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junker-town · 3 years ago

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Grading every NFL rookie QB in Week 2

Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images

Let’s check in with the rookie quarterbacks after Week 2.

All things considered, it was a strong start for rookie quarterbacks in Week 1 of the 2021 NFL season. Trevor Lawrence, Zach Wilson, and Mac Jones each started for their teams from the jump. Trey Lance and Justin Fields began the season as backups, but each scored a touchdown inside the red zone.

The good news for the rookie QBs in Week 1 was that each of them scored a touchdown. The bad news is that Lance’s San Francisco 49ers are the team with a first round rookie QB to win their opener — and Lance only played a handful of snaps.

Week 2 featured our first head-to-head showdown of rookie quarterbacks when Jones started for the Patriots against Wilson’s Jets. It was another encouraging performance for Jones, who earned the first win of his short pro career, while Wilson would like to pretend it never happened.

Here are our grades for the first round rookie QBs in Week 2.

Trevor Lawrence

Week 2 started in promising fashion for Lawrence and the Jags when the rookie QB led his team on an 11-play, 83-yard touchdown drive on the first possession of the game. On 3rd and 13 just outside the red zone, Lawrence threw a beautiful strike to Marvin Jones Jr. for a 25-yard touchdown.

Trevor Lawrence is going to be a problem.#DENvsJAX on CBS pic.twitter.com/MMfnTA6YJZ

— Jacksonville Jaguars (@Jaguars) September 19, 2021

Unfortunately for the Clemson product, that was as good as his day would get. The rest of the afternoon was basically a disaster for Jacksonville.

The Jags lost the Denver Broncos, 23-13, to fall to 0-2 on the season. Jacksonville only had 189 yards of total offense. Lawrence threw two interceptions, and ended the game with a 37.2 QB rating. The Jaguars somehow embarrassed themselves even more after the game.

Lawrence finished the game 14-of-33 for 118 yards. You can watch every throw he made in Week 2 against the Broncos here. This was such a miserable offensive performance for Jacksonville in general that it’s hard to take too many positives away, but the early TD throw showed Lawrence’s natural arm talent. Even during a rough game, there’s no reason to worry about him. Lawrence was considered one of the top QB prospects in recent memory to hit the NFL draft, but Jacksonville clearly still has a ton of work to do to build around him. Last year’s team went 1-15 to earn the No. 1 pick and the rights to Lawrence, and this year’s team doesn’t feel much better.

Lawrence will be fine, but was a game he’d soon like to forget. Hopefully the Jags can get running back James Robinson more involved next week to take some of the pressure off their rookie QB.

Grade: C-

Zach Wilson

Wilson came out of BYU with a reputation as a gunslinger with great arm strength and the confidence to take shots deep down field. His Week 1 performance showed both sides of the coin on that scouting report, as he connected on a few nice throws but also threw an interception. Overall, it was a fairly encouraging debut even in a loss.

Wilson’s performance was not encouraging in Week 2. He threw an interception on his first two throws of the game against the Patriots. He didn’t have a single multi-interception game for BYU all of last year.

It only got worse from there. Wilson threw his third interception of the game in the second quarter, and then came out of halftime and immediately threw his fourth interception. At one point in the game, Wilson had four completions to his own team and four completions to New England.

You can watch all four of Wilson’s interceptions here. There are some bad throws in here.

Here is a video of all 4 Zach Wilson interceptions and none of them are the offensive line's fault. Very concerning decision making by the rookie. pic.twitter.com/DyhCcvjSp0

— olinestats (@olinestats) September 19, 2021

Wilson ended the game 19-of-33 for 210 yards, zero touchdowns, and four interceptions. The Jets lost to the Patriots, 25-6. This was basically the worst case scenario for any young QB. Hopefully it isn’t the type of performance that hurts his confidence going forward.

Part of this is the growing paints of being a starting QB as a rookie. Part of it is playing for a Jets team that went 2-14 last year. Either way, Wilson has be better next week against the Broncos.

By the way, Wilson still has a cannon.

Zach Wilson hit 59.99 MPH on a throw this week. The highest pass velocity on a throw this year.

— Andre Weingarten (@Swami_EA) September 20, 2021

Grade: F

Trey Lance

The 49ers improved to 2-0 by outlasting the Eagles for an ugly 17-11 win. San Francisco continues to start Jimmy Garoppolo at quarterback despite taking Trey Lance with the No. 3 overall pick, and this week Lance didn’t even see the field.

