2026 Week 5 Early Games Preview with Trevor Sikkema: Bears-Packers Showdown, DeMeco Take over Texans D, Vikings try for 5-0!

Welcome to NFL Daily, where things change so much in one week. Drake May was the AFC Player of the Week. I don't know about that. I'm Greg Rosenthal. It's the Week 5 Preview Show, and things are changing here. I'm in the Chris Wessling Podcast Studio, but we are lucky. This week to have Trevor Sykema joining us for the early game preview.

You know him, you love him.

He does the NFL Pro Show with Brett Coleman and so much else.

They got you working hard, Trevor.

They got me all over, but I love doing it, honestly. It's been great getting to work with all the NFL media people, yourself included. And so no matter what my schedule looks like, When I get the Greg Rosenthal text, hey, you want to come on NFL Daily, you know what the answer is already. The answer is yes. So I'm excited to talk a little ball here with you, my friend.

Appreciate that. And yeah, Trevor and I might be talking together.

In the offseason, we might do a little 40s and free agents together, but that's a long time from now. I do think, you know, seeing that Drake May award, like how much things change from one week to the next. And we're going to go over these early games and some of these teams I do feel differently about, including the Chicago Bears. the way that they have shown they can win with any quarterback has helped them to be a two and a half point favorite in Green Bay this week. This is a team that I had major questions about in terms of the defense going into the season, and they've played a lot better than expected. Now, Trevor, you're joining us for the first time on these preview shows.

We do have a theme, depending on the week. This week, it's going to be mismatches. So what are you keeping an eye on in terms of a mismatch. And for this game was my game. I chose the Bears running game against this Packers run defense.

Now the Packers run defense is like, it's fine. It's okay.

But the Bears running game right now feels like a mismatch against most anyone. And the efficiency is great. But the thing that really struck me is You know, we get so into the analytics and metrics and it is all about efficiency, but sometimes you got to go old school, Trevor. I mean, they are first just in terms of volume by so much that I do think that it sets up the passing game, but also wears down the opponent.

And one thing I noticed with the Packers, who just lost Edrin Cooper for the season with a torn Achilles, they were actually second to last in terms of facing the most amount of runs. So teams are going very run-heavy against this Packers defense. The Bears' rudishing offense is the most run-heavy offense in the league. And so I just think you're going to see a lot of Munungai and a lot of DeAndre Swift.

Yeah, I mean, this is my mismatch as well. And how could it not be? I mean, not only just the overall... rushing efficiency and explosiveness from the Chicago bears. But then specifically that right side of the offensive line running behind Darnell, right. Who was a second team all pro last year. And he's looking like an all pro offensive tackle again this year, especially in the run game.

I mean, it is so unstoppable. I know, you know, a couple.

Of years ago when people really started to sort of lay the groundwork of the meaning of play action and what it does and how you say like, hey, you don't even have to be good at running the football to execute play action and to get play action into your offense. Yeah, but when you are good at running the football, especially as dominant as the Bears are with rushing to the right side, that only multiplies things tenfold.

And so to me, yes, absolutely.

That sort of the game plan for Chicago is going to be a potential mismatch. Basically, it's any team in the NFL because they are that good at it. And you talked a little bit about the defense. The defense, look, is it the best defense in the NFL? No, but it ain't the worst defense in the NFL. And we were sitting here thinking, can the offense be good enough to carry the maybe one of the worst defenses in the NFL.

They are not.

They are closer to, it kind of depends on the week, but closer, you know, like 20th in the NFL in certain categories. And for that to be the case, the offense rolling the way that it is and the run game rolling the way that it is, it's hard to pick against the Chicago team every single week.

Yeah.

I agree right now, like some of the numbers like DVOA, which is total efficiency, like they have the Bears as a top 10 defense. I don't think that's going to hold up over time, but they've taken advantage of good matchups. And right now the Packers offense, like that's not that tough of a matchup. Before we get off the Bears offense here, though, I do want to talk about Tyson Bajan.

I thought Ben Johnson really straddled an interesting line this week when asked about Bajan's performance as a starter this Paget is expected to start this game again. Caleb Williams remains week to week. Let's listen to Ben Johnson.

Probably a couple of plays last week where I thought our second level throws were were available to us and we didn't pull the trigger on them. And that's just a, you know, one of those things. We just need to see it. And it would be encouraging from the coaching staff to him. Just you get the green light, man.

You got the.

I have a lot of confidence in how our pass catchers are playing right now. I thought they did a nice job going up for the ball when given the opportunity last week. And so we're going to need more of that again this week.

Look, some coaches are easy graders publicly.

Some are tough. Ben Johnson's a tough grader. And he noted he thought there were a few loose throws left. there, Trevor, two by Bajent. You know, one was picked off, one was picked off, but it was called back by penalty. And so, you know, a little critical wanting Bajent to play better. And the Packers defense has presented some problems with all the pressure that they send.

What are your thoughts on.

Bajent here in a rivalry game where you really see how the tides have turned with the Bears as a road favorite here?

Yeah, I'm not going to lie.

I'm actually kind of surprised that Tyson Bajan is still the quarterback right now, given how good Case Keenum looked when he was out there. Now, again, that's not really anything against Bajan because I think he is talented and in a really good system as well.

But when Case Keenum shows.

almost mastery of the offense the way that he did when he got his start. To me, it's so hard to go away from a hot hand like that, a quarterback, given how it's not a guarantee at all that you get that kind of quarterback play from anybody, let alone a backup, and you'd be going from QB3 just to your backup, not even your starter. So look, I think the reason why Johnson wants Bajan in there is because I'm not saying that Tyson Bajan is Caleb Williams, but the way that Bajan kind of likes to play the game Is Caleb Williams ish. And so if you develop Tyson Bajan, then you feel pretty good in the long term about if Caleb ever goes down, you have Bajan and you don't really have to change your offense.

