Culture
NFL QB stock report, Week 14: Insight into Bryce Young’s revival; Kirk Cousins still Falcons’ QB1?
Now, this is the Bryce Young the NFL had been expecting.
The 2023 No. 1 pick has played much better since returning to the Carolina Panthers starting lineup five weeks ago, and the gradual progression of late has been the most encouraging. A coach who recently prepared for his team to play against the Panthers noted that Young’s comfort in the pocket has been a launching point for improvement.
Young has completed 60.4 percent of his passes over the past five games for 1,082 yards, six touchdowns, three interceptions and an 83.5 passer rating. He’s also logged 82 rushing yards and a score. They aren’t gaudy numbers, but they’ve been efficient.
And let’s not forget, the Panthers still have enough holes on the roster that they’ll be in contention for the No. 1 pick in April. Young returned to a team that was again a seller at the trade deadline.
The Athletic’s Week 14 QB rankings
Young, who has had three head coaches (one interim) in two seasons, started poorly and was benched after two games. He didn’t throw a touchdown pass as the Panthers only generated 13 points in two blowout losses, and he was picked three times and sacked six times.
So the Panthers turned to veteran Andy Dalton, a controversial move that made some around the league wonder whether they were done with Young altogether. Head coach Dave Canales had been credited for his previous work with Russell Wilson and Baker Mayfield, so Young’s two-game trial his new coach was alarmingly short after the Panthers invested so much to draft him.
To think, Young’s return to the field wasn’t even part of the plan. Dalton injured his thumb in a car accident, so the Panthers had no choice but to go back to Young.
He had one of his best statistical performances in his re-debut, a 28-14 loss to the Broncos, before leading the Panthers to tight victories against the Saints and Giants. But Young really caught everyone’s attention when he rallied the offense for a game-tying drive against the Chiefs, who ultimately won at the buzzer. And Sunday, Young was again nails in crunchtime in a tough overtime loss to the Buccaneers.
“The surprising thing before (the benching) was that he struggled to deal with pressure. That wasn’t an issue in college,” a rival executive said. “He’s more confident now. He was taking a beating before. He seemed like a battered player.
“They’ve gotten better as an offense overall. Sitting down and coming back, he’s more confident in what he’s doing.”
Young was sacked 62 times in 16 starts as a rookie, so the pocket jitters were understandable. He’s also dealt with scheme and regime changes. Force a young quarterback to perpetually play catch-up to the environment around him, and the fundamentals can get lost.
Since the chaos has settled in Carolina, Young has developed more trust with his skill players. He only had two completions of at least 20 yards in his first two starts of the season, but he has 15 such plays since returning.
Things are finally moving in the right direction, with Young and Canales looking like a better pair than it appeared in September.
“Bryce had a rough go, but it seems like he is starting to understand the offense,” another evaluator said. “He’s getting protected a little better and being decisive. He did go No. 1 for a reason.”
GO DEEPER
Scoop City: Risers and fallers after Week 13
First, Cousins
Kirk Cousins is coming off his worst outing with the Atlanta Falcons, tossing four interceptions in a 17-13 loss to a Los Angeles Chargers team with a strong defense. But the 36-year-old now leads the NFL with 13 interceptions, and he has no touchdowns against six picks during a three-game losing streak that’s dropped the Falcons into a tie with the Buccaneers in the NFC South.
With those factors, along with Cousins clearly still recovering from a torn Achilles, there will be mounting pressure to turn toward rookie Michael Penix Jr. The first-round pick has blown away the Falcons’ brass, from the way he carried himself in the building over the offseason to his regular-season work on the practice field. There’s a lot of optimism over Penix’s future.
But there’s also hope for the present. Cousins signed a four-year, $180 million contract last offseason, and the Falcons own the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Bucs. The Falcons rank fourth in passing yards and eighth in total yards this season, so the offense has pulled its weight, even if it’s been sporadic at times, including the four-pick performance costing Atlanta a win.
This is all to say Cousins should, in theory, give the Falcons a better chance to reach the playoffs than a rookie with five career passing attempts. Oh, and the Falcons are about to visit the Minnesota Vikings, so there’s no reason to think they’d shelve Cousins before an emotional game against his former team.
GO DEEPER
NFL playoff picture after Week 13: Steelers seize control of AFC North, Bills clinch AFC East
But what if the slump continues, or the Falcons fall a couple of games behind the Bucs? It’d be logical to give Penix a look down the stretch to at least open the possibility of shifting to Plan B in 2025, especially since he’s been crushing it in practice.
There’d also be a benefit to keeping Cousins healthy, considering how difficult it is for anyone to come back so quickly from an Achilles injury. Cousins has $27.5 million in guaranteed money in 2025, so it’d be natural to want to get the most out of him under the circumstances.
