The days of the Broncos being a doormat in the AFC West are over. They may not get where Bo Nix and Sean Payton want to get to this year, but they are going to be the challenge for Kansas City going forward.
Payton is so confident in Nix. He knew there might be early struggles, but Payton had enough faith in him to ride it out.
A lot of people did not have that perspective of Nix going into the draft. But, Payton is a man of conviction who is supremely confident in his own abilities. Drafting Nix was an opportunity to put his signature on the organization after he walked into a situation where he was handed Russell Wilson.
After 12 weeks of Payton and Nix, I can promise you, the last thing the Chiefs want to do is have to go into Denver in Week 18 needing to win that game to get the No. 1 seed. That is the thing they want to avoid at all costs because this Denver team is real.
Commanders have hit the “rookie wall”
Everything was great, everything was rolling, and then they lost three in-a-row. Losing to the Steelers and Eagles is one thing. But then you host the Cowboys, who are playing their backup quarterback and playing terribly — Dallas came in having lost five straight.
The Commanders laid an egg. There’s no other way around it. This is their first real crisis with Jayden Daniels as their QB.
Daniels still isn’t right from the rib injury, but the “rookie wall” has popped up. If you’re playing college football right around Thanksgiving, you have your rivalry game and a conference championship game, then you’re waiting until you find out what bowl you’re going to or if you’re in the College Football Playoff.
A lot of times, right around Thanksgiving is where rookies are like, “This NFL season is different!” The rookie wall is something that’s bothering Washington, and the Commanders still have five games left on their schedule to determine where they finish.
This is going to be the most difficult stretch of the season for the Commanders. Not in terms of their schedule, but the mental struggle of playing 17 games and understanding that every one of them is essentially a playoff game just to get into the postseason. It’s the mental toll, more than the physical toll, that a lot of these young players have a difficult time adjusting to in Year 1 of their NFL career.
Tale of two teams
Miami is 20 points better when Tua Tagovailoa is in the lineup. They average 10 points without him. This is a totally different team now.
If the Dolphins can get by Green Bay on Thursday, it’s possible they lose maybe only one more game, and they’re looking at a 10-win season despite missing Tagovailoa for all that time.
Their season might have been sunk by not having a viable backup QB. But right now, the Dolphins are in the eighth spot behind Denver. If the Broncos slip up once or twice, it’s certainly a possibility that Miami could slide in.
It’s still possible for the Dolphins to be the team that they thought they were. They are the most interesting team currently on the outside of the playoffs looking in that has an opportunity.
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