Unnecessary QB Competition Proves Jerry Jones Cares More About Your Attention Than Winning

2020 NFL Week Five Recap: Dak, Four Up Four Down, Top Game Week 6

We need to talk about the Dallas Cowboys

Of course, we don’t need to, but I want to, and that’s part of the problem.

The Dallas Cowboys dynasty came to an end against Sam Mills and the 1997 Carolina Panthers. 

As an aside, shout out to Sam Mills for his posthumous induction into the NFL Hall of Fame, and shout out to Emmitt Smith for being in attendance at the Panthers game yesterday to see Mills honored at halftime.

But back to the year 1997. That was over 25 years ago. The Dallas Cowboys are 3-10 in the NFL playoffs in the last 25 years, and there are 38 players on the current roster that hadn’t even been born the last time this team played in a conference championship.

The Cincinnati Bengals had the same number of playoff wins last year as the Dallas Cowboys have had in the last 25 years.

To Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, it’s never been about wins- it’s been about relevance. So here I am, wanting to talk about the Dallas Cowboys, knowing I’m giving Jerry Jones the thing he cares more about than those dusty Super Bowl trophies. 

And how did I fall into this trap? Well, for starters, the same man that gave Dak Prescott a $160 million dollar extension while he was out with an ankle injury wants you to believe that a competition is brewing over the starting QB job now that Cooper Rush has carried Dallas to a 3-1 statt, and is 4-0 overall as a spot starter. 

Jerry Jones is either a genius for trying to inflate Rush’s value before Dak comes back from his thumb injury, or, and I’m going to go ahead and tap the “3 playoff wins in 25 years” sign as a I say this, he’s willing to screw up the chemistry of a solid team and throw the entire salary cap into flux over the attention that an unnecessary QB competition brings. 

The simple fact is that Cooper Rush isn’t losing games right now, but he’s definitely not the reason they’re winning. Rush deserves credit, but not at the expense of the franchise QB to appease some old man’s attention kink. The Cowboys would have won all three of those games this year by even more with Dak Prescott under center, and Dak Prescott is Jerry Jones’ only hope at seeing another trophy in this lifetime, assuming he still cares about trophies.

Let that sink in

George Wrighster Picks NFL’s NFC Conference Division Winners

Tom Brady goat

The NFC is home to the greatest QB of all time, and the back-to-back MVP- will either of them make a run to the Super Bowl this year? There are my picks to win each division in 2022 (Playoff teams in bold)

NFC WEST

Prediction:

  • Los Angeles Rams
  • San Francisco 49ers
  • Arizona Cardinals
  • Seattle Seahawks

This division has the defending Super Bowl Champion, and most of the players on that team, outside of Odell Beckham Jr and Von Miller, return. The Rams are a lock to win the division.

Next up is the San Francisco 49ers, and not only do I have them making the playoffs, I’m going to go against the grain and say it’s *because* of the way Trey Lance leads this team, not in spite of it. With Deebo Samuel and Brandon Aiyuk by his side, Lance is going to score a lot of points.

I trust Kyler Murray to lead the Arizona Cardinals to the playoffs. I do not trust Kliff Kingsbury to lead the Arizona Cardinals anywhere outside of a decent Scottsdale cocktail party. The Cardinals did not upgrade the roster anywhere during the offseason. Every unit is either the same as last year, or slightly worse. That’s not going to get it done.

It doesn’t make sense to me that Pete Carroll would think of his Seahawks as being in rebuild mode, which means he actually believes in Geno Smith. I like Geno, and I’m rooting for him to have a redemption story, but I don’t think it’s going to happen in Seattle.

This is one of the tougher divisions in football, but it’s definitely less tough for the one team that has Aaron Donald.

NFC South

Prediction:

  • Tampa Bay Buccaneers
  • New Orleans Saints
  • Atlanta Falcons
  • Carolina Panthers

Tampa Bay is going to win the division in a tightly contested race with the Saints. I’m predicting that injuries take a toll on the Buccaneers, but the marriage of Tom Brady and Todd Bowles, and the retention of Byron Leftwich, is going to be enough to take the division. 

I’m seeing a big year for Jameis Winston. People forget that in his last full year as a starter, he led the NFL in passing yards. With improved eyesight, footwork, and decision making, he’s ready to FINALLY take that next step to Pro Bowl caliber. And another bold prediction for this Saints offense- Chris Olave is going to be the rookie of the year. 

Speaking of former first round quarterbacks having a career resurgence, Marcus Mariota is in Atlanta, and I believe he’s going to leave no question that he deserves to start in this league. I know they’re young, and I know it’s a full rebuild, but I believe the Falcons will be competitive.

The Panthers on the other hand… is David Tepper even trying out there?

It’s an interesting division with Baker Mayfield, Jameis Winston and Marcus Mariota all trying to show that their QB legacies didn’t end on the Heisman stage, while a 45-year-old with nothing left to prove chases an eighth Super Bowl Trophy to put in a case without a Heisman trophy.

NFC North

Prediction:

  • Green Bay Packers
  • Detroit Lions
  • Minnesota Vikings
  • Chicago Bears

This is an interesting division. Maybe the most interesting one-playoff team division in the NFL.

And that playoff team? The Packers, of course. Green Bay’s front office just keeps stripping the Packers offense down to bare bones year after year in a bizarre grudge match with their own starting QB, and all Aaron Rodgers does is get better and better. 

Coming in second, I have the Detroit Lions putting together a 7-10 season where all 10 of the teams that beat them come away worse for wear. I’m a believer in Dan Campbell and his staff, and while I don’t think this is the year they make the Zac Taylor Bengals leap to the Super Bowl, they might just bludgeon their way to being relevant in the NFC North.

