4 Thoughts on the First week of the 2016 NFL season

4 random thoughts while watching the first week of the 2016 NFL Season.

I watched a lot of week 1 of the 2016 NFL season and had four thoughts after digesting what we all saw.

1-Whither Jared Goff?
The Rams got creamed in their opener against the 49ers 28-0 and their offense even with Gurley was rendered completely ineffective because their starter at quarterback Case Keenum was atrocious. He racked up a quarterback rating of a whopping 34.1.

And yet, Jeff Fisher in his Tuesday press conference said that Keenum will continue to be the starter for the Rams. Why? The Rams gave up two first round picks(and more) including their 2017 first round pick for Goff and they’re going to continue to play a quarterback who clearly has demonstrated that he is not NFL caliber.

And Jeff Fisher is entering the final year of his contract with the Rams, so his job security is tenuous at best considering how underwhelming they’ve been during his tenure with them.

So what is the reasonable explanation for this? Goff isn’t good enough to start in the NFL and Fisher is worried that his confidence will be shattered if he’s put in the lineup before he’s ready. And that’s just a bad sign for any young quarterback, especially one that a team has invested multiple draft picks in a trade for.

2-You like that?
The Redskins’ bandwagon hit a big brick wall in the form of Antonio Brown and DeAngelo Williams. What really should be terrifying to Redskins fans and the team is that the Steelers didn’t use any sort of exotic defense to shut down the Redskins’ offense.

The Steelers came out in their standards Cover-3 defense and rushed the Jacks on a regular basis for the Redskins’ first two drives. Then they switched to a soft 3 front with 8 in cover-2 coverage for the rest of the game.

The Steelers were so confident that the Redskins weren’t going to run the ball with any consistency that they stayed in their 3 man line except on obvious rushing downs.

They made sure to double up Jordan Reed and ignored DeSean Jackson(or didn’t focus help on him). This shut down the Redskins offense and they didn’t score again until it was 24-9 Steelers.

This defense had the effect of funneling Kirk Cousins into a choice: throw into double coverage or take the short crosser. And since the Redskins refused to run the ball with any consistency, this ground their offense to a halt.

It also strongly implies that the rest of the league now has a “book” on how to play Cousins, and unless the Redskins adjust their entire offensive plan, teams will just use this over and over again to shut down the redskins offense.

3-Vikings Defense
Mike Zimmer is a pretty good defensive coordinator that the Bengals have missed since he left to take the helm in Minnesota. Working mostly through the draft, he’s put together a formidable defense which can take over a game all on it’s own.

With Adrian Peterson ineffective because no one is afraid of Shaun Hill at quarterback, the defense had to rise to the occasion and scored two defensive touchdowns to break the back of the Tennessee Titans.

This is not sustainable and even the most optimistic Vikings’ coach should be praying that Sam Bradford gets up to speed very quickly. Talented defenses often lose their effectiveness the deeper in a season that a team goes because of fatigue and injuries.

That said, if Peterson is getting his usual 80-110 yards per game and Bradford is giving them a credible threat in the passing game then this defense will stay fresh(er) and could be counted on for big plays like they had on sunday.

4-Famous Jameis.
I’ll admit it: I was totally wrong about Jameis Winston. I thought he would have intelligence and decision making issues in the pros and that would negate his amazing arm talent. Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea culpa.

Now that this is out of the way, Winston arguably is a top 10 quarterback in the league. What’s really impressed me is his ball placement. As a rookie, it was very hit and miss which is probably why his wideouts had so many drops in 2015.

Fast forward a winter, spring and summer where he lost 20 lbs after dealing with a shock coaching change, and Winston is now putting the ball where his wideouts need it with more consistency.

If his team can figure out a more consistent offensive line and defense, then Winston could take his team to lofty heights as a passer.