Stock Up, Stock Down: Gary Greene’s Weekly NFL Report

Each week, Gary Greene delivers his “Stock Report”, which gives the teams (or units) that have seen their stocks soar last week, or possibly plummet. Here we go!

STOCK UP TEAMS OF THE WEEK

(1)  DALLAS COWBOYS OFFENSE

It’s not often you see an NFL team with the #1 Offense or Defense and then be dead last on the other side of the ball but that is the case for this Cowboys team. 

Right now there is no close second Offense in the NFL to this clicking on all cylinders Dallas Offense. The last 4 weeks they have scored 44, 27, 37 and 40 points. They have been sensational the past 5 weeks not turning the ball over once. The Offensive Line is protecting QB Dak Prescott as well as any OL in the league as Prescott has only been sacked 3x the past 4 games combined.

Prescott has passed for between (236-343) yards the last 6 games with a rock solid (71.4) pass completion rate and he’s now thrown for (16 TD’s) and last week when stud WR Cee Dee Lamb returned to the lineup you can easily make the claim the Cowboys now possess the best WR Duo in the entire league with the Lamb/George Pickens tandem terrorizing opposing Defenses. What is even more amazing is Prescott now has 5 receivers averaging (10+) yards per catch. The receiving corps has (872) yards after the catch and they already have 23 catches of over 20 yards with WR Pickens leading the way with a dozen big play catches of his own.

These numbers also don’t show that Lamb missed 3 games and speedster WR K.Turpin missed two games leaving Pickens to be over covered on most plays. Then add in the Run game is just shy 5 yards (4.9) per carry and by far they possess the best FG kicker in the league, B. Aubrey, who has hit all 15 FG tries already including going (9-9) from 40+ yards (and off charts 5-5 on 50 yards FG tries). If this Offense stays healthy they will put up Madden numbers by the end of the season. STOCK THRU THE ROOF!

How Evangelos Marinakis Transformed Nottingham Forest

(2). CAROLINA PANTHERS OFFENSE

The Panthers Offense started off looking pretty shaky and leaving so many folks wondering what would they do with young QB Bryce Young if it had continued to be that bad a few more games? Well right now nobody in Panthertown is worrying one iota of that problem as the team has reeled off 3 straight wins and the Offense has started to mesh and even coming up with a few very impressive late game TD drives to take the lead and hold onto it, and now all of a sudden putting some fear into all their opponents on their schedule ahead.

You can finally see a young team that believes. The offseason saw the Panthers sign RB Rico Dowdell for only (2.8) million for 1 season. He’s become possibly the best bargain of all of the entire offseason signings in the NFL. Dowdell has been a monster rushing the ball (5.6) yards per carry (206/183 rushing yard games in 2 of the last 3) and those performances has helped the Offense in 3 huge ways.

The first one is easing a full court press Rush on QB Young which has given him some time to hit his second or third reads when the original play call didn’t pan out. Then you have an Offensive Line that has really improved and has been opening some nice holes in the running game and allowing Young to be sacked just once in 4 different games. Lastly, it’s led the way to one of the most important stats most people pay zero attention to but to me is so very important: TIME OF POSSESSION and TOTAL PLAYS advantages.

Well folks the Panthers are putting on a clinic in both departments as they have won the Time of Possession stat in 6 games so far and the Total Plays department has been off the charts with a (+14, +10, +12 and +17) Total Plays advantage the past 4 games. It’s a long season and you always want your Defense on the sidelines as much as possible and keep them rested for crunch time every 4th quarter. 

The Panthers are not at all dominating the other big stats overall just yet, but this team has made tremendous strides the past month and proving they are no longer a pushover for an easy win, week in, and week out. Oh and a (3-0) home record and scoring (30-27-30) in those 3 wins will surely get the fans support going forward which is a huge boost that is really big for such a young team.

STOCK DOWN TEAMS OF THE WEEK

(1). WASHINGTON COMMANDERS TEAM

This one truly pains me to have to write as I am a lifetime Washington fan but this team right now is crashing and crashing hard. Of course they have suffered so many key star players injuries including QB Daniels but there is no sugarcoating this teams roster simply isn’t very good across the board, with some players that starred last year not coming close to being big contributors this season so far.