These decisions aren’t made in a vacuum, though. If Penix played well down the stretch, there’d be more pressure to play him in 2025. And if the Falcons agreed with that sentiment, they’d have to find a new home for Cousins, who has a no-trade clause.
The Falcons could handle the financial fallout of parting with Cousins because they’d be promoting a quarterback on a rookie contract, but it’s also the type of decision that could dramatically backfire if Penix didn’t immediately pan out. And no matter how well a quarterback performs in practice, you don’t know how a QB will look in a game until he amasses enough experience.
It’s an enticing thought, but probably not something the Falcons should act upon unless it becomes absolutely necessary.
GO DEEPER
Josh Allen, Saquon Barkley, Lamar Jackson and a sizzling MVP race: Sando’s Pick Six
Back on top
Josh Allen returned to the top of the rankings for the first time since Weeks 4-5. The Buffalo Bills QB opened the season at No. 2 behind Kansas City’s Patrick Mahomes. Allen remained there for three weeks and then struggled for a couple of games before tumbling to No. 4 for four weeks. He earned strong consideration at No. 1 a week ago, and his incredible performance in the snow against the 49ers, coupled with Baltimore Ravens QB Lamar Jackson’s loss to the Eagles, solidified the change.
Amari Cooper and Josh Allen connect for the ultimate snow game touchdown ‼️
🎥 @NFL pic.twitter.com/xcOw7jZSEB
— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) December 2, 2024
Allen’s passing/receiving touchdown will be one of the highlights of the season, the answer to a trivia question and possibly one of the most iconic plays in Bills history. Maybe, for some, it will be viewed as his MVP moment.
But from this vantage point, Allen began his mission to overtake Jackson in the MVP race in Week 11 with his 26-yard touchdown run on fourth-and-2 to effectively beat the Chiefs. The race is far from a formality, though, as Jackson, Detroit Lions QB Jared Goff and Philadelphia Eagles running back Saquon Barkley don’t figure to be going anywhere.
Jackson’s numbers are still better across the board, save for rushing touchdowns, where Allen has a 6-3 edge. Jackson’s Ravens also blew out Allen’s Bills in Week 4.
But the Bills are in contention for the AFC’s No. 1 seed, while Allen is coming through with some big moments down the stretch. There’s a legitimate argument to be made for the primary characters in the race.
Injury notes
• Baker Mayfield should be good to go this week against the Raiders, according to league sources. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers QB was still sore Monday after a Panthers defender stepped on the back of his right leg Sunday, causing Mayfield to visit the injury tent and wear a walking boot after the game. But there was no need to undergo further testing. Mayfield has played through far more serious injuries in the past.
• Jaguars coach Doug Pederson said Monday they’re still assessing options with Trevor Lawrence, who suffered a scary concussion Sunday against the Texans. Lawrence will remain in the rankings until a decision has been made on his availability.
• Drew Lock became the 45th QB to appear in the rankings this season because he started the Giants’ last game and the team declined to announce which of Daniel Jones’ former backups would start its upcoming game against the Saints.
Dropped out of rankings: Giants’ Tommy DeVito (forearm injury), No. 32 last week.
(Photo of Bryce Young: Matt Kelley / Getty Images)
Whatever you do, don’t think of a bird.
Now: What kind of bird are you not thinking about? A pigeon? A bald eagle? Something more poetic, like a skylark or a nightingale? In any case, would you say that this bird you aren’t thinking about is real?
Before you answer, read this poem, which is quite literally about not thinking of a bird.
Human consciousness is full of riddles. Neuroscientists, philosophers and dorm-room stoners argue continually about what it is and whether it even exists. For Wallace Stevens, the experience of having a mind was a perpetual source of wonder, puzzlement and delight — perfectly ordinary and utterly transcendent at the same time. He explored the mysteries and pleasures of consciousness in countless poems over the course of his long poetic career. It was arguably his great theme.
Stevens was born in 1879 and published his first book, “Harmonium,” in 1923, making him something of a late bloomer among American modernists. For much of his adult life, he worked as an executive for the Hartford Accident and Indemnity Company, rising to the rank of vice president. He viewed insurance less as a day job to support his poetry than as a parallel vocation. He pursued both activities with quiet diligence, spending his days at the office and composing poems in his head as he walked to and from work.
As a young man, Stevens dreamed of traveling to Europe, though he never crossed the Atlantic. In middle age he made regular trips to Florida, and his poems are frequently infused with ideas of Paris and Rome and memories of Key West. Others partake of the stringent beauty of New England. But the landscapes he explores, wintry or tropical, provincial or cosmopolitan, are above all mental landscapes, created by and in the imagination.
