2023 NFL Thanksgiving One reason for every team to be thankful this season
Not everything has gone according to plan in the 2023 season. Six different teams have . At least three have made sudden staffing changes -- two at offensive coordinator, another at head coach. Even the reigning champion , while atop their division, are wrestling with frustrating offensive hiccups.But Thanksgiving is upon us, and Thanksgiving is a time to be grateful. So here's one thing each team can be thankful for:A reset probably awaits. When you're 2-9 and getting outscored by more than 90 points over the course of the year, well, it's never too early to look ahead. With two first-round picks in 2024, they might have a legit shot at a top quarterback prospect.The defense is making strides. QB is another story entirely, but Je sie Bates and Co. enter the home stretch as a top-10 unit in both total and pa s defense, helping the club at least stay competitive. been better than advertised. After a weird offseason in which he and Baltimore flirted with a split, only to reconcile under new coordinator Todd Monken, the QB is playing the most efficient football of his career. just keeps firing. Whether is teasing discontent or Ken Dorsey is getting axed, the NFL's best boom-or-bust QB remains a human highlight reel. His 29 total TDs lead all signal-callers and sometimes save this club from itself. has to go up from here. And by "from here" we mean "after 2023," likely. The No. 1 pick has looked a tick or three behind NFL speed while surrounded by middling weapons. Will he also have a more creative staff soon? Tommy Edman Jersey The resources will be there to restock (again). Last offseason was supposed to be their big spending spree, and it kind of was. But regardle s of ' future -- and the QB has again flashed his immense talent between injuries and critical giveaways -- Chicago could end up with a pair of top-10 picks in the 2024 draft. can rest up for real. Obviously his lo s is going to sting until the final buzzer on the season. But after such a medical roller coaster, it'll be good for the franchise QB to truly heal and hopefully enter 2024 refreshed for a title bid.Jim Schwartz is that dude. More accurately, Cleveland already had premium talent on "D," and their new coordinator has helped them turn it up a notch. Without his unit suffocating opponents, their QB carousel might've already sunk them. Adversity hasn't ruined them. Not yet, at least. Widely written off as pretenders after a big lo s to the in Week 5, Dallas has since gone 4-1, with the sole lo s coming in a shootout with the 9-1 , and is getting MVP-level play from QB . As always, they have the talent to make noise. Let's see if they can keep it up against contenders.Clutch is back. At least in glimpses. After a horrendous 1-5 start in which the QB was just OK for Sean Payton, he's helped spearhead back-to-back last-minute wins with perfect precision throws. All of a sudden Denver is 5-5 and feisty.They're not just talented; they're resilient. We all expected Dan Campbell's squad to be better in 2023, especially the way they finished 2022. But Jack Flaherty Jersey they didn't sink their heads after a drubbing at the hands of the Ravens in Week 7, and they've survived some real scrap-fests with teams like the Chiefs and along the way. The youth movement is growing. may or may not be the long-term answer at QB, but he's at least taken recent strides airing the ball out late. And Matt LaFleur has found ways to incorporate the speed of weapons like .. What more needs to be said? Coach DeMeco Ryans is certainly deserving of praise as well, finally giving Houston a long-term leader. But when you can strike gold on drafting a QB, well, that helps a ton. Stroud has shown the composure, pocket presence and gunslinging authority of a 10-year veteran while vying for Offensive Rookie of the Year.Shane Steichen is maximizing a makeshift situation. Losing dynamic rookie QB after le s than four full games, the rookie head coach still has Indy at .500, making real contributors out of guys like and . The standard has been raised. Even at 7-3, and Co. feel like an unfinished product, which is a testament to the program shift that Doug Pederson has overseen in just 1.5 seasons on the job. If they can fire on all cylinders with their weapons, you're talking about another postseason run, this time perhaps as more than just a spoiler.The defense is showing up. playing Superman can only save you so many times when your only reliable pa s target is , who's been hobbled and not