October 06, 2026
Matt Marton/IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
Philosophical question: How many "Get Out of Firing" chips does Nick Sirianni have stored up?
Week 4 of the 2026 NFL season is in the books, and we have our first obituary of the season. That would be the Arizona Cardinals, a team that is used to an early trip to the graveyard.
The Cardinals had a chance to beat another perennial cellar dweller in the Giants on Sunday, buuuut...
BANKS CLOSED ON SUNDAYS
— New York Giants (@Giants) October 4, 2026
đş: CBS/Paramount+ pic.twitter.com/Adh3ijHUwo
Oops. The Cardinals had what looked like an impressive Week 1 win over the Chargers (who are now 0-4), and proceeded to give up 103 points over their next three games, all losses.
They are very quickly buried in a loaded NFC West, as expected, and they lost one of their rare good players in Paris Johnson for the season.Â
There's just not much to say about this team. Bad owner, loser franchise. Apologies to whatever quarterback they select in the 2027 draft. Let's just move on.
15) Buccaneers (0-4): Usually when you start 0-4 you're in the graveyard here, but the Bucs happen to play in a division where they're still only two games out of first place.
The Bucs are apparently 0-13 against the spread in their last 13 games, which is kinda mind blowing. đ¤Ż
In a way that kind of makes them the most overrated team in the league, certainly by the oddsmakers, a hard thing to be when you're 0-4.
Last week: 16
14) Commanders (1-3): There has already been way too much QB3 news in the NFC East through the first quarter of the season.Â
⢠The Giants traded a fifth-round pick for a QB3.
⢠The Eagles' current QB3 helped lose a game when he threw an INT on what might be the only pass attempt of his Philly career.
⢠With Jayden Daniels out with an elbow injury and Marcus Mariota suffering an MCL injury Week 4 against the Colts, the Commanders had to play QB3 Athan Kaliakmanis, which went about as you would expect.
Last week: 12
13) Packers (2-2): The Packers are 2-2 after the easy part of their schedule. It gets brutal for the next two months:
⢠Week 5: Bears
⢠Week 6: Cowboys
⢠Week 7: At Lions
⢠Week 8: Panthers
⢠Week 9: At Patriots
⢠Week 10: Vikings
⢠Week 12: At Rams
⢠Week 13: At Saints
⢠Week 14: Bills
That's a whole lot of teams that can put points on the board.
Last week: 14
12) Saints (1-3): The Saints have given up 80 points their last two games and they have given up 128 points on the season, most in the NFL.
They also can't run the ball, so they're kind of forced to chuck it all over the yard. Tyler Shough is averaging 45 (!) pass attempts per game, which leads the NFL by a comfortable margin.
Fun team to watch, but they're pretenders.
Last week: 8
11) Giants (3-1): The Giants have sole possession of first place in the NFC East!
| NFC East | Record | Div record | GB |
| Giants | 3-1 | 1-0 | - |
| Eagles | 2-2 | 1-0 | 1 |
| Cowboys | 2-2 | 1-1 | 1 |
| Commanders | 1-3 | 0-2 | 2 |
I was curious when the last time was that they had sole possession of first place in the division after at least four games. It looks like it was after Week 9 during the 2015 season:
| NFC East (2015, after Week 9) | Record | Div record | GB |
| Giants | 5-4 | 2-2 | - |
| Eagles | 4-4 | 2-2 | 0.5 |
| Commanders | 3-5 | 1-1 | 1.5 |
| Cowboys | 2-6 | 2-2 | 2.5 |
That season, the Giants would go 1-6 the rest of the way, the Cowboys would finish 4-12, and the Eagles had a collapse of their own, leading to Chip Kelly's in-season dismissal. It was one of those lame NFC East seasons when Washington won with a 9-7 record.Â
We might be headed for a similar lame NFC East season in 2026.
Last week: 12
10) Eagles (2-2): When head coaches win a Super Bowl, they get a certain number of âYou won a Super Bowl so weâll forgive this underperforming seasonâ seasons. That equation varies by coach and by team.
Nick Sirianni cashed in one of those chips after an underperforming 2025 season. How many does he have?
Last week: 7
9) Lions (2-2): The Lions suffered a Week 4 Shitfectaâ˘ď¸, which is when you lose and all three of your division rivals win.Â
That's bad for their standing within the NFC North, in my opinion.
Last week: 5
8) Panthers (2-2): This team was hard to figure out in 2025. They lost by at least 16 points in four games, and finished with a point differential of -69. There were times when they looked like one of the worst teams in the NFL, and other times where they looked like they were about to make a leap into contender status.
They're pretty much that again. They got blown out in a Week 1 game in which they gave up 59 points to the Bears, and in Week 3 they lost to the Browns. And then otherwise they have had impressive wins over the Falcons and Lions.
