Kyler Murray had the best throw of the week. Dak Prescott had some of the worst. Sam Darnold threw a pair of interceptions versus the 49ers, and Jayden Daniels took a sack at the end of overtime that ensured a tie against the Giants. Meanwhile, Jared Goff \u2014 of all people \u2014 is off to a historically prolific start for the Lions. Let\u2019s get into all of it. These aren\u2019t your typical QB rankings. I\u2019m focused on contextualizing the fluctuations of starters’ performances throughout the season. No one \u2014 not even Josh Allen \u2014 is safe at the top. No one \u2014 not even Malik Willis \u2014 is stuck at the bottom. There is room for quick ascent \u2014 and rapid decline. One question holds the most importance: What have you done for your team lately? Previous: Offseason | Preseason | Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5 Daniel Jones has looked overwhelmed \u2014 all season \u2014 by what the Colts have asked him to do. Their plan stunk from the beginning. I\u2019ve been on record saying this season was destined for implosion. Unfortunately, I\u2019ve been correct. On offense, it simply never made sense. It\u2019s one thing to return from his Achilles injury. It\u2019s another thing to face expectations that \u2014 somehow \u2014 this offense would regain its form from the beginning of 2025 (which was already fading at the time of his injury). But the biggest issue is that the Colts have struggled to keep receiver Alec Pierce on the field because of injuries \u2014 and they traded away receiver Michael Pittman, a trustworthy possession receiver. Without WR1 or WR2 from 2025, Jones has had to make the most of receiver Josh Downs, whose explosive plays aren\u2019t enough to carry a whole offense. That\u2019s not exactly a surprise. The surprise is that tight end Tyler Warren is averaging 7.1 yards per reception \u2014 struggling to find room to run after his 30 receptions, the eighth-most in the NFL. There\u2019s more that\u2019s underwhelming. Running back Jonathan Taylor is averaging 3.9 yards per carry \u2014 on pace for his worst season and well behind his previous worst at 4.4 in 2023 when he played only 10 games. That\u2019s in part because he\u2019s faced the fifth-most stacked boxes (21) in the NFL. Colts opponents are stacking those boxes because they\u2019re not afraid of Jones, especially when he doesn\u2019t have Pierce to throw to. The Colts’ offense is functioning at an even lower level than you\u2019d expect. In turn, so is Jones. In Week 5 against the Steelers \u2014 whose defense is good but beatable \u2014 Dimes couldn\u2019t find the end zone. He was 24 for 44 for 267 yards. His completion percentage (CPOE) was -3.8 and was especially bad when the Steelers did not blitz him (-8.5%). Defenses are daring him to pick them apart. He can\u2019t do it. Defenses are daring him to throw deep. He can\u2019t do it. Defenses are making Indy’s middling starting QB look like a backup, which is especially frustrating for this franchise when considering Jones’ cap hit in 2026 is just $19 million. Big changes are coming for the Colts, who don\u2019t even have their 2027 first-round pick to look forward to. (They traded it to the Jets.) I\u2019ve been tracking Sam Darnold\u2019s season, but for the most part, I thought he was about as bad (and good) as he\u2019d been last year. But that\u2019s not the case. He\u2019s worse. Much worse. Through four appearances (and, really, just three, because he left Week 1 after only a few plays), he has 755 passing yards, seven touchdowns and five interceptions. The turnovers are a red flag, but \u2026 at least he\u2019s posting production in yardage and scoring. Right? Well, the advanced stats tell a different story. Darnold has a -.19 expected points added per dropback, which is a tough fall from a much healthier .07 in 2025. The loss to the 49ers emphasized Darnold\u2019s struggles with inconsistency and turnovers. The team around Darnold also felt different. Last year, the Seahawks figured out how to win games like this past Sunday. They\u2019d do it\u00a0despite Darnold. During their postseason run, they hit the sweet spot where Darnold was playing the best football of his life \u2014 and it meshed perfectly with ascending superstars Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Kenneth Walker III and an elite group of defensive playmakers. Without Walker this year, the running game hasn\u2019t supported Darnold with shorter second and third downs. So Darnold is facing longer odds at conversions, and he\u2019s forcing it, leading to more mistakes and more