Mailbag: Vikings, Jaguars, Bengals, Bucs Are Big NFL Surprises, And An Opinion About The Debates

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A lot to get to in this week’s All That And A Bag Of NFL Mail, including the biggest surprises so far this season, a check-in on Ryan Tannehill and something different:

A question about the debates.

We begin this edition of the NFL Mailbag with a wide-ranging question:

Q.

Pleasant and Unpleasant NFL Surprises

A. That is a very good question, Ed. And it comes with the added benefit that it gives me options for an easy answer.

Bad first: I am not just surprised but stunned at the disappointing start by the Jacksonville Jaguars and Cincinnati Bengals.

The Jaguars are 0-4 and the Bengals are 1-3. Both are in last place in their respective divisions.

The Jaguars started the season with a bitter loss to the Dolphins in which they seemed to be the better team and had the better plan and preparation by coach Doug Pederson. 

But they turned the ball over that day and lost on a game-ending field goal. 

Has Pederson Messaging Failed?

Fine, time to move on.

Except they’ve gotten worse. 

Trevor Lawrence is playing poorly. There are grumblings about the play-calling, the urgency of the players, and the messaging players are getting from coaches that perhaps isn’t hitting the right notes.

It’s rough right now.

The Bengals, meanwhile, had all the makings of a Super Bowl contender when the season began. 

Quarterback Joe Burrow finally got an opportunity to go through an entire training camp, which he hadn’t been able to do previously. The offensive line seemed stronger than past years. The secondary got offseason attention. 

All good. And then they lost to the Patriots in the regular-season opener. 

And, I get it, Tee Higgins didn’t play. Maybe Ja’Marr Chase wasn’t fully ready after sitting-in during training camp and still not getting a contract. But that loss was stunning. And disappointing.

The Bengals clearly were not ready to begin the season and have had to scramble to gain their footing.

Vikings, Buccaneers Have Impressed

The pleasant surprises? I’m impressed by what the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have done. I’m impressed by the Minnesota Vikings. I’m impressed by the Washington Commanders.

Who would have guessed Sam Darnold would lead the Vikings to an undefeated record at this point? It’s a testament to the work coach Kevin O’Connell has done with Darnold and the offense. It’s really a testament to the entire coaching staff and personnel department.

The Bucs are emerging as a borderline power. They beat the Lions in Detroit. They blew out the Eagles at home.

The combo of Baker Mayfield putting his stamp on the offense and coach Todd Bowles having the defense play with its proverbial hair on fire is impressive.

Finally, the Commanders being 3-1 was not on my bingo card. Jayden Daniels is a revelation. And that team has competent coaching and GM Adam Peters has done a very good job of adding talent.

If this keeps up, Peters adds more pieces, Daniels improves as expected, coach Dan Quinn’s defense goes to the next level, the Commanders are going to be a problem in the coming years.

Ryan Tannehill Waiting For Flacco Chance

Q. Apologies if you’ve answered this already, but why didn’t the Dolphins sign Ryan Tannehill to back up Tua, either in the offseason or after Tua got hurt? Did they try, and Tannehill just wasn’t interested? How could Chris Grier possibly think Skylar Thompson would be an adequate replacement for Tua?  Finally, why can’t Steve Ross see how much of a liability Grier is? 

—Paul 

A. Wow, that’s a lot, Paul. 

Ryan Tannehill got feelers in the offseason but nothing that moved him to sign anywhere. He decided his recourse was to go the so-called Joe Flacco route and be available to a team if they lost their starter during the season.

The Dolphins lost their starter but didn’t seriously consider Tannehill. They were convinced Skylar Thompson had developed well enough as to serve them in Tua Tagovailoa’s absence.

They were wrong. I wrote about this major miscalculation weeks ago. 

Ross, meanwhile, has been all in on the Grier and Mike McDaniel duo. I do not think he’s fully soured on either, at this point. But there is a limit to his faith, especially as it pertains to Grier, I’m told.

Thoughts On The Debates And Journalism

Q. Greetings from the free state of Northern California, Mando. Did you watch the debates? What did you think?

–Vern, Amador County, Calif.

A. (William Wallace voice)  Freedom!

Appreciate the question, Vern. So, I did watch the debates and I have thoughts, but I’m not going to tell you who I think won because that’s not why people generally read me.

But this stood out, and is definitely my wheelhouse: Journalism is dead as far as these network anchors are concerned. 

There is nothing more troubling than umpires hired to dispassionately call balls and strikes wearing one of the teams’ uniforms. And that is what happened in the two debates this year. 

ABC and CBS moderators were clearly helping the Democrats – even to the point of “fact checking” one side with provably wrong facts while allowing the other side to say ludicrous things such as, there are no American troops deployed in war zones anywhere now.

Margaret Brennan Fails Audience

At one point Wednesday night, when J.D. Vance called out moderator Margaret Brennan for fact-checking him (against the rules in this debate, by the way), she cut off his microphone while he was correcting her misstatement.

And she was snarky about it, which is unprofessional.

It was a stunningly bad moment for journalism that is supposed to always try to get the facts correct. Brennan and Nora O’Donnell repeatedly cut off debate between the candidates to tell us they had a lot of important questions to ask.

Ladies, you’re not the main course. You think yourself a steak when, in fact, you’re a condiment. 

I tuned in to hear the candidates debate each other, discuss issues of national importance, and, yes, correct you when you fail at your job.

Salguero moderator style preference:

“Candidates, we’re giving billions to Ukraine but not East Tennessee, Western Carolina and other hurricane-ravaged regions in America. Go.

“Stop. Thank you.

“Now, the soaring price of goods and services that has adversely affected hundreds of millions of Americans could go higher with the current longshoremen strike. Go.”

OutKick Senior NFL Writer Armando Salguero tackles your questions, comments, criticisms and kudos every Wednesday. Email him: Armando.Salguero@Outkick.com or post to his replies on X: @ArmandoSalguero