Friday mailbag: JJ's return?

A Thanksgiving edition of the mailbag has questions about the run to the finish and what's next

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By Matthew Coller

Hey everybody, Happy Thanksgiving! I probably don’t say it enough but I’m extremely thankful for all of you who support and follow along with Purple Insider. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it.

Little side note since it’s Black Friday… if you are looking for a gift for the football-loving fan in your life, maybe consider my book Football is a Number’s game: PFF and how a data-driven approach shook up the game.

https://www.amazon.com/Football-Numbers-Game-Data-Driven-Approach/dp/1637272189

Alright, let’s get into your questions….

@CJMcAulay Pie Chart for a) JJ is playing, but gamesmanship… b) JJ isn’t playing, but gamesmanship… c) KOC/JJ are genuinely undecided.

Going to swing in the dark here because they have played the situation close to the vest, understandably. I’ll go with 30% he’s playing, 40% he isn’t playing and 30% they are undecided. It makes total sense for Jefferson to wait through the bye week and return when they face the Raiders but if he’s ready to go now then why wait. They need this game with the Packers suddenly on their heels.

Bradley P… How much of the playbook do you think they have in play for Dobbs? In other words, do you think they’ll get inventive with the calls?

They started giving him full gameplans by the Saints game so it seems like everything that they have in the playbook is in play. The thing is, he doesn’t have to know every single play they have ever dreamed up, he just has to know the ones they install for that week and then understand enough of the base concepts to get by when certain things come up. KOC talked about how they are still trying to get down some route depths and footwork for certain things that are run slightly differently than where he was before but I don’t see much holding him back going forward. They are pretty inventive with tweaks and ideas within concepts, it’s just hard to spot unless you know the offense. They will mix in an idea within a standard NFL play to throw off the defense but it’s not some crazy thing that’s easy to identify until someone points it out.

@Allen11Rich What would have to take place barring injury for Hall to start again ?

The only way Hall starts again is if they are out of the playoffs. If Dobbs struggles and the season is starting to slip I would guess they would go to Nick Mullens before Hall. I understand that he looked good on one of his two drives but it never came across like they thought he was ready to take on a starting role week after week. I can’t say for 100% certain that would be the case, it just sounded as if they would rather not have that pressure on him yet and Mullens has always been QB2 when he’s healthy.

@headcoach21 What’s your grade on KOC and Kwesi over a year and a half into their tenure??

It can’t be an A or A+ until they win playoff games but I don’t know how it could be less than a B+. They have taken an organization that was in disarray with both the roster and the culture and overhauled it over the last two years. They have gone 19-9 while not making major sacrifices toward the future on the salary cap or age of the roster. It can’t be overstated how unique it was to move on from guys like Kendricks/Thielen/Smith/Tomlinson/Cook after winning 13 games but it was absolutely the right approach. They maintained flexibility at the QB position for the future, drafted a star wide receiver and either found or developed key pieces to build the future of the defense. That doesn’t mean it’s been perfect. Nobody gets their crown until they are playing championship weekend but there are a lot of things going in the right direction.

@skiyouMeeko How do you think Shaq Leonard would fit in Flores’s defense?

It seems like just about anybody would fit in Flores’ defense. He has a special ability to bring the most out of his players so as long as he’s the DC I’m going to assume that anyone they bring in will be the best version of themselves. That said, Leonard hasn’t been the same player he used to be for a while so I’d be surprised if they tried to bring him in considering how well Pace Jr. has taken the role and the fact Barr was able to play right away.

@JesseCa88568330 Say everything goes better for Dobbs the rest of the year. How does Mike McCartney play it out with Kwesi. Seems like he would hold all the cards... he reps Kirk and Dobbs. Both unrestricted free agents. Does he take both to market? Vike will have to tell him their preferences

I can’t speak for McCartney but Adofo-Mensah has talked about them having a relationship so I suspect that he’s already aware of where the Vikings stand on Kirk’s future. Both sides are pretty much going to play this thing the same way. They are going to have their price for each guy and see how that matches up with the other side. Last offseason Kirk’s side wanted a longer deal and the team wouldn’t budge. I’m not sure why that would change post Achilles injury, which makes me think Kirk’s agent would be searching the market to see if someone else would go there. If not, the price for his return comes down. With Dobbs, if he plays well enough for the Vikings to want him back there is pretty good precedent for the price with how the Seahawks handled Geno Smith. If that type of deal is too much of a commitment for the Vikings (Geno’s cap hit is only $10M this year, by the way), then who knows where it could go. I would be pretty surprised if they went into next year without a veteran QB, even if they draft one.

