Overview of teams going into Week 5 of the NFL season

Jon Breach is with a CBSSports.com Pick 6 Podcast. The Lions have been very good. The Lions with the win over the Packers in Green Bay is notable, as is the win against Kansas City.

What kind of a category do you put them in? I would put them in the category that they're probably one of the top five teams in the NFC. I mean, look, it's weird because every year, any time the Lions have ever been good, they get hyped up during the offseason, then they kind of fall on their face and they don't end up being good. I mean, we're talking about a team that hasn't won a playoff game in more than 30 years, but they've kind of lived up to this pressure so far. They could have gone to Kansas City and got blown out.

No, they won. Their only loss was an overtime one to the Seahawks. So this team could very easily be 4-0, and they dominated the Falcons. They really dominated the Packers.

They're going to have 10 days off going into this game on Sunday against Carolina. So it's just that Jared Goff, I think, is probably one of the more underrated quarterbacks in the NFL right now, and he really makes that offense go. It's really surprising how dominant they've been.

I think people expected them to be good, but maybe not this good. All right, let me just drill down a little bit more on Jared Goff. So when the Rams trade him to the Lions for Matthew Stafford, they were excited to get rid of Jared Goff and his contract. Sean McVay had, for people who had been paying attention, essentially held his hand at the line of scrimmage.

The report was that he was actually calling the plays into his helmet when he could see whatever adjustments needed to be made at the line of scrimmage. Basically, Jared Goff, you are just the mechanism through which I am directing this offense. So basically, they just trashed Jared Goff and his reputation as a quarterback.

How did that get rebuilt in Detroit? Well, I think one of the things is that Sean McVay felt that Jared Goff had kind of reached the ceiling, got to the highest point he could in McVay's offense. And look, when you're holding your quarterback's hand, it's like when you have your kid on one of those leashes. Eventually, you have to let your kid go out and explore and scrape their knees and get into trouble.

You can't just be helicoptering them their whole life. And so I think that's what we're kind of seeing in Detroit. Yes, there were a lot of struggles during that first year, but I think that's to be expected. And Goff has slowly gotten better in each season that he's been with the Lions as he's gotten to grasp this offense more.

And so that's what we've seen. The Lions have said, all right, we trust you. Year one, we don't have high expectations this year. And I think that last year was that season where they said, all right, this is where we have to decide if Goff is our quarterback of the future or if he's not. And he they went nine and eight.

They almost made the playoffs. And I think that was there. All right, this is our guy and he can lead us. So that's where we are. And he's not his hands not being held anymore. I think that's a good thing for him. And we don't want to put kids on leashes.

I'm not saying that John puts children on leashes, but we don't want to put kids on leashes, you know, maybe in a car seat, something something like that. Did the Bills have the Bills overcome themselves after their week one inexplicable careless loss to the Jets? I do think that I think the Bills just I don't want to say they underestimate the Jets because it was the opener and you're always fired up for your opener. But we're talking about a Jets team that I think almost after Aaron Rodgers went down, it became this giant chip on their shoulder that we need to win this game.

We need to win it because it's Monday night, New York. Aaron Rodgers just got injured and we're not going to lose. And the Jets just looked hell bent. I mean, I don't think we'll see them play a better game this season, even though they look decent against the Jets. And so I think the Bills walked out of that game shell shocked, kind of like, wow, what happened? Josh Allen played horribly, had multiple turnovers.

And it really felt like the coaching staff kind of sat him down and said, Josh, look, just stop turning the ball over, play within the confines of this offense. And we can win games because we have a good roster. And now what we have is a team that has won three straight games by at least 28 points. And if that happens again, we haven't seen the team win four straight games by at least 20 points since 1942. So that's the kind of domination that the Bills have been.

And they look really good. And I think they're one of the top three teams in the AFC right now. I mean, they might be the top team in the AFC. I mean, the Chiefs, I mean, you make the argument that the Chiefs maybe should have lost to the Jets. But I mean, that's how good they are.

They figured out a way. Zach Wilson actually looked halfway decent, especially in the second half. But I mean, Buffalo has looked every bit the part.

I still think that it matters who you play. And against the Dolphins, a team coming off hanging 70 on the Broncos. Maybe it was a little maybe Miami was a little bit ripe to get to get hammered. But that was a very impressive win.

You are much younger than I, John Bridge, CBS Sports dot com. But I remember a time where Dallas versus San Francisco was it. It was the game in, you know, certainly in the NFL. But you could argue it was the game in pro sports.

It was Yankees Red Sox back when both of those teams were good. Dallas and San Francisco are going at it again this weekend on Sunday night. And I think San Francisco is significantly better because to me, Dallas has basically taken advantage of three bad teams to compile their all of their gaudy statistics in a three and one record. But how do you see this game? I think this is going to be a very interesting game. You know, you mentioned the rivalry, how big it was, starting really with the catch at the end of the 1981 season and then things heated up in the mid 90s when you had your Dion era, when he played for both teams and one of both Super Bowls. But this now they played in the playoffs for the last two seasons.

