NFC East: Cowboys | Giants | Eagles | Commanders
NFC North: Bears | Lions | Packers | Vikings
NFC South: Falcons | Panthers | Saints | Buccaneers
NFC West: Cardinals | Rams | 49ers | Seahawks
AFC East: Bills | Dolphins | Patriots | Jets
AFC North: Ravens | Bengals | Browns | Steelers
AFC South: Texans | Colts | Jaguars | Titans
AFC West: Broncos | Chiefs | Raiders | Chargers
Advertisement
The NFC East has become the new NFC South, at least through five games. It is the worst division in football, at least from one measure. And the eye test.
The NFC East, which has just one team over .500, is the only division in which every team ranks 20th or worse in DVOA. The Dallas Cowboys are 20th, and that’s the best standing among the teams. The Philadelphia Eagles are 23rd, the New York Giants are 27th despite being 3-1-1 and the Washington Commanders are 28th. That’s a lot of bad football.
The oft-told joke from Sunday was that all four NFC East teams played in Week 5, including two against each other, and the division still went winless. That’s because the Giants and Commanders tied, which everyone knows because of a management mistake at the end of the game by Washington that was hard to believe. But that’s the NFC East.
The rules state the division has to send a team to the playoffs. It’s tough to figure out which one it could be.
Advertisement
The Giants have the lead but over the last three weeks they have barely beaten the Titans and Cardinals, and tied the Commanders. Those three teams are a combined 2-12-1. Jameis Winston is fun and he played well Sunday but it seems hard to believe he doesn’t blow up or that the Giants stay on top. But who’s going to catch them? The Eagles’ best game of the season was a loss on Sunday to the Jaguars, one that rivaled the Commanders for worst late-game management by a coaching staff.
Philadelphia’s only two wins are near misses against the Commanders and Titans, who are a combined 1-8-1. The Commanders might have been a reasonable answer with a win on Sunday, but they blew the chance for that and the way the game ended could linger. Even if that isn’t the reason Washington fades, the Commanders’ shoddy defense might be.
That leaves the Cowboys. They are the highest ranked team in DVOA. The defense is really bad, ranking 32nd. But their offense is probably the best unit in the division, except the times it goes strangely quiet, like it did last Thursday night against the Buccaneers. Still, even with that strangely lethargic loss to the Buccaneers at home, it’s easier to see Dallas turning things around than any of the other three teams.
None of the four teams look like they will end up deserving a postseason spot. There’s a chance the winner of the division finishes under .500 like last season’s NFC South, though there will be plenty of opportunities against bad opponents when they play intradivision games.
Advertisement
Someone will win the NFC East. Maybe it’s the Cowboys. Or, based on the way they’ve all played this season, it might not really matter that much.
Here are the NFL power rankings after Week 5 of the NFL season:
The good news for the Dolphins is they won’t lose in Week 6. They have a bye. Good for the Dolphins to lose by only seven points against the Bengals on Sunday, but the true story of the game was a 28-10 deficit after three quarters. The Dolphins have trailed by at least 14 points in four of five games.
There are two main goals after the bye: getting one win to avoid the 0-17 questions, and finding out if Malik Willis can be the quarterback of the future. A decision in the 2027 NFL Draft looms. Willis was 1-for-7 passing for 22 yards with a minute to go in the first half Sunday. He threw two interceptions and lost a fumble. It wasn’t good enough, and garbage-time stats don’t fix that. Of 32 qualified quarterbacks he’s 30th in adjusted EPA (expected points added) per play and 29th in success rate. It is hard to judge Willis fairly because there’s not much talent around him, but he has to prove he can elevate his teammates.
Advertisement
“I will say this: We will need more consistency in our pass game in general for all 11 players to be better in order for us to take the next step,” Dolphins head coach Jeff Hafley said.
Five games into Cam Ward’s second season, the questions about benching him are starting.
