Week 7 NFL Takeaways: Jared Goff Is an MVP Candidate

Plus, Marcus Mariota steps in for the Commanders, Amari Cooper had an eventful week, what’s next for the Browns after Deshaun Watson’s injury, appreciation for Sean Payton and more.

Goff has the Lions leading the NFC through seven weeks. / Jeffrey Becker-Imagn Images

Jump to a team

1. Detroit Lions
2. Kansas City Chiefs
3. Buffalo Bills
4. Washington Commanders
5. Cleveland Browns
6. Pittsburgh Steelers
7. Jaguars-Patriots in London
8. Sean Payton vs. the Saints
9. Tom Brady and the Raiders
10. Quick-hitters

Week 7 was chock full of great games and story lines, and it lived up to the expectations. As we’ve been doing all season, we’ll publish the takeaways Sunday and update them live through Monday morning. So come back again if not all 10 are here yet …

Detroit Lions

Jared Goff is an MVP candidate. And to try to illustrate my feelings on that, I reminded Detroit Lions coach Dan Campbell of something he said to me about his quarterback a couple of years ago—on why, when everyone saw Goff as a salary dump in the Matthew Stafford trade, he saw something else.

As the story goes, Campbell was the New Orleans Saints’ tight ends coach and assistant head coach in 2018, when Goff was the Los Angeles Rams’ rising second-year quarterback. The two teams played in the NFC title game that winter, in January ’19. One of Campbell’s most vivid memories from it was how, in maybe the loudest, most intense environment he’d ever been in, the other team’s quarterback was so calm and level, as he coolly ended Campbell’s season.

Campbell filed it away, drew on it as the Lions negotiated the trade of Stafford, and benefited from it once again Sunday in Minneapolis. That quality Goff showed on that afternoon in January 2019 loomed large when Detroit stumbled out of the gate on this Sunday in October ’24.

Simply put, everything that could go wrong did go wrong. A fake punt on the Lions’ first series failed. The Vikings scored two plays later, with Aaron Jones bouncing an inside run to the outside and running 33 yards to paydirt. Goff then took a sack on third-and-3, Sam Darnold hit a big one to Justin Jefferson and it was 10–0 before you could blink. Which is exactly where the never-blink aspect to Goff’s makeup came into play.

“It’s what you don’t see,” Campbell told me after the game. “It’s what you can’t see with your eyes. That’s the most important thing for any player that’s in this league, that wants to be a player you can count on. That’s what he’s got in his brain and what he’s got in his heart. The guy’s a competitor. He doesn’t get frazzled. He’s tough. He’s durable. That’s what makes him dangerous. That’s what makes him a winner.

“That’s what makes him the type of guy that when the chips are down and things have not gone your way, he’s going to find a way to move the ball for us and make a big throw and help us win. That’s what I don’t second guess or worry about at all. He’s that type of player. That is a rare trait in this league. When you’ve got talent, and he’s got talent, but it’s the other thing. How many times have we seen these quarterbacks, and they’ve got all the gifts, but when you need them, they crumble? This guy doesn’t.”

It was clear from the underneath throws to Amon-Ra St. Brown and Jahmyr Gibbs on the drive that straddled the first and second quarter, which set up a 45-yard burst from Gibbs (with some Vikings’ ankles broken in the process) for the team’s first touchdown. It was seen again in how he stood in against a six-man pressure to throw a dime to the post to St. Brown for a 35-yard score on the team’s next possession.

Then, there were throws he made to Gibbs and St. Brown on the final possession, with the Lions down 29–28, and down to their last shot to win the game.

“We’re sitting there with under two minutes, a minute and a half, and we hit the pass to Saint across the middle that really puts us in position for [rookie Jake] Bates to kick the game-winner,” Campbell says. “Believe me, he had more than that, but those are the ones I think of.”

