My Meandering Mind …

I have run across some thinking that the Tennessee Titans need to bench Cam Ward for a game or three so he can “get his head right”.  I do not think that is a good idea because the critical objective for the Titans at this moment is to find out if Cam Ward is going to be their QB going forward or not.  If not, this is a QB-rich draft coming up; if so, the Titans can focus on the abundance of other holes in that roster.

Ward’s backup is Mitchell Trubisky; I may not know as much about NFL football as the GMs around the league, but I am pretty confident in saying that Mitchell Trubisky is a career backup QB and not anyone’s “QB of the Future”.  So, what might be gained by the Titans’ braintrust in sitting Cam Ward and watching Mitchell Trubisky for a couple of games?  Perhaps, if the Titans had a backup who might be a longshot to become that future team leader such a move might make some sense.  But with the current roster reality, I think that would be a bad move by the Titans coaches and GM.

Moving on …  The Las Vegas Raiders’ record is 4-4-0 this morning; that puts them in third place in the AFC West only two games behind the division-leading Denver Broncos.  The Raiders are not going to catch the Broncos absent some bizarre intervention(s) by the football gods, and I say that for this reason:

• The Raiders have won 4 games; that is more than 14 other teams in the NFL as of this morning.  Congratulations to the Raiders.
• The Raiders’ wins have come over the Dolphins, Chargers, Saints and Jets.
• The cumulative record for those four vanquished foes is 5-24-0 as of this morning and the best record of those four is 2-5-0 (Saints).
• Strength of schedule matters …

Switching gears …  There is a lot of chatter around the idea that there will be a broadcasting divorce between Joe Buck and Troy Aikman at the end of this year’s NFL season when the pair will broadcast the Super Bowl on ESPN.  Maybe that is real; maybe that is just rumor; time will tell.  One of the ideas that someone threw up on the wall to see if it would stick is that Aikman would leave ESPN and Joe Buck would stay on with a contract extension and get a new partner who might be Pat McAfee.

Let me address that single possibility:

• I have been critical of McAfee in the past for his over-the-top bombast; that aura continues to exist on his weekday program and on College Game Day.  Big-time bombast and Joe Buck are not close to a good idea.
• However, to be fair, McAfee has also shown a toned-down broadcasting style on ESPN’s studio and onsite coverage of Monday Night Football.  If that lower intensity “temperament” can be projected continuously, McAfee might indeed be a quite acceptable color analyst.

If I were part of Mahogany Row in Bristol CT, I would try to see if a pairing of Joe Buck and Jason Garrett had any “chemistry”.  I am not nearly an ESPN exec, but I think that is a combination I would explore if I had the chance.  And most importantly, all of this depends on the accuracy of the “reports” that Troy Aikman will leave ESPN in the Spring of 2027.  If all this hype about a rift between Aikman and Buck is only hype and nothing more, then ignore all the above and just enjoy the two of them bringing NFL games to us in the future.

Finally, with the mid-term elections now behind us, let me close with this observation by H. L. Mencken:

“If a politician found he had cannibals among his constituents, he would promise them missionaries for dinner.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports …