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Aaron Rodgers is tarnished silverware, Leonard Williams is an onion and 9 things we learned in Week 13

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For The Win (usatoday.com) 

Week 13 was a weird one for young quarterbacks.

Bryce Young and Drake Maye each shined in heartbreaking losses. C.J. Stroud struggled in defeat. Trevor Lawrence entered the concussion protocol thanks to a late hit at the tail end of a scramble. Aidan O’Connell gave the Kansas City Chiefs all they could handle despite throwing 25 of his 34 passes to the Las Vegas Raiders’ two trustworthy targets.

On the other side of the spectrum, Aaron Rodgers shambled one step closer to the worst season of his illustrious NFL career. What else did we learn in Week 13? Let’s talk about it.

[Please bear with me for any Twitter embed issues. Our editing software has become a whole problem on that front the past couple weeks. Rest assured, if there’s a play alluded to in the text it’s worth clicking through to see if it didn’t make it into the article itself.]

1. Drake Maye is so much better than Mac Jones ever was (already)

Bob DeChiara-Imagn Images

Mac Jones was a Pro Bowler as a rookie for a playoff-bound New England Patriots team. Drake Maye will not make the playoffs in 2024. Barring a litany of no-shows, he probably won’t be winging passes at drones in the Pro Bowl Games.

But he’s been meaningfully better than Jones in more than one way.

Maye presented the best possible outcome for a Patriots squad with no realistic shot of a playoff berth coming into Week 13 (and zero actual shot following it). He looked like a franchise quarterback finally worthy of succeeding Tom Brady in Foxborough. And he lost in the process, pushing New England another step closer to a premium draft pick it can then use or trade to rebuild a talent-deficient roster.

How’d Maye look like “the guy” instead of just “a guy?” Look at the factors behind his first half touchdown throw to Austin Hooper. The play itself is questionable, dragging two targets and three defenders into the same cramped corner of a compressed field. But Maye rises above this. He’s confident enough to take the throw and skilled enough to pull it off.

More importantly, he shined despite the lack of blocking help around him. New England gave up four sacks in 34 dropbacks Sunday. On top of that, Maye’s linemen were called for holding five times before halftime. Still, the Patriots moved the ball despite these “and long” situations. Per The Athletic’s Jim Ayello, New England’s 279 yards in the first half were the most Indianapolis has given up before halftime since 2022.

While Maye did throw an interception, it was one for which he can be absolved. It’s another tight window throw to Hunter Henry for a quick pickup to set up first and goal. But it’s slightly off target and Henry can’t corral a catchable ball. It bounces off his hands/knee and then chest before settling into Julian Blackmon’s hands to erase a scoring opportunity late in a tight game.

Did that scare Maye away from similar throws against an opportunistic defense on its heels?

No sir/ma’am, it did not.

Maye’s defense couldn’t protect that seven-point lead. It gave up a fourth-and-goal Anthony Richardson touchdown pass before allowing the beefy quarterback to run for a game-winning two-point conversion with 12 seconds to play. Even so, the rookie finished his day with just under 300 total yards while completing 80 percent of his passes. Granted, that’s at least partially because he didn’t attempt a single throw that traveled more than 16 yards downfield:

via nextgenstats.nfl.com

but given the Pats’ limitations, that’s a pretty reasonable gameplan! Maye threw 16 passes that traveled between five and 15 yards downfield. He completed all but four, and one of those misses was the Henry drop above.

It’s difficult to quantify how different this is compared to the Jones era. Jones wasn’t just failing to complete deep balls due to a lack of personnel; he was failing because he lacked the arm strength to zip throws into tight windows, instead thriving on lofted passes to schemed-open wideouts. On Sunday, Maye made those passes happen not because he saw a receiver without a defender nearby but because he knew right where to put the ball where a defender couldn’t get it.

Maye’s completion percentage over expected (CPOE) vs. Indianapolis was a robust 8.9 percent; Jones’s average as a Patriot was 0.0. Jones was an average quarterback making the plays you’d expect from someone at his level. Maye is creating plays with his arm, legs and confidence and looks like a future star in the process.

