Plenty of good questions this week. Let’s get into all of it …
Philadelphia Eagles
From Don (@Dmcwesb): What is the non-football sport equivalent of the Philadelphia Eagles game plans with the fifth-best wide receiver tandem in the league? The best we could come up with is if the 2018 Golden State Warriors only shot 2-pointers for the whole season. It might work, but at what cost …
Don, at this point, I’m really not sure what you’re looking for.
The Eagles are 4–0, and have won 20 of their last 21 games. Their head coach has made the playoffs in all four of his seasons, gone to two Super Bowls with two sets of coordinators and has won a championship. If this is about your own entertainment, and you don’t like older-school football, then fine. But playing that way, they’ve beaten the three teams that won the five Super Bowls before last year, plus a solid Cowboys team.
But, if you want a non-football equivalent, I think you need to look for a different sort of analogy—one with a team that can beat opponents in so many different ways that, sometimes, they wind up leaving a proverbial Ferrari in the garage. Maybe, in this case, it would be the Celtics winning the NBA Finals two Junes ago with a good-not-great series from Jayson Tatum. To me, it was a sign of that team’s strength. As is the Eagles’ ability to defeat really good teams without A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith dunking on people.
Ohio State Buckeyes
From Kyle Schrader (@Kyle__Schrader): Does Ohio State win more games this year than the Browns and Bengals combined?
Kyle, this is my kind of question. If the Buckeyes win the national title again, that’d mean at least 14 wins, and maybe 15 or 16. Currently, the Bengals are 2–2, the Browns are 1–3 and their offenses have very real concerns for different reasons. Cleveland faces the Vikings and Steelers over the next two weeks, followed by a string of three games it could win. The Bengals’ schedule is also a mixed bag over the next month.
So right now, I might actually take the Buckeyes.
Tennessee Titans
From JH (@everydayliner): What’s going wrong in Tennessee? Roster is obviously not great but this feels deeper. Is the staff’s lack of experience (incl. in playcalling) an issue?
From Section240 (@Section_240): Why is Brian Callahan still employed by the Tennessee Titans, given his historically bad record?
There’s plenty to dig into in Tennessee, and I’m not sure firing the coach solves much other than exacting a pound of flesh for the fan base. The owner there, Amy Adams Strunk, has been scattershot with the bullets she’s fired the past few years, so it’s certainly possible she bows to public sentiment. However, I think that unless Callahan has completely lost the team, putting the people there through another firing would do more harm than good.
Now, if after the season, you decide Cam Ward and the rest of the young guys need a different path than the one Callahan and his staff put them on, that’s a different discussion.
As for what’s wrong, we can break that down pretty easily. In early December 2022, just 10 months after signing him to an extension, the Titans fired GM Jon Robinson. A little more than a month later, they gave coach Mike Vrabel sweeping personnel power while hiring Ran Carthon to replace Robinson. A year later, the Titans abruptly fired Vrabel, promoted assistant GM Chad Brinker to president of football operations, and hired Callahan. A year after that, this past January, they fired Carthon and hired Mike Borgonzi to replace him.
Robinson and Vrabel were signed through 2026, meaning the Titans are still paying those two (or would be, with Vrabel’s money offset by what he’s making in New England now), plus Carthon, meaning they have three GMs and two head coaches on the books, while having promoted their former assistant GM past the GM on the org chart in the midst of all of that. This puts the club in the same position as the Browns were at the end of the last decade.
So what does a team in that position gain from firing another coach in September? What, for that matter, would the quarterback you drafted No. 1 stand to lose or gain by doing that? I don’t know. I can just tell you how well-liked and respected Callahan is around the NFL. And I think unless things have gotten so bad that it’s going to affect the development of your young guys, I would at least give him the rest of the season.
Cincinnati Bengals
From Propane Takes (@PropaneTak35): Should the Bengals fire Zac Taylor and make Burrow the offensive play-caller?
From Jordan Cameron (@blxstbeat): Any rumblings on whether or not Zac Taylor’s seat is any hotter due to how the team has performed since Burrow’s injury?
