Navigating The NFC: A Wild Year Of Wins And Woes
A shocking first five weeks of football has the NFC in complete disarray
"Any given Sunday". Every NFL fan knows that saying. It means any team in the NFL can win any game. There are no "easy" games, there are no "free" wins. Every win is hard-fought and earned.
After Five weeks of grueling smash-mouth football, the three teams atop the NFC may be quite surprising:
1. Minnesota Vikings (5-0)
2. Washington Commanders (4-1)
3. Atlanta Falcons (3-2)
The Vikings are probably the biggest surprise of the NFL season. The Vikings lost two of their best players in Kirk Cousins and Danielle Hunter in free agency. Then the Vikings lost their 11th overall pick J.J. McCarthy to an ACL tear before the season started. Journeyman Sam Darnold was set to start, and he has killed it. His 11 passing touchdowns through five games are tied for second most in the NFL, trailing Joe Burrow by just one touchdown.
Before the Week five matchup with the Jets, Darnold had thrown two or more touchdowns in each of the first four games of the season.
The Vikings didn't add much from a defensive standpoint, grabbing a 34-year-old Stephon Gilmore, two role-players at edge, and a decent linebacker in Blake Cashman. On paper, their defense should not be that good. For example, Gilmore is their highest-graded PFF corner and he comes in as the 46th-ranked corner with a 68.7 grade. However, PFF has the Vikings as the 11th-ranked defense in the NFL. Brian Flores is a wizard.
Whatever the case, this Vikings squad is an all-time team...
The Commanders are also quite a shock. They have a mess of a defense, a subpar offensive line (three of their five starters on the line are ranked (24th or worse), and this offseason their main HC candidate left them scrambling.
Here they are sitting at 4-1 and have scored the most points of any team in the NFL this is before MNF! The Commanders have punted just eight (8!) times in five games. That's averaging less than two punts a game.
Jayden Daniels is the real deal. He is the reason the Commanders are humming and winning.
He set a record for the highest completion percentage EVER through a QB's first four games of a season.
Despite having just the 25th-best defense in the NFL per PFF, the Commanders' offense is dominating. Can it lead them to a playoff berth? Probably...
The Falcons being good may or may not be shocking. It certainly isn't as shocking as the Vikings or Commanders, but many probably did not think they would have more wins than the Eagles, 49ers, and Cowboys through five weeks.
The Falcons have been slowly but surely learning on offense. In week five they finally put it all together. Kirk Cousins threw for a career-high 509 yards (the most by any QB this season and the most by any QB since 2021) and four touchdowns. The offense scored 36 points and finally looked like they had pieced it all together.
The defense is partially a mess. It is the 22nd-ranked unit per PFF, but the secondary has been nails. Jessie Bates has been doing his thing and AJ Terrell has been great after Week 1.
The pass rush has been pretty bad, with the Falcons struggling to get pressure. They are last in both pressure rate and sacks, with just five sacks in five games. Their lone sack on Thursday was from a cornerback.
The defense is very bend but don't break. After a Cousins int on 4th and 15, the Falcons D held strong and took the Bucs out of FG range (with help from some penalties).
Against the Saints, the Falcons had a huge goal-line stand in which they stopped the Saints on a 4th and goal.
Against the Chiefs, the Falcons forced a key three and out on Patrick Mahomes to give the ball back to the offense for a chance to win the game.
Jessie Bates got the game-winning interception.
The defense is not great by any means, but the secondary has been good and the defense as a whole has made timely stops.
Other Surprises In The NFC:
49ers (2-3): The 49ers having a losing record through five weeks is crazy. Brock Purdy has played well (PFF's 2nd-ranked QB) but his weapons have not. Brandon Aiyuk has had one good game out of five, George Kittle and Deebo Samuel have been streaky, and Christian McCaffrey's career might be over. Jordan Mason has played great but he is not a complete game-changer like CMAC is (and this is not Mason slander, CMAC is just a generational player).
According to PFF, the 49ers have the 1st ranked offense and the 6th ranked defense. For them to have lost to an injured Rams team (Demarcus Robinson was WR1) and the Cardinals is pretty crazy. This was the team that was in the Super Bowl in February.
Giants (2-3): This is crazy for the opposite reason. The Giants were hailed as one of the worst teams in football, so for them to already have two wins, especially one over the Seahawks, is crazy.
Malik Nabers has played lights out, with 300+ yards and three touchdowns in just four games. The defense, even after losing Xavier Mckinney, has played pretty solid. The defense registered seven sacks on Sunday, with Dexter Lawrence having three of them. Deonte Banks had Dk Metcalf in jail (Metcalf had only 55 yards and 0 tds). The Giants have not looked like an awful team thus far.
Packers (3-2): Matt LaFleur is a genius. Genuinely. He made Malik Willis (a QB who looked hopelessly terrible) into a competent QB and went 2-0 with him. When Jordan Love went down in week 1 many people thought the Packers would be dead in the water without him, but that was not the case. Jayden Reed looks like the real deal. Reed's 414 yards are 5th most in the NFL and just seven short of the 4th best in DK Metcalf.
The NFC is off to a crazy start. It is going to be a fun year of football...
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