“Micah Parsons is the closest thing I’ve seen to (Lawrence) Taylor in terms of being able to collapse the pocket with a bull-rush and turnstile a tackle with unblockable speed.” – Peter King on Cowboys LB Micah Parsons
“If Tua (Tagovailoa) plays 16 or 17 games, this team’s going to be a very tough out in the postseason. He drops passes into tight windows as pretty as any quarterback today.” – King on the Dolphins
“This is going to be a Willis Reed story. I don’t know if he’ll be as great with a sutured Achilles at 40 as he would have been with a pure one at 39. But Aaron Rodgers is not going out like this.” – King on Jets QB Aaron Rodgers
STAMFORD, Conn. – Sept. 18, 2023 – Peter King discusses Aaron Rodgers’ Achilles injury and possible comeback this season, 2-0 starts by the Dallas Cowboys and Miami Dolphins, and speaks with head coaches Pete Carroll of the Seattle Seahawks and Arthur Smith of the Atlanta Falcons in this week’s edition of Football Morning in America, available now exclusively on NBCSports.com. King also ranks his Top 10 teams, and more.
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The following are highlights from this week’s edition of Football Morning in America:
KING’S WEEK 2 TOP 10 POWER RANKINGS
| 1. | Dallas | 6 | Baltimore |
| 2. | San Francisco | 7. | Buffalo |
| 3. | Philadelphia | 8. | Los Angeles Rams |
| 4. | Miami | 9. | Seattle |
| 5. | Kansas City | T-10. | Detroit, Tampa Bay |
King on Cowboys LB Micah Parsons: “I covered the Giants for four prime Lawrence Taylor seasons. Micah Parsons is the closest thing I’ve seen to Taylor in terms of being able to collapse the pocket with a bull-rush and turnstile a tackle with unblockable speed.”
King on the Eagles: “(This team) has the best 1-to-53 roster in football. What’s to worry about, other than holding off Dallas in the NFC East?”
King on the Dolphins: “If Tua (Tagovailoa) plays 16 or 17 games, this team’s going to be a very tough out in the postseason. He drops passes into tight windows as pretty as any quarterback today.”
King on the Rams: “I thought this was a rebuilding year for the McVays. But this is a tough, tough team.”
JETS & AARON RODGERS
King on Jets QB Aaron Rodgers potentially making a return this season after tearing his Achilles in Week 1: “Rodgers and the medical professionals will not be ruled by emotion. If he’s cleared, it’ll be because the Achilles is fully healed and prepared for the stress of a football game. (Achilles surgeon Dr. Neal) ElAttrache’s reputation is if the patient is not fully ready, the doctor won’t succumb to pressure to clear him.”
King on Rodgers’ comeback: “He invested too much mental and physical effort, and he bought into the New York (and New Jersey) State of Mind. This is going to be a Willis Reed story. I don’t know if he’ll be as great with a sutured Achilles at 40 as he would have been with a pure one at 39. But Aaron Rodgers is not going out like this.”
King on Jets QB Zach Wilson: “I think the good sign for Zach Wilson is he’s playing less frenetically than he did last season - maybe due to the zen QB approach he saw in Aaron Rodgers…The Patriots come to New Jersey Sunday, and Wilson’s got to show better or the fans will lay it on him.”
SEAHAWKS
Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll to King on QB Geno Smith’s journey from backup to starter: “Geno’s the example I preach about to our players. He maintained a starter’s mentality throughout four years of sitting…But he never didn’t believe.”
Carroll: “I wound up telling the whole team about it because it’s the perfect illustration of how every backup should prepare - when you get in there, it’s not a shock to you. It’s not unexpected. We call it ‘G prep.’”
King on Seahawks QB Geno Smith: “Smith is every bit the player in his first 20 games that (Russell) Wilson was in his last 20 in Seattle.”
WEEK 2
Falcons head coach Arthur Smith on going for it on fourth down with 2:08 remaining in the fourth quarter, down 24-22: “As the game wore down, we felt that we weren’t out of anything in our playbook. When you have explosive players - whether it’s in the rushing attack or the passing attack, you try not to become obvious. It allowed us to stay in our normal offense and we felt good about it how we could attack the defense there.”
King on Buccaneers QB Baker Mayfield leading the team to a 2-0 start: “Tampa Bay doesn’t have a quarterback of the future, and this spot is shaping up nicely for a guy who’d gotten beat up a lot in his last two seasons. This could be the start of a beautiful relationship.”
King on the Broncos’ 0-2 start: “I think Sean Payton’s not going to make it comfortable for the Broncos in practice this week. Going 0-2 against the Raiders and Commanders, both at home, both winnable games, will fry Payton. And it should.”
King on the Ravens: “Baltimore’s not only 2-0, but 2-0 in the AFC, with a two-game edge (plus the tiebreaker) over the favorite to win the division, Cincinnati…This could be a brutal division, top to bottom, and this morning, Baltimore’s got the edge.”
KING’S WEEK 2 AWARDS
Offensive Players of the Week: Baker Mayfield, Tampa Bay, & D’Andre Swift, Philadelphia
King on Mayfield: “Go figure, after stints with Cleveland, Carolina and the Rams over the past two years, that Mayfield would be the hottest quarterback in the league out of the gate in 2023.”
Defensive Players of the Week: Geno Stone, Baltimore, Shaq Barrett, Tampa Bay, & Chris Jones, Kansas City
King on Jones’ impact on the Chiefs: “The Super Bowl champs, on their flight home, must have been thinking, ‘Man, wish we had you last week for the Detroit game.’”
Coach of the Week: Todd Bowles, head coach, Tampa Bay
Special Teams Player of the Week: Marvin Mims, Denver
NEWS & NOTES
King on the natural grass/artificial turf debate: “For the league to go all-grass, I’m convinced it has to be a collectively bargained issue, even though there is evidence that in non-contact injuries, grass is overall a safer surface. The owners won’t voluntarily go to all-grass.”
King on the fans’ reaction to Aaron Rodgers’ injury: “I feel awful for Jets fans, and for football fans who were all locked-in to see Rodgers with his first new team in 18 years. We’ve been robbed of a huge part of the human drama of athletic competition, and it’s a bummer.”
Read the full FMIA column here and catch the weekly Peter King Podcast here.
The following are additional highlights of NBC Sports’ NFL coverage:
- PFT Live with NBC Sports’ Mike Florio (Mondays) and Florio and Chris Simms (Tuesday-Thursday) streams on Peacock from 7 a.m. – 9 a.m. ET on weekdays & is available on-demand. The Dan Patrick Show streams at 9 a.m. ET, Fantasy Football Happy Hour with Matthew Berry at Noon ET, Brother From Another at 3 p.m. ET, PFT PM at 5 p.m. ET. At 6 p.m. ET, Chris Simms Unbuttoned streams Tuesday-Friday.
- com continues to provide the latest news and updates.
- NBC Sports EDGE’s Rotoworld Football Show continues the NFL discussion and Bet The Edge Podcast provides daily betting insights.
- The NFL on NBC YouTube channel offers daily football content for free, with exclusive videos from Peter King – including his interviews with players and coaches at training camps – Mike Florio, Chris Simms, and more. To access all of these videos and more, click here to subscribe
A new “Football Morning in America” posts every Monday morning exclusively on NBCSports.com through the NFL season. It was announced in May 2019 that King signed an exclusive agreement with NBC Sports Group that included writing a weekly Monday morning NFL column for NBCSports.com; making regular appearances on PFT Live with Mike Florio; and continuing to contribute to Football Night in America, the most-watched studio show in sports.
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