The NFL Report: Which team Rules the AFC North? + Nick Shook Joins the Show

All right, it's a brand new edition of NFL Report. With all the late game drama in week five, it felt appropriate to get an overtime game that was as wild as you'll ever see why a never die attitude got the Bills a win in Los Angeles. Sean Payton grabbed the call sheet back this weekend. The Broncos, they won, but the offense was far from great. What the evidence tells you about what's looming ahead for Denver. And Derrick Henry is not just affectionately called the king, but the Ravens, well, they could be the kings of the north. Our analyst makes the call. on why the Ravens can keep flying high. Plus, we'll tell you the most intriguing team in that division.

And welcome to a brand new edition of NFL Report. I'm Mike Yam.

My good friend Nick Shook is going to be joining me in studio. We'll get his take on what transpired last night in a Monday night football matchup, not to mention the Eagles.

It feels like it's going in the wrong direction.

We'll put into context just how bad the season has gotten for this Philadelphia squad.

But we start with the latest headlines.

And what better place to start by finishing out or at least revisiting what happened last night in the Monday night game right across the street from our studios at SoFi Stadium. Josh Allen, Matthew Stafford, the last two league MVPs. Well, this game, it was really a show, especially late. We picked this thing up late fourth quarter. How about this?

Finish. Kyron Williams get into the end zone.

This game featured six lead changes, four in the second half alone in the extra session in overtime.

James Cook, you're feeling like Buffalo. This could be their opportunity.

Nate Landman, absolutely monstrous time to come up with the punch out. And then if you're a Rams fan, you're like, oh, we got this. We got this. Two fumbles, by the way, in the game for Cook a little bit later. Harrison Mevis from 48. OK, I'm just going to let that one sit for a minute. Kind of a buzzkill if you're a Rams fan. More on the fallout from this failed game-winning kick in just a moment. By the way, three field goals missed so far by Mavis in the season.

That is the most in the NFL. Josh Allen, talk about his ability as a quarterback. That includes the run game. Ran for $ 1. 21, threw for $ 2. 10 in this one. Pickup of 19 there. And Tyler Bass, by the way, this is how you close a game using your foot. Josh Allen, 0-7 in overtime games. That streak now officially over. That'll put a smile on his face. We also heard from the winning quarterback when it was done. It's football.

You can be down and out one play. The next play, you're on top of the world. And again, that's just how it rolled for us today. You know, our goal is to go 1-0 each week. um when we wanted to go 2-0 this this west coast trip and you can't go 2-0 without getting the first one so um we did our the first part of our job we got to have a really good week on a short short week going against a you know really good team in the raiders um enjoy this one tonight flush it and get on to the next listen you're playing a really good football team in buffalo um you know you're gonna have to fight tooth and nail to go get a win and give ourselves some opportunities didn't come away with it disappointing obviously but Short week. We've got to

move on and be ready to rock and roll.

Well, emotions running very high. And by the way, that's a preview. All shook up. Nick Shook is going to be with us here in just a moment. We just we like the Elvis flash so much we decided to play it here. Meanwhile, Aleric Jackson actually struck linebacker or struck the Bills linebacker Bradley Chubb right after the game.

You can see this altercation, not exactly what the NFL wanted to see. In fact, Adam Schefter putting it out on social media, suspending him two games without pay, barring a successful appeal. Jackson is going to miss the Rams game against the Cardinals and then the Raiders in week number seven. Mike Garofalo putting this out on social media.

Harrison Mevis talked about missing that game winning field goal and the fact that it got blocked. He has now officially been released from the squad for a little bit more. Without the wig, the Elvis deal, that's still to come, is with us. All right, I think back to special teams. We set this season up for the Rams. They were the super team. All these stars, offense and defense. But a year ago, Rashid Shaheed, week 16, 58-yard punt return for a touchdown. Fighter coordinator, the Muff Punk in the playoff game. And now this. It feels like this is a growing trend. on special teams for the Rams.

It's beyond the trend.