Are those worlds real?
Let’s return to the palm tree and its avian inhabitant, in that tranquil Key West sunset of the mind.
Until then, we find consolation in fangles.
When the director Rob Reiner cast his leads in the 1986 film “Stand by Me,” he looked for young actors who were as close as possible to the personalities of the four children they’d be playing. There was the wise beyond his years kid from a rough family (River Phoenix), the slightly dim worrywart (Jerry O’Connell), the cutup with a temper (Corey Feldman) and the sensitive, bookish boy.
Wil Wheaton was perfect for that last one, Gordie Lachance, a doe-eyed child who is ignored by his family in favor of his late older brother. Now, 40 years later, he’s traveling the country to attend anniversary screenings of the film, alongside O’Connell and Feldman, which has thrown him back into the turmoil that he felt as an adolescent.
Wheaton has channeled those emotions and his on-set memories into his latest project: narrating a new audiobook version of “The Body,” the 1982 Stephen King novella on which the film was based.
A few years ago, Wheaton started to float the idea of returning to the story that gave him his big break — that of a quartet of boys in 1959 Oregon, in their last days before high school, setting out to find a classmate’s dead body. “I’ve been telling the story of ‘Stand By Me’ since I was 12 years old,” he said.
But this time was different. Wheaton, who has narrated dozens of audiobooks, including Andy Weir’s “The Martian” and Ernest Cline’s “Ready Player One,” says he has come to enjoy narration more than screen acting. “I’m safe, I’m in the booth, nobody’s looking at me and I can just tell you a story.”
The fact that he, an older man looking back on his younger years, is narrating a story about an older man looking back on his younger years, is not lost on Wheaton. King’s original story is bathed in nostalgia. Coming to terms with death and loss is one of its primary themes.
Two days after appearing on stage at the Academy Awards as part of a tribute to Reiner — who was murdered in 2025 alongside his wife, Michele — Wheaton got on the phone to talk about recording the audiobook, reliving his favorite scenes from the film and reexamining a quintessential story of childhood loss through the lens of his own.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
“I felt really close to him, and my memory of him.”
Wheaton on channeling a co-star’s performance.
There’s this wonderful scene in “Stand By Me.” Gordie and Chris are walking down the tracks talking about junior high. Chris is telling Gordie, “I wish to hell I was your dad, because I care about you, and he obviously doesn’t.”
It’s just so honest and direct, in a way that kids talk to each other that adults don’t. And I think that one of the reasons that really sticks with people, and that piece really lands on a lot of audiences, and has for 40 years, is, just too many people have been Gordie in that scene.
That scene is virtually word for word taken from the text of the book. And when I was narrating that, I made a deliberate choice to do my best to recreate what River did in that scene.
“You’re just a kid,
Gordie–”
“I wish to fuck
I was your father!”
he said angrily.
“You wouldn’t go around
talking about takin those stupid shop courses if I was!
It’s like
God gave you something,
all those stories
you can make up, and He said:
This is what we got for you, kid.
Try not to lose it.
But kids lose everything
unless somebody looks out for them and if your folks
are too fucked up to do it
then maybe I ought to.”
I watched that scene a couple of times because I really wanted — I don’t know why it was so important to me to — well, I know: because I loved him, and I miss him. And I wanted to bring him into this as best as I could, right?
So I was reading that scene, and the words are identical to the script. And I had this very powerful flashback to being on the train tracks that day in Cottage Grove, Oregon. And I could see River standing next to them. They’re shooting my side of the scene and there’s River, right next to the camera, doing his off-camera dialogue, and there’s the sound guy, and there’s the boom operator. There’s my key light.
I could hear and feel it. It was the weirdest thing. It’s like I was right back there.
I was able to really take in the emotional memory of being Gordie in all of those scenes. So when I was narrating him and I’m me and I’m old with all of this experience, I just drew on what I remembered from being that little boy and what I remember of those friendships and what they meant to me and what they mean to me today.
“Rob gave me a gift. Rob gave me a career.”
Wheaton recalls the “Stand By Me” director’s way with kids on set, as well as his recent Oscars tribute.
Rob really encouraged us to be kids.
Jerry tells the most amazing story about that scene, where we were all sitting around, and doing our bit, and he improvised. He was just goofing around — we were just playing — and he said something about spitting water at the fat kid.
We get to the end of the scene, and he hears Rob. Rob comes around from behind the thing, and he goes, “Jerry!” And Jerry thinks, “Oh no, I’m in trouble. I’m in trouble because I improvised, and I’m not supposed to improvise.”
