VITO'S VIEWS

It is surprising the feature game this week is on Thursday night when the Chiefs host the Chargers as Patrick Mahomes duels Justin Herbert.

The NFL doesn’t usually put feature games like this on Thursday nights, but they are doing because it will be the first regular-season game on the new Amazon Prime Video contract.

The game won’t get the same ratings as it would on basic cable because many fans either don’t have Prime Video or don’t even know what it is. But the NFL decided to take the money and run and accept lower ratings. The question is how much lower. The rating will be watched closely.

The game figures to be must-watch TV for those who can watch it. Last year, Mahomes and Herbert split two high scoring games with the home team losing both games. The Chargers won at Kansas City 30-24 and the Chiefs won in Los Angeles 34-28 in overtime. The second game this year will be played on Nov. 20 in Los Angeles in a Sunday doubleheader game. The NFL couldn’t take both games away from CBS so this will not be in prime time.

Now some other observations on Week 2:

-This a big week for the 14 teams that lost their openers (Colts and Texans played to a tie) because an 0-2 start is difficult to overcome and puts a lot of pressure on the third game to avoid an 0-3 start. Only two games pit teams that lost their openers with Rams hosting Falcons in what should be an easy Rams victory and the Bengals going to Dallas as a seven-point favorite.

–The strangest spread of the week is New England a one-point pick at Pittsburgh. Granted, the Patriots have a history of playing well against the Steelers, who will be playing without T.J. Watt and have Mitch Trubisky at quarterback, but the Patriots dynasty appears to be over.

–The oddsmakers weren’t impressed that Chicago beat San Francisco in their opener and the Packers lost to Minnesota. The Packers are a 10-point favorite over the Bears in the Sundy night game. In other lopsided spreads for the survivor pool members to look at, the Bills are favored by 10 over the Titans, Denver is favored by 10 over the Texans, the 49ers are favored by 9.5 over the Seahawks and the Rams by 10.5 over the Falcons. The Rams and 49ers look like the best bets.

–There are two Monday night games and one  looks better than the Sunday night game with the Eagles a 1.5-point choice over the Vikings on ABC. In the other Monday night game on ESPN, Buffalo is favored by 10 over the Titans.

–Tom Brady figures to keep winning even though the Bucs are only favored by only 3 over the Saints.

–Cleveland is likely to get off to a 2-0 start even though Deshaun Watson is suspended. They are favored by six over the Jets.

–The Colts haven’t won in Jacksonville since 1994 and lost there in the season finale to cost them a playoff spot, but they are still a four-point choice over the Jaguars.

–The Commanders have a shot at a 2-0 start since they are a 2.5-point choice at Detroit. After going 3-13-1 last year, the Lions need a victory to avoid an 0-2 start.   

–Lamar Jackson, who is bet on himself this year when he turned down the Ravens’ long-term offer, is favored by 3.5 points over the Dolphins, who beat New England in their opener. 

The lesson of the first weekend of the NFL season is that parity can make for exciting finishes.

New Orleans beat Atlanta on Wil Lutz’s 51-yard field goal with 19 seconds left and Cleveland rookie Code York hit a 58-yarder with eight seconds left to beat Carolina. And the Titans lost to the Giants when Randy Bullock missed a 47-yarder as time expired. Rodrigo Blankenship missed a 42-yarder with two minutes left in overtime so the Colts had to settle for a tie with Houston.

On top of all that, Chris Boswell hit a 53-yard field goal with no time left in overtime to give the Steelers a 23-20 victory over the Bengals. The loss of long snapper Clark Harris proved to be critical for the Bengals as the Steelers blocked an extra point at the end of regulation and Evan McPherson missed a 29-yarder in overtime when backup snapper Mitchell Wilcox had a high snap. It didn’t help that the Bengals also had five turnovers, including a pick-six that was one of the four Joe Burrow passes the Steelers intercepted.

And Denver lost to Seattle when Brandon McManus missed a field goal in the final minute. But nobody blamed him because new coach Nathaniel Hackett had him try from 64 yards instead of letting Russell Wilson go for the first down on fourth-and-5. The Broncos have to wonder if Hackett is ready to be a head coach.

it is probably too early to jump to conclusions after the first weekend but let’s do it anyway. Here goes:

–Dak Prescott’s broken hand that will sideline him for six to eight weeks probably knocks the Cowboys out of the playoff race and opens the door for Philadelphia to win the NFC East.  And for another NFC team to get a playoff spot the Cowboys likely would have gotten with Prescott. The Eagles opened with a victory over the Lions.

