Don’t be surprised if the New Orleans Saints play the Las Vegas Raiders season opener. Neither team’s cache is particularly high, so the NFL likely won’t push them as marquee matchup. Derek Carr playing his former team is enough to schedule it as a season opener, even if it’s a 12 noon game. Carr certainly has that game circled.
Toppling his former team would be a form of revenge and also get Carr closer to a rare feat. In his decade-long career, Carr has defeated 27 of the 32 teams in the NFL. That leaves the Raiders as one of five teams the quarterback has never defeated. This will be his first chance in 2024.
Only four quarterbacks have ever achieved this feat: Drew Brees, Tom Brady, Peyton Manning and Brett Favre. That would put Carr among a rare group. He finds himself winless against the Raiders, Washington Commanders, Green Bay Packers, Los Angeles Rams and Minnesota Vikings. New Orleans plays every team other than the Vikings this season. Carr isn’t a future hall of famer, but he’s surprisingly sneaking up on a rare feat.
The Chiefs will look to cement themselves as one of the greatest teams in NFL history as they go for a three-peat in the 2024 season. Kansas City has reached the Super Bowl in four of the last five seasons, winning three times, including back-to-back wins in Super Bowl LVII (2022 season) and Super Bowl LVIII (2023 season).
Known for Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce, and a high-flying offense, it was the Chiefs’ defense that led the way last season, ranking 2nd in both total and scoring defense in 2023. That defensive unit has lost two key starters this offseason, with CB L’Jarius Sneed traded to the Titans and LB Willie Gay signing with the Saints.
Kansas City has gotten solid production out of their draft picks in recent years but the team still needs a top, reliable wide receiver to give Mahomes another option on offense.
Jason Fitz is joined by Yahoo Sports Senior NFL Reporters Charles Robinson & Jori Epstein to pull back the curtain on the latest news from around the NFL. The trio start off with a report that New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft told Arthur Blank not to hire Bill Belichick, as they dive into how the relationship between Belichick and Kraft fractured over time and what it means for Belichick’s future. In other news, Justin Jefferson was absent from voluntary workouts, sparking a conversation as to what it would take to acquire possibly the best young wide receiver in the league.
Later, Charles dives into some digging he’s been doing on the New York Giants’ quarterback evaluations and whether or not they could end up taking one early in the draft, which leads to a conversation on Jori’s latest piece around how quarterback evaluations are changing (and speeding up). Charles finishes off the show with what he’s hearing on this year’s weak running back class and how it could make history (in a bad way).
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