1. Jameis Winston has earned the right to be the Browns bridge quarterback in 2025

Pronunciation: Fact.

The Browns were eliminated by the Saints on Sunday in New Orleans. But Jameis Winston can say he largely played his part in the loss.

Winston was 30 of 46 passing for loss for 395 yards and two touchdowns, giving him a traditional quarterback rating of 106.7. One of those TDs was an 89-yard play by Jerry Jeudy, the fourth-longest passing play in team history.

But in the game, the defense and special teams let them down. Dustin Hopkins missed three field goals, one of which was negated by a penalty. One of the two official misses on the stat sheet was a 27-yard attempt.

The defense also gave up 138 yards and three rushing touchdowns to Taysom Hill on just seven carries, including a 75-yarder to put the game away. Cleveland’s punt coverage team also gave up a 53-yard return from Dante Pettis to set up a fourth-quarter touchdown.

In three starts, Winston has played two good games and one bad one. To me, he’s done well enough to prove he should be the bridge quarterback for the Browns in 2025.

Unless the Browns finish with a worse record than the Giants, Raiders and Titans, they likely won’t be able to draft Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders. Miami’s Cam Ward could be an option, but his last three games have shown the warts still on his scouting report.

It also doesn’t help that there really hasn’t been a third quarterback to step up and firmly establish himself.

So for now, if the Browns can’t get Sanders, the best bet might be to go with Winston in 2025. Give him the reins to start the season instead of having to take over in what has essentially been a Murphy’s Law 2024 season. .

Even if the Browns draft Ward, Winston should be the Week 1 starter so Ward can develop in the background.

The way this season has unfolded shows that there are more issues to be resolved than just the quarterback. Winston and a starting quarterback now seem like the best way to move forward, if possible.

The Winston experience is a rollercoaster. But it’s clear the Browns look much better with him running the show. That’s why he now deserves to be the bridge quarterback in 2025.

2. The Steelers stole the AFC North from the Ravens

Pronunciation: Fiction.

The Ravens-Steelers first round is Pittsburgh after Sunday’s 18-16 win at Acrisure Stadium. Despite the way both teams played on offense, it looked like a traditional Ravens-Steelers game: physical and low-scoring.

The Steelers won despite not scoring a touchdown and now have a 1.5 game lead atop the AFC North.

Even though they won, this divisional race is far from over.

The biggest reason is that Lamar Jackson only has to face the Steelers one more time this season.

The Steelers are playing Jackson better than anyone, holding him to a traditional quarterback rating of 66.8, which is the lowest he has against any opponent come Sunday. He had thrown just four touchdowns and seven interceptions in his previous six games against the Steelers.

Jackson struggled again, completing 16 of 33 passes for 207 yards, a TD and an INT. He also rushed just four times for 46 yards.

The Steelers also have a very brutal schedule the rest of the way, taking on the Chiefs and Eagles along with all three AFC North road games.

The Ravens also have a tough schedule. But they also get the Browns, Eagles and Steelers, which is a huge advantage. Plus, Jackson is just so much better against everyone else than he was against the Steelers.

That’s why it’s still too early to call AFC North, despite the statement the Steelers made on Sunday.

3. The Jaguars are the team most in need of an organizational blowout

Pronunciation: Fact.

In perhaps the least shocking outcome of Week 11, the Jaguars lost in Detroit. It doesn’t change the fact that the Lions’ 46-point demolition of the Jaguars isn’t remarkable.

If I’m going to be honest here, this game shouldn’t change opinions on where the organization stands. But it’s an unfortunate confirmation of the extent to which the Jaguars have failed to make progress over the past two seasons.

The Jaguars became the first team in the NFL to post a losing season in 2024, falling to 2-9. The loss also drops GM Trent Baalke’s record to 23-39 in four seasons.

