By: Anthony Martinez, Sports Editor
Week four is wrapping up in the NFL season and, in a flash, they are a quarter of the way through the regular season. It wasn’t long ago when there was a lot of uncertainty of whether the NFL season would even take place and, suddenly, 25 percent of the season is over.
It’s been a unique season so far; with no OTA’s and no preseason, teams had very little action before starting the season which could’ve factored into some of the early results. One thing that blatantly stands out so far is the number of injuries that have occurred this season, especially season-ending injuries. Week two of the season was especially brutal with stars like Saquon Barkley and Nick Bosa both experiencing a torn ACL. Tarik Cohen also tore his ACL, Christian McCaffrey experienced an ankle injury, and Tyrod Taylor punctured his lung.
Pictured is Russel Wilson, leading MVP candidate and former Super Bowl-winner. He hasn’t won MVP yet, but is looking for his first this season. (Picture from sbnation.com)
Some teams have been hit harder than others, like the 49ers who lost, as mentioned earlier, Nick Bosa, along with Solomon Thomas, and even quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo. The Eagles have felt the injury-bug as well, as their entire starting offensive line in one way or another is dealing with an injury.
There have been some impressive teams in the early going and some early Super Bowl favorites. There are a still few undefeated teams, those being the Green Bay Packers, Seattle Seahawks, Buffalo Bills, Kansas City Chiefs, Tennessee Titans, and the Pittsburgh Steelers. Explosive offenses like the Packers and Seahawks are fighting for the top spot in the NFC while the Chiefs seem like the overwhelming AFC favorite, despite some strong competition.
There are some notable one-loss teams who are still threats, especially the Baltimore Ravens. Other teams the like the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Los Angeles Rams and Indianapolis Colts are all threats.
While the league has had some powerhouses so far this season, there have also been some bottom-feeders. Most notably the New York Giants and the New York Jets. New York is having a bad year of football. Jets have the second-worst scoring offense and the second-worst scoring defense. The Giants are surprisingly tied as the 14th best-scoring defense. It’s nothing to write home about but it’s solid, nonetheless. That could be however because other teams don’t need to score much against this team to win. They average 11 points a game, simply an inept offense. Without star running back Saquon Barkley, for the year, there is little hope for improvement with this team offensively unless second-year quarterback, Daniel Jones steps up.
Pictured are some of the Green Bay Packers key players from left to right Jamal Williams, Allen Lizard, and Aaron Rodgers. After going 13-3 last season, the Packers are looking to make it to the super bowl for the first time since 2011. (Picture from packerswire.usatoday.com)
There’s good teams, bad teams, and then there’s disappointing teams. Great quarterbacks like Matt Ryan for the Falcons and Deshaun Watson for the Texans are still without a win. The Texans’ defense is struggling, and the Falcons can’t hold a lead. Then there is the case of the Dallas Cowboys who have such an explosive offense, but the worst scoring defense in football. They allow a whopping 36 points a game and can’t win like that, period.
Team success aside, there have been numerous names currently in the MVP picture a quarter into the season. They’re all quarterbacks, but the current odds on favorite is definitely Russel Wilson. Four games into the season and Seattle is undefeated and Wilson has thrown a whopping 16 touchdowns to two interceptions and a QB rating of 136, which would be an NFL record.
Other candidates include former MVP and Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes who is once again showing he signed half a billion-dollar contract. Packers quarterback, Aaron Rodgers, looked like his old self when he won two MVPs. Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson, the reigning MVP, is also in the race, although his campaign took a slight hit with his performance against the Chiefs, throwing for under a hundred yards in the game.
Those were all expected, but, the one that is surprising some people based on their opinion of him before the season started, is Josh Allen, quarterback for the Buffalo Bills. He was drafted as a quarterback with a cannon for an arm and a lot of upsides, but he clearly needed work. His quarterback rating as a rookie was 67 then as a second-year player he improved to 85, a good jump but not ideal yet. This year is a different story, he looks like he’s been doing this for years and has a rating of 122 and has thrown 12 touchdowns in four games. Everything has clicked this year and the Bills are rolling.
In the yellow circle are the first two picks of the previous draft, Joe Burrow (left) and Chase Young (right). Surrounding them are some of the bigger stars in the league, Dak Prescott (top left), Richard Sherman (bottom left), Patrick Mahomes (top right), and Lamar Jackson (bottom right). (Picture from ESPN.com)
This year’s rookie class is making an impact early into the season. With all the injuries and some players deciding to opt off of the season entirely, more rookies are having a chance to play early. Players like Chase Young and Mekhi Becton look like they’ve been doing this for years already, dominating with their physical prowess. Some of the young receivers look the part of future stars, like Ceedee Lamb, Justin Jefferson, and Jerry Jeudy. The Chiefs seem to have found another offensive weapon in Clyde Edwards-Helaire, the running back out of LSU.
First overall pick, Joe Burrow has had an interesting start to his career. The touchdown to interception ratio is solid and he’s throwing for a lot of yards. Some of the issues reside in the fact that, because of the Bengals offensive-line, Burrow has already been sacked 15 times and been hit even more than that. Also, some of his yardage output is due to a huge amount of pass attempts as he is only averaging 6.3 yards per attempt. Still, his future looks bright.
For the other rookie quarterbacks, none of them were expected to get much early playing time. However, due to a punctured lung of Los Angeles Chargers quarterback Tyrod Taylor, the rookie out of Oregon, Justin Herbert, was able to get a couple of starts as a result. Herbert has made the best of his opportunities, having a QB rating of 102, 13 points higher than Burrow. Some of his throws have been outstanding, he gets so much air under the ball and not in a bad way, enough for his receivers to run under the ball. He arguably has more upside than Burrow.
As fast as the first quarter of the season has felt so far, the league still has three-quarters of the season left. There is much room for change but so far this is what the league looks like and it makes sense to expect some of the same of the mentioned teams and players.
