Two weeks in, the NFL's undefeated list is short, the injured list is not, and the MVP market is doing what it always does in September: pricing reputation. Six things from around the league.
Klint Kubiak is handling the Raiders' 2-0 start exactly right. "I enjoy that our team's 2-0, but no one's made the playoffs going 2-0," he said, which is correct coach-speak and also just correct. The last Raiders team to open 3-0, in 2021, finished 10-7 and lost on wild-card weekend. September records are schedule artifacts more than statements. I'll buy Las Vegas when it beats somebody who is still playing for something in December.
Philadelphia's signing of Kenny Moore II is a coverage repair kit, not a starter at one spot. He's expected to play safety and nickel, and that flexibility is the point: the Eagles aren't patching one hole so much as buying a defender who lets them disguise which hole they have. Moore has made his living as a slot player, and slot defenders age better than boundary corners because the job is anticipation, not recovery speed. He'll be a sub-package fixture by October.
A.J. Terrell to injured reserve is Atlanta's most expensive problem this week. IR means a minimum of four games, and the timing is brutal. Three weeks into the season, the replacement market is other teams' practice squads and a handful of veterans who didn't get a call in August. Opponents will test the boundary early and often. The Falcons' defensive ceiling now rides on whether their pass rush can shorten coverage time, because the corner room just got thinner and there is no trade coming that fixes it cheaply.
Josh Allen leads the MVP race and Patrick Mahomes is climbing. Neither line teaches you anything about September football. Allen has lived near the top of this race for most of a decade, so the market is pricing memory. Mahomes climbing is the market catching up to a slow start it over-punished. If I'm taking one side, it's the climber. MVP ballots reward the last ten weeks; the odds reward the last two, and those two things are not the same bet.
Sean McVay saying he's unsure about Puka Nacua for Week 3 is itself information. Coaches who expect a player to go usually say so. Three days out, "unsure" means the practice report is the real story. If Nacua is limited Wednesday and Thursday, expect a reduced route load rather than a full Sunday, and adjust the Rams' passing volume accordingly.
Zac Taylor praising Dexter Lawrence is the oddest item of the day and the most instructive one. Taylor doesn't owe a defensive tackle a compliment in September. His comment is a window into what his staff values, and smart offensive coaches value interior disruption above almost everything, because it's the one thing a protection call can't fully erase. You can slide a center, you can chip an edge rusher, you cannot always answer a three-technique who wins before the quarterback finishes his drop. Watch how Taylor builds the next two offseasons. That sentence was a tell.
My verdict for the week: the 2-0 teams are the least interesting thing in the league right now, and the injured reserve list is the most. Atlanta loses more from Terrell than Las Vegas gains from a September record, and the team that handles the next six weeks best won't be the one with the cleanest standings on October 1.
