playing behind a young, inconsistent offensive line. First-round pick Tyler Guyton hasn’t looked ready for prime time. And that the quarterbacks (Cooper Rush included) were under duress was particularly alarming, given that Atlanta’s pass rush has been a season-long issue, to the point where the Falcons are looking for help ahead of the deadline.

Then, there was a failed fake punt, and a clear communication problem on a Darnell Mooney touchdown, and the Zeke Elliott suspension, and the Cowboys are very clearly at a crossroads.

Generally, line issues are tough to fix on the fly. The spotlight on the team, obviously, won’t dim, and Dallas’s next three opponents (Philly, Houston, Washington) are a combined 19–7.

That means, by the Thanksgiving game against the Giants, we’ll have a better idea on the Cowboys’ outlook. And whether they’re back up to 6–5, or at 3–8, or somewhere in between, the picture on where the Mike McCarthy era is headed should be a lot clearer.

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Jackson used his arm to beat the Broncos, throwing three touchdown passes in the Ravens' win Sunday. / Mitch Stringer-Imagn Images

Baltimore Ravens

Lamar Jackson is very clearly an MVP candidate. There are a ton of numbers to illustrate that, but the one I liked most, in looking at Jackson’s growth over the past few years, wasn’t necessarily a positive one—he rushed for just four yards on three carries, and was clearly the most dominant player on the field at M&T Bank Stadium, if not the league in Week 9.

To me, just a few years ago, it would have been impossible for Jackson to be as overwhelming as he was Sunday in the Baltimore Ravens’ 41–10 beatdown of Denver (and its excellent defense) with that total.

Now, of course, that doesn’t mean his legs weren’t part of the equation against the Broncos. The mere threat of Jackson tucking and running has a material effect on any defense. It’s just that, now, he doesn’t need to pull that lever nearly as much—he and the Ravens’ passing game around him, has grown enough to make that so.

His three touchdown passes showed it. On the first one, he smoothly navigated the pocket, climbing through it to buy time and find Zay Flowers on the end line for the score. On the second one, he found Flowers in a dead spot in a zone, and let Flowers do the rest on a 53-yard run to paydirt. On the third, he delivered a nice, tight throw to the flat to beat coverage to 300-pound fullback Pat Ricard.

When all was said and done, he couldn’t have thrown it much better, going 16-of-19 for 280 yards, the three touchdowns and a perfect passer rating. He’s now got a record four games with such a rating. He also got to 20 touchdown passes and 500 yards rushing this year in just nine games, which is two faster than that’s ever been accomplished.

But, again, it’s how this one got done that got my attention.

And if he can keep it up? Well, then maybe he’ll have a little more gas in the tank when it really counts, and everyone’s playing for keeps in January.

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McVay and Robinson celebrated after Robinson's game-winning touchdown against the Seahawks during overtime Sunday. / Joe Nicholson-Imagn Images

Los Angeles Rams

Craziest game of the week, hands down, was Los Angeles Rams–Seattle Seahawks. We had one team throw two interceptions inside the 5-yard line, the other get a punt blocked, and a quarterback who had three picks leading a clutch drive in the waning moments—and all that was in the fourth quarter alone.

The ending favored the Rams, 26–20, but seems to be a prelude to what could be a wild back half of the season in the NFC West.

And I’d say that because those same Rams were 1–4 two weeks ago, and mulling whether to trade star vets like Cooper Kupp ahead of the deadline. It seems like it was longer than that, of course, because now Sean McVay’s crew is clearly in the playoff hunt—a half-game behind the division-leading Cardinals (!), tied with the Niners, and just a half-game up on the Seahawks, who entered the day as the division leaders.

"We just never give up,” wide receiver DeMarcus Robinson told me over the phone after the game. “We got guys that are ready to play, ready to ball out. We never gave up, even when our record didn’t look as good as it should be. Nobody else outside our locker room thinks that. We know what we’re capable of.”

While these may not be the Rams of a couple years ago, it looks now like they’re capable of a lot more than it seemed just a few weeks back.

