The Washington Commanders announced that quarterback Carson Wentz underwent surgery to fix a broken finger in his throwing hand after the game against Chicago. He is expected to miss 4-6 weeks.

With QB1 out, the team has to make some adjustments. They had two backups already listed on the roster — Taylor Heinicke and Sam Powell. Washington also signed Jake Fromm from the practice squad on Oct. 18.

But how does this affect the long term? Is the QB depth for the Commanders as good as other teams around the league that have proven their backups can live up to expectations, like the Patriots’ Bailey Zappe or the Cowboys’ Cooper Rush? What does the future look like for this team and the picks they traded to acquire Wentz?

Let’s start with the immediate concern: Who gets the start in Week 7?

The Commanders chose Heinicke. Some fans want to see the rookie Howell get the nod for his first NFL game, but football is a week-to-week sport. The Commanders need to pick up a win to get off the bottom of the NFC East this week and worry about everything later. Due to the immediacy of the sport, Heinicke is the right choice, especially against Green Bay.

Last season, Heinicke started for Washington at Lambeau Field and ultimately lost 24-10, but he showed fans a few of his assets in the pocket — the main one being his ability to run and stay poised. Heinicke can use his legs to exploit a Packers defense that is especially weak at defending on the run. He had a 38-yard run a year ago against Green Bay, which is just under half of Wentz’s run total all season thus far. In that game, Heinicke picked up 95 yards in that game alone, and had a pretty solid year in general last season before Wentz came along and got the starting gig.

Don’t forget about Powell, though. The fifth-round draft pick out of UNC led all QBs in the preseason this year, and in college broke countless records for both his program and for the entire ACC. He is listed as the backup in the game this week, which is the right move. If Powell is the real deal, he is the future of this franchise and needs the time to grow into a top-level QB. This doesn’t mean he isn’t going to get a snap all season, He will eventually see time, but the timing just isn’t right, currently.

And what about Jake Fromm? He joined the Commanders this season from the New York Giants, where he saw two starts and completed 27 of 60 passes. It is unlikely he will get in this week, or in the foreseeable future, but he has regular-season NFL experience. That could come in handy, and could ultimately give him the edge over Powell if Heinicke goes down in the future.

But there is something else that needs to be considered for the Commanders’ quarterback situation. When they traded for Wentz, Washington got him and a 2022 second-round pick. Indianapolis got a 2022 second-round pick and two 2023 third-round picks. One of those third-rounders is conditional, and becomes a second-round if Wentz plays more than 70 percent of games for Washington. Do they keep him out longer to ensure the Colts don’t get a free second-round pick?

Seventy percent of the games equates to 11 matchups. Wentz has already played in five games, and if he is out for the max estimate of six weeks, that brings the league to Week 13, and then he has only five more weeks of the regular season (Week 14 is a bye for the Commanders), putting him below the 11 game threshold. If he returns sooner, closer to the four-week mark, the pick is likely to transform into a second-rounder. It will be interesting to see what The Commanders do about this, or if it is even a thought.

But still, the Commanders will take it week-to-week. It’s Heinicke’s time for now, but it all could change over the course of the season. This week’s matchup will show the trajectory of the situation, and what the quarterback core will need to work on for the foreseeable future. 

Rivalries are all about tradition — and being petty.

North Carolina fans are still celebrating that they defeated Coach K in his final home game, and his last game, after beating Duke in the Final Four. Blue Devils fans are trying to get over a pain that will never subside. However, small wins are still victories.

No. 1 overall pick Paolo Banchero has joined former Dukies Jayson Tatum and Zion Williamson as members of Nike’s Jordan Brand because there’s no one from North Carolina for Michael Jordan to sign.

“Them saying, ‘Regardless of how much money they’re paying you, they’re always going to take care of you,” Banchero said about the advice that Tatum and Williamson shared with him. “Anything you need, whether it’s on the court or off the court, they’re going to try their best to make it happen for you and look out for you,” he recalled. “That right there was one of the big reasons why I decided to come.”

“When Jordan stepped in, that really kind of made me raise my eyebrows,” Banchero added. “They don’t try and sign everybody.”

