There are all kinds of reasons that NFL players are underrated and unsung.
Perhaps they’re in systems that don’t best show their skills. Maybe they’re buried on a depth chart. Or, they’re in somebody’s doghouse, and their coaches can’t see their potential. Or, their efforts are relatively unnoticed among their more celebrated teammates. Sometimes, young players haven’t quite put it all together, but there are enough flashes to make you sit up and take notice, and when it does work, it’s all good.
Week 7 of the 2022 regular season featured players at just about every position who showed up and showed out despite their underrated statuses, and here at Touchdown Wire, it’s our job to point them out.
P.J. Walker, Josh Jacobs, D’Onta Foreman, Marquise Goodwin, Tyler Boyd, Thayer Munford, Aaron Banks, Matt Judon, Dre’Mont Jones, De’Vondre Campbell, Jevon Holland, and Ryan Neal are our Secret Superstars for Week 7.
Here’s why each of them made the cut.
P.J. Walker, QB, Carolina Panthers
Since October 10, the Carolina Panthers have fired head coach Matt Rhule, and traded receiver Robby Anderson (to the Cardinals) and running back Christian McCaffrey (to the 49ers). Interim head coach Steve Wilks and the rest of the guys up top have insisted that there’s no fire sale, but when the Panthers welcomed the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to Bank of America Stadium, it looked for all the world like a much-needed get-well game for Tom Brady’s team.
As they say, that’s why they play the games. Carolina rolled over the Bucs, 21-3, and former XFL MVP P.J. Walker really stood out at quarterback. Walker completed 16 of 22 passes for 177 yards, two touchdowns, and no interceptions against Tampa Bay’s beleaguered defense, and he also tied for the NFL lead in Week 7 with three completions of 20 or more air yards. Joe Burrow of the Bengals was the other quarterback with three explosive completions, and he’s not exactly a secret.
On this 29-yard fourth-quarter touchdown to tight end Tommy Tremble, Walker did a great job of waiting for his target to get open deep against the Bucs’ Cover-3, and even when cornerback Zyon McCollum caught up to Tremble, it was Walker’s pinpoint throw that made the difference.
Wilks has already said that Walker will start Week 8 against the Falcons, and given how Walker recovered from a bad Week 6 start against the Rams, not to mention the team’s completely undefined quarterback prospects right now, why not?
“Just that I can be trusted with the football in my hand,” Walker said of what he was trying to prove in this game. “Make the right decisions at the right time. You know, even late in the game, we had an opportunity to throw the ball and I made the right decision. For me, it is to just go out there and execute what we call, whether it is bubble screens or down the field.”
Josh Jacobs, RB, Las Vegas Raiders
Before the 2022 season started, the Raiders’ new regime, led by general manager Dave Ziegler and head coach Josh McDaniels, refused to exercise the fifth-year options on any of the three players selected by the former regime (head coach Jon Gruden and general manager Mike Mayock) in the 2019 draft. Clelin Ferrell, safety Johnathan Abram, and running back Josh Jacobs were all left hanging.
Completely understandable in the cases of Ferrell and Abram, as neither player has lived up to his draft status. But even in the disaster of a 2021 season that the Raiders had, Jacobs showed up and stood out.
Now, if the Raiders want to retain Jacobs, it’ll most likely cost them more than it would have. Jacobs currently ranks third in the NFL with 632 rushing yards, only Cleveland’s Nick Chubb (eight) has more rushing touchdowns than Jacobs’ six, only Chubb, Saquon Barkley, and Derrick Henry have more yards after contact than Jacobs’ 442. Only Chubb and Houston rookie Dameon Pierce have forced more missed tackles than Jacobs’ 36, and only Chubb (24) has more runs of 10 or more yards than Jacobs’ 19.
Jacobs really went off in the Raiders’ 38-20 Sunday win over the Houston Texans — he carried the ball 20 times for 143 yards and three touchdowns.
On this 13-yard run with 3:19 left in the second quarter, Jacobs shoots right through Houston’s defense, up to the third level, and it was only a last-gasp tackle from safety Jonathan Owens that prevented Jacobs from a possible 55-yard house call.
Jacobs can also bounce outside with acceleration and speed, as he showed on this 12-yard run with 10:59 left in the third quarter.
Jacobs’ future is unknown, but he’s had a very impressive contract year to date. He became the first Raiders back to run for more than 140 yards in three consecutive games, and he broke Marcus Allen’s record for most rushing yards in a player’s first 50 career games. Allen was in attendance for Jacobs’ big game Sunday, which meant a lot.