Right.

And it's kind of like two QBs that sort of play the game similarly, whereas Case Keenum, they change. did have to change the offense a good amount. It was a lot more quick throws. It was a lot more getting the ball out of his hands very quickly. So all that to say, I've got faith in Beijing to win this game. I'd be picking the Chicago bears to win this game, but it it's, it's worth noting that in the short term, I really do wonder if case Keenum's actually the better week to week option for them.

But I understand wanting to get Beijing, the reps to make him that long-term QB two option for them for years to come. I, I thought it was really notable when Ben Johnson and the new coaching staff greenlit a new contract for Bajan before they even got to last regular season.

You were like, man, how much do they even believe in Caleb right now?

But I think this is their proof of concept that that part of it was wrong, but they really believed in him.

And now it's the chance to kind of see it happen. We're going to move on.

But on the flip side, Look, the Packers went super heavy last week in terms of tight end usage. It was a lot of under 10 yard throws. I do, you know, if you squinted really hard, could see some progress from the Packers running game and the Bears rush defense right now, 31st in terms of success rate against.

So they've been really poor, but no one's been able to run against them in terms of volume because the game script hasn't been there.

So that's just something to watch in this game.

If the Packers defense can get it going on the ground, let's move on.

To the next matchup.

It is the Raiders going to Foxborough. A rematch of the highlight of the Pete Carroll era when he lit up the Patriots with Geno Smith last year in Foxborough in the opener. In this one, the Patriots are three and a half point favorites. Sounds about right. I think it gives enough respect to where the Raiders are at right now. What's a mismatch you are looking for in this one?

Yeah.

One of the mismatches I'm looking at is you look at this Raiders front on defense. And one, I think that everybody is just playing with their hair on fire right now. They're confident. They're fast on that defensive line. Obviously it's been Max Crosby for the longest time. We were like, okay, Max Crosby and anyone like, give me anybody here. And right now there are players that know how to attack the pocket. So my mismatch is how well the Raiders are creating pressure versus the how big of a struggle it has been for the Patriots to start the season. Patriots have a 41.6 pressure percentage this season.

That is sixth highest in the NFL. Both Morgan Moses and Will Campbell both have pressure percentages at the tackle spots above 8.3%. That's decently high. And then on the flip side of things for the Raiders, both Max Crosby and Malcolm Kuntz have pressure percentages above 15 as guys who can create that pressure. You throw in N'Kope Dean, who when he has been sent on the blitz, he has been excellent at that. And I think that there are just more resources that they feel comfortable with throwing at the pocket and creating that pressure. So to me, you know, Drake May is a quarterback who makes things happen with his legs. He's got that rushing ability. He likes to make plays outside of structure as well. I

think he's going to need that in this game. And it's going to be interesting because the Raiders do play a good amount of zone coverage. They'll play their guys in off coverage and kind of say, hey, I'm going to keep my eyes on the quarterback and I'm just going to read things here. And obviously, May, for as much as he was good last week, has struggled overall this year offensively. against zone coverages. So if you pair pressure with heavy zone coverages on the back end, this could be a recipe where I actually think this might be a mismatch and an advantage for the Raiders creating that pressure in this game.

I totally see that.

And the offensive line for the Patriots wasn't much better last week. What they did was they played old school heavy. Forget two tight ends, although they did that plenty as well. They just went six offensive linemen like 25% of the time. Caleb Lomu, their first round pick was out there a ton and And sometimes it was max protection. Sometimes it's for the running game.

Overall, it worked.

But what really struck me last week was they just decided to be so aggressive.

I don't know if they'll be like that every week.

I think that was because they're trying to outscore Josh Allen, but they're going for fourth downs. Drake May is going deep like every other play. It's crazy how many explosives and like yards per play they actually have this season. If you take away the turnovers, they've actually been one of the more explosive offenses.

But I love what.

You said about the Raiders defense there, because I think that's where they beat the Bills was the Bills were not disciplined in terms of their rush plan, whereas the Patriots really were. They held Josh Allen to almost no rushing value where Drake May had one of the most valuable games all season by any quarterback on the ground.

And I think the Raiders are pretty disciplined.

This Rob Leonard group has been great. One of the bigger surprises is both these teams. It really hasn't been the offense leading the way the Patriots and DVOA seventh this season. Their defense has been Better than expected, I would say. And the Raiders have been 11th. Definitely better than expected there, too.

No, I agree.

I think that this is a.

To me, this is the pivotal matchup of what you can do, how you can contain the quarterback.

Can you pressure him and actually bring him down?

Because sometimes... Look, pressure is great. You want to generate pressure. And I think that for the most part, getting guys on their heels and confused, that is objectively a good thing. But there are some of those quarterbacks out there that if you create pressure on them and you just let them escape... they're actually better outside of structure. And May has proven that he knows how to make plays out of structure. So this is one of those games where the pressure to sack ratio better be as high as you can make it if you're the Raiders, or you might even be playing into Drake May's hand of what he likes to do.

Yeah.

And we'll see if Matt Collins winds up suiting up for this game. He's kind of been the number one receiver without AJ Brown there. Romeo Dobbs coming off a better game. let's think about where Clint Kubiak, you know, came from and what he's done offensively and how he's become, we've been tracking this, you know, a little bit more of a personality, at least in the locker room after games.

I enjoyed this exchange with the media this week. You got a cap that says EAT. What does that stand for?

Oh man, I didn't realize I was wearing this hat. Um, it's just something that we talk about on offense and defense and, um, It's really just how we, our fundamentals, you know, how we block, how we tackle, something that we stress, you know, things that take no talent. So I'll get to you at another date. Thanks, Will. Thanks for the heads up, brother.

I mean, you're wearing the hat. It's got a Raiders logo on it, too. I mean, eat. Coaches love these acronyms.