turnovers. It\u2019s making me think that maybe Darnold is something of a Joe Flacco. Both QBs strung together a memorable playoff run when they caught fire and played at a level they\u2019d never reached before. But the work before and the work after? That\u2019s all fallen somewhere in a range of slightly below average and slightly above average. And for what it\u2019s worth, Darnold also shares Flacco\u2019s propensity for trusting his arm too much \u2014 and forcing the football into turnover-worthy plays and interceptions. Maybe Darnold finds his 2026 postseason form again \u2014 and this current lapse is a lingering issue from the Week 1 hip injury. But it\u2019s more likely that this is who Darnold is. The 3-2 Seahawks, whose next three games are against the Broncos, the Chiefs and the Bears, will have to figure out how to get back to working around their QB. Jayden Daniels’ performance in Week 5 was a reminder of how young he is as a pro football player. Maybe too young, if you ask me. Maybe immature on a few levels. But it\u2019s important to remember this was just his 30th appearance in the NFL, given all his injuries. He hasn\u2019t played two full seasons yet. That won\u2019t make the Commanders\u2019 final play make any more sense. But it does add context to their fiasco in overtime, where they let time expire after Daniels took a sack to let time run out. We know, per coach Dan Quinn, that the fateful play was designed for an outside throw (where the pass-catcher can get to the sideline and stop the clock) or a clock-stopping throwaway. Quinn took blame for even calling that play when they didn\u2019t need to gain any more yards. But his revelation \u2014 “outside throw or a clock” \u2014 is an indictment of Daniels\u2019 situational awareness. Because he ran to the left and took a sack near the line of scrimmage. Did he think he had a timeout and was he placing the ball on the left hash? I\u2019m not sure. But the quarterback was clearly confused about the situation. “We\u2019ve gotta stop the clock,” Daniels said. We know the situation. We\u2019ve gotta relay that as an offense. It starts with everyone \u2014 top down. Ultimately it\u2019s on me,” It\u2019s overtime. You need to know how many timeouts you have. Period. Most high school quarterbacks have more situational awareness than Daniels demonstrated. It\u2019s good that he concluded by saying it\u2019s on him. Because before that, he vaguely pointed his fingers at the coaching staff \u2014 perhaps for not reminding him that he didn’t have a timeout left. It reveals two points of immaturity: 1) Daniels needs reminding of timeouts (and general hand-holding) at the game\u2019s most crucial moments, and 2) Daniels isn\u2019t wise enough to simply take the public blame. His comments have, no doubt, accelerated coach Dan Quinn\u2019s departure. The ending sequence marred what was otherwise an impressive game from Daniels. He had 300 total yards (199 passing; 103 rushing) and two rushing touchdowns. He had the most scramble yards of his career, per Next Gen Stats. And Daniels hit 20.54 mph on his 38-yard TD run, the fastest play of his career. Kyler Murray had the best throw of the week, given the stakes and the risk and the \u2026 everything. The Vikings were trailing by a point in the third quarter when Murray stood in a clean pocket and fired the ball into the deep left corner of the end zone. There was Justin Jefferson, of course. It\u2019s basically always a sensible decision to throw to him. But standing all around JJ, there were three defenders. It was double coverage with a third Saint running over to help in any way possible. He couldn\u2019t. New Orleans was beyond help. Murray put the ball in a perfect spot \u2014 just beyond the defenders’ reach. And Jefferson elevated to snatch the ball. The margin for error is always small when throwing in an area with so many defenders. But it\u2019s even smaller when dealing with the sideline\u00a0and the back of the end zone. This was the throw that should worry folks around the NFL. So far this season, Murray has been the ultimate game manager. He demonstrated restraint in all the ways the Vikings hoped he would (and all the ways Murray seemed to feel he couldn\u2019t afford in Arizona, where he was constantly trying to do it all). Murray went 24 of 30 (80% completion rate and a +6.8 CPOE) for 229 yards and a touchdown. He also had 10 carries for 51 yards (+15 RYOE). In other words, he\u2019s quietly helping Kevin O\u2019Connell get the most out of this Vikings offense. It seems that, together, Kyler and O\u2019Connell