“Cam is our starting quarterback,” Titans head coach Robert Saleh said, according to the Associated Press. “We’re going to give him every opportunity to be successful this year. We’re going to continue working with him, grinding with him, and trying to help him get better.”
Advertisement
Ward had just 170 yards on 36 pass attempts against the Texans. The Titans scored only three points. Tennessee is 3-19 in Ward’s starts. He has 896 yards and three touchdowns in five starts this season. The Titans have to see it through with last year’s No. 1 overall draft pick, but it doesn’t look good so far this season.
The Chargers’ starting offensive line on Sunday was impossibly desperate for Week 5 of an NFL season, or really any week of any season:
Left tackle: rookie fourth-round pick Travis Burke
Left guard: rookie sixth-round pick Logan Taylor
Advertisement
Center: rookie second-round pick Jake Slaughter
Right guard: Cole Strange, ranked 73rd of 75 guards in PFF grades
Right tackle: rookie sixth-round pick Alex Harkey
If the Chargers’ situation seems beyond repair, it is. They were a bad team even when healthy, and they had numerous injuries to key players on Sunday. Justin Herbert has not played well at all, but against the Broncos it was hard to put all the blame on him considering the catastrophe of the line protecting him. It’s hard to believe the Chargers’ season is over — no 0-5 team has ever made the playoffs — but it’s probably going to get worse before it gets better.
Advertisement
Trading Marvin Harrison Jr. was best for everyone involved, but let’s not celebrate the Cardinals too much for getting a second-round pick back in a trade with the Texans. Arizona got very little out of the fourth overall pick in a loaded 2024 NFL Draft. That’s horrendous, even if the Cardinals recouped some value. As Bob McManaman of the Arizona Republic pointed out, the Cardinals have already moved on from four of the last six players they drafted in the top 10 overall: Josh Rosen, Kyler Murray, Isaiah Simmons and Harrison.
On Sunday, the Cardinals got shredded by the Lions’ offense, and Arizona’s offense did surprisingly little against a bad Detroit defense before some garbage-time yards and points. It’s looking bleak in Arizona, as it usually does with this franchise.
It’s time to give up on the Saints until they show they’re a good team. They’re now 30th in DVOA, ahead of only the Titans and Dolphins. New Orleans would be 0-5 if not for a second-half rally at Baltimore, which included a go-ahead touchdown on a controversial call. It looks now like the Saints got hot against a very soft second-half schedule last season and that momentum has not carried over.
Advertisement
The Saints, and particularly QB Tyler Shough, were dreadful against the blitz-happy Vikings. Shough had 96 yards, two interceptions and a 38.1 passer rating. Minnesota is a tough matchup but that’s bad. The Saints had 142 yards as a team. They have some winnable games coming up (at Giants, vs. Steelers, vs. Browns, vs. Panthers) but they haven’t shown they’re better than any of those teams.
The Jets figured out they should just get the ball to Garrett Wilson and watch good things happen. Wilson had 104 yards and a touchdown in a 17-12 win over the Browns. Wilson, who had seven catches, was targeted 11 times and no other Jet had more than four.
New York also leaned on its defense, a unit that had eight sacks and held Cleveland to a season-low 198 yards.
Advertisement
Wilson disappeared last season with injuries and a bad quarterback situation holding him back. He had 395 yards in seven games last year. This season he already has 374 yards and the Jets seem committed to running the offense through him.
“He’s Garrett Wilson, and we think he can do that every single week,” Jets quarterback Geno Smith told the media after the game. “He loves competing, he’s a proven player. He makes plays when the ball comes his way. We’ve got to continue to find ways to get him the football, and once the ball is in his hands he’ll make plays.”
One win changed the Buccaneers’ outlook this season. Tampa Bay looked good in beating Dallas, with rookie quarterback Jalon Daniels playing well. Even though Baker Mayfield wants to return from a dislocated thumb in Week 6, via James Palmer of Amazon Prime Video, Daniels’ play makes Tampa Bay less desperate to bring back its quarterback too soon.