Thing is, some people will look at it, and think that Goff’s success is a product of what’s around him. To a degree, that’s true. But that’s true of a lot of quarterbacks who’ve won MVP awards in the past.

This is also true: Goff’s passer rating Sunday was a sparkling 140.0, and had it been 10 points higher, he’d have become the first quarterback ever to hit 150 in three consecutive weeks. He’s sixth in the NFL in passing yards and touchdown passes, second in completion percentage, and first among starting QBs in yards per attempt and passer rating.

But, again, this is about more than all of that. It’s about the belief, too, that the Lions have when faced with the kind of adversity that hit Sunday. And that’s no surprise for Detroit anymore, to the point where Campbell, on purpose this time, didn’t give him a game ball.

“I didn’t give him one,” Campbell says. “He may get one. Why not? But what about Gibbs and St. Brown? I always give [more] out on Wednesday. We love the guy. I know exactly who he is.”

And as for the idea he could win MVP?

“You’re not going to hear me disagree with that,” Campbell says. “I’m not going to fight you.”

Yup, Campbell knows what he’s got—just what he hoped he was trading for three years ago. Even if this is a little better than even he might’ve expected.

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Kansas City Chiefs

The Kansas City Chiefs are what the New England Patriots used to be in a lot of ways, and one of those has been on full display over the past few weeks. You can line it up with all the other things that make the Kansas City operation great—the Chiefs have become incredible in maximizing every single corner of their roster, even with players that other teams can’t.

On offense, it’s been true with guys such as JuJu Smith-Schuster, Mecole Hardman and Kareem Hunt not getting used elsewhere, then returning to resume prominent roles at the side of Patrick Mahomes. On defense, in Sunday’s breezy 28–18 smackdown of the San Francisco 49ers in Santa Clara, it showed up in two of the defense’s three interceptions.

One of the two was a product of Chris Roland-Wallace being in the right place at the right time, as part of a Chiefs game plan predicated on forcing Brock Purdy to throw outside, with Kansas City clinging to a 14–12 lead near the end of the third quarter. The other was Jaden Hicks, being in position to undercut a Purdy throw into the end zone, with the Chiefs up 21–14 midway through the fourth quarter. If you’d never heard of those two guys, you have company.

It’s also not an accident that it keeps happening this way, just like it was in New England when Tom Brady was the quarterback.

“It’s the chemistry,” says safety Justin Reid, who also had a pick Sunday. “The chemistry that we have here is on another level from any team that I’ve ever been a part of. The way guys get along, the way we believe in each other, the way that we help the next man, there’s no selfishness. Guys like myself, Trent [McDuffie], Nick [Bolton], the next man behind him, we spend a lot of personal time answering questions and getting ready, because we all know at some point we’re going to need them to step out onto the field and make a play.

“It happens every year. We have confidence to do that. Our preparation and our belief in what we do, it’s unbelievable to be a part of."

Hicks was a fourth-round pick. Roland-Wallace was an undrafted free agent. Neither started Sunday. Roland-Wallace was ready when his role picked up, after third-year corner Jaylen Watson went down with an ankle injury. Hicks has made the most of his opportunities.

And both helped to fulfill a challenge defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo had for his defense a few months ago, after last year’s unit was good enough to pull its weight as much as it had in any year of Kansas City’s Mahomes era.

“We’re trying to outdo what we did last year,” Reid says. “Spags started training camp this year, from day one, saying that he’s been a part of talented defenses that have fallen off the next year, and that he wasn’t going to allow that to happen this year. We have a motto: Demand better. We break it down with that motto every single day in practice. Demand better. We’re going to continue to push ourselves, continue to push this thing to the limit.”

And, yes, hitting on high-end picks such as McDuffie, Bolton and George Karlaftis, and big-ticket free agents such as Reid sure helps. So does having the best defensive player in football in Chris Jones (and we’ll have more on him in the Tuesday notes).

But it’s also having more answers when things go away from the plan than anyone else—and the Chiefs keep coming up with them.