I don't know if you've come up with a potential, what is the acronym that this stands for?

I'll give you one if you need a second.

No, I, I, I'm wondering if like the, I'm wondering if like the, the PG maybe version of it is something like everyone all in together or something, you know, like, cause he said it's, you know, it's an offensive, it's a defense, it's a special team. So like, what's something where it's like, and he said, it doesn't take talent.

That's like an effort thing, right? You're just, you're giving it your all. So that's my best, I don't know, PG rated, uh, deciphering of the acronym, maybe, because you could tell that he was laughing a little bit there. I just, I wonder what the message is.

They're always very generic, or often they're very generic. The Ravens, Jets... kind of tree of coaches with Rex Ryan and through the Harbaugh's, they always have these types of things. I went like energy, attitude, toughness, but then why wouldn't he just, why wouldn't he just say it? That just sounds like something.

That's what I want to know. That's what I want to know. I mean, they got the branding on there and everything. What do you think about the fact that Kirk Cousins is a member of QB Island? Now you might not be familiar with the QB Island brand. We decide what quarterbacks are defining the position and we convene every month. A lot of controversy that Kirk cousins made it as basically the ninth or 10th quarterback on the Island through four weeks of the season, kind of playing top 10 level play and being one of the big stories over the You know, a guy like Matthew Stafford.

Have you been shocked by the Kirk Cousins renaissance in Las Vegas?

So I've been shocked by it, but you guys recognizing him as sort of a quarterback who's defining things this season, you aren't wrong at all. Dude, his 48% success rate this season... highest for him since 2020. And his EPA per dropback is the highest since 2016. We're turning back the clock this.

Year with Kirk Cousins.

And obviously that 2020 season that was referencing for the success rate, you know, who is his quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator when he was 2020, when.

He's with the Vikings. Oh, it was Clint Kubiak.

Look at that guy who knows how to believe in him and get the most out of him. I think Kirk is, Kirk is one of the more impactful, surprising things that has happened this entire season for any team.

So, yes, I'm all in on this with the Raiders. I think this is for real.

We appreciate your support. So does Kirk.

And I don't expect it to survive necessarily because it's all against pressure.

It's it's him making off structure plays.

And more than anything, when I remember Kirk in his prime, it would always just make the same point about it. They're has maybe never been a streakier quarterback. He has had six-week stretches, four-week stretches, eight-week stretches, where he looks like the best quarterback in the league. At his peak, he would play MVP level for six, seven weeks. It was pretty rare when you could have that extend throughout the whole season. So the ups were really up, the downs were really down. We'll keep an eye on that.

Let's go to Minnesota, where they might be wishing that they kept Kirk Cousins at this point.

Imagine if he just stayed there the whole time.

Even if he had the injury, they probably would be better off with Kirk Cousins as their quarterback right now. They are road favorites this week in New Orleans. They are traveling to the Saints. I'll get us going in terms of the mismatch in this game. I think it's obvious. It's probably the mismatch for most of these Vikings games in terms of the pass rush, but Specifically, it's Tyler Shuck and his blitz recognition against Brian Flores. Bit of an issue against Atlanta on Monday night. And then you look at the two tackles, Aseem Richards, who's a replacement for Kelvin Banks, and then Taliesin Fuaga. Both of them have really high pressure rates allowed when not blitzed and when blitzed. And so they are really going to put

a lot of pressure on this offensive line and a young quarterback to just see where the pressure is coming from.

And I think it's worth noting that Two weeks into the season, those first two weeks, Tyler Shuck had the most passing yards under pressure.

It's been a very weird... For every team.

In the NFC South, mainly, I guess, the Falcons and the Saints, it's been this weird almost tale of two seasons four weeks into the year, just night and day for some of these teams, week in.

And week out.

And I think for the Saints... Yeah, obviously, it's paramount. If you can't handle the blitz against the Vikings, well, okay, that's it.

Pack it in.

You have to be able to at least do something against the blitz to have any chance. Now, I will say, on the other side of the ball, it feels like it's the unstoppable force meets the immovable object. This feels like it's the stoppable force and the movable object with how little the Vikings have done on the offensive side of the ball, specifically in the passing game without Justin Jefferson.

And on the other side, how poor the New Orleans Saints have been on defense over the last two weeks.

And so to me.

The strength-on-strength part of the matchup is Brian Flores versus Kellen Moore, and I think that's going to get the headlines. But I really do wonder if simply the team that wins this matchup is the one that actually shows up more in the least flashy side of the ball, which is when the Vikings' offense is out there versus the Saints' defense.

And so I think this game has plenty of intrigue all around because both sides of the ball are coming from two different points of view on this one.

Yeah, they get to 4-0, the Minnesota Vikings, in a way... that at least has to partially bug Kevin O'Connell. You want to win games, but you don't want to be out gained. You want your side of the ball to look good. He is very much aware of what people like us are saying about his team.

You know, we didn't trail the whole day. The other day, we kept the lead. We possessed the football. And, you know, I know we haven't scored a touchdown in a while, but as we learned late in that game, sometimes it's by your own doing. So stats are great. I think they tell a story. I don't think they tell the whole story. But, you know, I totally understand, you know, kind of, you know, the viewpoint on us right now because we have the most critical viewpoint of ourselves inside this building.

I went and watched, you know, watched back that game and I know it was against Miami. I thought Kyler showed flashes. I thought it got better in the second half when it was. you know, shorter passes. There were some throws over the middle. There were some like, you know, play action, like what you want to see out of him.

But ultimately, if you kind of look at the statistical profile, it looks a lot like Aaron Rodgers with the Steelers, which is not what you want. For him, holding onto the ball for a while, that's different than Rodgers, but a low average depth of target. And that the plays have kind of been over against pressure. That worries me.

