Football

The 49ers got a win over the Cowboys on Sunday night and they hope to have running back Christian McCaffrey helping their bid for more victories after their bye week. Head coach Kyle Shanahan outlined the plan for McCaffrey during his Monday press conference. Shanahan said that McCaffrey will ramp up his workload while the team is off with an eye on making a formal return to practice ahead of their Week 10 game against the Buccaneers. “He’s had no setbacks so it looks like we’re on track, but he’s going to hit it hard this week while we’re gone and simulate some practice stuff for himself,” Shanahan said, via Nick Wagoner of ESPN.com. “As long as it all goes good, hopefully we’ll get him back in practice next week.” Running back Jordan Mason injured his shoulder on Sunday night and Shanahan said he’ll be evaluated again after the bye week. If all goes well for both players, the 49ers could have them both in the lineup when they take on Tampa.

The Patriots traded pass rusher Josh Uche to the Chiefs for a 2026 sixth-round pick today, and former Patriots coach Bill Belichick doesn’t think that move does anything to help New England. Belichick, who drafted Uche in 2020 and coached him for four years, said on the Pat McAfee Show that the Patriots probably would have received at least a 2026 sixth-round compensatory pick for Uche anyway if he has left in free agency, so letting him go for that now isn’t worth it. “Uche is at the end of his contract this year, he’ll be a free agent. If they don’t sign him they’ll get a comp pick, which will probably be a sixth anyway,” Belichick said. “Look, Josh Uche’s a really good rusher. He hasn’t had a chance to rush much this year for the Patriots because they’ve been behind a lot. The situation hasn’t been good. But he had a big year two years ago. Now, he had [Matthew] Judon was on the other side of him so it was two good pass rushers. But he’ll have a lot of opportunities to rush in Kansas City. I think that he’ll really help them. He’s got surprising power for his size. He’s got excellent quickness and a good get-off. And he has some flexibility in coverage. So I think it’s a good addition for a team that needs another pass rusher, which everybody does. Josh can do that. He’ll definitely help them.” Belichick thinks that if the Patriots had played their cards better, they could have received a better return. “The Patriots probably should have gotten more for him,” Belichick said. Belichick, who last week criticized Patriots coach Jerod Mayo for calling his team soft, hasn’t held back this year in his comments about the Patriots, and his criticisms of how his old team is now doing business.

Colts quarterback Anthony Richardson asked to come out of Sunday’s loss to the Texans for a play because he “needed a break” after doing a lot of running on the two previous plays. On Monday, head coach Shane Steichen said it’s possible the team will be asking Richardson to spend a longer period of time on the bench in Week Nine and beyond. Steichen was asked at his press conference if Richardson will be the starting quarterback against the Vikings this week. “We’re evaluating everything,” Steichen said, via multiple reporters. Richardson missed two games with an oblique injury earlier this year and has completed 44.4 percent of his passes with four touchdowns and seven interceptions in his six starts. Joe Flacco started the two games that Richardson did not play and would presumably return to the starting lineup if the Colts decide that it is time to make a change.

Browns head coach Kevin Stefanski saying he’s sticking with the starting quarterback at his Monday press conference has become a weekly tradition in Cleveland this year, but this week’s version will likely be met with more happiness than most of the previous ones. Stefanski told reporters that Jameis Winston “is the starter” after he threw for 334 yards and three touchdowns, including the game-winner, in Sunday’s 29-24 victory over the Rams. Stefanski praised Winston’s play and also praised the protection that allowed the quarterback to work through his progressions to find the right throw. Winston’s play likely made that answer a formality, but the Browns had promoted Dorian Thompson-Robinson to the No. 2 quarterback spot in Week Seven. Thompson-Robinson replaced Deshaun Watson when Watson tore his Achilles and then left with a finger injury that kept him out against Baltimore. Bailey Zappe is the other quarterback on the active roster. Watson’s play before his injury made it hard for Stefanski to justify sticking with him as the starter. It’s an easier case this week and the Browns will be hoping that remains the case after they face the Chargers in Week Nine.

The Titans raised some eyebrows when they fired Mike Vrabel as their head coach after the 2023 season and the first months of Brian Callahan’s tenure have not gone as hoped. Sunday’s 52-14 loss to the Lions dropped the Titans to 1-6 and it featured sloppy play across all three phases of the game. It came a week after the Titans got blown out by the Bills, so the performances have been getting worse in Tennessee. On Monday, Callahan’s press conference featured several questions about the level of belief in the direction of the franchise. Callahan said he’s not “dissuaded from what I think we’re capable of being” by the run of bad results and said the reason for that is because “the definition of faith and trust is believing in something you don’t have any proof of at the moment.” “Our record is what it is,” Callahan said. “It’s not indicative to me of what I think we’re capable of. That’s the first thing. The second thing, I don’t — my vision and my belief and what we’re going to do and how we’re doing it. Haven’t had the results to show for it yet and that’s disappointing. I was hopeful, I was anticipating better than where we’re at right now. That’s just the reality, but we’re not there. . . . We should be better. We need to be better. I know where we’re headed, I believe in it very much.” Callahan said he’s had good communication with owner Amy Adams Strunk and feels that she shares his belief in the team’s future, but noted that “none of us are that patient” in the NFL. That means some tangible signs of growth would be a good thing for Callahan and the Titans in the weeks to come.