@Djedi_Master Have there been any insights into what is preventing Cine and Asamoah from seeing the field more? Is it scheme fit, games too fast for them? Asamoah especially i really expected to have a bigger role his sophomore season

Since Flores is out here playing Theo Jackson and Jay Ward more than Cine, we can confidently say there’s a serious issue there. They tried Cine in different roles in training camp and nothing seemed to stick. Sometimes players are great in college but can’t handle the NFL. That’s how it goes. With Asamoah, he’s been banged up and they use a lot of safeties rather than linebackers in Flores’ system. Ivan Pace Jr. was better at taking on blockers and showed capability to handle the defense as a rookie. That’s pretty special. I understand we’re all fascinated by draft picks but I couldn’t care less where they get the players. Metellus, Bynum and Pace Jr. have been great in the spots they expected to have Cine and Asamoah.

@nurseintime Is there an in house replacement for Brian Flores if he leaves?

The coach who might have the best odds is defensive backs coach Daronte Jones. He’s been all over the place grinding as a position coach for 20 years in college and the NFL. The job he’s done with these guys in the secondary has been really good this year considering the amount of development that was needed. I can’t say for sure whether KOC sees him that way or he’d go looking for another experienced DC but that’s the guy who stands out on the staff to me.

@McNmndad Can Dobbs throw far enough to reach JJ and Addison?

I don’t see arm strength as an issue for Dobbs. He’s not Josh Allen or anything but he can get the ball downfield.

@tromba55 What are the odds Kirk is back next year? Also- if they don’t draft a QB with their first pick next April, what is the top position of need? We need a stud defensive tackle but if we don’t sign Hunter we need edge…

If you asked 50 people this question you’d probably get 50 different answers for the odds that he returns. Personally I do not see the odds as being all that high because of the way last offseason was handled with him. Maybe the injury and his desire to be here changes the formula or maybe Dobbs changes their view on how hard he would be to replace. Who knows.

Outside of QB, yes, defensive line should be the top priority. Even if they extend Hunter they will need another rusher that scares opponents and allows them to back off the blitzing at times. You are totally right that interior pass rush should be a priority. They haven’t had pressure up the middle since Sheldon Richardson in 2018.

@jasonskog Looking at the rest of the schedule, which 1 game do you see as a likely/lock win and which 1 game is a likely/lock loss?

I have a really tough time seeing them losing to Vegas. They are playing a rookie quarterback and it’s going to be a home game out there. As far as the loss goes, I can’t see them taking both games from Detroit. Though the Green Bay game looks a little more dicey considering the way their defense has played since losing to the Vikings.

@DonLokken Will playing back-to-back night games make preparation easier?

I don’t think the night game aspect of it changes anything but having a Monday Night Football game while the rest of the league deals with the holiday in the middle of the week is a good break. Everyone gets to have their day with family and all that while not sacrificing anything in terms of prep.

@acarey05 What’s it going to take for KOC to give Chandler the lions share of touches on Monday?

You probably just saw it last week. The combination of the fumble with the fact Chandler showed that he could handle a bigger workload and be a legit difference maker was likely enough to have him take a bigger share of the carries. I’ve never talked to anyone who didn’t love Alex Mattison but Chandler’s explosiveness gives them a real weapon back there and it’s time to use that weapon.

@TFG_Football On which week will they surrender the 7 seed to the Packers?

This is my friend Marcus. He’s a Minnesotan who does great content on YouTube… his page is called That Franchise Guy. Check it out.

Ya know, it’s funny how football works. Last week the Vikings looked like they were leaving the Packers in the dust and now they head into the Chicago game 1.0 games behind the Vikings with a head-to-head matchup still to come. Green Bay has played way better football since their Come-to-Lombardi moment losing to the Vikings by two touchdowns. Their schedule looks like this going forward: Chiefs, Giants, Bucs, Panthers, Vikings, Bears. I’d say that’s a little concerning for the Vikings.

