During a recent edition of #PFTPM, the five-week hiatus answer to PFT Live, I mentioned the Jets are gaining momentum in the chase for running back Dalvin Cook. During a more recent interview with Jets reporter Paul Esden, Jr. Cook’s agent, Zac Hiller, was asked to respond to my suggestion that the Jets are indeed picking up steam.
Hiller said nothing to contradict the notion that the Jets are very interested in Cook, or that Cook is very interested in the Jets. Cook has said he wants to win a Super Bowl, and Hiller’s comments make it very clear that Cook believes he could win one with quarterback Aaron Rodgers and the other great players on the roster.
The key remains doing the deal. As with receiver DeAndre Hopkins, none of the interested parties have persuaded the player to accept an offer. Cook, like Hopkins, might be waiting for his market to heat up — possibly with the arrival of another team. Possibly due to a starting running back suffering an injury.
Regardless, three teams in the AFC East bear watching for Cook: the Jets, Dolphins, and Patriots. Whichever one gets him will keep him away from one of the other two. At some point, that could get an all-in owner to direct his football personnel to up the offer and get it done.
Fullback Alec Ingold would like to see running back Dalvin Cook join him in the Dolphins backfield, but there doesn’t appear to be anything imminent when it comes to a deal.
Jeff Darlington of ESPN reports, via DolphinsTalk.com, that there is “nothing urgent ” in regard to Cook coming to terms with the Dolphins or any other team right now. Cook is expected to wait until closer to training camp before making an agreement on where to play during the 2023 season.
As previously reported, the Dolphins made Cook a contract offer after he was released by the Vikings. Cook has not been willing to accept that offer, but there’s been no word of offers from other clubs that would push Miami to up that offer or put them out of the running for Cook’s services.
There are several other veteran backs available as free agents right now as well and plenty of discussion about the low value that teams have put on running backs this offseason. Neither of those things suggest that a massive offer lurks around the corner for Cook, but it seems he’ll still be taking his time before accepting anything that’s already come his way.
The Miami Dolphins have a great offense. Their defense could be as good. Maybe better.
Veteran defensive end Emmanuel Ogbah recently declared that there’s basically no limit to what Miami’s defense can be.
“I’ll say we can be as good as we want to be ,” Ogbah told Aaron Wilson of KPRC2, via NFL.com. “I’m excited about this defense. We’ve got [defensive coordinator] Vic [Fangio] coaching us up. I can’t wait. It’s been a long time coming. This year, I feel like this is the year. We can be as good as we want to be. I’m ready to go out there and dominate.”
It will take dominance to emerge as the champion of the AFC East, arguably the best top-to-bottom division in football.
“Our division is tough now,” Ogbah said. “But we’re excited, we love the competition. We’re ready to go. We don’t look at nobody [else]. We compete against ourself.”
One key factor for everyone involved — Ogbah included — is the ability to play.
“It’s all about health,” he said. “This game’s all about being healthy. I’m excited. I’ve been doing the right things with my body, taking care of my body, just making sure I’m ready and fit to last the whole season.”
Injuries limited Ogbah to only nine regular-season appearances in 2022. The prior year, he appeared in all 17 games, matching a career-high 9.0 sacks.
Beyond Ogbah, the Dolphins have Bradley Chubb, Christian Wilkins, and Jaelan Phillips on the defensive line. Jalen Ramsey has joined a secondary that already featured Xavien Howard and Jevon Holland. With Fangio drawing up and calling the plays, they could indeed be a great defense.
Again, given the difficulty of the schedule for all AFC East teams (in addition to playing each other twice, they all play the Chiefs, Chargers, Eagles, Cowboys, and Giants), it could be that only one team makes it to the postseason — even though any of them could be good enough to climb the playoff tree to the Super Bowl.
Darrelle Revis chose his mother, Diana Askew, to present him for his induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame next month.
Revis is part of the Class of 2023.
He repeatedly has mentioned Askew’s influence steering him in the right direction. Her support continues every day, he said, according to the Hall of Fame.
In 11 seasons with four teams, Revis received numerous accolades, including first-team All-Pro four times, seven Pro Bowls and a selection to the NFL’s All-Decade Team of the 2010s.
