Week 4 of the NFL was not short on drama.
The Denver Broncos played better defense than the New York Jets, Sam Darnold torched the Green Bay Packers secondary, the Washington Commanders are going to be a problem for everyone and the Chiefs look like an average team.
Here are some knee-jerk reactions from the fourth week of the NFL season:
Nick Sirianni is on borrowed time
Things couldn’t have gone any worse for the Philadelphia Eagles in Sunday’s 33-16 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Sirianni looked in over his head. Sure, he was without both of his top two receivers in A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith, but those instances are when good coaches are supposed to get their teams to rise to the challenge and it’s clear Eagles players have no interest in doing that for Sirianni.
Another bad loss or two and it wouldn’t be surprising if Sirianni found himself on the unemployment line, especially considering the Eagles have a defensive coordinator in Vic Fangio with head-coaching experience who could easily take over on an interim basis and potentially coach the team to a playoff spot.
Jordan Mason would be a starting RB on at least 80% of teams in the NFL
There is no replacing a running back like Christian McCaffery, but Mason isn’t a bad ace for the San Francisco 49ers to have up their sleeve. The 25-year-old has rushed for over 100 yards in three of his four starts and he’s averaging nearly five yards per carry.
With his 123-yard, one-touchdown performance in San Francisco’s 30-13 win over the New England Patriots on Sunday, it’s clear that Mason could start on most other teams in the league. Outside of McCaffrey himself, Saquon Barkley, Derrick Henry and Josh Jacobs, it’s difficult to name another RB who could outperform Mason right now.
Nathaniel Hackett should relinquish play-calling duties to Aaron Rodgers
What. A. Mess. Denver Broncos QB Bo Nix had only 60 yards passing and the Broncos had just 186 yards of total offense and yet, they still beat the New York Jets on Sunday. It wasn’t like Denver had multiple defensive or special teams touchdowns that carried it, either. The Broncos defense just plain shut down the Jets offense.
New York had only 16 first downs and averaged just 3.5 yards per offensive play on Sunday. The Jets rank in the bottom third of the NFL in total offense and scoring offense and the team would honestly be better served letting Rodgers call his own plays than watching Hackett struggle to put together any kind of an offensive threat with weapons like Rodgers, Breece Hall, Garrett Wilson and Allen Lazard.
The Atlanta Falcons are wasting the careers of Bijan Robinson and Kyle Pitts
Robinson had seven carries for 28 yards and Pitts had zero catches on three targets in Sunday’s 26-24 win over the New Orleans Saints. This is the first time in Pitts’ career that he did not record a catch (46 straight games) and Robinson has gone back-to-back weeks with fewer than 35 yards rushing.
Both players were high first-round picks and it’s clear the Falcons don’t know how to properly use either of them. Both would be better suited on other teams that are willing to make them focal points of their offensive game plans.
It’s time to have a conversation about Trevor Lawrence
In the four games since signing his massive $275 million contract extension, Lawrence hasn’t won a game, he hasn’t thrown for more than 220 yards, he has one multi-touchdown performance and he has a passer rating of 78.9. It seemed illogical when he signed his extension that Lawrence would make the same as Joe Burrow and more than Lamar Jackson, Justin Herbert, Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen. After his performance on Sunday, it’s even more absurd.
Lawrence was called “generational” the year he was drafted and all he’s done since then is produce two seasons barely over 4,000 yards passing and one season with 25 or more touchdowns. Four games into the season (all four losses), it’s time to start considering maybe Mac Jones would give the Jags a better chance to win.
Chicago Bears fans should be thrilled with Caleb Williams’ progress
Williams had a forgettable first two weeks as an NFL QB, but he’s since shown marked improvement. Following his first 300-yard game, Williams followed that up with a strong performance in Sunday’s 24-18 win over the Los Angeles Rams, completing 73.9% of his passes for 157 yards and a touchdown.
Williams’ passer rating increased from 51.0 in Week 2, to 80.8 in Week 3 and 106.6 this week. He’s making fewer bad decisions, showing more mastery of Shane Waldron’s offense and more importantly, the Bears are winning games.
Jayden Daniels is out-C.J. Strouding C.J. Stroud
When Stroud was putting up video game numbers with the Houston Texans as a rookie last season, it was such a rarity. Well, four games into his career, Daniels looks even more impressive than Stroud did in his inaugural NFL campaign. In Sunday’s 42-14 romp of the Arizona Cardinals, Daniels had a staggering 86.7 completion percentage with 280 total yards and two total touchdowns.
Through four games, Daniels has completed an unprecedented 82.1% of his passes, he’s scored seven touchdowns, he’s turned the ball over once and the Commanders are 3-1 for the first time since 2011. Everyone was talking about Stroud’s rookie season for the ages last year, but Daniels could very well top him this year.
The Texans have yet to look like a Super Bowl contender
Yes, the Texans are 3-1, but all three of those wins have come against below-average teams in one-score games. With the amount of money Houston spent on its roster in the offseason — and with what it had to build off last year — this team should be dominating opponents like the Jaguars and Colts, not beating them by four points or fewer.
It doesn’t help that starting running back Joe Mixon has missed the last few games or that Stroud hasn’t been dominant like he was last year. With the improvements the Texans made (especially on defense), they should be running away victories and putting teams away much earlier than they have been.