That’s the bright side of another lost season in New England. The Patriots are a bad team. They’re low on exciting talent and are not particularly well coached (though Jerod Mayo is learning on the job). But Drake Maye looks better than any quarterback the franchise has employed since 2019. If he can keep looking great and losing games, the Pats’ rebuild won’t take nearly as long as it seems.

2. Aaron Jones is having a weird, uncharacteristic winter

Jeffrey Becker-Imagn Images

Jones remains a valuable RB1 in his eighth year as a pro. From 2016 to Week 10 of the 2024 season, he’d touched the ball 1,619 times with just 16 total fumbles — a fumble rate under one percent.

Since Week 11’s win over the Tennessee Titans, the Minnesota Vikings’ top running back has handled the ball 48 times. He’s put the ball on the turf four times in that stretch (8.3 percent), including this fumble that briefly moved Cam Akers into top tailback duty.

Jones has been a spark for Minnesota in his first season away from Green Bay. But his inability to be trusted in Week 13 was a detriment to the Vikings’ offense. Jones had only four carries against the league’s 24th-ranked rushing defense.

This was in part because his team trailed most of the afternoon, but also because of ball security issues. Sam Darnold tied for the team lead when it came to rushing and the Vikes’ 68 rushing yards stands as their second-lowest output of 2024.

These issues weren’t limited to handoffs. A Darnold pass caromed off the hands of a diving Jones late in a 19-13 game, forcing the Vikings to settle for a field goal rather than take the lead. Fortunately, redemption lay ahead.

His next target was a considerably easier one, hauled in for a game-winning touchdown. Jones’s 28 total yards are his lowest output as a Viking. But he found his place when Minnesota needed it most which, in the end, is pretty true to Aaron Jones.

3. George Pickens had an extremely characteristic day

Imagn Images

From George Pickens had the most George Pickens-y day vs. the Bengals:

This has made Pickens the NFL’s random event generator. On Sunday, with a chance to effectively scuttle the Cincinnati Bengals’ postseason hopes, he fired up that engine and had one of the most George Pickens games of all time.

First, Pickens stumbled coming out of his break. This allowed Cam Taylor-Britt to dispatch him to the turf with minimal effort before taking an interception back the other way for six points.

Pickens made up for his mistake one drive later by taking a screen pass and showing off his run-after-catch ability for a 17-yard touchdown.

On the next drive, Pickens showcased his RAC again with a slow-motion spin move to pick up an extra five yards and move the Steelers into Bengals territory. Then, he marched them right back with a 15-yard taunting penalty.

That wound up not mattering as Wilson led Pittsburgh on a 70-yard touchdown drive anyway. Halftime came and went and Pickens continued his wildly characteristic game.

Read the whole breakdown here.

4. Cam Heyward is 35 years old and still feasting against the Cincinnati Bengals

Philip G. Pavely-USA TODAY Sports

Cam Heyward is Pittsburgh royalty. In 14 seasons as a Steeler, he’s been a leader on the field and in the locker room. He’s a six-time Pro Bowler and four-time All-Pro destined for the franchise’s Hall of Honor.

At 35 years old, he’s nearing the end of his career. When it comes to playing AFC North rival Cincinnati, however, he’s capable of throwing it back to 2017 to thoroughly destroy the Bengals in every facet of the game.

When Chase Brown tries to run at the goal line? Cam Heyward.

When Joe Burrow drops back to pass and Cincinnati tries to block him with a single lineman? Cam Heyward.

When Cam Heyward can’t generate penetration? It doesn’t matter; CAM HEYWARD.

Heyward finished his day two tackles for loss, two quarterback hits, one sack and one pass defensed. He helped one drive end in a field goal rather than a touchdown and ended another by tipping Burrow’s third quarter throw. After an injury-marred 2023, he’s playing at a Pro Bowl level once more — and he’s a big reason why the Steelers defense is so scary, even on a day where they allowed 31 Bengals offensive points.