That showed up in a very big way when it mattered most Sunday.

First, there was rookie safety Kam Kinchens picking off Geno Smith in the end zone, on a first-and-goal from the 6-yard line, with the game tied at 13, and running it back 103 yards for the go-ahead score. Second, it was Kinchens, again, this time diving for an errant Smith throw, on second-and-goal from the 4, after the blocked punt gave the Seahawks a drive start inside the red zone, down 20–13.

“He did a good job tonight,” Robinson says, “of reading and reacting.”

After that, it was the young defensive line, with budding stars Byron Young, Kobie Turner, Braden Fiske and (especially) Jared Verse generating third-and-1 and fourth-and-1 stops, with the ball at the Rams’ 16 in overtime, to score a turnover on downs. And after that, it was Matthew Stafford answering the bell, going 4-for-4 for 83 yards in overtime, capping it with the 39-yard touchdown throw to Robinson, his third read on the play, to win it.

"I just had the high corner,” Robinson says. “He was going to the flat route underneath or he was going to the over route. I’m just the high-alert guy. If I win, I win. If he sees me, he sees me. But if not, it’s really get the ball to the flat or the low cross. I won on it, and they were playing Cover Zero. He saw me beat the guy pretty bad off the line, so he gave me a chance.”

And Robinson made the most of that chance—showing, again, the depth the Rams are building, with Puka Nacua ejected and Cooper Kupp still a bit hobbled.

He, and the Rams, also showed what they’re capable of after winning one of the wildest games of the season. Already, they’ve been through a lot and, with McVay and Stafford leading the way, they’ve got plenty to hang their hat on, too. Which should give them as good as shot as anyone in that division.

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Burrow tossed five touchdowns in the Bengals' win over the Raiders on Sunday. / Cara Owsley/The Enquirer / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Cincinnati Bengals

The Cincinnati Bengals aren’t dead yet. This hasn’t gone the way anyone expected. Tee Higgins has been in and out of the lineup. The running back situation has been challenging, post–Joe Mixon. The defense has injuries and is getting older. So a day like Sunday in which Cincinnati smacked another team in the mouth—the Bengals’ 41–24 win over the Las Vegas Raiders at home was never in doubt—seemed to be just what the doctor ordered.

Or, at least, it would’ve been, if Joe Burrow weren’t the quarterback. In the postgame—in his network interview and press conference—the 27-year-old didn’t feel like the game’s winner. Fox’s Laura Okmin said to him on the field, “I have to remind myself this is a winning interview.” “Me, too,” Burrow responded.

“He’s got a standard for us,” Bengals coach Zac Taylor told me a couple of hours after the win. “And he saw an opportunity for us to score more. I agree with him. There are some things we missed. At the same time, as the head coach, I was proud of the way our defense played. There was a lot of positive things to build on. I understand where he’s coming from also.”

Taylor appreciates it, too.

This year, very clearly, has been an uphill battle in a lot of ways for the players, from navigating contract situations, to the aforementioned rash of injuries. For Burrow, he came into the year returning from a wrist surgery, and had to adjust to not having Mixon or Tyler Boyd anymore, and not having Higgins and Ja’Marr Chase for stretches.

And while that’s been tough, Burrow’s response, to not relent from the standard, is a big part of why these Bengals have been so different than those previous to 2020. The same way Tom Brady once called himself “the most miserable 8–0 quarterback in the NFL,” just winning isn’t always good enough for Burrow. There are bigger goals than what’s there in Week 9, and a track to get there that the quarterback knows the team needs to be on.

"Trust me, there’s a balance to that,” Taylor says. “When you’re going through a year like we’re having, you also have to cherish the work that goes into winning any game. We’ve got that mentality that we’re good enough to win anyway. At the same time, it’s been hard to find those wins. There’s the balance of, It’s hard in this league. Cherish the ones you get, but at the same time there’s things we can do to get better. That’s kind of where we’re at.”