@sean_sarro If Dobbs continues to impress, what’s the level AAS that the Vikings will offer him? Is he a 15-20 Million a year guy? What are your thoughts on the path the franchise should go down to determine who their QB is going to be. Hall has to be in the backup equation I’d think

So I mentioned Geno Smith’s deal. He signed for three years, $75 million with cap hits of $10M, $31M and $33M and the Seahawks can bail for almost no dead money after two years. That seems fair to me if Dobbs gets them to the playoffs and they are happy with his performance. No way he’s taking $10 million to start. Someone will top that easily.

If I was determining the path, it would be keeping Dobbs and drafting a quarterback in the first round, even if it means trading up. I’d be hard pressed to be talked into any other way of going about it but I could certainly see them feeling like the team is ready to take the next step and Cousins returning.

@Mardelicious23 Which Vikings running game was worse 2016 or 2023? 2023 seems worse imo, because it has the potential to be better, but feels like an equal part of the issue is OConnell/Phillips inability to scheme the run properly and the fact that they never utilize CJ Ham on short yardage

The 2016 running game was worse. Literally painful. The best runner they had was Cordarrelle and they never gave him the ball. They could certainly mix in a helping of Ham from time to time. It’s definitely a trust issue with the run game and maybe overcomplicating things at times. On third-and-1, it’s OK to just run behind Christian Darrisaw and get a yard or throw a quick pass into the flat to Osborn or Addison for three yards. The third-and-1 late in the first half had a bunch of routes going 10-15 yards and one underneath option. If Dobbs hit the right guy it would have been a great play but maybe just trying a little too hard.

@RalphVixCPA If Lions pull a Lions and stumble down the stretch and lose the North. Is Campbell Fired and the OC installed as HC?

I suppose if they completely melted that is possible, though I’d guess Aaron Glenn their defensive coordinator gets the axe instead. They have stuck with him for a long time and not improved on defense despite a big jump in talent. Though I wouldn’t get too excited about the Lions losing to Green Bay, they are still in the driver’s seat in the North and have games against the Saints, Bears and Broncos coming up.

@LfcMay What is your favorite/most memorable John Madden moment?

It’s impossible to pick one. If there was one person in football that shaped my love for the game more than anyone (outside of my dad) it’s John Madden. I can tell you the game that I most remember him being absolutely magical in the booth: The divisional game between the Packers and 49ers in 1998. Steve Young vs. Brett Favre. That’s the game where T.O. makes the unbelievable catch in the end zone to win the game. That was probably considered a little past Madden and Summerall’s prime but the chemistry they had and genuine excitement Madden had for that game was incredible. It’s also been amazing to find out what a wonderful person he was because that’s how I always envisioned him being.

@andrewdbowers Is it worth sneaking into the playoffs with Dobbs for the short term entertainment value or is it just another brick in the middling, good-never-great wall of the franchise?

I can’t ever argue that it’s bad to make the playoffs. Not because I buy into the idea that anybody can win if they just get into the dance but because you have hundreds of people who put their entire souls into trying to win games and reaching the playoffs is the goal when they set out at the start of the season. I couldn’t tell those people that having a chance to fight for a Super Bowl in January doesn’t matter just because I don’t think they’ll win it all.

I also don’t see how this year could be considered the same as other middling seasons. They did it on the back of young players who emerged and core stars like Darrisaw/Hockenson etc. who will be here for a long time. That is not a failure.

@MrEd315 Does this Joshua Dobbs story get made into a movie?

Josh Dobbs was a four star recruit who went to one of the best football colleges in the world. Let’s not go crazy here.

@JohnSCurran Any word on Marcus Davenport? Those few snaps he played this year he looked pretty good.

KOC mentioned that he had surgery and had a procedure that is known to speed up recovery times. So it seems he could be back before the playoffs.

@BruceSandberg3 What did the Vikings (and all the other teams) see in Cine that they aren’t seeing now? Has his speed or physicality changed? Or is it something in his head?

Here’s how I have come to think of this: We think of college football as a minor league for the NFL, right? But the jump isn’t like Triple-A to the majors. Imagine that you had to go watch a bunch of high school kids play baseball and decide which ones could handle the majors. I bet you could pick out Alex Rodriguez but there would be a lot of raw talents who couldn’t handle life as a big leaguer. The NFL is complicated and grueling. A scout told me one time that it’s like the Wizard of Oz: You gotta have heart, courage and brains. If it was just based on physical traits, it would be a lot easier to scout. Some guys are just not fits. Some guys take more time than others. Who knows.

