play1:36Stephen A.: The Bills aren’t the best team in the AFCStephen A. Smith says he isn’t taking too much from the Bills’ win over the Chiefs in the regular season.
play2:17Eisen: Drake Maye has ‘dropped his Huggies’Rich Eisen discusses how Drake Maye has transformed the Patriots in his second season in the NFL.
play2:26Eisen wonders what Garrett is thinking after Hutchinson’s extensionRich Eisen wonders what Myles Garrett’s thought process is after seeing Aidan Hutchinson’s big extension with the Browns well out of playoff contention.
play1:09Was the Colts’ loss a bad game or a bad sign?Domonique Foxworth, Rex Ryan and Adam Schefter debate if the Colts’ level of concern after getting beat by the Steelers.
play1:17Should managers be hesitant to start Jordan Love in fantasy?Field Yates breaks down why Jordan Love isn’t a lock to start in fantasy this week.
play0:42Calvin Johnson to McAfee: Matthew Stafford makes it look so easyCalvin Johnson tells Pat McAfee how his former Lions teammate Matthew Stafford’s game has improved since joining the Rams.
Does the Sauce Gardner trade prove Colts’ commitment to Daniel Jones? (1:07)Louis Riddick analyzes the Colts’ commitment to Daniel Jones after their trade for Sauce Gardner. (1:07)
Stephen A.: The Bills aren’t the best team in the AFCStephen A. Smith says he isn’t taking too much from the Bills’ win over the Chiefs in the regular season.
Stephen A. Smith says he isn’t taking too much from the Bills’ win over the Chiefs in the regular season.
Eisen: Drake Maye has ‘dropped his Huggies’Rich Eisen discusses how Drake Maye has transformed the Patriots in his second season in the NFL.
Eisen wonders what Garrett is thinking after Hutchinson’s extensionRich Eisen wonders what Myles Garrett’s thought process is after seeing Aidan Hutchinson’s big extension with the Browns well out of playoff contention.
Rich Eisen wonders what Myles Garrett’s thought process is after seeing Aidan Hutchinson’s big extension with the Browns well out of playoff contention.
Was the Colts’ loss a bad game or a bad sign?Domonique Foxworth, Rex Ryan and Adam Schefter debate if the Colts’ level of concern after getting beat by the Steelers.
Domonique Foxworth, Rex Ryan and Adam Schefter debate if the Colts’ level of concern after getting beat by the Steelers.
Should managers be hesitant to start Jordan Love in fantasy?Field Yates breaks down why Jordan Love isn’t a lock to start in fantasy this week.
Calvin Johnson to McAfee: Matthew Stafford makes it look so easyCalvin Johnson tells Pat McAfee how his former Lions teammate Matthew Stafford’s game has improved since joining the Rams.
Calvin Johnson tells Pat McAfee how his former Lions teammate Matthew Stafford’s game has improved since joining the Rams.
Does it really feel like we’re already halfway through the NFL season? In a year where there are no undefeated teams and not even a single one-loss team as we hit Week 9, actually landing on the teams that are going to stand out from the pack by the end of the season can be a murky, dangerous proposition. There are nine two-loss teams right now. This is not normal.
The sacks will come. Carter has only a half-sack to his name through eight games, but the underlying pressure metrics suggest that there’s a lot more happening. He has been the best rookie pass rusher in the NFL, and that has been by a considerable margin.
It’s very difficult for an offensive lineman to stand out enough in a good way and attract attention for these sorts of awards. It’s even more difficult for an interior lineman to do so, given that we can’t point to them shutting down a string of superstar edge rushers quite as easily.
On a snap-by-snap basis, Johnson’s the best offensive lineman in football. He’s a ferocious run blocker who still manages to maintain enough of his athleticism to get on the move at age 35, and pass rushers just seem to stick to him without any hope of getting away. Watch many of Jalen Hurts’ big plays as a passer this season and you’ll see a quarterback who has plenty of time to scan the field and wait for his receivers to get downfield, a testament to the work of Johnson and Jordan Mailata.
The other pro with Nelson is a hidden factor: penalties. He has just one penalty for 5 yards all season, a false start against the Rams. It came in a two-minute drill with the Colts trying to drive for the tying touchdown, which doesn’t help, but there just aren’t many linemen who can make it to the midway point of the NFL season without a holding penalty or a handful more procedural calls.
Dawkins manages to handle whatever Allen and opposing pass rushers throw at him with aplomb. Among offensive linemen with 200 pass-blocking snaps or more this season, Dawkins is left on an island to block opposing linemen one-on-one at the second-highest rate — a whopping 88.2% of the time. Despite those responsibilities, Dawkins ranks among the league’s best in quick pressure rate allowed. He’s also a valuable and impactful run blocker, ranking 19th in run block win rate.
