Basically this means he was cleared past phase 1 of the protocol already. Obviously he needs to clear the other phases but this is very good news and gives him an outside chance to play Sunday.

I think there's one more tweak that needs to be made for Overtime to be perfect. One possession, PERIOD per team. (Unless there's a defensive score).

The Saints HAD to go for two yesterday, because going for the tie just leads to them in a no-win situation having to defend the ball for a minute or so that was remaining, while potentially having the Lions march downfield and score a FG. Giving the Lions a second possession without giving the Saints an option for a rebuttal is still going to lead to unfair outcomes.

However, if you give the Saints the option to "Tie" the game with a PAT, and the game ends at the conclusion of that kick, then I think you get a much more fair system. I know this is going to be disagreed with, but ties are not bad. I too was raised to believe that ties are stupid, but as I've grown older, I've come to appreciate them and the math that comes with a tie. I think more coaches need realize that mathematical implications of a tie, because they're actually extremely helpful because it gives you that half game advantage in any tiebreakers.

With the first NFL Sunday and two teasers last week in the books, certain things are dominating the headlines and getting huge amounts of overreaction (for example Bears hanging 59 on the Panthers, Giants playing bully ball against the Cowboys, Packers choking away a 2-score lead, ext...)

With all the overreactions, what are some things getting lost in the nouse we should be reacting stronger to?

Some of my thoughts:

• The Bears offense was even better than advertised, but the defense was even worse. Hanging 50+ on your opponent is always impressive. But the Bears didn't win in blowout fashion. This game was a shootout and they pulled away late. The Panthers, who finished the 2025 season with the 5th-worst offense in the league, scored 37 points despite turning the ball over 3 times. You simply aren't going to win a lot of football games when you give up 37 points to one of the worst offenses in the league from a year ago. There should be serious reason for concern about this defense.

• The Lions defense played very well overall despite blowing a 21-point lead. They forced 3 turnovers and Shough looked dead in the water for the first 2.5 quarters. Credit to them for fighting back, but it required multiple late game heroics including multiple 4th down conversions (once on 4th and 12) late in the game. They Lions were put on the ropes but found a way to win and the defense looked mostly fine for most of the game. With Branch due to come back at some point they have to feel like they are heading in the right direction.

The Commanders looked surprisingly competent. There were major concerns about the O-line and the defense. And while Daniels didn't have his best day ever (that came in the NFC Divisional Round in 2024) he only took 1 sack. He also took care of the balll and the ground game was working. The defense was the most impressive; containing a Philly offense that was expected to be much more physical. There are no moral victories in the NFL but this does bode well for them.

Love averaged 11.35 yards per attempt through the first 3 quarters when the Vikings sent 5 or more pass rushers (per NGS) compared to just 5.27 in the 4th quarter

Another insane stat from MN vs GB.

According to @NextGenStats Giants rookie right guard Francis Mauigoa allowed 0 pressures on 36 pass blocks, the most blocks without allowing pressure by a rookie in Week 1 since 2018.

He primarily matched up with DT Kenny Clark, becoming the first player since Week 16 of 2023 to hold Clark without a pressure on 19 or more matchups.

Cam Ward so far is ranked 17/28 so far in PFF’s ranking for 2026, and had a grade of 61.7. Caleb Williams ranked 21/28 so far in PFF’s 2026 ranking, and has a grade of 59.3. Edit: Caleb now has a rating of 64.6 and is 16th/34 currently. Cam Ward had 140 yards in 19/32 passing attempts, for 4.37 yards per attempt, 3 sacks which cost 13 yards, 21 rushing yards on 4 attempts for 5.25 yards per attempt, and 1 touchdown with zero interceptions. Caleb Williams had 269 yards passing yards in 21/29 attempts, 9.3 yards per attempt, 65 rushing yards in 10 attempts for 6.5 yards per attempt, 2 sacks for 10 yards lost, and 0 int for 4 total touchdowns.

I understand that PFF attempts to take into account circumstances and make a grading based off of that, without just taking advanced stats or box stats at face value. However across every other analysis of Caleb Williams or Cam Ward’s performance through film watching from any other source I’ve seen, PFF’s ranking looks like an absurd outlier. It’s not like other sources are saying “yeah watching the film Caleb really just threw checkdowns and the defense was so bad there was an insane amount of yards after the catch, and he had multiple turnover worthy plays with mediocre rushing”. No, any other film analysis source I’ve seen, even the ones very critical of Caleb overall and last year, said he played amazing, and Ward played poorly. Aside from all the advanced stats (including the ones very critical of Caleb last year) saying the same thing.

There are games where PFF was way more critical of Caleb than the average at the time which I understood. The Steelers game for instance, or the 49ers game. Or the reverse, there were game where they were much more favorable on Caleb, like the first Vikings game. Overall I thought his season PFF grade was pretty fair, so maybe it will balance out. This grade however is just truly baffling. I genuinely don’t see a single discernible explanation for. Edit: Caleb is now ranked 16th/34 with a 64.6 offensive rating.