This week, it was Roland-Wallace and Hicks on defense, and Hunt and Noah Gray on offense. And even Mahomes as a scrambler, his big 33-yard run helped put the game away on a day in which he threw two picks. Next week, it’ll be someone else.

The end result is a team, again, like those old New England teams, that can win every which way, while carrying the ultimate trump card in having an all-timer at quarterback.

The standard’s set now, and the cool thing is it legitimately applies to everyone.

"It’s coming into a program where you know what we do works and you buy into the program and the way that we do things, you believe in it, it allows you to play fast and free,” Reid says. “You know what you’re doing. You’re confident in yourself. You’re confident in your teammates around you, and you’re confident in the calls that coach Spags is making. It’s going to allow you to make some plays.”

And so many people have.

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Cooper halued in five catches in his Bills debut / Tina MacIntyre-Yee/Democrat and Chronicle / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Buffalo Bills

Amari Cooper had an interesting week and is making the Buffalo Bills a more interesting team, for sure. The Bills first touched base with the Browns on Cooper earlier in October. Last Monday, after the Browns lost to the Philadelphia Eagles, the Bills circled back on him, from their New Jersey hotel, ahead of that night’s game with the Jets. By midday Tuesday, the deal was done. Cleveland GM Andrew Berry called Cooper to tell him, and Cooper jumped in his truck and made the two-and-a-half-hour drive to Orchard Park soon thereafter.

He wasn’t going to waste any time getting there. But he had plenty of time to think.

“There was a lot to ponder on. Just making the drive, thinking about my new team, my new teammates,” Cooper told me, from the Bills’ locker room postgame. “That's pretty much it. Those things were cycling in my mind.”

But once he pulled in, he knew what he needed to do—and it’s why he was able to actually play a role in the team’s 34–10 win over the Tennessee Titans, one that started with Buffalo digging a 10-point hole, and ended with the home team running off 34 unanswered points.

Cooper, five days separated from the trade, was able to muster four catches for 66 yards and his first touchdown in red, white and blue.

And getting to the point where he was capable of pulling that off, playing for a coordinator (Joe Brady) and in a system (a blend of the old Patriot and Saint offenses) that was new to him, took as much time as he had, between the deal getting done and kickoff. He stayed after practice with Josh Allen. He stayed late with receivers coach Adam Henry. He leaned, too, on the experience of having been in this situation before.

The first time Cooper was traded, in fact, going from Oakland to Dallas, it came in mid-October of 2018, as the Raiders and Cowboys were coming out of Week 7. In this case, the Browns and Bills were coming off Week 6 when the trade was pushed over the goal line.

“It’s easier to go through something that you've been through before,” Cooper says. “The thing I would say in that situation is that it was eerily similar to the situation—in October, the first game playing against the Titans, a couple of other things, too. Being able to go out there and in that same year really helping the Cowboys win, that's what gave me the confidence.”

Even the stat line wasn’t far off—in that first game as a Cowboy against Tennessee, Cooper had five catches for 58 yards and a touchdown.

And if there was a spot where Cooper’s learning curve showed up this time around, it was actually on his touchdown. If you slow the replay of it down, you can see Josh Allen making a check, and Cooper talking to rookie Keon Coleman right after. “I did look at him a little bit and made sure that I had the check right,” he says. “I knew with 100% certainty, but I guess I wanted to have more than 100% certainty.”

That worked, and a lot of other things did, too, as first impressions go.

From here, of course, the Bills and Cooper himself will expect more. The hope is, with coverage rolling his way, he can help tip the scale for young guys such as Coleman, Khalil Shakir, Dawson Knox (who’s not as young anymore), Dalton Kincaid and James Cook, and also be an asset in bringing all those young guys along. As for what he’ll get in return, the reward is what excited Cooper about Buffalo in the first place.

