Hard to believe a third of the NFL season is completed, and yet the league remains as unpredictable as ever. The Buffalo Bills are as good as advertised while the Philadelphia Eagles are the last unbeaten team — which was hard to fathom at the beginning of the year.
The NFC East is the best division in football with two teams having at least five wins, including the surprising New York Giants (who have more wins than they had last year). The New York Jets are two games over .500 for the first time in seven years while the Atlanta falcons and Seattle Seahawks are two surprising .500 teams. Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers teams are .500 this late in a season for the first time in a decade.
The mediocrity of the NFL has been the highlight of the year thus far and teams have distinguished what their strengths and weaknesses are through six weeks. Here are each team’s thus far:
Strength
Pass protection: The Cardinals basically come out flat every single week on offense. The offensive line stays consistent at making sure Kyler Murray is protected, allowing a 28.7% pressure rate (which is fifth lowest in the NFL). They allowed just 5.2% of dropbacks to turn into sacks (11th in NFL).
At least Arizona pass protects well.
Weakness
Play calling: Kliff Kingsbury’s play calling has a lot to be desired, the main reason why the Cardinals struggle in the first half of games. While Kingsbury is considering giving up play-calling duties, Kyler Murray is averaging 5.0 next yards gained per pass attempt (32nd in the NFL).
Murray is completing just 27.5% of his passes of 15-plus yards downfield and has just a 32.7 passer rating in those situations, so that limits what Kingsbury can call as well. Maybe DeAndre Hopkins coming back will change that.
Strength
Run game: The Falcons surprisingly have one of the top run offenses in the NFL, averaging 165.2 yards per game (third in NFL) and eight touchdowns (fourth in NFL). No wonder the Falcons have run the ball 202 times this season when Atlanta has rushed for 150-plus yards in five of the six games it played.
Whether it’s Cordarrelle Patterson, Tyler Allgeier, or Caleb Huntley the Falcons have been able to move the ball on the ground.
Weakness
Pass defense: The Falcons have allowed the second most pass yards per game in the NFL (281.2), allowing 275-plus yards in three of the six games they played. A.J. Terrell has been at the…
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