They may never turn into anything, but I think it's way, way too early to call them busts just yet. Everyone assumes that the QB's success is completely independent of the coaching and team around him, but that's just not the case. See Baker, Cousins, Darnold, etc.

The Jayden Daniels and CJ Strouds of the world are the exception, not the rule.

I'm not sure I have all of this completely right, but the Bears went into yesterday's game with both starting offensive tackles out and one starting guard out. Then the other guard got hurt early in the game. So they played a good chunk of the game with their starting center and backups at the tackle and guard spots.

Pretty hard to do anything with 4 backups offensive linemen playing most of the game.

So today they fire the offensive coordinator.

Backing up, I don't think the Bears should have fired Matt Nagy. He had a bad last year but still had a 34-31 record there and had inherited a team that went 19-45 the previous four seasons. He'll probably be one of the top candidates to get a head coaching job next year.

Eberflus will get fired if things unfold as expected because the Bears are getting to the toughest part of their schedule and the outlook is not good. However, I will point out that after year 1 they had the #1 pick, after year 2 they had the #9 pick and currently they would be picking #17 in the next draft. While I don't expect them to hold that with the remaining schedule, I'd have a hard time firing him if he finished with an 8-9 record, because that record would show that progress is being made.

The Bears seem to have nicely settled into that "fire the head coach" every three years, and of course the new regime always wants their own players and end up tearing everything apart, just to have the same thing repeat every three years and the franchise is forever stuck in mediocrity. But as a Wisconsin resident, this stupidity does not bother me one bit.

It gets late early for a lot of young QBs who are thrown into the fire right away. Hopefully a player like Caleb Williams is just experiencing growing pains (and a team not ready for prime time).

Wow, they actually put QBs like Vince Young and Kyle Orton on a graphic like this. Not exactly a good look when trying to make a point.

How many of those guys had completion percentages less than 50% in year two? Although it wouldn't surprise me if someone like Vince Young did.

The Colts gambled big time taking Richardson as high as they did.

College year #1 - Got in four games only to keep him involved and preserve the redshirt at the same time.

College year #2 - Backup. Got in 8 games, started 1. Had almost at many rushing attempts (51) as passing attempts (64).

College year #3 - Started all 12 games.

Jumped to the NFL after his sophomore year.

During his college career, his ENTIRE college career, he attempted a total of 393 passes. Ended with a fairly unimpressive 55% completion percentage and 24/15 TD/INT ratio. But IMO the big thing is that he only attempted 393 passes. But the Colts looked at his size, he checked that box, he could run, checked that box, he has a big arm, check that box...and took him with a top 5 pick even though the actual college football resume was severely lacking.

I remember Josh Allen being a bit erratic in his first season but he has become a very accurate passer and quite the runner when he needs to.

I think context is key -- it's not like they passed on CJ Stroud or Jayden Daniels to take Richardson. They passed on Will Levis and I don't personally feel any regret over that choice.

The Colts have been playing musical quarterbacks since Luck retired and since they had a top five pick, decided to roll the dice on a development prospect with unique physical gifts. I'm okay with that, even if it doesn't work out -- it was literally the only viable draft option open to them. What I'm not okay with is that you knew he was a two season (meaning 32 full games) project when you drafted him and that it was going to be a very bumpy road, like it was with Josh Allen -- so if you didn't have the patience for that, why did you draft him? Yes, he might not work out, but again, you knew that going in so play it out to the end.

Allen was basically the model for what they were thinking when they drafted Richardson. The difference is Richardson got hurt in year one, so he hasn't had the number of snaps that Allen has, but you can see the season to season progression they were hoping to mimic.

His accuracy has been a problem, but take a look at this one-minute super cut of his first half against the Texans, which he was widely criticized for going 2 of 15 or something like that. When I watch this, I don't see a guy that's wildly inaccurate -- I see a guy that's very close to the mark and is slightly off in terms of timing and maybe touch. (He wasn't helped by drops and receivers being unable to make any contested catches). I watch this and think that considering his age and level of experience, this is a guy that can be coached up (and helped more schematically) and developed.

It also didn't help that he had three touchdown passes negated by receiver error (one drop, one not getting two feet in, and one needless offensive PI) in this game.

https://x.com/NFLscheme/status/1850649504715796646

Exactly. They knew who they drafted. They're giving up WAYYY too early.

If Shane Steichen gets fired, expect the next coach to be able to start Richardson immediately without the need to save face.

Remember how bad Troy Aikman looked in 1989 and 1990? I remember. It's not always the QB.

Sometimes it is and sometimes it isn’t and they need time. I think the Jets for instance gave Zach enough rope. Probably missed on Sam Darnold because Gase did nothing and then the Jets ran out of time and Sam was eligible for his new contract. They chose to move on but Sam had the skills.

I think a lot of the Colts situation with Richardson is on the QB (though he hasn't been helped at times), but I think the Colts should continue with him with the idea that what he is now isn't what he will always be. Can we say he's reached his ceiling at 22 years old with 10 NFL starts? I don't think that's a reasonable conclusion.

I almost never listen to sports radio, but I did earlier this week when this broadcast. This is high comedy. Check out how much this host loses it over the phone issue and the Bears. Too bad they edited it.

The Eagles dismembering of Dallas was a joy to watch as the D continues its surge under Fangio forcing 5 turnovers.

Hurts had 4 total TDs and this one was so dominant that Sirianni couldn’t screw it up!

Baun has been one of the best free agent signings of the year.

chiefs-bills this sunday.......

They realized they are playing the Jets and he will look like Johnny Unitas versus them.

He's been pretty inaccurate so I don't know about that.

I think they just realized that Flacco can't get them to the playoffs, so they might as well spend time trying to develop him with game reps.

AR finally putting together a good game. So much more accurate and poised, I wonder if the benching somehow helped him mentally.

Not trying to jinx this kid, he's going to have more bad games, that's life in the NFL... but this is pretty fun.

I thought the Jets would make him look like Johnny Unitas, turns out they made him look like Peyton Manning.