Sunday Rundown recaps the most important developments from the day’s action and examines their significance moving forward.
Eagles in trouble
It might be time to smash the panic button in Philadelphia.
The Eagles made the questionable decision to retain Nick Sirianni after last season’s collapse, opting instead to make changes at both offensive and defensive coordinator. Their schemes may look a little different four games into the season, but the results are every bit as frustrating.
Kellen Moore’s offensive system, crucially, hasn’t had the intended effect with Jalen Hurts. If you want to chalk up Sunday’s loss to the Bucs as a matter of the Eagles being without their star receivers, go for it. But how long are we going to make excuses for a quarterback making $51 million per season?
Hurts has continued to regress since Philly’s Super Bowl heartbreak, and he’s now coughed up 27 turnovers in his last 22 games. Leaning on the run game would help, but that can be hard to do if the offense is so consistently putting the team in an early hole.
The defense hasn’t been any better despite replacing Sean Desai with Vic Fangio, entering this week’s action ranked 24th in EPA/play. Baker Mayfield marched the Bucs’ offense up and down the field throughout the day Sunday, throwing for 347 yards and two touchdowns, while the run game accounted for 111 yards and another pair of scores.
This team’s issues run far deeper than who’s calling plays on each side of the ball. And although Nick Sirianni likely receives a little too much criticism for a coach who has a 36-19 record and a Super Bowl appearance over the last four years, it’s fair to assume that the problems start at the top.
At this point, it’d be an upset if Sirianni is still coaching the Eagles next season. The real question is whether ownership is forced to correct its offseason mistake and make a move in the coming weeks. There’s no reason for a team with this much talent to be this objectively bad.
Vikings roll on offense, too
Much of this space last week was dedicated to Brian Flores and a truly diabolical Vikings defense. That group once again did its part with four turnovers in Sunday’s win over the Packers, but the offense gets the spotlight this time around.
Four games in, it’s becoming clear that this isn’t just another one of Sam Darnold’s short-lived hot streaks. The former first-round pick put together his best game yet in helping the Vikings to a 4-0 start, completing 20-of-28 passes for 275 yards and three touchdowns. That puts him up to 11 passing scores on the year, good for the top spot among league leaders.
Darnold will still make the occasional mistake – another interception this week makes it three on the season. But an outstanding supporting cast and some schematic genius from Kevin O’Connell make this a completely different situation than previous stops that saw him labeled a bust. His natural abilities as a passer can shine through when he just has to be the point guard.
Assuming this continues, the Vikings will have some fascinating decisions to make at season’s end. Darnold will be due an enormous raise after playing on a one-year, $10-million contract, and it’s only a matter of time until first-round pick J.J. McCarthy takes over as the starter. But those are discussions for another day.
The Vikings are playing an elite brand of complementary football, and there’s no reason they can’t sustain this right through to January. Enjoy this for what it is – it’s not often that a total afterthought team blows away expectations to emerge as a legitimate Super Bowl contender.
Chiefs to the trade market?
The Chiefs offense was dealt a devastating blow this week when Rashee Rice suffered what’s feared to be a torn ACL.
Already without free-agent addition Hollywood Brown for at least the rest of the regular season, Kansas City had been struggling to take the expected steps in the passing game. Rice also being ruled out for the year would push first-round rookie Xavier Worthy to the top of the depth chart, moving the Chiefs dangerously close to the same type of paper-thin receiving corps that plagued the offense for much of last season.
The Chiefs proved they could win under such circumstances, so nobody is going to be counting them out – they’re already off to a 4-0 start despite the scoring difficulties. But is Andy Reid really going to be content to grind out wins in the same way he was forced to do last year?
Don’t be surprised if the Chiefs respond to the injures at receiver by attempting to kickstart the trade market well in advance of the Nov. 5 deadline. Davante Adams is the obvious target for any contender in need of a pass-catcher, but prying him away from a division rival could be nearly impossible.
As things currently stand, the Titans seem like one of the only teams clearly headed for seller status. DeAndre Hopkins, anyone?
Quick slants
Ravens, Henry take flight
It seems like it’s become something of an annual tradition to wonder whether Derrick Henry will drop off. Once again, it’d appear that the answer is a resounding no. Henry built upon last week’s 151-yard performance by destroying the Bills with 199 yards Sunday night. It’s no coincidence that these were Baltimore’s best two games of the year. The four-time Pro Bowler now leads the league with 480 rushing yards. If the Ravens have found a formula to integrate Henry into the offense and work everything else off that, including the contributions of the reigning MVP, the rest of the AFC could be in trouble.
Daniels on a superstar trajectory
Jayden Daniels entered the league facing some legitimate questions about how his game will translate. One month in, he’s well on his way to making doubters look silly. The Commanders quarterback continues to outplay No. 1 pick Caleb Williams, making himself the clear front-runner for Offensive Rookie of the Year honors. Another near-flawless day in Washington’s 42-14 win over Arizona brings his completion rate to an incredible 82.1%, a new NFL record through a player’s first four games. Daniels has been comfortable in the pocket, he’s making decisive decisions with the ball, and he’s using his athleticism to both make plays as a runner and create more opportunities for himself as a passer. Things are finally looking up for 3-1 Washington.
