Drake Maye Has Been a Revelation

Week 6 is rolling along, with two games to come on Monday. Here’s what we’ve got for you in this mid-October edition of the MMQB takeaways …

Drake Maye has been a revelation over the past six weeks. And I don’t know if he’ll be able to sustain this wild start, the way Patrick Mahomes and Lamar Jackson did in their second years as pros, or win like Joe Burrow did in his second NFL season. 

But I do know now that this is more than the Patriots, in Mike Vrabel’s first year, winning with Maye at quarterback. The Patriots are winning because of Maye at quarterback.

That’s an important distinction, one that separates good players at the most crucial position from the truly great ones. It also explains why, and how, the Patriots have as many wins on Columbus Day (four) as they had during the entirety of Bill Belichick’s final year in Foxborough or Jerod Mayo’s only year in charge.

The stats tell some of the story. After a so-so season-opening loss to the Raiders, Maye’s been on a heater, posting five triple-digit passer ratings in as many games, while throwing nine touchdown passes and one pick. Over that five-game stretch, Sunday’s 69.2% completion rate was his lowest, and he joined Patrick Mahomes, Dan Marino and Dak Prescott as the only quarterbacks under 24 with five consecutive games of 200 yards passing and 100 passer ratings.

As I talked to him after the Patriots got past the Saints, 25–19, in an imperfect game, the other thing that was clear, as it has been since I first met him, is that he fits the suit of franchise quarterback in every way. Ask about his progress, and the job he did in all the critical spots Sunday, and you know where he’s going to take it.

“I think it’s the guys around me,” Maye said, as he got ready to leave the locker room. “They are getting in the right spots, taking stuff from practice from the end of the week, when you get those huge 7-on-7 plays in third-and-long, they’re taking it to heart, they’re worried about the details. And the guys up front are doing a great job, giving me time. I really attribute it to that.

“Other than that, they have to keep some eyes on me making plays outside the pocket, so it makes [the defense] maybe a little quick to get out of their zones. And from there, it’s just trying to make a play and keep it alive and give our guys chances downfield.”

He is, of course, underselling himself, because on the quarterback plays—the third-and-longs and two-minute, have-to-have-it situations—he was off the charts. Out of the gate, he hit Kayshon Boutte for 11 yards on a third-and-9 that set up a 53-yard touchdown strike to DeMario (Pop) Douglas on New England’s fourth offensive snap. On New England’s next possession, a shot to Kyle Williams drew a pass interference flag to convert a third-and-12.

Most impressive was the wherewithal he had early in the fourth quarter, converting third-and-long repeatedly amid a rainstorm of flags. First, it was a crossing route to Mack Hollins for eight yards on third-and-7. That was negated by an illegal shift. Then a false start put New England in third-and-17. So Maye hit Stefon Diggs down the right sideline for 51 yards—before that was wiped out, too, this time because of a pretty soft offensive pass interference call. And after that, he came close to hitting a shot to Hollins on third-and-27.

“Nobody is blinking, nobody’s pointing fingers, everybody’s on to the next play,” Maye said. “The refs, it’s something you can’t control—we can only control what we can control. We had a few plays taken off the board. The touchdown to Pop looked like a [shaky] call, but we just try to be about the next play mentality. And those guys are doing a great job in the huddle.”

Indeed, the overturned touchdown to Douglas (on maybe the worst OPI call I’ve ever seen, called some 60 yards from the play) was followed by another touchdown throw to Boutte.

And yes, all that is the resilience of the whole group. But a lot of it is the quarterback.

So it was fitting that this one was put to bed with another Maye throw on a down where everyone in the building knew he was throwing it—the 23-year-old hit Boutte on a comeback for 21 yards to pick up a third-and-11 and put the Patriots in victory formation.

Of course, there are two big difference-makers alongside Maye this year, one being his head coach (Vrabel) and the other his offensive coordinator (Josh McDaniels).

“Coach Vrabel, he’s very positive with me—but he’s on me,” Maye said. “I think that’s the best thing about Coach. He’s staying on me on the sideline, he’s pumping guys up and staying on me to be onto the next play. That’s the biggest thing—the next play, playing the next play, and he’s been great about helping me move on from plays I wish I had back; that’s been awesome.