This is a team that should be much better considering it had the top pick in 2021 and 2022. Trevor Lawrence in 2021 was the best of what we now know is a weak quarterback class. But the Jaguars clearly missed in 2022 when they took Travon Walker, who was good but not great, instead of Aidan Hutchinson, who has NFL Defensive Player of the Year potential.

Doug Pederson hasn’t gotten the best out of his team either, going 11-17 over the past two seasons after a playoff win in 2022.

Lawrence isn’t going anywhere after signing a five-year, $275 million contract in June. But the Jaguars need to clean house to get the best out of the team around him, as Baalke and Pederson simply haven’t gotten the most out of their assets.

4. Anthony Richardson should start the rest of the way for the Colts if he’s healthy

Pronunciation: Fact.

The Colts decided to put former fourth overall pick Anthony Richardson back on the field after last week after benching him in favor of Joe Flacco for the last two games.

Richardson rewarded the move by throwing for a career-high 272 yards in a 28-27 win against the Jets.

Richardson completed 20 of 30 passes, giving him a career-high completion rate (66.7%) in a game in which he threw at least five passes. He also had two touchdown drives in the fourth quarter, throwing a TD pass to Josh Downs and then rushing for four yards for the winning score.

When he was drafted in 2023, Richardson was clearly the top three quarterback — along with Bryce Young and CJ Stroud — who needed the most development.

Now more than ever, it’s difficult to be patient in the NFL, which helps explain why Richardson was benched. Sunday, however, proved that patience pays off given Richardson’s tempting tools. Therefore, he should start every game he is healthy enough to play in for the rest of the season.

5. Beating the Chiefs proved that 2024 will be different for the Bills

Pronunciation: Fiction.

The Chiefs’ undefeated start to the 2024 season came to an end Sunday night when the Bills handed Kansas City its first loss of the season, 30-21. It is also the Chiefs’ first loss since Christmas Day of 2023, when they lost to the Raiders at home.

Josh Allen had two touchdowns, including a 26-yard run on a fourth down to put the game away, and James Cook also rushed for two scores.

But the thing about the Bills is that we’ve seen this story before. Buffalo defeated Kansas City in each of the last four regular season meetings. That hasn’t been the problem.

They, like the rest of the AFC, have to figure out how to beat the Chiefs in the playoffs.

We also have to recognize that while the Chiefs still have the NFL’s best record, they don’t quite look like their usual selves. Their offense came into the game ranked 11th in scoring (24.3 points per game), and seven of their nine wins were one-score games.

So you can say the Chiefs have been very lucky this season.

However, last season it turned out that the Chiefs can simply flip the switch for the playoffs. A year ago, the Bills didn’t have an answer to that.

We won’t know until January whether they finally do that. But until then they can’t do anything.

6. Zac Taylor’s days as Bengals head coach must be numbered

Pronunciation: Fact.

When the Cincinnati Bengals missed the playoffs last season, everyone could understand why. Joe Burrow was out of sorts during training camp and a wrist injury limited him to 10 games this season.

But this year there is no excuse in Cincinnati.

Joe Burrow was healthy, he was sensational and his team let him down all season. The latest example was Sunday night’s 34-27 loss to the Chargers.

Burrow almost single-handedly helped the Bengals erase a 21-point halftime deficit. But his defense gave up a four-play, 84-yard drive in just 27 seconds, costing his team the game and moving Cincinnati to a 4-7 level.

Considering how poorly the season started and the fact that it might take a miracle to make the playoffs, it’s hard to imagine Zac Taylor keeping his job after the season.

His teams have started the season slowly with three consecutive 0-2 starts, and they opened this year with a 1-4 record. The Bengals were barely in the mix despite coming into their sixth day in scoring offense (27.0 points per game).

The Bengals enter the bye week with a lot of questions and few answers for the remainder of the season. But this feels like a team that needs a new voice as head coach in 2025.

Taylor deserves some credit for helping the Bengals reach a Super Bowl. However, it feels like he’s taken the Bengals as far as he could, and his time in Cincinnati may not last much longer.