This article covers a few big storylines from the NFL after week 4.
The AFC West is not as good as we expected?
While the Chiefs do not seem to have skipped any beats, and the Chargers have been good despite a lot of injuries, the division as a whole has been disappointing. It was predicted that three (and in a crazy scenario even four) teams would make the playoffs from this division. That seems far from the case now. The Broncos have been all over the place. Their defense has been good for the most part, and Patrick Surtain II looks like a stud at corner, but the offense has been brutal. Russel Wilson has been mediocre at best. Sure his receiving room has been injured, and they just lost Javonte, but Wilson was not brought here to be average. He finally had a decent game against the Raiders (they still lost) so he could just be getting into rhythm. The Broncos may still be a wild card team, but they are far from the team most expected them to be.
Now for the Raiders. McDaniels does not seem to be much better in his second stint as a head coach. Offensively and defensively they have been disappointing. Adams has had two heavily targeted weeks, and two nonexistent weeks. Carr has been more of himself than ascending. They have lost in two tragic fashions. One being Waller dropping a game winning touchdown that turned into the sealing interception, and the other being the epic collapse against the Cardinals. Just like the Broncos, this team is too good to be as bad as they have been. But, their head coaching seems to be holding them back. Renfrow has not been targeted as much, and the same goes for Waller. The offensive line has been a mess as well. They need to fix a lot, but even if they do this division is disappointing.
The Eagles may be the team to beat in the NFC
We had them getting a wild card and winning double digit games, but even that seems like an undersell. Jalen Hurts has put up great numbers, and it cannot be overstated how valuable AJ Brown has been. We were not believers in Hurts as a thrower (and to be fair he has not faced any elite teams yet), but he has made more throws than not. The best defense he faced was Jacksonville, but the weather was compromising for throwing. As a runner he has been his usual self and pairing that with a career revival year for Miles Sanders results in a more than capable offense.
The real specialness is this defense. We estimated they would ride one of the best defenses in football to the playoffs. This part of our prediction seems correct. Slay has been one of the best corners in football along with two great seasons for Bradberry and Maddox thus far. Jordan Davis has had a massive impact in their run defense, while Brandon Graham appears to have found the fountain of youth. Linebackers White and Edwards have been very good, and Hassan Reddick has done as advertised (although maybe too many drop back in coverage calls for him). Add this defense to the way their offense is playing and the Eagles appear to be the best team in the NFC.
The NFL has made little ground in player safety despite what they have marketed
This one explains itself. Everyone has seen what happened with Tua. He got hit, and stumbled to the ground trying to get off the field, and yet somehow was reinserted into the game. This could have been remedied by holding him out the following week, but what resulted was another head blow and a trip to the ER. The neurologist that cleared him was fired, but this highlights a bigger problem that has always been here, but is under the microscope this year. See Cameron Brate not getting taken out immediately while stumbling, only to show “symptoms” later in the game. For all of the supposed ground gained in player safety in the NFL, concussions and the treatment of them still is in the dark ages. They do not care, and only claim they do. Concussions need to have a strict universal minimum for time off and time to heal. All of the teams need to get on the same page and get it together or CTE will not go away anytime soon.
Lamar Jackson is the MVP front runner
We had Lamar as our darkhorse MVP, but perhaps that was not giving him enough credit. Despite another collapse by the Ravens against the Bills, Lamar is having an amazing season. Bateman seems like a true number one that can make things happen on deep routes and on YAC. He is doing this all with Roman as his OC. There needs to be a change there to get a more creative offense that does not stall in the second half of games when they run the same variations of plays repeatedly. Despite this, Jackson has almost 900 passing yards and over 300 rushing yards along with 13 total touchdowns (a league leading 11 passing). He is in a close race early with the likes of Mahomes, Josh Allen, and Jalen Hurts, but he is playing at another level this year that has him as our MVP front runner.
How does Matt Rhule still have a job?
No seriously, if you know please tell us. The Panthers have looked awful again despite having a fairly talented roster. A lot of the blame can fall onto Baker who has not had the revenge tour we expected of him. But look at Dan Orlovsky’s breakdown of the offense and you will see how poor of a system it truly is. Not in an attempt to defend Baker, but Rhule and his staff has to go to see how the team can really look under a new direction. With a real head coach and offense, maybe Baker is good enough to be a bridge for Stroud or Levis or whoever next draft if they go that way. But, you will not know by keeping Rhule around. The Panthers should have one of the best defenses in football and a capable offense, yet the insistence on keeping Rhule around sinks them. Carolina needs to make a drastic move now or they will continue to waste careers of Mcaffrey, Moore, and all the players on the defense.