Mike Evans Was Right About Being 49ers’ Missing Piece; Nick Sirianni In Trouble?

It felt like receivers defined this week, whether it was Justin Jefferson's incredible catch over three defenders to help the Vikings beat the Saints — or whether it was Jaxon Smith-Njigba's drop on the Seahawks' game-losing drive against the 49ers. We'll talk endlessly about quarterbacks — and for good reason. (I'll get to plenty of QB talk.) But let's kick things off with an ode to a receiver who's changing the complexion of the NFC: Mike Evans. Welcome to Sound Smart, where I take you beyond what’s obvious. Let’s go below the surface. Let’s spin it forward, dive deeper, think outside the box and read between the lines. If I do my job, you’ll be fluent in the NFL's Week 5 action. Evans is right up there with Chiefs running back Kenneth Walker III as the most impactful acquisitions of the 2026 NFL offseason. In the biggest game of the 49ers’ season, there was Evans. He had seven catches for 113 yards, a touchdown and a 2-point conversion — even though he has been playing through two broken ribs. The 49ers beat the Seahawks 32-29 in Seattle. "He’s a difference-maker. He’s a spark. He’s everything that you want in a receiver," running back Christian McCaffrey said after the game. "It’s pretty cool when you get new guys and they continue to up the standard." It sounds like a cliché, but there’s real truth in that statement. Evans has a Super Bowl win; McCaffrey doesn’t. This offseason, when the 49ers signed Evans, I’ll admit that I sort of shrugged when he said, "I think I'm that piece" at his introductory press conference. He’s 33 and his hamstring injuries have been a real issue. So it felt like throwing an aging, injury-prone WR1 on top of an aging, injury-prone RB1 (Christian McCaffrey) on top of an aging, injury-prone TE1 (George Kittle). It felt like more of the same. And that wouldn’t change the 49ers’ inability to win it all. Evans’ performance gives me reason to believe they can really win the Super Bowl. This season. He is among the biggest reasons they have been so impressive. In the moments quarterback Brock Purdy needs a first down or a touchdown, Evans is there. He dominated Seahawks cornerback Josh Jobe, who spent the game covering Evans for all but one reception (that went for one yard). Jobe’s 112 yards allowed are the most by a cornerback in the Mike Macdonald era in Seattle, per Next Gen Stats. Evans also dominated Seahawks corner Trevon Diggs as a blocker — and, later, Evans and Diggs were talking trash. Evans ended the conversation when he checked the back of Diggs' jersey. The gesture said more than the trash talk could: I don't even know who you are. Diggs knows Evans. Everyone does. His 7.3 receptions over expected is third-best in the NFL, behind Trey McBride (8.6) and Smith-Njigba (7.4). His success rate per route run (24.2%) is best in the NFL. And his expected points added per route is .33, also best in the NFL. This is all to say that Evans might just be the most efficient and statistically impactful receiver on a per-play basis. Now, it’s important to give the defense credit where credit’s due. Last year, they ranked 13th in points allowed per game. This year, they rank third going into Monday night. There have been improvements across the board — and not just on offense. And on Sunday, the defense posted four takeaways. "That was the difference between winning and losing today — to be able to get points off those turnovers," 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan told reporters postgame. But it’s no coincidence that Purdy has looked like an MVP candidate in Evans’ first season with the team. The veteran wideout has given this offense a sixth gear — that I didn’t expect and really didn’t know existed. "I thought Brock did an unbelievable job to find a way to win there at the end. That’s one of the best defenses in the league," Shanahan said. "I thought he was really good in the fourth quarter. There were a lot of times when something wasn’t there and he made some plays." Want one more example of Evans’ value? He had 60 of Purdy’s 76 fourth-quarter passing yards. For his efforts on Sunday, Evans earned former Buccaneers teammate Tom Brady’s LFG Player of the Game. Jordan Love beat Ben Johnson at his own game. In the Bears-Packers’ rivalry matchup, the Green Bay quarterback was firing the ball downfield without a care in the world. He just kept attacking and, in the 31-7 Packers blowout, Love had 258 passing yards and two touchdowns — on deep passes alone. That’s right: He was 6-of-8 on passes that traveled 20-plus air yards. And he racked up 258 of his 367 passing yards and both of his touchdowns on those deep balls. "It's something that we saw throughout the game that was working. We kept doing it," Love told reporters postgame. He later added: "It's a flow state." The more I watched the Packers' offense on Sunday, the more I saw the offense Johnson wanted out of his offense — all explosives in the passing game. Now, the schemes are apples to oranges. (And Johnson loves explosives in the running game, which the Packers lacked.) But the passing-game identity? That’s what he wants from quarterback Caleb Williams, who missed this game with a hamstring injury. I’ve always thought that Love is, in many ways, a player Williams should study and should look at as a North star. I know that Williams is more athletic and has (somehow) more arm strength. But it’s actually Love’s restraint and acuity that makes him the better QB than Williams right now. Last year, Love was one of the NFL’s most efficient quarterbacks while Williams — despite leading the league with six fourth-quarter comebacks — failed to get his completion percentage above 60%. Against Chicago, Love married his efficiency with his athleticism, exploiting the Bears’ unimpressive defense. It was way too easy. And the blowout should pour even more fuel on an already legendary rivalry, which Love fielded a question about after the game. "We're never going to apologize for a win," Love said. "To be able to dominate somebody at home — an NFC North opponent — it felt great, and that's all I got to say." It’s getting to the point where coach Nick Sirianni and quarterback Jalen Hurts are working to keep