Jordan, a lot of people were upset this week. I understand. Ja’Marr Chase evidently was, too.
However, this is another one where I think people need to take a step back and take a deep breath before any rash decisions are made. Zac Taylor inherited a hollowed-out ghost ship in 2019. The Bengals went to the Super Bowl in his third year. They made it back to the AFC title game in his fourth year. His fifth year, they went 9–8 despite Jake Browning stepping in for Joe Burrow for seven games. Last year, the defense cratered, the offense had stars in contentious contract situations and the team went 9–8 again.
With that in mind, I’ll ask the same question I did with Callahan: What exactly would firing Taylor at this point accomplish? I’m not saying there aren’t coaching issues that Cincinnati has to work through. There are. There’s some tough video of the team’s offensive line floating around out there. But if Taylor’s shown anything the past two years, it’s that he fields resilient teams that can work through periods. So give him a little time.
San Francisco 49ers
From Bryce Harrison (@BryceA423): Would the Bengals move Trey Hendrickson? Do the 49ers trade for an edge or stick with what they have?
Bryce, it’s a good and fair question, but I think things would have to get worse for Cincy to wave the white flag, especially given how thin the Bengals are with pass rushers. They have five games between now and the trade deadline. They host the Lions at home, then travel to Green Bay, followed by home games against the Steelers, Jets and Bears. I don’t think going 3–2 in October would be too much of a stretch, and that would put them at 5–4 going into their bye, with Burrow a little over a month away from coming back.
And I’ve said it before, I think any opportunity you have to go into the playoffs with Joe Burrow as your quarterback is gold. In fact, to pursue it, I would consider acquiring a quarterback (Kirk Cousins would be my pick, though I don’t know if Cincinnati would want to pay the freight for that).
That said, if the team is 2–7 at the deadline, then I think a guy like Hendrickson could, and logically should, be on the block. In that case, I could see the 49ers taking a swing, provided that their next month goes well (the schedule is pretty manageable).
Dallas Cowboys
From Theodorick of York, Medieval Barber (@Theodorick_York): Do the Cowboys make a change at defensive coordinator before the end of season?
Theo the Barber, it hasn’t looked good, that’s for sure. Despite all the talk of improving the run defense, the Cowboys still rank in the bottom half of the league, while also ranking at the very bottom, 32nd, in pass defense and total defense. I don’t think Matt Eberflus himself would say that’s acceptable.
But if we consider the circumstances, this is a unit that lost DeMarcus Lawrence in the offseason, then Micah Parsons in September, and had Trevon Diggs coming back from injury. James Houston, who signed with the team at the start of training camp, is the only player on the roster with more than a single sack. The hope is young rushers like Donovan Ezeiruaku, Sam Williams and Marshawn Kneeland will come along, but that hasn’t happened yet.
So, where the post-Parsons Cowboys are shouldn’t exactly be a shocker.
Washington Commanders
From C_jackson (@sacred_fandom): Commanders’ defense: Is it fixable? Is it the players or the scheme? What's the plan?
From a big-picture perspective, I think finding a high-end pass rusher or two is the final big piece of the Commanders’ build under Dan Quinn and Adam Peters. They’ve stocked the other premium spots—drafting Jayden Daniels at quarterback, trading for Laremy Tunsil and drafting Josh Conerly Jr. at tackle, re-signing Terry McLaurin and trading for Deebo Samuel at receiver, and trading for Marshon Lattimore and drafting Mike Sainristil and Trey Amos at corner. Comparatively, the defensive line has been patched together.
Some of that was resetting the roster. The Commanders traded Chase Young and Montez Sweat a few months before Quinn and Peters arrived, giving the new brass some of the capital they needed to build this way. They cut Jonathan Allen in March. So there’s a cost to all that that they’re paying now, which is, in part, strategic.
Bottom line, you can’t fix the number of holes that the Commanders had when the new guys arrived all at once. They’ve done a good job filling most of them, but the work that’s left to be done along the defensive front is showing up a bit.