@SleevyWonder541 Will Dobbs be able to maximize JJ's skill set?

Not in the same way that Kirk Cousins could. Cousins was so accurate and had incredible touch on those deep corner routes that JJ destroyed defenses with. I can’t see Dobbs being accurate enough to make those plays. That will take a little adjustment from the coaches on how JJ is used but I think we see all over the league on a weekly basis the impact that great receivers can have even when QBs aren’t perfect.

@RadicalBummer More likely they catch the Lions or the Packers catch them?

Since they have two games against the Lions it’s plausible that they catch them but Detroit would really have to melt for that to happen. The way the Packers are rolling combined with their upcoming schedule makes me think the right answer is probably Green Bay coming from behind.

Thomas… Matthew: Do you prefer covering a noon Central Time game over a prime time game? I’m guessing you got done with your stuff in Denver around 2:30AM?

Because the game started at 6:20 local time on Sunday night I was done writing and podcasting before that. Probably closer to 1 AM. It doesn’t make any difference to me when the games kick off. I’ve covered them at all times, all locations, all holidays. There’s an extra excitement factor to Thursday/Sunday/Monday night game that I’ve always enjoyed. The only downside to this particular game in Denver was that the flight options out of there were either very early in the AM or later in the afternoon, which would have cost an extra hotel day. No big deal though. Glad I made the trip.

Brian… Bountygate aside, will coaches and/or teams ever be held accountable for players with ongoing safety rules violations? At some point the culture tolerates (or encourages) such behavior.

Can’t see that ever happening unless it was proven that the coach went out of his way to tell players to do dirty stuff. Not to apologize for Sean Payton but the issue with Kareem Jackson seems to be solely about Kareem Jackson. I haven’t seen anything else with the Broncos that would suggest they are being encouraged to take dirty shots at opponents. Also it has to be pointed out that it’s incredible how much players have adapted and play by the rules to the letter of the law. We see a handful of small fines per week — some of which are suspect — and rarely anything of the level of Jackson. If you go watch games from 10 years ago, hits like the ones he’s been ejected/suspended for were the norm.

Jack… Did I miss an injury to Booth Jr.? Hard to believe he didn't get a snap last week. Cine and Booth are both in the uffda category apparently.

Brian Flores has said several times that he determines players’ snap counts — outside of every-down players like Smith/Hunter etc. — on a week to week basis based on the gameplan and matchups. Against New Orleans Booth Jr. was on the field for 17 plays and didn’t have any issues. It seemed that they felt Blackmon was the better choice for what they were trying to accomplish. Blackmon has also had a good year overall. Opposing QBs have an 80.0 QB rating throwing against him and he’s 18th in PFF grade among starters/rotational corners (out of 130).

I’m not ready to call anything yet on Booth Jr. It’s pretty clear things with Cine have not worked out. But if they landed starters in Blackmon and Akayleb Evans out of the last two drafts, who cares when they were picked.

Scott M… Favorite Thanksgiving leftovers?

That depends on whether pumpkin pie can be considered a leftover because I usually don’t leave any.

Kyle… Should Monday and Thursday night games be eligible to be flexed to Sunday?

Those can be flexed. They changed the rule to include Mondays and Thursdays this year on a “trial basis.” There are a lot of rules to the flexing though. I won’t type them all out but you can read them here.

OldDrummer55… Matthew, I hear the Viking TCO training facility has a phenomenal dining facility. Have you or other media reporters ever dined there?

Is that the rumor on the street? That is indeed just for the employees (as it should be) but they do provide food from upstairs to the media on Wednesdays, which is appreciated. Everything they do for the players at TCO is top notch. I don’t think it was a mistake that the Vikings landed as the No. 1 team on the NFLPA survey.

Ben… Looking at the NFC do the Vikings have a chance to go on a 2007/2011 Giants run??

Everything in the NFL has a chance. If you are asking what the chances actually are that they could run through the NFC on the road like Eli Manning did in 2007, I’d say less than 1%. There’s a reason that you had to go back to an example from more than a decade ago is because it just doesn’t happen. The 2021 Rams winning as a No. 4 seed with two home games was still an extreme outlier. Since the Packers in 2010, the 2020 Buccaneers are the only wild card team to reach the Super Bowl. They had Tom Brady.

