3 winners and 4 losers from Week 14 in the NFL

There’s a distinct difference in the NFL between being bad, and being hopeless. Being bad is defined tangibly, with wins and losses. Simple stuff to monitor. Being hopeless, well, that’s a whole other ball of wax.

Take the Detroit Lions, for example. They’re unquestionably the worst team in the league, but there are moments, glimmers of promise that point to potential building blocks for the future. It sure feels like there’s something to be preserved, nurtured, and maybe with a little luck it can bloom into something beautiful.

For the hopeless it’s much, much worse. These are teams who aren’t just bad on the field, but have prospects extending beyond 2021 that look equally dire. Fundamental systemic problems that can’t be fixed, or coaches and players who aren’t improving or progressing from week-to-week. It’s special to hit the trifecta of futility, but for my money there are two hopeless teams standing apart from the rest of the league.

Firstly, we have the Jacksonville Jaguars. It’s easy to punch down, but my God this team is completely broken. There was always a question of shaky talent on the Jags, but that was pushed into the stratosphere this season with Urban Meyer’s ineptitude. Each week Jacksonville looks worse than the last, and the team is on the brink of completely imploding. To cap it all off we’re seeing an utter meltdown of Trevor Lawrence who is dying on the vine in his rookie season. I’ve got PLENTY to say about this nexus of these issues in a little bit, so we’ll leave it here for now.

Then there’s the New York Jets, who didn’t show any semblance of fight against the Saints, a team with their own major problems. The Jets have been a broken franchise for a long time, but it seems to be hitting impressive lows, even by their standards. We’ve hit a point with New York that the team seems so afraid to have Zach Wilson criticized that they’re barely even letting him play football. Part of this is on the rookie for handing out interceptions like candy at the start of the season, but the Jets have to show some confidence and let him try and fail, instead of what we’re seeing.

Wilson has been horrendous this season. Hell, all the rookie QBs not named “Mac Jones” have been, but Sunday was on another level. The Saints have an atrocious big-play pass defense. They’ve allowed 47 passes of 20+ yards, and are near the bottom of the NFL with 10 passes allowed of 40+ yards. They also allow an average of 7.3 yards per passing attempt.

In throwing 42 times for 202 yards Zach Wilson averaged 4.8 yard per attempt. That is tragically awful. It didn’t help that Wilson had 10 passes, almost a full quarter of his attempts, that were so inaccurate they couldn’t even count as a “target.” Of his 19 completions only four were 10 yards or more down the field, and hell, 10 of his completions didn’t even travel 5 yards through the air.

The Jets aren’t just bad, they’re languishing in mediocrity — as they have for years. The issue is there’s been zero improvement in any facet of the game from Week 1 to Week 14. I had extremely high hopes for Robert Saleh, and thought he was the best coaching hire of the offseason, but this is a mess and it’s not getting better.

It’s left me feeling like the Jets, along with the Jaguars, are destined for more horrific disappointment with no end in sight.

The tragic loss of Demaryius Thomas this week was an absolute gut punch. The Broncos and Lions gave us one of the most touching NFL tributes of all time.

When you work in this business for a while you learn the players people generally like, or dislike. Those who are ornery, hate talking to people, and don’t get along with their peers.

I never heard a bad word about Demaryius Thomas. He was a reserved guy, always generous and cordial to others. Not just the media, but fans who met him. Thomas was the epitome of a professional in every sense of the word, and a truly wonderful man. Rest in peace, Bay Bay.

I told you we’d get back to this one, because Urban Meyer deserves his own section. I think everyone but the most delusional fans knew Meyer was going to be a horrible hire for the Jaguars, but damn he’s outdone himself in 2021. This all peaked over the weekend with a report on NFL.com about how bad things have gotten.

“During a staff meeting, Meyer delivered a biting message that he’s a winner and his assistant coaches are losers, according to several people informed of the contents of the meeting, challenging each coach individually to explain when they’ve ever won and forcing them to defend their résumés.”

Urban Meyer HIRED HIS ASSISTANTS. Now the Jaguars are losing he’s throwing them under the bus. As we all know, a great leader never assumes responsibility for the good and the bad, putting an organization on their shoulders. They whine when things aren’t going their way.

The Chiefs were a broken, deeply flawed team earlier this season. Defensive struggles were too large for Patrick Mahomes to overcome, and the whole offense reeked of the team relying on No. 15 to do it all himself, and if he couldn’t they’d crumble.

Fast forward to now, and the Chiefs are 9-4, rolling, and just had a significant win over the Raiders, who aren’t exactly an easy out. Kansas City has become consistent at a time when the rest of the AFC is in tatters.

Kansas City has learned to rely more on their rushing, and sure that’s easy when you’re up by four touchdowns, but they’re still doing better at taking the pressure off Mahomes and allowing him to play more joyous football.

There’s something brewing here, so long as that defense holds.

Remember when Urban Meyer whined about free agency back in March and said it was “bad business”? That’s because he couldn’t imagine a world where grown adults weren’t blown away by the aura of Urban Meyer, the same way high school kids were that he was recruiting.

Meyer decried the way players signed with teams without having official meetings. He wanted an approach where he got to evaluate their personality, not their football skill.

“I guess in the old days you could bring them in and meet them, have dinner with them, you find out the football intellect, find out their character.”

This is shining through with this newest report about how insulting he is to his own players.

“Receiver Marvin Jones — one of the locker room’s most respected and mild-mannered veterans — became so angry with Meyer’s public and private criticism of the receiver group that he left the facility until other staff members convinced him to come back and had a heated argument with Meyer during practice.”

When you’re pissing off the most respected, high-character veteran on your team you’re clearly the problem.

As it stands the No. 1 receiver this week is George Kittle, and my God did the tight end dismantle the Bengals. Kittle finished with 13 receptions for 151 yards and a touchdown in a game where Cincinnati had zero chance of stopping him.

I’m still not sure if the Niners have the firepower to last into the playoffs, but it’s looking really good so far.

Nobody outside of Jon Gruden has done more damage to their own team this season than Urban Meyer. It’s not like the Jaguars had a ton going for them outside of Trevor Lawrence, but he’s made everything markedly worse.

Lawrence is struggling to play good football. Meyer’s own staff and players seem to hate him, and he’s still preening around like a football God amongst idiots. This is shaking out to be not just the worst coaching hire this year, but potentially one of the worst of all time.

Jacksonville needs to pull the plug on this mess. They have to recognize that the longer Meyer infects their franchise the more difficult getting rid of his disease will be. I’d like to think they realize this too, but this is a franchise known for wallowing in their errors.

Please, just give Trevor Lawrence a chance and send Urban Meyer packing.

We knew the Buccaneers were going to be a tough game, but Buffalo’s plummet has been pronounced. If the Bengals beat the 49ers this afternoon the Bills would be out of the playoff picture for now.

As it stands they’re clinging to the final spot. Thankfully they have a game against the hapless Panthers next week.

Still, things are looking shaky for Buffalo. At 7-6 they’re sharing a record with three other teams, all of whom could very easily jump up. After Carolina the Bills play the Patriots, Falcons and Jets — easy games outside of New England, but this is going to be a very tense wait for Bills fans.

At the very least this team does not seem equipped to deal with playoff-caliber opponents.