Advertisement
The NFC South doesn’t have a team over .500 so it’s not like the Buccaneers are out of anything, even at 1-4. Tampa Bay hosts Pittsburgh in Week 6 and then faces Carolina and then Atlanta in a two-game stretch that could revive its season.
Let’s wait a moment to pile on Dan Quinn, Jayden Daniels and whoever else was responsible for the fiasco at the end of Sunday’s tie. There were other issues. The Commanders allowed a field goal and three touchdowns on the Giants’ first four possessions of the second half. They had a 27-13 lead with just over 11 minutes left and couldn’t win. The Commanders couldn’t make a play against Jameis Winston to clinch a victory. And with a chance to ice the game with a 27-20 lead or win the game in the final 1:43 of regulation or after a missed Giants field goal in overtime, the Commanders punted three times. Those were failures too and can’t be forgotten.
And obviously the end of the game was inexcusable. The Commanders were rudderless as the clock ran out, and that’s alarming. Quinn doesn’t call offensive or defensive plays so a stupefying failure in clock management at the end is a really bad look for him. Daniels has to be more aware as well. It’s not impossible for the Commanders to rebound from blowing a shot at a win Sunday, but it was embarrassing and will affect them all season in the NFC East race, if they ever get back in it.
Advertisement
Beating the Titans this season doesn’t mean a whole lot. But at least the Texans looked good doing it. Their defense gave up a 58-yard drive and a field goal on Tennessee’s first possession of the game. The rest of the day, the Texans allowed no points, 129 yards and no drive longer than 27 yards. C.J. Stroud played well, and while the running game still lagged at 2.9 yards per carry, it was good enough on offense.
The next question is whether Marvin Harrison Jr. can help the offense. The Texans must think so considering they sent a second- and seventh-round pick to Arizona for Harrison and a sixth-round pick. They need some punch in the offense. It’s questionable if Harrison can come in and be an impact player in the middle of the season after having just five catches for 85 yards and a touchdown for Arizona in 2026. It’s tough for any receiver to learn an offense and establish chemistry with a quarterback during a season. However, if it works it could transform Houston’s offense. That’s the Texans’ gamble.
Advertisement
Playing right after an international game is not easy. The Colts took a step back in Sunday’s loss at Pittsburgh and it’s fair to blame playing in London in Week 4. They missed tackles, especially on two long touchdowns by Jaylen Warren that turned the game around, and they repeatedly settled for field goals in the red zone. Indianapolis had improved in some areas over Weeks 3 and 4, but nothing looked good in a 34-22 loss to the Steelers.
“Go back to the fundamentals of technique,” Colts head coach Shane Steichen said via the team’s site, regarding tackling. “It was good last week, and then this week it wasn’t as good as it needs to be, and so we got to keep working hard on that.”
Next up for the Colts is a home game against the Titans, and that needs to be a win because after that they face road games against the 5-0 Vikings and 4-1 Jaguars.
Advertisement
The Browns were close to a much better day. Receiver Isaiah Bond was pressed into action after KC Concepcion’s concussion and he had a big drop in a big moments and once ran out of bounds when it seemed he could have pushed upfield for more yardage. One drop came in the end zone and another was on a second-and-19 that could have given the Browns a first down just ahead of the two-minute warning. Those plays were huge in a five-point loss.
Still, the Browns failed to top 200 yards against a Jets defense that had just given up 492 yards to a Tyson Bagent-led Bears offense. Cleveland’s 3-1 start came with some close wins and the Browns were due some regression. Week 6’s game against the Ravens, who may be without Lamar Jackson, will be telling.
With a minute to go in regulation, the Falcons led by eight points at home against a backup quarterback. The Ravens came back to win in overtime and the Falcons will look at that as a game that they should have won.