“And Josh is a quarterback-friendly coordinator. He’s what you want in a coordinator. He knows what it’s like back there; he sees stuff before it happens. He understands the game really well. And he’s got my back. That’s what I appreciate most.”

So, yes, those are significant pieces to the puzzle. Vrabel tangibly helped Maye in several ways Sunday, including challenging that Boutte, a Louisiana native, was actually inbounds on the 21-yard catch. He won the challenge, winding the clock and allowing the Patriots to start kneeling. As for McDaniels, the first touchdown was set up, per Maye, by Douglas running flat routes and corner routes on rollout plays all year—all it took was a double-move on a secondary anticipating that to get Douglas loose deep.

However, there’s also growth from Maye that’s coming through his own maturation as a quarterback who’s learning—as guys like Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes have before him—to toggle between playing Clark Kent and running plays as called, versus putting on the cape.

“These guys are faster in the NFL,” Maye said. “I’m not gonna be able to make as many of those plays as I did in college. And then the second thing to that is I gotta be out there for the next play. That’s the other thing. Don’t take stupid hits, and know that sometimes they’re gonna win on defense, and you can go play the next play.”

However, he’s made all that work; he’s here now and emerging as a bona fide star.

As a result, the Patriots look like they’re on their way back, putting together an enviable turnaround after a murky half-decade of post–Tom Brady football. For his part, Maye stopped short of telling me he’s surprised by any of it, even after a 4–13 rookie year.

“I wouldn’t say surprised,” he said. “We’ve got good players, good coaches. Our defense has played big for us, so that’s the biggest thing. I wouldn’t say surprised. Just excited.”

And it’s fair to say a lot of people in New England share that feeling.

Mostly, I’d say, because of him.

While we’re there, Baker Mayfield is a very real MVP candidate. Consider this: The 30-year-old entered Sunday’s game against a resilient 49ers team without receivers Mike Evans and Chris Godwin, running back Bucky Irving, right tackle Luke Goedeke and right guard Cody Mauch. During the game, he lost first-round receiver Emeka Egbuka and Mauch’s replacement, Luke Haggard. And he still threw for 256 yards, two scores and a 139.0 rating.

Oh, and the Buccaneers scored a 30–19 win to move to 5–1 on the year.

Three years in, this is most certainly now Mayfield’s team, and franchise. He moved his family, which was rooted in Texas, to Florida full-time last year. And likewise, he’s put down roots in the Bucs’ building in how he’s carrying the torch as the quarterback—which has shown up in an exceptionally big way this year, as the Buccaneers have navigated injury after injury after injury on offense.

What’s helped in 2025, in particular, is the continuity Mayfield finally has. Over his first seven NFL seasons, he had seven different play-callers (Todd Haley, Freddie Kitchens, Kevin Stefanski, Ben McAdoo, Sean McVay, Dave Canales, Liam Coen). So even though new coordinator Josh Grizzard makes it eight in eight years—the fact that Grizzard worked under Coen, and his system is mostly the same as Coen’s, makes a difference.

“Being in the same offense two years in a row, he really makes more suggestions and can check into plays to get us into the right play on his own than he has in the past,” fourth-year Bucs coach Todd Bowles told me.” So the maturity level from a play-calling standpoint has really taken him into another level. And he wants to be great that way. I think he’s embraced that challenge and he’s showing it every week.”

That came into focus Sunday in the big picture, with so many guys out—and smaller ones along the way, too.

One of those arrived with the 45-yard touchdown connection between Mayfield and slight-but-speedy rookie receiver Tez Johnson. The play on its own was spectacular enough. The Bucs were nursing a 20–19 lead at the time, Mayfield had to make a subtle move in the pocket to buy time for it to develop, and Johnson tracked it and ran it down like an outfielder. But making it even more satisfying for the Bucs was that it wasn’t as called.

It resulted from an adjustment Johnson made on the fly based on the coverage, an adjustment he had the freedom to make because the Bucs trust Mayfield to see those in situations like the one that arose.

“It shows they are paying attention to the game plan and understand when people take things away, they can tweak things later on in the offense,” Bowles said. “And Grizz [Grizzard] does a great job at that, along with Baker. Tez has been a very good receiver for us in practice; he’s just behind a lot of guys. He’s a heck of a football player as well.

“We have more depth in that room than any other position. He showed it, and Cam Johnson showed it tonight.”

