Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin isn't known for throwing shade at other players, but even he hopped on the bandwagon of people taking a dig at Indianapolis Colts quarterback Anthony Richardson.

Leading up to the Steelers' Week 4 game against the Minnesota Vikings, who will again be relying on Carson Wentz at quarterback, Tomlin made a comparison of his team's game against the Colts last season when discussing the difficulty of facing a backup who might be better from the pocket than the opposing starter:

"I don't necessarily view it as a negative thing for the Minnesota Vikings, at least in the short term, that Carson is playing for them. We were in a similar situation a year ago; we were playing in Indianapolis. Man, and I commented to the guys, 'Keep [Anthony] Richardson upright. Don't put [Joe] Flacco in the game.' And you know, Flacco ended up in the game."

Tomlin was speaking about the way a veteran backup can bring some "intangible components" to the game in a way that a less experienced quarterback is unable to do because they haven't yet learned to do that in the NFL.

In the game that Tomlin is referencing from Week 4 last season, the Steelers weren't exactly stopping Richardson before he left the game late in the first quarter due to a shoulder injury.

The Colts were already up 7-0 and Richardson got them into Steelers territory on their second offensive possession when the injury occurred. Joe Flacco finished off that drive with a four-yard touchdown pass to Josh Downs.

Indianapolis went on to beat the Steelers 27-24, with Flacco finishing 16-of-26 for 168 yards and two touchdowns. It's worth noting Richardson was 3-of-4 for 71 yards and had 24 rushing yards in just 13 plays.

The strategy behind Tomlin's comment was sound. Richardson completed 49.3 percent of his attempts with twice as many interceptions (six) as touchdowns (three) in his first three starts before the Steelers game.

It's entirely possible that if Richardson had played the entire game, he would have eventually turned back into the player he was in the first three weeks.

The fact that Indianapolis is off to a better start through three weeks this season with Daniel Jones than it had in any opening three-game stretch with Peyton Manning only makes Richardson look worse.

Wentz will be making his second consecutive start for the Vikings, with J.J. McCarthy recovering from a sprained ankle. Minnesota won Wentz's first game 48-10 over the Cincinnati Bengals, but he only had to throw the ball 20 times because the game got so one-sided early.

The Steelers (2-1) will likely need their offense to step up on Sunday. They haven't gained 300 yards in a game through the first three weeks, though the defense has stepped up with eight takeaways.

Pittsburgh and Minnesota will be playing the NFL's first game in Ireland on Sunday. Croke Park in Dublin will host the matchup between the two teams with a 9:30 a.m. ET kickoff time.

Bleacher Report

NFL Power Rankings: Vikings Move Up After Dominant Victory Over Bengals
Sep 23, 2025 

The last time Isaiah Rodgers was at U.S. Bank Stadium (prior to this season), he was a part of NFL history.

Unfortunately for Rodgers, he was on the other side of it that day during the 2022 season; the cornerback was a member of an Indianapolis Colts team that saw the Minnesota Vikings rally from a 33-0 halftime deficit and earn a 39-36 overtime victory, completing the largest comeback ever seen in the sport.

It's certainly a half of football that Rodgers would rather forget. On Sunday against the Cincinnati Bengals, he replaced it with one he'll always remember.

Rodgers’ “spectacular” performance – highlighted by an 87-yard pick six, a forced fumble and recovery he took 66 yards the other way for a score, and another fumble he caused (all in the first half) – helped the Vikings rout the Bengals 48-10.

Rodgers not only became the first NFL player (since at least 1991 when forced fumbles became part of the full play-by-play data) with two defensive scores and forced fumbles in the same game, he became the first player in Vikings history to record a pair of defensive touchdowns in a single contest. Coincidentally, during that 2022 game against the Colts, Rodgers nearly witnessed former Vikings CB Chandon Sullivan return two fumbles for touchdowns, only for both plays to be called back (one ruled for forward progress and the other ruled down by contact).

Sunday's victory not only lifted Minnesota into a tie for first in the NFC North with Detroit and Green Bay, but it helped the Vikings move up in this week's power rankings. Here's a look at where the Vikings landed heading into Week 4:

No. 15 (up 4 spots): Eric Edholm, NFL.com

Even if the Bengals were their own worst enemies on Sunday, the Vikings showed enough with Carson Wentz at the helm to have reasonable hope they can hold the fort until J.J. McCarthy's return. Wentz was sharp early, cooled off and then heated back up in a net-positive performance. Even while taking three sacks, Wentz kept the chains moving by finding open guys. Minnesota's run game (even without Aaron Jones, Sr.) and the defense did a lot of the heavy lifting, with two defensive touchdowns and five turnovers giving the offense all the opportunities they needed and then some. Thirteen penalties, most of them on offense, were a bummer, and it will give Kevin O'Connell his white-board point for the week ahead of the big Euro duo against the Steelers and Browns prior to the early bye. If the Vikings can make it back home with a winning record, they'll be in far better shape to handle the most lethal part of the schedule after the bye. Sunday showed it was too soon to punt on Minnesota.