Lance only got four snaps in Week 1, but one of them was a touchdown throw. He did not take a snap in a tight game against Philadelphia. Head coach Kyle Shanahan explained the decision to reporters on Monday:

“No, I never have a plan that ‘Hey, I’m going to use him or I’m not going to use him.’ It’s always an option throughout the game,” Shanahan told reporters Monday. “It’s been two games and I’ve never had him in the openers and I’ve never had him as a designated time. I plan on doing that week-to-week and whenever I feel like putting him in. You saw when I did in Week 1 and I never got that urge in Week 2.”

Garoppolo really well in the win, finishing 17-of-25 for 314 yards with one touchdown and no picks. Jimmy G doesn’t play a particularly exciting brand of football, but he’s helped the Niners win a lot of games since coming the franchise. It’s easy to see why the Niners are taking a patient approach with Lance given that he only played one college game last season at North Dakota State, and Garoppolo is steady enough to help the Niners be competitive right now.

Grade: Incomplete

Justin Fields

Fields is still the backup quarterback in Chicago, but he saw his first bit of extended action in Week 2 after a leg injury for starter Andy Dalton. Fields played the entire second half and made some good throws even if his final numbers didn’t reflect it.

Fields hit Allen Robinson with a beautiful deep ball in the end zone that went through his hands for a bad drop. Chicago receivers let a few more catchable balls fall incomplete on the afternoon. Fields ended the game 6-of-13 for 60 yards with one interception, but he help lead the Bears to a tight win over the Bengals.

With the game hanging in the balance late in the fourth quarter, Fields made the biggest play of the afternoon by running for a first down on 3rd and 9 with Chicago holding onto a three-point lead. Fields made this play happen all by himself, and it’s possible the Bears would have lost the game without it.

1. People easily miss what made Justin Fields' 10-yard scramble for the game-sealing 1st so great. The broken tackle was one thing, but it was his awareness to get on the ground inbounds to keep the clock moving. To have that presence of mind as a rookie? It's rare.#Bears pic.twitter.com/UP8aJoU4Ca

— Erik Lambert (@ErikLambert1) September 20, 2021

There were some less encouraging moments, like a bad interception late in the fourth quarter that allowed the Bengals to get back into the game.

With Dalton’s status unknown going into Week 3 against the Cleveland Browns, it looks like Fields is going to get the chance to show he deserves the starting job the rest of the season.

Grade: B

Mac Jones

The Patriots didn’t need Jones to make a bunch of big plays to beat the Jets. New England came out with a conservative game plan for its quarterback, and let its defense dominant the rookie QB starting across from them to coast to an easy 25-6 win.

Jones played an efficient game, finishing 22-of-30 for 186 yards. He didn’t throw a touchdown or an interception. Instead, the most memorable plays Jones made came by helping the Pats’ running game. He pushed Damien Harrison into the end zone for this touchdown.

Mac Jones was right in there pushing the pile on that Damien Harris touchdown run. This guy is freaking awesome. pic.twitter.com/q3OgBXyvgt

— KJ Doyle (@bykjdoyle) September 19, 2021

He also helped spring a reverse for New England as a lead blocker:

A QB blocking, a WR rushing.@MacJones_10 | @BournePoly11 : @NFLonCBS / Patriots app pic.twitter.com/6uZGO0m1uo

— New England Patriots (@Patriots) September 19, 2021

Jones has looked like the best rookie QB through two weeks, but the Patriots have also made his job pretty easy. Credit the young QB for looking poised and accurate in his first two games. The big plays will come eventually.

The Patriots host the Saints next week, which should be another winnable game and an opportunity for Jones to impress again. After that? A Week 4 date with the Bucs and former Patriots legend Tom Brady.

Grade: A-

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bountyofbeads · 5 years ago

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The Mystery Surrounding Jeffrey Epstein’s Private Island

By Jonathan Levin, Greg Farrell and Tom Metcalf | Bloomberg | Posted July 12, 2019 |

(Bloomberg) -- From the harbor on St. Thomas, the boat skims eastward across the crystalline Caribbean, takes a turn and there it is: the palm-fringed paradise that was the private redoubt of Jeffrey Epstein.

An American flag on a towering pole flutters in the breeze. A blue-and-white building that resembles a temple sits atop one of the hills. The pool and cabanas are visible in the distance. There’s no traffic on the winding dirt roads, no people on the dock or the beach.

It’s quiet now on the island of Little St. James. Epstein dubbed it Little St. Jeff’s. Locals have other names for it: Pedophile Island and Orgy Island.

This is where Epstein –- convicted of sex crimes a decade ago in Florida and now charged in New York with trafficking girls as young as 14 –- repaired, his escape from the toil of cultivating the rich and powerful.