“The prospect of playing with Josh,” he says. “Just seeing him on TV, seeing how amazing he is at his position, that was the first thing that jumped out to me, for sure.”

And from here, with the Bills up two and a half games on the Miami Dolphins, and three on the New York Jets, he’s got a whole lot more to look forward to.

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Washington Commanders

Marcus Mariota is the perfect symbol of the difference Dan Quinn is making in D.C. Yes, the Carolina Panthers are awful, and maybe the Washington Commanders could’ve won Sunday with a scarecrow at quarterback. But that doesn’t change what was clear on that field—Mariota looked like a different guy taking over for Jayden Daniels.

And this, by the way, wasn’t just Mariota inheriting a big lead, and throwing the offense in cruise control. When he got in, after the Commanders’ star rookie sustained a rib injury, it was still just 10–0, and there was 2:27 left in the first quarter.

What followed was Mariota playing the way he talked after the game, with purpose and joy.

So much so that when I asked whether he feels like playing for Quinn has restored his love for the sport, it felt like he jumped through the phone to answer.

“Oh yeah, oh yeah,” Mariota says. “It’s been a rollercoaster for me. I think that’s why I’ve really gravitated to and enjoyed my time here—because it’ s fun to play again. There were times in my career where it hasn’t been that way. Regardless of the wins and the losses, for me personally, it’s been such a refreshing opportunity. I’ve really enjoyed it. We got such a great group of players and staff. I’m just trying to stay present and have fun with it.”

And everyone in Washington, it seems, is having fun. And while everyone wants to see Daniels healthy and back out there, Sunday gave us all a window into how the rookie’s star turn is just a part of the Commanders’ story, not all of it. Which, of course, is of great benefit to Daniels, too.

That’s because he, and the rest of the players, have been immersed in a new culture that’s the antithesis of what the franchise was over a quarter century with Daniel Snyder as owner. When Quinn arrived in January, he did it with the lessons of having lost his job in Atlanta on his mind. But he also came with the foundation that got that Falcons group to a Super Bowl, one built on the human connection that it takes to fight through an NFL season.

“It’s a fun atmosphere,” Mariota says. “You go to work and don’t feel like you’re dragging. You’re going in there and you’re enjoying being around everybody. You’re spending time together. For me, what’s been really cool is a lot of it hasn’t even been football. Saturdays, he has [senior director of team support and development] Dylan Thompson talk about life. I think that in itself is something special. I’ve been on numerous teams and what really sets us apart is guys just coming together, regardless of talent, regardless of all that other stuff.

“If you find ways to come together and everybody’s believing in the one common goal, you’ll find ways to win.”

It happened Sunday with Daniels ripping off a 46-yard run to start the game, then only accounting for another 10 yards (four rushing, six passing) before getting hurt. It happened with the Commanders’ first touchdown coming on defense (Dante Fowler Jr. picked off a screen and ran it back 67 yards). It happened with a suddenly formidable running game churning out 214 yards. It happened with Mariota proving efficient playing for offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury, who fits his offense to the quarterback, rather than forcing a certain style on the QB.

“He’s been awesome,” Mariota says. “He’s helped me tremendously with his knowledge of the game. Going out there and playing, it’s fun to be a part of. He does a great job of putting the quarterback in the best position possible.,”

With the team now 5–2, that’s gone for just about everyone, from Daniels and Mariota, to Brian Robinson Jr. and Terry McLaurin, to Mike Sainristil and Fowler, and so many others. Everywhere you look, there’s another guy who’ll tell you how much he loves coming to work, and that’s why he’s having a career year. That’s something Mariota, among so many other Commanders, is trying to relish, as this magic carpet ride approaches midseason.

