Is Jayden Daniels in danger of following the fate of a cautionary quarterback tale? Is Dak Prescott on his way to winning his first NFL MVP Award? And speaking of QBs, is second-year Saint Tyler Shough already one of the NFL’s best at the position? NFL fans brought the heat with their takes to our @NFLonFOX Instagram after Week 2. I selected a handful of them to decide whether they’re on target or miss the mark. Let\u2019s dive in: Fact or Fiction: Fiction I\u00a0hate that we\u2019re going down this road, but the comparisons between Daniels and former Commanders quarterback Robert Griffin III are inevitable at this point. After missing 10 games last season, Daniels is facing another extended absence after dislocating his left elbow for the second time in 10 months in Washington’s loss to the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday. To this point, a variety of injuries have prevented him from truly building off his historic 2024 rookie season. It’s all frighteningly similar to the trajectory of RGIII. Like Daniels, Griffin was a No. 2 overall pick by Washington and a dual-threat quarterback who won Offensive Rookie of the Year. Unfortunately, RGIII never built off his early success, in large part due to injuries. In Daniels’ case, injuries have slowed him ever more: Entering Week 3 of Year 3, Griffin had appeared in more games (30 regular-season appearances) than Daniels has (26). The only solace I can offer Commanders fans is this: Daniels\u2019 story is still unfolding. This is how his career has started, but that doesn\u2019t mean it will be how it ends. We don\u2019t know how long he\u2019ll be out with this latest elbow dislocation. We don\u2019t know if he can stay healthy in his ensuing years. Through two weeks of Daniels\u2019 third NFL season, we can\u2019t define his career \u2014 even if we\u2019re in the territory of catastrophizing. So I won\u2019t compare Daniels to RGIII. Not yet. I will say, though, that this is setting up a fascinating offseason for the Commanders. As I outlined in my Best and Worst piece earlier this week, Daniels is extension eligible in 2027. How do the sides approach contract negotiations? Because of the injuries, will Washington and Daniels\u2019 camp kick that can down the road? How do the Commanders approach getting insurance at the quarterback position? In Washington, there\u2019s plenty in limbo. But let\u2019s not paint a broad brush on Daniels\u2019 story right now. Fact or Fiction: Fiction I can\u2019t blame you for thinking that way. Prescott torched the Commanders\u2019 defense in Week 2, completing 83.9% of his passes for 279 yards and four touchdowns with no interceptions. His 143.8 passer rating was the fourth-highest mark of his career and his best since Week 18 of 2022. Entering this season, monster numbers for Prescott felt inevitable, given that he was entering Year 2 with arguably the league\u2019s best wide receiver tandem in CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens. Prescott started poorly in Week 1 against the Giants, but he bounced back big against the Commanders and confirmed our expectations of what he\u2019s capable of this season. Still, I don\u2019t see him winning the league MVP \u2014 and it has nothing to do with Prescott. Saying he’ll win MVP is not just saying that he\u2019ll put up MVP-caliber numbers. It\u2019s also saying that the Cowboys will finish as a top-two seed in the NFC. For context, 12 of the past 13 MVPs (all quarterbacks) led teams that finished the regular season in first or second place in their conference. The outlier in that group is 2025 MVP Matthew Stafford, whose Rams played in a division with two other teams that also won 12-plus games (Seattle Seahawks, San Francisco 49ers). And I don\u2019t see the Cowboys being that good, even though I think they’ll make the playoffs this season. Dallas has legitimate issues running the football (just 135 rushing yards through two games), and its defense is too much of a wild card right now under first-year coordinator Christian Parker. Fact or Fiction: Fact Talk like this is warranted! For one, Brian Flores is the best coordinator in football right now. His blitz-heavy scheme held a Bears offense that had scored 59 points in Week 1 to three points (!) in Week 2. That’s the second-largest drop-off by any team from Week 1 to Week 2 in NFL history, according to Next Gen Stats. Caleb Williams\u2019 injury midway through the fourth quarter doesn\u2019t take away what Flores did to Chicago through the first three-and-a-half quarters, frustrating one of the NFL\u2019s most potent offenses. And this was just a week after Flores wreaked similar havoc on the Packers\u2019 talented offense. Quarterback Jordan Love was pressured on a career-high 50.0% of his dropbacks, per NGS. Don\u2019t be surprised to look up at the end of the year and see that Minnesota has a top-five defense. These 2-0 Vikings become truly scary if Kyler Murray, returning from concussion protocol this week, can be just a competent quarterback for coach Kevin O\u2019Connell. Minnesota already has impressive talent at the offensive skill positions \u2014 led by superstar wide receiver Justin Jefferson \u2014 and on the offensive line. Last season, the Vikings went 9-8 with essentially the same supporting cast despite below-average quarterback play from J.J. McCarthy, Carson Wentz and Max Brosmer. Minnesota doesn\u2019t need Murray to be what Wentz was in relief in the season opener against Green Bay (12-of-19 for 133 yards, three touchdowns, a two-point conversion, 123.5 passer rating). But\u00a0if Murray recaptures the Pro Bowl form from his early Arizona Cardinals days, all of sudden the Vikings will belong in the conversation with the top NFC contenders. Fact or Fiction: Fiction I\u2019m a\u00a0massive Tyler Shough fan. He\u2019s leading the league in completions (62), first downs passing (30) and passing yards (662) through two weeks. He has the Saints looking like a contender to take the NFC South \u2014 they’re coming off an upset victory at Baltimore, where they scored 15 unanswered points to win. Given Giants QB Jaxson Dart\u2019s knee injury and Titans QB Cam Ward\u2019s uneven play, Shough is the one passer from the 2025 draft class positioned to be a true franchise quarterback right now. He\u2019s a star in the making. With that said, he has a long way to go to becoming a truly elite quarterback. Elite quarterbacks can consistently put together great performances for full games. Shough still needs to show that he can play at a high level for one full game. Through two weeks this season, he\u2019s been lights out in the fourth quarter and overtime \u2014 a 78.4% completion rate for 350 yards and four total touchdowns with no turnovers. But Shough has left much to be desired during the first three quarters \u2014 a 62.3% completion rate for 312 yards with no touchdowns and three giveaways, including two interceptions. Even if you want to look at Shough’s rookie year, the three games in which he had a 100-plus passer rating came against the Tennessee Titans and the Carolina Panthers (twice), both of whom were below .500 teams last season. We haven\u2019t seen Shough play at a high level for four quarters against a great team yet. I think he’ll get there. Remember, he\u2019s started just 11 NFL games so far. The late-game prowess tells you what he\u2019s capable of. But he\u2019s not elite right now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Is Jayden Daniels in danger of following the fate of a cautionary quarterback tale? Is Dak Prescott on his way to winning his first NFL MVP Award? And speaking of QBs, is second-year Saint Tyler Shough already one of the NFL’s best at the position? NFL fans brought the heat with their takes to our<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33743"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33743"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33743\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}