So this rivalry is really starting to heat up again. And I think this is a fascinating game because you have Dan Quinn, the Cowboys defensive coordinator. Nobody knows how to defend Kyle Shanahan system more than Dan Quinn. I mean, Kyle Shanahan spent two years on Dan Quinn staff and Atlanta. And what we saw last year in the playoffs, the four hours only scored 19 points. That's the only time they've been held under 20 since Brock Purdy became the full time starter. And I do think that has a lot to do with the fact that Dan Quinn knows how to slow down. Kyle Shanahan's offense.

And that was Christian McCaffrey's worst game. And so I think that if the Cowboys can make this a low scoring game that they can win. And so I think they have a puncher's chance. I don't think that the 49ers are going to go out and dominate this just because of that familiarity between Quinn and Shanahan. And so I could see the Cowboys winning. I just think they have more. This game needs more to the Cowboys. It feels like then the 49ers and that's not to say the players don't want to stay in the feed and they want to win every week. It just feels like they've lost two straight to the 49ers in the playoffs. Feel like they're gonna have a chip on their shoulder, but it is in San Francisco. So I'd probably give the 49ers a little edge.

All right. Two more games before we let John Breach go, one of which I know is close to you. The Bengals are at the Cardinals. Good time to be playing the Cardinals. Would it also be a good time for Joe Burrow to kind of sit out for a few games?

Because he is obviously not healthy. And why are the Bengals doing that with such a good quarterback? Yeah, I think that they should have done it earlier in the season, but I think at this point it is that ship has sailed. You're riding burrow and eventually you get to a point, maybe you fall to one in seven and you're like, all right, well, we can just bench Joe the rest of the season because this, this, this season's over.

I think that now you're four weeks in, you're one in three, you're two games away from the buy and you have to be thinking at this point, let's just get to the buy. And look, Joe burrow said on Wednesday, this is a must win game. And it really feels like that because you don't want to drop to one in four, very few teams get to the post-season after dropping to one in four. Uh, but the bangles offense just looks completely out of sorts.

It's not just burrow. It's, uh, the play calling. I think a lot of this needs to fall on Zach Taylor. I mean, you look at what they did the first drive against the Titans. They drove straight down the field. They were running the ball. I think Joe Mixon was averaging like five yards per carry on that first drive. And Zach Taylor decided, you know what, let's just not run the ball anymore and put that ball. Let's let our hobbled quarterback throw the ball a bunch of times. So I think it's a little bit everything. I think we will see something completely different. And I do think they're going to go out there and beat the Cardinals because the team has not played too bad offensive games in a row, really, uh, since burrow took over his quarterback.

Here's the thing. Is Jeff Blake the backup quarterback? Who's the backup quarterback for Cincinnati?

It is, you get the initials right. It's Jake Browning. You can't, if you put him in there, you're giving up on the season. Uh, you can't beat the Cardinals without Joe burrow? You're sort of playing the Cardinals without Joe burrow now. Adam, have you watched the Cardinals at all this season? They're destroying the Cowboys. They must beat the 49ers. This team is crazy. You're probably right. I probably am underestimating the Arizona Cardinals.

All right. Now to now to the commandos, because I honestly, I didn't know who the who the backup was. That's I'm trying to think who was just released by the Bengals who didn't make their practice squad. Reed Steneck. Reed Steneck. I don't know who that is.

I think he's an attorney in in Raleigh right now. That sounds right. Yeah, it certainly does. All right.

So the Bears are the hottest mess in the NFL. Yes. Oh, absolutely.

I 100% agree with everything you just said. So how do they continue to get this wrong? It's unbelievable.

It is unbelievable because it goes back. It's all the front office. It goes up to the ownership. That's the problem here is that no matter who they put in charge, you put a general manager in place. The general manager picks the head coach and then that head coach fails. And it's just been this cycle of failure that's really gone back about a decade. And so I'm not sure how you fix this if you're the Bears, because there's no good way to fix it. If you know, there's been some speculation that maybe ever for us gets fired if the Bears lose tonight. And so if you do that, then you're going to bring a new coach who probably doesn't want Justin Fields.

And then you get the number one pick and you take Caleb Williams and then you start this whole thing over. So it's just been a disaster, really, I would say, since Mark Trestman was coach and that was back in 2013. So I'm not sure how you fix this, Adam.

I am not sure how you fix this. Mark Trestman, last I checked, a Raleigh resident. So he might be listening. So one of the smartest one of the smartest football people I have ever, ever spent time with. He just got stuck in Chicago in a bad organization. Bad organizations make you worse.