Bottom line, they know why they’re winning,

“When you have that type of belief, anything’s possible,” Mariota says. “It’s an interesting league. Everybody’s very talented across the board, but the difference is how guys come together and how you build it. Coach Quinn from the beginning, the first day, that was his intent. He’s very adamant about building a great atmosphere that everybody can enjoy. It’s fun to be a part of when you have a group of guys that believe in that. Things will tend to fall your way. We’re excited to be a part of it. Let’s see where this goes.”

Whether he’s playing, or watching Daniels out there, it’s pretty clear that Mariota is pretty pumped to find out. Clearly, he’s not alone.

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Watson is expected to miss the rest of the season. / Scott Galvin-Imagn Images

Cleveland Browns

Deshaun Watson’s season is almost certainly over after he sustained an Achilles injury Sunday, and that means the Cleveland Browns’ gathering of between-the-lines information on what Watson is as their quarterback is, too. There are plenty of harsh realities that accompany that one.

The first is financial. The Browns have Watson at $46 million next season and $46 million in 2026, and every last cent of it is fully guaranteed. Because they’ve mortgaged the contract, there’s also $172.77 million in cap charges to be reckoned with after this year. That’s really what tethers the organization to Watson for the rest of this season and probably next year, too. The idea that maybe, somehow, his play would turn, and the investment would look a lot less foolish than it does now, could make Cleveland hopeful.

That hope is now officially extinguished.

Watson finishes 2024 with 137 completions on 216 attempts (63.4%) for 1,148 yards, five touchdown passes and three picks, and a 79.1 passer rating in seven starts. He also accounted for another 148 yards and a touchdown on 31 carries. All in all, that’s not really close to what was expected when Cleveland forked over three first-rounders to acquire him in March 2022.

The larger sample isn’t much prettier—over three years, he’s started 19 games, completing 61.2% of his throws for 3,348 yards, 19 touchdowns, 12 picks and an 80.5 rating. Again, well short of what the Browns expected for the $138 million they’ve already spent.

Which brings us back to what they can possibly do about the $92 million they still owe Watson, who’s been hurt, and ineffective when he’s not. The answer—and, again, this is the hard reality—is not much. They could move on, of course, but it wouldn’t lessen the lasting cap-and-cash impact of the contract. They could keep trying, which seems more likely, but do it with more options at quarterback, which they haven’t given themselves the past couple of years, in part because of what Watson is and isn’t comfortable with in the quarterback room.

What they will get now is a clear-eyed view over the next couple of months on what the team looks like without Watson, and a better idea of what problems have been due to him. Dorian Thompson-Robinson is no world-beater. And while Jameis Winston has the talent to be one, he was demoted behind DTR for Sunday’s loss against the Cincinnati Bengals. So rolling out there for the rest of the year with those two will add context to last year’s post-Watson evidence on how far gone Watson is.

My guess here would be that the Browns wind up with a top-five pick, keep Watson for 2025 and let Watson and the draft pick compete. The initial idea of trading for Watson, amid the avalanche of accusations of sexual misconduct, was that it was the only way a good Browns roster would be positioned to compete with the top teams in the AFC.

Of course, back then, part of the logic was that the roster was too good to be positioned to take a quarterback high in the draft. Yet, here we are, with the Browns projected to have the first pick in 2025, a conclusion even the most fatalistic Clevelander couldn’t have conjured when the Watson trade went down. And if it happens, we know now, they’d do it with a murkier future than anyone would’ve guessed they’d have even a couple of months ago.

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Pittsburgh Steelers

Mike Tomlin’s logic in going against what a lot of folks in the Pittsburgh Steelers’ organization thought actually worked out Sunday night. Russell Wilson was terrible out of the gate—throwing the ball at receivers’ feet, and looking uneasy and unsure of himself.

Then, a moonshot of a 50-50 ball to George Pickens hit for 44 yards, and he didn’t look back.

Prior to that throw, he was 2-of-8 for 19 yards.

After it, he was 14-of-21 for 245 yards and two touchdowns. He exploited the Jets’ stubbornness in playing man coverage without help, particularly by giving plenty of chances to Pickens, who had five catches for 111 yards. He didn’t overdo anything. He moved around O.K. Overall, it was a really solid debut for the new Steeler.

