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5 things to care about from Week 14: The Cowboys win the Amari Cooper trade

Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Amari Cooper has been every thing his new team could have hoped for and more this early in his tenure. (AP Photo/Ron Jenkins)
Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Amari Cooper has been every thing his new team could have hoped for and more this early in his tenure. (AP Photo/Ron Jenkins)

So much happens on any given Sunday of the NFL season. It’s hard to keep track of it all. More importantly, it’s quite a lot to decide what we should value as signal and what we should just ignore as noise. In this space, I’ll go through all that I watched in Week 14 and give you the five things I care about coming out of Sunday, along with five things I can’t muster up the emotional energy to care for.

Five things I care about

The Cowboys won the Amari Cooper trade. Case closed.

The Raiders can still make out fine on their end of the deal, but the Cowboys are nothing but thrilled with their decision to ship off a first-round pick for Amari Cooper. The electric wideout dropped 217 yards and three touchdowns on the decrepit Eagles secondary on Sunday.

He’s been every bit the No. 1 wide receiver a team would hope they’d select in the first round of the draft, averaging 8.8 targets per game with Dallas. With the Cowboys heading toward an NFC East crown and a playoff berth, the pick they dealt will be outside the top-20. You take an established top receiver over that dice roll pick every day of the week.

It’s easy to play revisionist history and assert that Cooper’s Dallas performance gives us all the answers to what went wrong with him in Oakland. That he was always an elite talent who was merely misused. Maybe, but Cooper’s individual play in 2017 was so far from his previously great standards it was more than fair to ask questions. And these debates often do not come with such simple answers.

It doesn’t really matter now. What is of consequence is that Dallas, a team that is willing to let Cooper do what he does best and dictate the action with separation, has found a missing piece in their offense by way of a home run trade.

Devin Funchess getting blanked

In his second game back from a back injury, Devin Funchess didn’t catch any of his three targets. He fell well behind Ian Thomas (11), Curtis Samuel (eight), D.J. Moore (eight) and Christian McCaffrey (seven) in the target pecking order. It’s not just a one-week situation either, as he has just 10 catches for 125 yards on 24 targets over his last five games. The Panthers offense has, for the most part, been a strong unit even as the team continues to slide on a five-game losing streak. The team has become faster and more explosive with a litany of athletic options who excel in space. Funchess stands out in the crowd as a relic of the lumbering offenses of Panthers’ past. It’s possible that Funchess, a free agent after this season, is in the midst of his last days as a Carolina Panther.

Spencer Ware stabilizes

In last week’s “things to care about” recap, we looked at whether Spencer Ware was a tad overhyped after having the Chiefs lead back gig thrust onto his plate. Despite losing a pair of red zone scores to Damien Williams, Ware showed in Week 14 he’s worth the excitement. He left a portion of this game with an injury but was still quite productive against a stout Baltimore front. Ware totaled 129 yards from scrimmage on a team-high 20 touches. He reminded us of his passing game chops, snaring all five of his targets and making plays after the catch. Answers given: Ware is good to go the rest of the way.

Jordan Howard and Tarik Cohen’s success

In a defensive performance that looked like something out of decades gone by, the Bears emerged victorious over the high-flying Los Angeles Rams. Chicago was the team able to run the ball in this spot, with Jordan Howard taking his 19 carries for a season-high 101 yards. Tarik Cohen chipped in 69 yards on nine carries. We know by now that counting on the Bears running game for predictable production is a fool’s errand. However, this strong execution might just say more about the team on the other side of the ball.

While the Rams defense has blotted out the Lions’ and Bears’ passing attacks (2:4 TD to INT ratio) over the last two weeks with Aqib Talib back, they still have major holes as a run defense. Wade Phillips’ defenses have seemed to concede yards on the ground in an effort to focus on the pass rush but that’s a strategy that depends on the offense to control the game.

The Rams will have better odds to do that against the Eagles, Cardinals and 49ers to close 2018, but those running backs will also get their chances to slice through this front seven.

Miami game ender alongside Derrick Henry on TNF

The game of football is a tough one to predict. When it’s your job to do the best you possibly can in accomplishing that task, it can be a bit excruciating when the results don’t go your way. It’s easy to get bent out of shape when your predictions don’t come to pass or go awry.

Yet, when the wildly exciting events like the end of the Dolphins upset win over the Patriots or the impossible-to-predict occurrences like Derrick Henry’s explosive Thursday night become unfold before our eyes, it’s a reminder that we need to revel in the unpredictability of football, not decry it.

