Last year through four games, Baker Mayfield was looking like an MVP candidate, and the Buccaneers were 3-1. The Colts were also 3-1, and Daniel Jones was not only putting up even better numbers than Mayfield, but putting up some of the best numbers in the league — one of the most out-of-nowhere quarterback surprises in recent memory. On the other side, the Panthers were 1-3 and coming off a 26-10 shellacking courtesy of the Jaguars.
The Texans were also 1-3. Both of those teams made the postseason. Of course, there are plenty of early signs that turn out to be true, too.
The Bills and Eagles were the only undefeated teams through four weeks last year, and both were playoff teams. The Saints, Titans and Jets — all 0-4 at this point last year — ended up continuing their poor play and landing top-10 picks. What we can say for sure is that it's early.
The standings of today will look very different one month from now, let alone three months from now when the regular season wraps up. Still, with four games down, we've seen enough to hand out first-quarter grades to every team, taking into account not just their record, but how they've looked getting there and how that projects moving forward. After hitting the AFC yesterday, we move to the NFC.
If Jaxson Dart and Brian Burns were healthy and the Giants were 3-1, this would be an "A" or "A-" easily. Instead, both suffered season-ending knee injuries. Dart is the one that really, really hurts.
Based on the tiny sample size we saw, he looked excellent. Yes, the Giants lead the NFC East, but their last two wins were 12-7 over the Titans and a win over the Cardinals that came down to a goal-line stand in the final seconds. Any team wondering whether to start Jameis Winston or J.J.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