And, in the end, it gave Mike Tomlin another legitimate option at quarterback. Again, most folks in that building thought Justin Fields gave them the best chance to win. They still probably do. The problem was that if the Steelers stuck with Fields, that might’ve been it for Wilson as a Steeler. Conversely, going to Wilson now always left open the possibility that Tomlin could turn back to Fields eventually.

So as it stands, again, this was a nice first night for Wilson. I’d guess he’ll get another shot to run the show next Monday night against the New York Giants. After that, the Steelers have the bye to reassess things. And maybe that’s when they’ll make a decision on who the guy will be going forward at quarterback.

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Jaguars-Patriots in London

Both quarterbacks in the London game Sunday morning showed everyone a little something. And while their teams are in different spots, though they came in with identical 1–5 records, I think both give their teams some hope.

Let’s start with the victors. The Jacksonville Jaguars responded in a big way. They were routed in their first London game, falling 35–16 to the Chicago Bears a week ago. Safety Andre Cisco publicly questioned whether his teammates had quit. Lots of jobs, including head coach Doug Pederson’s, seemed to be on the line as the Jags got set for the back end of their annual U.K. two-fer. And losing to the New England Patriots would’ve been another indignity, and one owner Shad Khan probably would not take well, given how invested he is in London as a sports market.

Then, Jacksonville fell behind 10–0.

If there can be an in-game inflection point for a team’s season, this was it for the Jaguars. They weren’t just losing. The Patriots were running them off the field. Then Trevor Lawrence threw a dime down the middle of the field to Christian Kirk for 24 yards. And a bullet in the face of pressure to rookie Brian Thomas Jr. for a six-yard touchdown. And a downfield dime to Thomas for 58 yards on the next possession to position the Jags to take a 14–10 lead.

And you know the rest. The Jaguars never trailed again, and while no one should be crowned for beating this version of the Patriots, who are in a heated race with the Carolina Panthers for the No. 1 pick, the way this played out proved again that Lawrence isn’t the problem in Jacksonville. In fact, if you look at this win and the one against the Indianapolis Colts, he’s really the one giving the Jags a chance.

So he’ll either be the guy who saves Pederson, or a powerful carrot for ownership to use in recruiting a new coach.

As for Drake Maye, it’s not hard to see why he was the third pick in the draft. There was a throw on New England’s first possession where the rush was (again) bearing down, and he stood in and got it to Hunter Henry for 18 yards. The team’s first touchdown came with pressure bursting through on a third-and-10, and Maye quickly finding his outlet (something he did consistently through the game) JaMycal Hasty. His other touchdown pass was on third-and-15, and came with Maye finding a hole in coverage and delivering a strike to K.J. Osborn.

The kid can really play, and that sets the Patriots up for a pretty important offseason through which they’ll have to get a lot of things right around him—and before then, it’s on them to make sure he doesn’t get killed behind a really bad offensive line.

All of this is why I actually thought a game that looked pretty terrible both on the schedule and in the box score was a fun watch. Here’s hoping those teams give both of those quarterbacks a better shot the rest of the year and into 2025.

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Payton got a win in his return to New Orleans on Thursday. / Stephen Lew-Imagn Images

Sean Payton vs. the Saints

I have two thoughts coming out of Thursday night’s snoozer of a Denver Broncos rout, and the first one has nothing to do with the game. It has to do with Sean Payton returning to New Orleans as Broncos coach on the night Drew Brees was inducted into the team’s Hall of Fame.

I know, for sure, those two are appreciated locally. Yet I’m not sure that, on a national level, they get enough credit for what they accomplished.