There was enough good from Burrow in this one to sustain most quarterbacks—but he does have to do a little more.

His first touchdown was on a scramble play, where he found Chase Brown in the corner of the end zone. On his second, he stepped up, then through the pocket to get the ball to second-year receiver Andre Iosivas. His third touchdown pass had him rolling right, and throwing back across his body to tight end Drew Sample. The final two were to Mike Gesicki, the first with another escape climbing the pocket, and the second on a throw up the seam.

Few expected those to the be the team’s playmakers in Week 9. But that’s where the team is now and, in the long run, being able to lean on such a wide variety of guys is a good thing.

“We’ve got a lot of guys who can make plays. Some days, some guys are going to have big days. Other days, there are going to be others,” Taylor says. “We got a lot of guys we trust. Even with Tee out and Jermaine [Burton] out, there’s still a lot to draw from.”

And even more impressive is how so much of it had to happen on the fly. Burton failed to heed a warning after missing Friday meetings by not showing up Saturday. He was expected to be a big part of the game plan, and the staff had to adjust. Another bad card was dealt early in the game when rookie tight end Eric All appeared to tear his ACL again.

The silver lining, if there is one: The team is building depth, as are the different ways they can attack teams—a reality that’s played out on defense, too, with the development of guys such as rookie defensive tackles Kris Jenkins Jr. and McKinnley Jackson accelerated by necessity because of injury. The hope, of course, is that the team keeps getting healthier in key spots, allowing the coaches, as a result of all this, a wide array of options.

“You just have to hang in there and give yourselves a chance because everybody’s got a tough schedule coming up—you got to stay in the thick of it,” Taylor says. “We didn’t do ourselves any favors early on. This team has seen adversity in the past over the course of this season. I believe that we can come through it.

“We got to move on to next week. I feel good. I feel like this team is capable of doing all the things we set out to do as the year started. We got eight weeks left to prove it.”

That starts with a tough Thursday nighter in Baltimore, followed by the Chargers, and their bye.

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New York Jets

The Jets still have playoff hopes after Wilson's amazing one-handed catch against the Texans. / Ed Mulholland-Imagn Images

The second-half New York Jets were the Jets we expected to see. And that, to me, is what would give me hope heading into the back half of the season, were I rooting for the team.

Let’s consider where Jeff Ulbrich’s team was heading into halftime on Thursday. It was down 7–0. Aaron Rodgers was, by his own admission, bad. Davante Adams and Garrett Wilson had six catches for 34 yards (a 5.67-yard average). The run game was an afterthought. Rookie Malachi Corley forked over six points, when he voluntarily flipped the ball away at the goal line on what should’ve been a walk-in touchdown. The Texans had 108 yards rushing.

If anything, you’d look at all that, say the Jets were lucky to be down just 7–0, and expect a good Texans team to jam on the accelerator and bury Rodgers’s second season in New York.

Instead, the opposite happened.

After that half—and after a week in that building, coming off the loss to the New England Patriots, that was described to me as “weird” where “everyone was “walking on eggshells”—somehow Ulbrich, Rodgers and the rest of them dug deep and, just maybe, saved the Jets’ season. The final was Jets 21, Texans 13. The context for the Jets, which includes the above, was even better.

That’s because what we saw on Thursday night was a lot of what we expected from the Jets, really going all the way back to April of 2023. It was Rodgers unlocking the blue-chip talent of Wilson, with Wilson one-handing two touchdown catches—the latter one of the best grabs you’ll ever see, on third-and-19 to give the Jets their first lead. It was Adams delivering the dagger, toasting rookie Kamari Lassiter on another third-down, with the game in the balance. It was a loaded defensive line sacking C.J. Stroud eight times.

Even better, the offensive line stabilized (though that might’ve been aided by Will Anderson Jr.’s injury), and without its starting guards, and the run game gave Rodgers & Co. the balance needed to put together touchdown drives of 11, 12 and eight plays. Sauce Gardner, at least for a night, broke his slump on the other side of the ball.

