Broncos quarterback Jarrett Stidham hasn’t thrown a pass in an NFL game in two years, but he’s confident he’ll be ready to do it, and do it well in the AFC Championship Game. And he says his teammates are just as confident.
Stidham, who will start on Sunday in place of the injured Bo Nix, said that the support he has received in the Broncos’ locker room has meant a lot to him, and he plans to play just as well as his teammates think he can.
“It means a lot, any time you step into a situation like this, I just want to go out there and play the absolute best I can for the guys in this locker room,” Stidham said. “That’s all I care about. It’s great to have the support of the guys around me, and thankfully I’ve got a ton of amazing guys, amazing human beings in the locker room, but also amazing football players.”
It’s obviously less than ideal for the Broncos to lose their starting quarterback with a trip to the Super Bowl on the line, but all the talk out of Denver this week has been about the Broncos believing that Stidham can take them all the way.
A major winter storm is coming this weekend, and that could be good news for the NFL.
As noted by Eric Fisher of FrontOfficeSports.com, inclement weather could keep more people in their homes on Sunday, with nothing to do but hunker down for seven hours of high-stakes football.
The AFC Championship starts at 3:00 p.m. ET, with the NFC Championship kicking off at 6:30 p.m. ET.
Whatever the weather, the ratings will be significant. Many millions will be watching both games. But it can’t hurt if people who otherwise wouldn’t be home on Sunday, for whatever reason, are snowed and/or iced in.
There’s one caveat. Ice accumulations could lead to power outages. Which will make it a little harder to turn the TV on.
Last year, Commanders-Eagles generated a relatively disappointing 44.2 million viewers. Bills-Chiefs attracted 57.4 million.
Broncos wide receiver Pat Bryant’s practice participation moved in the right direction on Thursday.
Bryant (concussion) was listed as a full participant after being limited in Wednesday’s session. Bryant had three catches for 32 yards in last Saturday’s overtime win over the Bills and more information on his status against the Patriots will come on Friday.
Running back J.K. Dobbins (foot), center Alex Forsyth (ankle), and wide receiver Troy Franklin (hamstring) were limited participants for the second straight day. Quarterback Bo Nix (ankle) remained the only player out of practice entirely.
Tackle Frank Crum (ankle), tight end Lucas Krull (foot), linebacker Drew Sanders (ankle), safety JL Skinner (quad), and center Luke Wattenberg (shoulder) remained full participants for the Broncos.
Edge rusher Harold Landry remained out of practice for the Patriots on Thursday.
Landry, who led the Patriots with 8.5 sacks during the regular season, has missed both days of on-field work with a knee injury. The team will issue injury designations for the AFC Championship Game against the Broncos on Friday.
Center Garrett Bradbury was added to the report after missing practice with an illness. Linebacker Marte Mapu (hip) missed his second practice of the week.
Wide receiver Mack Hollins (abdomen) was limited after being designated to return from injured reserve. Cornerback Carlton Davis (concussion), linebacker Christian Elliss (hip), offensive tackle Thayer Munford (knee), tight end Hunter Henry (rest) and offensive tackle Morgan Moses (rest) remained limited.
Defensive tackle Joshua Farmer (hamstring), running back TreVeyon Henderson (shoulder), running back Terrell Jennings (cleared concussion protocol), and linebacker Robert Spillane (hand) were full participants.
The NFL has a catch rule problem. And, as it does with plenty of other issues, the NFL seems to be content to ignore it. Or to claim that there’s no problem at all.
Via Mark Maske of the Washington Post, “The NFL and competition committee believe the catch rule is ‘pretty clear’ . . . and are not planning to make major offseason changes to it, although an individual team could make a proposal.”
That said, Maske adds that the league and/or the Competition Committee “may take steps to provide clarity about in-game rulings and improve the widespread understanding of the rule.”
The problem isn’t the rule. It’s the application of it. The three current problems, as explained here on Tuesday, are these: (1) the taking of a third step to complete the process has caused the league to ignore the other ways of doing so (extending the ball forward, taking an additional step, avoiding or warding off an opponent, or having possession long enough to do any of those things); (2) the explanation of the Aaron Rodgers catch on December 7 conflicts with the standard that was applied on Saturday to Bills receiver Brandin Cooks; and (3) the replay process is too vague and (to use the term uttered by Kyle Brandt on NFL Network the day after the Bills-Broncos game) “Orwellian.”
It’s like the legal system. The legislature creates the rules. The courts apply them. And the court — the league office and its team of referees and replay officials — has not been applying the rule as written and/or crafting standards aimed more at concealing errors and less at ensuring consistency. In the Cooks play, the process failed to entail sufficient transparency as to the application of the rule.
As to the third-step issue, the league office isn’t applying the rule correctly. As to the Rodgers/Cooks situation, NFL V.P. of instant replay Mark Butterworth justified the decision to turn an interception into a catch in the Steelers-Ravens game with language that, if applied to the Cooks play, would have reached the same outcome.
“The offensive player had control of the ball and as he was going to the ground . . . he never lost control of the ball and then his knees hit the ground in control,” Butterworth said at the time. “So therefore, by rule, he is down by contact with control of the ball.”
That’s the key question the league needs to resolve, when a player is going to the ground. If a player catches the ball and is going to the ground after being contacted by a defender, does the play end when the knee hits (as it did for Rodgers) or must the player still maintain possession (as it did with Cooks).
Of course, there’s no way to expressly address that wrinkle without admitting that one of the two rulings was wrong. And the league simply isn’t inclined to admit it was wrong, about any of these rulings.
So, yes, the rule is fine. And, no, the application of it is anything but.