5. Aaron Rodgers failed the New York Jets once more

Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images

It’s official. For the ninth straight season, the Jets will finish with a losing record.

This wasn’t supposed to be how things turned out. New York opened the 2024 season with the top odds to win the AFC East. The four-time MVP they’d traded for in 2023 was ready to rewrite his legacy and chase down the second Super Bowl he believes could validate his place among the greats. But Aaron Rodgers hasn’t looked like anything resembling the league’s most valuable player. He looks like a guy who turns 41 on Monday.

The Jets led 21-7 when Rodgers overthrew a wide-open Garrett Wilson in the end zone. The next play, he blanked Leonard Williams dropping into coverage and managed to throw a 91-yard pick-six to a defensive lineman. This sounds impossible, but through Aaron Rodgers all things are possible.

Everything gets worse if you unwind from there. Rodgers had an early 80-yard touchdown drive to start Sunday’s scoring, but was only bailed out of a drive-killing third down sack by a Leonard Williams facemask. New York’s other two touchdowns came on a Kene Nwangwu kickoff return and after a short field created by a Seahawks fumble on another kickoff.

Rodgers, facing what’s been a fairly average Seattle defense, managed zero points once the first quarter ended. Williams flattened him on a key third down late in Seattle territory, then the veteran’s all-or-nothing fourth-and-15 heave with the game on the line was another overthrow to Wilson, this time covered, in the end zone.

On its face, 185 yards and two touchdowns isn’t a bad passing line. Dig deeper and you see a quarterback losing an ongoing battle against the hands of time. Rodgers averaged just 4.7 yards per pass attempt. Factor in sacks and his average dropback was good for just four net yards. He attempted 14 passes that traveled more than 10 yards downfield.

He completed *two* of them.

via nextgenstats.nfl.com

Rodgers’s beauty was his ability to escape pressure, extend plays and whip darts downfield in a way no other quarterback could. He still believes he can do all these things, even as his body begins to decay like spent uranium. After years of staving off his half life, it’s clear he no longer has the potency he once did.

The Jets would have been fine knowing he was no longer great — that’s the risk of trading for a quarterback approaching his 40s. This version of Rodgers, however, isn’t good or even average. This was a terrible performance from a disjointed offense that was gifted early points and failed to capitalize.

Fortunately for the Jets, Rodgers took the blame for Sunday’s loss. Kind of.

Yes, this man is exhausting. That’s also the entire vibe of New York Jets football. It’s a wonderful fit because it is a terrible fit. That is the Jets’ way.

6. C.J. Stroud and Trevor Lawrence staged a battle of what could be

Corey Perrine/Florida Times-Union

In early 2023, Stroud and Lawrence looked like worthy rivals who’d compete over the next decade to stake their claim as the rising playoff team no one wants to face out of the AFC South. In 2024, they’re… rivals. Sort of.

Stroud is leading the presumptive South champion Houston Texans but failing to inspire confidence after winning last year’s rookie of the year honors. Lawrence is struggling once again for a Jacksonville Jaguars team about to fire its head coach. In Week 13, Houston escaped Florida with a win — but it wasn’t anything about which either team should feel good.

Stroud played a tidy and ultimately unimpressive game, continuing a concerning trend that’s lingered through his sophomore campaign.

Stroud was… fine. He completed nearly 65 percent of his passes and threw one touchdown without an interception. He connected on three of five deep balls. But his 0.0 CPOE continues a trend where he’s less of a franchise quarterback and more of “a guy.” He’s had twice as many games where he’s failed to find the end zone (six) than games where he’s scored multiple touchdowns.

Lawrence faced similar struggles. He completed just four of 10 passes for 41 yards. He traded a touchdown for an interception on what could have been a walk-in bomb for rookie wideout Brian Thomas Jr.. Instead, it cleared the way for a Texans field goal.

Lawrence did his damnedest to make the Jacksonville offense explosive. His average pass traveled 17 yards downfield. But he completed as many deep balls to his own wideouts as Texans’ defenders. A late hit from linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair ensured he wouldn’t have the chance to adjust after halftime.