–The Steelers got a costly victory over the Bengals when T.J. Watt was probably lost for at least five weeks with a pec injury. That means Cincinnati is still likely to win the division despite their opening game loss.

–Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen are probably headed towards a collision course in probably the biggest game of the regular season when the Chiefs host Buffalo on Oct. 16The two teams also could be headed towards a duel in the AFC title game after the Chiefs routed the Cardinals and the Bills beat the Rams in the Thursday night opener. Mahomes didn’t miss Tyreek Hill as he threw five touchdown passes in the chiefs 44-21 win over the Cardinals.

–Kyler Murray got a big contract, but the one sided loss to the Chiefs raised more doubt whether he is ready to compete against the other young QBs in the league.

–Justin Herbert would like to crash the Mahomes-Allen AFC party and he showed he might do it by throwing three touchdown passes in the 24-19 victory over the Raiders, whose playoff hopes are probably a long shot because they are in a division with the Chiefs, Chargers and Broncos.

–Russell Wilson’s return to Seattle in his debut in Denver turned out not to be a good homecoming. The Broncos didn’t play well and lost 17-16 to journeyman Geno Smith, who threw two touchdown passes in the first half, but threw just 10 passes in the second half. Peyton Manning suggested it was unfair for the NFL to have Wilson go back to Seattle in his debut because of all the emotion involved although he threw for 340 yards. Still, the Broncos were not sharp and ran eight plays in the third period inside the Seattle 12 and got no points and had two fumbles. And they had three more plays inside the Seattle 10 in the fourth period and settled for a field goal. Hackett didn’t help with a curious decision not to go for it when Broncos had fourth and six t the Seattle 46 in the final minute. Instead, he let the clock run down to 20 seconds before having McManus try a 64-yard field goal attempt. According to Sportsradar, kickers are 2 of 35 from 64 yards or more since 1991.

 –Do the Vikings and Kirk Cousins have a chance to overtake the Packers and Aaron Rodgers in the NFC Central? It looks that way when the Vikings opened with a 23-7 win over the Vikings.

–The switch to Trey Lance by the 49ers got off to a slow start when they lost to the Bears in the opener.  But the game was played in a monsoon so it is too early to make judgments on Lance.

–Tom Brady still isn’t showing his age, but it was the defense that carried the way in the Bucs 19-3 victory over the Cowboys.

–First-year coach Brian Daboll went for two rather than play for overtime and got the Giants a 21-20 victory over the Titans when they made the two point conversion. The Titans could have pulled it out but Bullock missed that 47-yarder as time expired. But it wasn’t costly for the Titans because none of the AFC South teams won although the Colts and Texans tied.

–The Browns didn’t miss Deshaun Watson, who is suspended, as backup Jacoby Brissett led the Browns to a 26-24 win over the Panthers as York made the game winner from 58 yards. It was a frustrating loss for Baker Mayfield, who was dumped by the Browns to make room for Watson.

–Lamar Jackson, who is betting on himself by taking the fifth year option contract for $23 million because  he wants more guaranteed money than the Ravens are offering, got off to a good start by throwing three touchdown passes in a 24-9 victory over the Jets. The Ravens were a popular pick in the survivor pools.

–Time to rebuild in New England. The dynasty is over. The Patriots may be only the third best team in their division after losing their opener in Miami. The Patriots are now 6-8 in their last 14 AFC East And four of those six wins are over the Jets. The lesson of the first weekend of the season is that parity can make for exciting finishes.

For the New England Patriots, times are changing. For the Miami Dolphins, the more things change, the more they remain the same.

That is the backdrop for Sunday’s opener when Miami hosts New England.

Before they kickoff, they both know they are virtually out of the AFC East race and are fighting for second place and a possible wild card spot.

That is because the Buffalo Bills showed they are likely to dominate the division after they routed the Rams 31-10 in their opener Thursday night despite four turnovers.

Imagine the score if they hadn’t turned the ball over that many times.

This situation is not new for the Dolphins.

They are used to being in a division dominated by one of the best teams in the league. They haven’t won a division title since 2008 when Tom Brady was hurt.

The Dolphins were swept by the Bills last year and are likely to be swept again this year.

The Dolphins have made the playoffs only three times since Brady started playing in 2001 and have won just one playoff game.

But this is new for the Patriots, who dominated the division for two decades when Brady was playing. 

