NFL

Grades for Broncos and Saints after Denver’s blowout victory, plus bold predictions for NFL Week 7

by
SaC Bot
October 18, 2024

Welcome to the Friday edition of the Pick Six newsletter!

I’m going to open today with a moment of silence for Saints fans. Five weeks ago, it looked like your team might be a Super Bowl contender, but now, it’s starting to look like the only thing your team is going to be contending for is the top pick in the 2025 NFL Draft.

In today’s newsletter, we’ll be handing out grades from last night’s game, and I’m betting you guys can all guess what grade we’ll be giving the Saints. We’ll also be looking at top players who could be dealt before the trade deadline, and of course, we’ll be making some picks for Week 7.

As always, here’s your daily reminder to tell all your friends to sign up for the newsletter. To get them signed up, all you have to do is click here.

1. Broncos beat Saints: Grades and notes from Denver’s blowout win

Sean Payton’s return to New Orleans ended up being a good time for him, but not such a good time for the Saints. Payton’s Broncos destroyed the Saints, 33-10, on Thursday night in a game that was never really close.

Here are our grades from the game:

BRONCOS GRADE: A

The Broncos played their best game of the season and saved it for Sean Payton’s return to New Orleans. Payton is an offensive mastermind, so it was fitting that he had his offense firing on all cylinders against the Saints. After punting on their first drive, the Broncos scored on six straight possessions. The offense was working because the Broncos were able to run the ball. Javonte Williams rushed for 88 yards and two touchdowns and then there was Bo Nix, who did most of his damage in this game with his legs. The rookie QB, who struggled at times throwing the ball, rushed for 75 yards on a night during which Denver totaled 225 yards on the ground, the team’s highest total since 2013. Defensively, the Broncos overwhelmed New Orleans’ offensive line, which led to six sacks for Denver. This defense is one of the best in the NFL, and if the offense continues to improve, there’s no reason this team can’t be a playoff contender down the stretch.

Broncos notes

Sean Payton pulls off rare feat. With Denver’s win over the Saints, Sean Payton has now defeated all 32 NFL teams, which makes him just the eighth coach in NFL history to pull off that feat. Payton joins Bill Belichick, Tony Dungy, John Fox, Bill Parcells, Andy Reid, Mike Holmgren and Mike Shanahan.
Road warriors. After winning just three games on the road last year, the Broncos have already tied that mark by winning their first three road games of the 2024 season. This marks the first time since 2015 that Denver has won three straight road games. The 2015 season also marks the last time the Broncos made the playoffs: That was when they won Super Bowl 50 during Peyton Manning’s final season with the team.

SAINTS GRADE: F

This game was an unmitigated disaster for New Orleans. It got dominated on both sides of the ball and never had a chance to pull this one out. With Derek Carr injured, the Saints were forced to start Spencer Rattler for the second straight week, and he got beat up by a Broncos defense that sacked him six times. With Chris Olave and Rashid Shaheed both out, the Saints tried to run their offense through Alvin Kamara, but the Broncos were ready for that. The defense got run over for the second straight week, surrendering 225 yards on the ground to Denver just four days after giving up 276 to Tampa Bay. (This marks the first time since 1980 that the Saints have allowed 500 rushing yards in two-game span.) The Saints are broken, battered and it feels like their season might be over, which seems crazy to say when you consider where this team was sitting just two weeks into the season.

Saints notes

Saints match record for NFL futility. The Saints have now lost five straight games after starting the year 2-0. Both of those wins came in blowouts with New Orleans winning by 37 and 25, which makes the Saints just the second team in NFL history to win their first two games by at least 20 points, only to follow that up with a five-game losing streak. The only other time it happened came in 1965 with the Dallas Cowboys.
Home-sweet-home is not so sweet. The Saints are officially falling apart. When you combine their loss Thursday with their 51-27 loss in Week 6, the Saints have now lost two straight homes games by at least 21 points for the first time since 2001.

You can check out our full takeaways from the game here.

2. NFL trade deadline coming: Top players at each position who could be dealt

With the NFL trade deadline right around the corner, we thought now would be a good time to take a look at the top players at each position who could be dealt before the deadline hits on Nov. 5.