The Saints didn't get a single pressure today. against the Falcons on Monday night when they just rushed four. So this is not a great, you know, rush group, but I did see some signs that they could come out of it. And you mentioned the Saints defense really struggling. They especially struggle against the run and the Vikings have been okay running the ball. And again, I think a little bit of progress last week against Miami, if you squinted hard, Trevor.

You mentioned, you know, this looks like an Aaron Rodgers offense. I think it's required to say what year.

Yes, like this year, last year, last year.

Because even you don't have to go back that far and he was winning back-to-back MVPs. And so it's just the, oh, he looks like Aaron Rodgers. Just overall spectrum could be as deep and wide as possible for the quarterback position.

But I do agree with your assessment of where the Vikings are at here.

Yeah, I look at Tyler Shuck and I've been impressed. Like he is better than I thought he was going to be as a prospect. I don't know, you know, how you viewed him. I do look at where they're not winning right now, which is over the middle of the field. And it's all like intermediate and especially deep and third and long. And I do wonder, and this is less of an X's and O's question about this team, though.

They didn't deal with adversity too well on that Monday night game. They really collapsed against the Raiders in the fourth quarter. It's been a rough five quarters. This is the low point so far in the short Kellen Moore, Tyler Shuck era. And I am kind of just curious like how they respond in this spot in a very difficult matchup. There's a huge difference between them getting out of this thing at two and three and then being at one and four and really having a steep climb if they lose this game.

Yeah, totally.

And just going back to one of the questions that you kind of asked there, you know, what do we think of Tyler Shuck when he was coming out? I mean, I did a scouting report when he was at Louisville, and I know he had quite the college football journey in other places as well. But just the most recent year when he was coming out, look, he had the arm talent. There was no question about that. And The guy could really push the ball deep down the field, sometimes out of structure as well with some good athleticism, but it did feel like a lot of stuff was outside the numbers. And it's a little bit of the same story that we kind of talked about with Michael Penix, where we saw it this past week where Penix was

able to attack over the middle of the field, not a ton, but at least certainly go to it and recognize when it's open. I think that that's the next progression really from Tyler Shuck is you got to be able to do that because that's something that when I'm doing my quarterback evaluation through the draft, I like to put quarterbacks in certain situations and see how they fared third and long.

So third and seven.

Plus 10 to 19 yards down the field. So third and long. And how often do they throw intermediate middle of the field? Because if you aren't willing to do that. you really handcuff yourself and the defense gets to get really aggressive in a lot of different spots, especially to the outside and outside the numbers, if that's the only place that you want to throw. So throwing over the middle of the field like that is paramount for success.

Because you have to ask NFL defenses to defend every blade of grass or, you know, every pellet of turf, whichever one that you want to say there. And if you don't do that, it just it makes it too easy for the defense to get aggressive against you. So, yes, that's the next sort of step there for Tyler Shuck.

It's also where this Brian Flores defense is vulnerable, if anywhere. But they've been great in general. But that's traditionally how you beat them. And so we'll see if they can do that. I am not a huge fan of Mickey Loomis and his team build. And he's put so many resources into that offensive line. And look, I know Kelvin Banks is out right now. But they are one dimensional.

They can't run the ball. And so this is a big time test for that offensive line that they have built. Let's go to Washington, where I was surprised to see the commanders are three and a half point favorites in this game against the New York Giants who have a chance to.

Kind of bury.

Washington in the division to stay in first place. I think that line indicates the expectation that Jaden Daniels will be playing in this game. He did fully practice on Wednesday. Dan Quinn expects that to happen all week. Generally, if you're fully practicing, you're going to play. So I think we can lightly assume Daniels plays. Stefan Diggs was out of practice. Just something to note there. But he did finish out last week's game, which is usually... a good sign.

Where is a mismatch you are looking for in this NFC East battle?

Yeah.

I wonder if that line also just says something about how like Vegas never really knows what to do with Jameis Winston. I don't think a lot of people know what to do, you know, with Jameis Winston and when it did just a roller coaster that he has up and down, but the mismatch in this game, I do think goes in the Giants favor when it comes to their passing attack. And that's the Giants passing weapons, mainly Malik neighbors, Isaiah likely going against a commander's group that has really, really struggled this season sixth most passing yards allowed per game at 242 and a half seventh highest um tight window throw percentage in a bad way meaning they're leaving guys open quite a bit and and i just think that i i don't really like see things

turning around in a major way for them can they play better sure but like how much better can it really get and look the giants like to stay balanced and everything that they do so it's not like It's not like they're facing a Bengals team that will just.

Say, all right, fine, we're going to run the ball like eight times.

We're just going to let Joe Burrow throw it 55 times because you guys can't defend the pass. It's not quite going to be like that. But I'm nervous for Washington containing the explosive plays in this game. Even though it's going to be a little bit more balanced in its approach, can the passing game still get those chunk plays like we've seen Jameis be able to attempt to complete in the past? So to me, it's that Giants passing game against a very, very vulnerable commander secondary.

Yeah, I like that shout-out, too, because we didn't really talk on our show about the breakout game for neighbors. In a breakout, just that he looked more like himself, and then you combine him with likely, and you're cooking with something. Cam Scadaboo did have a red non-contact jersey at practice. John Harbaugh said that was not concussion-related, so you would assume he's going to be fine. Najee Harris was out of practice with a personal matter. They're going to want to stay balanced, but obviously Jaden Daniels changes the entire equation for Washington. I really enjoyed getting to go back and isolate some snaps with Arvel Reese and Abdul Carter next week. And one thing I thought about is that these two guys, and it's too bad Brian

Burns isn't there, obviously, but these two guys can be force multipliers for each other. Cause they both play with such force. Reese had just had some ridiculous like block destruction as you football guys would call it plays where he just, he just destroys the guard in front of him and blows up the play, even when he doesn't get the credit, but also the tackles in space and doing some things as a pass rusher. And then Carter is just going up and down the line and beating everyone.