Mac Jones arrived in relief and played better than expected, winging a pair of touchdown passes but going 0-for-4 on deep throws in his own right. The fact Jones, a quarterback discarded by a needy Patriots team, came in and was Sunday’s most valuable passer in a game between a former No. 1 overall pick and the reigning rookie of the year is a brutal statement on the fortunes of both Stroud and Lawrence in 2024.

vis habitatring.com

Stroud has the playoffs to look forward to. Lawrence will have a new coach in 2025. Both players have a path back to prosperity. But Week 13 was an example of how each continued to fall below expectations this season, even before a late hit knocked the Jaguars’ QB1 out of the game.

7. Leonard Williams contains multitudes

Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images

Look, I know we talked about this earlier. But let’s appreciate this one more time. Leonard Williams’s beautiful pick six wasn’t just about a massive human being running a very long way. It was about a 300-pound man athletic enough that his coach trusted him to drop back into coverage on a pivotal third down:

This wasn’t your typical tip-drill lineman INT. This was Williams putting himself in position to swat down a slant even before his teammate made it easier to pluck out of the sky.

This was his biggest highlight of the game, but far from his only one. How about that time he effectively squashed New York’s late comeback hopes by squashing Rodgers.

Williams is 30 years old. He hasn’t been a Pro Bowler since 2016 or an All-Pro ever. But this winter he’s leveled up from good to great as an absolute headache for opposing offenses in every phase of the game. He’s got seven sacks and 20 quarterback hits in 12 games. He’s also got 10 tackles for loss. His 16 percent pass rush win rate is third-best among interior linemen despite getting double-teamed on nearly two-thirds of his snaps.

Head coach Mike Macdonald is treating him like a special attraction and it’s maximizing Williams’s peak. His 66 percent snap share is his lowest ever over a full(ish) season. Despite this, he’s still on pace for career highs in QB hits and tackles for loss. A little bit of rest has gone a long way in saving his best for the field — and giving him the energy for the biggest big man touchdown of the millennium in the process.

Leonard Williams: a capital-p Problem.

8. The Philadelphia Eagles defense is the NFC’s biggest concern

Tommy Gilligan-Imagn Images

The Eagles rolled south for a game with the NFL’s top offense by yardage and second-best scoring offense. They left with a 24-19 victory that was a garbage time touchdown away from limiting the Baltimore Ravens to their lowest scoring output of 2024.

Granted, some of this was thanks to Justin Tucker aging like someone found and destroyed a haggard copy of his game tape preserved in his attic. Tucker came into the 2024 season as the most accurate kicker in NFL but has aged all at once at 35 years old. He missed three kicks — two field goals and an extra point — to give him 10 total misses on the season. That’s three more than his previous career worst and Baltimore still has four games left to play.

The bigger culprit, however, was Philly’s defense. Sunday’s game wasn’t as cut and dry as the final score made it out to seem. The Ravens out-gained the Eagles by 120 total yards. But the Eagles clamped shut when it counted, and that made all the difference.

Philadelphia held the Ravens to only two touchdowns on six red zone drives — it was one of five before Baltimore scored with three seconds left to cut the lead to five points. The Ravens converted just three of eight third downs between taking a 9-0 lead in the first quarter and driving for points that didn’t affect the final outcome of the game in the final minute. Two of those stops forced long Tucker field goal attempts that split wide of the goal posts.

This was a familiar sight for the Eagles. Since their Week 5 bye only the Detroit Lions have fielded a better offense.

via habitatring.com and the author

Lamar Jackson still played well, but Philadelphia went on the road and hounded the MVP favorite into a merely “above average” game. Jackson came into Week 13 averaging a sublime 9.6 expected points added (EPA). The Eagles held him to 3.6 EPA Sunday afternoon, turning him from one of the league’s most valuable players to the rough equivalent of Derek Carr.

