Post Week Five NFL Buy or Sell

Photo by Vincent Mignott/DeFodi Images via Getty Images

Post Week Five NFL Buy or Sell

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Post Week Five NFL Buy or Sell

By October 12, 2022 8:00 am

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Week five was the week of unexpected results in the National Football League. Could the NFC East be the best division in all of football? Are the Cincinnati Bengals and Los Angeles Rams suffering from Super Bowl hangovers? Is Josh Allen the favorite to win MVP this season? Let’s find out whether or not to buy or sell these takes after week five. 

Buy or Sell: The New York Giants are a contender for a wild card spot in the NFC

Photo by Vincent Mignott/DeFodi Images via Getty Images

The New York Giants are off to a surprising start to start the season. With their shocking win over the Green Bay Packers in London, the Giants are 4-1 which is the best start this team has had since 2009. Giants head coach Brian Daboll has done a tremendous job installing a culture and the team is responding well to it. The team plays hard, inspired football and that is a positive sign to see. However, that doesn’t mean that they are contenders for a wild card spot. 

Yes the team is off to an amazing start but it’s because of coaching rather than talent. The Giants roster is filled with a ton of holes on both sides of the ball but the reason why this team is exceeding expectations is because they are well coached. Saquon Barkley looks healthy, which is good and he’s making plays like this which Giants fans love to see.

Daniel Jones has been playing average but credit to Daboll for essentially turning him into a game manager. His numbers look like this heading into week six.

  • 24th in completion percentage (66.7%)
  • 29th in Touchdowns (3)
  • 19th in Passer Rating (85.7)
  • 14th in QBR (52.0)
  • 19th in EPA/Play (0.049)

At face value, he’s been average or hovering around below average. I have a hard time buying into the Giants as a team that I can take seriously considering how this team is devoid of talent, and how Daniel Jones is their quarterback. Before beating the Packers on Sunday, these were the teams that the Giants have won against.

  • Win against the Tennessee Titans (ranked 21st in Team DVOA)
  • Win against the Carolina Panthers (ranked 31st in Team DVOA)
  • Win against the Chicago Bears (ranked 30th in Team DVOA)

Close wins against bad teams aren’t all too impressive. New York will be competitive but I am not taking this team seriously as a wild card contender in the NFC.

Sell: The New York Giants are not a contender for a wild card spot in the NFC

Buy or Sell: Zac Taylor’s inability to give up play calling duties will cost the Cincinnati Bengals a playoff spot.

Going into the season, many believed that the Cincinnati Bengals offense was going to take off and become a top five offense in the league after they came onto the scene out of nowhere last season. A revamped offensive line, arguably a top five wide receiver trio, and a top 10 quarterback sounds like the making of a great offense. So far, they haven’t performed up to those standards. 

  • 20th in EPA/play
  • 16th in Scoring Offense
  • 25th in Offensive DVOA
  • 22nd in Pass Offense DVOA
  • 28th in Run Offense DVOA
  • 22nd in Overall Offense

If you wanna know why the Bengals offense has been this way to start the season, it starts with Zac Taylor. Others deserve blame such as Joe Burrow not playing the way he is supposed to with indecision and turning the ball over. The offensive line has struggled at run blocking and pass blocking but Zac Taylor deserves the lion share of the blame. When you have an offense consisting of Joe Burrow and elite weapons like Joe Mixon, Ja’marr Chase, Tee Higgins, Tyler Boyd you shouldn’t be underachieving on offense and producing below-average results.

The Bengals loss to the Ravens on Sunday night highlighted a problem that has been evident going back to last season. Zac Taylor’s play calling is holding the Cincinnati Bengals back from reaching their potential. His play designs are uninspiring and not creative, he plays conservative instead of being aggressive, and is too predictable in his play-calling.

The explosive plays that the Bengals were doing last season are not happening frequently due to teams employing a two-high safety look which is preventing those plays from happening. Right now the Bengals lack an offensive identity. When Ja’Marr Chase said this after the Cincinnati Bengals lost to the Dallas Cowboys in week two, it seemed clear that he was frustrated with the playcalling.

 

Joe Burrow, gave this interesting comment after the Bengals loss on Sunday night.

Again this falls on coaching. If Zac Taylor does not adjust the offense or give up his play calling duties, Cincinnati will miss the postseason because of it. I believe this will happen and Zac Taylor could find himself under immense pressure next season.

Buy: Zac Taylor’s inability to give up play calling will cost the Cincinnati Bengals a playoff spot this season.

Buy or Sell: NFL’s emphasis on roughing the passer penalties will cost a team a playoff game in the future.

Since the Tua Tagovailoa injury on Thursday night against the Cincinnati Bengals in which he suffered a concussion, the NFL has gone to great lengths to protect the quarterback. The league might not have said this publicly but they sure are showing it with these ridiculous roughing the passer penalties. 

It started on Sunday afternoon with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Atlanta Falcons. In the fourth quarter, Atlanta was making a comeback and on a crucial third down, Atlanta Falcons defensive tackle Grady Jarrett sacked Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady. Instead of Tampa Bay punting and giving Atlanta a chance to win the game, Grady was flagged for “roughing the passer”. 

Jerome Boger, the official that was calling the game, gave this explanation as to why the call was made. Jarrett also had a response to that comment below. 

 Fast forward to Monday night, the same issue happened between the Las Vegas Raiders and the Kansas City Chiefs. Kansas City Chiefs defensive lineman sacked Las Vegas quarterback Derek Carr and it turned into a strip-sack. Instead it was called for roughing the passer and social media was livid.

Chris Jones, who made the strip-sack wasn’t too pleased with the call and he gave an honest answer as to what he should do.

The NFL is trying to protect the quarterback which is fine, but in reality they are making the defensive players job much harder than it has to be. Defensive lineman will be more hesitant to sack the quarterback now because of the possibility of being flagged. It won’t be long before this happens in the playoffs and it will cost a team a chance to go to the Super Bowl.

Buy: NFL’s emphasis on roughing the passer will cost a team a playoff game in the future

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