It has to suck for Jordan to see three Duke players — along with Luka Dončić — be the new faces of his company and there’s nothing he can do about it.

Republicans buy shoes too, and so do Duke alums. Wait, I take that back, given that they’re the same thing.

Vince Carter — who was drafted four years before Banchero was born — is the last Carolina alum to have a major shoe deal. He’s also the last NBA All-Star that UNC’s program has produced. His last appearance came in 2007 when Banchero was 4, Williamson was 6, and Tatum was 8.

This is where things get weird. Since 2005, North Carolina has won three national championships and made it to six Final Fours. You would think with that type of success that they’d have a boatload of talent in the NBA, however, that just hasn’t been the case. The last time the program produced a top-2 pick in the NBA Draft was when Marvin Williams went No. 2 overall to the Atlanta Hawks in 2005. In that same time frame — since 2005 — Duke has won two national championships and only made three Final Fours. However, they’ve managed to produce six players that have been drafted either first or second overall during that span. This kind of thing shows up on NBA mock drafts when you see that Duke has multiple players expected to be taken in the first round of next summer’s draft, while North Carolina doesn’t have any from a squad that’s been ranked as the preseason No. 1 team.

Duke is a factory for producing pros. They have 25 former players in the NBA right now, and two of them are members of the Charlotte Hornets — the team Jordan owns. “Even though you’re a Dukie, I take pride in that we did draft you,” Jordan told Mark Williams after taking him 15th overall in last summer’s draft. For comparison’s sake, UNC has 11 players in the league while Kentucky leads the pack with 27.

On Wednesday night, Paolo Banchero will make his NBA regular season debut as his Orlando Magic take on the Pistons in Detroit. Between the two teams, there are four players on the roster that used to play on Tobacco Road. Three of them went to Duke.

Though he’d probably never admit it, and what pisses him off most is that MJF knows it (MJF’s whole character is knowing the things you don’t want to talk about), Tony Khan would tell you with no one else around that MJF is absolutely the heart of AEW. It’s why he brought him back after he completely shit all over the company, whether in kayfabe or not. It’s why he’s immediately back in the main event scene. It’s why AEW is at its best when MJF is at the center of it.

Or at least, MJF is one-half of the company’s soul. He’s the dark half. Whether Jon Moxley or Hangman Page is the light side, we may never truly know (there have been some whispers that Hangman was supposed to go over last night before his completely deflating and scary injury, but thankfully it sounds like he’ll be okay in time). Either is a fine choice. Mox is the first big import from the other side, the one who follows the true nature of the industry and especially AEW, brawling and jawing his way to the top of the business. There is no fight Mox won’t accept, no length he won’t go to, as far as what he’ll put his body through. He is the dignity.

Which means MJF is the brains. There is no length MJF won’t go to to be at the top, but in his case, it means no corner he won’t cut, no dastardly maneuver beneath him. If Moxley will walk through hell to get what he wants, MJF will find a side door no matter who or what is in the way or who or what has to be bought.

This is what the business is all about, and no great moment in any company has come without the two extremes facing off at each other. Hulk and Andre, Rock and Austin, Bryan and The Authority. AEW has been a lot of things the past year or so, but MJF last night is bringing it back to what it does best and what it will be going forward.

If you missed it, or just want to see it again, last night’s excellent Dynamite was centered on a promo segment between MJF and William Regal, the manager/inspiration for the Blackpool Combat Club faction. MJF recounted the story of auditioning for Regal at WWE seven years ago, how Regal pulled him aside and assured him he’d have a job if only he was old enough (MJF was 19 at the time), to stay in touch for when the time came, and how Regal eventually spurned him only a few months in.

To merely put the timeline on a screen doesn’t do the promo anywhere near justice. It was yet another Joker-origin story from MJF, to match his work with CM Punk (the fact that MJF has competition for his best promo at this level tells you everything). The heartache Regal’s dismissal caused, the sense that all was lost and nothing mattered, the spite that MJF let become his driving force, the bile it caused to toss out any sense of decency or morality in his rise to the top, it was basically wrestling pathos distilled to its essence. And best. Watch it if you have any time today. Much like MJF laid the blame at Punk’s feet for his nihilism, he was ready to cast his entire persona and actions as the result of Regal. Nothing is ever MJF’s fault, of course, because that’s how heels see the world.