It's a major issue for this team that they said they were going to fix in the offseason, and they didn't fix it. It's just as bad, if not worse, this year than it was last year. And what did they do as a result of that? They cut their kicker today. Well, it's more than just the kicker. It's the blocking unit. It's all parts of the special teams.

And it's also how the coach approached this final period here. Sean McVay taking a very conservative approach to this.

Final few minutes.

And it kind of just mystified everybody in the moment because we thought, do you know who.

Your special teams unit is?

Do you know that your kicker is not trustworthy or why are you not trying to get closer at least?

And it cost the Rams a game. So they do have to make changes.

He admitted that they need to, and this is the first of those changes. I don't think we'll see another coordinator firing in season like last year, but there's definitely plenty to clean up here.

Okay, the theme of Week 5 was late-game drama, and it did feel like in a Monday night game that caps Week 5. Why not end the way that we did in this one? It's a never-say-die kind of attitude here. There are some positives and maybe some negatives, some teachable moments may be the best way to describe it from a Buffalo perspective, but what did you see?

I saw Josh Allen being Josh Allen and being Josh Allen in a way that's a little bit different than usual.

Not that he's not a prolific runner because he is. It's one of the most successful plays in football is a.

Josh Allen run. But he didn't have to throw the ball nearly as much. The passing game wasn't really working that much for this team. So he took it upon himself to evade the rush, take off, use his legs and use all parts of his strengths to propel this offense forward. This was a slower moving first half.

It was, I believe, a one point game.

And it ended up becoming an explosive second half with really great play design on both sides, whether it was Sean McVay or it was Joe Brady, and Josh Allen was the key that unlocked that Buffalo offense.

Not to mention James Cook.

They turned to him plenty, and they were able to overcome a late fumble that could have cost them the game. So it's a dynamic offense, and they did enough to win this game.

You know, it's odd. A couple of years ago, these two teams played, and that was a game that featured over 600 yards of offense from both of those teams. I think it was like 80 some odd points that were scored combined in that matchup, but there wasn't a sack and there wasn't a turnover sort of, an entertaining game, but the exact different kind of playbook. It was fun to watch regardless. More from you coming up here in just a moment, including the way in action. So I think we just played it to get them going.

Just a smidge there.

All right.

From a New England perspective, not great news.

Travion Henderson suffered a high ankle sprain during last Sunday's win over Vegas. Expected to miss multiple weeks. Now, surgery, keep in mind, not required, but he is not going to hit the IR. So even though he's missing multiple weeks, the fact that he's not on IR maybe signals It'll happen before three weeks or I should say four weeks.

Maybe he's back in three. And an important win for the Ravens in week five. No, Lamar Jackson, Stu Huntley handled business in the ATL on Sunday night football. Jackson dealing with the ankle he suffered in that win against the Titans. Here's his head coach, Jesse Minter on a status.

He's definitely doing better.

You know, Wednesday, I'm not sure about exactly how that practice will look, but Again, to Lamar's credit, he's doing everything he can to get back out there. I thought he was awesome. There's a lot of cool pictures and clips of him on the sideline, you know, in between series, talking to Snoop and hyping guys up. And what a wonderful teammate and leader that he is, even when he wasn't playing. So very, very proud of Lamar for handling himself like that. And again, he's doing everything he can.

I think we'll know more definitely by the middle of the week.

All right. So it feels like it's trending in a good direction for Lamar Jackson, who, by the way, is truly one.

Of the best dudes in the NFL. His team is four and one.

We're in our production meeting earlier today, and we're just kind of going back and forth on this division. You're like, no, this is still the Ravens division to when you feel the most confident in their ability to take this north. But when It came to the most intriguing team. You had a different answer.

It was the Cincinnati Bengals because of what they've done so far and how much they can improve as the season progresses. This is a team that we know really has an explosive offense. We know Joe Burrow and the usual suspects of Tee Higgins and Jamar Chase. There's questions to answer on the offense, like is Samadji Piran potentially your better running back than Chase Brown right now?

