EmailPrintOpen Extended ReactionsWeek 8 Sunday was one of those when so much weird stuff happened to make you think, "Maybe we shouldn't overreact to any of this."Just kidding. Overreacting is what we do! This is why you come here every Sunday night, to overreact ... or be told you're overreacting.So if you want to overreact to an impossible Cowboys loss to a backup Cardinals quarterback, or to the Buccaneers winning a game in which they didn't complete a pass, or games in Cincinnati and East Rutherford that featured more than 70 combined points? Well, go right ahead. You've come to the right place. and we're not going to hold back.Here's our Week 8 overreactions column, where we look at five potential takeaways from all the action and judge them as legitimate stances or irrational stretches. Plus, we hit a few fantasy football overreactions at the end.Jump to:Lamar has thrown last pass as a Raven?Schottenheimer's days numbered in Dallas?All four NFC North teams in playoffs?Bucs again NFC South favorites?Broncos, Chiefs need deadline WR help?Fantasy overreactionsLamar Jackson has played his final game as a Baltimore RavenLet's lay out the facts first. Jackson missed Weeks 5, 6 and 7 due to an ankle injury. The Ravens went 1-2, with losses to division rivals Cleveland and Cincinnati. Jackson returned for Sunday's game in Buffalo but left after one play with a thumb injury. After the game, Ravens coach Jessie Minter said Jackson would require thumb surgery and would be placed on injured reserve, meaning he has to miss at least the next four games. Asked if the injury could be season-ending, Minter said, "We'll see."Jackson has one year left on his contract after this season. The Ravens approached him about an extension this offseason but no extension got done. The contract includes a clause that prohibits the Ravens from using the franchise or transition tag to keep Jackson off the open market when it expires after the 2027 season.Verdict: NOT AN OVERREACTIONIf -- and this is still a big "if" at this point -- this is a season-ending injury, then the Ravens and Jackson will head into a pivotal, potentially cataclysmic offseason. Jackson's projected salary cap number for 2027 is $84.34 million, which means the Ravens likely will want to extend him to knock that number down. But Jackson isn't interested in talking an extension -- as was the case this past offseason -- the Ravens will have a decision to make. And if they don't feel comfortable heading into the final year of Jackson's deal without an extension in place, we are going to hear legitimate talk of Jackson being traded. Jackson's contract also has a no-trade clause, which means he'd get to decide where he goes.Look, Jackson didn't have that no-franchise clause put in there by accident. He did it so he could have some control over where he plays once the contract is over. And if that place doesn't turn out to be Baltimore, and the Ravens come to that conclusion next spring, it is absolutely possible Jackson is playing for a different team in 2027.I know that's not what Ravens fans want to hear. At literally any time, Jackson and the Ravens could do an extension that renders this speculation moot. But unless and until that happens, these are the possibilities for which you need to prepare yourself as a Ravens fan. That's what the facts indicate.Brian Schottenheimer won't finish the season as Cowboys head coachHoly wow, what a terrible loss that was for the Cowboys on Sunday. Dak Prescott's rushing touchdown put Dallas up 24-10 early in the fourth quarter against a struggling Cardinals team that benched starting quarterback Jacoby Brissett for Gardner Minshew II earlier in this game. The Cowboys' win probability was over 90 percent for the entire fourth quarter and was 94.5% with 1:09 left in regulation. But Minshew led an eight-play, 80-yard touchdown drive that tied the game at 30-30 with six seconds left and set Chad Ryland up for the game-winning extra point. Astoundingly, Ryland missed that extra point, sending the game to overtime.Arizona got the ball first and did nothing before punting it back to Dallas, which put the Cowboys in position to win with any score. But they went three-and-out as well, with Prescott taking a sack on third-and-8. The Cardinals were then able to get into position for a game-winning 42-yard field goal, which Ryland hit. The Cowboys and Cardinals are now both 3-5. Dallas is two games behind the first-place Giants in the NFC East after yet another game in which its defense couldn't get the stops it needed, and the offense couldn't quite compensate.Verdict: OVERREACTIONJerry Jones hasn't fired a head coach in-season since 2010, when he replaced Wade Phillips with Jason Garrett at midseason with the team at 1-7. Jones has said multiple times in the 16 years since that he regretted that decision. It's just not a thing we should expect him to do, and he publicly backed his coach postgame.This is an incredibly disappointing Cowboys team, and the bloom does appear to be off Schottenheimer after his promising first season. It's certainly possible he won't get a third year as Cowboys head coach if this doesn't turn around. But I do believe very strongly that Schottenheimer will get the chance to turn it around.All four NFC North teams will make the playoffsSunday was a big day for the remaining members of the 1972 Dolphins, who are the only team in NFL history ever to complete a perfect season and who are known to celebrate every year when the final undefeated team loses. That happened Sunday in Detroit, where the Lions overcame a brutal, emotional day of injuries to knock off the previously unbeaten Vikings 19-15. That result moved the Lions to 5-2, one game behind 6-1 Minnesota in the division. The Bears are 5-2 and play at Seattle on "Monday Night Football". The Packers are 5-3 after Thursday night's victory over Carolina.This is only the seventh season in which it's been possible for all four teams from the same division to make the playoffs, since they expanded the playoff field to seven teams per conference in 2020. But it has not happened yet, even though the NFC North and AFC North have both had seasons in which all four of their teams finished with winning records.Verdict: OVERREACTIONAs much as I'd love to see this happen, and believe it will someday, I don't