In Super Bowl XLIX with the New England Patriots, Revis started at left cornerback and recorded one sack and one solo tackle in the Patriots’ 28-24 win over the Seahawks.
The Class of 2023 will be enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame on Saturday, Aug. 5, at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium in Canton. Tickets for Enshrinement are available at www.profootballhof.com/tickets.
The Patriots are at a crossroads. The relationship between owner Robert Kraft and coach Bill Belichick seems to be at a crossroads, too.
And even with six Super Bowl trophies delivered by Belichick having full control over the football operations, there’s a shelf life for everyone who isn’t winning. Since winning Super Bowl LIII, Belichick hasn’t been winning.
No postseason victories. Two playoff appearances, two failures to qualify for the postseason.
And since Tom Brady left after the 2019 season, it’s even worse. Three years, one playoff berth — a 47-17 blowout loss to the Bills.
Entering the 2023 season, the Patriots are the worst team on paper in the AFC East, and decidedly a middle-of-the-pack member of the conference. While Belichick has a proven knack of making a team better than it appears to be on paper, he’s the one who puts the team together. So even if he’s good at digging a team out of a pre-existing hole, he’s the one responsible for the oversized divot from which he has to dig.
In March, not nearly enough attention was paid to ominous remarks from Kraft regarding Belichick’s job security.
Meeting with reporters at the league meetings in Arizona, Kraft was asked a simple question: “You guys have posted a losing record two of the last three seasons . . . if that happens again, could Bill [Belichick’s] job be in jeopardy, or is he here to break Don Shula’s all-time wins record and beyond?”
“Look, I’d like him to break Don Shula’s record,” Kraft replied, “but I’m not looking for any our players to get great stats. We’re about winning, and doing whatever we can to win. And that’s what our focus is now. And I -- it’s very important to me that we make the playoffs, and that’s what I hope happens next year.”
As we explained at the time, the question wasn’t about stats. It was about wins. But Kraft doesn’t seem to be willing to let Belichick linger until he gets more Ws than Shula, if there are too many Ls along the way.
Last week, Kraft said that one thing will satisfy him in 2023: Winning “number seven .” While falling just short of winning a seventh Super Bowl triumph likely won’t be enough to prompt a change, another failure to make the playoffs could. Or perhaps another one-and-done postseason capped by a blowout loss on the road as a wild-card team, after a failure to win the division.
Does anyone really think the Patriots will win the division? It’s not impossible. But it’s far more improbable than it ever was when the Patriots were the Globetrotters and the Bills, Dolphins, and Jets each played the role of Washington Generals. Now, each of those three teams is better than the Patriots, on paper. Josh Allen, Aaron Rodgers, and Tua Tagovailoa (if he can stay healthy) are MVP candidates.
The perception of the Patriots isn’t aided by last year’s failed experiment to put the offense under the control of Matt Patricia and Joe Judge. We said as the season approached and it became more and more clear that Belichick was actually going to go through with it that, if any other coach was trying to do it, the consensus would be that the head coach had lost his damn mind.
Belichick got the benefit of the doubt, thanks to his track record. The end result was that his track record was diminished.
Then came the remarks that prompted the recent quotes from Kraft . At his final press conference of the most recent season, Belichick pointed out that, from 2020 through 2022, the Patriots ranked twenty-seventh in spending. Kraft pointed out that spending will never be “the issue” with the Patriots, and that Kraft always gives Belichick whatever he asks for.
Hidden in this back-and-forth is an old-fashioned pissing match, with Belichick trying to subtly shift blame for post-Brady struggles to Kraft for not spending, and with Kraft pushing it back to Belichick for not asking for the money to be spent.
We all know how these things will go. In the ultimate game of rock, scissors, paper, Kraft owns all three. He’s in charge. What he says, goes. Who he says goes. And if Belichick fails to deliver a playoff appearance or if he runs the postseason victory drought to half of a decade, he’s the one who could be going.
It sounds crazy, I know. Belichick is one of the great coaches in NFL history. Since Brady, however, his teams have been just above ordinary. At some point, a sufficient stretch of failure wipes out a history of excellence. At some point, the past will have faded from the rear-view mirror. At some point, Kraft will decide to turn the page.
And he’ll be more likely to do it sooner than later if Belichick keeps trying to blame Kraft for failures that, in Kraft’s mind, trace only to Belichick.