It’s a long list of failures and we can start with the first quarters of the game so far this season. The Commanders have been outscored (53-22) in the first quarter this year forcing them to make big comebacks almost on a weekly basis. They have lost the Time of Possession battle in 6 of their 7 games thus far and why that really matters more for them then it would for many other teams is they have the oldest roster in the entire NFL (28.09). 

The Defense is ranked 27th but the past two weeks they are being run over by a Mack truck as they simply can’t cover anyone right now. The secondary looks lost and so slow and the LB’s are just being brutalized when forced to cover RB’s and WR’s across the middle. Their supposed #1 CB Lattimore has never really produced at all since they acquired him last year in a trade with the Saints and young Cornerback M.Sanristil simply has not performed anywhere to the solid form he showed last season. Another alarming stat is they have only turned over the opposing team 3x all season. 

The Commanders Offense has been missing it’s top 2 wide receivers really most of the season and that hasn’t helped, but the fact they have lost the Time of Possession battle 6 of 7 games they are forcing an older Defense to play too many extended minutes. The Offensive Line has also been shy of a few top of the line starters for many of their games so far which always put any Offense behind the 8 ball as most backups simply aren’t that good. But making matters even worse is their first round draft pick J. Conerly has been manhandled for most of the season as he really struggles in Pass Blocking and has allowed (5.5) sacks so far which is second worst of all Right Tackles. 

I keep remembering how the Bears last year lost to the Commanders on that now famous QB Daniels “Hail Mary” touchdown on the last play and they then went on to lose 9 straight games. Well the Commanders lost badly last week after losing to the Bears two weeks ago on a last second FG and now face the really tough task of facing three Top 10 Offenses (KC, DETROIT, SEATTLE) the next 3 weeks. This year’s Bears 2024 collapse ahead? I am very close to believing it fully.

(2). PITTSBURGH STEELERS TEAM 

Now many will read this and say how can a (4-2) team be a Stock Down Team of the week team? The reason is this is a very lucky (4-2) team, other than faring extremely well in the Sacks department (by their Defense) the Offense and the Defense really aren’t anything above average at best and really closer to below average. Once again we can look at the key Total Plays battle and the Steelers have lost that battle 6x with an insane (394-318) difference. Then we go to the Time of Possession battle and once again they’ve been on the losing side in 5 of the 6 games and a (-32) minutes difference losing 3 games by 10, 10 and 8 minutes. 

The Steelers went out and signed QB Aaron Rodgers to help propel them and after 6 games he is dead last in Passing Yards with (1,270) as he heads the 7th worst Offense in the NFL. The Steelers Offense averages only (95) yards per game with only 1 rush all season over 15 yards. They are converting (43%) on third downs and yet they are getting killed in Total Plays and Time of Possession which is a huge “TELL” what’s ahead. Their top wide receiver D.K. Metcalf has only (22) catches all year. Three other #1 WR’s in the NFL have over 50 catches for their teams (SEA Smith-Njigba 50, Cinci Chase 58 and Dallas Perkins 54). 

The supposed vaunted Steelers Defense is now ranked (#28) as they can’t defend the Pass a lick right now (259 pass yards allowed per game) and what is so scary is the fact the Defensive Pressure has been very solid as they are (#3) with 22 QB sacks. But once again when you spend so much time on the field more than your opponents your Defense is the unit that suffers the most. I simply don’t see enough superior playmakers on either side of the ball for this team to continue to win with mirrors.

They now face Green Bay, Indy and the LA Chargers the next 3 weeks and losing the Total Plays and Time of Possession battle as bad as they have so far this season will make it super tough to come away with a victory in any of those 3 games. The Steelers just have too many holes in their game to continue to win at a (67%) clip the rest of the way.

Gary Greene is a longtime Professional Sports Bettor/Radio Host/FB Magazine Publisher for nearly 4 decades.

@GARYGREENEWINS   Follow me now on X for more elite Betting information!