Joe Burrow is reviving the Bengals and pulling away in the race for MVP

The quarterback has led Cincinnati to four straight wins with stat lines that put him in the company of Tom Brady. At this rate, the trophy seems his to lose

At the end of the 2021 season, the Cincinnati Bengals came up three points short in Super Bowl LVI against the Los Angeles Rams. Near the end of the 2022 season, the Bengals came up three points short – a 23-20 score line again in the AFC championship game against the Kansas City Chiefs. But from 2023 through 2025, those Bengals had to walk the desert for a while. Between injuries to quarterback Joe Burrow, an offensive line that was problematic at best, and one of the NFL’s worst defenses from year to year, Cincinnati had a combined regular-season record of 24-27, and no playoff appearances.

Now, the new Bengals are 6-2 after their 34-17 shellacking of the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday at the Santiago Bernabéu stadium in Madrid. And Burrow is on a tear we’ve rarely seen from any quarterback. Over the last four weeks, his 16 touchdown passes is the most in a four-game span in Bengals history (which goes back to 1968). He is the second quarterback in pro football history with 16 or more passing touchdowns and two or more rushing touchdowns in any four-game span, putting him up with Tom Brady in 2007 – the season in which the New England Patriots’ offense scored 36.8 points per game, and Brady was at his best. Burrow has been pressured on just 30.2% of his dropbacks this season, as opposed to 33.8% in 2025 and 34.2% in 2024.

When healthy, Burrow is as good as any quarterback you’ll see. At this moment, he’s better. Against a Falcons team ranked fifth in pass defense DVOA entering Sunday, Burrow completed 24 of 29 passes for 271 yards, three touchdowns, no interceptions and a passer rating of 140.1. The Falcons had no answers against Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins, Burrow’s dynamic receiver duo, and unlike in previous seasons, Cincinnati’s defense is prepared to … if not match the offense’s efforts, at least hold things up. The Bengals are average on defense, but when you have an offense like this, that’s good enough. The only time anyone was able to dim Burrow’s brightness was when the Bernabéu lights briefly went out in the fourth quarter.

Add in the fact that Cincinnati’s run game is nothing to write home about (their 3.87 yards per carry and minus-0.13 EPA per run are each among the league’s worst), and it’s clear that as much as any NFL player, Burrow will be required to take his team as far as they can go. That’s good news for the Bengals, because Burrow has traveled to the realms of the near-unstoppable.

Burrow has never won the NFL MVP award. (He came in fourth in both 2022 and 2024 when Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen won it, respectively.) But at this rate, the trophy seems his to lose.

Since Burrow is the MVP of the season’s first half, how about Myles Garrett for Week 9? The Rams’ edge rusher had been out since Week 1 of the 2026 season with a knee injury, and in his return to action, per Pro Football Focus, he recorded three sacks, nine total pressures and a forced fumble in LA’s 20-13 win over the Washington Commanders. Garrett, of course, was supposed to be the centerpiece of the Rams’ dream team following a blockbuster trade with the Cleveland Browns, and his presence was desperately needed for a franchise that was just trying to get above .500 on the season. Garrett did his level best for the now 5-4 Rams, and it wasn’t just that the sacks happened, it was when they happened.

Garrett’s first sack came with 2:20 left in the first half and the Commanders up 10-3. That was the forced fumble, recovered by linebacker Omar Speights. That led to a Rams drive that ended with a field goal at the end of the half. The second and third sacks came in the fourth quarter as the Rams were trying to hold their 20-13 lead.

The Rams are no longer in that dream team conversation, but maybe they can at least ride the wave to a playoff berth. If Puka Nacua can stay healthy, that is. Nacua, the Rams’ top receiver, caught 14 passes on 19 targets for 150 yards and a touchdown in the win, but also suffered a knee injury that may keep him out for a while.

Nico Collins of the Houston Texans is easily one of the NFL’s best X-iso receivers, which means that he can line up against the opponent’s best cornerback in one-on-one situations, and what would usually be a 50-50 contested catch turns into 90-10 in Collins’ favor because of his skillset. Collins made that abundantly clear with 8:16 left in the third quarter of Houston’s 44-22 win over the beleaguered 0-8 Los Angeles Chargers.

In this case, cornerback Tarheeb Still was the unfortunate victim of Collins’ rare gifts. Texans quarterback CJ Stroud threw to Collins, but Still seemed to have this ball at least deflected, if not outright intercepted. Until Collins somehow one-handed the catch to Still’s right side, and that was that. Collins caught four passes on four targets for 55 yards and a touchdown, and the touchdown was certainly the catch of the day.

Runner-up: The corgi race during halftime of the Denver Broncos’ 26-21 win over the Carolina Panthers at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina, took an interesting turn, as Lennox the Corgi went rogue from the vertical race path and decided instead to become a canine Barry Sanders. By our estimation, Lennox evaded seven attempted tackles, and even stopped to ask his pursuers at one point, “Are we playing or what?”

With such lateral juice, contact balance, and swagger, Lennox could have a bright future ahead of him.