If this defense can turn Jackson into a mobile version of Carr, it can do it to anyone in the NFC. Last year’s Eagles team was falling apart by this point in the season. This year’s version is playing better than ever, riding an eight-game winning streak and grinding opponents into dust on both sides of the ball.

The secondary that plagued last season’s spiral has been fixed. Quinyon Mitchell has allowed a single touchdown in 50-plus targets this season. Fellow rookie cornerback Cooper DeJean is out here doing stuff like this to Derrick Henry:

We’re still a ways away from a potential Lions-Eagles playoff showdown. But if we get it, it could be a rock fight instead of a shootout thanks to how these two defenses are playing.

9. Bryce Young isn’t fixed but is fixable

Bob Donnan-Imagn Images

Before November, Young had never known an NFL winning streak. As December kicks off, he’s one Kansas City Chiefs buzzer-beating field goal and one Chuba Hubbard fumble away from winning four straight games.

Young was granted the opportunity to re-enter the Carolina Panthers’ starting lineup after Andy Dalton injured his thumb in a car accident. In that stretch, he’d engineered two game-winning drives and what looked like a third Sunday night thanks to this touchdown heave to Adam Thielen with 30 seconds left on the clock.

https://twitter.com/Panthers/status/1863377472013640044

That 23-20 lead didn’t hold up over the final 30 seconds, but that’s OK. This talent-deficient Panthers team has far more problems than just wins and losses this fall. But getting Young back on track to be a franchise quarterback would be the biggest and best possible answer to the questions they face.

Each week, we’re seeing Young’s confidence grow after being eclipsed by bad plays and self doubt. The back-foot throws haven’t entirely dissipated, but he’s shown more comfort stepping up into the pocket and throwing downfield in the face of traffic. Head coach Dave Canales has challenged him to freestyle when his pocket breaks down. On Sunday that worked wonders through the air:

https://twitter.com/Panthers/status/1863340247041315027

and on the ground:

https://twitter.com/Panthers/status/1863344122041405471

Young completed two of five deep throws Sunday evening, which isn’t incredible but significant for a player who’d only completed 23 percent of such throws as a rookie and had only attempted 17 deep balls in eight games this fall. He’s becoming more comfortable in Canales’s offense. That’s not manifesting in the tough throws over the middle that remain the missing link in his game, but it’s still an important development!

via habitatring.com

Young isn’t fixed, but he’s playing more confidently and willing to open himself up to reasonable risks in the pocket as a result. He couldn’t connect with Xavier Legette on third-and-10 late in the fourth quarter trailing 17-16, but he stood in the pocket and took a wallop from a free rusher to deliver an accurate pass to a covered target. It was far from perfect, but it wasn’t a case of happy feet or an interceptable throw. It gave Carolina the best chance to win with what he had.

There’s a long way to go before the Panthers can be satisfied with their young quarterback. Still, the growth he’s shown in the last month should be enough to keep Carolina from drafting a first round passer this spring. That’s faint praise, but given where this franchise was in October, it feels like monumental progress.

10. Fantasy team you absolutely didn’t want to field in Week 13

Brett Davis-Imagn Images

  • QB: Justin Herbert, Chargers (147 passing yards, one rushing yard, five sacks, one two-point conversion, 8.68 fantasy points)
  • RB: Chuba Hubbard, Panthers (43 rushing yards, one fumble lost, 2.3 fantasy points)
  • RB: Gus Edwards, Chargers (32 rushing yards, one catch, one receiving yard, 4.3 fantasy points)
  • WR: Cooper Kupp, Rams (three catches, 17 yards, 4.7 fantasy points)
  • WR: CeeDee Lamb, Cowboys (two catches, 39 yards, 5.9 fantasy points)
  • WR: Tank Dell, Texans (one catch, 23 yards, 3.3 fantasy points)
  • TE: Kyle Pitts, Falcons (zero catches, zero yards, 0.0 fantasy points)
  • D/ST: Miami Dolphins (30 points allowed, -4.0 fantasy points)

Total: 25.18 points