It’s sad to see the 2023 NFL season go, but it was for the memory books.
The 2023 NFL season had it all: Pleasant surprise teams, clubs that greatly disappointed, the rise of new superstars and some of our personal favorites: Highlight reel moments and all-time gaffes and bone-headed plays.
Another grind of a thrilling 18-week NFL regular season provided plenty of those. So without further ado, let’s dive into the five best plays of the 2023 NFL season, as well as the five WORST
Best: Tylan Wallace’s Walk-Off Punt Return
Walk-off style victories in the NFL are awfully rare compared to sports like baseball and hockey, but boy are they sure thrilling whenever we get ‘em on the gridiron.
Fortunately, we were awarded such a moment when the Los Angeles Rams visited Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens at M&T Bank Stadium in Week 14.
Jackson and Matthew Stafford traded blow-for-blow in an epic quarterback duel that required overtime after 31 points apiece in 60 minutes.
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The Ravens had to punt after their opening possession, but the defense rose to the occasion and forced a Rams’ punt of their own. Ethan Evans took the snap and booted it to Ravens’ return man Tylan Wallace, who slipped his way through LA defenders like a snake for a 76-yard punt return walk-off touchdown:
Making this story even cooler? Wallace was only thrust into the punt return role because of an injury to ace special teams weapon Devin Duvernay. And Wallace made the very most of his opportunity to play hero, alright.
Not a bad way to register your first career NFL touchdown, huh?
Worst: Bengals’ Trickery Buffoonery
The beauty of an NFL trick play is the whole “risk” factor. It looks genius if it works, but you look ridiculous if it fails.
For the Cincinnati Bengals, it turned out to be the latter in their Week 13 “Monday Night Football” game against the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Facing a 1st-down-situation late in the third quarter from their own 25-yard line, the Bengals called for a double-pass play that went completely awry.
Wide receiver Tyler Boyd took a pass from Jake Browning and immediately looked to throw again. Just one issue: the Jaguars were more than ready for the play and left Boyd with no options:
He quickly panicked and just threw the ball right into the waiting arms of Jaguars linebacker Josh Allen, who broke up the trick play with only his second career interception:
In Zac Taylor’s defense, the Bengals kinda had to get creative without superstar quarterback Joe Burrow in that game.
Nonetheless, they hung in there and wound up taking down the heavily-favored Jaguars 34 to 31 in overtime — so there you have it. Now the Bengals can file this trick play under “never do that again”.
Best: Garrett Wilson’s Circus Catch For 6
The New York Jets entered 2023 with so much hype and promise, and it was simply because of Aaron Rodgers’ arrival.
The Jets completed a blockbuster trade with the Green Bay Packers for the four-time league MVP ahead of the draft. The NFL schedule makers cooked up a five-star recipe by placing Rodgers’ Jets’ debut in the “Monday Night Football” slot against the Buffalo Bills.
Sadly, Rodgers suffered a torn Achilles that abruptly injured his season moments into his Jets’ debut. As big a bummer as it was for the Jets, Robert Saleh’s short-handed squad did not go down without a fight against the Bills.
Trailing by a touchdown with less than five minutes to go, Jets QB Zach Wilson took the snap and went directly to his top target, Garrett Wilson. Even with Pro Bowl cornerback Tre’Davious White all over him, Wilson somehow made a ridiculous circus catch while falling down for the touchdown.
Love or hate Joe Buck, give the man credit — he absolutely ACED that call.
Xavier Gibson would walk it off for the Jets in overtime on a 65-yard punt return — giving Gang Green Nation an all-time Monday Night Football memory despite Rodgers’ loss.
Worst: Dolphins Swim Into Trick Play Failure
Now, we understand how difficult it is playing the game of football. We can only imagine the challenges of split-second decision-making while also trying to avoid getting your bones crunched by guys twice your size.
But at the same time…we can also ask this: If you have nowhere to go with the football on a passing play, isn’t it smarter to throw it out of bounds and avoid a sack slash a tackle for loss?
Tyler Boyd didn’t learn that in the aforementioned Bengals-Jaguars game, nor did Cedrick Wilson Jr. of the Miami Dolphins learn this when it was his turn to lead a trick play in Week 17 against the Philadelphia Eagles.
Trailing by 14 late in the second quarter, the Dolphins called for a double-pass play that started with Tua Tagovailoa throwing a backwards pass to Wilson.
The veteran wideout then scanned his options before deciding to take a seven-yard loss on a tackle from Josh Sweat as opposed to just throwing the darn ball away.
The only saving grace here was that each team committed a penalty that offset Wilson’s seven-yard pass and trick play failure.
Still, it was just so bone-headed and so bad that we had to include it anyway. Remember kids: Throwing it away for a zero-yard loss is better than a seven-yard loss!
Best: A.J. Brown: HE DID WHAT?!
Eagles superstar wide receiver A.J. Brown has really taken his game to another level ever since he came over to Philly and was paired with AJ Brown. I mean, you have to be pretty darn good to be the No. 1 receiver on your team over DeVonta Smith!
Brown set a career-high in receptions this season for the Eagles with 103 — a considerable difference from the career-best 88 he set a year earlier. But none of Brown’s catches in 2023 were finer than this jaw-dropping dandy for six against the Washington Commanders back in Week 8.
To borrow a line from the legendary Al Michaels on Antonio Freeman’s circus catch in a 2000 Monday Night Football Game: “HE DID WHAT?!”
Through his first five NFL seasons, Brown has suited up for 77 games. He already has 42 career receiving TDs in that period, but we’re already pretty confident that he’ll never have a score as pretty as this one.
