News keeps coming. And so do your questions …

From ZachLaymansNFL (@ZachLaymansNFL): Why are the Chiefs uninterested in the WR trade market?

Joke’s on you, Zach! As you know by now, the Kansas City Chiefs are trading a conditional fifth-rounder that can become a fourth for Tennessee Titans WR DeAndre Hopkins. So, here’s how we got there …

• After Rashee Rice injured his knee, and with Marquise “Hollywood” Brown already on the shelf with a shoulder injury, the Chiefs wanted to get a good look at what the offense looked like with Xavier Worthy and Juju Smith-Schuster in enhanced roles. Rice is gone for the year, and things turned on Brown around the opener in September. They expected to have him back then. Instead, after a setback, there’s a chance, but not a great one, that they get him back during the playoffs.

• Kansas City’s good look at its receivers had ups and downs. The Chiefs looked great offensively against the New Orleans Saints, and not so much against the San Francisco 49ers, and then Smith-Schuster tweaked his hamstring, only making the situation more dire.

• The Chiefs didn’t want to give up a top-100 pick in a trade for a receiver. Given where Kansas City is with a top-heavy cap, including big deals for Patrick Mahomes and Chris Jones, those picks are very valuable in filling out the roster. That, plus the fact that the Las Vegas Raiders are in the division, made Davante Adams a bit unrealistic. Amari Cooper went for more than a top-100 pick, too.

• Kansas City needed a team to work with it on money, too, with less than $5 million in cap space. Could they mortgage some things? Sure. But staying loose was the prudent move with contracts for guys such as Trent McDuffie, Nick Bolton and Trey Smith sitting out there as issues to address after the season.

So, in the end, Hopkins—a guy with red-zone value and inside-out versatility to make up for the loss of Smith-Schuster now, and play with him later—wound up making the most sense. Now, we get to see how much he truly has left.

From Scott (@Scott8949): If you were GM of the Bengals, what would be the one (realistic) move you would make to help push this team closer to Super Bowl-contending status again? Should I be worried about Zac Taylor as our head coach?

Scott, I’d be scouring struggling teams’ rosters for corner help right now. To me, the biggest issues the Cincinnati Bengals have are in the pass rush and at corner. In the case of the former, they have Trey Hendrickson, Sam Hubbard and, soon, Myles Murphy. In the latter, they need more from DJ Turner II and Cam Taylor-Britt, and it seems to me like there’s less certainty there than there is with the edge rushers.

Now, who could be available? One name that popped into my head, because of familiarity, was Chidobe Awuzie, who signed with the Tennessee Titans, following former Bengals OC Brian Callahan to Nashville. But he’s hurt right now. And the contract, a three-year, $36 million deal in its first season, might be a nonstarter. Cleveland Browns CB Greg Newsome II would be attractive, too, but he plays for a rival and has a fully guaranteed $13.3 million option for 2025.

Bottom line: It’s not going to be easy to find an upgrade at corner. So I’m skeptical that something will happen for the Bengals here. But I do think they’ll be open to making a deal.

From axelMTG (@axelMTG): Despite Geno Smith having a career year, a lot of Seahawks fans hate him. Would a front office ever move on from a player because of marketing reasons? Lumen Field is a lot quieter recently and I don’t know if they sell his jerseys. (I don’t mind if they give him ~50$ APY)

No. I do not believe GM John Schneider, who is now in his 15th year, would make any sort of significant personnel move based on public reaction. In his first couple of years in charge, there were a lot of questions about what he and Pete Carroll were doing at quarterback and receiver, and it turns out they were busy building one of the most talented rosters in league history.

Fair to say Schneider’s earned the right to tune out the noise. Not that he would’ve listened to it in the first place.

From Con (@c_mahoney23): Coming up on the halfway point of the season—which teams have you changed your opinion the most on? Any new dark horses for playoffs? Who’s the most overrated?

The Washington Commanders would be my answer to your first question.

I believed in the new GM (Adam Peters) and coach (Dan Quinn) … I just thought it was going to take a lot longer for the franchise to drag itself up off the canvas than it has.

It’s pretty wild. On Tuesday, Washington released Jamin Davis, which means that the team’s five first-round picks from 2019 to ’22—guys who, in Years 3-6, should be hitting the prime of their careers—are all gone. Four of those five were top-20 picks, none of whom brought home more than a third-round pick. And ’23 first-rounder Emmanuel Forbes Jr. has been very up and down over his first year-plus in the league (and has been benched multiple times).

That run left the Commanders with problems all over the roster and their biggest holes were at the premium positions. And when they (correctly) made the call to take a quarterback second in the draft, it made it even more difficult to address their issues at tackle, corner, edge rusher and, to a lesser extent, receiver.

Yet, somehow, they’ve made it work. Jayden Daniels is obviously a huge part of that. So, too, have been a raft of mid-level free-agent signings (such as Dorance Armstrong and Clelin Ferrell) that were familiar to Quinn and Peters, and picks outside the first round such as Mike Sainristil and Brandon Coleman.

Now, imagine what Peters and Quinn can do with a couple more offseasons.

As for the most overrated team, it looks like the Dallas Cowboys. Expectations are always sky-high in Dallas, but it’s not just failing to live up to them this year for Jerry Jones’ team—it’s the alarming way in which they got blown off the field by the Baltimore Ravens, Saints, and Detroit Lions at home. And while getting guys like Micah Parsons back (that one could happen this week) would be huge, of course, just that won’t fix what’s wrong.

From 32 SZN (@Bb32SZN): Lions trading for an edge or nah?