And I, It's one thing if you have one of them and now you got two guys taken near the top of the draft that both look like they are going to just totally hit. I'm curious about your thoughts of this Giants defense in general and the toughness that they've shown and in this matchup, how they could look.

Yeah, on this past Monday's episode of NFL Stock Exchange, which is my NFL draft podcast that I do, we were doing defensive and offensive rookie of the year voting. So, hey, if the season ended today, who would we vote for?

Arville Reese. And it was very close.

Arville Reese was third on my defensive rookie of the year list with Dylan Thieneman and Sonny Stiles as well. And my co-host ended up having Arville Reese as his number one, who we would have given defensive rookie of the year.

I mean, you can give Connor some pop and just say his name, Connor Rogers.

You're great. You're great co-host. Come on. Not just some guy.

Connor Rogers.

No, I can't let him have more popularity than me.

I can't do that.

I got to keep it. I got to make sure I'm number one on my own show.

No, of course.

Myself and Connor Rogers over at the NFL Stock Exchange Show. And Connor had Arville Reese at his number one spot. And the way that we talked about it was how we love the way that the Giants are utilizing these two players. Because especially, again, as a draft guy, I watch a player get selected to a certain team.

And Arville Reese.

When he got selected by the Giants, it was a little bit of like I was excited, but I was also nervous. I was excited because I think of what he is like within that front seven and the group that they already had in there with Kayvon Thibodeau and Brian Burns and obviously Abdul Carter. I know Burns is hurt right now. But then on the flip side, you go, man, sometimes you watch coaches– Try to put too much on young guys plates or just try to make them too versatile.

And then all of a sudden, like, yeah, okay. You're playing them at a lot of different positions, but are they really having a high impact at any of them? Are you just moving them around for the sake of moving them around? Arbel Reese has been versatile. but he's been an off-ball linebacker. He'll blitz him, certainly, but he's an off-ball linebacker. Abdul Carter, you mentioned it. He's been versatile.

He'll rush from the left, from the right, with his hand in the dirt, stand up in a two-point stance, as a wide nine, as a three-tactic. He'll do it all, but he's a defensive lineman. They have him as an edge defender. And so to me, that's versatility in the best way, where you're moving these guys all over the place, but Arvel Reese stays at the second level, or starts at the second level for the most part, and Abdul Carter starts his plays in going after the quarterback. And to me, it's just an excellent use of what these guys do really, really well. Because there's temptation to switch it around, right? Where it's like, ooh, let's put Abdul Carter as the off ball and then we're moving Reese

to the on ball. And I just think that that would be a, switching it up and being versatile just for versatility's sake.

They're instead putting them in the right positions to succeed.

Yeah, I totally agree. And he's a great off-ball linebacker. I think he's going to stay there. And you're still getting some pass rush value. He had a great bull rush where he gets Jacoby Brissett last week. But you're also getting the plays like tackling Jeremiah Love in space. It's been awesome to watch him in style. That's going to be fun in this matchup. I just have a sneaky feeling the commander's They've been a little better, I think, than the record and some of the numbers would say.

Then again, I guess it's not that hot of a take because they're favored in this game. The Giants don't feel like a 4-1 team and the Commanders don't feel like a 1-4 team.

So I think things might even out here.

Let's take a break and we will finish off the early games with Trevor Sikama in just a few minutes. Back on NFL Daily, it is our week five.

Wow.

Preview with Trevor Sykema. Season's going by fast already. People really need to do check out the NFL Pro Show. The amount of work that Trevor and Brett Coleman, his co-host, put into this, but also the production staff, like... The video quality, the clips, the X's and O's, it's all like meticulously crafted. It's an awesome show. And yeah, check it out on YouTube. It's also a podcast. They put a ton of work into it. I can hear your producers and everything that they are putting into it while they're building the show on Sundays.

And it is something to behold. We just wing it over here at NFL. No, I'm just kidding.

We do.

We've got great production crew here, too. We got the Browns and the Jets. We got the Jets as two and a half point favorites. Trevor at home, despite being one in three against the three in one Browns. That's kind of saying these two teams are even. I don't know if I see it quite that way where I see the mismatch is the Browns pass rush right now versus the Jets offensive line, which on paper, the Jets offensive line should be great. But it hasn't really performed that way in terms of pass protection. And I don't think people know how this Browns pass rush, especially the last couple of weeks, are getting production from surprising places.

Isaiah McGuire, Derek Barnett are both top 10 in terms of NGS pressure rate.

And of course, you have Jared Verst.

Mason Graham will be out a few weeks with his knee sprain. So that's unfortunate for but Gino has taken a decent amount of sacks this season. And fashion, who especially has been a little disappointing. Membu had a couple relative off weeks, still playing well overall, but I do think the Browns pass rush could get after Gino who's moving better, but you know, not the most mobile quarterback in the league.

Yeah.

And look, I love Garrett Wilson and I like the, you know, the potential of the pass catchers that the jets have, but, I'm also a little concerned about how many tight window throws this game might have for them and Geno. He's going to have to really take some risks in this game because Geno You mentioned, obviously, the pass rush group for Cleveland's had a really nice start to the season. They're also still a pretty coverage-heavy team.

They're going to create those tight window throws. They're going to make you challenge them vertically deep down the field and be okay with kind of throwing the ball up there and letting your guys go up and get it through contested catches. And is Geno going to be comfortable enough with that, or are we going to see more of the sacks from him? I wonder if it's just kind of like a total– Cleveland's defense feels like it's got the makings of one that could make the Jets a little more uncomfortable than they want to play.

That's what worries me about everything here.