Third, I have Minnesota. If they want to win, they need a change under center. They have damn near everything else, but I can’t in good conscience ride with Kirk Cousins. Can you?

Last up, the Chicago Bears. The only team in the NFL that might trade receiving corps with the Green Bay Packers. This just isn’t a competitive roster, and you’d have to be crazy to blame Justin Fields for how this upcoming season is going to turn out. They just better hope they don’t ruin him.

Another year of watching one of the best QBs of all time bully his division without the tools to contend for a second Super Bowl.

NFC EAST

Prediction:

  • Philadelphia Eagles
  • Dallas Cowboys
  • Washington Commanders
  • New York Giants

I like the Eagles. Jalen Hurts doesn’t have to do much to make this offense run, and that’s good for him, because Shane Steichen doesn’t call much of an offense. This team’s success is going to be driven by talent and depth, and when you take a 9-win team and add Haason Reddick, Chauncey Gardner-Johnson and AJ Brown, that ain’t bad. Now if the running back by committee could share some of those touchdowns with Miles Sanders, maybe we could make some fantasy owners happy.

In second place, and squeaking into that 7th playoff seed, I have the Dallas Cowboys. I’m not sure I can say they got better this offseason, but as long as you have Dak Prescott, you have a chance. Dak was 7 points away from going 13-3 as a starter last year, and if he had 30 extra seconds, might have staged a playoff comeback against the 49ers. If the Cowboys offensive line keeps Prescott upright, they’ll be in every game. 

The Commanders and Giants are interchangeable at the bottom of the division, but I think the Commanders might start out hot enough with Carson Wentz to give them some cushion to not surrender the #3 spot to the Giants late in the season. The Giants are far too dependent on Saquon Barkley’s health for relevance in the division. 

Being at the bottom of this division might not be the worst idea. Can you imagine Alabama’s Bryce Young in a Brian Daboll offense?

George Wrighster is a former Pac-12 and long-time NFL tight end. As a television/radio host, opinionist, and analyst, who is UNAFRAID to speak the truth. Contrary to industry norms he uses, facts, stats, and common sense to win an argument. He has covered college football, basketball, NFL, NBA, MLB since 2014. Through years of playing college football, covering bowl games, coaching changes, and scandals, he has a great pulse for the conference and national perspective.

The NFL Delivers One Hell of a Season Opener

Fans in the stands. America’s team, fresh off Hard Knocks. The G.O.A.T., fresh off his seventh Super Bowl. Nearly 800 yards passing. Two lead changes in the final two minutes. Redemption for the two players that nearly cost their team the game. Ed Sheeran chilling with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell? This game had everything.

There could not have been a better season opener than the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 31-29 win over the Dallas Cowboys on Thursday.

It’s clear that Tom Brady still has whatever makes him Tom Brady, but Dak Prescott reminded the casual NFL fan with 403 yards passing, and a fourth quarter go-ahead drive, that his $40-million per year contract coming off a serious ankle injury was deserved.

After watching the snooze-fest fifth season of Hard Knocks on HBO, which featured Dak Prescott being held out of preseason practices and games with issues in his throwing arm, it was definitely a surprise to see him drop back to pass over 60 times, with 58 total attempts. Ezekiel Elliot only had 11 rushing attempts on the day, and a big reason for such a pass-heavy game plan was Tampa Bay’s stout run defense led by Jason Pierre-Paul, Ndamukong Suh, and an extremely strong-looking Vita Vea.

Rob Gronkowski grabbing two touchdowns in a game in the season opener, after doing the SAME THING in the Super Bowl against the Chiefs feels surreal. How many people questioned his decision to return when he was five games deep into the 2020 season with only 12 catches and no touchdowns? Since then? He’s gotten into the end zone 11 times in his last 16 games!

Nobody was happier to see Dak Prescott return than Amari Cooper. He had 13 catches for 139 yards and two touchdowns in tonight’s game on 16 targets. He saw his targets and receptions fall dramatically after Dak’s injury last year, going from an average of 13 targets and 9 catches in the first four games of 2020, to nearly 7 targets and 5.5 receptions per game with Andy Dalton under center.

There’s nothing better than a redemption story, and this game presented two of them. Dallas Cowboys kicker Greg Zuerlein missed an extra point and a 31-yard field goal earlier in the game (he also missed a 60-yard attempt, but who could have expected him to make that?), so everyone on the Dallas sideline was certainly holding their collective breath when he lined up for a 48-yard attempt to give the Cowboys a late lead- but Greg the Leg nailed his kick, which came on a drive that was facilitated by a major mistake by the Buccaneers.

Tampa Bay was close to putting the game away mid-way through the fourth quarter (and covering for anyone who took the Bucs -8.5) when Damontae Kazee found a way to get his helmet on the ball and cause WR Chris Godwin to fumble inside the 5-yard line. On Tampa Bay’s final drive, it was Chris Godwin who made the catch put Tampa Bay in range for a game-winning attempt by Ryan Succop.

Was that catch a missed offensive pass interference? Well, what would an NFL game be without a little controversy. I’ll let you watch the clip below and decide for yourself.

While Dallas didn’t open with a win, they still have to be encouraged about Dak Prescott’s health and progress, as well as their run defense. Tampa Bay showed that they’re still the top dog in the NFC, but if they want to stay on top, they’re going to have to find a way to fortify their secondary so that they aren’t beat by route technicians like Amari Cooper or speed demons like CeeDee Lamb.

Hopefully we’ll get a Cowboys/Buccaneers rematch sometime in the postseason, and if we do, according to George Wrighster, if Dak Prescott comes out on top, it might be the last we see of Tom Brady in pads:

Have a take you’d like us to address? Leave your thoughts in the comments below, tweet us, @unafraidshow, or send us an email at immad@unafraidshow.com.