Now Brady is gone and they are in the division with the Bills, who have one of the best teams in the league. The Patriots made the playoffs last year but the Bills routed them 47-17 in a first-round playoff game.

The Patriots did beat the Bills 14-10 in Buffalo in a wind game, but two weeks later in Foxborough, the Bills beat them 33-21.

Bill Belichick is a good enough coach to keep them competitive. They were 10-7 last year. But it is difficult to imagine them winning a road playoff game as a wild-card team. Unfortunately, competitive is no longer the standard in New England.

They’ve now gone three years in a row without winning a playoff game. Belichick has never gone four years in a row in his career without winning one.

On top of that, he’s 70 and his age is likely to be an issue. Ageism is a thing. He recently did an interview with the Boston Globe when he was reminded he said in 2009 he wouldn’t coach in his 70s the way Marv Levy did.

“I wish I hadn’t said that,’’ Belichick said.

Now he has to live with the perception that the game has passed him by. That’s not true. He is the same coach he always was. A solid coach, but not the best of all time as he is often called now. He is not the GOAT.

Remember he has a losing record without Brady and was 5-11 in his first year with the Patriots and started out 0-2 in 2001 when Drew Bledsoe got hurt and Brady took over and they won the Super Bowl.

That is the difference Brady makes. Same team that went 5-11 without Brady won the Super Bowl with him.

When he was injured in the opener in 2008, they went 10-5 rest of the way. but didn’t make the playoffs because they lost the big games they usually won with Brady.

Belichick probably should have retired when Brady left. Or even better, made sure the Pats made him a good enough offer to entice him to stay.

But Belichick likes coaching. It is his life. The irony is he is a good enough coach to keep the Patriots around .500 and maybe get a wild card spot.

But now he will find out what it is like to be in a division with one of the best teams in the league. Remember no AFC East team besides the Patriots won the Super Bowl after Brady arrived.

Now the division belongs to Josh Allen and the Bills. The Patriots, like the Dolphins, are on the outside looking in.

It is often a difficult transition when a team moves on from a veteran quarterback to a young one.

But it didn’t have to be as difficult as the 49ers made it when they decided to hand Trey Lance the starting job in his second season this year.

They decided they were going to trade Jimmy Garoppolo at the combine, but there was no market for him once he had to undergo surgery.

Instead of releasing him, the 49ers spent the offseason treating him like a pariah. They had him working out on a separate field while he rehabbed his shoulder and didn’t have him join in the quarterback meetings.

Richard Sherman endorsed the idea of going with Lance, but didn’t like the way they treated Jimmy G.

“It is the most awkward situation I’ve ever heard of,’’ Sherman said in the spring. “It is like the couple being divorced, and the divorced wife stays in the house while the husband gets re-married.”

The 49ers apparently thought there would be a market for Jimmy G. once his shoulder healed, but teams were leery of giving much for him at the start of the season when they weren’t sure whether he had recovered.

So instead of cutting him, the 49ers offered him a paycut to $6.5 million with incentives if he plays. Jimmy G. will be a free agent at the end of the season and they can’t franchise him. He also has a no-trade clause so they can only trade him to a team he likes. Jimmy G. took the cut because it was his best option instead of being a free agent when most teams were set at quarterback.

The 49er move also gave the impression that they might not be sold on Lance and wanted an insurance policy if he doesn’t live up to their expectations.

Coach Kyle Shanahan tried to put the best face on it, saying it is best for the 49ers to have both quarterbacks and that Lance had no problem with Jimmy G. being his backup.

“There aren’t 32 starting quarterbacks in the league, and we believe we have two of them,” he said.

Meanwhile as the 49ers open the season Sunday against the Bears, this awkward situation puts more pressure on Lance. If he struggles, there will be calls for Jimmy G. to get a shot.

There’s also the chance the 49ers will get something for him if a contender loses its starter because of injury. But it has to be a team Jimmy G. wants to go to because he has the no-trade clause.

One thing is certain. They have put a lot of pressure on Lance. If he lives up to expectations, he can be their quarterback for the next decade.

If he doesn’t, who knows what the 49ers will do next?

All we know now is Jimmy G. opens the season on the sidelines as the backup. At least he is now with the team.

The NFL kicks off its season Thursday night with the defending-champion Rams hosting the Bills, who are one of the favorites to win it all this year.

