This isn’t shaping up to be the year to need a quarterback in the NFL Draft, yet several teams already know where their priorities must lie this coming April.

The Las Vegas Raiders and New York Giants absolutely need to spend a high pick on a quarterback. The Tennessee Titans and Carolina Panthers almost certainly should, too, barring unexpected turnarounds from Will Levis and Bryce Young. The Cleveland Browns also need a change, although it’s fair to wonder whether ownership would support the use of a valuable draft resource on a player who could usurp Deshaun Watson, whose fully guaranteed contract runs through 2026. The Steelers may also be in limbo depending on how they feel about Justin Fields or Russell Wilson at season’s end.

Meanwhile, the Miami Dolphins need a much better plan with their backup quarterback, while the New York Jets, Los Angeles Rams, Seattle Seahawks and New Orleans Saints need to be thinking about the future. That group of teams can at least afford to pick their spots, which is better than forcing the issue. Then again, how often does a team turn a mid-round lottery pick into a franchise cornerstone?

The point is that we’re at the time of the year when teams need to be honest about their in-house evaluations. But just because teams determine they need a quarterback doesn’t necessarily mean they can acquire a quarterback.

Remember, the Giants tried last spring. When they couldn’t move up in the draft, they punted on the rest of the class rather than forcing themselves into taking someone they didn’t love. There’s something to be said for that, but that approach also increases the need to get it right the following year.

League evaluators are still trying to figure out where to rank the likes of Texas’ Quinn Ewers, Georgia’s Carson Beck, Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders, Alabama’s Jalen Milroe, Miami’s Cam Ward and Mississippi’s Jaxson Dart, among others. They’re intriguing players, but it wouldn’t be overly shocking if there’s a repeat of 2022 when there wasn’t a QB taken in the top 10.

To complicate the hunt, there aren’t any proven veterans who are set to hit the market in free agency. The best of that group may come down to Sam Darnold and Fields, along with veteran stopgap options such as Wilson and Joe Flacco.

The 2026 class will be far more exciting with the likelihood of Arch Manning’s declaration. More than likely, a team that fails to solve its QB void next year will be in the running for that prized No. 1 pick.

What’s the difference?

Joe Burrow entered the NFL as the No. 1 overall pick in 2020 after guiding LSU’s historic offense to an undefeated championship run that captured the nation’s attention. He was, essentially, the Cincinnati Bengals starter from the moment he arrived.

Brock Purdy entered the NFL as the last pick of the 2022 draft after an obscure career at Iowa State. He was buried behind Trey Lance and Jimmy Garoppolo on the San Francisco 49ers’ depth chart and only earned the starting job midway through his rookie season because of injuries.

Those labels are hard to shake, but it’s probably long overdue to consider Purdy among the game’s best quarterbacks.

Consider the pair’s regular-season stats since 2022.

The numbers are remarkably similar. Burrow has a clear edge in passing yards, but that’s to be expected with Purdy operating Kyle Shanahan’s run-heavy system.

Burrow is also 5-2 in the playoffs, and he was outstanding in 2021 when the Bengals toppled the Chiefs in the AFC Championship Game. They were a defensive stop shy of beating the Rams in the Super Bowl.

But Purdy is 4-2 in the playoffs, where he’s been terrific while guiding the 49ers to the NFC Championship Game in 2022 and the Super Bowl in 2023. They were also a defensive stop short of dethroning the Chiefs in February.

Purdy hasn’t gotten the same shine because of the way he entered the league. He also doesn’t get as much credit for his performance because of the 49ers’ scheme.

It’s time for that perception to change. Purdy is undoubtedly among the game’s best.

This star continues to shine in Seattle. Watch Brock Purdy’s best plays from #TNFonPrime.

More 🎥 on https://t.co/vpdsX5r07D pic.twitter.com/NXCjGiaonF

— San Francisco 49ers (@49ers) October 12, 2024

Maye day

Drake Maye delivered a strong starting debut against the Houston Texans, going 20-of-33 for 243 yards, three touchdowns and two interceptions. He also led the New England Patriots with 38 rushing yards and lost a fumble.

