Six stories around the league on a Sunday that sorted the teams with a quarterback they trust from the teams still looking for one.
Start in Kansas City, where Patrick Mahomes went 14-for-14 on play-action passes for 201 yards and a touchdown against the Dolphins. Perfect is a small sample, but it isn't noise. Play-action only works when a defense has to honor the run, and Mahomes has spent his career turning that half-second of hesitation into free yards over the middle. This is the most repeatable version of the Chiefs' offense, and the version that beats you in January.
In Philadelphia, DeVonta Smith is positioning himself as the Eagles' WR1 with A.J. Brown out of the picture, and Monday night is his stage. The target share follows the role, and so does the coverage. I'll say it plainly: Smith finishes the season as a top-12 receiver, and the Eagles' passing game doesn't take the hit people assume it will. He's been building toward this since the day he was drafted into a crowded room.
Chicago has the opposite problem. Colston Loveland has been close to invisible this season, and the Bears' reward is a date with the Eagles' defense. Rookie tight ends usually arrive late. The position asks for blocking reads and option routes that take a full year to learn, and Loveland hasn't found either yet. Don't expect Monday to be the fix. His real season starts in December.
Joe Burrow and the Bengals couldn't close out the Steelers, and the special teams errors did the closing for them. Burrow will absorb the blame because that's the job description. It's misplaced. Cincinnati keeps losing in the margins, and the margins are coached, not thrown. Fix the third phase or waste another prime year of the best quarterback this franchise has ever had.
Jets coach Aaron Glenn isn't buying the criticism of his clock management, and says it's addressed in team meetings. It probably is. But nobody was arguing about whether the staff talks about the clock. They're arguing about whether the decisions hold up when it's actually running. Waving it off costs nothing today. It gets expensive the next time the Jets lose a one-score game with a timeout in his pocket.
Then there's the MVP conversation, which apparently needed a trainer's input. Bobby Stroupe, Mahomes' trainer, pumped the brakes on the MVP talk after Brock Purdy led the 49ers to a 3-0 start. A trainer inserting himself into an award race is a strange look, and Stroupe doesn't need to defend his client. Purdy's 3-0 is a team record, not an argument. If Mahomes keeps playing like he did Sunday, the debate ends on its own, and it won't be close.
My verdict: Mahomes is the MVP through four weeks, Purdy is the story of September and not the favorite, Smith is a top-12 receiver the rest of the way, Loveland stays quiet one more month, and the Bengals' season is being decided by coaches who never touch the ball. NerdDawg, calling it early.