Late in the third quarter of Sunday’s matchup between the Chiefs and Raiders, quarterback Patrick Mahomes threw an interception to Tre’von Moehrig that the safety returned to Kansas City’s 3-yard line. Down 17-13 at that point, it looked like the Raiders were about to take a 20-17 lead over a division rival that was struggling offensively. Alexander Mattison rushed for 2 yards to Kansas City’s 1 on first down. But then he was stuffed for no gain on second down. He was stuffed for a 2-yard loss on third down. And Garnder Minshew was sacked for a 5-yard loss on the next play for a turnover on downs. It was the turning point of the game. The Chiefs went on a 19-play, 87-yard drive in response that ended in a field goal to go up 20-13. The next time Las Vegas had the ball, Minshew fumbled when trying to escape the pocket on the second play of the possession, with Kansas City recovering. After the game, both head coach Antonio Pierce and Minshew lamented not being able to score from inside the 5 after the takeaway. “You’ve got to punch it in, right?” Pierce said. “Last week, we had the same opportunity, and we threw it four straight times., Trying to get it. We just got knocked back. They won the line of scrimmage on those plays. “I’m trying to establish some physicality with our guys up front,” Pierce later added. “Right there at the 3-yard line, you have to pound it in. Turnover, sudden change — you should be able to punch that ball in.” Minshew called it “really frustrating” to get stuffed at that point on the field. “That’s obviously something we have to be better at,” Minshew said. “We’ve been getting down there a few times. The defense put us down there a few times. “We have to be able to get it in the end zone, point-blank, period, if we want to be the team we have to be. I think we’ll have to look at it, figure out what we’ve done well over the last little bit, and figure out what’s not working and go from there.” The Raiders are now 2-6, with the club scorn 20 points or fewer in each of its last five games and in six of eight games overall. The club will go to Cincinnati next Sunday before a Week 10 bye.

Haason Reddick made his Jets debut on Sunday, but his presence wasn’t enough to bring an end to the team’s losing streak. Reddick played 26 snaps a week after ending his months-long holdout by agreeing to a revised one-year deal with the team that acquired him in a trade with the Eagles this offseason and the edge rusher had a pair of quarterback pressures in that action. The holdout cost Reddick millions of dollars and he fielded questions after the 25-22 loss to the Patriots about why he decided to handle things this way. Reddick didn’t have much to say on that front and tried to keep the focus on what’s next for the Jets. “As of right now, fellas and everybody’s that here, I have nothing to say as far as the holdout,” Reddick said, via a video from the team. “The only thing I’m worried about right now is what can I do to be better, what can I do to get myself fully up to speed. We’ve got a Thursday night game, and that’s the only thing I’m focused on right now. How can I get better, how can I help the team win and what do I need to do to make sure I can get these Ws.” The list of disappointing things about the 2024 Jets grows longer and longer by the week, but the Reddick situation figures to remain somewhere near the top when all is said and done.

Every football fan in America is talking about the final play of the Commanders’ win over the Bears on Sunday, when Jayden Daniels launched a 52-yard Hail Mary for the game-winning touchdown. But the second-to-last play of the game also deserves some discussion. On the second-to-last play, the Commanders had the ball at their own 35-yard line with six seconds left. They were out of timeouts. They were too far for Daniels to launch the ball into the end zone for a Hail Mary, and they wanted to get closer and quickly get out of bounds. If the Bears could tackle the Commanders in bounds, it would be game over. So what did the Bears do? They went into a prevent defense, giving up a huge section of the field to Commanders receiver Terry McLaurin, who caught a pass from Daniels and stepped out of bounds for a 13-yard gain. The play took only four seconds. Everyone should have known it was coming; Tony Romo drew the exact route that McLaurin was going to run on the telestrator just before the snap. Once McLaurin got out of bounds, Romo explained what it did for the Commanders. “That gives them a chance now because they couldn’t have reached the end zone on a throw before,” Romo said. The Commanders took that chance and threw the game-winning Hail Mary. So why did the Bears give them that chance? Bears coach Matt Eberflus explained. “Because you’re defending touchdown, right? You’re defending touchdown there. And them throwing the ball for 13 yards or 10 yards, whatever that is, doesn’t really matter. It’s always going to come down to that last play,” Eberflus said, via Courtney Cronin of ESPN. But it did matter. The whole reason the Commanders wanted to pick up the 13 yards before the Hail Mary is because those 13 yards mattered, getting close enough to the end zone for a Hail Mary to be feasible. And if the Bears had played their regular defense, they might have been able to tackle McLaurin inbounds and end the game before the Hail Mary. The reality is that Eberflus’s defense had a massive letdown. And not just on the Hail Mary, but on the play that set up the Hail Mary.

Quarterback Jordan Love isn’t the only injured player the Packers are keeping an eye on after Sunday’s win over the Jaguars. Cornerback Jaire Alexander hobbled off the field after Jaguars tight end Evan Engram’s game-tying touchdown catch in the fourth quarter. The Packers would end the game with a field goal on the final play of the game, so the Packers defense was never back on the field. Rob Demovsky of ESPN.com reports that Alexander will have an MRI on his knee to determine what kind of injury he suffered on the play. Alexander had a tackle and two passes defensed in the win. He has 16 tackles, two interceptions, seven passes defensed, and a fumble recovery in six appearances this season.

There was no talk about the Patriots being soft after Sunday’s game against the Jets. Rhamondre Stevenson’s touchdown with 22 seconds left to play lifted the Patriots to a 25-22 win a week after head coach Jerod Mayo called the team’s players soft as a result of their performance in a loss to the Jaguars in London. In his opening comments at a postgame press conference this week, Mayo said “the guys showed the resilience they’ve developed over the past few weeks” and returned to that theme while declining to revisit his previous assessment of the team’s players. “I don’t think I’ve ever really questioned the resilience of this team,” Mayo said, via a transcript from the team. “I’m not going to go back to those comments. What I will say is we have a room full of guys with the mentality that you got to change the page every day. Every day is a new day.” Every day being a new day is a plus for Mayo and the Patriots as a whole because it means that there won’t be days of chatter about whether Mayo’s characterization of his team was actually an indictment of his own shortcomings as a coach.