Over the years, the 66-year-old crossed paths with former and future presidents, as well as a Who’s Who of wealthy business figures and celebrities. On St. Thomas, he has been a subject of lurid speculation for as long as anyone can remember. Tourists still take boats out to get a glimpse of the island, where, according to a former employee, Epstein hosted young women who flew into St. Thomas with him and were ferried over in groups aboard a 38-foot vessel called the “Lady Ghislaine,” apparently named for his friend Ghislaine Maxwell.

“It’s part of the tour and has been forever,” said Kristi Query, owner of Virgin Islands Yacht Charters in Compass Point Marina on St. Thomas, the gateway isle of the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Few here doubt that Epstein is wealthy. He routinely touched down on St. Thomas aboard his private jet before being whisked by helicopter to his 72-acre retreat. He spent many millions after buying it for $7.95 million in 1998, carving roads, planting scores of 40-foot palms, building several villas and the temple structure, which was topped by a gold-colored dome until Hurricane Irma blew it off, according to locals.

Yet the size and source of Epstein’s fortune are as much a source of speculation here as they are on Wall Street. Bankers and money managers wonder exactly what his business entailed, with theories ranging from helping the ultra-rich reduce their taxes to buying and selling currencies.

Reid Weingarten, a lawyer for Epstein, didn’t immediately return a voicemail message seeking comment for this story.

The properties Epstein owns certainly suggest he knew his way around the world of big money. He has a second private island, Great St. James, mansions in Palm Beach and Manhattan, an apartment in Paris and a ranch in New Mexico that, according to an October 2009 deposition in a civil lawsuit, has its own 4,500-foot airstrip.

The New York townhouse alone is worth more than $100 million, according to Dolly Lenz, a luxury real estate agent who has viewed it. “Literally, only billionaires have these kind of assets,” she said.

Epstein didn’t spend much time on St. Thomas, according to locals, but his business is headquartered there in a commercial plaza that’s also home to a Sami’s Mini-Mart and the Happy Nails salon. There’s no map to guide a visitor to the office and no signs on any door, though at least five Epstein entities are or have been registered in a suite there, according to public records.

Among them are companies that hold his Gulfstream jets, Financial Trust Co. and Southern Trust Co., whose business is described as “DNA database and data mining” on a government website that lists Cecile deJongh as the office manager. DeJongh, the wife of a former governor of the territory, couldn’t be reached for comment.

Before he transferred his operations two decades ago to the U.S. Virgin Islands, Epstein was based in New York. Financial Trust was then called J. Epstein & Co., a money-management firm he famously touted as catering to billionaires only. The primary client, it appears, was Victoria’s Secret mogul Les Wexner.

Wexner visited Little St. Jeff’s at least once, the former Epstein employee said, and Victoria’s Secret models were among the guests he saw there.

The move to the U.S. territory could have been for privacy, or the juicy tax benefits. Qualifying companies are eligible for a 90% reduction in corporate income tax and personal income tax if they meet certain conditions, including employing at least 10 residents and investing $100,000 in local industries. Southern Trust is listed at the Economic Development Authority as one of the beneficiaries of local tax incentives.

Back in his heyday, before his 2008 guilty plea in Florida, Epstein would visit his piece of the Virgin Islands archipelago about two or three times a month for stays of three or four days, according to the former staffer, who asked not to be named because Epstein insisted on secrecy from his employees. He described it as a Zen-like retreat when Epstein was there, padding around shirtless in shorts and flip-flops, with meditative music piped into the area around the main house, the cabanas and the pool, where women would sometimes sunbathe topless or in the nude.

The crew of groundskeepers and other workers sported black or white polo shirts when the master was in residence -- and darted away when they spied him. The former employee said they had to obey one ironclad rule: Epstein could never catch sight of them.

Among the other oddities of being employed there, the former staffer said, was Epstein’s interest in “pirate treasure.” Not gold doubloons, but old rum bottles and crockery that workers would come across. If you found an old rum bottle, Epstein would pay $100 for it. An unbroken plate was worth $1,000. A broken plate, as long as it was more than half intact, would fetch $500.

The only unusual aspect of the main residence the former worker said he was aware of were the security boxes in two offices. The level of secrecy around a steel safe in Epstein’s office, in particular, suggested it contained much more than just money, he said. Outside of an occasional visit by a housekeeper, no one was allowed in those rooms.

Whether Epstein will ever return to Little St. Jeff’s is unknown. He is incarcerated at Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York, where a federal judge is scheduled to consider his request for bail at a hearing on Monday.

--With assistance from Zeke Faux, Tom Maloney, David Voreacos, Caleb Melby, Patricia Hurtado and Erik Schatzker.

#u.s. news #politics #international news #us: news #must reads #legal issues #jeffrey epstein #sex trafficking #sex crimes #world news

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