And the defense has been excellent up front.

And that's a caveat with the up front because the secondary has not been as good.

So there's room for growth here. And yet this team right now is only one game behind the Ravens.

They're locked in a three-way tie of sorts if we don't think about division record with the Browns and the Steelers. There's so much season left to play. And this division is so close that it can go in a number of different directions. But when I look at the teams and the way they're constructed right now, it's the Ravens and it's the Bengals.

They're the ones that are going to be battling for this division.

How impressive have you been, though, with the front side of that defense, considering all the questions we had coming into the season?

It's that man right there, number 97, Dexter Lawrence. I mean, he has been a transformative player for this defensive front. He was worth the first-round pick they sent to him in the trade. With the Giants, he's helped make everybody around him better. We've seen some of the other additions in the last couple of years with his boy, Amafe, Shamar Stewart.

You can continue to go down the list.

Also finding success because they're playing alongside Dexter Lawrence, a guy who blows up run games.

He blows up play actions. He gets after the quarterback. He does a whole lot.

And he looks, I don't want to say he didn't look great last year, but he looks like a different player.

Motivated.

That's the best way to describe it. Also look like he slimmed down, which is saying something because he still feels like the biggest dude on that football field. By the way, the team that Cincinnati just knocked out was the Miami Dolphins. We got some news surrounding this organization. It was kind of cool here. The Dolphins actually announcing a historic $ 100 million raise for cancer research to the league's number one annual fundraising event, the Dolphins Cancer Challenge. Now, they celebrated with a check presentation on the field during halftime of Sunday's game against Cincinnati. That moment paid tribute to a record accomplishment while acknowledging those directly impacted by the funds raised through the Dolphins Cancer Challenge. What an

amazing cause here. And, you know, cancer obviously affecting a lot of us at home. So good job. Kudos to that organization. Meanwhile, wins always feel good. A little bit sweeter, though, when you take out a rival. Jordan Love got the Packers back on track. We hear from Matt LaFleur. Nick explains what this game signals for them the rest of the season. Back here on NFL Report, we've got some news in Big D. Dallas, the defense hasn't been great so far this season. Brian Schottenheimer announcing the hire of Mike Pettin as the Cowboys' new senior defensive assistant. Both of those dudes coordinators under Rex Ryan with the New York Jets. The unit right now for Dallas, 26th in the NFL in points allowed, 25th in passing touchdowns allowed.

That's not good. Here's Schotty.

I think Pettin's experience, not only in football, but his experience individually in this system of what we do, his understanding of the 3-4 family. He has the awareness of some of our players, Kenny Clark, Rashawn Gary. He was the coordinator when CP was there. So I think it's just a great fit and a guy that certainly brings a bunch of experience to the entire staff, myself included.

And if you think about it, we have someone like that on the offensive side with Ken Dorsey. And so very excited to Having Pat join us.

Just going to get a secondary voice in the room, I would imagine, too. Cowboys, by the way, their defensive coordinator, Christian Parker, his first job. Pat actually gave it to him in his days with the Green Bay Packers. And for what it's worth, Parker going to be moving to the booth, get a holistic view of everything that's happening out in front of him. I actually love that personally from a coordinator perspective. I think you just see the fields better. I'm also short, so when I'm on the sideline, I don't see a ton. It's been a tough start for the Packers. Things seem to click, though, at the perfect time. Got a hated divisional rival in Chicago. That was the opponent. Jordan Love exploded, 367 passing yards.

Two touchdowns. But the head coach, Matt LaFleur, was thinking about the other side of the ball.

I thought our defense across the board played. It was a complete game from the front to the backers to the secondary. I thought all the guys played really well. Certainly, are there some things that we need to clean up? Absolutely. And I guess that's encouraging, right? When you win a game and there's still a lot of room for improvement.

We had a few mental mistakes that can't happen with kind of base calls that have been in since OTAs. And so sometimes that can happen with game plan type, you know, play calls. But we got to make sure that our base... calls are executed at a high level.