Advertisement
Now the Falcons have to worry about Michael Penix Jr. It was disheartening for the team and Penix that the quarterback was unavailable for overtime because of a rib injury suffered on a hard hit late in regulation. Penix has a long injury history dating back to college. He missed the first two games of this season while recovering from his third torn ACL. Even if Penix is available for the Falcons’ next game, the injury issue isn’t going away, and the Falcons have already shown they’re one of the NFL’s worst teams without him.
The Cowboys are blowing a good opportunity in a bad NFC East. They gave away a game against the Ravens by mismanaging the final seconds of regulation. They lost at home last week as a big favorite to a Buccaneers team with an undrafted rookie quarterback.
The problem isn’t hard to diagnose, and it’s the defense. The Cowboys are 32nd in defensive DVOA, the exact spot they held last season. New coordinator Christian Parker hasn’t been any better than old coordinator Matt Eberflus and the personnel additions haven’t changed anything either. Team owner Jerry Jones gave the odd reason when he traded Micah Parsons that improving the run defense was a major part of the decision; the Cowboys have allowed an NFL-worst 842 rushing yards. Jones is already being asked if he’ll remove Parker, and while the answer has been no, the Cowboys did add longtime defensive coach Mike Pettine to the staff this week.
Advertisement
Give the Eagles this: They battled hard in London and after 59:52 it looked like they would beat the Jaguars, who are one of the best teams in football this season. It was easily the Eagles’ best performance this season. Absolutely nobody in Philadelphia wants to hear that after the last eight seconds, in which the Eagles kicked off, allowed a 53-yard return and a 57-yard field goal to inexplicably lose. The decision to let the Jaguars have a shot at a return was a clear mistake.
“I didn’t make the right decision and I lost us that game,” Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni said, via the team’s site. “And that’s what I said to our guys. And what hurts there is that the guys fought so hard and then I don’t make the decision that I should make at the end of the game and I cost us that game and I put that fully on me.”
Sirianni won a Super Bowl two seasons ago. Since then, the Eagles had a disappointing and drama-filled 2025 season and this season they’re 2-3, with the two wins coming late against teams who are a combined 1-8-1. Add in the end of Sunday’s game and Sirianni might be in trouble soon. Doug Pederson was fired three seasons after his Super Bowl win, for reference.
Advertisement
Through all the (justifiable) angst over the Packers’ start, they’re 3-2 coming off a blowout win over the Bears, who were the favorite to win the division. The Packers looked mostly poor during the first four weeks but they find themselves in a good place now.
There are things to clean up, but the trio of Jordan Love, Matthew Golden and Christian Watson might keep Green Bay in the playoff race. Love has played well despite little help from his offensive line, and on Sunday he had a great game with 367 yards. He completed five passes of 30 or more air yards, only the second time that has happened since ESPN Insights began tracking the stat. Golden has 397 yards and two touchdowns and Watson has been even better, with 474 yards and six touchdowns in five games.
“We kept our foot on the gas,” Love said after the eye-opening 31-7 win over Chicago, according to AP. “Matt [LaFleur] was dialing it up. That’s what it needs to look like, right there.”
Advertisement
Aaron Rodgers’ stat line isn’t perfect. His 59.8 completion percentage is the worst of his career as a starter. So is his 88.9 passer rating. But what he’s doing at his age has been approached only by Tom Brady.
Not counting Brady, whose production in his 40s is an extreme outlier, no quarterback in his age-43 season (Rodgers turns 43 in December) has ever had more than 952 passing yards or six touchdowns in a season. Their teams combined for two wins in their starts, and both were from Vinny Testaverde in 2007. Testaverde had a bad 65.8 passer rating that season. Rodgers already has 1,234 yards, 10 touchdowns and the Steelers have won three of his starts, more than every other quarterback at his age combined, other than Brady.
Whatever happens the rest of this season, Rodgers’ season is already historic for his age.
Advertisement
The Giants should feel good to get a half of a win after Washington completely blew the end of the game, but New York blew a chance to win itself. In overtime they missed a 46-yard field goal and Cam Skattebo fumbled at Washington’s 24-yard line. A tie felt like a win at the end, but that got the Giants off the hook for their own mistakes.