No. 15 (up 4 spots): Kris Knox, Bleacher Report

Let's not go overboard about Kevin O'Connell's ability to coach up quarterbacks or the possibility of Carson Wentz being the next great QB comeback story. Wentz did operate O'Connell's offense efficiently in Week 3, but it was Minnesota's defense that dominated.

The Vikings also got strong contributions from Jordan Mason and the ground game, days after starter Aaron Jones was placed on Injured Reserve.

That's noteworthy because Minnesota is going to get rookie mistakes out of J.J. McCarthy when he's healthy enough to return. If the Vikings can support McCarthy with great defense and a strong running game – as they did in Week 1 – they can stay in the playoff picture while continuing to develop their young quarterback.

No. 13 (up 4 spots): Pete Prisco, CBS Sports

If [the Vikings] play defense like they did against the Bengals, it won't matter who plays quarterback. But Carson Wentz played well with what he was asked to do.

No. 15 (up 7 spots): Nate Davis, USA Today

Next up, the league's first regular-season game in Ireland? On the football front, WR2 Jordan Addison [rejoined] the team for its two-game European swing.

No. 14 (up 8 spots): Josh Kendall, The Athletic

Kevin O'Connell picked up Carson Wentz four weeks ago, and even with limited practice reps and basically no training camp, Wentz guided the Vikings to a blowout win while throwing for two touchdowns and averaging 8.7 yards per pass. At this point, it would be fun to see which quarterback you could drop onto this roster with O'Connell and still win a game.

No. 14 (up 2 spots): Conor Orr, Sports Illustrated

The return of Harrison Smith has been a game-changer for this defense and absolutely ripped apart a quality backup in Jake Browning. I wrote about Smith, and one of the most spectacular defensive plays I've seen in a long time, right here.

No. 13 or 14 (up 3 or 4 spots): Vinnie Iyer, Sporting News

(Writer's note: Iyer's article has two teams ranked No. 12 and none at the No. 16 spot. He doesn't address the tie in this week's rankings, so the Vikings are either No. 13 or No. 14).

The Vikings can be unstoppable when they are swarming defensively and getting sacks and takeaways at a high rate for Brian Flores. Carson Wentz also got a nice break with Jordan Mason and the big running game.

No. 13 (up 3 spots): Frank Schwab, Yahoo! Sports

The Vikings aren't going anywhere. They need to figure out how to get good, consistent quarterback play. Their defense remains top notch. That showed against the Bengals. This is still a playoff-level roster, especially when it gets healthy.

Vikings defense has learned to master the punch-out to become a turnover machine
Led by cornerback Isaiah Rodgers, the Vikings had their first takeaway frenzy of the season against the Bengals, perfecting a move they have practiced until it became muscle memory.


Vikings defenders shared a realization while hitting the showers postgame of their 48-10 win over the Bengals, safety Josh Metellus said after the game Sunday.

“Is it me, or is the ball coming out a little bit easier this year?” Metellus said they asked each other. “Should we start punching the ball a little bit more than normal?”

The thought came after cornerback Isaiah Rodgers successfully punched two balls loose in the first half, one he recovered himself and returned for a score and the other picked up by cornerback Jeff Okudah. Safety Theo Jackson also had a punch-out in the game.

The week before against the Falcons, linebacker Eric Wilson punched one out from Drake London’s hands after a catch. Jackson recovered that one.

The Vikings defense, which led the league in takeaways last season, viewed its performance Sunday as a return-to-form of sorts. They’re up to seven takeaways with two interceptions and five fumble recoveries through three games.

“Shoutout to Flo. All week he’s been telling us, ‘Just get back to Vikings football,’” Rodgers said postgame, referring to defensive coordinator Brian Flores. “We just wanted to go back out there and showcase our talent and put on a show.”

The punch-out forced fumbles in particular are a rising trend in the past three seasons or so, a turnover tactic that Flores credits special teams coordinator Matt Daniels for helping put in Vikings players’ subconscious.

Daniels said Tuesday that he first took an interest in the subject while working for the Cowboys. He and then-special teams coordinator John Fassel, who’s now in the same position with the Titans, did a deep-dive on turnovers, the science behind them and the dynamic of how to punch a ball out at the request of Mike McCarthy, the Dallas head coach at the time.