Drake Maye DIME for his first career touchdown pass!

📺: #HOUvsNE on CBS/Paramount+
📱: https://t.co/waVpO909ge pic.twitter.com/psTLjZvOoK

— NFL (@NFL) October 13, 2024

Maye registered the most passing yards against the Texans this season, which is impressive considering they’ve played Anthony Richardson, Caleb Williams, Sam Darnold, Trevor Lawrence and Josh Allen. It can be argued that his total deserves an asterisk considering the lopsided score, but let’s not dock Maye too much in his first career outing against a quality defense while the Patriots’ entire offensive operation around him has been in shambles.

Maye endured some issues, for sure. He sputtered with his accuracy, especially early, but he got into a groove with the hurry-up drive before the half. Maye delivered the exclamation point there with a majestic 40-yard touchdown to Kayshon Boutte, as the throw helped his second-year wideout gain late separation against cornerback Derek Stingley Jr. It was probably the best throw from a Patriots quarterback since Tom Brady wore the uniform.

Once Maye gets comfortable enough to readily make the more consistent throws, which he did more of in the second half, he’ll grow even more in that offense. He’ll also improve his confidence eventually, though that could take more time considering the state of New England’s offensive line.

Speaking of which, Maye’s performance should take some heat off Jerod Mayo. The first-year head coach has had some inconsistencies with his quarterback explanations over the last couple of months, and rival executives have taken notice. Then, people around the league wondered if Mayo rushed into the decision to start Maye last week, perhaps feeling some heat from the losing streak and breaking from the plan to ease Maye into action.

What’s more, the Patriots’ offensive line has been one of the worst units in the NFL, and those issues have only been compounded by injuries. Maye was under a lot of duress Sunday, particularly with two backup tackles playing the majority of the game.

However, he still delivered a better stat line than Jacoby Brissett in any of his five starts. Maye produced a Patriots season high in completions and passer rating (88.3), and he had more touchdowns in his debut than Brissett had all season (two).

This was an encouraging start. Now, Maye will take center stage Sunday morning in London when the Patriots meet the Jaguars, whose defense has given up the most passing yards in the NFL.

Maye debuted at No. 23 in the rankings because of his potential for a higher ceiling due to his draft stock. It’s also a fitting spot, as fellow rookies Caleb Williams (No. 19) and Jayden Daniels (No. 22) debuted slightly higher in Week 1.

Plead the fourth

Bo Nix is a battler. His competitiveness has kept the Denver Broncos in games that otherwise looked lost before the fourth quarter, again nearly erasing a 23-0 deficit with 16 final-quarter points Sunday against the Chargers.

The question, though, is whether the Broncos have been too conservative with Nix before the fourth quarter or if defenses are loosening their looks with some of these leads.

Breaking it down by quarters, Nix has been far more productive in the fourth, and it’s not even close. That’s where he’s got his most completions (41), yards (428), touchdowns (five, including passes and runs), first downs (28, including passing and running), highest completion percentage (69.5) and passer rating (93.0).

It’s not like the Broncos open the game in neutral. Nix has 97 passing attempts in the first half and 101 in the second half this season. But there’s something about the way he thrives in those “gotta-have-it” situations in the fourth quarter.

The @oregonfootball connection!

Bo Nix finds Troy Franklin for his first career TD catch!

📺: #LACvsDEN on CBS/Paramount+
📱: https://t.co/waVpO8ZBqG pic.twitter.com/FU4T8eKNT8

— NFL (@NFL) October 13, 2024

Then again, the Broncos trailed the Seahawks (26-13), Steelers (13-0) and Chargers by double digits in the fourth quarter. Nix wouldn’t be the first quarterback to improve his statistical output in “garbage time.”

It’s early in Nix’s career, so it’s important to find the bright spots in a rookie’s performance and accentuate them. It’d be fun to see if Nix could take another step in his development with the Broncos implementing some of those fourth-quarter successes earlier in their games.

Rankings notes

Dropped out: Derek Carr, oblique injury (last week, No. 21); Gardner Minshew, benched (last week, No. 27); Jacoby Brissett, benched (last week, No. 30).