The Bills are trying to recover from their meltdown in the playoffs last year when they had a 36-33 lead over the Chiefs with 13 seconds left. It took the Chiefs two plays to get into field-goal position to tie the game and win in overtime. 

The loss like that can have lingering effects, and the Bills will be trying to put it behind them with a win in the opener against a Rams team attempting to become the first club to repeat since the 2003-04 Patriots.

A look at some of the other highlights of the first week:

–Unless they meet in a Super Bowl, Patrick Mahomes and Kyler Murray will meet only once every four years if they stay in opposite conferences. This will be their first one and both are coming off playoff losses last year. 

–Russell Wilson will be taking on his former team when the Broncos take on the Seahawks in their opener on Monday night.. The Broncos hope Wilson will make them a contender in a division loaded with quarterbacks. The Seahawks are rebuilding without him.

–Baker Mayfield was dumped by the Browns after they got Deshaun Watson and he will be playing for Carolina against the Browns. But since Watson is suspended, he will go against Jacoby Brissett.

–The 49ers pushed all their chips on the table for Trey Lance, and he makes his debut as the starter against the Bears. But Jimmy Garoppolo is still on the team as a backup, which puts more pressure on Lance to get off to a good start.

–Tom Brady, who took a puzzling 11-day vacation from the Bucs camp (latest rumors are he was placating his wife, who was unhappy he didn’t retire), starts against the Cowboys at age 45 in the Sunday night primetime game.

First games can be misleading … or a sign of things to come.

For example, the Jaguars won their opener against Houston in 2017 and went to the playoffs. By contrast, they beat the Colts in their opener in 2020 and then lost their next 15 games.

This year with a new coach in Doug Pederson, they open at Washington and a victory would set a positive tone since their next three games at home against Indianapolis and road trips against the Chargers and Eagles will be challenging.

The Jaguars are upbeat now that they put the Urban Meyer fiasco behind theM. They hope that Trevor Lawrence will take a big step in his second year, and that this year’s top pick (Travon Walker) will team with Josh Allen to spearhead the defense.

But there are a lot of skeptics that the team is still too young to make big strides after winning only four games the last two years. Sports Illustrated I predicted they will go 5-12, and the over-under is 6.5 wins. The Athletic polled five personnel types and they ranked the Jaguars as the third-worst team in the AFC above only the Jets and Texans, although one said they could finish second or third in their division.

Pederson may need time to turn the team around because they still are paying the price for shaky drafting in recent years. They weren’t able to draft a solid core of four-to-six-year players that often the foundation for winning teams.

They have no drafted players left on the roster selected before 2017, although Tyler Shatley is still on the roster after being signed as an undrafted free agent in 2014.

They did hit on their first three picks in 2016 when they selected Jalen Ramsey, Myles Jack and Yannick Ngakoue, but Ramsey and Ngakoue got involved in contract disputes and departed. Jack got a second contract in 2019, but they feel he didn’t live up to it and he was cut after the 2021 season, ultimately signing with Pittsburgh. 

They have two each left from the 2017 and 2019 drafts – Cam Robinson and Dawuane Smoot from 2017 and Allen and Jawaan Taylor from 2019. There is also one remaining member (punter Logan Cooke) from the 2018 draft.

The bottom line is that they have just five drafted players taken before the 2020 season, so they don’t have enough to show from those drafts.

One plus is that they have several productive free agents in their fifth and sixth seasons, including Christian Kirk, Arden Key, Foley Fatusasi, Foye Olukun in their fifth year and Zay Jones, Evan Engram, Dan Arnold, Roy Robertson-Harris and Saquill Griffin in their sixth season to fill holes.

The question is whether the Jaguars’ young players will develop quickly enough to combine with their veteran free agents to make them more competitive this year as they attempt to go over the 6.5-victory number.

The Washington opener could provide a sneak preview on how good the Jaguars will be this year.

Just 18 month ago, Patrick Mahomes career was ascending like a rocket ship.

In just his fourth season in the league and third as a starter, he was in the Super Bowl for the second consecutive year with a chance to repeat.

He was facing .the Tampa Bay Bucs, a team the Chiefs had beaten 27-24 a couple of months earlier with a chance to hand Tom Brady his fourth Super Bowl loss. And if Dee Ford hadn’t lined up offsides late in fourth quarter of the 2018 AFC title game to nullify a Brady interception, he would have been appearing in his third straight Super Bowl. 

A second Super Bowl win in his fourth year and third year as a starter would matched the start of Brady’s career. Brady won two in his first four years in the league and third as a starter.