Regal is hardly a slouch on the mic either, and there are few who could stand in that right after MJF’s promo and be his equal. Regal is one, and he informed MJF that he blew him off those years ago to inspire him, to make him what he saw he could be. But MJF had cut every corner and schemed his way to the top instead of fighting like Moxley had, and now Regal wondered which path he would take. It set up gargantuan stakes for their match later set for Full Gear in a month. Will MJF rise to the occasion and turn face and actually fight through hell to be where he’s always seen himself, to be what Regal saw then? Or will the glimpse of the peak cause him to sink more deeply into what got him here in the first place and pull off something ungodly evil and cheap? Who can wait to find out?

And this is MJF taking AEW to what it has always done best — long-term storytelling. It’s not that AEW or Tony Khan lost itself in the past year or 18 months. Being the “big buzz” company where there was a new arrival seemingly every week was necessary to establish itself as a real alternative and destination. With every Miro, Malakai, Punk, Cole, or Danielson that showed up on AEW, the more it looked like the place to be. Not just a flashy alternative but something with a true foundation that would last. The pops and buzz are a big reason it looks set for the long haul and has such a dedicated fanbase.

But it’s easy to get lost in that, and as Khan collected more and more toys it all got a bit jumbled. Hey, it’s a new company; it’s allowed some stumbles. The roster got a little bloated, too many had to get on TV, and there was less and less time to do what made the company truly special, and that’s build slowly into and through feuds with cathartic payoffs.

AEW’s most memorable matches or moments are things like Hangman overcoming his lack of belief and seeing his “friends” for what they truly were as he defeated Kenny Omega for the title. It’s MJF laying out what Punk truly is and how Punk created him. It’s Mox and Jericho being the company’s first Light vs. Dark feud with Mox coming out on top. It’s last week when Orange Cassidy paid off a years-long run with PAC and won the All-Atlantic title, showing PAC he’s more than a gimmick and can be as serious as The Bastard is and be better at it. These things take time, and the patience to cite history and to let the wrestlers paint the picture. That’s harder to do when you’re trying to cram so much onto TV.

AEW got the mileage out of being the new guy, being the hot new club, and now it has to find the next chapter. And sometimes that’s going back to what came before, what made you the place everyone wanted to come to originally. Cyclically, as is always the case with wrestling, it’s WWE that’s trying to gas itself up recently on new appearances, even if it’s just recently released or constantly underused wrestlers now getting big exposure like Johnny Gargano or Mustafa Ali or Tommaso Ciampa in the recent past.

So AEW will go back to textured storytelling. MJF is its best at it. You saw more seeds of Jamie Hayter and Britt Baker last night splitting. Swerve In Our Glory may be working their way back to The Acclaimed for Full Gear.

It’s not perfect. The company needs Eddie Kingston in something. What is going on with the TNT Title now? Why isn’t Samoa Joe threatening someone’s life every week goddammit? Toni Storm could use something like this. But this feels pickier than it did two weeks ago.

MJF’s darkness has been built throughout AEW’s entire existence. So has Mox’s righteousness. The show and company have an anchor now, the heaviest kind. The soul of the company is at stake with all sorts of strands and twists possible.

AEW’s ethos has always been that what is simple is what’s usually best. Great matches, invigorating characters, and clean stories. When you let them simmer to just the right temp, there’s nothing better. Back to basics, and AEW is back to its best. 

I heard your collective sighs when reading the headline and kicker to this story. Great, the most dominant conference in the country only hoards a bigger portion of the most exclusive quartet in college football. How could that be good for the sport? Calm down, Tommy. (what I’m choosing to call the people who groaned without reading a word). The College Football Playoff’s expansion is on its way in a few years and that problem will be solved. For now, it’s not the Southeastern Conference’s strongest squads’ faults that the rest of America can’t keep up.

