S.I.’s Albert Breer Talks Darnold, AJ Brown, Bowers Injuries & More with Rich

Albert Breer joined the show one game into the season with Boston in full meltdown, and his read on Drake Maye was calmer than the talk radio around him.

Maye's fourth quarter against Seattle revived the turnover problem that followed him even during last year's Super Bowl run. Breer's view is that it's an acknowledgment of something the league forgets. "All quarterback development isn't linear," he said. People in the organization will tell you Maye is still figuring out how to play quarterback at the NFL level.

His explanation for last year's leap was that so much went according to plan. Josh McDaniels is a great coordinator, and nobody had tape of him with a quarterback like Maye, so New England could show defenses unscouted looks all season. Then the postseason arrived, everyone had a year of film, and Maye faced defensive minds like Jesse Minter with the Chargers, Matt Burke and DeMeco Ryans with the Texans, Vance Joseph with the Broncos and Mike Macdonald with the Seahawks.

Breer also thinks a generation of stars spoiled everyone. Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrow, Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson got really good really fast and stayed there. "I think they fooled us all into thinking quarterback development is just linear." Maye's playoff issues and this loss are proof there are bumps, and in the long run, Breer said, Patriots fans can be excited that he still has room to develop.

Rich noted Maye was one vote shy of MVP, though that vote came before the playoffs, and that facing Seattle's defense in back-to-back games would make almost anyone look bad.

The bigger worry is A.J. Brown, who has a high ankle sprain and was going through tests the morning of the interview. Breer called it an unfortunate name for the injury, like turf toe. "You hear it and it's like, oh, it's an ankle sprain. It's like, well, this is actually ligament damage." Depending on the grade, it could be a two or three week injury or an eight week injury.

On the other side of that game, Seattle feels it dodged a bullet with Sam Darnold. He had a CT scan at the hospital, X-rays at the stadium, and an MRI scheduled, and Macdonald said after the game that a hip fracture had been ruled out. Breer said the Seahawks don't have all the answers yet, but the relief is real.

He was more impressed by how Seattle responded. The secondary was already decimated by injuries and departures, the team lost its quarterback, and still the Seahawks got better as the game went on. "By the third or fourth quarter, they started to look like the Seahawks again, which is really remarkable when you consider all the guys they were missing."

Rich had texted Breer during the game with an obvious question. Who would even be available? Breer didn't see the 49ers trading Mac Jones. The name that made sense to him was Jimmy Garoppolo, who isn't with a team and overlapped with offensive coordinator Brian Flores in San Francisco, which means some carryover in the system, along with years of experience in the division. The wild card is whether Garoppolo wants to play, and Breer thought it would only come up if Darnold's absence became long term.

Then there's Brock Bowers. Breer described a wear and tear meniscus issue and was careful not to scare anyone, since Bowers had a trim rather than a repair, which gets him back sooner. There was some wear on him coming out of Georgia, and injuries like this tend to evolve rather than happen on a single play.

The difference matters. A repair can be season ending, Breer said, pointing to J.J. McCarthy, who needed one after getting hurt in August of 2024 and missed his entire rookie year. Maxx Crosby, who has a similar issue, had a repair after last season that took six months out of his offseason. Bowers taking the more aggressive route gets him back on the field, though the mileage three years into his career "does get your attention."

As for Crosby, Breer is excited to see him play. He expects some soreness over the year but thinks Crosby feels like he has something to prove and is in a good place for a big season, and he credited the Raiders for being careful with him. Breer offered a reminder about medical predictions. Brown's knee was considered degenerative in 2022, which is why Tennessee didn't extend him and traded him to Philadelphia. Four years later, he was traded for a first round pick again. With Crosby, Breer said, it will take a year or two to learn whether the Ravens' doctors were right.

In Atlanta, Tua Tagovailoa is starting because Michael Penix Jr. isn't ready, and Breer wanted to be clear about what that means. Penix was cleared for 11-on-11 work on August 22nd, but that came right before cutdowns with only a couple of weeks left, and this is his third ACL injury. "This was not Tua beating out Michael Penix," Breer said, adding that it didn't look good with Tagovailoa at several points during the summer. Tagovailoa simply worked the most with the first team.

That's also why Cooper Rush is there, Breer explained. If Penix were the backup, the Falcons would be one hit away from throwing him in before he's ready. Rush is an experienced backup who can "keep his hands at 10 and two" if needed, while Penix keeps ramping up. Breer believes Matt Ryan, Ian Cunningham and Kevin Stefanski need a full assessment of Penix this season. "The franchise invested the eighth overall pick. You owe it to yourself to figure out whether or not he's the answer before you plan for what you're going to do in 2027 and beyond at quarterback."

In the same division, Baker Mayfield got his extension despite setting a deadline of the start of training camp. In a clip Rich played, Mayfield said he told his agent he was done talking about it, only to learn over dinner on Monday that talks had happened the week before. "This is home for me. It's home for us," Mayfield said.

Breer, in his 22nd year covering the league, called it what it was. "I've witnessed many a fake deadline. And this was a fake deadline." He believes Mayfield genuinely didn't want to deal with it once he buckled his chin strap, and his camp knew the Buccaneers had done deals during training camp with Tristan Wirfs, Zyon McCollum, Luke Goedeke and Vita Vea. The team revisited it last week, and the math was never that far off. Two franchise tags over the next two years would come to $110 million, and "110 million divided by two is $55 million a year. It was always the sweet spot."

Breer then said Mayfield has planted his flag in Tampa, and caught himself for using that phrase with a Michigan man. Rich let it slide. "I'm happy to talk about clocks. There was one second left and I don't apologize for winning."

Rich did ask whether the Michigan clock mess has the NFL reviewing its own end-of-game protocols. Breer pointed to the gambling angle and the importance of public trust. He recalled someone, he believes Mike Pereira, saying officials are taught to go with what everybody sees on TV, precisely so no one thinks something different is happening behind the scenes. He also wondered why the Big Ten's review video used an angle where a Western Michigan player blocked the view, when NBC's broadcast angle was better. "You're creating a public issue for yourself when you do that," he said, especially for leagues in business with sportsbooks.

On why Aaron Donald didn't travel to Australia, Breer gave what he called informed speculation. It's about getting Donald to January and February in the best shape possible. He is 35 and hasn't played in two years, and the Rams have a template from Donald's holdouts in 2017 and 2018, when he reported late and the team built a detailed plan to get him ready. Those seasons ended in the playoffs and then a Super Bowl trip.

Asked which new addition he most wanted to see in week one, Breer picked two receivers in the AFC. The first was D.J. Moore in Buffalo, though Breer is really curious about the whole offense under Joe Brady. He drew a parallel to Sean Payton, who had play calling stripped in New York and was nicknamed Dennis the Menace in Dallas by Bill Parcells before becoming a different coach on his own in New Orleans. With respect to Sean McDermott, Breer expects something different from Brady, especially against Houston's defense.

The second was Jaylen Waddle in Denver, who Breer thinks is better than people realize and could have a Pro Bowl type season. Both teams, he noted, surround those receivers with nice complementary weapons, from Khalil Shakir and James Cook in Buffalo to Courtland Sutton, Evan Engram, Pat Bryant and RJ Harvey in Denver.