But then the wheels fell off for Mahomes and the Chiefs. They were routed 31-9 by the Bucs.

The Chiefs were missing two starting offensive linemen, had problems protecting Mahomes and their defense couldn’t stop Brady, who won his seventh Super Bowl ring.

Then his woes continues last year when teams started taking away his deep passes by dropping eight players in coverage with two deep safeties.

It took more than half a season for Mahones to adjust before he threw 12 touchdown passes with one pick in last five regular-season games and then won two playoff games to move into the AFC title game for the fourth year in a row, matching a feat done only by Jim Kelly of the Bills.

And once they took a 21-3 lead over the Bengals in the AFC title game, Mahomes seemed destined to make the Super Bowl a third year in a row. That is a feat pulled off only by a the 1971-73 Dolphins.

But then things went south again for the Chiefs. In a candid interview with theringer.com, Mahomes admitted they started to play not to lose. And they lost in overtime.

As Mahomes enters his sixth season and his fifth as a starter, the question is where does he go from here, especially now that the Chiefs have traded Tyreek Hill. 

And the Chiefs face a challenge in their division now that Russell Wilson is in Denver in a division that also includes Justin Herbert and Derek Carr. And Joe Burrow and Josh Allen are still in the conference.

There is no guarantee Mahomes will win a second Super Bowl, much less multiple titles.

Brett Favre, Aaron Rodgers and Wilson are quarterbacks who won Super Bowls early in their careers. Favre never won another one and Rodgers and Wilson are still seeking their second.

Mahones may have raised expectations to an unrealistic level the way he started his career. Or maybe he is still destined to win multiple titles.

His quest to win more rings will be an intriguing challenge in the coming years.

Tom Brady’s surprising 11-day absence from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ training camp this month showed how times have changed.

The Bucs only announced that he left for “personal reasons” and coach Todd Bowles only said it was preplanned. According to reports, it turns out he had planned a family vacation while he was retired for two months and wanted to keep that commitment.

The Bucs handled it well and had no objections. It is not like he needed a full training camp. In effect, their attitude was like the line in the commercial, “We’ll leave the light on for you.”

Contrast their attitude to what happened in 1966 when Jim Brown was making the movie “The Dirty Dozen” in England and there were delays in the filming.

Owner Art Modell didn’t leave the light on for him. He started fining Brown $100 a day (Brown was making $60,000) and said he would suspend him if he didn’t report by July 17.

So Jim Brown wrote him a letter saying he was retiring and never played again. And and just like that, the league lost one of its biggest stars at age 30.

The Bucs weren’t going to make that mistake. Brady is 45 and already retired for a couple of months at the end of last season before deciding he wanted to return. They let him call his own shots.

Once he returned, things seemed back to normal until he departed during camp. While he was gone, there were all kinds of wild speculations that he might be doing something like appearing on The Masker Singer. That made no sense, but it took on a life of its own. The family vacation seemed the most logicial reason.

If Brown were making a movie today, his team probably would have left the light on for him.

Meanwhile, the Browns have never made it to the championship game much less won it since he left. Kind of the Browns version of the Curse of the Bambino.

When Drew Lock came down with a bout of Covid and missed Seattle’s 27-11 loss to the Bears on Thursday night, it didn’t get much attention around the league even though coach Pete Carroll said he seemed to be “really sick.”

He didn’t lose any ground in his battle with Geno Smith for the starting job because Smith was ineffective in the first half and missed the second half with a knee bruise.

Carroll didn’t give much information about Lock’s status. And Lock could play in the final preseason game against Dallas and start the regular season at Denver when the Seahawks will meet their former quarterback, Russell Wilson.

Even though the NFL hasn’t had much of a problem with Covid during training camp and most people who are double boosted only have mild symptoms, Lock’s illness was a reminder that Covid could still play a role this season.

There is always a chance a key player could come down with Covid the day before a game and be sidelined and could have a major factor on a game.

Teams must give out a list 90 minutes before each game of the players who will be inactive.

This list will likely get more attention this year before each game than it usually does.

Americans seems to be acting as if they are done with Covid and are getting back to normal lives. But Covid may not be done with Americans – especially NFL players.

It may not be a big deal if a baseball player comes down with Covid and misses a few games. They play 162 of them.

But with each team playing just 17 NFL regular games, Covid could have a big impact from time to time.

And then there’s the playoffs.