No, I didn’t predict Kenyan Drake for a massive fantasy game on the back of one of the most difficult-to-execute desperation plays in the book. I sure didn’t tell a soul to play Derrick Henry. It doesn’t matter.

For the rest of the time I spend addicted to and hopelessly in love with this stupid game of football, I’ll remember those massive moments. It’s events like those that keep me coming back, arms wide open to this game — not nailing a few of the hundred predictions I have to make on a weekly basis.

Five things I don’t care about

Ever wanting to play LeGarrette Blount

Just don’t do it. Don’t play two-down running backs on bad offenses. I don’t care if you know his name. I don’t care if LeGarrette Blount miraculously had a big stat line in an island game Thanksgiving morning.

At first, I couldn’t figure out why so many folks in my mentions this morning wanted to play Blount this week. Then I remembered he was playing the Cardinals, who have been top-three in fantasy points allowed to running backs just about all season. Who cares?

Blount’s reasonable carry projection is around 12 to 14, even without Kerryon Johnson. He has no passing game floor. He’s been an anchor on this passing game’s ankle more often than he’s been an asset this year. There’s just almost no scenario where you want to play a back with his profile on a sinking offense like the Lions, as currently constructed — matchup be damned.

Washington the rest of the year

The team is so irrelevant that perhaps no one will care, but Washington’s utterly uncompetitive 40-16 loss to the lowly New York Giants is nothing but embarrassing. The Giants were even without their best player in Odell Beckham, so Washington allowed touchdowns to journeymen like Russell Shepard and Bennie Fowler.

The team was getting shutout before Josh Johnson replaced a woefully poor Mark Sanchez to throw and rush for scores. You can call it a spark or just garbage time; it doesn’t matter. Offensive centerpiece Adrian Peterson managed just 16 yards on 10 carries. It’s hard to imagine this squad is anything more than a doormat the rest of the 2018 season.

Josh Johnson looks like he will lead a lifeless Washington team to the 2018 finish line. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
Josh Johnson looks like he will lead a lifeless Washington team to the 2018 finish line. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

Chasing Courtland Sutton’s ceiling

The more that gets put on Courtland Sutton’s plate, the more disappointing the results become. After failing to crack 80 yards in any game following Demaryius Thomas’ exit via trade, Sutton turned in just 14 yards on two catches in his first game sans Emmanuel Sanders.

His six targets were well behind fellow big receiver Tim Patrick (10) and fellow rookie DaeSean Hamilton (nine). So far, Sutton hasn’t appeared ready to handle full-time outside receiver duties as a pro. And that’s okay.

It’s not unreasonable to assume a receiver from SMU who, while clearly physically gifted, showed on his college film enough technique gaps to imply there would be a learning curve. The 2018 season might not be the year to chase a ceiling from Sutton, but that doesn’t mean future seasons won’t bring that chance.

Who starts at running back for the 49ers

I don’t care because you should be playing 49ers Running Back A, B and C. Despite being a poor 3-10 team going nowhere this year, the running has consistently churned out solid options. Matt Breida has been among the league leaders in yards per carry despite his team rarely controlling games. Jeff Wilson Jr. showed pass-catching chops in his Week 13 debut and collected 96 total yards on Sunday. He was a better option than players who shined on bigger Week 13 stages like Justin Jackson. No matter who lines up in the backfield, this running game is proven to produce.

Whatever happens on the Jets offense the rest of the way

As an injured Sam Darnold exited this Jets’ Week 14 win early, a small part of me couldn’t help wish it would be the last we saw him in 2018. Not that we ever wish injury absences on players, but it’s tough to get a read on Darnold in his current ecosystem.

2019 might provide a better message to decode. He would later return so that brief desire is irrelevant. He’d go on to make an almost Patrick Mahomes-like escape under pressure and dart-throw to Robby Anderson for a touchdown. The ability is clearly there.

Some football observers are already ready to declare the Giants the winner in the debate between a running back vs. a quarterback at the No. 2 overall selection. That seems a little short-sighted. Saquon Barkley is having a sublime rookie season at a position that often sees young players make fast college-to-pro transitions and doesn’t swing win totals. Neither can be said about the quarterback spot.

Darnold might not be a franchise quarterback who can raise all tides around him but it’s nearly impossible to tell in this New York offense. The poorly coached Jets can’t pass protect and don’t boast a single predictable skill-position talent on a week-to-week basis. Darnold needs to pass the test at some point but he might not have the materials to even start the exam until 2019, at the earliest.

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