It was, in summary, a good reminder of why we thought so highly of the Jets in August.

Now, we’ll see if they can build on it in Arizona next week. If they win that one, and can come back and beat the Los Angeles Chargers in Week 11, they’ll be 5–6 going into their bye, and, I’d say, part of a completely different conversation.

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NFL’s handling of the election

The elephant in the room that Tuesday’s election is in so many American workplaces has been addressed in different ways across the NFL. You can count me among the people ready for Tuesday, and everything that comes with it, to be over with it. But that doesn’t mean I don’t understand and respect the weight all of it has on a lot of folks.

Of course, it has felt this way through the past couple of presidential elections, and that’s why I think it’s so interesting that the conversation in NFL circles is way more toned down this time around.

In 2016 and ’20, it was inescapable. This year, you simply aren’t getting the side of politics with your football that you did in the past—which is a welcome development for a lot of people. The next question, then, would be whether we’ve gotten here by design. So to find out, on Friday, I polled nine teams to see what they’re telling their players. Here, as anonymized items, is what I got back.

• The first team had its public relations director address the team Thursday. The PR chief raised the example from last weekend of Nick Bosa—telling players he’d lose a sum of at least five figures from the fallout, and he didn’t even utter a word—in emphasizing to the players that, while they’re free to speak out, there can be a cost to it. He added that, as a result, Bosa’s teammates had to answer questions they otherwise wouldn’t have had to, as an example of how a personal statement can become a team matter.

• The second team hasn’t done or said anything formally to the players, focusing instead on playing Sunday, and trusting that those guys know how to handle themselves.

• The head coach for a third team addressed his players Wednesday, telling them that he’d publicly advocate for voting, without disseminating his own leanings. The coach then told the players that the team has public relations and public affairs staff there to help anyone wanting to make a statement to craft that statement. Also, he asked the players simply to let the team know if something was coming, so they’d be prepared for it.

• A fourth team hasn’t formally sat the team down on it, but messaged to them that if they do speak, to speak for themselves and not their teammates or the organization. The plan for this team is to try to ascertain whether the questions will be asked, based on the media on hand, after Sunday’s action, and talk to the players postgame about it before reporters come in the locker room, if that’s necessary.

• A fifth team briefed the players at the start of the season on what was ahead, telling them to be smart and to understand that what they say or do can impact how the outside world perceives them. The team also emphasized education to the players—asking that they try to be informed on whatever they’re talking about in the political realm. The plan is to circle back with the players about it on Monday.

• A sixth team incorporated its messaging into its normal voter education sessions that take place over the summer, telling the players that this year most off-the-field questions, whether intentional or not, would be related back to politics and the election. The PR folks told the players they could talk, and they’d be responsible for anything they said, and also that there was nothing wrong with saying nothing (they gave them strategies to do that).

• A seventh team had the PR director address the players at the start of the season, and he told the players that the fall would be a sensitive and emotionally charged time, and to be mindful of the weight of their words on not just themselves, but also everyone else that sat with them in the meeting room that morning. He added that the team is a unifying force in the community, focused on bringing people together, rather than dividing them. A speaker then explained voter registration to the players, and the PR folks later had one-on-ones to talk to key team leaders and the head coach about the platform they all have.

• An eighth team discussed the election as part of media training and voter education during training camp, and has leaned on the culture the head coach has built that allows for players to speak for, and be, themselves. The PR staff also met one-on-one with team leaders and more outspoken players, and some players came back to the PR staff to ask about handling any questions on the Bosa situation.

• Finally, our ninth team has taken the perspective that voting and politics are a personal thing, but put guys through an external voter awareness campaign, mostly telling them to be responsible, and know how their words can affect those around them. This team is also considering having the GM and head coach give the players a quick reminder Monday.

And if you want another sign that the temperature on this stuff has been turned down in the NFL since four and eight years ago, one might’ve come from the round of golf that Jalen Hurts, Saquon Barkley and Eagles owner Jeffery Lurie played with former president Barack Obama at Merion Golf Club last week. In meeting with the media afterward, Barkley and Hurts were asked about the experience, but not their politics.