The New Orleans Saints before Payton and Brees arrived in 2006 were about as sad sack as sad sack gets. They’d been to the playoffs five times in their 39-year existence, with just one postseason win (2000 wild-card round). Hurricane Katrina had hit the previous August. They’d spent the season as nomads, based in San Antonio, and splitting home games between there and Baton Rouge.

The new coach and quarterback arrived to a broken city and sorry franchise that offseason. The blurb on them in the SI Vault from that summer, picking them last in the NFC South, read: “Their return to the Big Easy and the debut of Reggie Bush have fans buzzing; if only there were more to be excited about.”

Then, Payton and Brees gave Saints fans plenty to be fired up about. They won the NFC South and made the conference championship game that year. They won a Super Bowl three years later, and were a consistent contender for a decade and a half. And how it started, with Payton and Brees volunteering to go into a football war zone, is as much a part of it as anything.

“I think everyone acknowledged that the Saints’ success after Katrina was a big catalyst for the recovery of the city,” GM Mickey Loomis told me just before the game. “That probably gets overblown a little bit, but it doesn’t get overblown in terms of the psyche of the town. Sean and Brees, everybody connected to that, ownership, takes a lot of pride in that we helped. We weren’t the reason, but we helped. That’ll always exist. That’ll exist until the day that all of us are gone.

“I know Sean has a special affinity for that.”

And it’s why New Orleans has a special affinity for him, with the wins his Saints scored resonating well beyond the final score.

One illustration Loomis gave me of it came the day before the team’s first game back in the Superdome in September 2006. Payton walked his players out on the cavernous stadium’s floor and played the Monday Night Football theme. He told the players it'd be a special night—especially if they won. Steve Gleason’s famous blocked punt and a win over the Atlanta Falcons followed.

“I think most of the players and people that were involved with that, if you told me I could have the Super Bowl win or that game, I might pick that game,” said Loomis, getting choked up a bit. “It was that big of a deal, that emotional. I still get emotional about it."

Which is why Thursday was such a meaningful night for so many New Orleanians.

The result, though, favored the departed/returning coach, which brings me to my second takeaway from the game, and that’s that the Broncos defense is something else—and GM George Paton and defensive coordinator Vance Joseph deserve a boatload of credit for it.

Without a first-round pick on the field, with Patrick Surtain II sidelined by a concussion, and the opposition short-handed, the Denver defense suffocated the Saints, holding New Orleans to 202 yards on 55 plays (3.67 yards/play) before a garbage-time drive that accounted for the host’s only touchdown. Joseph’s creative pressure packages, and the workmanlike group without a Von Miller in sight, sacked Spencer Rattler six times and forced two turnovers, one of which Cody Barton returned for a touchdown.

Bo Nix, of course, hasn’t been great thus far, but the Denver defense has been so good, pushing the Broncos all the way to 4–3, buying the team’s first-round quarterback time to develop. And, therein, Payton’s new team has a chance to be pretty interesting going forward, with the Baltimore Ravens and Kansas City Chiefs looming on the schedule at the start of November.

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Tom Brady and the Raiders

I think Tom Brady will eventually get involved on the football side with the Las Vegas Raiders. In case you were in a bunker this week, NFL owners approved Brady’s purchase of 5% of the Raiders. His business partner Tom Wagner also bought 5%, and his former teammate Richard Seymour acquired 0.5%. It’s been a complicated process, for sure, but now the obvious next question is what it’ll mean from a football standpoint.

My guess is, eventually, you’ll see Brady in a prominent football role.

The trouble is that, for now, the rules prohibit it. NFL bylaws dictate that minority owners cannot be employed (officially, at least) by teams, unless they’re related to the principal owner, a rule put in place to prevent teams from using equity to entice people to take jobs with them. That said, through a conversation I had with Raiders principal owner Mark Davis on Tuesday, it was pretty clear where the shared vision is for Brady’s future.

