Tuesday Takeaways: NFL Week 7 Reactions

It is Tuesday! This means another week of NFL football has passed us and we are giving our breakdown of things that stood out to us! Comment below what you took away from this past weekend!

1. How Good are the Denver Broncos?

A lot has been made of Denver's historic fourth quarter comeback this week against the Giants. They scored 33 fourth quarter points, and were down by 18 points with 5 minutes left in the game. Lots of questions have come about from this game. How did this happen? Did this really happen? What took the offense so long to wake up? How did the Giants blow this? Did the Giants really miss that extra point? Did the refs really call that DPI? Just to name a few. I have more questions. Specifically around the Denver Broncos. The Broncos are sort of enigma at this point of the season. The Broncos are 5-2 and are third in the AFC. You can make the argument that they really should be 7-0 as they saw late leads slip away against both Indianapolis and Los Angeles. Two games where they literally never trailed in the fourth quarter, yet ended up losing. You can just as easily see a world where they could be 1-6. They were times when the game seemed in question against Tennessee, they needed a second half comeback to beat the Eagles, they struggled to escape London in a brutally ugly game against the Jets, and they had the epic fourth quarter comeback this weekend. 4 of their 5 wins were less than convincing. They are anchored by an elite pass rush on defense but the offensive side of the ball leaves a lot to be desired. The play calls are boring and predictable and it has taken multiple instances of the team having their backs up against the wall for any sort of creativity or fire to appear. If the Broncos want to be a serious threat and play complimentary football, they truly need to figure things out on the offensive end. There is a lot to be said about winning. Good teams win. Good teams find ways to win ugly. The Broncos have done that. But head coach called this team good enough to win a Super Bowl in the offseason, and if the team truly has championship aspirations, they have things they need to adjust. I have lots of questions following this weekend. Mainly how good are the Denver Broncos? Are they closer to the team that could be 7-0, or are they closer to the team that could have just one win and some brutal losses? Just how good are the Denver Broncos?

2. Brutal Stretch for Arizona

The Arizona Cardinals are 2-5 and sit in last place in the NFC West. That alone is tough. The Cardinals have lost five in a row after starting the season with two wins. That is very tough. The Cardinals have lost five in a row, by a combined THIRTEEN points. That is BRUTAL. The Cardinals have had to navigate through lots of injuries, losing their top 3 running backs and their starting QB. They have a younger, new look defense who is much improved from seasons before. They might be middle of the road statistically but there is optimism from what I have seen. They have young players on both sides of the ball that I am a fan of. One thing that is concerning (other than losing five in a row) is how Jacoby Brissett has looked like the better QB than former #1 pick Kyler Murray. Brissett has thrown for nearly 300 yards a game in his two starts in Murray's absence. Kyler was drafted to be "the guy" for this franchise, but it slowly it seems like he is not that guy. He is a decent, startable, quarterback. He is not a franchise guy. I am curious to see how Arizona navigates the rest of the season. Murray will start again. That is not the question. After the season their will be questions. I would not be shocked if Jonathan Gannon is fired after season. Maybe they clean house. They have been competitive in their losses, so it does not seem likely they embrace a tank. They are in a team that is in limbo and I always am intrigued by how those franchises navigate a season. They could be potentially stuck in the dread middle ground, where they are not amongst the league's absolute worst but are truly not competitive. How will Arizona try to improve? Will it be with Kyler? Can they start turning these close losses to wins? What is next in store for the Cardinals?

3. Jaxson Dart is the Real Deal

All of the talk about the Giants vs Broncos game that we mentioned earlier has been about the utter collapse of the Giants. While this is fair, I do not want to ignore just how good Jaxson Dart has looked in the opportunities he has been given. Dart is a respectable 2-2 with wins over good teams in the Chargers and Eagles. In his four starts Dart has thrown for 198 yards a game while being a true threat in the run game, adding 178 rushing yards. All of this while accounting for 10 total touchdowns. For a rookie QB with question marks about his ability to transition to the professional setting, these are very good numbers. Not only has Dart put up good numbers, he has also passed the eye test. He has impressed me with his movement in the pocket, navigating pressure. He brings obvious energy to the organization, pumping up the sideline and rejuvenating a fanbase in search of hope. Dart has far exceed the expectations I had for him entering his first year. He has room to improve of course. He needs to overall learn how to take what the defense gives him more, how to read a defense, how to slide, etc. All areas you would expect a rookie to have room for improvement in. While it is too early to truly say, I would accept cautious optimism that the Giants might have a QB.

4. Is it Time to Hang 'Em Up Mr. Smith?

Boy, oh boy. It has been absolutely atrocious down in Las Vegas. A team that entered the season with lots of hope for improvement has been downright bad. A very disappointing start to the Pete Carroll era to say the least. The team is bottom five in total offense, rookie Ashton Jeanty has been hit behind or at the line of scrimmage more than any other RB in the league, and then there is Geno. Geno, Geno, Geno. Geno Smith had put together three very good seasons in a row for Seattle. This offseason the Raiders paid the 35 year old signal caller to come jump start their franchise. And it has been nothing but bad. On this blog I often sang the praises of Geno last season, and even said he was arguably a top 10 QB entering the season. Whoof did I miss on that one. Before I even get into statistics, there have not been many QBs who have looked as bad as Geno Smith. Rookie Cam Ward and Justin Fields are the only QB1's that I think you can say have been worse than Smith. Smith leads the league in interceptions with 10 through 7 games. He has consistently made head scratching decisions, missed throws, and overall cost his team dearly. The fall off has been dramatic. His statistics have been boosted by a week 1 362 yard game. Without that game he would be averaging just 175 yards per game, while not being a running threat. This weekend was by far the worst of it, as the Chiefs held Geno to just 67 passing yards, in a 31-0 blowout. I have always been a fan of Geno and have defended him as a quarterback. I cannot defend his play this season. It truly has been abysmal. At least one of these things will happen: the Raiders will bench Geno, the Raiders will draft a QB in the top 10 of the 2026 draft.

5. Does Rattler get Punished for Producing Above Expectations?

The New Orleans Saints are bad. They have only won one game. Usually you look to the QB as the first person to blame. I do not think the person most at fault has been their QB, Spencer Rattler. Now, do not get me wrong, by no means has Rattler been exceptional. But he has surpassed expectations and at the very worst looked like an average starting NFL QB. I think the Saints could do a lot worse. Now, the question you might ask is why is this a predicament for the Saints? A second year QB that looks vastly improved is usually a good thing. The problem is not Rattler. It is Tyler Shough. The guy that Rattler beat for the starting spot. The Saints spent high draft capital to select Shough (still a puzzling decision) when they grabbed him with the 40th pick in this last draft. Rattler does not deserve to get benched in my opinion, but in a season that is sure to be full of losses, doesn't it make sense for the Saints to get a look at the guy they thought could maybe be the QB of the future? For a team that is likely to be picking top 5 and is likely to consider a QB with that selection, I would think they would want to know whether or not Shough is that guy. I do not think Rattler deserves to be replaced, but I wonder if the lack of team success ultimately leads to him heading to the bench.