And look, Gino's going to throw it. He loves having Garrett Wilson. He didn't have much of a chance because they were barely on the field. They couldn't pick up a third down. Their defense was awful last week, but he will give Garrett Wilson his chances. Garrett Wilson versus Denzel Ward is as good a matchup as, as you can have in terms of man to man coverage. And Denzel Ward, like a lot of cornerbacks, like he's been one of the best cornerbacks in the league over the last seven or eight years in aggregate. He is a streaky player too. And he is right now on a great, hot streak. He is one of the best cornerbacks in the NFL, bar none this season. So I'm looking forward to that match. I'm looking forward to Gino. So is

Todd Munkin. If a coach is a fan of Gino, he's got to make the show.

He's had a terrific career, you know, and to get opportunities, you know, not only in Seattle and then with the Jets, you know, I see a very productive player, a guy that throws an elite deep ball. And, you know, it'll be a handful. We're eliminating some of the explosive plays that he's capable of creating.

Just love that gravelly voice out of Todd Munkin on a week-to-week basis. It sounds like no A.D. Mitchell or Brees Hall in this game, which are huge negatives. I thought about that last week that This Jets offense is frisky, but they're not deep, and losing that big of a decline at receiver and running back is a big deal. Also, I'm curious if Deshaun Watson can put together a full game.

He's been more mobile, better than I've expected this season. He hasn't really put together four quarters of effective play. This is a positive matchup for him against the Jets. Let's go to Cincinnati, Miami. The Bengals are 6.5-point favorites in Miami. We've been noting on this show, Trevor, that they've been frisky. Where do you see the mismatch in the matchup against the Bengals?

I think that's a really good word to describe this Dolphins team, which, look, you know, it's not great in the win-loss column, but they are, I think, more competitive than people maybe give them credit for.

However....

This week might be tough, man. I mean, the Bengals passing game versus the Dolphins coverage. I was talking about tight window throws a little bit earlier. The Dolphins, 6.2% tight window throw percentage, by far the lowest number in the league. By far, they're giving up the most open targets. Well, actually, open targets, they're second highest in the NFL in overall open target rate. But even beyond just clear open targets, they're not close to these receivers. And if there's anything that you need to be against the Bengals wide receivers, it's It's getting all over him. It's making those catches difficult because if you make it even just a little bit easy, even just a little bit open, this is

a team that could pour 30, 35, maybe even 40 points on you. And so I get worried because the Bengals are also, they're a team that, if the run game's not working, or more importantly, if they're not getting stopped in the passing game, they'll just keep the ball in Joe Burrow's hands. So it's really hard for me to think of a reality where the Dolphins outscore the Bengals this week, given how poorly that they have played in coverage and how good Joe Burrow is. So to me, it's really those stats of, these wide open receivers and the limited tight window throws. I mean, you just, you can't play like that against the Bengals and expect to outscore them when the clock hits zero.

It's a good call. Their rookie class has been awesome in Miami. I think Chris Johnson is probably the one that's struggling the most, the cornerback that they drafted. Now, Jamar Chase's status and T. Higgins' status is a huge X factor. Here, Jamar Chase is still in the concussion protocol as of Wednesday, which generally, if he didn't do anything at practice, means you'll be on the wrong side of being available this week, although not always.

So we'll see.

They also have a bye coming up, so they might be careful with him. T. Higgins was at practice and was limited, so that's a good sign for T.

Him.

Chop Robinson has been playing pretty well for this Dolphins team. A little bit of a comeback season. I think first and pass rush win rate right now. And Orlando Brown has struggled. So that's something to watch. And that's the type of development that Jeff Halfley is looking for. I thought what he said this week, we'll listen to it about the development of the team. Even what he said before the season about that developing the players is maybe more important than wins and losses. That was the preseason edition.

This is him now talking about where they're at after four weeks.

I told the guys very clearly that this was going to be a tough journey that we were all going to go on. And I told them that if they weren't up for it, then they can go talk to Sully, right? This is the time to find out as we build this thing and grow, who are the real guys? Like who are the guys that we can trust that want in the boat? Because when we flip this thing and we will flip this thing that we want to have around.

Sully, of course, being John Eric Sullivan, uh, the butthead to Jeff Halfley's Beavis. I should stop using that comp, but once you see it once, it's just... It sticks in your head.

I think you can make the comp.

The problem is you can't lead with it. You can't be like, yeah, John Eric Sullivan, who's the butthead. And then that's the first part of it.

You got to lead with the Beavis part and then we can get to the butthead part.

Yeah, that's fair. Hefley's definitely the Beavis.

It's unfortunate that that got thrown out there because I just can't forget about it.

But we'll see. The Bengals really need this game.

It's just the Dolph now have become kind of this team that like you better not lose against them. And the Bengals have, I believe, a bye and then the Ravens after the bye. So it just would be Armageddon if they lose this game. Are you a believer in what they're doing defensively? It's been a little up and down there. Yeah.

I like what they're doing up front.

I think that the pressure that they're generating, the guys they have up front, including some of the new guys and the young guys, specifically the rookies, I think that they are playing well. And so I like what I see on the defensive line from this team. In coverage, I don't mind them being a little bit heavier of a man coverage team, which they have been so far this season. But the problem is that there have been too many broken plays in man coverage, specifically in the red zone. Like, there are guys running into each other.

You know, there's... some pointing going on after the play, after a touchdown has given up. And if you're going to play man, you better be rock solid at it because if you are not in your P's and Q's at all whatsoever, wide open, wide open wide receiver in the quarterbacks in this league, they're too good to not notice that. So, I like that they're pairing better pressure with tighter man coverage. But the man coverage stuff, we've got to eliminate the broken plays from them if you're going to do that. So I don't mind the strategy, but we've got to get better execution from this team moving forward.

Yeah, put you on the spot. Great answer there. And we'll see. Maybe they get Caleb Douglas back for the Dolphins this week.

Maybe not. And him and Chris Bell, the two rookie receivers, could make some big plays. We'll find out. Let's go to.