are getting their groove back. There’s been plenty of drama around a Cowboys staffer telling Dak Prescott that the team\u2019s loss to the Buccaneers this past Thursday was “embarrassing.” That wasn\u2019t how I saw it. Sure, Prescott was no revelation \u2014 nor did he redeem his team for its terrible performance. But he was fairly steady in a game where his pass-catchers were struggling with separation \u2014 and having difficulty wrangling the contested catches that basically define this offense\u2019s success. The Cowboys had three drops against Tampa Bay, per PFF. Both of Prescott\u2019s interceptions went off the hands of a receiver \u2014 and on well-thrown balls. You\u2019ll hear people talk about how sacks are a quarterback stat. (Which is about 75 percent true.) And you\u2019ll hear people asking that some interceptions get scored against receivers. Well, these two picks were perfect examples of why. Dak finished with a 57% completion rate, but PFF scored him an adjusted completion rate at 67.5. That includes the drops and other on-target throws that should\u2019ve been completions. This doesn\u2019t totally excuse Prescott for struggling with ball placement. He should\u2019ve been sharper, leaving meat on the bone when throwing to George Pickens. Yes, believe it or not, Pickens\u2019 big day (nine catches, 130 yards and a TD) should\u2019ve been even bigger. Prescott’s M.O. is pinpoint accuracy, and he can\u2019t blame all the incompletions on his receivers. I just can\u2019t fault him too deeply for a night where his teammates and coaches were the ones making the biggest mistakes. Jared Goff is now at 12 passing touchdowns and zero turnovers for the first five games. He\u2019s the first QB in NFL history to do that. He\u2019s leading the NFL in passing yards and is tied for second in passing touchdowns. And his connection with Jameson Williams\u00a0finally clicked in this game \u2014 which I\u2019d been saying for weeks was a reason why this offense could actually get better. It did get better \u2014 with Williams and Goff making up for lost time and missed opportunities. They connected on two touchdown passes, including one from 39 yards out in the Lions’ shellacking of the Cardinals. The one point of context from the first five weeks: the Lions have faced the worst scoring defense (Cardinals), second-worst (Saints), fifth-worst (Bills) and seventh-worst (Panthers). The Jets are the best unit the Lions have faced, and to the latter’s credit, they put up 31 points against New York\u2019s stingy defense, which is allowing an average of 19.2 points per game (fifth-best). Amid this quietly historic run, Goff is making small improvements around his career-long difficulties with pressure. When facing pressure, he has an EPA per dropback of -.19. Without pressure, he has an EPA per dropback of .45. The former mark is still pretty bad. But this represents a better split than it has been from 2023 to 2025, when Goff saw the biggest drop-off in the NFL (falling from .43 without pressure to -.42 against it). It\u2019s also a heck of a lot better than Michael Penix,\u00a0who falls from .63 unpressured to -.82 pressured. Goff will spend his season contending with his defense \u2014 which is among the worst in the league. That\u2019s his most obvious problem. But the Lions also won’t go anywhere until their veteran QB figures out how to handle and neutralize pressure, both with pre-snap adjustments and with post-snap poise. That\u2019s the final frontier for Goff. Of course, it has been for quite some time. In an incredible road win over the Rams in overtime on Monday night, Josh Allen did what won him the MVP in 2024. He overcame his mistakes (and I actually thought his interception was downright smart as far as turnovers go). He overcame James Cook\u2019s mistakes. And he did it with his WR1, D.J. Moore, out with an injury. Allen wasn\u2019t even that good as a passer, but with his 121 yards rushing and two total touchdowns, he completely took control of the game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Kyler Murray had the best throw of the week. Dak Prescott had some of the worst. Sam Darnold threw a pair of interceptions versus the 49ers, and Jayden Daniels took a sack at the end of overtime that ensured a tie against the Giants. Meanwhile, Jared Goff \u2014 of all people \u2014 is off to<\/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\/34010"}],"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=34010"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34010\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}