Okay.

So maybe it's just good timing.

Maybe you find your stride and it's an opponent where you've had some success against Cowboys and Packers head to head last six meetings, by the way, it's just weird. I mean, I know we had a tie already with the giants and the commanders. I always think it's weird when I see that, in an NFL matchup, but that was the case in week four of last season. But it has been a heavy dose of the Green Bay Packers in these matchups. Now time for All Shook Up.

By the way, you got to take a closer look at the Elvis thing there. I actually, and I'm almost embarrassed because I actually asked Nick, I'm like, oh, are you an Elvis fan? I knew it was coming. You're like, No, it's just a song. I'm shook up.

It's just a song.

Bad job by me.

No, it's fine.

All right, what's got you fired up right now?

Number one on the list.

Besides the wig.

I mean, well, I'm going to avoid wigs.

They're itchy. They're uncomfortable. I like being a bald guy.

All right.

Number one on the list is your Green Bay Packers.

Are they back?

Was last week's victory over the Bears a sign of things to come? Jordan Love looking spectacular throwing the ball downfield. A defense that caused all types of problems for Tyson Bajan and eventually Case Keenum. and a team that prior to this game on Sunday was 20th in the league in yards per game at just over 300 yards, put up 428 on the Bears defense, a Bears defense that was playing better than most had expected. Most importantly, Christian Watson being a big play guy.

Can they get Tucker Craft even more involved? Can they continue to roll?

You saw the board there with all those Cowboys scores. All those games required 30-plus points. One went over 40 for them to win, so they're going to need to keep scoring, and I think they might be able to do it.

All right. I already got fantasy on my mind. If you're talking about a whole lot of points in this game, that's where my head goes. By the way, you can catch Fantasy Show on Wednesdays here on the NFL channel. Patriots, you buy in all of a sudden a Drake May that's got eight total touchdowns in the last two weeks.

It's all questions this week. Is the Patriots resurgence for real? Because they look like a terrible outfit through the first three weeks of the season. The last two, they look like the AFC champions we knew them to be from last season.

So what are the Patriots? Well, they're a team that is quarterbacked.

By a guy who is settling back into his comfort zone, who is enjoying throwing the football downfield to Kyle Williams.

He's finding Hunter Henry. He's got all day to throw.

Even lost his left tackle in the game in Will Campbell. Caleb Lomu comes in and does a pretty good job. Mike Vrabel said he was pretty pleased with it because he didn't hear about him much afterward. So if you can stay solid up on the left side and keep Drake May protected and allow him a little bit of time to run afterward, too.

I think you're going to be fine. I think this resurgence might actually stick.

And by the way, we gave the news on Henderson, which is not great news. We still really haven't seen A.J. Brown and his ability to change this offense.

Not since week one.

Right? And he comes back. I feel like there's another level to this team that could shine.

Yeah.

I mean, I don't know if I want to hear their color commentators, Scott Zolak being like, we're back, but they may just be back.

Possibly the case. From a Denver perspective, Sean Payton, I think some Denver fans were like, all right, there's going to be a massive boost offensively.

They won.

That's good.

There was a boost in sideline chaos.

There was a boost in maybe some frustration with how the offense is performing so far. Can Sean Payton figure this thing out? He is an offensive mastermind. Historically speaking, he's been one of the best. He takes the play card back from Davis Webb, his offensive coordinator. He's got his hand on the button to put the plays in.

And all there is is disorganization on the sideline and a team that needed four of its five scoring drives to start in Chargers territory just to put points on the board.

One for 12 on third down, 224 total yards, two touchdowns on five red zone trips, a disastrous of sorts goal-to-go situation in which they can't decide what play they want to call.

They take a timeout. Later, they take a timeout, and they get a delay of game out of the timeout. Things have to get cleaner. This operation has to get cleaner, and then maybe the Broncos will finally find some lead because right now.

It's all on the defense.

All right.