One absolute positive from the game was Malik Nabers. He followed up a 112-yard game by getting season highs with 11 catches and 121 yards. He scored the game-tying touchdown in the final two minutes of regulation. Even more encouraging, he played a season-best 89.9% of New York’s snaps. He had not surpassed 80% in the first four games. It’s safe to say Nabers is back to normal after last season’s ACL tear.
Advertisement
David Tepper shouldn’t get too many flowers for becoming a somewhat rational owner, but he could have considered a coaching change after Dave Canales was 6-15 to start his time with the Panthers. Tepper had been going through coaches like paper plates before then. But the stayed the course and Canales has turned it around. He gave up play-calling duties to new offensive coordinator Brad Idzik, and that setup has been a success. Bryce Young is having a career year, and even getting mentioned in early MVP conversations. Carolina’s offense ranks third in the NFL in points and fourth in yards despite major offensive line injuries.
That looks great on Idzik, who could be a hot name in the head-coaching carousel next offseason if this continues. It also looks good on Canales, to understand what needed to be done for the Panthers to improve after backing into an NFC South championship last season.
For a 3-2 team, the Broncos should probably be lower in the rankings. The winless Chargers had countless injury issues on Sunday and yet the Broncos still trailed 17-10 with less than 10 minutes left. The Chargers’ decision to go for it on fourth-and-1 at their own 41, and then not converting a quarterback sneak, turned around the game. The Broncos deserve credit for stopping that streak and rallying to win, but anyone thrilled with where the Broncos are after five games is ignoring the problem signs.
Advertisement
One of those problems could be Bo Nix. The Broncos are considered to have one of the NFL’s best offensive lines. They have enough at receiver including Jaylen Waddle, who Denver traded a first-round pick to acquire. Sean Payton took over play-calling duties, and that didn’t change the offense. When is Nix’s role in the offensive woes going to be examined? His passer rating has gone from 93.3 to 87.8 to 80.8 in his first three seasons. On Sunday, with Payton back calling plays, Nix had 123 yards passing against a decent Chargers defense that was without star safety Derwin James Jr. The Broncos can’t change play-callers again. Nix just needs to perform better. It doesn’t get easier with a matchup against the Seahawks on Thursday.
The Lions’ defense is likely to still be a problem, even though it played well against the Cardinals. The offense is just fine. Jared Goff has 12 touchdowns and no interceptions through five games, which puts him in rare company.
But the engine of the offense is Jahmyr Gibbs. He leads the NFL with 747 yards from scrimmage and nine total touchdowns. That’s a pace of 30.6 touchdowns. That’s in range to challenge LaDainian Tomlinson’s single-season record of 31. Gibbs didn’t deny he’s got his eyes on that record.
“Oh, yeah, for sure. Yeah, I’m trying,” Gibbs said, via MLive.
An early East Coast start against a Patriots team that felt energized after a win over the Bills was a tough spot for the Raiders. Still, it was a troubling performance on both sides of the ball. The Raiders offense didn’t get much going, and averaging 2.1 yards per carry was a big reason. Perhaps Ashton Jeanty, who was a game-time decision with foot and ankle injuries, should have sat for a week. He had 27 yards on 10 carries. The defense was simply shredded by Drake Maye, who had 374 yards and four touchdowns passing and another one rushing. The Raiders’ defense hadn’t been bad through four weeks, so it can be excused to a tough day against a good quarterback who is starting to heat up.
“Defensively, offensively, special teams, I don’t think any of us played well enough to win today,” Raiders coach Klint Kubiak said, according to the team’s site.
It’s one bad game after four promising ones, so it’s not time to panic. But the next two games will tell the story: The Raiders host the Bills and Rams the next two weeks.
