NFL Week 5 Observations
- That was a big boy game from Patriots quarterback Drake Maye. He’s had bigger, flashier outputs but he was efficient in primetime, against a perennial contender, on the road. Impressive stuff.
- Stefon Diggs’s revenge game was a bigger surprise, as I’d call this his best game since 2022. I did not think he still had this in him, as his production wasn’t an accident.
- I’d also call this the first game where I really felt the Mike Vrabel imprint, as that Patriots defense gave Josh Allen a lot of tight windows, even when he was extending plays. It felt like that overachieving Titans defense Vrabel got the most out of virtually every week.
- Buffalo is one of those teams where a premium wide receiver could transform their offense, as it would put their role players in more natural positions.
- It’s rare for a team like the Rams to shoot themselves in the foot multiple times in a game, but despite that they lost by three in overtime, with a failed fourth and one in the redzone. I wouldn’t overreact to that outcome.
- Kyle Shannahan did a great job mitigating the Rams’ talented front through play calling, and as someone that literally said if Mac Jones is going to resurrect his career, San Francisco is the spot, Jones really played out of his mind given the 49ers injuries. That said, I’d still pump the brakes on this 49ers team ceiling, I expect them to make the playoffs, likely handedly given their schedule, but this roster is not what it was when this team was the NFC’s best for half a decade.
- The Broncos are well coached, with good line play and a very gritty quarterback who doesn’t have the high-end talent of the elites, but he has enough to make this group live against just about anyone. Sean Payton turned this organization around in short order.
- That missed long pass to A.J. Brown looked to me like it was on him, because he slowed down.
- Speaking of Brown, after him and fellow disgruntled wide receiver DeVonta Smith aired their grievances publicly despite being on an undefeated, defending championship team, that final play that they missed while they were essentially on top of each other was really quite poetic for someone who generally doesn’t like wide receivers, nor people that run their mouths.
- That said, expect the Eagles to right the ship this Thursday against the Giants, who embarrassed themselves in New Orleans on Sunday.
- I don’t overreact to the early days of any rookie quarterback, but I thought Jaxson Dart was over drafted by a desperate, poorly ran organization. The thing about being an overtly cocky quarterback is that stuff is going to wear real thin when they turn the ball over three times against one of the worst teams in the league. It’s going to get even thinner when New York can’t move the ball during the coming Eagles and Broncos sandwich coming up. Let’s wait until Dart actually does something before claiming he’s changing the culture of the organization.
- Given where the Saints organization is today, Alvin Kamara makes little to no sense on this roster, especially when Kendre Miller is getting noteworthy run multiple weeks in a row.
- To this point Kellen Moore has impressed me as this team has overachieved in four of their five games.
- The Saints OL played a strong game against New York’s high-end front.
- The Jets are kind of in no mans land, as their future at quarterback isn’t on the roster and New York’s defense took a nosedive last year and has shown no signs of a correction through five games in 2025.
- Football trades don’t happen often, but it probably makes sense to see if a contender will overpay for Breece Hall.
- Dak Prescott is one of those guys whose always been either overrated or underrated, but I had no opinion of rookie Ryan Flournay coming into Sunday and Prescott got 114 yards out of Flournay.
- Cooper Rush is a solid backup QB, but he’s an odd pairing as Lamar Jackson’s backup. Rush had a bit of an odd game as he only had six incompletions on 20 attempts, but three of them were intercepted.
- Baltimore’s defense needs an exorcism.
- Again I openly mock those that have framed Geno Smith as a top 10 QB, but very few quarterbacks would be thriving in his current environment.
- The truth is the Raiders are going nowhere anytime soon and the biggest piece they have to rebuild is Maxx Crosby.
- Daniel Jones played another clean game against a below average opponent, but I’d also say I saw the most New York Giants Daniel Jones in this game than I have to this point, this season. Regardless of what happens here, the Colts should extend Shane Steichen. I thought he was a good coach before this, to the point I’ve said I think the Eagles would be better off with him than Sirianni, but my word has Steichen done some job with this team.
- While we are here, there are people out there that thought Lou Anarumo was the why behind the Bengals defensive struggles. He’s doing a pretty good job in Indianapolis.
- There are still people out there saying Cincinnati has to do something to save their season. Guys, the Bengals season ended the moment Joe Burrow was out for multiple months. This is not a good roster, they are literally a team to target in survivor pools without Burrow.
- Not much to say about the Lions, except contenders decisively beat bad teams, even on the road.
- If allowing Rico Dowdle to run for over 200 yards isn’t a fire able offense, I’m not sure what is. I’m not surprised Miami only has one win and that their defense is atrocious, but even genuinely great backs don’t hit 200 rushing yards in a game in their entire career.
- If we’ve learned one thing about Mike McDaniel it’s that if you give him an athletic tight end, that tight end can crush in McDaniel’s offense.
- I like the Sam Darnold bet by Minnesota last year, but I was not expecting him to play at a quasi MVP level. If I were given truth serum and asked which two quarterbacks through five weeks have carried the most success for their team, that answer would be Josh Allen, Baker Mayfield and Darnold.
- This was a very strange game from the Chargers offense, as they came out looking like they might hang 30 points on Washington, and then didn’t score for the rest of the contest. Part of that is because their other would be scoring drives ended in turnovers, but their offense largely died after their first two drives and the levy broke for their injury-ravaged offensive line.
- Washington’s run game has had a lot of success since Jayden Daniels and Kliff Kingsbury came to town, but Jacory Croskey-Merritt looks like the best back they’ve had.
- I did not watch enough of Cardinals vs. Titans to have a full opinion on that contest, but Arizona is exactly the type of volatile team that loses a game like this. I will be curious to see if this outcome has a similar long-term impact as the Bears losing to Washington on a Hail Mary did last year.
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