By the way, if this team does figure it out offensively, I don't remember where you had them, but a lot of us on NFL.com had said, hey, like this could be a Super Bowl team. I know they're not flashing that right now, but there's that upside here. We haven't even seen the impact of Waddle right now on this offense.

Exactly. Waddle's had a really rough start. I think this season he's had some tough drops.

He had a tough one over the middle on Sunday in their comeback win over the Chargers. But there's a reason I'm keeping them inside the top 10 of the power rankings. A little spoiler right there is because this defense is that good.

Good.

This defense can keep them in pretty much every game and buy their offense time to figure it out. They've scored 45 points in the first, second and third quarters combined in every game this year. Fifty two scored in the fourth. OK, they have to get to the fourth quarter to be within range. Luckily, they have a defense that can do it.

By the way, I'm glad you mentioned power rankings.

It is coming up in just a couple of minutes right here on the NFL channel. I know that you love that San Francisco 49ers squad. They're not going anywhere from that top spot. I'm spoiling your own rankings. That's fine.

Fly, Eagles, fly. Well, they've been grounded.

Philly.

O.C.

Sean Madden tells us what he can build on, and it gives some context on just how far this team has fallen.

All right, if you're a football fan, I got something for you.

NFL Plus. You can keep the NFL in reach, stream live, local, and primetime games.

That grab is ridiculous, so was that one. Triple coverage, just saying.

By the way, I was checking this out on some of those advanced analytics videos on NFL Plus for some of those grabs. We got seven exclusive live games this season. By the way, you can listen to live game audio and more NFL Plus Premium.

Get NFL Red Zone.

Watch every touchdown every Sunday afternoon during the regular season. Catch those game replays and track those advanced analytics powered by NextGenStats.com. with NFL Pro. By the way, sign up, nfl.com slash fast. Meanwhile, one guy who's been tearing it up is Bryce Young. Dude's been balling. Panthers quarterback ranked in the top 10 in the NFL in passing yards, passing touchdowns, and passer rating. His head coach, Dave Canales, was asked to explain his success.

It's timely, and this type of attention is earned by working hard every day, by trying to find out how good you can be, mastering different parts of your game. His natural growth and progression just continues to take strides every week as he learns new things about certain defenses, as he learns new things about his guys.

Yeah, dude's an absolute stud. Meanwhile, I'm looking at Nick Shook's week six power rankings, teams 25 through 32. All right, this is crazy here. I just want to give everyone some context. Preseason, I'm checking out power rankings. I see where you had the Eagles, and I'm like, all right, I can buy what you're selling. You had them fourth.

They are free-falling right now to 26. They're matching up against the Carolina team, who, by the way, we just heard from Dave Canales. It's like, that's going to be a tough draw from that defense. That potentially... is going to be a little bit of an issue for them defensively. So when I throw that out there, I know Sean Manning's trying to find some level of optimism around this team's offense.

Yeah, that's the issue. That's the issue with this group right now is that they're.

We came out in the second half. had some third-down conversions, had a close call on the deep shot to Wicks. I think there were some chances there that we just didn't quite capitalize on. But ultimately, as a staff, I'm looking every week to put ourselves in the best position possible, kind of leaving halftime to extend those drives. I think we're closer. I know the result hasn't been what we want or what we hold ourselves to as an offense.

but I felt like we were getting closer in the second half. We really just have to finish some of those drives.

Well, they were knocking on the door for finishing one of those games in London. It doesn't happen for them. Just explain to me, because I think this is a unique situation. Of all the teams in your power rankings at the bottom, I know that they're sitting at 25. I think they have the potential to go up. Saquon's been banged up. Devontae Smith has been banged up. That's two of their best players on offense. Lane Johnson goes and retires. Cam Juergen goes and gets traded. This situation for Sean Manning, not ideal for a first-time OC.