Drake Maye isn’t a bad quarterback. Go figure. After naysayers got their licks in during Maye’s three-game slump to start the season, which was an extension of his postseason issues, Maye has 643 passing yards, seven passing touchdowns, 79 rushing yards and a rushing score in his last two games. Those games came against the Bills and Raiders, who had one combined loss before facing New England. Stunning, but a 24-year-old quarterback who was one vote from winning MVP last season might still be good.
“It’s just fun to see Drake smiling big on the sidelines,” Patriots linebacker Robert Spillane said, via SB Nation. “That confidence is obviously back, and just watching him lead and push the ball down the field was fun.”
The Rams can play the what-if game. What if Week 1 hadn’t been in Australia? What if the officials had gotten a flubbed defensive pass interference call right at Denver in Week? And what if they hadn’t gotten a field goal blocked in overtime on Monday against the Bills? But they are also a veteran team and know the NFL is a results business. A team that got heaps of Super Bowl hype all offseason is 2-3.
The special teams is a recurring problem. The blocked field goal on Monday night could be looked at as a bad break for many teams, but the Rams’ special teams have been a problem for a while. Huge special teams mistakes led to losses in their final two games against the Seahawks last season, including in the NFC championship game. It shouldn’t be a big surprise that the special teams let them down with the game on the line Monday.
Joe Burrow wasn’t too thrilled after Sunday’s win over the Dolphins. His assessment of the team after five games? “Gotta be better. Gotta be better,” Burrow said, according to transcripts. When asked in what ways the Bengals need to be better, he said, “Everywhere.”
“I think just not good enough all around, team-wide,” Burrow said. “I think if we want to be the team that we think we’re going to be, you got to be better than that.”
The Bengals didn’t play that bad. It speaks to how poor the Dolphins are that leading 28-10 into the fourth quarter isn’t good enough. But Burrow is trying to get his team to a higher level, which is reasonable going into their bye. The first game back from the bye is a huge one. The Bengals go to Baltimore to face the Ravens.
It’s hard to rank the Bears. On one hand, they were horrendous in a 31-7 loss to the Packers. Also, they have scored 60 points in four games since scoring 59 in the opener. They’ve had two games scoring seven or fewer points. A defense that had been playing well gave up too many big plays against the Packers, who had 358 yards passing.
Of course, everything will change soon when Caleb Williams comes back. It’s unfair to judge a team too harshly when it went 2-1 with two different backup quarterbacks. And Williams is close to a return from a hamstring injury.
“He’s on track,” Bears coach Ben Johnson said, via Bears Wire. “We’ll see if that’s Atlanta [for Week 6] or after. I think it’s going to be close.”
Once Williams returns, it’ll be easier to get a clear read on the Bears going forward.
Justin Jefferson’s return changed the Vikings’ offense. Not many receivers are capable of making the circus catch he did for a touchdown with three Saints defenders in his vicinity.
The offense playing its best game, in the first game this season that Kyler Murray and Jefferson were healthy throughout, was a big story. The other one is the Vikings’ unrelenting blitz strategy. Coordinator Brian Flores sent a blitz on 23 of 27 Saints dropbacks (85.2%), according to Pro Football Focus. New Orleans had 87 net passing yards and 142 total yards. Blitzing as much as this season’s Vikings have is a fascinating experiment, and there’s no sign the Vikings are going to ease off it.
Moving the Seahawks down this far after a home loss to our No. 1 team is probably a bit too punitive. The Seahawks will likely move up soon. But they are just 3-2.
One move that hasn’t gotten enough criticism is letting Kenneth Walker III leave in free agency. Walker is an NFL MVP candidate for the Chiefs. He has transformed their offense and been one of the best players in the league. Meanwhile the Seahawks’ running game is floundering. A fumble by George Holani deep in Seattle’s territory that was recovered for a 49ers touchdown epitomized a running game going nowhere. Seattle is 30th in EPA per rush play. First-round pick Jadarian Price going on IR hasn’t helped but he was struggling before his injury.
“That’s a position where you can find guys,” Seahawks GM John Schneider said in March to 710 Seattle Sports, regarding Walker’s departure.