New England Patriots
From The Notirious Patriot (@brien1277): Is Drake Maye a MVP contender, and how far are the Patriots away from Super Bowl contention?
I think we can tap the brakes on Drake Maye for MVP, while acknowledging that, through the first month, he’s probably been the best quarterback in his draft class—which is saying something. He’s top 10 in most statistical categories, but his success goes well beyond that.
There’s an analogy out there about having a quarterback who’s wildly talented but needs his tools harnessed that relates to how you’d break a wild bronco. The idea is that the horse can do a lot, just not if he’s all over the place. It applied to Josh Allen coming out. It applies to Maye, based on where he was his last year at North Carolina, as well.
The fact that so much of the good with Maye is coming from within the structure of the Patriots offense—especially since he doesn’t have the frame that Allen does to withstand all the hits the Bills quarterback has taken—is maybe the best sign. We detailed in The Week 4 takeaways how he was able to toggle between being aggressive and being patient against the Panthers on Sunday, and it’s a positive sign for his feel in a new offense.
As for New England being in Super Bowl contention, I think they’re still at least a really good offseason away from that, and probably two. But part of that is relative to just how quickly Maye can grow, and I think we all know how high his ceiling is.
Washington Commanders
From Nick Merriam (@nickwithsports): Are the Commanders a healthy Jayden & Terry away from being good, or are there deeper issues with this team?
Nick, they’ll be fine. They’re 2–2, and didn’t have Daniels the past two weeks.
New Orleans Saints
From darrell samels Jr (@JrSamels): Do the saints regret taking Shough at 40. What are plans for them going forward?
Darrell, I don’t think they regret taking a swing on Tyler Shough—it’s really hard to find a quarterback, and if you think a guy has any shot at being a long-term answer, gambling with an asset like that, even if it doesn’t work out, isn’t the worst thing in the world. I’d bet they’ll get a long look at him on the field by the end of the season, and the information they gather from that will be important in mapping out where they go at the position in 2026.
Cleveland Browns
From Jeff Gold (@JeffGold81): Redraft right now. Does Jaxson Dart go 1st overall? If not, where? (Assume Browns have the 2nd pick). Thanks.
I don’t think he’d go in front of Cam Ward. If you’re in the AFC, and will have to contend with Allen, Burrow, Lamar Jackson and Patrick Mahomes for the foreseeable future, you have to swing for the fences at quarterback. Ward’s the guy with the highest ceiling still, and as such he’s got the best chance to challenge his conference’s giants.
Now, would the Browns take Dart No. 2? I don’t think so. They saw 2025 as a chance to reset, and get a lot younger (after being drained of first-round picks for three years after trading for Deshaun Watson), and they took that chance in trading down, and stocking the roster with guys like Mason Graham, Carson Schwesinger, Quinshon Judkins, Harold Fannin Jr. and Dylan Sampson.
In that scenario, would New Orleans consider taking Dart No. 5, particularly with the knowledge that the 2026 draft class looks a little shaky at the position? Maybe. Or maybe the Saints, who did like Dart, would’ve taken him at nine. But I’m not sure the needle has been moved enough at this point to say definitively that Dart would go in the top 10.
New York Jets
From Rolltide! (@JetsRollTide): Is Aaron Glenn in over his head? I mean he hired a guy in Steve Wilks that nobody wanted as a DC. Will Wilks be around much longer? Something has to give with the defense.
Aaron Glenn will be fine, but the Steve Wilks question is fair. Remember, Glenn was in Detroit when, in Year 1 of that rebuild (2021), Dan Campbell moved swiftly to let an old friend, Anthony Lynn, go, and prepare Ben Johnson to be the team’s offensive coordinator. We all know how that worked out. And the Jets do have a well-regarded and young lieutenant on their defensive staff, in Chris Harris, who could be groomed like Johnson was for a much bigger role.
We’ll see. But, again, give Glenn time. There was a lot to clean up there.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Albert Breer’s Mailbag: The Most Telling Sign of the Eagles’ Strength.
