Quick Observations For Every NFL Team From Week One
With the first week of the season in the books, I thought it would make sense to give a short update on all 32 teams around the league. Now having watched every single matchup, I came away with one observation for each NFL squad. Here's what you need to know
Oakland Raiders – This Jon Gruden thing could go pretty wrong
Unlike a lot of people, I wasn’t worried too much about Gruden not being able to adjust to the modern game and adapt different offensive schemes. I like the toughness he wants to install into his players, I think he has gained insight into different coaches with TV production meetings and I believe he is the type of flashy hire the Raiders needed after announcing they would move to Las Vegas. Regardless of all those factors, I have yet to see him display touch with this generation of players and his feel for the flow of a game in real-time. His comment about “needing a pass rush” after their loss to the Rams was almost comical and I thought it was pretty harsh to put all the blame on Khalil Mack for saying “ he didn’t want to be on the team”, but more importantly their offense got stuck in the mud after their portion of scripted plays and when it was time to react to how the game progressed.Tampa Bay Buccaneers – Ryan Fitzpatrick might be the streakiest passer in NFL history
This was the biggest upset of the week and I don’t think there was anybody in the media who predicted that the Bucs could stun a popular Super Bowl pick at the Dome. However, nobody expected to see more Fitzmagic in this matchup either. The Harvard graduate has been a journeyman throughout his NFL career, having played and started for seven different franchises. He came to all but one team as a backup, but somehow always ended up in the starting lineup eventually. Fitzy has had some brilliant moments, like a six-touchdown outing against the Titans in 2014 after being benched by the Texans three weeks earlier and he set the Jets’ franchise record for passing touchdown in a season with 31 in 2015, but plenty of times after those heroic performances, he has stunk the following week. Last Sunday was another one of those brilliant moments, when he played an almost perfect game and might have already started a quarterback controversy in Tampa