Daniels now gives a weekly turnover presentation to the Vikings.

Part of the uptick in punch-outs, Daniels said, is that hand-eye coordination, and athletic performance overall, is reaching new levels.

But he also learned in his studies with Fassel the value of building the motive and movements to achieve it into players’ subconscious minds, making it muscle memory.

“If you can continue just to work it, work it, work it and just build that subconscious mindset, then it just all becomes natural in the football game,” Daniels said.

The Vikings do work it most days in practice. In one particular drill, two defensive players — at all positions — will dive at each other above a foam pad, with one trying to knock the ball out of the other’s grip.

Metellus called it “special” to see the direct translation of that work in practice to gameday.

Flores said he even works it with his young sons, instructing them to punch at the ball every time they give him a hug. It’s produced success for them, too.

Building the move into the subconscious goes hand-in-hand with good tackling, something the Vikings defense did better against the Bengals than they had in the first two games of the season.

The Vikings missed 13 tackles against the Bears and 16 against the Falcons. Against the Bengals, they missed only six.

A player understanding the circumstances around him when he attempts a punch-out is also critical. Where is he on the field? Are there other defenders around to help him? Is his positioning right to actually make a swing?

“It can’t be just me swinging at the football and not getting body-on-body contact at the same time,” Daniels said.

On both of Rodgers’ punch-outs, he made contact with the offensive player beyond just going for the ball. He also had a swarm of teammates around to assist: three on the punch-out on tight end Noah Fant and five on the one on wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase.

Flores said he gets less upset now than he might have earlier in his career when a player going for the ball results in a missed tackle because he knows his Vikings players have learned the techniques and fundamentals to back up that intent.

“We know when to do it, why to do it, in what situations,” Flores said. “I think our guys have done a good job of implementing the right techniques in the right situations for the most part.”

Not every punch-out will lead to the history-making splash plays Rodgers created Sunday, but simply winning the turnover margin is a critical stat in winning NFL games.

STRIB

NEW YORK — Robot umpires are getting called up to the big leagues next season.

Major League Baseball's 11-man competition committee on Tuesday approved use of the Automated Ball/Strike System in the major leagues in 2026.

Human plate umpires will still call balls and strikes, but teams can challenge two calls per game and get additional appeals in extra innings. Challenges must be made by a pitcher, catcher or batter — signaled by tapping their helmet or cap — and a team retains its challenge if successful. Reviews will be shown as digital graphics on outfield videoboards.

New York Yankees outfielder Austin Slater, one of four players on the competition committee, said three voted in favor after getting support from 22 of the 30 teams. All six management reps voted in favor.

''I think with any sort of technology, there's not 100% certainty of the accurateness of the system,'' Slater said. ''I think the same can be said of umpires. So I think it's just coming to grips with the impact that technology is going to have and whether or not we were willing to live with that error that was associated with the system, even if the error is very, very miniscule.''

Big league umpires call roughly 94% of pitches correctly, according to UmpScorecards.

Adding the robot umps is likely to cut down on ejections. MLB said 61.5% of ejections among players, managers and coaches last year were related to balls and strikes, as were 60.3% this season through Sunday. The figures include ejections for derogatory comments, throwing equipment while protesting calls and inappropriate conduct.

Yankees manager Aaron Boone, who leads the American League in ejections for the fifth straight year, called the adoption ''inevitable.''

''Throughout the year, I've been a little not totally on board with it or exactly how it's going to be implemented but it's going to be here and hopefully that's a good thing,'' he said. "A lot of the things that Major League Baseball has done I think have been really successful in the changes they've made and hopefully this is another one of them.''

Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said players will have to adjust.

''You can like it, dislike it, it doesn't matter," Vogt said as Cleveland prepared to open a critical three-game series with Detroit. "It's coming. 

It's going to change the game. It's going to change the game forever.''

ABS, which utilizes Hawk-Eye cameras, has been tested in the minor leagues since 2019. The independent Atlantic League trialed the system at its 2019 All-Star Game and MLB installed the technology for that year's Arizona Fall League of top prospects. The ABS was tried at eight of nine ballparks of the Low-A Southeast League in 2021, then moved up to Triple-A in 2022.

At Triple-A at the start of the 2023 season, half the games used the robots for ball/strike calls and half had a human making decisions subject to appeals by teams to the ABS.

MLB switched Triple-A to an all-challenge system on June 26, 2024, then used the challenge system this year at 13 spring training ballparks hosting 19 teams for a total of 288 exhibition games. Teams won 52.2% of their ball/strike challenges (617 of 1,182).