Just a quick point of clarification: Carr was removed from the rankings because he is expected to miss at least one more game. Anthony Richardson remains in the rankings (rather than Joe Flacco) because his recovery timeline has been more uncertain. If the Colts had placed a more definitive timetable on Richardson’s injury, thereby vaulting Flacco definitively into the starting role, that would have led to an adjustment in the rankings.

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(Photo: Steph Chambers / Getty Images)

Tom Brady and Bill Belichick were at the helm of the New England Patriots’ two-decade run of NFL dominance, and hoisted six Vince Lombardi Trophies during their time together. 

But the coach and now-retired quarterback’s relationship is often brought up during conversations about the Patriots dynasty. Brady was famously drafted in the sixth round in 2000 and went on to spend 20 seasons in New England. He left after the 2019 season and joined the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, where he won another Super Bowl.

Belichick was an assistant coach with the Patriots during the 1996 season and returned to New England as the franchise’s head coach in the same year Brady was drafted.

Despite spending so many years together and reaching unprecedented levels of success, by all accounts the working relationship between Brady and Belichick was straightforwardly transactional. But longtime team owner Robert Kraft recently gave his account of how the relationship ultimately transpired.

During a recent appearance on the nationally syndicated radio program, “The Breakfast Club,” Kraft recalled the moment Brady told him about his decision to leave New England.

PATRIOTS’ ROBERT KRAFT SAYS JABRILL PEPPERS IS ‘GONE’ IF DISTURBING DOMESTIC VIOLENCE ALLEGATIONS ARE TRUE

“I’ll never forget… I believe it was in the month of March (2020). He lived down the street from me. (Brady) came to my house and I opened the door. He started crying,” Kraft said.

“And he hugged me and he said, ‘I’ve made a decision. I’m gonna leave the Patriots after 20 years.’ We normally would’ve franchised someone like that… but I kept my word to him. And it was one of the worst days – it’s like losing a child.”

Robert Kraft and Bill Belichick after defeating the Pittsburgh Steelers in the AFC championship game at Gillette Stadium on Jan. 22, 2017. (Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)

Kraft noted that he informed Brady that he “wouldn’t allow Bill or the team to franchise (tag) you,” which suggested that Belichick may have wanted to place the designation on the quarterback to keep him contractually tied to the organization for one more season.

But Brady was given the autonomy to reach whatever decision he felt was best for him – and the NFL icon ultimately moved to Tampa Bay.

New England quarterback Tom Brady meets with Patriots owner Robert Kraft in Super Bowl LIII at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Feb. 3, 2019. (John David Mercer-USA Today Sports)

Kraft said Brady was emotional when he was preparing to depart New England and hinted that the divide between the quarterback and the coach weighed heavy on Brady.

“He cried that whole time when he had to leave us. I understood it. He lived under an arrangement that was very difficult for him the last decade,” Kraft said.

Brady and Belichick never even had dinner together, Brady’s father, Tom Brady Sr., said in 2017.

“They have never even gone out to lunch or dinner,” Brady Sr. said. “That’s not what they do.”

Earlier this year, Brady Sr. also suggested that Belichick’s lack of interpersonal skills directly contributed to the Patriots’ fall from grace. 

“Bill is tough,” he told The Boston Globe. “He runs a military system. It’s a different generation. Bill is a great, great, great coach. But his interpersonal skills are horrible. That’s the bottom line.”

Brady and Belichick did appear to mend fences in May when the coach took a few playful jabs at the former quarterback during the “The Roast of Tom Brady.”

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Almost two decades after the last time it happened, Novak Djokovic finds himself occupying a space in men’s tennis with which he is all too familiar. He is, by a distance, the third-best player in the world.

In the summer of 2007, soon after he turned 20, Djokovic made the semifinals of the French Open and Wimbledon, before reaching the final at the U.S. Open. He was No. 3 in the world for all of that July, dropped to No. 4 for a week in the August, and then stayed at No. 3 until… May. Of 2009.

