4 Down 14 To Go!

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I know it might be hard to believe, but we are already heading into week five of the NFL season. It seems just yesterday we were waiting for opening kickoff, now we are a quarter of the way through. So much has already happened and we are starting to get a clear picture of how each team is shaping up. While some things are going as projected others are not. Let me break all of it down for you. 

 

The reigning back-to-back Super Bowl champions Kansas City Chiefs are 4-0. You’re probably thinking boring everyone saw this coming. What if I told you that they aren’t playing well either? 

 

Patrick Mahomes is among the league leaders in interceptions, Travis Kelce hasn’t scored a touchdown all year and only has 15 catches and 158 through four games. Also, they have been hit hard by the injury bug. Isiah Pacheco is out for 6-8 with a fibula injury. With Taylor Swifts’ boyfriend not playing ‘All Too Well’ Rashee Rice has been picking up the slack in the receiving department but he tore his ACL in a week four win against the Los Angeles Chargers. Their record isn’t telling the full story they’re Isaiah Likely being a shoe size smaller and a couple of calls going the other way from being 1-3. 

 

If I told you that the Sam Darnold led Minnesota Vikings were also undefeated there’s no chance that you would have believed me. Well, I’m here to tell you it is true, the Vikings are 4-0. Kevin O’Connell has helped revive the career of Darnold and get this, he’s also leading the league in touchdown passes. Most people didn’t have high hopes for the Vikings heading into the season anyway. Especially after rookie J.J. McCarthy got hurt in the preseason and was ruled out for the whole season. Any hopes Vikings fans had went down the drain. I don’t blame them. After beating the Giants in week one they shocked the world by beating the 49ers and they went into Lambeau Field in week four and upset the Packers.

A Lot of talk was built around the Chicago Bears heading into the season and rightfully so. They made a ton of acquisitions in the off-season and surrounded first-overall pick Caleb Williams with tons of weapons including all-pro wide receiver Keenan Allen. The Bears have started off 2-2 and Willams has been solid, but nothing to write home about, but enough can’t be said about the second-overall pick Jayden Daniels and the Washington Commanders.  Washington is leading the NFC East at 3-1 and Daniels is a massive reason for that. Daniels had 3 touchdown performance (2 passing 1 rushing) upsetting the Cincinnati Bengals in week 3. 

 

Another team that was super hyped up was the Houston Texans. After trading for Stefon Diggs and Joe Mixon, adding to an offence with Nico Collins and Tank Dell. Everyone thought the Texans were headed for big things. Well, they were right C.J. Stroud is 4th in the league in passing yards and Nico Collins is leading the league in receiving yards. The Texans are 3-1 but have their biggest tests ahead of them as they are set to play the Bills, Lions and Cowboys in the next seven weeks. 

 

Looking at the league leaders there are definitely a few surprises, especially on the receiving end. The current top five leaders in receiving yards are Nico Collins, Chris Godwin, Malik Nabers, DK Metcalf and Juan Jennings. I don’t think anyone would have predicted any of these guys in August right? So how are the top receivers doing? Justin Jefferson is just outside the top five at number six and Ceedee Lamb is at ten. After a couple of rough games, Ja’Marr Chase continues to climb up the leaders at 12, but here’s where things get interesting. Tyreek Hill is 31st and is behind players like Ray-Ray McCloud III, Tutu Atwell and Alec Pierce. You can’t blame Tyreek completely because his quarterback (Tua Tagovailoa) was concussed in a week two game vs the Bills. However, the Dolphins were projected to have one of the most dynamic offences heading into the season, as of currently they sit at 1-3 and last in the AFC East. 

This off-season we had so many big name players changing teams, especially the running backs. So far, they all seem to be panning out. Derrick Henry is leading the league in rushing yards and has looked as advertised in his first four games in a Ravens uniform. Saquon Barkley left the Giants to go to the rival Philadelphia Eagles and has been everything they’ve hoped for. Making plays running and catching the ball, he’s currently third in rushing yards and all-purpose yards. Sixth in rushing is someone who may surprise you. It’s J.K. Dobbins. With the Chargers hiring Jim Harbaugh everyone thought they were going to run the ball more but not to this much success. Seventh and eighth are Josh Jacobs and Aaron Jones. The two running backs swapped teams and have looked great. Jones has been doing it on the ground and in the receiving game, while Jacobs provides the rushing and the great pass blocking for the Packers.

 

On the topic of big name free agents, I’d be remiss if I didn’t talk about the 180 million-dollar man Kirk Cousins. Going into his age 36 season and an achilles injury there were a ton of question marks about the Falcons offence. So far to start the season they are ninth in yards per game. Cousins has finally started to utilize the pass catchers in Drake London and Kyle Pitts, a week 2 upset win proved that with Cousins leading a game-winning drive.

This season has been so chaotic and the fun’s just getting started. If you’re wondering why I haven’t mentioned the Christan McCaffery situation yet, I’m going to discuss that more in my article recapping the fantasy football season this far. For this season though, we still have 14 weeks to go but we are getting a good look at how things could shape up in January.

 

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