Just another reminder that Eagles GM Howie Roseman totally fleeced the Titans at the 2022 NFL Draft when he traded for Brown.
Worst: Kadarius Toney’s Costly Offside
Incredibly, Dee Ford’s infamous offside penalty that nullified a game-sealing interception off of Tom Brady in the 2018 AFC Championship Game probably won’t go down as the most memorable offside call in Chiefs history.
Was Ford’s more costly than the one we’re about to show? Yes, but considering that Toney’s was an extremely-rare OFFENSIVE offside penalty that took off a highlight-reel TD in a pivotal regular season game? Yeah, this one might be more bone-headed and unforgettable.
The Chiefs were trailing the heated rival Buffalo Bill by three points with less than 90 seconds remaining in their epic Week 14 clash at Arrowhead Stadium. Patrick Mahomes completed a deep pass to a heads-up Travis Kelce, who quickly lateraled it to Toney for the go-ahead touchdown.
The only issue? The third-year wideout and Super Bowl 57 hero was lined up offside, taking the go-ahead score off the scoreboard…
The Bills forced a turnover on downs to win the game, and Patrick Mahomes’ outrage towards the officials after the game added more layer of entertainment to this ending.
In a cruel twist of fate for Bills fans, this victory would only lead to the Chiefs breaking their hearts again — this time at Highmark Stadium — in the AFC Divisional Round.
Best: Lamar Jackson Goes Video Game Mode
It really does feel like Lamar Jackson puts together a top-five play of the year in any given NFL season. Certainly, 2023 was no different.
Jackson had his first healthy season in three years and lo-and-behold led Baltimore to the league’s best record at 14-and-3. As always, there was no shortage of astonishing highlight-reel moments put together by Baltimore’s superstar QB.
We could have used a plethora of Lamar Jackson moments on this list, but you just won’t find any prettier than his improbable completion to tight end Isaiah Likely in the Ravens-Jacksonville Jaguars “Sunday Night Football” clash in Week 15.
Just when it looked like the Jaguars had Jackson down for a sack, Baltimore’s $260 million man somehow got out of it and launched a beauty of a pass to Likely in double coverage for a 26-yard hookup.
That led to a Gus Edwards rushing touchdown that allowed the Ravens to essentially ice the game en route to a 23-7 victory.
For those who love math the good folks at Next Gen Stats had that Jackson-Likely catch down for an 18.7 percent completion probability. In other words, just another case of Jackson defying the odds — as well as science in this case.
Worst: Jordan Can’t LOVE This One…
As evidenced by his first season in the post-Aaron Rodgers era, Matt LaFleur is one of the best offensive-minded coaches in the game.
I mean, who saw 2023 Jordan Love outperforming 2022 Rodgers and guiding the Green Bay Packers to a surprise playoff berth? And who thought they’d crush Dak Prescott and the Dallas Cowboys on Wild Card Weekend?1
Anywho, LaFleur’s offensive genius got the better of himself when his Packers hosted the New Orleans Saints at Lambeau Field in Week 3.
Facing a 4th-and-2 situation in New Orleans territory early in the first quarter, the Packers called for a trick play double-pass. And let’s just say it, ahem, made Love look like a rookie here.
It’s no wonder that the Packers didn’t call a stupid play like that again this year. And on the bright side, they wound up winning 18 to 17 anyway, so LaFleur and company got away with this mind-numbing play:
Best: Courtland Sutton Breaks Next Gen Stats
It was another wasted season for the Denver Broncos, who finished 8-and-9 to extend their playoff drought to eight years.
But it was certainly refreshing to see vintage Russell Wilson return in the second half of the season, so not all was lost in Mile High City this year. For at least a month there, Broncos fans got to remember what it was like to be in an intense playoff race.
If Denver’s season highlight wasn’t ending their losing streak to Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs in Week 8, it had to be their stunning road win over the Bills on Monday Night Football back in Week 10.
That upset was made possible largely thanks to Wilson’s heroics. And such heroics included this touchdown pass to Courtland Sutton on a 4th-and-2 play in the second quarter.
But oh, the video itself doesn’t do justice.
According to Next Gen Stats, Wilson’s pass to Sutton only had a completion probability rate of 3.2 percent. That marked the most improbable completion in the Next Gen Stats era that started in 2016.
Vintage Russ, indeed.
WORST: MVS: Most Valuable Slip-Up
It’s kind of crazy to think that the Kansas City Chiefs had a “down” regular season when they went 11-6, captured an eighth straight AFC West division crown and extended their AFC Championship Game appearance streak to six years.
Well, it certainly felt like a “down year” when two screw-ups by wide receivers cost the Chiefs two should-be-wins.
We talked about the Kadarius Toney offsides penalty against the Bills in Week 14 that took a likely KC victory off the board, but let’s not forget Marquez Valdes-Scantling’s screwup three weeks earlier against the Eagles on “Monday Night football.”
Trailing the Eagles by four points in a dramatic Super Bowl 57 rematch with less than two minutes to go, Patrick Mahomes spotted an open Marquez-Valdes Scantling down the field for what should have been a go-ahead six.
Perfect throw by Mahomes, but MVS and the butter fingers took full effect on this play.
The Eagles would force a turnover on down to ice the game and get a little bit of oh-so-sweet revenge. No word on if Philly fans sent MVS a “thank you” gift for handing them the win by dropping a dime of a pass here.
Good thing Valdes-Scantling made up for it with a couple of big-time plays in the postseason, we suppose.
What other best and worst plays of the 2023 NFL season should we have included on our list