Considering what this team did last offseason with overhauling a lot of the roster and putting young players in a position to succeed and the fact that they started 0-3 and lost their starting QB for the season, making the playoffs alone would be quite an achievement.

David… In honor of the Passtronaut, what are your top 5 all time underdog players?

That’s probably a list that would have to be 100 players long. So I’ll give you my five favorite quarterbacks who teams gave up on and then proved themselves later.

5 — Doug Flutie — He played for the Patriots and Bears but wasn’t all that good and the league thought he was too small to play in the NFL. He came back after many years in the CFL and showed everyone he could win. I still wonder what would have happened if he started the Music City Miracle game instead of Rob Johnson.

4 — Vinny Testaverde — Considered one of the biggest busts ever after going No. 1 overall in ‘87, he finally found it at age 35 with the New York Jets and had three really good seasons with them in the late 90s/early 2000s.

3 — Kurt Warner — No explanation needed here but the underrated part of his story is the way he ended up back in the Super Bowl with Arizona despite how badly it went with the Giants.

2 — Doug Williams — The Bucs refused to give him a reasonable contract so he went to the USFL and was out of the NFL for four years. He came back as a backup and ended up becoming the first black QB to win a Super Bowl.

1 — Tommy Maddox — He was a journeyman backup QB who basically never played and then lit up the XFL, got another chance and took the ‘02 Steelers to the playoffs and won a shootout where he threw for almost 400 yards. Crazy story.

There are plenty more. Honorable mention to Jake Delhomme, Rich Gannon, Jeff Garcia and Jeff Hostetler.

Scott S… No one should be surprised that a Sean Payton-coached team plays dirty. The question is, will Payton face any consequences and why is he allowed to coach in this league?

I’m not going to tell Vikings fans to let it go with Sean Payton because your beef is absolutely justified. I just don’t see any evidence that he has done anything since Bountygate to begin having that discussion about the league allowing him to coach.

JimDanks… When are we going to see the Passtronaut launch a moon shot with his rocket arm to one of our receivers with a deep orbit pass for a splashdown?

Good job, Jim. I know you are just doing some pun action here but if you were curious, Dobbs has completed 5-of-7 passes that have traveled more than 20 yards in the air. I’ve been thinking about deep shots lately and I’m starting to believe that scheme and receivers are about 75% of deep passing success. Of course the quarterback has to get the ball there but most of the time that it’s a successful play either the receiver does something great or the play schemes somebody wide open. The Vikings offense has both the receiver and the scheme part in pretty darn good shape. Where Dobbs has to be better is the intermediate passing game. He only had a 73.9 rating on throws that traveled between 11-20 yards through the air in Arizona and he’s 8-for-19 so far in Minnesota. For context, Cousins had a 125.2 rating on those throws.

Greg… What is the best use given for Anthony Barr in the current defensive structure by Flores? He is perhaps not a same token replacement from Hicks. I will not plot any leading questions beyond that and let you expand. Best to you Matthew!

From the way Pace Jr. handled the green dot duties and an increased work load against Denver, I’d guess that he remains Hicks’ replacement and Dye/Barr rotate into the game around him. I could see Barr playing more than the 12 plays he was on the field against Denver but we’re still talking about a guy who hasn’t played all year and didn’t have any opportunity to ramp up to game speed. If he gives them 15-20 snaps over the weeks that Hicks is out (assuming he will return) that would be a win. As for how he will be used, it will likely be like everyone else: In lots of different ways.

Jeff A… Why doesn't Kene Nwangwu get a chance at running back?

When they came into training camp it looked like he was going to get a chance to earn some playing time but he got hurt and missed a ton of time. I’m sure that impacted his season quite a bit. Wes Phillips did a good job of explaining the intricacies that go into that position, from pass protection to routes to running in the right places to fit the play design. If the coaches don’t trust the back to have all of that stuff locked in then they won’t play them. There hasn’t been a lick of interest from O’Connell in putting him on the field, which means that one of the aforementioned factors concerns them. Otherwise a guy of his speed and size would be out there. Just like with Chandler sitting the bench for most of this year, I think we can totally understand where the staff is coming from and also say… what about a couple plays just to get the ball in his hands?