''I love it. I loved it in spring training,'' Phillies manager Rob Thomson said. ''Not all of the players, but most of the players, if you ask them, they really liked it too. I think it keeps everybody accountable. It keeps everybody on their toes.''

At Triple-A this season, the average challenges per game increased to 4.2 from 3.9 through Sunday and the success rate dropped to 49.5% from 50.6%. Defenses were successful in 53.7% of challenges this year and offenses in 45%.

In the first test at the big league All-Star Game, four of five challenges of plate umpire Dan Iassogna's calls were successful in July.

Teams in Triple-A do not get additional challenges in extra innings. The proposal approved Tuesday included a provision granting teams one additional challenge each inning if they don't have challenges remaining.

MLB has experimented with different shapes and interpretations of the strike zone with ABS, including versions that were three-dimensional. Currently, it calls strikes solely based on where the ball crosses the midpoint of the plate, 8.5 inches from the front and the back. The top of the strike zone is 53.5% of batter height and the bottom 27%.

''Throughout this process we have worked on deploying the system in a way that's acceptable to players,'' Commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement. ''The strong preference from players for the challenge format over using the technology to call every pitch was a key factor in determining the system we are announcing today.''

This will be MLB's first major rule change since sweeping adjustments in 2024. Those included a pitch clock, larger bases, and restrictions on defensive shifts and pitcher disengagements such as pickoff attempts.

The challenge system introduces ABS without eliminating pitch framing, a subtle art where catchers use their body and glove to try making borderline pitches look like strikes. Framing has become a critical skill for big league catchers, and there was concern that full-blown ABS would make some strong defensive catchers obsolete.

In addition to Slater, other players on the competition committee are Arizona's Corbin Burnes and Zac Gallen, Detroit's Casey Mize and Seattle's Cal Raleigh, with the Chicago Cubs' Ian Happ at Detroit's Casey Mize as alternates. The union representatives make their decisions based on input from players on the 30 teams.

Bill Miller is the umpire representative.

STRIB

I heard this on Purple Daily yesterday and found it quite interesting, but does the success of the 2025 Vikings look like the 2017 Vikings?  Did O'Connell channel his inner Zimmer?

Run the football effectively with a good OL.  Play outstanding defense and turn the opposition over.  Get a backup QB in there that doesn't melt down a game plan.  Could we be seeing this all over again?

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. --- The New York Giants are planning to bench quarterback Russell Wilson in favor of first-round rookie Jaxson Dart after three games, sources told ESPN's Adam Schefter on Tuesday.

Dart's first start will come at home Sunday against the undefeated Los Angeles Chargers at MetLife Stadium. The 25th overall pick this year out of Ole Miss served as the backup to Wilson for the first three games of the season.

The switch to Dart is a move that could reinvigorate a disappointed fan base. Fans cheered when the rookie came on the field for a snap in the second quarter on Sunday night. That contrasted with their booing after Wilson threw a second-quarter interception in a tie game in his first home game with the team.

Dart has been preparing for this moment ever since the Giants traded back into the first round to get him to New York. He has done nothing but impress since taking the field in the spring. Dart started the spring with the third-team offense and quickly worked his way past Winston early in the summer.

His first extended taste of regular-season NFL action will come against a Chargers defense that is currently allowing under 300 yards per game.

Dart will give the Giants' offense a different look and more options. His ability to run the ball and the zone-read had his version of the offense looking vastly different from the first-team unit with Wilson throughout the summer.

ESPN

Former Minnesota Vikings linebacker Eric Kendricks has listed his historic downtown Minneapolis loft in the Mill District for sale for just over $1 million.

Downtown East, which includes much of the Mill District, is by far the most expensive neighborhood in downtown Minneapolis (the Whitney is on the border of Downtown East and West). The median sale price of all closings during August in that area was $716,600, nearly 15% higher than last year at the same time, according to data from the St. Paul Area Association of Realtors.

Loft living had is perks, Kendrick said. He was especially fond of the building’s “charm” and its proximity to the river and downtown restaurants. While he lived there only a few years, it’s full of memories.

That includes dinners with his wife on the balcony and many walks along the river “to clear my head,” he wrote in the email.

His teammates, who joined him for Thanksgiving dinners and Taco Tuesdays, also helped make it home. It’s where he celebrated Christmas with the family, walked to the nearby Mill City farmers market and took “many scooter and bike rides down the river with teammates.”

“Memories I will cherish forever,” he said in the email. “I love this place.”




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Adam Schefter
@AdamSchefter
A QB change: Giants are planning to start rookie Jaxson Dart on Sunday vs. the Chargers, sources told ESPN.