think this is the year. It was just last season that all four NFC North teams finished with winning records and if this season ended on Sunday, the Vikings would be in as division champs and the other three would be the NFC wild-card teams. But soooo much has to happen for all four to make it. While it seems certain that the NFC East and NFC South are only going to send one team apiece to the postseason, the NFC West is going to be the roadblock to the NFC North's dream scenario.The 49ers and Seahawks obviously have good chances to make it, and we expect the Rams to be a factor before all is said and done. Whether it's Minnesota's lackluster offense, Green Bay's porous offensive line, Detroit's injury-riddled defense or ... I don't know, whatever could go wrong in Chicago, someone in the NFC North is bound to struggle just enough to slide behind whoever finishes second in the West.The Buccaneers are going to win the NFC South after allLet's promise to talk about Sunday's Falcons-Bucs game very quickly, then vow to never discuss it again. In a driving rainstorm, the Buccaneers intercepted Falcons QB Michael Penix Jr. four times, threw only three passes of their own, completed none of them (the first time that's happened since 1974) and won 16-0.Tampa Bay rushed the ball 56 times for 324 yards. Bucky Irving had 170 and a touchdown on 27 carries. Kenneth Gainwell had 140 yards on 25 carries. Penix (7.1) and Baker Mayfield's (2.6) QBRs didn't add up to 10, and QBR is on a 0-to-100 scale. To call this game ugly is an insult to the word ugly. But the Bucs and Falcons are both 3-5 after Sunday, a half-game ahead of last-place New Orleans and a half-game behind first-place Carolina in the NFC South.Verdict: NOT AN OVERREACTIONI checked again this morning. The rules still require each division to have at least one playoff team. There will be an NFC South champion hosting a playoff game this year. And the Buccaneers, who started the season 0-4, have now won three of their last four to get back into the race. They crushed Carolina a week ago, so they have the edge in that tiebreaker as well as the one with Atlanta.Tampa Bay is the only team in the division that's scored more points than it's given up so far this season. The Bucs were the preseason favorites, won the division four years in a row prior to last season and knows how to do it. Again, somebody has to win this division, and the Bucs look like the best team in it since Week 5. Nobody ran away with it in the first four weeks, so the Bucs absolutely have a shot.The Chiefs and the Broncos both need to trade for wide receivers ahead of the deadlineIt was a fun game in the late window between the AFC West division rivals, with the Broncos coming back from 11 points down in the fourth quarter and sacking Patrick Mahomes on the final play of the game to seal a 28-24 win. But it was not a game to watch if you are an aficionado of wide receiver play.Each team's leading receiver in this game was a rookie running back. Emmett Johnson looks like a nice player for the Chiefs, but he's not even their starting running back. Jonah Coleman might be the Broncos' starter the rest of the season, but he's not supposed to lead them in receiving yards. The big play that got the Chiefs in position to win the game in the final two minutes came from Taylor Swift's husband, who does not play wide receiver.Verdict: OVERREACTIONI know we do this all the time with the Chiefs, but they have guys. They just aren't playing to their pedigrees. Rashee Rice was a second-round pick. Xavier Worthy was a first-round pick! Remember how mad everybody got at the Bills for letting the Chiefs move up to take him? Guys like that are supposed to be the solutions. On the Broncos' side, Courtland Sutton is an accomplished veteran and Jaylen Waddle is a former first-round pick that Denver traded a first-round pick to get this offseason.I expect these teams to both work to improve their offenses ahead of next week's trade deadline, which could mean adding at wide receiver. But that wouldn't be necessary if the wide receivers they already spent so much to get would play better. (Or, in Denver's case, if their quarterback would start playing better.) These teams aren't drastically undermanned on offense. They should be better than they've been, even if they just roll with the receivers they have. If anything, the Chiefs should get a new kicker. And maybe not one who did a 10-game personal conduct policy suspension last year.Quick-hitter fantasy overreactionsMike Washington Jr., not Ashton Jeanty, is the Raiders running back you want the rest of the way. OVERREACTION. Jeanty has not played well enough. They like Washington a lot. Washington is playing better and could continue to get more chances in the short term. But Jeanty was the sixth pick in the draft 18 months ago, and the organization still wants to give him the opportunity to show why. They're hoping Sunday's semi-benching sends a message, and that he gets it. Washington is worth having, don't get me wrong, but I wouldn't give up on Jeanty quite yet.You should try and trade Tyler Warren before things get even worse in Indianapolis. NOT AN OVERREACTION. Imagine a scenario in which it's Riley Leonard throwing to him in the second half and Jonathan Taylor is on a different team. Not the kind of offense you want to stay invested in. See if you can get out now while Warren still has value in the eyes of your league mates.Michael Wilson will be a top-30 pick in fantasy next year. NOT AN OVERREACTION. He essentially plays the Puka Nacua role in Mike LaFleur's offense. LaFleur was the Rams' offensive coordinator last season. The Cardinals extended Wilson in the offseason. What are we still waiting to see here?Zay Flowers won't be startable as long as Lamar Jackson is out. OVERREACTION. They were down to Joe Fagnano at QB on Sunday after backup Tyler Huntley got hurt, too. No way were they prepared for that. But Flowers produced when it was Huntley and they can design game plans in which he produces even if the undrafted UConn rookie is starting for a while. They just didn't expect to need that Sunday.Tee Higgins is the true WR1 in Cincinnati. OVERREACTION, but he and Ja'Marr Chase are both WR1s in fantasy as long as Joe Burrow is this unconscious, and you shouldn't even think about not starting him.