This all started with the Raiders’ pursuit of Brady in free agency in 2020, and conversations Davis had thereafter with Brady’s longtime agent, Don Yee. “I effed that up,” Davis conceded to Yee, “but I’d love for him to be a part of the organization in the future.” They agreed to stay in contact, which eventually led to the negotiation and deal. And there was a reason, beyond having a hood ornament for ownership, why Davis loved the idea so much.

“I knew at the time that I wanted him to be part of the Raiders,” he told me. “I grew up with my dad. He knew football, so he had the football guy. I don’t have the football guy. I don’t have that person. In five or six years when he’s done [at Fox] and he wants to get more involved with the team and we figure out a way for that to happen, he’s the guy that I think can really take this organization in the future. And in the interim, he can consult in the offseason and things like that. I don’t want it to interfere in his job.”

So maybe it’ll be in a year. Maybe it’ll be in five. Either way, you hear the commitment from Davis there to “figure out” a way to incorporate Brady more without violating the rules.

Until then, as Davis said, he can have a voice in the organization and give Davis counsel, as he has as part owner of the WNBA’s Las Vegas Aces. Davis says that he’s already seen the legendary competitiveness of No. 12 after the Aces have lost playoff games. And, clearly, he sees a scenario where, down the line, his Raiders can put it to good use.

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Quick-hitters

Two more games Monday night, nearly seven weeks down and 10 quick-hitters to offer up for you. Let’s go …

• An interesting leftover on the Davante Adams saga: Those in Las Vegas thought his attitude toward the team changed back in March, when the team signed Gardner Minshew II. Evidently, that wasn’t a good enough quarterback plan.

• I still think the Chiefs could add a receiver. Their plan was to give the current group a few weeks to show what they have, after the Rashee Rice injury. So who they go to for reinforcements, and what they’re looking for, could be a tell on where they are with Smith-Schuster and Xavier Worthy.

• Speaking of trades, the Browns will get phone calls now, based on their 1–6 record and the fact that they just offloaded Cooper. I don’t think they’ll move Myles Garrett (but some fishing has taken place; anyone can call), Denzel Ward or Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah. But guys such as Za’Darius Smith or Jack Conklin would have value to others and could be more realistic targets.

• It’s hard not to feel good for Saquon Barkley, a good guy who rushed for 176 yards and a touchdown in his return to MetLife Stadium, and had two catches for 11 yards to go with that. As for the burning jersey thing … is it dumb? Sure. Does it really hurt anyone? No. It’s probably some guy trying to go viral. And I don’t mind people being pissed if a player left for a rival, anyway. I probably would be, too.

• Really nice bounceback for Mike Macdonald’s Seattle Seahawks, particularly in taking them cross-country for a 10 a.m. body-clock game. There’s been way more good than bad thus far from Macdonald and his staff.

• It’s fair to ask whether the Colts would be better off in the here and now with Joe Flacco as starting quarterback. Trouble is, they really need more info on whether the uber-talented Anthony Richardson is the guy to build around. And at this point, the best way to do that is to keep playing him.

• Tua Tagovailoa’s return to the practice field this week figures to be one of the biggest stories of the week. So let’s remember this: It’s his decision, not ours.

• The strength of the Los Angles Rams? Backs against the wall. One win in five games. Gotta have it. And someone named Tyler Johnson leads them in receiving yards as they take out the Raiders at home. (I remember Johnson from the University of Minnesota, but needed the reminder that it’s the same dude.)

• The Cincinnati Bengals still don’t quite look like the Bengals we’ve come to know, but a win is a win and Cincinnati can now beat Philly and Vegas to get over .500 and go into Baltimore in early November with a lot on the line. That’s a Thursday nighter, too, which might conjure up bad memories for Joe Burrow from last fall.

• I feel for you, Carolina. The Panthers are about as bad as I can remember a team being two months into a season.

• And I didn’t forget about the Green Bay Packers’ win over the Houston Texans. We’ve got more coming for you on Jordan Love’s day on the site Monday morning.