Here are three guys from Jordan Dajani’s list of players who could get traded:

Raiders QB Gardner Minshew. “Minshew could be moved after he was benched for Aidan O’Connell. He’s a borderline starter who didn’t have the best situation in Vegas.”
Panthers RB Miles Sanders. “Chuba Hubbard is the No. 1 back in Carolina, and Jonathon Brooks is getting close to making his NFL debut. If you’re looking for a running back to trade for, Sanders should be at the top of your list.”
Titans WR DeAndre Hopkins. “Hopkins is a WR1 who could be on the move. The Tennessee Titans are one of the worst teams in the NFL, and Hop is on an expiring contract. However, he is playing through a torn MCL, which could affect his trade value.”

Jordan’s list includes 33 DIFFERENT PLAYERS who could be dealt. If you want to see the full list, just click here.

3. Pro Football Hall of Fame trims list of coaching candidates down to 12

It’s been a busy week for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Not only did they name the semifinalists for the contributors category this week, but the HOF also trimmed the list of coaching candidates down to 12.

Here’s a look at the 12 coaches who are still in the running to be inducted into the Hall of Fame’s class of 2025:

Bill Arnsparger
Tom Coughlin
Jeff Fisher
Alex Gibbs
Mike Holmgren
Chuck Knox
Richie Petitbon
Dan Reeves
Marty Schottenheimer
George Seifert
Mike Shanahan
Clark Shaughnessy

This is a competitive category. There are three former head coaches on this list — Tom Coughlin, George Seifert and Mike Shanahan — who all won two Super Bowls. And then there’s Marty Schottenheimer, who has the eighth-most coaching wins in NFL history with 200 victories. Dan Reeves (190) and Chuck Knox (186) are both right behind Schottenheimer on the all-time wins list at 10th and 11th, respectively.

This list will be trimmed down to nine semifinalists in the coming weeks and then one finalist will be eventually be voted on for induction into the class of 2025.

4. NFL Week 7 picks: Jets top Steelers, 49ers win Super Bowl rematch with Chiefs

It’s officially time for your favorite part of the Friday newsletter, which is where I round up five NFL writers and we all make some picks for the upcoming week. Just in case you’ve forgotten, our five writers are: Pete Prisco, Jason La Canfora, Jordan Dajani, Tyler Sullivan and myself. As we head into Week 7, the five of us continue to tread water. Last week, we went 2-3 against the spread and 2-2 straight-up. That means we’re now 14-16 ATS on the season with the picks that we’ve featured in this part of the newsletter (and 12-14 straight-up).

If you’re new here, here’s how things work: I’ll give you one Week 7 pick from each writer and then direct you to the rest of their picks. That way, if you like their pick, you’ll be able to click over and check out all of their Week 6 picks, but if you hate their pick, you can ignore the rest of their picks and move on with your life.

Pete Prisco — Jets (-1.5) 23-17 over Steelers. From Prisco: “The Jets made a move to go get Davante Adams, who should help the offense if he plays. The Steelers have a quarterback issue again as it looks like Russell Wilson is taking first-team reps. No matter who plays, it will be the running game and defense that key this game for the Steelers. But the Jets will get back to playing good run defense and Aaron Rodgers will do enough to win a tough road game.” For the rest of Prisco’s Week 7 picks, be sure to click here.
Tyler Sullivan — 49ers (-1) 24-21 over Chiefs. From Sullivan: “With San Francisco at home, and with the Chiefs still trying to find themselves offensively following several key injuries, this is a solid spot to side with the 49ers.” For the rest of Sullivan’s Week 7 picks, be sure to click here.
Jason La Canfora — Packers (-2.5) cover against Texans. From La Canfora: “Matt LaFleur is 28-16 ATS at home. Jordan Love has covered in six of his last eight (including the playoffs). The Packers have covered seven of 11 at home since the start of 2023. C.J. Stroud isn’t the same on the road (226 yards per game, just 7.2 yards per attempt) and Green Bay is getting better each week.” You can check out the rest of JLC’s best bets for Week 7 here.
Jordan Dajani — Colts (-3) 23-17 over Dolphins. From Dajani: “I am a little nervous Miami could just run the ball down Indy’s throat with its talented backs. Jaylen Wright and Raheem Mostert combined for 166 rushing yards vs. the Patriots, but this Colts team is good enough to beat Tyler Huntley’s Dolphins by at least three points. In fact, Miami has covered the spread just once this season, and is averaging 1.1 points per drive. Yes, that obviously ranks last in the NFL.” For the rest of Dajani’s Week 7 best bets, be sure to click here.
John Breech — Vikings (-2.5) 27-24 over Lions. The Lions might be able to eventually bounce back from the loss of Aidan Hutchinson, but I have a feeling that it’s going to take more than one week for that to happen. For the rest of my Week 7 picks, be sure to click here.