Pittsburgh where the Steelers are two and a half point favorites to two and two teams. It's them and the Colts and the mismatch here. It's a little cruel. It's the Colts and versus my overall interest level. Now, I'm interested in every team, Trevor. I think you can find something fascinating. You can dive in. There's so much to dive into, right? But if I'm power ranking the teams right now of different aspects of the team that I'm most interested in, who do I want to watch on a week-to-week basis, all that stuff, The Colts might be 32.

They really might. It's just they're just in the middle. I know the.

Steelers are a little bit in the middle, too, but I'm more interested in their middle.

And so what can the Colts do to get me back?

That's I don't know. That's a tough question for you to answer. But I just feel like defense is OK. The passing game is not quite the same. Not a lot of juice either way. What do you think they can do to change things around?

So it's funny.

Brett and I do game picks for 10 games every single week, and we post it as a one-off video on the YouTube channel. We were picking the Steelers and the Colts, and it was the hardest game of the week for me to pick because I think both of these teams are just the same thing. They play the same brand of football every single week, and the.

Bar is right here. Right in the middle.

The teams that play good are going to beat them. The teams that play poor are not. Their performance does not go up and down ever.

They are here. They're here the entire season. They're here every week.

And that's why I can understand what you're saying of where's the interest level.

Because you looked at this team last week.

I mean, the Colts had a matchup where Josh Downs should have been feasting, and the quick passing game should have been working, and the play-action passing game should have been more dynamic. Dude, without Alec Pierce, this is a low-ceiling offense.

And they're just.

I don't know if Daniel Jones doesn't want to do it. I don't know if Shane Steichen.

Doesn't want to do it.

But whatever it is, they have basically become Jonathan Taylor rushes for 120 yards, or we lose, Or bust like that's like what the team motto feels like it is each week. And that's just a really rough way to go about offense in this league. Given the freak is always that play a quarterback throughout the entire league and that are on your schedule. It's just such a low ceiling team and how they play the game right now.

And it's just, yeah, I think that that's the best way that I could sum up what they are, is they just play the same every single week. And if they happen to be playing a good team, they're going to lose. And if they happen to be playing a bad team, they're going to win. And I just don't, I don't think that gets you where you want to go in the end.

Yeah, they paid Alec Pierce $ 30 million for a reason. They needed that explosiveness. So they really miss him. These two teams are 19th and 21st in terms of overall success. efficiency at DVOA. So yeah, right, right in the middle of the league. I thought it was interesting. Mike McCarthy said they were not preparing for the Colts on Tuesday because they were doing a day of quote self-reflection for the Steelers. So they kind of get the mini by coming off the Thursday and yeah, You know, I see some dumb people on social being.

Like, oh, they're not tough enough. You're doing a day of self-reflection. I think it's good. Evaluate your own team. Where are you coming up short?

Because right now, here's what I would say they should, you know, come up with after that day of self-reflection.

A little more Jalen Warren, please.

I think defensively, whatever caused TJ Watt to lose his mind and scream at the coordinator in the middle of the game because he was not happy with what was going on. You want a little less frustration. In fact, Pat Fryermuth... said in an interview that we could use a little less, maybe cut back on the in-game frustrations.

When I saw that quote, Trevor, I thought, oh, Aaron Rodgers is never throwing to Pat Friermuth again. You know, it's like he's going to see that and just be like, shut up. I think we could use a little more Jeremy Bernard, too, and a little more Roman Wilson, maybe a little less Michael Pittman.

Those are my suggestions after my day of self-reflection.

Yeah, no, that's good. I do agree with you, though.

I think that when you look at the Steelers team, it does feel like there's a lot of frustration there. And I definitely, I like when players are passionate. I like when players have fire. But there is definitely a fine line to it, especially coming from the leaders of the team.

Because if you.

Start to, if your outbursts start to come from a place of not trusting players, the guys who are making the calls that are coming into the headset and everything. Well now, okay, this isn't, you know, fieriness and passion. This is, you know, this seems too harsh of a word, but like mutiny, you know what I'm saying? And so there's just now all this division that's within the team instead of passion that's channeled in the right area.

So, uh, I hope their day of reflection was good.

You know, I hope that they, I hope that they found a nice park, you know, nice body of water, nice little waterfall, a lot of rivers, koi fish. You know, that's what, that's what I'm hoping happened there for them. And I hope they're refreshed, ready for this week.

It's absolutely because I took the Steelers.

Over under 8.5 is one of my top win total picks because I do think there's something in this team. Talent-wise, they can get a little more out of them than the Colts, so I do like them this week. Derek Harmon just wanted to update. The news is going to injured reserve. He had been playing the best ball of his career on the defensive line. Arden Key, who's been a key player for the Colts, is out three to four weeks, so they're both missing some people up front.

That's an even matchup. Which way are you going? Let's go to another even matchup in terms of the win totals. The winless Texans are seven and a half point favorites at Tennessee. Now, the numbers would tell you that the Texans and the Bucs actually are two of the best 0-4 teams in NFL history, just in terms of like the.

Point differential overall.

Yeah.

Like love to hear it.

Like they're actually, both of those teams are ranked above the Colts and the Steelers in.

DVO way for the season. And they don't have a win.

We're going to lead off with some news before, uh, I get to your mismatch here because something happened literally while we've been taping Trevor that I wanted to get into the show. D'Amico Ryans said he will take over play calling duties for Matt Burke moving to forward. An interesting change in week five. And it really highlights an exchange that he had with DJ Bien-Aimé, I believe it's pronounced, the ESPN reporter who went back and forth with him.

I don't know if you happened to catch it earlier this week, basically asking why they didn't play more press coverage. And he's gotten a lot of criticism, D'Amico Ryan's maybe for the first time in terms of how they're constructing their defense, that they were too predictable, always lining up in quarters zone coverage last week. And the Cowboys kind of knew what they were doing and they never changed their approach. D'Amico Ryan's did not appear to enjoy this level of questioning. He just smiled at the questions and moved on. Essentially it was getting under his skin, even though they were totally fair and, And then he was like, we call those coverages.