And just as Mayfield took advantage of that depth, that play was another example of how those receivers get to take advantage of having Mayfield as their quarterback.

That, to me, defines what you’d be looking for in an MVP candidate.

Regardless of the hits his team takes elsewhere, as long as Mayfield’s in the lineup, they look like they’re going to O.K. That, of course, is pretty remarkable considering where Mayfield was going into the 2023 offseason. But it’s also no fluke.

It’s very much who the former No. 1 pick has become.

The Chiefs may have finally found their launching point. Sunday’s impressive, convincing 30–17 win over the Lions didn’t just get the three-time defending AFC champions back to .500. It did what last Monday night probably should have—giving Kansas City real, genuine momentum. And now, the Chiefs are getting back Rashee Rice, hands down their best skill player.

Look out, NFL. The old heavyweight champ’s still swinging. And with that, let’s dive into the specifics on why anyone dismissing the Chiefs in September is going to look awfully dumb.

Again.

First, the Chiefs’ offense has been on its way back, really, since halftime of the Giants game in Week 3. A meeting that happened then in the visitors’ locker room at MetLife Stadium helped to reignite the group around Patrick Mahomes. The Chiefs have scored in the 30s in each of the three full games since. They ran for 112 yards on the Lions on Sunday night. They threw for 243 yards (factoring in three sacks), and Mahomes had a 132.2 passer rating. Eight different players caught passes. Isiah Pacheco looks healthy. Rookie Brashard Smith adds something.

And, one more time, they’re getting Rice back this week, which should add to an offense that’s already operating pretty efficiently (and has been for a month), and scored touchdowns against Detroit, on a night when field goals wouldn’t get it done.

Then, there’s a defense that’s rounding into shape again. In fact, after the Lions’ first two possessions, here was the result of the following six: Turnover on downs, punt, punt, touchdown, punt, turnover on downs. Over that time, Detroit ran up just 151 yards from scrimmage, and 81 of them came on that single touchdown drive.

And then, there was how the Chiefs cleaned up what happened in Jacksonville—for the first time in three years, Kansas City went a full game without being penalized, and also managed to get through this one without turning the ball over.

Bottom line, we’ve seen this movie before.

If the Chiefs beat the Raiders and Commanders the next two weeks, then they’ll be 5–3 heading into Buffalo, with, at worst, a chance to pull even with the Bills in the AFC standings.

Which is to say any rumors of this team’s demise were, in fact, greatly exaggerated.

The Broncos are starting to look like the team we all thought they’d be. Sean Payton’s no fool. He had no problem telling anyone who’d listen how good a team he thought he had back in the summer. And maybe some people thought, when Denver stumbled to a 1–2 start, that the veteran coach had gotten in a little over his skis on his young team.

However, he knew what he believed. He wanted them to have high expectations and everything that comes with that. It just so happened that his team would be tested early.

“He’s confident in our team,” outside linebacker Nik Bonitto told me Sunday. “He felt strongly about us last year, even when a lot of people didn’t. And this year, we had a lot of guys coming back, plus the guys we added in the offseason. So I could see why he had so much excitement coming into the year. Our job is to prove him right and get better each week.”

Which is why the Broncos are now 4–2 coming back from London, with what looks like a chance, based on what’s ahead, to really start rolling. On Sunday, they extended their winning streak to three, taking the Jets’ offense and tying it in a knot—and grinding through a 13–11 win.

It was at the back end of a stretch teams dread when the schedule comes out, increasing the chances that those heartbreaking losses to the Chargers and the Colts would spill into October. Instead, Denver blew out the Bengals 28–3 on a Monday night, traveled two time zones to come back from a 17–3 fourth-quarter deficit against the world champs in Philly, then covered another five time zones to methodically take apart the Jets.

And where the past two games featured Bo Nix and the offense getting on track, Sunday in London was more about the Broncos’ proud, highly regarded defense finding its stride.

“It was just doing our jobs,” Bonitto said. “Those two games, we had busts in the run and the pass game. All it came down to was just honing in on our jobs. And, once we do that, we can challenge anybody in the league.”

So with that focus on details, and, according to Bonitto, a game plan keyed on slowing Justin Fields and Breece Hall in the run game, the Broncos held New York’s offense to numbers that made this one look like a high school blowout—the Jets finished with 82 yards on 57 plays (1.4 yards per play), and Fields was sacked nine times. With those sacks figured in, the Jets finished with minus-10 net yards in the passing game.