My guess is that wouldn’t have happened four falls ago.

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Quick-hitters

We’re halfway through the season, and it’s time to buzz through some quick-hitters to close out Week 9. Here they come …

• The Las Vegas Raiders’ firing of offensive coordinator Luke Getsy after the team’s fifth straight loss was a surprise in its timing—generally a new head coach like Antonio Pierce won’t do that halfway through his first season. But it does reflect some pessimism in that building on the direction of the team right now. It’ll be interesting to see if new limited partner Tom Brady has a voice on whether further changes take place after the season. Part of the issue to this point, as I’ve heard it, is the way Pierce patched the staff together, rather than making sure there was alignment on both sides of the ball. That led to coaches having to invest time teaching other coaches, which didn’t help with the players.

• We’ll have more on the Buffalo Bills coming on the site Monday morning. For now, though, it’s worth mentioning that their opponent Sunday now looks completely different than it did a couple of weeks ago. Tua Tagovailoa played really well again in a loss, and it’s pretty clear how the offense being fit to his talents, and the timing and anticipation he throws with, made it tough to replicate his production in his absence. I think Tagovailoa, Mike McDaniel and that crew will start winning again soon. Even if it’s probably too late for this season.

• Bryce Young looked O.K. against a beat-up, reeling New Orleans Saints team. It shouldn’t be enough to change anyone’s opinion. But it might be enough for Dave Canales to sell to his locker room, so the franchise can get another long look at him before the coach, GM Dan Morgan and EVP of football ops Brandt Tilis start to map out their 2025 quarterback plan.

• Jayden Daniels’s leading receivers on Sunday: Noah Brown, Austin Ekeler, Olamide Zaccheaus. Yes, Terry McLaurin had two touchdowns, but those two catches, good for 19 yards, were his only two catches on the day. And Daniels’s passer rating was still 128.8. The Commanders, by the way, are 7–2 for the first time since Norv Turner was coach, Gus Frerotte was quarterback, and RFK Stadium was home for the franchise.

• I still think the Giants should, and will, stick with Brian Daboll as coach and Joe Schoen as general manager. But with the team at 2–7, the team is going to turn up the heat on the owners.

• The Arizona Cardinals outrushed the Chicago Bears 213 to 69, and more than doubled the Bears’ yards per carry average. With each week, this looks more real. Kyler Murray’s playing good ball, the team’s intensity doesn’t fluctuate week to week, and there are ascending young players all over the place. I’m not saying they’ll win the division, but people who are looking at this start as fool’s gold probably aren’t really watching.

• I noticed the really warm things Justin Jefferson said about his teammate and quarterback, Sam Darnold, on Sunday, and I think that goes a long way in explaining how the Vikings made what could’ve been an awkward situation very manageable. Both Darnold and J.J. McCarthy are good guys, and are trying to help one another out. Which is one reason why Darnold was perfect for that role he’s taken on in the first place.

• Patriots–Titans wasn’t a great football game. But I do have two takeaways from it. The first is the obvious, which is that Drake Maye looks like a star in the making. And the Titans have the makings of a really strong offensive line to match their defensive front. So while it’ll still take a couple of offseasons to get where they need to be, Tennessee’s laying a nice foundation with guys such as Peter Skoronski, JC Latham, T’Vondre Sweat and, of course, Jeffery Simmons.

• The Detroit Lions, again, looked like the best team in the league, this time dominating in the elements in Green Bay. Detroit won, again, with its defense scoring, its run game controlling the pace of the game and its quarterback being brilliantly efficient (Jared Goff has completed 106 of 128 throws in his past six games—that’s an incredible 83% completion rate).

• Between Josh Jacobs and Saquon Barkley, I wonder whether the market for veteran running backs will get a bit of a re-evaluation. Those two, bought at the top of the running back market, have been relative steals for their teams.

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