The context for Jerry is that he had been told by the adults in his life, “Sit on your hands and shut up. Stop trying to be a cutup. Stop trying to be funny. Stop disrupting people. Just be quiet.” And Jerry thinks, “Oh my God. I didn’t shut up. I’m in trouble. I’m gonna get fired.”
Rob leans in to all of us, and Rob says, “Hey, guys, do you see that? More of that. Do that!”
The whole time when you’re a kid actor, you’re just around all these adults who are constantly telling you to grow up. They’re mad that you’re being a kid. Rob just created an environment where not only was it supported that we would be kids — and have fun, and follow those kid instincts and do what was natural — it was expected. It was encouraged. We were supposed to do it.
They chanted together:
“I don’t shut up,
I grow up.
And when I look at you I throw up.”
“Then your mother goes around the corner
and licks it up,”
I said, and hauled ass out of there,
giving them the finger over my shoulder as I went.
I never had any friends later on
like the ones I had when I was twelve.
Jesus, did you?
When we were at the Oscars, I looked at Jerry. And we looked at this remarkable assemblage of the most amazingly talented, beautiful artists and storytellers. We looked around, and Jerry leans down, and he said, “We all got our start with Rob Reiner. He trusted every single one of us.”
And to stand there for him, when I really thought that I would be standing with him to talk about this stuff — it was a lot.
“I was really really really excited — like jumping up and down.”
The scene Wheaton was most looking forward to narrating: the tale of Lard Ass Hogan.
I was so excited to narrate it. It’s a great story! It’s a funny story. It’s such a lovely break — it’s an emotional and tonal shift from what’s happening in the movie.
I know this as a writer: You work to increase and release tension throughout a narrative, and Stephen King uses humor really effectively to release that tension. But it also raises the stakes, because we have these moments of joy and these moments of things being very silly in the midst of a lot of intensity.
That’s why the story of Lard Ass Hogan is so fun for me to tell. Because in the middle of that, we stop to do something that’s very, very fun, and very silly and very celebratory.
“Will you shut up and let him tell it?”
Teddy hollered.
Vern blinked.
“Sure. Yeah.
Okay.”
“Go on, Gordie,”
Chris said. “It’s not really much—”
“Naw,
we don’t expect much from a wet end like you,”
Teddy said,
“but tell it anyway.”
I cleared my throat. “So anyway.
It’s Pioneer Days,
and on the last night
they have these three big events.
There’s an egg-roll for the little kids and a sack-race for kids that are like eight or nine,
and then there’s the pie-eating contest.
And the main guy of the story
is this fat kid nobody likes
named Davie Hogan.”
When I narrate this story — whenever there is a moment of levity or humor, whenever there are those brief little moments that are the seasoning of the meal that makes it all so real and relatable — yes, it was very important to me to capture those moments.
I’m shifting in my chair, so I can feel each of those characters. It’s something that doesn’t exist in live action. It doesn’t exist in any other media.
“I feel the loss.”
Wheaton remembers River Phoenix.
The novella “The Body” is very much about Gordie remembering Chris. It’s darker, and it’s more painful, than the movie is.
I’ve been watching the movie on this tour and seeing River a lot. I remember him as a 14- and 15-year-old kid who just seemed so much older, and so much more experienced and so much wiser than me, and I’m only a year younger than him.
What hurts me now, and what I really felt when I was narrating this, is knowing what River was going through then. We didn’t know. I still don’t know the extent of how he was mistreated, but I know that he was. I know that adults failed him. That he should have been protected in every way that matters. And he just wasn’t.
And I, like Gordie, remember a boy who was loving. So loving, and generous and cared deeply about everyone around him, all the time. Who deserved to live a full life. Who had so much to offer the world. And it’s so unfair that he’s gone and taken from us. I had to go through a decades-long grieving process to come to terms with him dying.
Near the end
of 1971,
Chris
went into a Chicken Delight in Portland
to get a three-piece Snack Bucket.
Just ahead of him,
two men started arguing
about which one had been first in line. One of them pulled a knife.
Chris,
who had always been the best of us
at making peace,
stepped between them and was stabbed in the throat.
The man with the knife had spent time in four different institutions;
he had been released from Shawshank State Prison
only the week before.
Chris died almost instantly.
It is a privilege that I was allowed to tell this story. I get to tell Gordie Lachance’s story as originally imagined by Stephen King, with all of the experience of having lived my whole adult life with the memory of spending three months in Gordie Lachance’s skin.
Welcome to Great Adaptations, the Book Review’s regular multiple-choice quiz about printed works that have gone on to find new life as movies, television shows, theatrical productions and more. This week’s challenge highlights offbeat television shows that began as comic books. Just tap or click your answers to the five questions below. And scroll down after you finish the last question for links to the comics and their screen versions.
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