86-2. With 26 seconds left in the first half of the New York Giants’ 19-11 win over the Philadelphia Eagles, Philly punter Braden Mann booted the ball from his own eight-yard line to the New York six-yard line. That was an 86-yard punt, which tied for the seventh-longest in pro football history.

However … with 6:53 left in the game, Mann fumbled the center snap, and had a punt of minus-two yards. It is, of course, the only time in a game that a punter had one punt of more than 80 yards and another with negative yardage. Mann also had punts of 63, 62, 60, 54, 44 and 17 yards, so you could say that he painted with every color in the palette.

The Kansas City Chiefs have kicker issues nobody would want, and they’re attempting to solve them in ways that nobody should want. Andy Reid’s team did beat the New York Jets 35-12 on Sunday, but kicker Harrison Butker’s woes continued. Since the start of the 2025 season, nobody has missed more kicks (field goals and points after touchdown) than Butker’s 17, and the additional spice to that story is of course Butker’s political beliefs. During a now-infamous commencement speech at Benedictine College in 2024, Butker went for Maga bingo, criticizing then-President Biden, the “tyranny” of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), Pride Month and women who wish to work outside the home.

Recently, the Chiefs signed another kicker to insulate themselves from Butker’s on-field mistakes – former Baltimore Raven Justin Tucker. Tucker was once one of the best kickers in the history of the game, but his talents fell off until he was released in May 2025. The obvious reason for Tucker’s release was the more than a dozen wellness and massage therapists who accused Tucker of inappropriate sexual behavior. Tucker never faced criminal charges for the allegations, which he denied, but the NFL slapped him with a 10-game suspension for violating the league’s personal conduct policy.

It is unknown as to why Reid and his staff would align themselves with two sub-par kickers with such pasts, but it is what it is. As for Butker’s future following a game in which he missed a 56-yard field goal attempt, and missed the 51-yard mulligan he got when the Jets were busted for defensive offside, Reid had this to say:

“I’m sure I’ll be asked about Butker. I’ll address that as we go throughout the week. I’ll look at everything, and no need to ask. That’ll be the answer that you get. I’m not making any decisions right now.”

All in all, a rough week for those who may share Butker’s beliefs.

The 6-2 Jacksonville Jaguars may well be the NFL’s most dangerous team right now. Last Thursday, they beat the Baltimore Ravens 33-10, and with that, they now lead the NFL in point differential (+108) and turnover differential (+9). And if Joe Burrow isn’t the NFL MVP front-runner right now, it’s only because Jags quarterback Trevor Lawrence is. Lawrence has completed 146 of 224 passes this season for 1,932 yards, 18 touchdowns, four interceptions, and a passer rating of 111.7 – the NFL’s best going into the Sunday slate. Jacksonville have more on the ball in their run game, and certainly on defense, than the Bengals do. They also have the NFL’s second-easiest schedule for the remainder of the season, behind only the Houston Texans.

If you’re looking for an NFC team with the momentum to meet the Jaguars in a hypothetical Super Bowl LXI matchup, train your eyes to the 6-3 Green Bay Packers. Matt LaFleur’s team completely leveled the defending AFC champion New England Patriots in a 45-27 result that was not as close as the score indicated. Packers quarterback Jordan Love, the NFL’s most fearless deep-ball thrower this season, completed 23 of 29 passes for 372 yards, three touchdowns, no interceptions and a passer rating of 153.2. Receivers Christian Watson and Matthew Golden each went over 160 yards on the day, and each had a receiving touchdown.

But the scary thing about these Packers is a Jonathan Gannon-led defense that is one of the NFL’s best, and that defense put Patriots quarterback Drake Maye in several vices. Maye was sacked four times and threw three interceptions. Like many quarterbacks, he found it rather difficult to navigate an opponent that presents every look you can imagine – and is preparing to get Micah Parsons back from injury for the second half of the season.

If there’s one thing that could stand in the Packers’ way, it’s that the NFC North is an absolute buzzsaw. Following the 7-2 Chicago Bears’ 27-24 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday night, and before the 6-1 Minnesota Vikings’ Monday night tussle with the Buffalo Bills, the NFC North is on its way to the highest winning percentage for a single division in pro football history. The 2024 NFC North (45-23) holds the top mark at .662, but the current North division is on a different planet (25-8) at .758.

The Bears didn’t always make it easy on themselves – quarterback Caleb Williams ended three of four second-quarter drives with interceptions after throwing two touchdown passes in the first quarter – but the Bears’ defense, with new acquisition Jeffery Simmons, was a monster. Until, that is, the Bucs scored 11 unanswered points in the fourth quarter to tie the game at 24-24 with 2:56 left in regulation.

But the Bears rediscovered their equilibrium on the game’s final drive, especially when the Bucs uncharacteristically blew the coverage on Williams’ 38-yard pass to tight end Colston Loveland with 47 seconds left. That set up Cairo Santos’ 38-yard game-winning field goal as time expired.

It is highly unusual for Williams to throw twice as many interceptions (four) as touchdowns (two) in a game – in fact, the 2024 first overall pick had never thrown more than three picks in a game in his NFL career. But the fact that the Bears were able to win this one anyway speaks to their completeness as a team, and their overall resilience.