Week in Review: Urgency in the AFC East
New York's only football team heads to New Jersey with a lot on the line. All stories and podcasts from the week are inside.
It’s been rough of late. But both the Buffalo Bills (3-2) and New York Jets (2-3) have an opportunity to get their seasons back on track on Monday Night Football.
Gang Green has been more gangrene, but that should not be much of a shock when so much power’s handed over to this quarterback.
Buffalo desperately needs to get its offense out of neutral.
Links from the week are all below.
One programming note: The “Ty & Bob Pod” resumes this coming week once my pal Bob McGinn is back from his trip through the Upper Peninsula.
Both the NFL and NFLPA say concussion protocol was followed in Houston. Six minutes of real time sure passed quickly — with some smelling salts to top it off. That’s why one of the most prominent voices on concussion awareness, Chris Nowinski, has concerns about Josh Allen starting on Monday night. Allen runs the risk of banging his head on the turf a third time in three weeks. The legend he most resembles, Brett Favre, has thoughts on the matter, too.
Should Josh Allen play football on Monday?
One does not require a medical degree or a conspiratorial sixth sense to smell something fishy. We all saw Josh Allen bang his head against the turf at NRG Stadium with six minutes left in the Buffalo Bills’ loss to the Houston Texans last weekend. We all saw his arm go limp. The quarterback didn’t bother to catch his fall. We saw that pale gaze of concussed players past.
No exec in NFL history shaped the quarterback position quite like former Green Bay Packers general manager Ron Wolf. The Hall of Famer is my next guest on “How the NFL Works.” In great detail, Wolf explains how he helped awaken the Packers from the dead.
Here’s the video and audio.
How the NFL Works, S1 E3: Resurrecting a Franchise with Ron Wolf
The task, to most, appeared insurmountable. This was a Green Bay Packers franchise that had completely forgotten how to win.
And for those who’d rather read the conversation with Ron Wolf, here’s a full transcription.
Q&A: Ron Wolf relives the greatest reclamation project in NFL history
Where's the NFL and the Green Bay Packers without Ron Wolf?
This isn’t what the New York Jets had planned when they traded for Aaron Rodgers.
But this was also all terribly predictable. He’s old. His superpower would never age well.
For Aaron Rodgers, this is the beginning of the end
The Aaron Rodgers mythologized in the mainstream has been gone for a long time.
The Bills offense also looked broken throughout its loss to the Houston Texans. What happened to “Everyone Eats?” Here’s a chat with Jay Skurski of the Buffalo News.
Podcast: Where does the Buffalo Bills' offense go from here?
Wide receivers aren’t getting open. The quarterback took a shot to the head. Playcalling leaves something to be desired.
Reminder! Join us each Sunday at the Gameday Chat to break down the games. Always a fun time meeting you all.
You can chat inside your GoLongTD.com browser or the Substack app. I’ll send the email about an hour before Sunday’s games.