entirely himself as it is. So thank goodne s for Steve Spagnuolo's unit, which Austin Gomber Jersey has enabled K.C. to remain atop the AFC West with serious pre sure in the trenches and physicality on the back end.Antonio Pierce has rewoven the locker room. Yes, already. In just three games as the replacement for Josh McDaniels, the former linebacker has clearly loosened up stars like , while keeping Vegas competitive. isn't crumbling amid the noise. He isn't nece sarily elevating the team as much as he could, either, but considering how edgy coach Brandon Staley's been after waves of crunch-time defeats, at least the franchise QB is still putting the ball where it needs to be, as he did late against the Packers.They're actually hanging in ballgames. Which is a lot more than might've been said during the offseason, when they were more content unloading big names than collecting them. Who knows if can remain upright behind their line, but between and , they've had enough youngsters step up to keep Sean McVay interested. breakout wasn't a fluke. The QB still has big-game hurdles to clear, but when healthy since the start of 2022, he's clearly been a top-five precision pa ser. His numbers during that span: 46 TDs, 16 INTs and a 15-8 record. Josh Dobbs. Once went down in Week 8, all hope seemed lost, especially with already banged up. No one could've predicted how seamle sly Dobbs would emerge as the emergency fill-in; his scrambling, in particular, coupled with Brian Flores' aggre sive defense, has Minnesota poised to make a wild-card push.The end of the broken regime could be near. Bill Belichick will forever be a Patriots and NFL legend. But it just hasn't gone swimmingly since exit, and things have hit rock bottom multiple times this year. A reset at QB, coach and/or general manager feels likelier by the week, and the 27-33 mark since 2020 would probably justify it.The NFC South is bad (again). Low-hanging fruit, perhaps, but as long as Dennis Allen's defense remains stingy, New Orleans should have a shot to outpace the equally mediocre Falcons (4-6) and (4-6) for a potential home playoff game (!). This year's struggles could force a reevaluation of 2022's breakout. In other words, while has already been rewarded for his debut under Brian Daboll, it's already clear that investment may have been misguided. Better yet, perhaps the crumble back to Earth will finally convince team bra s it's time Willie McGee Jersey to add legit O-line and receiving help.They might've accidentally put themselves out of further misery. At 4-6, making an inexplicably late decision to demote once again, the Jets are "not dead" according to , but it might be better for all parties if Rodgers delays his own comeback until 2024, when hopefully New York has finally opted to addre s its own OL and WR holes.They refuse to lose. Cliche and simple, yes, but how is it that this team consistently fails to play a complete, balanced game and yet always, inevitably, comes up big when it counts? That's been the theme with Nick Sirianni and since 2022, and now Sean Desai's defense is joining the show as a crunch-time deliverer. Mike Tomlin finally recognized the offensive ineptitude. He took sole responsibility for axing coordinator Matt Canada ahead of Week 12. It might not save QB and a stale, old-fashioned unit. But it at least shows a willingne s to improve. is the real deal. Skeptics were quick to hound him for an October slump that was really just a couple of poor late-game throws under pre sure. But the former Mr. Irrelevant has been close to automatic as Kyle Shanahan's point guard since arriving on the scene as a rookie. At 23, he's wired more like a seasoned vet.The cornerback duo is built for the future. It's anyone's gue s if and Pete Carroll can engineer another playoff bid, but and certainly give the "D" hope for the long haul. has exceeded expectations. It's not that the ex-Browns and Panthers castoff has been a world-beater. But he's mostly controlled the ball while still attacking superior foes, enabling the Bucs to hang around in a post-Tom Brady world.The shift into the future has begun. doesn't have the line or weapons to warrant a proper evaluation as the new QB, but at least demotion has signaled this club is ready to reckon with the nece sity of an overhaul. is a fun watch. A frustrating one, too, at times, but if Ron Rivera is truly on his last legs as the coach under new management, well, the young QB deserves credit for giving so much gusto with such Justin Williams Jersey a ma sive workload week in and week out.