This was an eventful week in the NFL filled with upsets, great endings, and unfortunately tons of injuries to star players. In just this week alone we lost Cooper Kupp, Isaiah Pacheco, Deebo Samuel and Tua Tagovailoa all to serious injuries.

Good luck to everyone’s fantasy team.

The main player and injury I want to focus on is Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa. Tua suffered a concussion on Thursday night against the Buffalo Bills attempting to dive for a first down late in the game. 

This is confirmed to be his third brain injury of his short career but it is widely believed that he has suffered more undiagnosed concussions behind the scenes. Tua’s history of brain injuries is what makes this situation so concerning for anyone who is a fan of the NFL.

During the 2022 NFL season Tua was diagnosed with two separate concussions leading him to contemplate retirement very early into his career. He instead decided against this and returned to the Dolphins signing a four year, 212.4 million dollar contract this offseason. 

Now with Tua’s brain injuries back in the spotlight in 2024 will this be the time he finally walks away from the game? Well, the short answer is no. It has already been reported that he again has no plans to retire and will be back on the field once he can pass the NFL’s concussion protocol. 

Tua is only 26 years old, he was recently married, and he is a new father just having his second child this past summer. In my opinion I think it’s time for him to start thinking about himself and his family over the game of football.

Getting to play quarterback in the NFL is awesome but what’s even better is having conscious thoughts at the age of forty five. There has to come a point where it’s time to care more about Tua the person rather than Tua the player.

All we can do as fans is hope that this is the right decision for him and his family.

My next deep dive will be into the sad situation of Carolina Panthers quarterback Bryce Young.

Coming out of Mater Dei High School, Bryce Young was one of the highest ranked recruits of all time. He was ranked the number one dual threat Quarterback in the nation and received interest from just about every D-1 school you could imagine.

Bryce committed to the University of Alabama, where he was the Rolltide’s Quarterback for three seasons. He played extremely well while setting numerous records and even winning the Heisman trophy; inevitably landing him in a perfect spot to be the number one pick in the 2023 NFL Draft.

For those who don’t know, the Chicago Bears had the presumed first pick in the 2023 NFL Draft, but the Panthers loved Bryce Young so much, they decided to trade an arm and a leg for Chicago’s first overall pick. This trade included handing Chicago their best receiver and FOUR draft picks in return. (A ridiculous amount of picks if you ask me.)

Since that fateful day, everything has been on a downhill slope for the Carolina Panthers. In Bryce’s rookie year the Panthers finished with a league worst 2-15 record and to make things even worse they had no picks in the first round of the draft thanks to handing them all to Chicago. 

Picking up right where he left off, Young had a terrible start to this season. Through the first two games the Panthers have been outscored 73-13 by opponents. 

It was announced this week that Bryce Young will be benched in favor of backup quarterback Andy Dalton. There has never been a number one overall draft pick that has been benched this early in their career in NFL history. Young finished his time as a starter with the Panthers with a terrible 2-16 record through 18 games. 

This is a sad situation all together. I feel so bad for Bryce as it seems the terrible organization around him and all of the media criticism has killed this young man’s confidence. He does not look like the same player that we saw at Alabama and I truly think he doubts if he can ever be that player again. 

His career is far from over though, it will be interesting to see if he gets another shot with the Panthers or even maybe a new team. I hope some time away from the spotlight will help his mental state. I’m personally rooting for Bryce, there is still plenty of football ahead of him.

Lastly, I want to dive into my biggest surprise teams of the year… so far. 

The New Orleans Saints look legit through the first two weeks of the season. Their offense has scored on every single possession thus far and put up 40 plus points in both games respectively. 

Derek Carr is playing at an MVP level and I’m interested to see if he can maintain this level of play for the whole season. No one saw the Saints being this good before the season; and if anyone says they did they’re lying. 

The Minnesota Vikings led by journeyman quarterback Sam Darnold are 2-0. After two games their defense leads the league with eleven sacks. I assumed the Vikings would be an average team but they continue to prove me wrong so far. 

Derek Carr and Sam Darnold playing this good is something I never expected to see this season. These guys were left for dead by other teams but still managed a way to get their careers back on track for the time being. 

The Vikings and Saints are the teams to watch this weekend for me. 

The Saints get their toughest test of the season so far against the Eagles. The way they have been playing so far makes it hard for me to bet against them. I’m taking the Saints to continue their early season win streak. 

I don’t think the same can be said about the Vikings. They proved they can beat good teams by defeating the 49ers last week but I believe this is where their luck runs out. They’re playing a very good Houston Texans team and it would really shock me to see them win big games two weeks in a row. Give me the Texans in this one. 

I don’t get paid to make decisions or have opinions but it’s always fun to take a deeper dive into the best stories of the week.