The Tennessee Titans apparently need an asterisk on their name.
At least two TV markets in the state for which the team is named have passed on televising their Week 10 game against the Jaguars.
Drew Lerner of Awful Announcing explains that 506sports.com coverage map shows that the Knoxville and Chattanooga Fox affiliates will not televise the Jaguars-Titans game. Instead, Vikings-Packers will be shown in the 1:00 p.m. ET window.
It’s a preliminary map, as Lerner notes. The Fox affiliates in Knoxville and Chattanooga, the third- and fourth-largest cities in the league by way of population, could change their minds.
Making the situation even more unusual is the fact that Fox won’t get many Titans games, because they’re usually on CBS. The obvious takeaway is that the Fox affiliates in Knoxville and Chattanooga believe that more people will watch Packers-Vikings than will watch Jaguars-Titans.
It’s not personal, it’s business. And the affiliates think they’re business interests are best served by showing Packers-Vikings not Jaguars-Titans.
Wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. is back with the Vikings.
The Vikings signed Beckham to their active roster ahead of Monday night’s loss to the Bills, but released him on Tuesday. Word at the time was that they planned to re-sign him to the practice squad and official announcement of Beckham’s return came on Thursday afternoon.
Beckham played two offensive snaps against the Bills and did not catch a pass. He also went without a reception in three appearances for the Giants earlier this season.
Jauan Jennings missed the Bills game with a calf injury and remained out of practice for the Vikings on Wednesday. Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison, Tai Felton, and Myles Price are their other wideouts.
Vikings fans won’t need to buy new Kirk Cousins jerseys.
The team has announced that Cousins will wear No. 8 in his second stint in Minnesota. Safety Jakobe Thomas, who most recently wore No. 8, will switch to No. 6.
Thomas, a rookie who played last year at the University of Miami, wore No. 6 during his time at Middle Tennessee State.
When asked about the number situation on Wednesday, Cousins told reporters: “I’m confident that Jakobe and I can have a healthy and mature conversation and figure this out.” (Whether that conversation included a healthy and mature transfer of cash to Thomas remains to be seen.)
Regardless, Cousins needed to be back in No. 8. Thomas, who has yet to play in a regular-season game, surely knew that.
Although it could have been a moneymaker for the Vikings and for Cousins if he’d landed in a new number. Vikings fans are sufficiently giddy to consider buying another one.
The ESPN announcement of the viewership for a given Monday night game always requires a careful look for any information about the viewership of the multiple weekly alt casts on the Disney-owned networks.
This week, the release presented only the total viewership for all platforms, at 21.7 million. The release also mentioned that multppe alt casts “averaged more than 900K viewers.”
Andrew Marchand of The Athletic has gotten the numbers. For the Next Gen Stats alt cast, 499,000 tuned in. For the McAfee ensemble, the number was 406,000. Making the total audience 905,000.
The final tally gives Next Gen Stats a 2-0 lead over the McAfee option. The gap was more narrow this time around; when they first squared off for the Week 6 Commanders-49ers game, NFLN attracted 469,000 and ESPN2 got 351,000. (ESPN2 is in roughly 70 million homes; NFL Network’s distribution is at or below 50 million.)
The total viewership for that game was 17.9 million. With Bills-Vikings beating that figure by 21.2 percent, Next Gen Stats was up 6.3 percent over Week 6 and the McAfee cast increased by 15.6 percent.
Of the total audience for the game, 2.2 percent watched NFL Network and 1.87 percent watched ESPN2. Which raises, once again, a one-word question: Why?
The Monday night alt casts don’t draw in new viewers. It’s added expense, with no extra revenue for the broader operation. (Unless there’s a tangible benefit to siphoning viewers from ABC/ESPN for the other channels.)
Ultimately, it’s a zero-sum game. With alt casts, Bills-Vikings viewership was 21.7 million. Without alt casts, Bills-Vikings viewership undoubtedly would have been 21.7 million.
And that’s why the various ABC affiliates are upset that Disney will have a full slate of alt casts for Super Bowl LXI. The total number will be the total number, if the game is on one network or twenty. The alt casts will rob the Peter of ABC to pay the Paul of the various other platforms.
The Vikings’ addition of quarterback Kirk Cousins comes with a surprising decision on the back end.
Minnesota has not released any of its other quarterbacks. Giving the Vikings four quarterbacks on their 53-man roster.
With Cousins on the team, Kyler Murray, Carson Wentz, and Max Brosmer remain. It’s amazing, frankly, that Wentz hasn’t been cut; Monday night’s performance shows that he should no longer be playing in the NFL. Or the UFL. Or the CFL. Or any organization that ends with “FL.”
It’s hard to imagine Wentz sticking around for long. The Vikings possibly have decided to keep Wentz for now, given that Murray still has a hamstring injury.
Regardless, the soft benching of Murray has now become a hard benching. And the hard benching of Wentz inevitably will become a pink slip.
They’re all in with Cousins. The longer he plays, the better chance the Vikings have to make it to the playoffs.
It starts on Sunday, despite coach Kevin O’Connell being coy about it. Cousins undoubtedly will play. That’s why he’s there.
Even if he’s not 100-percent ready, a less-than-prepared Cousins is better than the other options they have.