For more Week 7 NFL picks, you can check out out our CBSSports.com picks hub here.

5. NFL bold predictions for Week 7: Browns pull off huge upset

After giving you some bold predictions for Week 6 last Friday, Garrett Podell is back with five more for Week 7.

Let’s take a look at two of his bold predictions for Sunday:

1. Aaron Rodgers throws for 300 yards against Steelers. “Aaron Rodgers is one of the best quarterbacks of all-time, but he hasn’t been able to eclipse 300 passing yards in a game for a shocking, career-long amount of time: 28 games in a row. Snapping that streak in Week 7 won’t be easy against a Steelers defense that is one of the best in the league against the pass … but he’ll do it this week, thanks to having his favorite all-time target Davante Adams to throw to once again. The duo connected for 68 touchdowns in eight seasons together as Green Bay Packers from 2014-2021, the most Rodgers has thrown to a single receiver in his career. Adams alongside Garrett Wilson gives the 40-year-old enough juice in the playmaking department to break free and rack up 300 yards in a game once again.”
2. Lions win without Aidan Hutchinson. “The Vikings have trailed for just three minutes and 26 seconds this season, which is the fifth-fewest amount of time by any team through five games since the 1970 AFL/NFL merger. Minnesota hasn’t trailed in a game since Week 1. However, the Vikings are going to trail and lose, for the first time this season, in Week 7 because of Jared Goff’s mastery of Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores’ blitz concepts. Last season, Flores’ Minnesota defense blitzed at the highest rate in the NFL, 50.7% of opponent dropbacks, but that did not phase Goff. He was never sacked on 54 dropbacks against the Vikings blitz in two games and played turnover-free football in those situations. … Goff keeps it rolling on the road and hands the Vikings their first loss of 2024.”

Garrett is predicting a Lions win and I’m predicting a Lions loss, which means one of us is going to be wrong. I hope it’s him.

Anyway, Garrett made a total of five bold predictions for Week 7, and you check out all of them here.

6. Extra points: Browns could be moving outside of Cleveland

It’s been a busy 24 hours in the NFL, and since it’s nearly impossible to keep track of everything that happened, I went ahead and put together a roundup for you.

Browns hoping to build dome outside of Cleveland. The Browns have been looking for a spot to build their new stadium, and it looks like they’ve finally settled on a location: The team has decided to move forward with building a $2.4 billion dome in Brook Park, which is a Cleveland suburb that sits about 15 miles away from their current stadium. You can check out our full story on Cleveland’s stadium situation here.
NFL could move on from Nike. Nike has been in charge of making NFL uniforms since 2012, but that could change in the near future. The rights to produce each team’s uniform is currently up for bidding, which means another company could supplant Nike. The Nike contract runs through 2027, so even if someone takes over, that won’t start until 2028. You can check out the full details on that situation here.
Derek Carr could return in Week 8. The Saints quarterback has missed two straight games with an oblique injury, but it looks like he’s on the road to recovery. According to NFL.com, Carr could be back on the field for the Saints Week 8 game against the Chargers. For more on Carr’s situation, you can check out our story here.
Jay Cutler arrested for DUI in Tennessee. The former NFL quarterback was arrested on Thursday night for DUI, according to TMZ. Cutler was hit with four charges, including possession of a handgun while under the influence. The 41-year-old hasn’t played in the NFL since 2017 when he started 14 games for the Dolphins. You can check out our full story on Cutler here.