Add that to a hard-nosed offense that played with balance, if not unbelievable production this week—but one that leaned on its ground game to close out the Eagles last week—and you see the Parcellsian image that Payton’s tried to create in Denver.

“One-hundred percent,” Bonitto said. “How camp was run, it was the craziest I’ve ever been a part of. That’s always going to make us tougher. He always says build that callous for the team—that’s what he’s doing. Even though we may have had a slow start, it’s starting to show now.”

And with the Giants, Cowboys, Texans and Raiders on the schedule between now and Nov. 16, it sure looks like there’s a decent chance the Broncos will be 8–2 going into Kansas City in Week 11.

Jaxon Smith-Njigba is symbolic of a young, rising Seahawk team’s progress. I’d said before the season started that Seattle was a lot like Green Bay—carrying a bunch of really good players on the roster still on rookie deals who weren’t yet great. And as was (and is) the case with the Packers, the fate of Seattle would ride on the ability of those guys to elevate to the next level.

Consider JSN the posterboy for what this is starting to look like in the Pacific Northwest.

Last year, the now third-year slot was a really good, hundred-catch, thousand-yard receiver. This year, he’s emerged as the one of the five or 10 best wideouts in all of football. After Sunday’s eight-catch, 162-yard evisceration of a revamped Jacksonville secondary, Smith-Njigba is pacing for 119 catches, 1,972 yards and nine touchdowns. That yardage mark, by the way, would be an NFL single-season record.

Even better, that big day led to a 20–12 Seattle win that moved the Seahawks to 4–2 and lodged them into a three-way tie with the 49ers and Rams atop the NFC West.

“I think it’s time,” said Smith-Njigba, in trying to explain the progress that’s led to his early-season explosion. “Time for me, allowing to get my body right, understanding what I went through the year before and my rookie season. And just getting better in the offseason—spending a lot of time in the offseason making sure I’m bigger, stronger, faster and ready to play an 18-game, 20-game, 23-game season.

“I give a lot of credit to the offense, honestly, and Sam Darnold, too. He’s just slinging the ball, finding me when I’m open. I carry a chip on my shoulder that I’m going to get open and catch the ball. Nothing new on that, just making the most of my opportunities.”

And the cool thing is he’s not the only one.

Darnold’s obviously the other most prominent example. But he’s not the only one.

Kenneth Walker III is averaging 4.7 yards per carry. Second-year tight end AJ Barner has become a real factor in the offense, with four touchdowns. A young line anchored by Charles Cross, Abe Lucas and rookie Grey Zabel has gotten a lot better. On defense, the Seahawks have dealt with injuries, but there’s a young core led by Byron Murphy and Devon Witherspoon that’s shown plenty of promise (Murphy was a menace Sunday with Witherspoon, Riq Woolen and Julian Love out on the back end).

“I would say situation is everything—it’s what situation you are walking into,” Smith-Njigba told me. “Things that are going on within your team, honestly, you can see a lot of players balling out given the opportunities.”

It’s how that’s all coming together, too, with vets such as Cooper Kupp on offense, and Leonard Williams, Ernest Jones IV and Coby Bryant on defense as important pieces of all this, too.

Smith-Njigba explained to me that his 61-yard touchdown actually came on a check from Darnold, one that was a result of the two working together during the week, and looking for a certain coverage they got in that situation—one that had, as luck would have it, new Jags corner Greg Newsome II (who arrived via trade last week) assigned to the Seahawks star.

And that, really, is a microcosm of the growth potential the group has. The young group GM John Schneider has assembled, first with Pete Caroll and now with Mike Macdonald, and armed with the return from the Russell Wilson trade, is just starting to come of age.

There’s plenty more on this story to be written, which is the cool part of it.

“One-thousand percent,” Smith-Njigba said. “We believe in ourselves, we know what we have. Every time we are together, we believe that we’re a great team. It’s taken some time, and we’ll definitely have more highs and lows. But we’ll keep pushing. That’s the vibe I get from my teammates, and that’s something that gives us all confidence.

Confidence that is looking more justified by the week.

