Culture
Week 8 NFL roundtable: Cowboys-49ers, NFC North prowess, Bucs injuries and Browns’ woes
A sudden shift could take place for more than a few NFL teams in Week 8.
The Atlanta Falcons and Tampa Bay Buccaneers meet in the second of two NFC South showdowns. The Philadelphia Eagles–Cincinnati Bengals loser might feel like any good fortune they’ve built up over the last few weeks will vanish. The AFC South could get tighter when the Houston Texans host the Indianapolis Colts. Two struggling NFC powers in the Dallas Cowboys and San Francisco 49ers meet on Sunday night.
What Week 8 storylines interest our trio of NFL writers in Mike Sando, Zak Keefer and Jeff Howe? Read more for a Sunday primer.
The Vikings (now 5-2) fell to the Rams on Thursday night. The Bears (at Commanders), Lions (vs. Titans) and Packers (at Jaguars) are all in action Sunday. Who is your pick to win the NFC North right now? Do you envision all four teams making the playoffs?
Sando: Detroit is a clear favorite with a victory at Minnesota already, the best roster and the most “time on task” with this group of coaches/players. I do not think all four teams from the division will reach the playoffs, but it could trend that way in the short term based on the Bears’ next three games against Washington (without Jayden Daniels), Arizona and New England. NFC North teams will beat up on each other down the stretch.
Keefer: Give me the Lions in the NFC North. The job Dan Campbell continues to do ranks right up there with the best in the league — so far, there has been no hangover from last season’s crushing conference title game loss. Detroit’s winning exactly how he envisioned: with two of the best fronts in the league. And Jared Goff is playing like an MVP. This team is going to be a tough, tough out in the NFC playoffs.
Howe: Even without Aidan Hutchinson, the Lions are still playing like the best team in the NFC. They’re a force on both sides of the ball, especially if Goff remains in the MVP conversation. As for the playoffs, all four teams are good enough to make it, and I would say it’s more than likely all four would finish the season in the NFC’s top seven of our power rankings. But they’re going to beat up on each other while an East or South team could use a more advantageous slate to sneak into the final wild-card spot.
The NFC North has a case for the league’s toughest division in 2024. The Minnesota Vikings fell to 5-2 on Thursday, while Jared Goff (16) and the Detroit Lions will host the Tennessee Titans on Sunday. (Jeffrey Becker / Imagn Images)
A rib injury could rob us of Caleb Williams vs. Jayden Daniels, but Bears-Commanders is a big game nonetheless. What have you liked most about Williams and Daniels? What would you like to see that each rookie QB hasn’t shown or proved yet?
Sando: I like the way both quarterbacks have started from Week 1 without the game seeming too fast for them and without the job (franchise quarterback) seeming too big for them. They both seem equipped to handle the job on and off the field, based on what we’ve seen. Daniels needs to prove he can stay on the field a full season. That is also part of the job of a franchise quarterback. His durability was a concern entering the season. He’s already managing an injury that is threatening to sideline him. For Williams, I’d like to see him fare well against good teams. He hasn’t had many chances to do that yet. The Houston game was a struggle.
Keefer: I spent time with Daniels last week in Washington and — as the story lays out — his preparation is what’s setting him apart. His teammates marvel at how early he shows up to the building every day. And Washington’s offense has been built around what he does well without forcing him to throw it 40 times a game. In Chicago, Williams has been noticeably better of late, but the challenge now is proving it against stiffer competition. Beating up on Carolina and Jacksonville doesn’t mean a whole lot these days. Backing it up after the bye week against Washington — which has led the NFC East since Week 3 — says even more.
Howe: Daniels has done everything right, but I admire the way the Commanders have continuously put him in a position to succeed. The coaching has been terrific, and the run game has helped. Daniels has then done his part to lift his teammates. I’m not sure how much Daniels can improve upon this next point, but the pre-draft concern was his ability to hold up to the physicality, and he’s already dealing with a rib injury. Williams took a little longer to get comfortable due to some line issues and injuries at the skill spots, but he never seemed to lose his way or his confidence. He just kept believing in his ability, and it’s very obvious the game has slowed down for him over the past few weeks. He’s tracking to play with a lot more confidence down the stretch, and I think the potential exists for Williams to help the Bears make a run.
Going by eyes and the odds, the Browns’ woes are about to get worse against the Ravens on Sunday. Step in the GM’s chair in Cleveland. What would you do with Deshaun Watson and his contract?
Sando: I’d release Watson after June 1 in the absence of a deal to launder Watson’s contract through another team. The release would be straightforward — cut him and watch his existing scheduled 2025 cap charge rise from nearly $73 million to nearly $119 million. The contract laundering would provide a longer-shot chance at mitigating some of the cap and cash consequences. Under that scenario, the Browns would trade Watson and draft capital to a team that would accept the draft capital, take on some of the cap/cash burden and release Watson, who would waive his no-trade clause as part of his own exit strategy.