Same old Jets
A few vintage flashes from Aaron Rodgers early in the season have created the impression that it’s only a matter of time before the Jets’ offense holds up its end of the bargain. That may well be where things are headed in time, but it’ll remain a work in progress early on. The Jets’ offense was particularly disappointing in Sunday’s shocking loss to the Broncos, managing just nine points to waste a defensive effort that held Bo Nix to 60 passing yards overall and minus-7 in the first half. The offensive line has to be better if New York is going to make the most of its skill-position talent. Rodgers taking five sacks and Breece Hall averaging 0.4 yards per carry looked too much like the anemic Jets offense that’s supposed to be a thing of the past.
Falcons finding their stride
It turns out the mass panic surrounding the Falcons after a rough season opener was a little bit of an overreaction. In fairness, how else were we supposed to interpret Kirk Cousins, coming off a torn Achilles, spending all of Week 1 as a stationary shotgun-only passer? Looking back, though, it seems like that was nothing more than an effort to reacclimate the veteran quarterback to live action. In the three games since, the Falcons’ offense has taken some meaningful steps toward becoming the unit we all expected. A big win over the Eagles got their season going back in the right direction, they had every opportunity to beat the Chiefs in Week 3, and Sunday’s victory over the Saints confirmed this team is a legitimate contender for an NFC South title. Let’s see if the ascent continues in the weeks ahead.
Love’s good outweighs the bad
Jordan Love is back in action just three weeks after going down with a sprained MCL in the season opener. His return featured some not-so-great moments, with a trio of interceptions likely making the difference in a two-point loss, but rust doesn’t exactly help matters against an outstanding Vikings defense. Rather than harp on the mistakes, though, it’d be wise to focus on the outstanding plays he did make. Love’s 389 passing yards and four touchdowns was far and away the most productive day any quarterback has managed against Brian Flores’ defense this year. The Packers would love to be better than 2-2, but Love bringing them back into this game after going down 28-0 was an important reminder of this team’s firepower with its star quarterback healthy.
Richardson banged up
Anthony Richardson was forced to leave Sunday’s win over the Colts with a hip issue. It appears as though he avoided any sort of major injury, but the events leading to his exit should bring up a familiar conversation. Richardson initially picked up the injury taking unnecessary contact at the end of a scramble. He then reinjured himself just one play after initially returning because an awkward slide decision exposed him to another hit. Injuries are an unavoidable part of the game, but Richardson has to do a better job of protecting himself. He’ll never get the development reps he needs if he’s constantly in and out of games.
Broncos can play defense?
What a difference a year can make. At this point in the 2023 season, it felt as though Vance Joseph wouldn’t be long for Denver – it’s tough to survive giving up 70 points in an NFL game. But Sean Payton stood by his defensive coordinator, and the unit slowly got better from that point forward. The progress has continued well into the 2024 campaign, with Sunday’s effort against the Jets marking the culmination of the methodical turnaround. Denver’s defense entered the week ranked sixth in EPA/play. That standing should be on the rise after the Broncos held the Jets to nine points, got to Aaron Rodgers for five sacks, and completely bottled up the run game. This team won’t contend until it can get more out of Bo Nix, but a defense of this caliber can alleviate a lot of the pressure on the young quarterback.
Progress in Chicago
There may yet be hope for the Bears’ offense. After averaging just 72.7 rushing yards per game over the first three weeks of the season, Chicago broke through with 131 yards and a pair of scores in Sunday’s win over the Rams. A brutal L.A. run defense surely contributed to the successful day on the ground, but the week-to-week difference in execution on the part of the Bears’ offense was still incredibly promising. D’Andre Swift putting together more performances like his 93-yard effort this week would go a long way toward assisting Caleb Williams in the early stages of his development.
Bucs make statement
Offseason hype for the Falcons may yet prove justified, but it’s starting to seem foolish that any such discussion completely overlooked the Bucs. There have been some inconsistencies thus far, including a major letdown in last week’s loss to the Broncos, but we have every reason to believe that this team will be right in the mix at the end of the season. Baker Mayfield continues to prove that 2023 was no fluke, and he’s truly found a home in Tampa Bay. While a three-year, $100-million deal may have seemed a little rich for some, he’ll be more than worth the price tag if he’s throwing for 347 yards and two scores as he did in a massive win over the Eagles.
Money well spent
The Packers spending big in free agency isn’t exactly a common occurrence. But they identified some key players who were deserving of the money in this year’s class, and early indications suggest they were absolutely correct. Xavier McKinney, most notably, has proven more than worthy of his top-four annual average salary at the safety position. He’s been the driving force for an opportunistic defense, coming away with an interception in each of the first four games of the season. The Giants letting McKinney and Saquon Barkley walk away for nothing in the same offseason is a rough look.
It’s gonna be Maye
The Patriots can’t delay this much longer, can they? Drake Maye is almost certainly the better option at quarterback right now – head coach Jerod Mayo even admitted that the No. 3 pick outplayed veteran Jacoby Brissett in the preseason. If the idea was to keep him under wraps for a difficult opening stretch of the schedule, fair enough. But back-to-back games against the Jets’ and 49ers’ defenses are now in the rearview mirror. Next week’s home matchup with a beat-up Dolphins team could be the ideal opportunity to get Maye his first start. There’s only so much you can learn watching from the sidelines.
Stat of the week