​​The Chargers’ win in Miami may not look that great until you consider the circumstances. Let’s start with the schedule, which had Los Angeles going to Brazil in Week 1, then to the East Coast in Weeks 4 and 6. Continue with the injuries, which had the Chargers playing with backup tackles, starting two rookies at receiver, and going without their top two running backs. Then add a blown double-digit lead on the road to that mix.

Do all that, and you have the less-than-ideal spot the Chargers found themselves in with 46 seconds left Sunday at Hard Rock Stadium, after the Dolphins went up 27–26 on a seven-yard touchdown pass from Tua Tagovailoa to Darren Waller.

“When the defense was out there, it was, Let’s be ready for two-minute, four-minute, whatever happens,” star receiver Ladd McConkey told me postgame. “They score and we had the mindset, let’s go get a field goal, just go get points.”

They did. It all happened in a hurry, and proved a little something about what Jim Harbaugh’s got going with his team, too.

Again, beating a struggling Dolphins team by two points isn’t what you’re pointing to here.

It’s about the ability to do it with everything going on—and in the way the Chargers did it.

The game flipped in the blink of an eye. It started with Nyheim Hines taking the kickoff back 40 yards to the Chargers’ 41-yard line. Two plays later, Justin Herbert and McConkey pulled a win out of the wreckage of a sideways fourth quarter.

On second-and-10 from the 41, protection around the quarterback evaporated, and Herbert was forced to step up as Jaelan Phillips came through the B-gap and went to pull him to the ground. Herbert fought through Phillips, quickly reset and pushed the ball out into the left flat to McConkey, who came free, and had Miami corner Dante Trader Jr. and a lot of grass in front of him.

“When I turned, I saw one guy, and knew I had to make him miss, then go get some yards and get us in field goal range,” McConkey said. “I didn’t know when I caught the ball [that I’d get there]. It was just square one up, make them miss and go. I knew they had pressure, Justin made a heck of a play, so I just tried to present myself to him. Luckily, he saw me.”

The receiver then added, “[Herbert] is a top quarterback in this league, if not the top one. When we have [jersey No.] 10 back there, we always have a chance.”

From there, McConkey turned it into a track meet, chewing up 42 yards to put the Chargers at the Miami 17 and well within Cameron Dicker’s range for the game-winner, which came four snaps later in the game’s final 10 seconds.

So where does Harbaugh’s crew go from here? Well, they’ll get Joe Alt back, but not Rashawn Slater. They’ll get Omarion Hampton and Quentin Johnston, but not Najee Harris. And it’s fair to say after Sunday that the team still has that Harbaugh edge.

That’s even after losses to the Commanders and Giants that might’ve had some wondering.

On the other side of that one, there was a Dolphins team that not only blew the game, but lowered the curtain on its dysfunction afterward. In case you missed it, here’s what quarterback Tua Tagovailoa told reporters from the podium after Miami’s 29–27 loss.

He was asked postgame what will turn things around.

“I think it starts with the leadership and helping articulate that for the guys. And then what we’re expecting out of the guys,” Tagovailoa said. “We’re expecting this. Are we getting that? Are we not getting that? Do we have guys showing up to player-only meetings late? Do we have guys not showing up to player-only meetings? There’s a lot that goes into that. Do we have to make this mandatory? Do we not have to make it mandatory?

“It’s a lot of things of that nature that we gotta get cleaned up. And it starts with the little things like that.”

Tagovailoa was then asked to clarify, that players were late or missed the meetings, to which he responded, “Yeah, late.”

Of course, this opens up a whole new list of questions. Miami had a much-publicized players-only meeting after the team was routed in Week 1 by the Colts—a meeting that was conspicuous simply based on how early in the season it was held. So taking Tagovailoa’s words at face value, it seems like the players have felt the need to have more meetings like it, which wouldn’t be the best sign in the world for where the team is.

That’s before even getting to the notion that players were blowing these meetings off, something I ended up confirming with a couple of other people after Tagovailoa sounded off.

Then, there’s what it might mean for Mike McDaniel and his staff.

“Player-led meetings are extra things outside of what I demand,” McDaniel said after he was asked about Tagovailoa’s comments. “They’ve been very accountable to me. It sounds like there was something on his mind with regard to the specific meetings, with a couple individuals that he was trying to get corrected with direct communication. I think that’s the only way to lead.

