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Welcome to this week’s Four Verts column. We’re living in the present and the future as the NFL moves past the midway point and starts to hunker down for playoff pushes. Josh McDaniels lost to Jeff Saturday, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are back, Mike McDaniel might be the best play-caller in the entire NFL and the 2023 quarterback class has prominent questions to answer.
Yikes, Raiders
It’s incredible that Josh McDaniels had the bravery to come back to work this week. Well not actually, because no one would throw away that salary, but losing to Jeff Saturday is the ugliest sore on what has been a hideous season for the Las Vegas Raiders. The 2022 campaign has been an absolute failure for a team that entered it with Super Bowl aspirations and a talented passing game duo in Derek Carr and Davante Adams. If the 2023 NFL draft were to be held today, the Raiders would have the second overall pick with a 2-7 record.
This team's postseason hopes are undeniably lost unless they’re met with divine intervention that suddenly allows them to field a functional defense and a consistent offense. While this team has pockets of elite talent, the overall quality of this roster is weak and they are closer to a team that needs a top draft pick to start to restock. That puts them in a precarious position as far as their future is concerned.
The future is murky for the Raiders, but the present has a clear, undeniable truth: This season is over. Now, it’s up to Mark Davis and Josh McDaniels to get this roster and organization moving back in the right direction.
Mike McDaniel has been a godsend and the Dolphins are terrifying
A whole lot of head coaches have been birthed from Mike Shanahan’s tree, but Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel might be the true prodigy as an offensive play-caller.
McDaniel's offense has been nothing short of electric this season. Having superstar wide receivers like Jaylen Waddle and Tyreek Hill, and an improving quarterback in Tua Tagovailoa has certainly helped, but McDaniel has been great in his own right. There can be an adjustment period when an offensive coach gets with a new team, but the Dolphins have hit the ground running.
The Dolphins are tied for second with the Kansas City Chiefs averaging 6.4 yards per play on offense this season. They also lead the league in net yards per attempt by a mile with a mark of 7.9 — the Chiefs are second at 7.3. Not only is this Dolphins' offense generating explosive plays on the regular, they’re also avoiding negative plays in the passing game. Tagovailoa leads the league in expected points added per play (0.425) and success rate (54.7%) among all quarterbacks with at least 160 snaps on the season.
Bucs look like a real team again
It took a trip abroad for Tom Brady and the Buccaneers to start playing like a real team again, but they finally looked closer to the team that fans thought they were getting prior to the season. The Bucs took down a quality Seahawks team to tighten their grip on the woeful NFC South and get one step closer to hosting a playoff game.
Should we be concerned about the 2023 QB class?
The 2023 draft class was projected to have a handful of quarterbacks who looked like they had the potential to save NFL teams. Alabama's Bryce Young, Ohio State's C.J. Stroud, Kentucky's Will Levis, Florida's Anthony Richardson and others had media and scouts buzzing about their pro prospects — especially coming off of a quarterback class where Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Kenny Pickett was the only first-round selection.
Right now, the perception of this quarterback class seems to have fallen a bit. Or at least, people are asking more questions.
Daniel Weinman was crowned winner of the 2023 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event on Monday, taking home a record breaking $12.1 million in winnings. Weinman had to outlast the other 10,043 entrants to take home the prize and get his hands on his share of live poker’s largest ever prize pool – a staggering $93,399,900. As well as taking home the prize money, 35-year-old Weinman also got his hands on the WSOP Main Event bracelet. The huge bracelet contains 500 grams of 10-karat yellow gold, as well as 2,352 various precious gemstones.
Daniel Weinman won the World Series of Poker's main event world championship on Monday in Las Vegas, earning $12.1 million along the way. Playing in the tournament for a 16th year, Weinman was tops in a deep pool of 10,043 players vying for $93.39 million. His victory came after just 164 hands at the final table. "I was honestly on the fence about even coming back and playing this tournament," the 35-year-old Atlanta native told reporters afterward. Weinman's final table featured Jan-Peter Jachtmann, who landed in fourth place and took home $3 million, as well as Toby Lewis, who finished seventh and secured $1.42 million. According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the main event's entry pool far outpaced the previous record of 8,773 set in 2006. "I've always kind of felt that poker was kind of going in a dying direction, but to see the numbers at the World Series this year has been incredible," Weinman said. "And to win this main event, it doesn't feel real. I mean, [there's] so much luck in a poker tournament. I thought I played very well." Steven Jones finished second, securing $6.5 million. And Adam Walton settled for third and a $4 million prize.
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