They have an early bye this week, and then they'll face a trio of underperforming teams in the Eagles, Bucs, and Packers.
Last week: 10
7) Falcons (2-2): After the first two weeks, this was a team that looked like they were heading for something like a 3-14 season. But over the last two weeks they have put 80 points on the scoreboard and gained 918 yards.
Bijan Robinson is a superstar.
Bijan Robinson reached a top speed of 21.78 mph on his 59-yard TD run, the second-fastest speed by a ball carrier this season and the second-fastest of Robinson's career.@ATLvsNO | #DirtyBirds pic.twitter.com/Id3snQvOyv
— Next Gen Stats (@NextGenStats) October 6, 2026
Actually their two-headed Robinson monster had a monster night in New Orleans:
|  ATL RBs | Rush | Yards | YPC | TD |
| Bijan Robinson | 19 | 145 | 7.6 | 2 |
| Brian Robinson | 14 | 62 | 4.4 | 3 |
| TOTALÂ | 33Â | 207Â | 6.3Â | 5Â |
I rather like that duo. Bijan Robinson is an all-world player, obviously, and then when he's out of the game you have to deal with a hard runner in Brian Robinson.
You can win championships in the NFL with a great rushing attack, a competent passing attack, and a great defense. The Falcons don't have a good defense, so they're not quite that, but this appears to be a team that I maybe underestimated.
Last week: 12
6) Cowboys (2-2): CeeDee Lamb had kind of a down year in 2025. Well, he's back. He leads the NFL in receptions (37) and yards (498). He's third in TDs (4). He's #OnPace for 157 catches for 2,117 yards and 17 TDs.Â
Last week: 9
5) Vikings (4-0): The Vikings are averaging 15.7 points over the last three games, and yet they still remain undefeated.
Obviously the other part of that equation is that their defense has been awesome, and they lead the NFC with a turnover differential of +5.
Still, despite their perfect 4-0 record, they are pretty obviously not on the same level as the four teams we have ahead of them in the Hierarchy.
Last week: 6
4) Rams (2-2): Honestly, I thought the Rams played a pretty crappy game offensively on Sunday in Philly. Their offensive gameplan heading into the matchup was weird, in that they were launching shot plays throughout the first half. That led to a couple of killer turnovers that gave the Eagles' inept offense short fields.
Once they adjusted â and once Quinyon Mitchell went down â they started capitalizing on an Eagles defense that was forced to play a ton of snaps, and the end result was some gaudy stats and a win. They simply got a lot of bites at the apple, so to speak.Â
Conversely, their defensive gameplan was stellar. They blitzed the hell out of the Eagles, particularly on third downs. But it wasn't just that they blitzed. Their blitzes were designed to create confusion, and they repeatedly got free rushers attacking Jalen Hurts like heat-seeking missiles.Â
Locally here in Philly, the quarterback, the offensive coordinator, and the head coach are all rightfully getting killed for going 0 for 12 on third down. But also, the Rams' defense had a lot to do with that. They owned the Eagles schematically on that side of the ball, and they did it without Myles Garrett and Aaron Donald.
Last week: 4
3) Bears (3-1): The Bears had QB3 Case Keenum and QB2 Tyson Bagent both on the field to start the game against the Jets.
Ben Johnson on starting Case Keenum for the Opening Snap:
— Bears on Real (@BearsOnReal) October 4, 2026
"I got all these memos saying that Tyson was starting before I ever made an announcement, so I wanted to get Case out there for that first snap. It was kind of like a ceremonial first pitch out there, handing off the⌠pic.twitter.com/B8bBL8jfLw
The Bears then made easy work of the Jets, winning the time of possession battle 42:45 to 17:15. I can't remember seeing a T.O.P. battle that lopsided. The Bears had 93 (!) offensive snaps, vs. 32 (!) for the Jets. 34-7 in first downs. 7/15 on third down vs. 0/7 for the Jets. 492 total yards vs. 157 for the Jets.
The score was only 23-12, but that is as soul-crushing of a performance as you'll see in the NFL.
Last week: 3
2) Seahawks (3-1): The Seahawks and Chargers played an ugly, penalty-plagued game on Sunday, and the Seahawks won off of four takeaways. They're beginning to look a little to me like one of these Eagles teams coming off a Super Bowl appearance that gets everyone's best and just kind of survives most weeks.
Last week: 2
1) 49ers (4-0): The 49ers once again simply a controlled a game from start to finish in their win over the Broncos. Here are their ESPN "win probability" charts so far this season:
Week 5 will be an NFC heavyweight battle between the Niners and Seahawks in Seattle.
Last week: 1
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