“As far as where we’ve been at as a program, I think we’ve opened the air on all of that, and it’s very clear how we hold be accountable and what’s non-negotiable. Clearly, he’s sending a message. But from my standpoint, everything that I’ve asked of the guys, they’ve delivered on. So I’m sure whoever he’s talking to, they’ll deliver as well, as he’s a direct communicator with his teammates.”

To be fair, McDaniel is in a tough spot on this one. Players-only meetings are players-only meetings for a reason. The last thing the guys in there want is a coach sticking his nose in, so the coaches always have to tread lightly. That said, they’re also usually not a great sign for where the coach and his regime stand within the organization.

Meanwhile, as a backdrop to all this, you have a half-empty stadium, and a roster that’s on the front end of a rebuild, making this a natural point for the owner to consider who he wants leading his football operation.

I still, by the way, think McDaniel is a very good coach. But this is a precarious position to be in, for sure.

The Giants are very clearly getting a jolt of energy from their rookie class, and in particular Jaxson Dart and Cam Skattebo. The reality of the situation the past few years with New York’s offense was, for better or worse, they had a lot of quiet guys. There’s still a lot of love in the building for Daniel Jones, but he was that way. Malik Nabers is, too. And while that’s fine—no one wants anyone being someone they aren’t—it can make things a little difficult when things aren’t going right.

Which is where the Ole Miss quarterback and Arizona State battering ram come in.

It’s part of what the two had in common coming out of college, and part of what the Giants liked about each of them. Both love to work and love to be around teammates, and it was infectious in the college programs they came from.

No one expected their personalities to make that sort of difference in the NFL this quickly. But the Giants sure are happy it has—and it definitely showed up in Thursday’s 34–17 shocker over the Eagles. So with that in mind, I went looking over the weekend for a couple of reasons why this has come together like it has.

• Dart is ahead of where a lot of analysts thought he’d be developmentally—Lane Kiffin actually re-implemented elements from his old-school West Coast background later in Dart’s college career—and that’s shown up. The Giants, along those lines, had pretty good info on that before the draft, too.

Lane Kiffin, like Daboll, was an offensive coordinator for Nick Saban at Alabama, creating some carryover in the system. Charlie Weis Jr., the son of one of Daboll’s mentors (Charlie Weis Sr.) is Kiffin’s OC at Ole Miss. That helped on the front end, in the information gathering process. And it’s helped on the back end, too, in giving Daboll a lot of material to work with that translates as he works his systems to make Dart as comfortable as he can.

But another piece of this is how advanced Dart is on his own. Bottom line: While the Giants were going to give Russell Wilson his shot, after their three preseason games, they felt like Dart was ready to be the starter in Week 1 if they needed him to be.

Reasons for it have shown up since. One was on a third-and-8 at the end of the third quarter against the Eagles. On the play, the pocket collapsed on Dart. Jalyx Hunt was coming hard off the edge and got into Dart’s lap, and Jihaad Campbell came free on a delayed blitz. Dart stared down the barrel, and delivered the ball downfield before Theo Johnson went into his break, putting it in a spot where only his guy could get it while Hunt took him to the ground.

It’s also notable that this is happening even though Dart’s played 10 of his 12 quarters as starter thus far without his top skill player, Malik Nabers, in the lineup.

• As for Skattebo, there was a funny moment after Thursday’s game where the rookie’s dad approached Giants executives and asked, “Has he been late again?”

They could laugh about that now. The backstory is that Skattebo overslept while he was in New Jersey on his predraft visit. Pro scout Louis Anarumo, son of Colts DC Lou Anarumo, called him at the hotel that day to wake him up. To close the loop on that, the Giants sent “the guy who ratted you out,” Anarumo, to pick Skattebo up at the airport after drafting him.

The larger point is that it’s easy for the Giants to joke with him about it because of everything that’s happened since. He crushed the rest of his visit, to the point where on the morning of Day 3, New York had pretty much determined that if he got to them at 105, he’d be the pick. He was a favorite of the scouting staff, with his blend of the toughness, physicality and pass-game ability making him a perfect complement to Tyrone Tracy Jr., and their belief that his lack of a confirmed 40 time was the only reason he was still available.

And that he’s become more than that this quickly is a pretty nice bonus, giving evidence, when you pair that with what Dart’s doing, that the Giants may be a pretty tough out—and a fun watch—for the rest of the year.