It’s hard to criticize the Seahawks, who were a tremendous champion last season and will be good again. But letting Walker go looks like a big mistake.
The Jaguars did not play well in London. Liam Coen passing on short field goals twice, and the Jaguars offense not converting on fourth down either time, looked like it was going to be the story coming out of a 17-16 loss. Then in the final eight seconds the Jaguars got a long kickoff return and kicked a field goal for a 19-17 win.
“Guys stayed the course and we ended up squeaking away with a win,” Coen said, according to the team’s site. “It ain’t pretty, but it’s gritty. That’s what it comes down to. It’s what this team has been. It’s what the team is. I love that group.”
That’s life in the NFL. Questionable decisions fade away when a team wins, even when it’s a miracle. The Jaguars stay in London and face the 1-4 Texans next Sunday in game that could give Jacksonville a massive lead in the division just six weeks into the season.
Sunday night’s Ravens win can carry them for a long time. The Ravens won on the road without Lamar Jackson, despite trailing by eight points with a minute to go in regulation. Tyler Huntley came through when it was needed but the Ravens needed a lot more than just Huntley. They rushed for 208 yards. The defense wasn’t perfect but did a fair job holding down a hot Falcons offense — seven of Atlanta’s 23 points came off a defensive touchdown.
The Ravens are 4-1, Sunday night’s comeback win felt like it made up for the one loss when they let down in the fourth quarter against the Saints, and Jackson’s ankle injury isn’t considered a long-term issue. A win like Sunday could be a turning point in Baltimore’s season.
“That’s a big step for our team,” Ravens coach Jesse Minter said, according to the team’s transcripts. “And if we let it be, it can be a launch point for us to really, really get this thing rolling.”
Josh Allen is one of the few players for which it doesn’t really matter what’s going on around him. He’s always going to give the Bills a chance to win. Allen did need one assist on Monday night at the Rams and got it when linebacker Greg Rousseau got a blocked field goal in overtime. That, and Allen’s dramatic play that included several key runs (he had 121 yards rushing), was enough to overcome a defense that couldn’t get a key stop, another quiet night from Dalton Kincaid and an injury that kept D.J. Moore out, two fumbles by James Cook, including a big one in overtime, and everything else. Allen has one MVP and Monday night should position himself as the favorite to win another. The Bills are a flawed team, particularly on defense, but Allen is playing at such a high level they’re still 4-1 and clearly a Super Bowl contender.
Jets pass rusher David Bailey is the leading early contender to win NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year after his three sacks on Sunday, bringing him to five on the season. But Chiefs cornerback Mansoor Delane has a case too.
Delane is off to a great start to his pro career. After Sunday’s games in Week 5 he ranked fourth among all cornerbacks in Pro Football Focus’ grades. According to PFF he has allowed just nine catches for 80 yards in three games (he missed one because of injury). Quarterbacks have a 46.5 passer rating when throwing his way. Delane was a polarizing pick after the Chiefs traded a third- and fifth-round pick to move up three spots and take Mansoor sixth overall. It seemed like an overpay. But the Chiefs have to be thrilled with what they’ve seen so far.
A win at Seattle leaves no doubt who is the No. 1 team after five weeks. The 49ers have played very well. The offense being hyper efficient should have been expected. The defense, even with Nick Bosa playing just two games and having no sacks, has been the big surprise.
The 49ers are fourth in defensive DVOA, fourth in EPA allowed per play, ninth in success rate allowed, third in points allowed and sixth in yardage allowed. The key has been the linebacker play of Fred Warner and Dre Greenlaw, though Greenlaw was ejected and suspended one game for head-butting helmet-less Seahawks linebacker Ernest Jones IV on Sunday. The 49ers lost defensive coordinator Robert Saleh in the offseason and that could have been a big blow after Saleh did a tremendous job last season. But new coordinator Raheem Morris is also doing an excellent job.
Comments
Advertisement