The NFL Roundup - Week 9

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Well, this should prove to be an interesting week for quite a few reasons, several teams have decided to hit the reset button coaching wise and player wise over the last few days and that should make for some pretty interesting games come this weekend, in fact there have been so many changes, let's get right down to it and take a look at the top stories to keep an eye on this week in the NFL.

Will Johnny Manziel finally jumpstart the ailing Browns offense?
You hate to see a player lose their starting job to injury but it has happened before in this league and it will happen again and come Sunday, Johnny Football has the chance to take the job away from Josh McCown by doing what may be the impossible...leading Cleveland to a win over the undefeated Cincinnati Bengals. Now let's be honest, The Browns likely won't win with their porous defense and so so offense but Johnny has a chance to give the Bengals a run for their money and keep the game competitive and finally give the Browns offense some life. It's something he's pulled off before and quite frankly, I don't know if he realizes how important these moments when he fills in for Josh really are...the whole organization is watching and if Manziel doesn't start showing the franchise something special...his time in Cleveland will run out.

Will Andrew Luck and the Colts be able to produce against Denver with a new Offensive Coordinator?
Pep Hamilton was the first coach to go in this strange season for the Colts and Rob Chudzinski is the new man in charge of play calling and he has a monumental task in front of him. The Colts offense is well, a mess. They don't block well, they don't run well and they sure as heck don't put up points and to make matters worse...they are facing a Denver Broncos defense that kept one of the best quarterbacks in the league to 77 yards passing. If the Colts want a fighting chance against Denver this weekend, Rob is going to have to pull off some inventive plays and find a way to inspire a squad that has little to no confidence at the moment. I wish him the best of luck, but I think it's going to be business as usual on the field for the Colts.

What will the Titans look like under Interim Head Coach Mike Mularkey?
Another Head Coach has been shown the door in Tennessee releasing Ken Whisenhunt from his duties on Monday and promoting Mike Mularkey to the top job and well...he has quite the climb ahead of him. At 1-6 the Titans are a team that are seemingly lost, even with Marcus Mariota at the helm and Mike has to find a way to inspire this team to do something more than let teams roll over them and to make matters worse, there's a bar being set for Interim Head Coaches thanks to how much turnaround Dan Campbell has done in Miami. Sadly, I don't think the Titans will pull off any miracle wins or suddenly pour the points on opponents, but I do expect to see a return to fundamentals. Expect a return to the run game, the team making Mariota a game manager and some work on fundamental tackling on the defense before the franchise blows everything up and starts over again in the offseason.

Colin Kaepernick's benching may have done more harm than good.
The San Francisco 49ers are a franchise in disarray. In fact we could talk for a long while about how bad things are out in the bay area right now, but really only one thing has me concerned for the Niners this weekend...Kaepernick's benching. I'm not saying it isn't deserved, he's been playing awful for a long time now. However...this is a team that is not united in the slightest. They clearly don't stand behind their coach since their airing of grievances more or less showed that some folks think Colin should be the guy, others do not. That's not a good thing, it means that Jim Tomsula may have lost the locker room and if that's the case the play on the field will only get worse. We will find out this weekend for sure, but it doesn't look good, not when they shipped off Vernon Davis for being one of the players not in Colin's corner. Speaking of Vernon...

How much impact will Vernon Davis have on the Broncos passing attack this week?
This was a huge trade for the Broncos, stealing away Vernon at a bargain price, but...there's one big risk in trades this late in the year when you're a top tier starter like Mister Davis is...you're going to have to learn a new system in a short time. I don't care how smart the player is, there's an entire playbook you have to unlearn before you get going on the new one. However, Vernon is a special kind of talent and he may assimilate into the Kubiak system faster than expected and that's the hope, that he helps Peyton carve up the Colts defense like a roast. Should be interesting to see what he contributes to the game on Sunday.

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OUR PICKS OF THE WEEK

John's Picks
Denver Broncos at Indianapolis Colts - Denver
Jacksonville Jaguars at New York Jets - New York
Oakland Raiders at Pittsburgh Steelers - Pittsburgh
Washington Redskins at New England Patriots - New England
Tennessee Titans at New Orleans Saints - New Orleans

Scotty's Picks
Miami Dolphins at Buffalo Bills - Miami
St. Louis Rams at Minnesota Vikings - Minnesota
Green Bay Packers at Carolina Panthers - Carolina
Atlanta Falcons at San Francisco 49ers - Atlanta
Chicago Bears at San Diego Chargers - Chicago

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