Week 4 of the NFL regular season is coming. So are this week’s Tuesday notes …
• Three weeks is nothing, and September results can lie to you.
But seventh-year Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen put together the type of performance Monday night that should get everyone’s MVP attention, and is only a continuation of what he’s been doing all month. Allen went 23-of-30 for 263 yards and four touchdowns in a 47–10 beatdown of the Jacksonville Jaguars—and did it despite throwing the ball just twice in the second half in which Buffalo held a commanding 34–3 lead.
Allen connected with 10 different receivers, including four for touchdowns. The quarterback’s ability to play off-schedule, generate shots off scramble plays and pick up chunks of yardage with his legs played sidecar to the pocket passer in Allen, which might be the scariest part of the whole thing.
Now, to be clear, Allen’s never wanted to make this about the departure of Stefon Diggs. But it’s hard not to look at the 28-year-old and see a guy who is playing point guard at the position in a way he never has before, free of having to feed a true No. 1 receiver. Bills folks see it, too, and it’s given them hope that this is just the beginning for Allen.
For me, it also recalls a conversation he and I had just before the season started. I asked him how he thought opponents would approach him differently without Diggs out there. His answer foreshadowed what we’ve seen the past three weeks.
“What I do think we have is versatility,” Allen said. “I’m not really sure what defenses are gonna key on in our offense. Are they gonna key on the run game? Are they gonna take certain guys in the receiver room to try and lock them up? We’ve got a lot of different things. So starting each progression with a different guy, I think it’s going to be very beneficial for us.”
There’s no question it has been. And with Allen going from the little brother to the big brother in the locker room—with Micah Hyde, Jordan Poyer, Tre’Davious White, Mitch Morse and Diggs himself gone—the timing of his next steps as a leader have married up nicely with these steps he’s taking as a quarterback.
I’d also agree with those Buffalo people. I think we’re just on the front end of it.
• Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin has, ever so subtly, moved off his spot.
We told you just before he declared Russell Wilson the Steelers’ starter on Aug. 28 that Justin Fields had closed the gap to the point where a significant number of people in the building thought Tomlin should go with Fields. Then, Wilson tweaked his calf and Fields got the nod for the opener. Since, as we detailed in The MMQB Takeaways, he’s improved week to week, and gotten the team to 3–0. Now? Listen to Tomlin answer the question of why he doesn’t just give Fields the job on a permanent basis.
The answer, for context, followed Tomlin saying that Wilson’s injury situation hadn’t changed, and that he’d likely be limited in Wednesday’s practice, and monitored thereafter.
“Because there’s no need to,” Tomlin said. “I explained to you the variables of the week. ... When Russ gets to an appropriate level of health, and I have a decision to make, I’ll make it.”
That, in no way, shape or form is promising anything to Wilson. My translation of it, in fact, would be that this thing is wide open now, or even trending in Fields’s favor, but Tomlin isn’t going to make any call before he has to. Which is smart, because it gives him more time to gather information.
For what it’s worth, a lot of folks there have already seen enough.
• Adding on to Monday’s story in which we broke down the growth of the Minnesota Vikings’ defense under coordinator Brian Flores, I’d say Minnesota’s feeling right now, at least internally, like it’s a tougher, more rugged team than it’s been since Kevin O’Connell and Kwesi Adofo-Mensah got there in 2022.
The numbers bear it out. The Vikings outrushed the New York Giants 111 to 74 in Week 1, the San Francisco 49ers 146 to 102 last week, and the Houston Texans 118 to 38 this week.
But there’s also this little nuance that I know they pride themselves in after Sunday played out the way it did. Over the years, there’s evidence that playing Kyle Shanahan’s Niners would leave a mark. In other words, San Francisco’s so physical that an opponent would struggle the week after, with that game having taken a toll. O’Connell, of course, was on the other side of the Niners–Rams rivalry for two years, and Adofo-Mensah was there for the Niners’ build.
This time around, at least on the surface, it looks like the Vikings were the ones that delivered the lasting blows. Minnesota beat the Texans 34–7 in Week 3, and the Niners were outlasted by the Rams 27–24. Which is another sign of how the vision for the team in the Twin Cities has come together.
• Jayden Daniels’s otherworldly (for a rookie quarterback, anyway) Monday night performance is, and should be, fueling a lot of hope in D.C.
But as I see it, this is no flash. Talking to people from the New York Jets and Miami Dolphins, teams that practiced against the Washington Commanders in training camp, it was very clear that Daniels made an impression on everyone who got to see him play this summer. They saw his poise and comfort level, and how smooth he looked.
That, I think, is a credit to the amount of experience he got in college. Like Bo Nix and Michael Penix Jr., Daniels was a multi-year starter for two major college programs in two power conferences. So he got to see a lot, run a lot of things, and play against a lot of defenses, to build up the library of football knowhow in his head.
Bottom line: He looks thoroughly prepared, because he is.
• I don’t think Ja’Marr Chase is remotely the problem for the Cincinnati Bengals. But I’d still, if I were them, move hard to sign Chase now. The star receiver went for 118 yards and two touchdowns on six catches against Washington. He is, and has been, a top-five receiver in football, worthy of being paid at the top of the market.
That’s not going to change, and his price is only going to go up the longer the Bengals wait. So rather than standing on principle, the Bengals should make him the game’s highest-paid receiver now, and give the locker room a little positive news as they try to turn their season around.
• Miami’s plan throughout this season has been to prioritize Tua Tagovailoa’s health, and putting him on injured reserve—sidelining him until at least Week 8—was the right thing to take the pressure off everyone in the short term. With that established, what he gets back from outside neurologists this week will likely be pretty important in determining if, how and when he’ll return to football.
“The plan hasn’t changed,” coach Mike McDaniel said Tuesday. “It’s been executed. I don’t report who sources are, but people should talk to me. I’ve got the real information.”
(But I think even he would concede that he still needs more.)
• I’d expect Jordan Love to push to play this week. The Green Bay Packers’ staff worked to keep him available to play in Week 2 coming off his MCL sprain, and did the same last week until it came time to determine who’d travel. Did they think he’d play? No, and they still need him to show he can protect himself.
But I do think he has a chance this week to play against the Vikings, and will be coming back to a team that’s rushed for 449 yards in his two games away, even with defenses having a good idea what’s coming.
• Our prayers to Brett Favre’s family. It goes without saying, but that Favre was diagnosed with Parkinson’s is absolutely awful news, and the disease itself is one that’s become too common among ex-players.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as The Bills’ Josh Allen Is the NFL’s Clear Leader for MVP.
