The Giants ought to heed the No. 1 lesson of Wild Card weekend throughout their teaching search:
The NFL is concerning the quarterback. It’s all concerning the quarterback.
The Los Angeles Rams trailed by 4 factors with a minute remaining on Saturday and beat the Carolina Panthers. The Chicago Bears have been down 11 to the Inexperienced Bay Packers with six minutes left and got here again.
The Buffalo Payments erased a four-point deficit with 4 minutes remaining to win over the Jacksonville Jaguars. And the San Francisco 49ers upset the Philadelphia Eagles after trailing by two factors on the highway with seven minutes to go.
The NFL is a one-score league. It’s by no means been tighter.
There have been 73 video games determined by three factors or fewer this common season, tied for probably the most in league historical past. And that is the primary playoff spherical in NFL historical past with 4 video games determined by 4 factors or fewer.
Coaches may give their groups an edge, which helps them attain the playoffs within the first place. However at this stage, the margin of error turns into razor skinny. And the distinction between who wins and loses is apparent:
It’s about which workforce’s quarterback goes to make a play with the sport on the road to win. Easy as that.
The Rams’ Matthew Stafford didn’t have his finest sport, however he fired a rope with 38 seconds to play that was snatched out of the air by tight finish Colby Parkinson for a game-winning landing.
The Bears’ Caleb Williams delivered fourth down and fourth quarter heroics, whereas the Packers’ Jordan Love went principally quiet after a dominant first half.
The Payments’ Josh Allen scored a late landing, and the Jags’ Trevor Lawrence threw an interception, regardless that Jacksonville solely wanted a discipline purpose to ship the sport to additional time.
Brocky Purdy had the solutions in Philadelphia. Jalen Hurts, in opposition to a battered 49ers protection, didn’t.
The quarterback place is what this league is all about. It’s the important thing to the NFL reaching unprecedented parity from 12 months to 12 months, too.
Simply have a look at the 2024 NFL Draft and the previous two seasons since: The primary three picks of that draft, which went to bottom-feeding groups from the earlier season, have been Williams to the Bears, Jayden Daniels to the Washington Commanders and Drake Maye to the New England Patriots.
Daniels and the Commanders went to the NFC Championship Sport his rookie season. And this 12 months, Maye is an MVP candidate, and the Patriots and Williams’ Bears each have reputable roads to a potential Tremendous Bowl look and championship.
All three of these conditions additionally featured teaching modifications that benefitted the brand new quarterback:
Dan Quinn and offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury matched properly with Daniels in Yr One, whereas Ben Johnson helped unlock Williams as a first-year coach right here in 2025 and Mike Vrabel introduced Josh McDaniels again to raise Maye.
Despite the fact that the Jaguars flamed out within the first spherical, they’re one other workforce that instantly improved with a greater plan for a younger quarterback.
Liam Coen obtained higher play out of Lawrence instantly, and it resulted within the franchise’s first playoff berth since 2022.
The Giants, as they enter Week 2 of their head teaching search, are determined to easily restore a baseline of tradition and accountability and professionalism to their constructing.
That’s one in all a number of the reason why former Baltimore Ravens coach John Harbaugh is such a pretty candidate.
However a centerpiece of their rent must be the coach’s plan to develop Jaxson Dart, his monitor report with quarterbacks, who shall be calling Dart’s performs and the way the incoming employees evaluates quarterbacks — since this group continues to land high 10 picks.
As a result of whereas merely returning to relevance as a franchise is their most blatant want, the video games on this league nonetheless come down to creating a giant play late in a detailed sport.
And getting the proper quarterback to play the proper means on the proper time is how NFL groups win in 2025.
IS HERBERT GETTING ANOTHER PASS?
Justin Herbert’s profession playoff report dropped to 0-3 with Sunday’s 16-3 Chargers dud in opposition to the Patriots.
Herbert has a 54.7% profession playoff completion proportion, two landing passes and 5 turnovers in three playoff appearances after posting 159 yards passing, 57 yards speeding and no TDs on Sunday evening in Foxborough, Mass.
