I’m later than usual this season at getting this preview up on Saturday, but I was sleepy last night and wanted to wait for some more information on these Week 9 games. This is a difficult week with five of the games having a quarterback switch or injury situation to monitor, and a few other really good players are questionable or the dreaded game-time decision.
One player we know is out Sunday is Aaron Rodgers.
I cautiously asked last week “do we finally get Aaron Rodgers vs. Patrick Mahomes, and will it be memorable?“
Oh, it’s going to be a memorable week in Green Bay history, but it won’t be with Rodgers on the field. We’re going to see Jordan Love get his first start against Mahomes and the struggling Chiefs, which made the spread jump nearly seven points in KC’s favor as you’d expect.
Love got vaccinated while Rodgers lied and didn’t. Now Rodgers is out with COVID and he hit full anti-vaxxer BINGO multiple lines over with his appearance on Pat McAfee’s show. Everything from inappropriately quoting MLK to “I did my own research” to getting his medical advice from Joe Rogan to taking Ivermectin instead of the vaccine came up. Rodgers is just as loopy as your least favorite Facebook uncle.
Even with the extra hour of sleep coming to us all tonight, I don’t want to spend much time on this. Rodgers lied and he’s gone into big baby mode to complain about being caught in a lie and breaking COVID protocols with the Packers. He’s letting his teammates down, he’s put them at risk, and he’s hurting the team’s chances at getting the No. 1 seed. This was a very winnable game with Rodgers against a terrible defense, but now it’s a real toss-up with Love a real wild card.
Let’s just say weeks like this don’t make me feel bad about ranking Rodgers as the fifth-best QB of the 21st century.
Who knows if we’ll ever get a Mahomes-Rodgers game. This week certainly makes it easier for the Packers to part ways with him after the season. Maybe he ends up in Denver next year. All I know is his tired, debunked line of reasoning is why we’re still stuck in this pandemic that has reached nearly 50 million cases and 800,000 deaths in the United States alone.
NFL Week 9 Predictions
I stand by Jets +10.5 being a good pick on Thursday night. Mike White just had to get injured because the Jets are never allowed to have anything good happen to them.
My full previews this week include DEN-DAL, TEN-LAR, and CHI-PIT.
I love that stat that Mike Vrabel is 12-2 ATS and 11-3 SU as coach of the Titans as an underdog of 4+ points. But I’m feeling very nervous about that pick with Derrick Henry out, the new RBs just settling in, and A.J. Brown and Julio Jones are not 100%. But I’m going to stick with the Titans covering for now.
There are a lot of potential land mines here. Are the Texans actually going to be decent against a lousy Miami team now that Tyrod Taylor is back? I had to hedge that one. Are the Cowboys going to be fully lethal if CeeDee Lamb and Amari Cooper aren’t 100% and Tyron Smith is out at LT? Can we trust the Bengals after last week? Do I dare trust Trevor Siemian starting a game in 2021 for the Saints even if it is against Atlanta? How do the Raiders respond after another awful off-field incident with Henry Ruggs taking someone’s life? I already covered the KC-GB game, and the Cardinals were already a team I was doubting against San Francisco if you saw the way the defense held Kyler Murray down the last two meetings. Now that Murray and DeAndre Hopkins are game-time decisions and George Kittle is back for SF, I have to go with the 49ers in that one.
There’s not a lot I feel confident in here. But I do feel good about the Ravens coming off the bye and beating the Vikings, and I think the Chargers have a great opportunity to cover the spread against the Eagles, who I still have no faith in this year.
Captain Comeback: NFL Analysis by Scott Kacsmar 
“Rodgers is just as loopy as your least favorite Facebook uncle.”
No, actually, the science backs Rodgers. He’s not the loopy one.