We call those coverages.

The numbers said that they didn't, that they were very static in terms of their approach. And now for him to change his defensive coordinator, I'm not saying he's changing it in terms of the defensive play caller because of the exchange, but I do think maybe what those questions were getting at is, is part of the reason that D'Amico says, I need to take over.

I need to be in charge of this defense. That's not playing how I want it to play.

Yeah.

And, and I think that there's something to that, right?

I mean, if you're a head coach and your expertise is on either side of the ball and either side of the ball is not going to be the way that you want it to, it's very natural to say, okay, I'm taking this over. Like, this is what got me here. This is what I'm good at. And so I can understand getting to that point. Look, I can also a little bit understand the lack of press coverage from them.

Hey, I can understand.

We've got four guys up front, especially led by Will Anderson that we believe can get home at any point in time. Well, the less bodies that you have to throw at the pocket, the less you have to play man coverage because you put guys more guys into coverage in zone. It could sometimes confuse quarterbacks that aren't used to what they're seeing. I think the big problem was Greg.

they went up against Dak Prescott, who's playing at an unbelievable level right now. I mean, Dak is such a veteran in the game at this point that he has a lot of the answers to the test. And so he was able to not only get the ball out of his hand quickly, but do so down the field. And there's just not a lot of quarterbacks that are able to do that. So to me, the Cowboys game was, I know, frustrating for the Texans, a little more of a hat tip game to what Dak Prescott, Brian Schottenheim were able to do on the offensive side of the ball. Now, you want to play better if you're the Texans. I'm not saying that you just excuse it, but to me, it was a little bit more credit to Dallas than something that the Texans were doing horribly wrong. For this

game specifically, though, this Titans and Texans game, I do look at the Texans' offense differently. And that's the side of the ball that we were most worried about. And look, I'm still worried about how they are on the ground game, especially when it comes to the short yardage situations. But Nico Collins, I mean, who's guarding Nico Collins?

Right, right, right.

I mean, Elante Taylor's their top corner.

And he is giving up.

15 receptions on 16 targets for 166 passing yards. And he's got one of the highest EPA per targets in the league. And like, he's the guy who's going to cover Nico Collins, who's gotten to the end zone every game that he has played. And he's coming off a hundred yard game coming off of injury. Like that's the, to me, that's the biggest mismatch is, I mean, he might be a game wrecker.

Himself.

And it might be given how I think the Titans have struggled on offense. I, that Nico Collins might be enough by himself. So to me, that's the big mismatch in this game, but I think all eyes are going to be on the defense because this is a Titans offense that. has struggled, has had its inconsistencies. Cam Ward has looked uncomfortable at many points this season. You're the freaking Houston Texans. You should be one of those teams that's in that category of you made Cam Ward and his offense look really uncomfortable. So yeah, this is a little bit of a gut check game because if the Texans don't look good against the Titans, all due respect to the Titans, we're going to start to have serious conversations about what is going on in Houston.

Yeah, they have the Jaguars next week in London, technically a Jaguars home game. Then the schedule really opens up. They can still get out of run. I'm not giving up our Super Bowl pick yet, but this is, I think, a sign of where their season is at. They also had three players back at practice who could come off the IR any week. Tank Dell, their first, first round pick or early second round pick Caden McDonald, the defensive tackle and Braden Smith, who is going to be their starting right tackle. So they have some reinforcements coming. And you mentioned that they've got four guys rushing. They feel good about, but man, they're not getting a lot of production out of, out of their defensive tackles right now.

So it's not as complete a team up the seams, their safety play, their linebacker play, their defensive tackle play, not as good. And I'm glad you pointed out that the mismatch in terms of the Texans passing attack, because, Yeah, like Robert Sala was quoted on Wednesday saying, you know, my defense, it does take a little while to learn, but once you learn it, like they'll really have it mastered.

And the history supports that. His Jets defense was not good his first year, and it was gangbusters after that. But all the attention on Cam Ward has kind of hid the fact that if you look at overall efficiency, their defense has been worse than their offense. They're 28th overall in defense. John Franklin Myers has not been productive for them. Cordell Flott, Alante Taylor has spent a lot of.

Money, a lot of money. And right now it's a little bit of a for who, for what?

So a tough matchup for them going against the CJ Stroud led Texans passing attack and And yeah, I think it's going to be tough on both sides of the ball. Man, talk about disrespect. You're not even within a touchdown at home against a team that hasn't won a game.

That's rough.

Yeah, yeah, that's tough. That's all the bulletin board material that you should need. So hopefully we get a pretty fiery Titans team this week.

I'd like to see it.

And look, I think if you're looking for a positive, JC Latham finally kind of looking like the guy they.

Expected to draft. He's looking good, yeah.

I think the offensive line is actually pretty good. So it's a good matchup. Whoever's matching up against him, Daniil Hunter or Will Anderson, it'll be a great matchup. We appreciate Trevor Sycamore around here. I've mentioned the NFL Pro Show. that he does with Brett Coleman. It's on YouTube. You can get it as a podcast. He also chips in on the Fantasy Show, 40s and Free Agents sometimes. He's got the Stock Exchange with Connor Rogers.

We respect you, Connor, but we respect you even more, Trevor. Appreciate you.

Thanks, brother. Anytime.

That's it for the early games, but we got more games to preview with our great friend Jordan Rodrigue. We are going to hit the TNF game, the London game, all the Island games.

And the late afternoon ones. Check us out there.

2026 Week 5 Early Games Preview with Trevor Sikkema: Bears-Packers Showdown, DeMeco Take over Texans D, Vikings try for 5-0!

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