Yeah, not to mention the fact that they also, their first-round draft pick, Makai Lemon, has been absent in this offense as well. They're just not getting much I mean, Darius Cooper was an undrafted free agent in 2025 has been a touchdown scorer for them. This is where they are right now. They're missing a number of guys. I'm highly concerned about their offensive line because you don't just recover from losing a franchise legend like Lane Johnson at right tackle and trading Cam Juergens. I mean, look, he's moved over to guard because they needed him to play guard because of injuries elsewhere with Landon Dickerson. I don't know if you can recover from that lack of depth on the offensive line. And I think that hurts the

whole offense.

But you're right.

If they can get some guys back and they can find a bit of a rhythm, I think that they can maybe turn this thing around because they still have Vic Fangio's defense.

By the way, also, this division is not exactly filled with world beaters right now. I know the Giants were fortunate. to get a tie. It's wide open. It really is at this point. And Dallas's defense is certainly keeping that page open. Speaking of defense, Minnesota right now, undefeated. My God, back in the top 10. How does an undefeated team...

Now I sound like one of those dudes that get into your email.

You sound a lot like an email I got on Sunday.

But explain to me, you're showing this team some love and it does feel like it's well-deserved.

Yeah.

Look, it's a championship caliber defense and it's an offense that finally found something in New Orleans. It took a while for Kyler Murray to get comfortable, but he's finally started to get comfortable. He found Justin Jefferson for a touchdown over triple coverage, like you said.

A throw that you basically were saying as it was in the air. Why did you throw that? Oh, wait, never mind. It's a touchdown.

What I really liked about this game was just that Kyler was able to make the best out of some bad situations. At one point, you know, they're cage rushing and they're boxing him in.

And he accepts it, sits there, frantic feet, waiting.

Waiting, waiting, finally finds a guy downfield for a long completion that sets up.

A later score.

So they're starting to piece things together offensively. They had no life offensively prior, which is why I kept them out of the top 10, regardless of how good their defense was.

You pair an all right offense that with the.

Potential to improve with a an elite defense, probably the best defense in the NFL.

Then you got a real shot and you deserve to be in the top 10.

Yeah, I was actually walking through our hallways and I ran into Steve Smith. We just happened to be talking about the Justin Jefferson touchdown. He's like, that was one of those stories. You go, oh, I don't know. Because it's Justin Jefferson, he figures out a way. which was kind of cool to see. All right. I know you got Power Rankings.

Coming up in just a bit.

You need to go and get to the studio. Good job by you. Get ready. He legitimately has the hardest job in the building. No one is ever really happy with Nick unless their team is sending number one.

I don't live to make you happy.

Just one of those.

All right. Get after it. Do your thing. We got some quick hits for you. and get you updated on a couple other stories. And we start here, Ian Rapoport, putting this out on social media. Montez Sweat's actually been suspended for the club's next two games for violating the NFL's performance-enhancing substance policy, that according to the league. We just showed some of those highlights there in Minnesota and New Orleans. This is not great, man. The Saints, they came out on just offensive fire, but the losses continue to pile up.

Gail Benson, turn it up the heat here.

I will not make excuses, and I will not accept this level of performance as our standard. I am committed to making the decisions necessary to improve this team. Everyone in this organization understands the urgency here. Yeah, you can understand. There's a little bit of disappointment with this 1-4 start. Meanwhile, Cam Wolfe putting this out on social media.

Not great news.

Will Campbell write MCL knee sprain? Expected to miss some game action. It is good, though, that it is not a completely torn MCL, which would have cost him the entire season. So some good sprinkled in with some bad there. Patrick Mahomes will throw this out there. He's got a new target. We know they are signing Justin Watson to the practice squad. Taequann Thornton moved to IR. Watson actually played in KC 22-24 before signing as a free agent with the Houston Texans. Andy Reid said, quote, he was a good player for us when he was here. He's willing to do everything. He knows the offense. He is a smart kid, and we know with the dominance of Kenneth Walker now coming outside of that backfield. Other guys,

some of those explosive plays, maybe Watson becomes one of those dudes. Appreciate you watching. We've got Power Rankings coming up next.

The NFL Report: Which team Rules the AFC North? + Nick Shook Joins the Show

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