NFL Takeaways: Week 7
By Tucker Harlin
Week 7 of the NFL season is in the books!
The men are beginning to separate from the boys across the league. Some teams are rising to the occasion, others are wallowing in the cesspool of mediocrity.
Here are my top three takeaways from Week 7.
THE AFC IS THE WEAKEST IT’S BEEN IN YEARS
The competition to get into the playoffs has seriously dried up in the AFC. The Chiefs are still the best team in the conference, but Patrick Mahomes is having far and away the worst season of his career.
The only division with a race at the top is the AFC North, but both the Steelers and Ravens will find their way into the playoffs if competition doesn’t increase soon in other divisions.
Outside of your current division leaders, there isn’t a lot to look at in the AFC South or East.
The Bills are running away in the East. Some of that is due to the Dolphins losing Tua Tagovailoa in Week 2, but the Jets being a total systems failure isn’t something I had on the 2024 NFL bingo card.
The Colts are somehow in the playoff picture in the AFC South. Both the Titans and Jaguars are awful this season.
With the Colts, the Broncos and Chargers are the other two teams in the mix for a Wild Card spot at the moment. None of those teams look like they can put together a deep playoff run.
INJURIES WILL PREVENT THE 49ERS FROM MAKING THE PLAYOFFS
The reigning NFC champs have a serious uphill battle to fight if they want a spot in the playoffs.
Christian McCaffrey is another three weeks from seeing the field, something we’ve known for a while. But the other key pieces on the offense are starting to suffer.
Top receiver Deebo Samuel has pneumonia, second receiver Brandon Aiyuk has torn his ACL, and third receiver Jauan Jennings has been banged up of late. So the best healthy options are journeyman Chris Conley and rookie Ricky Pearsall, who has been activated after recovering from a bullet through the chest he took in a shooting in San Francisco.
While injuries haven’t caused as much trouble, the defense has given way in important division losses to both the Cardinal and Rams.
The NFC West is the weakest division in the conference at the moment, but I don’t see a way the 49ers pass the Seahawks for the lead if this trend continues.
JAMEIS GIVES THE BROWNS AT LEAST AN EQUAL CHANCE TO WIN AS DESHAUN
The Browns will test this theory the rest of the season as Deshaun Watson has ruptured his Achilles.
Call me crazy, but maybe the guy that missed almost two entire seasons due to a suspension isn’t the best trade acquisition for the future of the franchise?
The Browns went from irrelevant to a Wild Card team with Joe Flacco’s heroics on the back end of last season. Cleveland has been worse under Watson this season than last, starting the year 1-6.
Jameis Winston could put up similar numbers to the 30 touchdowns, 30 interceptions season he had in 2019 in Tampa Bay and still bring more excitement to the Browns than Deshaun Watson.
I’m not saying Jameis is a model citizen by any means, but he’s a character unlike anyone else in the NFL right now. Browns fans can at least get behind that.