Keefer: I’d beg my bosses — namely owner Jimmy Haslam — to release Watson after June 1 and eat the dead money. It’s a substantial hit (nearly $119 million to the 2025 cap) but I think it’d be the best outcome for both parties in the long run. Cleveland will pay dearly for its mistake, namely that $230 million, fully guaranteed contract it handed him in 2022, but also has the chance to move on without Watson’s situation lingering for years, eating up headlines and holding this team back. There’s no salvaging this. Even if he returns in 2025, Watson will be a $46 million quarterback coming off a major injury who hasn’t looked right in four years. It’s time for logic to prevail, not stubbornness.
GO DEEPER
Deshaun Watson and a Browns escape plan (once they finally admit it’s over): Sando’s Pick Six
Howe: The damage is done. Remember when the prevailing belief was the Packers would struggle in 2023 due to more than $50 million in dead money post-Aaron Rodgers? (I know, that example doesn’t hold up because they played their way into the playoffs, but I’m using it to provide perspective.) Well, the Browns already have $23 million in dead cap in 2025, and a post-June 1 cut would add another $119 million to that. That would create catastrophic ripple effects with the rest of the roster — much worse than the way the Broncos were forced to make cuts after releasing Russell Wilson. The Browns need to stop restructuring Watson’s deal to kick the cap hits down the road. Even if he played at a Mahomes-ian level with a $72.9 million cap hit, the Browns would need to be otherworldly with the players on their rookie contracts to be a playoff threat. Unless they’ve got a plan to spread Watson’s cap hits through void years for decades a la Bobby Bonilla, it’s time to face reality and recognize the contract has sabotaged their roster building for the foreseeable future.
The Mike Evans and Chris Godwin injuries will be a challenge for the Bucs to overcome. The Falcons seem capable of beating anyone and losing to anyone. What is your assessment of the top of the NFC South as these two teams prepare to meet Sunday?
Sando: The Buccaneers were going to win this division and still might. The receiver injuries open the door for the Falcons to overtake them as Kirk Cousins’ surgically repaired Achilles tendon potentially rounds into stronger form late in the season.
Keefer: That’s a pretty good synopsis and one of the reasons I don’t feel like anyone can trust the Falcons right now. The Bucs were my preseason pick to win the NFC South again — they’ve quietly claimed four straight division crowns — but with the recent losses of Evans and Godwin, Atlanta has its opening. A loss Sunday to the Falcons could spell a long couple of weeks for the Bucs. Before the bye, they’ll face each of last year’s Super Bowl teams — Kansas City and San Francisco — in consecutive weeks. Those are not teams you want to play short-handed, even though the 49ers are hurting, as well.
GO DEEPER
Bucs’ Chris Godwin to have surgery; Mike Evans to miss several weeks
Howe: Excluding a couple of troubling stretches when Baker Mayfield has gotten turnover-prone, the QB has played well enough to be a fringe MVP candidate. I think he can still keep the Bucs in contention unless the Falcons flip a switch. Tampa offensive coordinator Liam Coen has also taken the offense to a much higher level, and his concepts will free up the lesser-known guys filling in for Evans and Godwin. I’m still far more concerned with the defense that’s given up the fifth-most points in the league. That’s no way to build a winning streak with troubles on offense. The Falcons had been pretty good until the blowout loss to the Seahawks. I don’t think we’re going to see the best version of Kirk Cousins this season because of the Achilles recovery, but they’re good enough to win the division while keeping games close.
The Cowboys and 49ers cross paths once again in one of the league’s great rivalries. But both teams are struggling. What needs to happen for the 49ers to win? What needs to happen for a Dallas win on Sunday night?
Sando: The 49ers win by running the ball all over Dallas’ weak run defense to control the game flow, delivering an easy night for quarterback Brock Purdy. The Cowboys win with a strong game from Dak Prescott and a game-changing play on special teams, where Dallas has been stronger than San Francisco this season.
Keefer: Personally, I feel like this game is way more about the Cowboys than the 49ers. San Francisco’s not right — too many injuries — but I don’t see Seattle running away with the division. The 49ers just need to stay in the hunt until Christian McCaffrey returns. A December run isn’t out of the question, not for a veteran group like this. But as for Sunday, it feels like the Cowboys’ season is teetering on the brink of collapse. Dallas can’t win at home, can’t beat anyone decent and can’t stop getting in its own way. This matchup won’t help. The 49ers have won three straight over the Cowboys, including two in the playoffs. And remember last year’s meeting: a 42-10 drubbing by San Francisco that foreshadowed the Cowboys’ playoff embarrassment three months later.
Howe: The 49ers’ injuries are the main story, but the subplot — and maybe a peek into a more detrimental issue — has been giving away games. They had no business losing to the Rams and Cardinals with the way those games were played. Then they made too many mistakes to take advantage of the Chiefs. Those are concerning trends for a team with conference championship expectations. I think the 49ers will beat the Cowboys, but they’ve yet to show they can close out a game this season. Meanwhile, the Cowboys haven’t consistently run the ball or stopped the run. Until those elements improve, they won’t be a threat in the NFC.
(Top photo of Caleb Williams: Michael Reaves / 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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