That's what happens. You just described the Bears. You described the Jets.

Sadly, I think you described the Panthers as well. And right now, the best case scenario for the Bears is they lose and the Panthers lose because they have Carolina's first draft pick in this upcoming draft. Bears could go 1-2. If they did, would they go Caleb Williams, Marvin Harrison Jr., or would they take both quarterbacks just to make sure they get it right? I do think there is definitely an argument made for that, even though some people think it'd be crazy to take two quarterbacks.

It would. But you don't have a quarterback until you have a quarterback. You got to keep finding that guy. And the Bears have been searching for a guy since Jim McMahon, Sid Luckman. I mean, it has been decades, so I mean, I would do crazy stuff if I had to buy the Bears. But I do think Caleb Williams would be the obvious pick at their number one overall. So it'd be bye-bye Justin Field.

You trade him away. And then number two, I would definitely lean Marvin Harrison, but then you're listening to phone calls because you're, you know, other teams are saying, hey, Drake made it there. And so that becomes a valuable pick. So I think the Bears would love to have the top two picks.

And obviously everyone in Carolina would hate that because that means the Panthers had a horrible season. But, hey, both teams are on four. So it's absolutely in play at this point.

Oh, it is a hundred percent in play. John Breach, CBS Sports dot com. Pick six podcast. I appreciate your time, man.

I'll talk to you soon. Yep. Thanks for having me. You got it.

John Breach here on the Adam Gold show. That's the other part of all of this is that the Panthers know this season, which is what what makes it even more disturbing about the way all of this is shooken. I know they shake up my vocabulary. Yeah, it's bad. Yeah. What makes it all even more disturbing is that it's been a bad start. And there's nonsense conversation about trading assets for a top tier wide receiver. I don't know who you're going to get. First of all, what is the definition of a top tier wide receiver?

I don't know. We just talked about the Bengals, right? The Bengals are in a bad way right now. Joe Burrows playing on one leg. He's not even. He's not Joe.

But you should change his name. He's not playing like Joe Burrow, but playing on one bad leg. He shouldn't have started the opener. He probably should have been sitting the first two games of the season. He aggravated the injury in, I think, the second game of the season. So now he's played four games.

He's been physically compromised. I think it's easier for defenses and they played some good defenses. It's easier for defenses to prepare for a quarterback. Oh, he's not mobile. Oh, he wants to get rid of the ball right away.

I don't have to worry about this part of the field. So much easier to defend a quarterback. That right now is playing like Joe Burrow.

But at some point they might get to the situation where, oh yeah, the year is trash. Can you get T. Higgins from Cincinnati? Is T. Higgins what the Panthers need? I look at T. Higgins as more, I could be wrong about this.

He's a better version of Adam Thielen for me, at least at this stage. The way Thielen has played, it's hard to say that T. Higgins is a better version of that. But I don't see Higgins as the take the top off the defense dynamic player. I see him as a great number two.

So you're still looking for the number one. And what do you have to give up to get T. Higgins anyway? Although Higgins is going into a contract year. So if the Bengals fall out of it, and we're still, what, like three weeks away from the trade deadline. If the Bengals fall out of it, can you get T. Higgins for, oh I don't know, a third round pick. But again, here are the Panthers trading away futures.

If you could sign T. Higgins, if you could afford to sign, the whole thing's complicated. Bottom line is, this goes back to before Matt Ruhle. They have made so many mistakes year after year after year after year. That they've always tried to rectify the mistake, but they have rectified the mistake with another mistake. Or a bigger mistake.

They're just compounding them. Giving a second round pick for Sam Darnold. Wow. So bad.

Right? So they didn't give up much for Baker Mayfield. That's the, hey, it's worth the risk. What did they give up, a fourth round pick for Baker Mayfield, right?

It wasn't much. So that's a risk you're willing to take. But now without a one, how do you give up anything of value? Why would we give up anything of value anyway? Because what are we fighting for this year? We're not going to be competitive even if we made it to the playoffs.

What did John Breach talk about? Bad organization. The Bears, right?

That's what we talked about yesterday. Teams win games. Organizations win championships. Panthers have to learn how to be a good organization. And a good organization would assess their team right now and go, yeah, not good.

We need a lot of help. So let's not even think about trying to win today. I'm not saying they're not trying to win today.

They are. Do the best you can. Somehow, somehow, without Bryce Young, Steve Wilks managed to win a bunch of games at the end of the season.

He did. Right? So there's no reason the Panthers can't mix in a few wins here and there, even with a rookie quarterback, even without a good running game, even with mediocre at best wide receivers after Adam Phelan. But they have to assess this honestly. And I am having a hard time feeling the honesty coming out of Mid Street. Oh, yeah. I'm having a hard time feeling the honesty coming out of Mid Street.