In his way were Rafael Nadal, who beat him in those French Open and Wimbledon semis, and Roger Federer, who saw him off in straight sets in New York. With the exception of his 2008 Australian Open title, losses to Nadal and Federer defined Djokovic’s career from that summer until 2011. Both defeated him a couple more times each in the closing stages of majors between 2008 and 2010, with Djokovic posting two wins of his own against them at those events.

Now, as the 2024 season draws to a close, Djokovic has Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz in front of him.

On Sunday, Sinner beat Djokovic in straight sets in the final of the Shanghai Masters — a tournament Djokovic has won four times, more than any other player, and where he has a 39-6 record. Sinner has now beaten him twice this year, three times in a row, and in four of their past five ATP meetings; in that time, Djokovic has also lost consecutive Wimbledon finals to Alcaraz. It makes Sinner only the sixth player to win three ATP-level matches in a row against Djokovic, according to Opta:

Djokovic did beat Alcaraz 7-6(3), 7-6(2) to win Olympic gold in August, but in his five matches against the top two this year, he has won just three sets. Two of those were in that Olympic final, the other came in his otherwise straightforward four-set loss to Sinner at the Australian Open.

Sinner and Alcaraz have also shared this year’s four Grand Slams between them, leaving him without a major in a calendar year for only the second time since 2010.

Djokovic reiterated on Sunday that Grand Slam titles are what motivate him to keep going at age 37, having won everything there is to win in the game. “Right now, it’s really about Slams and about still seeing how far I can push the bar for myself,” he said in a news conference.

The Serbian needs one more major to move clear of Margaret Court’s record of 24 — nine of which she won before tennis turned professional — which he equalled by winning the U.S. Open last year. For the rest of 2024, and into 2025, he will have to balance maintaining his level and fitness for those four majors with the knowledge that, without ranking points accrued in other events, his meetings with Sinner and Alcaraz at those majors will happen in earlier and earlier rounds.

Djokovic’s semifinal loss to Sinner was his first defeat at the Australian Open — where he is a 10-time champion — in six years. For only the second time in his Grand Slam career, Djokovic failed to earn a break point and his 17.2 percent of points won on first-serve return was his third-worst tally of 2024.

In Shanghai on Sunday, perhaps the finest returner in the history of the sport had similar struggles, this time winning just 34.6 per cent of second-serve return points — again his third-worst showing of 2024. And while most opponents yield to Djokovic’s greater solidity in the crucial moments, Sinner did not. It was Djokovic, not Sinner, who coughed up a decisive error in the crucial first-set tiebreak.

Against Alcaraz at Wimbledon, an admittedly not-fully-fit Djokovic again returned poorly. He won 16.1 percent of first-serve return points, his second-lowest total of the year, and said after the match that he had never seen the young Spaniard serve so well.

Djokovic also had a dreadful day serving. He won 40 percent of points behind his second serve, his second-lowest figure of 2024 and way down on his average for the year of 55.9 percent. The 6-2, 6-2, 7-6 (4) scoreline that day arguably flattered the beaten finalist, with Alcaraz obliterating Djokovic’s serve at 4-4 in the third set after largely coasting through the four previous service games played. To beat Alcaraz in the Olympic final, Djokovic played his best match of the year in the tournament that mattered most to him, raising his level in the two tiebreaks, especially the second. Alcaraz, who converted zero of eight break points in the match, dipped in both tiebreaks and on those break points.

GO DEEPER

Tennis usually passes the torch. Carlos Alcaraz is running away with it

A problem for Djokovic is that Sinner and Alcaraz are performing at such a level that there is little he can do in the way of preparing for them with match practice that doesn’t involve playing meaningful matches against them. His relatively sparse schedule has allowed him to maintain his fitness while reliably easing into majors through the first week, getting himself match-ready by winning in the early rounds. He did it at this year’s French Open, falling only to the medial meniscus tear from which he recovered to reach the Wimbledon final. He did it at the U.S. Open, too, before meeting an inspired Alexei Popyrin and failing to lift his level to meet that challenge.

Djokovic has played 12 tournaments this year, compared to 14 for Sinner and 16 for Alcaraz (counting last month’s Davis Cup qualifiers as one event rather than two separate ties). Djokovic will probably end the year with 14 events, the same as in 2023 and two more than a year earlier when he missed the Australian swing because of his Covid-19 vaccination status. Djokovic played 13 events the year before that.