“It’s been huge to see him, especially him being who he is and being a great running back in this game,” Jacobs said of Allen. “To be able to take the time and mentor me and talk to me about the things that he sees, I don’t take that for granted. It’s been huge to be able to have him here and have him be happy for me beating his record.”
D’Onta Foreman, RB, Carolina Panthers
Speaking of the Panthers whomping up on Tampa Bay’s defense, there’s the matter of D’Onta Foreman, the former Texans and Titans backup who showed some things in relief of the injured Derrick Henry last season, and signed a one-year, $2 million contract with the Panthers this offseason. As just $940,000 of that was guaranteed, it’s clear that the Panthers weren’t expecting Foreman to become the next Christian McCaffrey. But that’s about what Foreman looked like against the Bucs after McCaffrey was traded. Both Foreman and Chuba Hubbard lit up that formerly impressive run defense, but Foreman was the lead dog, gaining 118 yards on just 15 carries. 71 of Foreman’s yards came after contact, and he had two explosive runs (and one explosive 23-yard reception) in this unexpected Panthers win.
Foreman shows everything you want on this 60-yard run — patience for his holes to open up, power through tackle attempts (such as they were), contact balance, and second-level acceleration to add to his biggest play of the day.
And the 23-yard screen shows how Foreman alternates between patience and acceleration when the need arises.
Marquise Goodwin, WR, Seattle Seahawks
We all know that the career comeback engineered by Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith is one of the NFL’s most unexpected stories this season. And he’s not the only one in this formerly dormant offense who has risen up in 2022. Receiver Marquise Goodwin, selected in the third round of the 2013 draft by the Buffalo Bills, is on his fifth NFL team after Seattle signed him to a one-year, $1,272,500 contract.
Goodwin hadn’t done too much for Seattle this season — the Seahawks are heavy into 12 personnel, and when you have recievers D.K. Metcalf and Tyler Lockett on the field, that’s usually where Smith is going to go with the ball. But one thing that softened the blow of Metcalf’s knee injury against the Chargers (Pete Carroll has said that he’s not sure how long Metcalf will be out) was Goodwin’s four catches on five targets for 67 yards and two touchdowns in a 37-23 win.
Unfortunately, this touchdown catch also represented the end of cornerback J.C. Jackson’s season with a ruptured patellar tendon, but Goodwin did a nice job of working the fade all the way through, with some nice footwork at the start of the route, and a high-point catch to finish it off.
“Since we have known Marquise in our program here, I’m amazed that he hasn’t been really productive, because he really has a natural feel,” Carroll said on Monday. “He has really good hands, has great timing, and he has phenomenal speed. He’s still really fast. I would just think that he should have been available for a lot more production and a lot more yards in his career. He has been banged up at times and has been in and out some, but he has a lot of gifts. With D.K. slowed down a bit, his opportunities will go up and we won’t hesitate to do all of the stuff with him. He has command of all of the offense.”
Tyler Boyd, WR, Cincinnati Bengals
The Bengals got their passing game going in the right direction on Sunday after a disturbingly slow start to the season. In Cincinnati’s 35-17 win over the Atlanta Falcons, Joe Burrow completed 34 of 42 passes for 481 yards, three touchdowns, no interceptions, and a quarterback rating of 138.2. Ja’Marr Chase caught eight of Burrow’s passes on 11 targets for 130 yards and two touchdowns, which is to be expected.
But slot man Tyler Boyd, who has mostly labored under the radar over the last few seasons behind Chase and Tee Higgins, really broke out in this one. Boyd caught eight passes on nine targets for 155 yards and a touchdown, and two of his catches on two targets were on throws of 20 or more air yards, tying Houston’s Philip Dorsett, Kansas City’s Marquez Valdes-Scantling, and the aforementioned Marquise Goodwin for the Week 7 lead among all receivers.
And the body control on this 24-yard catch from the right outside slot with 6:44 left in the third quarter… I mean, Falcons cornerback Isaiah Oliver covered this about as well as he could, and Boyd went straight to the Matrix.
Thayer Munford, RT, Las Vegas Raiders
As his three-touchdown game against the Texans on Sunday wrapped up, Raiders running back and Week 7 Secret Superstar Josh Jacobs knew with whom to share the credit.
