Every week in the NFL season brings a host of new questions … and answers some old ones, too. Let’s run down what we learned in Week 5 … and what we’ll be wondering about in Week 6 and beyond.
Week 5’s Sunday slate was a cascade of unpredictability, a game where losers became winners, defenses scored touchdowns, fields got flipped and expectations subverted. Everywhere, that is, except for Cleveland … where everything is crushingly, depressingly on brand. The Browns were humbled by Washington, 34-13, and the utter inability of Deshaun Watson to do anything against one of the league’s worst defenses was a key reason why.
Watson is playing on a five-year, $230 million, fully guaranteed contract, a deal that’s looking more and more like one of the worst in sports history. (For the Browns, that is. Congrats to Watson and his agent for pulling off one of the greatest deals in sports history.) Here’s why the contract everyone knew would be a catastrophe is, in fact, a catastrophe.
Generally, contracts we think of as “terrible” — Washington’s seven-year, $100 million deal for Albert Haynesworth, the New York Knicks’ six-year, $100 million deal for Allan Houston, pretty much any contract the Los Angeles Angels offer anyone — are “terrible” because of one key factor or another. To wit: the player gets injured and can’t get on the field, the player gets on the field but underperforms, or the player brings off-field trouble into the mix.
The Watson contract hits the ultra-rare trifecta — Watson hasn’t been fully healthy; when he is healthy, he isn’t any good; and off-field allegations continue to swirl around him. That’s a franchise-wrecking combination, and Cleveland is stuck with him for the foreseeable future. Oh, and Baker Mayfield, the guy they kicked to the curb for Watson, is tearing it up in Tampa, too.
So if the Watson deal isn’t the worst contract ever, it’ll do until the real thing comes along. And Cleveland will probably be the team to offer it.
One of the true pleasures of the NFL’s early season is the way that preconceived notions and sweeping judgments just blow away in the wind, takes like “the NFC North is Detroit’s in a walk.” All of a sudden, the division looks, top to bottom, like the best in football. We’ll discuss Chicago in a minute, and Detroit had a bye week, but check out how well Minnesota — the first team to 5-0, one of two undefeated teams pending Monday Night Football — and Green Bay played in Week 5, maximizing opportunities and avoiding the traps that devoured so many other teams. (‘Sup, San Fran and Seattle.) The NFC North could put three teams in the playoffs, and we’re still not sure which three, which is pretty damn impressive.
We stand by this judgment right up until Week 6’s kickoff, at which point it becomes null and void.
ASKED: Is San Francisco OK?
Certain teams get the benefit of the doubt based on past successes, and certain teams don’t get any credit based on past failures. The San Francisco 49ers meet the first criterion, the Arizona Cardinals the second. So when Arizona stepped up and busted San Francisco in the mouth for an upset victory Sunday, it wasn’t just a reversal of expectations, it was a crack in the foundations of the NFC West. The 49ers are now 2-3 on the year. Yes, missing Christian McCaffrey severely hampers the team, but as the old injury cliché goes, McCaffrey doesn’t play defense. Injuries up and down the roster have wounded the team’s chances, but every team faces injury woes. The Niners weren’t able to close out Arizona with a 10-point fourth-quarter lead, and that’s a bigger concern. San Francisco should be fine, but the Niners can’t afford many more weeks like this one.
ANSWERED: The Ravens are just fine
When Baltimore started the season 0-2, the cries of “what the —?” echoing from the Inner Harbor were audible nationwide. But Baltimore quickly evened up its record with crucial and statement wins over Buffalo and Dallas, and came into Sunday’s divisional matchup against Cincinnati on solid ground. They left the instant-classic throwdown not just on solid ground, but on a pedestal. Lamar Jackson’s four-touchdown performance, including one of the most spectacular touchdown scrambles you’ll see this year, was good enough to (barely) outrun a five-touchdown performance from Joe Burrow. Baltimore has an air of relentless inevitability about it now, and that’s exactly what Ravens fans want to see from this team — a sense that whenever Jackson can’t scramble around a problem, Derrick Henry can stomp right over it. That 0-2 start is a distant memory now.
ASKED: Is Buffalo’s window closing faster than we expected?
The Bills fattened up early on this season with three opening wins against Arizona, Miami and Jacksonville — wins that, as it turned out, were mostly empty calories. Losses to clearly superior or clearly more opportunistic teams — Baltimore and Houston — have obliterated the last wisps of danger surrounding this team. The Bills’ maddening late-game playcalling — three straight passes from their own 3, leading directly to Houston’s game-winning field goal — lurks in the background of every close game, meaning it’s impossible to have any confidence in the Bills in tense situations. The AFC is a crabs-in-a-barrel conference right now, but Baltimore, Kansas City and Houston — at least — all seem more sound right now than Buffalo. It’s a long way to January, but it’s longer right now for Buffalo than the teams they can expect to face come playoff time in January.
ANSWERED: Breathe easy, Bears fans
Any time you have the No. 1 draft pick, you’re under a microscope the next season, fairly or not, and so far this year, the Chicago Bears and top QB Caleb Williams have wriggled uncomfortably under that microscope. Now, we hesitate to give much credit to any victory involving the Carolina Panthers, but still — Chicago looked pretty damn good in its 36-10 victory Sunday afternoon. After going down a touchdown early, the Bears reeled off 30 straight points. Williams threw for 304 yards and two touchdowns, and generally looked comfortable in the offense, and very comfortable throwing to DJ Moore. The Williams-or-Jayden Daniels question will remain for years to come, but as long as Williams delivers reliable performances, it’ll be a what-if, not a what-could-have-been. Plus, if nothing else, playing Carolina is a good way to remind yourself … things could always be worse.