Marcus… Are you surprised we haven’t the Vikings move dobbs around more on passing plays? I would have guessed KOC would have given him more designed roll outs given the stress he puts on defenses with his legs. Would using dobbs as kind of a poor man’s Lamar Jackson allowed them to lean into his mobility while covering for some of his limitations as a passer?

They have used a few bootleg plays effectively with Dobbs but it would be pretty hard to change the offense a ton at this stage of the game. Lamar Jackson’s offense began installation in the spring. They have to toe the line between doing things that work for Dobbs’ skills and things the other 10 guys on offense have mastered. I also think that rollouts can limit options on a play to one or two reads and it seems KOC likes to have three or four ways the ball could go on every play. Dobbs seems to be pretty good at sensing when it’s time to run from the pocket and defenses have had to respect that. The last two weeks we have seen the spy show up and when it didn’t Dobbs ran for a touchdown. I agree with you on mixing those designed movement plays in though.

Haloxo… On the Dobbs spear and fumble, don’t they review turnovers? And can’t the NFL then call the personal foul - I am recalling the Cook PI call in GB a few years back. Has something changed since then?

I wish I could help you here. It’s baffling. It made zero sense when they overturned the Cook play in ‘19 because there are lots of scores that are automatically reviewed that have somebody doing something wrong that the refs don’t see — holding or someone false start etc. — and yet we never see anything overturned. I’ll never in a million years understand how the crew in New York can see that Jackson hit on Dobbs and not be allowed to buzz down that it should have been unnecessary roughness and an ejection. If the idea is to get it right, why can they only get it right if a flag was thrown?

Jason K... Late question: I see the Colts released Shaquille Leonard. Low risk/high reward signing, or not worth the chance considering his back injuries?

I’ll admit that I’ve watched about one quarter of Colts football this year so I can’t really say how he has looked outside of PFF grading him 46th of 59 linebackers. I would assume since they picked up Barr that they wouldn’t go after Leonard unless someone else got hurt this week. The expectation of what Leonard would bring to the table isn’t much different from what I think Barr is going to give them.

Adam… The 2022 campaign saw an absolutely abysmal defense with a glaring need for change in-season. The 2023 campaign is seeing a viable solution (Chandler) to a stagnant running game (Mattison) in season. This is not a knock on Mattison, but my question is: Is KOC’s biggest downfall that he’s *too* loyal?

If I was playing one of those old gameshow games with O’Connell where you try to guess the other person’s answer to a question and the question was “what’s your biggest regret as a head coach so far?” the answer would have to be sticking with Ed Donatell. It was so clear early on in the season that it wasn’t working and wasn’t going to change. It’s really hard to fire someone when the team is winning but with Mike Pettine there on staff they could have at least turned it over to him and given themselves a chance.

I’m not sure that totally correlates to the Mattison situation. Based on what we saw in the past, it made sense to try Mattison at RB1 after Cook and give Chandler and Nwangwu the opportunity to win rotational jobs in camp. When Chandler wasn’t ready and Nwangwu got hurt, they traded for a guy who was about as good as you will find on the trade market after the season starts in Cam Akers. He was a shade more quick but still ended up with the same yards per carry. There have been some obvious times on tape where Chandler didn’t have the right assignment, which rightfully would worry them. Now that they have seen him handle more, it should be time for him to take the majority of the snaps.

Worth mentioning they also made the guard change rather than sticking with that situation.

To your point, when Zimmer sent kickers and OCs packing (or had one quit), we wondered if he overreacted. If KOC doesn’t make immediate changes, we’ll wonder if he’s too nice.

Scott M… Our receivers seemed to disappear in the 2nd half of the Denver game. Was this because of the DBs, poor routes, too much pressure on Dobbs or observer bias due to the loss?

Denver deserves a lot of credit for the way they played defensively in general. They put pressure on Dobbs and mixed up their looks a lot, whether it was sending pressures at the right times or game-planning well for some of the things the Vikings were trying to do. I don’t think it was poor routes or Dobbs failing to throw the ball to the right places

Ben… Which NFL team has been the biggest disappointment/ surprise??

It has to be the Cincinnati Bengals. I had them as my Super Bowl pick, which basically guaranteed that they would come nowhere close to the Super Bowl. They had every reason to think Burrow would roll with his weapons and a better O-line and the defense would remain strong and none of that happened except for a few healthy weeks from Burrow. Now Burrow will become more expensive and they’ll have some tough decisions on their hands.

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