The SEC has four strong options to make the CFP, by far the most for any league in America. If Ole Miss, Tennessee, Georgia, or one-loss Alabama win out, they’re in, no questions about it. The Crimson Tide and Rebels still have to play and a loss for Alabama would knock it out of title contention. The de-facto SEC East championship game between the Bulldogs and Vols will be Nov. 5 in Athens. A one-loss UGA or UT team, with their only defeat coming the first Saturday in November, would look awfully tempting to the committee. That’s exactly what happened to Alabama in the 2018 playoff. After being left out of the SEC title game, it earned the No. 4 seed, beat No. 1 overall Clemson, and won the natty over Georgia in Tua Tagovailoa’s star-making moment. I don’t think Ole Miss would be given the same second chance at a championship in the same vein Texas A&M didn’t get one in 2020.

Let’s narrow the options of invaders to this nightmare for some, pipe dream for others. Let’s throw each Group of Five hopeful off the boat first. Cincinnati was nice last year, but nothing close exists in 2022. The Big 12 has three options left, with none looking too promising. TCU is the league’s lone undefeated team left, with Kansas State and Oklahoma State as its pair of one-loss teams. The Wildcats played the Horned Frogs and Cowboys over the next two weeks. By the time November rolls around the Big 12 will have a maximum of two teams with CFP dreams alive. Too many good, but not great, teams exist in the Big 12, and TCU will get knocked from its perch eventually. The league isn’t getting into the CFP this season. Sorry to point out what should be obvious.

The Pac-12 is the next closest to be wholesale shoved out of the CFP picture, but its options look better than the Big 12, also with three teams still in contention — Big Ten-bound UCLA and USC, alongside Oregon, whose only loss was getting demolished by Georgia. The Bruins still have to go through the Trojans and Ducks as the Pac-12’s remaining undefeated team, and then win the conference championship game. It’s an unlikely trio of victories and will shoot down their chances of making it to the CFP. Despite losing to Utah, USC is the conference’s best chance to make it into the playoff, but running the table is necessary. Oregon’s opening-week defeat will be a tough pill to swallow for the committee, unless it runs the table and looks dominant, which I think has minuscule odds.

A foreshadowed 75 percent SEC CFP’s biggest roadblock is Clemson, as the Big Ten will get at least one team and there’s no changing that. Ohio State and Michigan as a pair are too good for both to be denied. Whoever wins that matchup in Columbus later this year will destroy the Big Ten West winner and head into the playoff. I’m not going out on a ledge in making that prediction at all. But, anyway, back to the ACC, which hasn’t had a non-Clemson team in the CFP since its inaugural competition if you discount the changes that made a Notre Dame appearance count under the conference’s banner two years ago. Yeah, Syracuse looks strong now, and Wake Forest and North Carolina do have paths to the promised land, but it won’t happen. Can anyone really envision a scenario where one of those three makes it? They’d all get demolished by one of the SEC’s best. Clemson’s silver-platter schedule compared to its national-title-hopeful contemporaries will lead to a spot in the CFP if it wins out. The Tigers are better than they were a year ago. Even as a one-loss conference champion, they’d make it in over a third SEC team.

The three-team SEC scenario has to be both Georgia and Tennessee, as well as either Alabama or Ole Miss. There’s no way two teams from the SEC West and one of the Volunteers or Bulldogs can be plugged in. A one-loss Rebels team that doesn’t get in the SEC Championship game would make the New Year’s Six, but wouldn’t have enough quality wins to make the playoff. If either Tennessee or Georgia trip up before or after their clash, this scenario goes out the window. It’s due to the strength of Josh Heupel’s team that this scenario isn’t laughed out of any discussion immediately.

Is this scenario likely? No. The diverse selection committee wouldn’t put three teams from the same conference together unless they had no other move. A lot of dominos have to fall the SEC’s way for it to occur, but a lot of unlikely scenarios, such as Oklahoma already having three losses, have already fallen Greg Sankey’s league’s way. Two teams from the same conference getting into the playoff has happened in three of the last five editions, including each of the last two years. A slippery slope exists giving the SEC a trio. Now back to your collective groaning until we get an expanded playoff.