With Dawkins missing just 22 snaps all season (and those came in blowouts) and facing a higher degree of difficulty than many of the other top candidates, he has been the best lineman in the NFL in 2025.
Stephen A.: The Bills aren’t the best team in the AFC
As always, I need to throw in a reminder that I lean toward rewarding coaches who are excelling on their preferred side of the ball. As an example, take Sean McDermott and the 6-2 Bills. The former Eagles and Panthers defensive assistant won’t get any attention for this award since he has been in this role for nine seasons, but every two-loss coach should be in consideration.
He’s not here, though, because the Bills are winning games with their offense. Buffalo’s third in EPA per play on offense and 13th on the defensive side of the ball. The Bills were 21st by the latter metric before their Week 7 bye. McDermott is still an excellent coach, and he has the defense playing much better over the past two weeks, but I think it makes more sense to give a bonus to coaches whose teams are thriving in their area of expertise.
There are lots of teams who could make a case that they could be undefeated or something close right now. Some are flimsier than others. The Broncos could very realistically be 9-0, but they’ve also rolled off wins in the final two minutes over the Eagles, Jets, Giants and Texans, the latter of whom were stuck with a backup quarterback in Davis Mills for most of Sunday’s game. So, the Broncos could also be 4-5 or even worse.
The Rams have two close losses, but their six wins have come by an average of more than 15 points. They’ve gotten to play backups in Tyler Shough and Cooper Rush, which has made life easier for Chris Shula’s defense, but the offense has absolutely been humming. McVay’s team is second in the league in ESPN’s Football Power Index behind the Chiefs, and it is in a dead heat with the Eagles as the NFC favorites to win the Super Bowl.
The Patriots are probably a pair of goal-line turnovers against the Steelers away from starting 8-1. The only hole you can poke in their hot start is the league’s easiest schedule per FPI, with their only wins against teams above .500 coming via the Panthers and Bills. Of course, the Patriots also play the fifth-easiest schedule in the NFL from here on out, so don’t be shocked if Vrabel keeps rolling.
Rich Eisen discusses how Drake Maye has transformed the Patriots in his second season in the NFL.
They might not be one of the best offenses in recent league history over the rest of the season, but Steichen is getting more out of a less-heralded group of players than anybody else in the game.
Well, this year, things are surprisingly easier for me. Some of the top candidates heading into the season are either injured (Nick Bosa, Trey Hendrickson, Jeffery Simmons) or haven’t been able to make their usual impact (T.J. Watt, Micah Parsons, Chris Jones). There are no obvious candidates at off-ball linebacker or in the secondary. There’s a smaller group of dominant edge rushers to pick from that left me with only four or five realistic options to sort through here.
Bonitto’s still producing, but after eight sacks in his first five games, he hasn’t landed one in his past three contests. He still leads the NFL in quick pressures (22) and quick pressure rate (11.1%), but the rest of the field has caught up there, and he’s just one percentage point ahead of the next guy in these rankings.
Bonitto can be fast enough off the line at times to prevent even the initial blocker from getting a finger on him, which is going to make double-teams impossible, but there are other players in his ballpark who simply draw more attention, including the two guys ahead of him.
Anderson hasn’t had that single dominant game that draws attention this season, but he might be the most consistent pass rusher in the NFL. He has at least one sack in six of his first eight contests and at least one quarterback knockdown in all but one of those games. Anderson’s 21 quick quarterback pressures and 10.0% quick quarterback pressure rate rank second in the league behind Bonitto.
Let’s be honest. Garrett is simply a tier above everyone else on defense right now. He has been completely unblockable this season, to the extent that teammates like Maliek Collins, Alex Wright and Isaiah McGuire are all having career years by feasting on twists, stunts and perennial one-on-one opportunities throughout the game. Those are a product of what Garrett is doing to opposing offensive lines.
Garrett is second in the NFL with 10 sacks, trailing only Brian Burns of the Giants, who has had 32 more pass-rush opportunities. He is running a sack rate of 5%, the best mark among pass rushers with 150 opportunities or more. Garrett is also turning 29.4% of his pressures into sacks, which is third behind Burns and Byron Young, who has been having an excellent season for the Rams.
All that’s happening while teams desperately try to find a solution to take Garrett out of the game. He’s being chipped on 29.5% of his pass-rush snaps and double-teamed 13.4% of the time. Again, adding those up, teams are offering extra help to linemen trying to block Garrett just under 43% of the time. The only player who has faced a second blocker more often is Watt, who has seen way more chips (37.5%) than double-teams (8.8%).