Jared Goff, Lions QB

A season after a heartbreaking loss in the NFC Championship Game, Jared Goff ensured there was no disappointment for the Lions. Goff was a model of efficiency, completing 74.1 percent of his passes while posting career bests in yards per attempt and passer rating. While other NFC contenders have struggled, Detroit arguably looks better than it did a season ago.

TJ Watt, Steelers LB

Can a defensive player really win the MVP award? If any player on this side of the ball can claim this award, it’s TJ Watt, who is arguably the best player on a Steelers team that sits in first place in the AFC North. Watt doesn’t have the crooked sack totals he often posts — he has 6.5 in eight games — but he’s still a destructive force. Watt has forced four fumbles this year, tied for first in the league.

Christian McCaffrey, 49ers RB

Wait, a player who hasn’t played a single down yet? Believe it. Just as his presence helped the 49ers offense last season become an outlier in advanced stats and the league’s most efficient at scoring touchdowns in the red zone, his absence this season, due to tendinitis of Achilles on both legs, only highlighted his value as the offense lacked dynamism. As a result, the 49ers are 4-4.

The most disappointing teams

Cincinnati Bengals

Starting 1-4, with each loss by six points or less, led to two schools of thought: Were the Bengals bitten by a snake? Or just not good enough to close out a close game? Either way, Cincinnati is poised to spoil what has been a good season from quarterback Joe Burrow and receiver Ja’Marr Chase, the league leader in receiving yards.

New York Jets

No matter how many of Aaron Rodgers’ friends the Jets bring in, they can’t seem to make it work. Despite the trade for Davante Adams and the firing of head coach Robert Saleh, New York is just 2-6, two games shy of its record at this point last season. Rodgers, 40, has been one of the biggest problems. He posted the worst numbers of his career in completion percentage, yards per attempt and passer rating.

Miami Dolphins

A year after having the best passing attack and second-best offense in the league, the Dolphins find themselves 2-5 and near the bottom in most offensive categories. A concussion suffered by Tua Tagovailoa in Week 2 not only derailed a season with high expectations, but it also reignited fears about Tagovailoa’s ability to be a long-term answer for Miami.

The most surprising teams

Green Bay Packers

A trendy offseason pick to compete in the Super Bowl, Green Bay was expected to be good. But no one would have predicted that they would be 6-2 with quarterback Jordan Love healthy for less than six games, or that backup quarterback Malik Willis, a leftover who has only joined the team at the end of August, would step in so easily for Amour. Don’t sleep on a defense with a league-high 19 points to take away.

Pittsburgh Steelers

The importation of two quarterbacks who had greatly disappointed during their last stops could have prepared the ground for a reconstruction. Instead, Justin Fields went 4-2 while Russell Wilson recovered from a calf injury, and Wilson has since won two straight in his return as a starter. Coach Mike Tomlin’s QB gamble paid off.

Minnesota Vikings

Notice a trend? Like the Packers and Steelers, Minnesota (5-2) has surprised in the NFL’s strongest division behind a stout defense — coordinator Brian Flores will likely be interviewing the head coach in a few weeks — and a quarterback -back, Sam Darnold, who played down the type of errors that doomed his previous league saves.

Kansas City Chiefs

Patrick Mahomes is on pace to finish with the fewest touchdowns (19) and most interceptions (22) of his career, and yet the Chiefs are still the only undefeated team in the NFL heading into Week 9 It’s been confusing watching Mahomes this season. He’s still very clearly recognized as the most terrifying player in the game, even if the stats don’t back it up. On the contrary, he embodies one of the most flashy clichés in sports: he simply knows how to win.

Most notable offseason signing

Derrick Henry, Ravens RB

Playing at a position that executives consider the most replaceable in the league, Henry is not only still relevant four years after breaking the 2,000-yard mark, but he has proven invaluable. He made the Ravens brilliant by adding him. Rushing for a league-leading 946 yards with 6.5 yards per carry – an incredible 1.1 yards per carry more than the average in this historic 2020 season – he took some pressure off Jackson.

Best game

This moment was both shocking in real time and a neat microcosm of the Jayden Daniels experience. It was an incredible throw, an exciting moment for a Washington franchise that has had very few this century, and it reminded us that Daniels is further along than Caleb Williams – the highly touted quarterback prospect who was selected before Daniels in April’s draft. This not only explains the game, but also what Daniels brought to a Commanders team that won’t go away.