"I do owe y'all dinner." @iAM_JoshJacobs showing love to his guys up front 👏@NFLFilms @Raiders #Raiders #RaiderNation pic.twitter.com/CHzkXn99Z7
— Inside the NFL (@insidetheNFL) October 25, 2022
Always a smart move to give your offensive line some love, and there’s a lot to be said about the improvements in the Raiders’ offensive line under coach Carmen Bricillo, who Josh McDaniels brought with him from New England. That line, predictably a mess under former line coach Tom Cable, is now a potential force at multiple positions.
If you want a real insight into how well an offensive line coach coaches, take a look at how a low-drafted rookie can develop. Thayer Munford, selected with the 239th overall pick in the seventh round of the 2022 draft, was especially high-level in the Texans game. He didn’t allow a single pressure of any kind on 21 pass-blocking reps, and there were multiple examples of his ability to help blast things open for Jacobs in his 22 run-blocking snaps.
Munford (No. 77) had a couple of plays in which he flipped up to the third level, creating business decisions for defensive backs. Here, on this 13-yard Jacobs run in the fourth quarter, it’s cornerback Steven Nelson who decides that it’s time for the “Ole” move…
…and here, on this 13-yard Jacobs run in the second quarter, Munford stayed at the line, and just buried defensive tackle Thomas Booker (No. 56).
“We want to be a tough, physical team,” McDaniels said after the win. “There’s no shortcut to that. You have to do the hard things, you got to practice in pads, you got to do the drill work that’s required of you to improve in those areas. You got to double team each other, you’ve got to work hard at it. You can’t just say we’re going to be a tough team and then all of a sudden that happens. That’s all about work and you earn that. You earned the right to be a tough team with what you do during the week. And I think our guys have not flinched at all from the time we started training camp and really started talking about that identity and see if we can develop that on our team. I think we do have a lot of tough guys and when you take a lot of tough guys that work hard and want that to be their own identity, then they have a chance to create it.”
Now, Munford is helping his team attain those goals.
Aaron Banks, LG, San Francisco 49ers
The 49ers have been challenged this season by multiple injuries on defense and by Jimmy Garoppolo’s inevitable ceiling, which means that Kyle Shanahan’s run game had better work from week to week if Shanahan’s team is going to get anything significant done this season. The trade last week for Christian McCaffrey showed how much Shanahan is all-in on that run game, and the multitude of picks given showed how far the 49ers are willing to go to maintain that standard.
McCaffrey looked great in his debut against the Chiefs — sadly for Shanahan, it was a 44-23 loss, but when you watched how the run game went, it was impossible to ignore the efforts of Aaron Banks, the 49ers’ left guard. The 2021 second-round pick out of Notre Dame hasn’t allowed a quarterback sack or quarterback hit this season (eight quarterback hurries) in 255-pass-blocking reps, and in the run game, he’s been outstanding.
On this 12-yard McCaffrey run with 14:26 left in the third quarter, watch how Banks (No. 65) takes mammoth defensive tackle Derrick Nnadi out at the first level, and then deals with linebacker Nick Bolton at the second level.
Banks was able to push Nnadi around on multiple plays, and when it’s time to haul it up to the linebackers and safeties, he’s just fine doing that. The 49ers have some things to figure out, but the left guard position isn’t one of them.
Matt Judon, EDGE, New England Patriots
Judon isn’t a secret, per se — he was a key part of the Baltimore Ravens’ pass rush as a multi-gap guy for years, and in his first season with the New England Patriots in 2021, he amassed 14 sacks, 13 quarterback hits, 37 quarterback hurries, and 35 stops. At this point in his career, Judon makes this list because if we’re not talking about him as one of the NFL’s best edge defenders, we are not doing it right.
The Patriots had all kinds of issues in their 33-14 loss to the Chicago Bears on Monday night (obviously), but Judon was a terror, as he has been all season.
Total pressures among edge-rushers through seven weeks, per @PFF:
Micah Parsons, 36
Nick Bosa, 33
Myles Garrett, 33
Matt Judon, 31 pic.twitter.com/YmutqCUUn4— Doug Farrar ✍ (@NFL_DougFarrar) October 25, 2022
Judon now leads the NFL with nine sacks, and he’s added eight quarterback hits, 15 quarterback hurries, and 17 stops to his palette this season. He’s as good as there is in the league at his position, and it’s time to take notice.