Lock is not likely to be the last NFL quarterback or key player to miss a game with the illness this year. The NFL can only hope it won’t happen very often this year.

The Indianapolis Colts have one of the strangest quarterback rooms in the league this year.

Their starter, Matt Ryan, is one of the most prolific passers in league history, but he has made only one Super Bowl and that resulted in the infamous 28-3 meltdown against the Patriots in 2017.

Ryan has started all 222 regular season games he has appeared in during his career and missed only three games while passing for 59,735 yards. He has 367 touchdown passes and just 170 interceptions, but no rings.

Their No. 2, Nick Foles, is in his familiar role as a backup, but he did beat the Patriots in the Super Bowl the year after the Atlanta meltdown while filling in for Carson Wentz. They even have a statue of him in Philadelphia.

They both wound up in Indianapolis this year. Ryan became expendable in Atlanta after the Falcons tried and failed to sign Deshaun Watson. The Colts only gave up a third rounder for him. The Colts then signed Foles to be his backup. Coach Frank Reich was the quarterback coach in Foles’ Super Bowl winning year.

Now Ryan is at a crossroads. In the AFC, he faces a lot of young guns like Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrow, Josh Allen and Justin Herbert and a Super Bowl winning veteran in Russell Wilson, who was within a yard of claiming a second consecutive Super Bowl two years before the Atlanta letdown and is now in Denver.

And he faces high expectations in Indianapolis. Can Ryan cap his career by finally winning a Super Bowl or will his legacy be 28-3? That is the question.

The loss to the Patriots is remembered for the New England comeback, but the Atlanta offense’s inability to score in the final period opened the door for the Patriots. All the Falcons needed was one field goal to put it out of reach but they were blanked in the fourth quarter.

After the Patriots cut the deficit to 28-9 with a third-quarter touchdown and missed a two-point conversion, the Falcons had the ball three times. On two of the drives they were just outside the Patriots 40 and 20.

They got just two firsts downs those three drives. And Ryan took a sack on each of the drives. And two critical holding penalties played a big role in the killing two of the drives along with some shaky play calling by offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan. On two of the drives, they had a second-and-1 and a third-and-1 and didn’t get a first down either time. And the Falcons defense wore down because they were on the field too much.

After the Patriots cut it to 28-9 late in third period, they tried an onside kick that the Falcons recovered just past the Patriots 40. After a nine-yard run, they were virtually in field-goal range, but a holding call made it second-and-11 and a dropped pass and a sack pushed them back to midfield and they punted.

The Patriots then kicked a field goal to cut it to 28-12. On the ensuing drive, an eight-yard run made it second-and-2, and another run made it third-and-1. Shanahan called for a pass instead of a run. Instead of making a quick throw, Ryan took a five/yard drop and a sack fumble gave the Patriots a short field and they made it 28-20 with 5:53 left.

The Falcons were pinned back on their nine on the ensuing kickoff but Ryan completed two passes – the second a spectacular catch by Julio Jones to give them a first down on the Patriots 22 with 4:38 left. All the Falcons had to do was run three plays and kick a field goal for an 11-point lead to clinch the win. But after the first-down run lost a yard, Shanahan decided to go to the air. A sack and holding penalty made it third-and-33, and the Falcons punted again.

The Patriots then drove for another score against a gassed Falcon defense that had been on the field too long and won the overtime toss, scored again and it was over.

The Falcons never really recovered. Both GM Thomas Dimitroff and coach Dan Quinn were both eventually fired, and now Ryan is starting over in Indianapolis.

Meanwhile, Foles doesn’t know if he will see much action. He is likely to play only if Ryan is hurt. 

Ryan has continued to put up big numbers. He has averaged 4,485 yards a season since 2018. If he does it again for the Colts, he will be fifth on the all-time passer list and that virtually guarantees him a bust in the Hall of Fame.

He is currently eighth with 59,735 and has a shot at passing Dan Marino, Philip Rivers and Ben Roethlisberger to move into fifth on the all-time list behind Tom Brady, Drew Brees, Peyton Manning and Brett Favre, who has 71,838.

But for all his passing yards, Ryan’s legacy isn’t that he is likely to throw for more yards than Marino, who also lost his only Super Bowl appearance but not in the meltdown fashion Ryan did. San Francisco simply had a better team than the Dolphins, so Marino’s loss isn’t remembered the way Ryan’s is.

Ryan’s legacy is still 28-3.

He gets a chance to change that legacy in Indianapolis.