Mild weather conditions are forecasted for the eleventh week of National Football League action.
But there are a couple storms in NFL front offices. Both the front office malfunctions will be on display today at MetLife Stadium when the Indianapolis Colts visit the New York Jets. When a front office dictates the players on the field while overriding their coaches problems are sure to follow.
That is what is going on this week in Indianapolis.
Colts owner Jim Irsay fell in love with Anthony Richardson at the combine a couple years ago. Figured this was the guy that could lead the Colts back to the standards set for two decades when Peyton Manning was running the show on the field.
Problem is, Richardson has been mostly a bust in his brief playing time since the Colts made him the third overall selection last year. He missed most of his rookie season with injuries and had limited time running a college offense. Richardson’s eye-catching attributes were his big body, speed for his size and ability to leap, if not tall buildings, higher than most at the off-season workouts.
While physical skill is certainly an attribute, it is not the only quality set necessary to run an NFL offense. And when it came to the other required qualifications, reading a defense and accuracy with his passes, Richardson was sorely lacking.
The result is the Colts are on a long-term effort to teach Richardson the game on the fly. The coach of the Colts, Shane Steichen, was more interested in winning games than developing an unproven prospect. He was sure, and this appeared to be the prevailing opinion of a majority of players wearing the Colts uniforms, that quarterback Joe Flacco gave them the best chance of winning now.
The coach was overruled by the team owner, so today when the Colts meet the Jets in New Jersey, the man with the worst quarterback stats in the league this year will be back behind center for the Colts.
This appears to be a certain disaster in the making, but the Jets counter the front office meddling in a big way. Team owner Woody Johnson has moved pieces around his team this season like a six-year-old learning how to play checkers. It is his leadership that got rid of their popular head coach and paid way too much money for a 40-year-old quarterback who figured his vacation was more important than attending a mandatory workout before this mess of a season began for the Jets.
This week, Aaron Rodgers declared he wants to stay with the Jets and play out his contract next season. We’ll see at season end if the New York front office is still in an offering mode.
The game with the Jets and Colts was originally scheduled to be the Sunday night prime time telecast, but NBC took advantage of their opportunity to opt out of this game and instead broadcast a contest between the Cincinnati Bengals and Los Angeles Chargers.
The public has come in with their three favorite plays of the day beginning with the Green Bay Packers (-5½) over the Chicago Bears. The next two most bet games this week are the Miami Dolphins (-7) over Las Vegas Raiders and Detroit Lions (-14) over Jacksonville Jaguars.
As for the Qoxhi Week 11 selections, they are now posted on this site and if a Bullet Play develops in the final hour before the day’s first kickoff, that game will be added to the list of recommendations by 9:45 a.m. Pacific Time.