Dre’Mont Jones, DL, Denver Broncos
The Denver Broncos are in absolute freefall on offense this season — this we all know. But they also have the third-best defense in the NFL, per Football Outsiders, and there are stars both heralded and unheralded throughout that unit. In Denver’s 16-9 loss to the New York Jets last Sunday, Dre’Mont Jones was one of them. The fourth-year man from Ohio State played all over the place against the Jets’ offensive line — at least 13% of the time at left end, left defensive tackle, right defensive tackle, and right end — and he was impressive at every stop. Jones had two sacks and four quarterback hurries in this game, and this sack of Zach Wilson really stood out, because Jones basically crated the sack with coverage, and then went and got it with great effort.
With 54 seconds left in the first quarter, Jones (No. 93) originally rushed Wilson, but then dropped into flat coverage to take away tight end C.J. Uzomah, who was Wilson’s hot read to his front side. With linebacker Jonas Griffith blitzing off that same side and forcing Wilson out of the pocket, it was up to Jones to catch up to the young quarterback, which he did with authority.
First-year defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero is dialing up some stuff, and with five sacks and 27 total pressures already this season, Jones is enjoying all the possible benefits.
De’Vondre Campbell, LB, Green Bay Packers
It could be argued that without the one-year, $2 million contract given to former Atlanta Falcons and Arizona Cardinals linebacker De’Vondre Campbell, the Green Bay Packers’ 2021 defense would not have been nearly as good as it was. It’s not as great in 2022 as it needs to be to overcome Green Bay’s offensive issues, but Campbell — now signed to a five-year, $50 million contract with $15 million guaranteed — is still getting things done at the same level.
The Packers fell to 3-4 on the season after their 23-21 loss to the Washington Commanders on Sunday, but Campbell had his best game of the season, with eight tackles, three quarterback pressures, and this 63-yard pick-six of a Taylor Heinicke pass with 13:29 left in the first half. The Packers were in Cover-3, and Campbell did a nice job of passing inside slot receiver Cam Sims to slot cornerback Rasul Douglas, and jumping the throw intended for outside slot target J.D. McKissic.
This is the kind of field awareness and productivity you can expect from Campbell more often than not. Perhaps the Packers should give him a few reps at tight end…
Jevon Holland, S, Miami Dolphins
The Miami Dolphins got Tua Tagovailoa back for their Sunday night game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, who gave Tagovailoa all kinds of gifts with at least three dropped interceptions. Sadly for Steelers quarterback Kenny Pickett, the Dolphins’ defense was far more willing to claim the footballs he threw. Pickett threw three interceptions in that 16-10 Dolphins win, and this one by safety Jevon Holland might have been the most impressive.
Miami showed Pickett a two-deep shell pre-snap, but Holland drove down post-snap, as the real coverage was Cover-3. Pickett thought he had Diontae Johnson on the intermediate comeback, but he didn’t, and Holland was the reason why. Holland slow-played his curl responsibility, jumping the route with perfect timing.
This season, the second-year man from Oregon has been about as lockdown as any pass-defending safety in the league. He’s allowed four catches on eight targets for eight yards, one yard after the catch, no touchdowns, two interceptions, and an opponent passer rating allowed of 27.6. Enemy quarterbacks would be better off zinging the ball into the stands than they would throwing the ball anywhere near Holland.
Ryan Neal, S, Seattle Seahawks
Not that the modern Seahawks have anything approaching the Legion of Boom just yet, but with veteran safety Quandre Diggs, and rookie cornerbacks Coby Bryant and Tariq Woolen, there’s more and more to like in that secondary. In Seattle’s 37-23 win over the Chargers last Sunday, it was safety Ryan Neal who stepped up to be an able fourth elite defender. Neal was targeted six times in the game, and he had an interception and three pass breakups.
On his interception with 5:36 left in the first quarter, Neal (No. 26) was in the box, and traveled back to pick off Justin Herbert’s attempt to receiver DeAndre Carter. Given the way Neal had eyes on Herbert, he may have also been the spy on this play.
Not bad for a guy who wasn’t exactly at his best.
“He was all over the football,” Pete Carroll said Monday of Neal’s efforts. “He has been playing really well and I’m really fired up. He was as sick as a dog yesterday, he had the IVs and the whole thing. He was really sick as he woke up in the morning and he made it through anyway. Sometimes, there are some famous stories about terrific performers getting the best on the day when they are sick, and this was one of them. He had a great day. He just continues to be really active, his confidence is really growing, we are putting him in some good spots for him to produce, and he has really taken to it. He is doing great.”
And that’s why he’s a Secret Superstar this week.