32 SZN, yes, I think the Lions will call around on guys such as Cleveland Browns DE Za’Darius Smith and Carolina Panthers edge Jadeveon Clowney. I wouldn’t be surprised if they go fishing in deeper waters, too—since finding an edge to play opposite Aidan Hutchinson would be a long-term need—and ask teams about players that aren’t really on the block.

Detroit GM Brad Holmes has been disciplined and calculated in his roster build. Most of it has been drafting and developing players, and then re-signing those guys and some of the key pieces the team inherited from the previous regime.

But it’s instructive to remember that Holmes came from the Los Angeles Rams, and helped build a Super Bowl winner with a much different approach to team building. Add that to the fact that the Lions are right on the doorstep, having come so close last year, and looking now like an established power. I’ll be fascinated to see what Detroit does over the next two weeks.

From J.Allen (@Bu83Ja): When is Maxx Crosby getting traded to the Lions?

J. Allen, I’d be surprised. When Raiders owner Mark Davis fired Josh McDaniels, elevated Antonio Pierce, and then made Pierce his full-time head coach, he was doing so in large part on the council of an unofficial three-man leadership committee of Davante Adams, Crosby and Josh Jacobs. Jacobs left in free agency. Adams was ticked after the Raiders signed and decided to go with Gardner Minshew II at QB, and eventually got himself traded.

That leaves Crosby. Davis is aware of how he’s perceived now. He also has to give his current staff a chance to prove themselves. The roster is already stripped down, and the team could probably get more for him in March than now if they wanted to move him.

I think the Raiders stay the course.

From New England Sports Fellow (@NESportsFellow): How close are the Patriots to a mutiny and what qualities has Jerod Mayo shown to make it reasonable for him to come back next year?

New England, I don’t think a mutiny is coming because the players really like Mayo. Now, how locked in they will be the rest of the year is a different question.

That, to me, will boil down to the sort of chance the coaches give the players to win. As a former player, Mayo crossed the respect bridge with the locker room the minute he took the job—in that he didn’t have to earn that respect the same way a lifetime assistant coach might when becoming a head coach. But that only goes so far. Eventually, you have to show the guys you’ll make them better, as individuals and a team, which, in time, sets them all up to be richer.

And, yes, I still think Mayo has a ton of head-coach qualities. He’s sharp, knowledgeable and a connector. But my sense is he got the job a year or two earlier than he or the Krafts expected, and that’s started to show itself a bit.

From Tom S. (@UATubaTom): Is Tua Tagovailoa coming back really going to help the Dolphins, or is the offensive line too porous?

Tom, I think a big part of the problem is something Tagovailoa alluded to in showing sympathy for the other quarterbacks in Miami. Mike McDaniel has tailored the offense to his quarterback’s ability to process and get rid of the ball quickly, almost like a point guard, in tying his eyes to his feet and leveraging the ability of a lightning-fast skill group to uncover quickly.

The line is still fine, though not great. It’s the structure of the offense that crumbled sans Tagovailoa. So I expect that to come back to Miami. The defense, with its injuries, is another story.

From Baba (@BlackSheepBears): How do execs from other teams feel about Caleb Williams’s first six games? What’s his ceiling?

Baba, everyone I’ve talked to is impressed with Williams’s progress. The sky’s the limit, and there’s a lot to be excited about in Chicago. I also think the Chicago Bears’ staff showed a lot of gumption in its Peyton-Manning-in-1998-esque plan for the first pick—letting him make his mistakes, and trusting that his makeup wouldn’t allow for him to lose confidence going through it.

I think that, in a meaningful way, has accelerated his development.

From cstaneluis (@cstaneluis): Explain to everyone why the Browns should keep Andrew Berry after unproductive drafts, poor decisions w/QB selection, unprepared for injuries, and poor risk management of the cap?

The Browns roster is really good. I’m not sure what you’re seeing. Berry has mostly hit on his premium picks, though Jedrick Wills Jr.’s recent downturn is concerning. Plus, the team was good last year, winning 11 games despite playing five different quarterbacks and being down to its fourth and fifth tackles.

So let’s call this what is—a Deshaun Watson problem. If Watson is what he was in Houston in 2019 and ’20, the Browns are contending for a championship.

From Hi Hungry I’m Dad (@rcouture1028): Assuming the Patriots have a top-five pick, do they trade down to accumulate or go get the best tackle in the draft? They have to get a tackle, right?

Tackle. Tackle. Tackle. LSU’s Will Campbell and Texas’s Kelvin Banks Jr. look like the guys.

There’s a reason why so many teams try to address left tackle in the first round, and it’s because it’s generally the only place you can find a long-term answer at the position. If teams have one (Laremy Tunsil being the exception in Houston), they generally move heaven and earth to keep him.

From Jeff Gold (@JeffGold81): Who are the legitimate top half of the first-round QBs that we should be paying attention to at the moment? Thanks.

Jeff, the guys to watch: Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders, Georgia’s Carson Beck, Texas’s Quinn Ewers, Ole Miss’s Jaxson Dart and Alabama’s Jalen Milroe will all be on the radar. I haven’t done nearly enough calling around to have a firm handle on it, and I don’t think that many will go that high this year. This isn’t expected to be a great quarterback class.

From Tom Estabrook (@Est4brook): Couple big WR moves already. What’s the next one to drop? Bucs have an immediate need. A team like the Packers have a plethora of young talented WRs. Any scenario where Doubs or Wicks get moved?

No, Tom, I don’t think the Green Bay Packers move Dontayvion Wicks or Romeo Doubs. The Buccaneers could call around a little. As for who could be traded, Carolina would be a team I’d call, with Adam Thielen and Diontae Johnson available, and Tennessee’s Treylon Burks could be a nice reclamation project for someone.