While we’re on that game, it’s definitely worth keeping an eye on the A.J. Brown situation. For those who think the sky is falling, the Eagles are 4–2 and still have everything they hope to accomplish squarely in front of them. As was the case last year, when the team started 2–2 and then won 16 of 17 on their way to a Super Bowl championship, the Eagles will ride on their ability to find an identity on offense. It will also depend on the defense, and there’s plenty of reason to believe they’ll improve.

The question? Whether they do it with Brown.

To be clear, every indication I’ve gotten from Philly is that they view this as part of the deal with their mercurial receiver. He’s always been different, and how that manifests itself can be a little unpredictable. On Thursday night, it was with the non-denial about a meeting he had with Jalen Hurts and Saquon Barkley in the days leading up to the Giants loss. It turns out he didn’t view their half-hour discussion in the parking lot a “meeting.”

Last year, there was the weird situation with Brown reading a book on the sideline (it was Inner Excellence for those wondering) during the team’s wild-card playoff win over the Packers. That sparked conversation, but did little to knock the red-hot Eagles off-kilter. And there’s the thought that if they could handle that in January, they can handle this in October.

That said, other teams are monitoring the situation. One high-end executive for an AFC contender texted that he anticipates Brown’s name coming up in trade talks before the deadline, though it hasn’t happened yet: “His production is down, and the offense/quarterback are what they are. He doesn’t seem happy.”

But again, that really isn’t the question. The question is whether the situation is manageable. I’d say, based on last year, it is.

And while we’re there, if you are trading for him, there’s the knee condition that prompted the Titans to trade him in the first place, and he does have $29 million fully guaranteed for the 2026 season, and another $4 million fully guaranteed in 2027.

It’s time to wrap up the column. Which means it’s time for the quick-hitters …

• Great ball from Jordan Love to Matthew Golden for 31 yards on a third-and-8 to effectively finish off a feisty Bengals team at Lambeau. The Packers, who came in 2-1-1 and off their bye, needed that, and good on Matt LaFleur for staying aggressive in making sure they got it

• Joe Flacco was actually pretty impressive, considering he’d spent about 15 minutes in Cincinnati before traveling with his new Bengals teammates to Green Bay. The offense definitely looked different with Flacco in there, and he gives them a puncher’s chance of keeping playoff hopes alive while Joe Burrow heals up. For what it’s worth, the Bengals thought Jake Browning’s arm had died out, and he wasn’t seeing things as far, necessitating the trade.

• Aaron Rodgers is starting to look a lot more like himself. There were a bunch of plays Sunday where he rolled right and found someone hard to his left, leading to a few of the cross-body throws that were an indicator, to me at least, that he’s starting to get comfortable.

• I’m sure the breakdown of Dillon Gabriel’s effort Sunday will be intense on the morning talk shows. And warranted, too.

• Gutty win for the Raiders, regardless of the opponent, without Brock Bowers in the lineup. Las Vegas isn’t going to the playoffs. But I think this team will be a pretty tough out by the time we get to the end of the year.

• Credit to the Panthers, back at .500 six games in. After getting blown out by the Patriots in Week 4, and falling behind 17–0 to the Dolphins in Week 5, it would have been really easy to pack it in. Instead, Carolina fought to come back from that deficit to beat the Dolphins, then outlasted Dallas 30–27. And how about Rico Dowdle going for 239 scrimmage yards on 34 touches against his old team? Pretty outstanding.

• Sometimes you have to win with less than your best, and that’s what the Colts did Sunday. And yet, they did manage 150 yards rushing, with Daniel Jones posting a 101.0 passer rating and 212 yards, and just enough to nip the Cardinals 31–27.

• Did the Cardinals’ offense look a little more efficient with Jacoby Brissett in there?

• The Drew Allar story stinks. Had the Penn State quarterback been convinced that was going in the top 20 last year, my understanding is he likely would’ve declared for the draft. Instead, he added a half season of shaky play to his résumé and suffered a season-ending injury. I thought he was a good bet to go in the first round at the start of the year. Not anymore.

• Could college jobs opening now alter the NFL landscape in any way? We’ll see. I haven’t heard any NFL-only names for the Penn State job yet, but Penn State simply opening, with James Franklin fired Sunday, could set off a chain reaction as schools jockey for position with top candidates. And I could see a school such as Florida, which has struck out on a few guys in a row now, looking for something to energize the program.

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