Little question, the Chargers’ battered offensive line and lack of a reliable safety scheme didn’t assist Herbert’s probabilities in opposition to Vrabel’s Patriots protection. Nonetheless, it’s all the time fascinating to watch how in a different way sure gamers and coaches get coated within the NFL in comparison with others.
The postgame glare is being shined hardest on Chargers offensive coordinator Greg Roman, not on Herbert, regardless that the media and analytics darling now has three playoff video games that appear to be this:
A catastrophic collapse, main 27-0 and dropping 31-30 to the Jaguars in Jan. 2023; 4 interceptions in a 32-21 loss to the Houston Texans one 12 months in the past; and no touchdowns in a three-point effort on Sunday evening.
Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott, in the meantime, has a 2-5 profession playoff report with a 64.5% completion proportion, 18 complete touchdowns and 7 interceptions. And he’s usually mocked as a proficient participant who shrinks within the large playoff moments.
Two-time MVP Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson has a 3-5 profession postseason report, a 60.6% completion proportion, 13 TDs and 11 turnovers. And he’s seen as an underachiever.
However Herbert, in some way, continues to obtain extra advantage of the doubt. The fact is that expectations for him — if he’s that super of a expertise — must be greater than making excuses for his playoff resume.
WATCHING THE BIRDS BLOW UP
Nick Sirianni’s heated sideline berating of wideout A.J. Brown throughout Sunday’s 23-19 Eagles loss to the 49ers was a telling second.
Sirianni stated he was telling Brown to get off the sector. However it seemed like a coach who was uninterested in his receiver’s antics yelling at Brown to catch the ball if he’s going to create a season’s value of distractions for the reigning Tremendous Bowl champions.
Brown undoubtedly has performed his remaining snap as an Eagle, and Sirianni presumably goes to have a tricky resolution to make on his shut good friend, offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo.
If Doug Pederson’s huddle with Nick Foles in that 2017 Tremendous Bowl is Philadelphia’s gold commonplace play name within the clutch, Sunday’s remaining play gathering between Hurts, Sirianni and Patullo was the exact opposite:
Hurts emerged to run a surprisingly easy play that featured 4 vertical routes, with tight finish Dallas Goedert curling inside to battle for a Hurts cross into tight visitors that predictably fell incomplete.
This 12 months’s Eagles have been the primary back-to-back NFC East champions since 2003-04, the final time Philly did it. However their drama on the offensive aspect of the ball is value monitoring intently because the division’s dynamic evolves.
WILL LAFLEUR STAY IN GREEN BAY?
Head coach Matt LaFleur and the Packers reportedly are speaking a couple of potential contract extension after Saturday’s beautiful 31-27 loss in Chicago, however will that finally lead to LaFleur staying in Inexperienced Bay? Or are the Packers and LaFleur really gauging the marketplace for a possible head coach commerce whereas leaving the door open to re-upping if nothing higher materializes for each side?
LaFleur has a outstanding .654 profitable proportion (76-40-1) in seven common seasons working the Packers. However he’s solely 3-6 within the playoffs. There have been rumors previous to the weekend {that a} first-round loss may result in his firing. He additionally has a confirmed monitor report with quarterbacks, together with the event of present franchise QB Jordan Love.
So does one other workforce on the market want a quarterback whisperer badly sufficient to surrender property to Inexperienced Bay to land LaFleur? Or do the Packers actually intend to lock him up long run? That shall be fascinating to observe within the coming days.
ANY IMPACT ON HAFLEY?
It should even be fascinating to see how Packers defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley’s head teaching candidacy is impacted by the Bears’ 28-point second half and 25-point fourth quarter in Saturday’s 31-27 Chicago comeback win.
There was a ton of hype about Hafley, the previous Boston Faculty head coach, after his two years working the Packers’ system. However that was a troubling end by a proficient protection after Inexperienced Bay’s offense had noticed them a 21-3 halftime lead. Additionally they had a tough finish of normal season run after being one of many higher models in soccer for the primary half of the 12 months, coinciding with Micah Parsons’ ACL tear.