This very consistent approach has generally led to consistently brilliant results, but it’s his world ranking and his points accrued from consistently winning titles that have allowed him to do this without risking facing the best players before the final stages of events.

Sinner’s defeat of Djokovic in Melbourne proved a seminal moment in 2024 (Daniel Pockett / Getty Images)

That may be about to change.

Djokovic has accrued 3,910 ranking points so far in 2024, winning just one event and zero ATP titles — his lowest tally since 2005. That puts him at No. 6 in the ‘Race to Turin,’ the Italian city where the season-ending Tour Finals are held. He is currently No. 4 in the ATP world rankings, behind Alexander Zverev, who is ahead of Djokovic in points but not on-court quality. Djokovic is defending 1,000 of those points at the Paris Masters, which starts October 28, where he is the reigning champion. He is not expected to play any further events in 2024.

His results have also declined. He has won 80 percent of his matches in 2024 (37-9), down from 89 percent (56-7) last year. It is his lowest win percentage for a calendar year since 2010, in which he won 77 percent of matches — the final season before Djokovic donned his superhero cape and went stratospheric. His 2011, in which he won a staggering 92 percent (70-6) of matches, was one of the best years for an individual in men’s tennis history.

It feels unlikely that, at 37, Djokovic will want to tweak his volume of tournaments to try to be more match-tight for the majors, but without ranking points, his ranking will drop. If his ranking drops, his seeding for Grand Slams and Masters 1000 tournaments will drop. If his seedings for Grand Slams and Masters 1000 tournaments drop, he will be meeting Alcaraz or Sinner earlier and earlier in the events he most wants to win.

Even a seeding of five to eight at the Australian Open would currently mean a possible quarterfinal against one or the other, and he’d only have to drop one place from his current ranking of fourth to be facing that scenario.

Djokovic was phlegmatic about this latest defeat to Sinner at the weekend, saying: “As long as I perform the way I performed this week, and I think I can go toe-to-toe with the big guys. As long as that’s the case, I guess I’ll still feel the need to keep on competing, and motivation to be out there, and let’s see how long that’s going to last for.”

While the chance to reel in Sinner and Alcaraz — who were aged five and four respectively when Djokovic first became the world No. 3 — should be plenty of motivation, if losses to them become chronic, that would quickly become dispiriting. Much has been made over the past week of the retirement of Rafael Nadal and what that means for Djokovic as the last one of the sport’s Big Three standing, with Federer having hung up his racket in 2022.

After hearing the Nadal news, Djokovic said in an on-court interview in Shanghai, “I still enjoy competing, but part of me left with them, a big part of me.”

Djokovic will defend 1,000 ranking points when the Paris Masters begins in late October (Zhang Lintao / Getty Images)

It’s actually the third member of the group whose experience might be more pertinent.

Between Wimbledon in 2012 and the Australian Open in 2017, Federer didn’t win a Grand Slam title. For much of that period, he found himself in a similar position to where Djokovic is now — the world’s third-best player but with a pair of rivals a level above. One of those rivals was Djokovic, who beat Federer in three Grand Slam finals between Wimbledon in 2014 and the U.S. Open the following year. Nadal, meanwhile, beat him in the 2014 Australian Open semifinal. Andy Murray and Stan Wawrinka were other complicating factors during these years.

Federer, who was in Shanghai for Sunday’s final, could offer Djokovic some advice on hanging in when younger rivals emerge — especially as he had to deal with the Big One becoming the Big Two and then the Big Three in the mid-to-late 2000s.

There have been no indications that Djokovic is yet thinking about the end.

“I don’t know what the future brings, I’ll just try to go with the flow to see how I feel in a given moment,” he said on Sunday. “I still plan to compete and play next season and, yeah, let’s see how far I go.”

Djokovic dismantled one duopoly to kickstart his career.

As he approaches his final act, he will have to repeat the trick to prolong it.

(Top photo: Clive Brunskill / Getty Images)