The NFL Roundup 2021: Week 8 Recap

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Hello again, football fans and welcome to a supremely juicy edition of the NFL Roundup. Because this past week in the NFL was filled to the brim with stunning surprises. For the trade deadline brought about quite the shocker for one franchise player and on the field, we saw a titan fall and saw a bevy of backup quarterbacks make life hell for the league’s elite and what’s amazing, is that is but a handful of the storylines that Week 8 in the NFL sent our way. So, with that in mind, let’s dive into the week that was and ponder upon what turned out to be a transformative week of NFL football.
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The Von Miller trade is both heartbreaking and logical.
Make no mistake about it, seeing Von Miller leave Denver without another ring and in such an unceremonious manner, really is heartbreaking. Since you always want to see a legend finish their career with the team that drafted them. But alas, that modern NFL isn’t about that at all and now Miller’s twilight years will happen elsewhere. But at the same time… this move makes total sense. Because Miller isn’t going to win another ring in Denver anytime soon, and this move gives him a chance to do just that, and it gives the Broncos the opportunity to re-load their roster. Because they badly need an infusion of talent, at every position, and Miller’s exit helps to stack the 2022 draft for the Broncos. But while that might not ease the pain for some fans…. what’s done and done, and the business side always prevails, and all Denver fans can do now, is move on and look toward tomorrow.
 
It is time for the Dolphins to bench Tua Tagovailoa.
One thing that we can all agree upon, is that admitting we made a major mistake is hard. Because we likely poured our heart and soul into a particular decision or move, and seeing it blow up in our face just plain stinks. To the point where we will forge ahead as though we didn’t make a mistake at all. But the right thing to do, is to admit we screwed up and apologize and move forward in the best way imaginable and that’s what the Dolphins need to do regarding their ‘star’ QB. Because Tua, is a bust, and the team made a horrible mistake in drafting him and there’s no amount of coach speak that will change anyone’s mind. The league sees his issues, the fans see it too and undoubtedly so do Miami’s coaches. So, the best way for the Dolphins to apologize to their loyal fans for drafting a sub-par QB, is to bench #1, start Brissett and aggressively go after a great quarterback in the offseason.
 
The Arizona Cardinals finally endured a loss.
Truly, it seemed as though the Arizona Cardinals were invincible this year. Because no matter how hard an opponent fought back or how much they scored, Arizona was always ready to answer and that allowed for them to win seven straight games. But alas, the Green Bay Packers did their homework and figured out how to neutralize Kyler Murray’s game and Aaron Rodgers took advantage of the team’s tendency to play deep cover often and in doing so… handed the Cards their first loss of the season and well, that’s probably a good thing. Since now the team knows what their weaknesses are, and can adjust accordingly (hopefully), and… they will undoubtedly use this moment as fuel to put together another win streak, so they can quickly forget what Sunday felt like.
 
It turns out the Cincinnati Bengals may not be as good as advertised.
For a short while now, I’ve heaped some praise on the Bengals and with good reason. Because they’ve won some important games and they’ve hung with some great teams on their way to first place in the AFC North. But alas, we need to talk about the Bengals in a negative light today, because they simply embarrassed themselves on Sunday. I mean, come on, they lost… to the New York Jets. A team that can’t get out of its way and stinks in every aspect of the game. And to make matters worse, it was a shootout. So, I think it is safe to say that the Bengals might not be as good as we initially thought. Since they clearly will underestimate an opponent that they consider to be beneath them and that is definitely the mark of a team that doesn’t know how to handle success.
 
The Minnesota Vikings are in need of a roster shake up.
The Vikings are a team that quite frankly, have some genuine talent on their roster. They’ve got some ballers in the secondary, the D-line is strong and there are some stars on this team at wide receiver. Which in turn begs an important question, why the heck are they 3-4? And honestly… it’s because Head Coach Mike Zimmer, keeps putting his faith in the sub-par players that are underperforming at key positions. With the most obvious of those being Kirk Cousins at QB because he simply cannot lead this team into the endzone or to victory. Which means Zimmer honestly, needs to shake this roster up and bench some if not all of those underperformers. To send a message to the rest of the team that they need to bring their A-game every week. Because they’re on the cusp of missing the playoffs again and could be looking at a coaching change, and well… if ‘Zim wants to keep his job and motivate this squad, now is the time to park some poor players and shake things up.   

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