Super Bowl LIX is done and dusted. The Philadelphia Eagles are undisputed champions of the football world, completing the task with a resounding 40–22 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs. And so ends the most active NFL season on record when it comes to take generation.
A crowded, nay, deeply oversaturated media ecosphere inspired thousands of pundits to offer hundreds of thousands of takes along the way—bridging the dog days of August to the snow-covered Sunday afternoons with thoughts, opinions, predictions and claims. There is no prize for saying the smartest or most astute thing, but in the interest of giving some sports talkers their flowers, we've rifled through our enormous credenza of takes to find the five that have aged the best.
Nick Wright: Lamar Jackson 'No Different' Than James Harden and Joel Embiid
The day after Lamar Jackson went off against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday Night Football to the tune of five touchdowns and turnover-free football, there was plenty of praise for the Baltimore Ravens quarterback. Only Nick Wright was brave enough to kill the vibes by lumping Jackson in with James Harden and Joel Embiid as players incapable of getting the job done when lights are the brightest.
"Lamar is not only the best player, he is the best quarterback in the league most years in October and November," Wright said, "and then Mahomes takes it over for January and February. ... He is a brilliant, all-time great, transcendent regular-season player who every single year has his worst moment of the season in the playoff game.
"He is no different than prime James Harden or current Joel Embiid," the FS1 pundit continued. "First-ballot Hall of Famer, night to night in the regular season arguably the best player in the league. And wholly and entirely unreliable in the biggest spots of the year until proven otherwise."
.@getnickwright says Lamar Jackson is "no different" than prime James Harden and Joel Embiid:
— Herd w/Colin Cowherd (@TheHerd) October 22, 2024
"1st Ballot Hall of Famer, unreliable in the biggest spots of the year." pic.twitter.com/3ZBsPb7pTZ
Wright took no shortage of criticism for his opinions. And make no mistake: It was a very annoying opinion at the time—as are all takes built around the general premise that Player X must do it in the playoffs when the postseason is still several months down the road. But ultimately, the general thesis of his argument turned out to be accurate.
Jackson would go on and push Josh Allen to the brink in the NFL MVP race while putting up an all-time historic offense season. Then, as he tends to do, he fell far short of the ultimate Super Bowl goal by performing well below his high standards in a playoff loss to Buffalo in which he turned the ball over twice.
In practice, of course, Jackson is different than Embiid and Harden when it comes to his approach to the game and his willingness to put it all on the line. For neutral observers, there may be no player whose playoff shortcomings generate more sting because it feels cruel and unusual that someone with his talents ... may never play in a single Super Bowl. Like, how is that even possible? How can Jackson be the same as this underachieving NBA duo in principle? It just seems unfair. It also seems truer than anyone wants to admit.
Stugotz: Nick Sirianni is the Greatest Coach in Eagles History
The Eagles split the first four games of their season. There were rumors of friction and tension. Considering how the wheels fell off last season, they became an easy target. Then, with great efficiency and on the strength of Saquon Barkley and downright scary trench warfare, Philly ripped 15 wins over its final 16 contests, culminating in a Super Bowl throttling of the Chiefs.
A few days before the ultimate triumph in New Orleans, Stugotz of the Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz went so far as to anoint Nick Sirianni as the greatest coach in Eagles history. He wasn't wrong—he was just early.
"I don't care what Philadelphia's tired of," he said. "I'm tired of their fan base. They wanted to fire Nick Sirianni like a month or two ago and they're celebrating Nick Sirianni. He's the greatest coach in Eagles history."
Let's look at the tale of the tape. Sirianni has coached the Eagles for four years. They've made the Super Bowl in half of those seasons and he just joined Doug Pederson as the only coach in franchise history to win one. He is 48-20 in the regular season, good for a .706 clip. Andy Reid, for all of the ridiculous success he had during his 14 years with Philadelphia, made the Super Bowl one time and lost it. Dick Vermeil went 7-3 in the playoffs during his tenure and captured the 1980 NFC championship.
But do us a favor. Put Reid and Vermeil's Eagles Super Bowl rings in a box. Then put Sirianni's Eagles Super Bowl rings in a box. Which weighs more?
Dan Orlovsky: Not Surprised if Vikings Won the NFC North
The Minnesota Vikings handed Sam Darnold the keys to their talented offense when rookie quarterback J.J. McCarthy went down with an injury, and the journeyman quarterback did a perfectly fine job piloting a super successful season. The Vikings entered Week 18 with a shot to earn the No. 1 seed in the NFC before quickly evaporating in a two-week stretch with lackluster performances against the Detroit Lions and Los Angeles Rams.
But don't allow Darnold looking human distract from the fact that he was awesome for 95% of the season and led Minnesota to a 14-3 record. Who could have possibly seen this coming? Well, look no further than ESPN's resident NFL expert and foodie Dan Orlovsky, who took a ton of grief back in August for suggesting the purple-and-yellow sky was not falling in Minneapolis.
Watch in delight as Stephen A. Smith just takes Orlovsky to task for being ... ultimately correct.
Stephen A Smith responding to Dan Orlovsky saying he wouldn’t be shocked if the #Vikings won the NFC North:
— VikingzFanPage (@vikingzfanpage) August 23, 2024
“Kirk Cousons is gone, they don’t even have JJ McCarthy. Minnesota? What’s wrong with you man?” pic.twitter.com/SvXBBF0dHg
Beautiful stuff.
Troy Aikman: Joe Burrow Should Win NFL MVP
Troy Aikman put a cap on 2024 by going out on a limb and voicing support for Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow, who was 9-8 on the season, to win the NFL MVP award. This obviously did not happen. And perhaps rightly so as both Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson were more worthy. The reason we're including it in this list, though, is because it was a welcome palette cleanser to the pundits who bizarrely suggested Burrow was somehow to blame for his team's failures—a team with an awful defense that prevented it from winning games even though Burrow was putting up historic stats and peppering the scoreboard with points.
"If I had a vote, it would go to Joe Burrow." - Troy Aikman on the NFL MVP race pic.twitter.com/vs9s2vcjsM
— James Rapien (@JamesRapien) December 31, 2024
And yes, the MVP is a regular-season award. But when winning football games is put up as a meaningful metric in these decisions, does that argument hold up to any scrutiny when neither Allen or Jackson emerged out of the AFC? How about asking what the Bengals' record would have been without Burrow?
Burrow ended up finishing fourth, garnering a single second-place vote, so no one was willing to go as far as Aikman. In that vacuum, an opportunity arises for next year. In all seriousness, Aikman's outside-the-box thinking is welcome and it makes the interminable discussions around these awards more interesting.
Respect.
Colin Cowherd: Jets Like Kramer from 'Seinfeld'
Year 2 of the great Aaron Rodgers experiment proved to be the final year of the experiment as the organization finally made the decision to pull the plug. What will come next? Well, Colin Cowherd is probably right that it will be something zany and hilarious. In a fit of inspiration, the face of Fox Sports compared the Jets to Kramer from Seinfeld back in mid-October. And once you see it, you can't unsee it.
The Jets have become Kramer on Seinfeld: they break through the door every week with a new idea.@ColinCowherd on poorly run franchises thinking change is the answer: pic.twitter.com/YCBcKjOCbv
— Herd w/Colin Cowherd (@TheHerd) October 16, 2024
A true master at work. Cowherd honestly could have been nominated on this list for dozens of efforts. Yet this one—which came before The Athletic's article about Woody Johnson's sons, countless befuddling Pat McAfee-Rodgers crossovers and ultimatums and any other general goofiness—stands alone.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Five Best Takes of the 2024 NFL Season From Media Pundits.
