Rams Get Donald Back for Bills MNF; Chiefs and Vikings Stay 4-0; Broncos Hand Play Calls Back to Payton
Aaron Donald practiced in full Friday and plans to play Monday night against the Buffalo Bills. That's the loudest item on a day that also handed Denver's offense back to its head coach and left two undefeated clubs owing the league an explanation. Nobody needed a Friday practice report more than the Los Angeles Rams did.
Donald missed Week 4 with back soreness. Back injuries are the ones that lie to defensive tackles, because every snap starts with leverage and leverage starts in the lower back. A full Friday practice tells you more than the quote attached to it, and my read is he plays his normal share of snaps. Buffalo spent the week preparing for two different games; the smart version is testing Donald early with gap runs instead of asking the interior to hold up alone on third down. The risk is recurrence. If he's pulled mid-game, the Rams' run defense goes back to committee work, which is exactly the problem his return solves.
Kansas City and Minnesota are both 4-0, the first pair of non-playoff teams since 2013 to start a season that way. Only three clubs in the NFL are unbeaten after four weeks. Undefeated in October buys margin and tiebreakers and nothing else, which is real value and also the entire value. My read: both the Chiefs and the Vikings are playoff-caliber and neither is a Super Bowl favorite. I'd bet on at least one of them missing the field before I'd bet on both winning a game in January, and I'd take whichever one has been winning with the uglier box scores, because that's the version of 4-0 that travels.
Denver's play sheet is back in Sean Payton's hands. He handed play-calling to offensive coordinator Davis Webb this offseason and has now taken it back. Webb called it "not ideal" and said he plans to "be the best offensive coordinator I can be," which is the right thing to say and also the sound of a title that no longer matches the job. Former Broncos quarterback Ben DiNucci's read is that Payton is protecting Bo Nix. That's the whole story. A head coach doesn't reclaim the sheet to shield a coordinator. He does it because the quarterback is drowning or the calls around him are. Webb's future in Denver now runs through someone else's decisions, and if the offense sharpens, this becomes permanent. If it doesn't, Payton owns a change he can't quietly undo.
Matthew Stafford, the reigning NFL MVP, has thrown six interceptions in four games, and Chris Broussard has already asked whether age is catching him. Six is the number; the age theory is the lazy version of it. Four-game interception totals are noisy by nature, but a reigning MVP sitting on six of them usually means the Los Angeles Rams are asking their quarterback to do more than the game requires. I'd bet on the picks coming down before I'd bet on the arm falling off.
My verdict: Donald plays Monday and the Rams' defense looks like a different unit for it. Payton keeps calling plays in Denver past Thanksgiving. And one of the Chiefs or Vikings is not a playoff team when this is over, because a 4-0 start is a position, not a prediction. If I'm wrong, it's because I underrated what four straight wins does to a locker room that hasn't had any.