their jobs. At 2-3, the danger is there for the QB and the coach. Over the past few months, the Eagles traded receiver A.J. Brown and offensive lineman Cam Jurgens for a haul that included first- and second-round picks in 2028. It's clear that GM Howie Roseman has his eyes on the future. And he’s not afraid to fire a Super Bowl-winning head coach (Doug Pederson) — nor is he unwilling to move on from a Super Bowl-winning QB (Nick Foles). He hasn't done both in one offseason. But with Roseman, you should never say never. The interesting thing about the Eagles' 19-17 loss to the Jaguars in London wasn’t just the way they lost it. It was about who lost it. And Sirianni left no doubt. "I didn't make the right decision [on the kickoff]. I lost us that game," Sirianni told reporters afterward. "That one's on me. There's no way around it. I didn't do my job in that situation." So what was the situation, exactly? There were actually two glaring errors, from my view. But let’s talk about the first one — the kick. With eight seconds left to play and a 17-16 lead, the Eagles kicked off. They should have kicked the ball out of the back of the end zone. Had they done that, the ball would’ve started on the 35-yard line and the Jaguars would’ve had time for just a Hail Mary. But the Eagles kicked the ball to a returner. And because they did that, it allowed an explosive return of 53 yards. Worse yet, they tackled ball-carrier Ameer Abdullah with one second left in the game, which the Jaguars used to kick a 57-yard field goal. If they'd tackled Abdullah just five yards farther up field, time would have expired. Bottom line: Kick it out of the back of the end zone and make the Jaguars throw a Hail Mary. But there was another mistake — more nuanced — from the Eagles' final offensive drive that was glaring. On the penultimate play, they ran a quick-out to receiver Makai Lemon, who put them at the Jacksonville 27-yard line. Problem was, he went out of bounds — which he shouldn’t have done. The Eagles had a timeout. If he’d laid down in bounds, they could have forced the Jaguars to use their only timeout (or let the clock bleed down to three seconds). They didn’t do that. And that 10-second difference ended up costing them the game. Maybe you’re thinking: That’s so elaborate! We could only possibly know that’s important with hindsight! Well, the Eagles had hindsight, because the Cowboys made this exact same mistake against the Ravens in Week 3, with Dallas failing to bleed the clock (when it could have) and leaving enough time for two plays (a pass and a field goal) for Baltimore. Which is exactly how Ravens QB Lamar Jackson moved his team into 3-point position, from which Tyler Loop hit the game-winner. Even with that happening across the league this season, the Eagles didn’t think to drain the clock. Lemon went out of bounds — and staying in-bounds in that situation is the exact kind of detail Sirianni and/or coordinator Sean Mannion need to drill into their players. So you can see clearly: The Eagles had the lead. And Sirianni made a series of decisions that cost them that lead. And Hurts? Well, starting with 1:35 left in the game, he got his team into position for the go-ahead field goal despite a diminished offense. Hurts led an ugly-but-effective-enough drive despite the absences of running back Saquon Barkley (injury), receiver Devonta Smith (injury), tackle Lane Johnson (retirement), guard Cam Jurgens (trade) and guard Landon Dickerson (IR). Overall, the QB produced a very Hurts-ian performance: 21-for-40, 220 passing yards, two touchdowns. And he got his team in a winning position in the last minute. It's just that — well, we already went over how it went wrong. If I’m Roseman, I liked what I saw from Hurts a whole hell of a lot more than what I saw from Sirianni. Somehow, the Commanders’ explanations for their final play against the Giants in the teams' 27-27 tie were more confounding than the final play itself. In overtime, with 12 seconds left and Washington in field-goal position and no timeouts, quarterback Jayden Daniels dropped back to pass. Wait, what? Yup, he dropped back. Which was risky, because, again, the Commanders had no timeouts. But surely, Daniels would throw it away and stop the clock. He wouldn’t take a sack, right? Because that might cost them the field-goal attempt — and the win. But, well, you know what happened next: a sack. When Daniels hit the ground, there were still eight seconds left. The next logical step was to get the offense up and in formation to clock it. But the Commanders were sluggish and disorganized on their way to the line. So time expired. And they tied the Giants, squandering a win. "We gotta stop the clock. We gotta know the situation. We’ve gotta relay that as an offense. It starts with everyone — from top down. But ultimately, it’s on me," Daniels told reporters after the game. It helps for coaches to 1) tell the QB he needs to throw it away if nothing's there (rather than run it) and 2) tell him he has no timeouts left. But Daniels also just … needs to know those things. The other problem was that the Commanders were even running a play to begin with. Coach Dan Quinn owned that mistake. "Does not fall on [Jayden Daniels]. It’s an outside throw or a clock," Quinn said. "That had to come from me. I don’t even have to put him in that spot. … We don’t need to gain more yards." His answer that "It’s an outside throw or a clock" is kind of putting it on Daniels — right after he said the opposite. But Quinn did take accountability, because he's right: The Commanders didn't need to gain more yards. Washington was at the Giants' 26-yard line. The field goal probably would've been just fine where they were. So, ultimately, no team won a game in the NFC East this week, even though two of the division’s teams played each other. That's … hard to do. Just two weeks ago, it would be fair to wonder if the Patriots needed to rush receiver A.J. Brown (sprained ankle) back into the lineup — because quarterback Drake Maye and the New England offense looked broken. But in recent weeks, it's been just fine. In fact, it's been … incredible. In Week 5, New England beat the Las Vegas Raiders 45-17, with Maye going 26-of-34 for 374 passing yards and four passing touchdowns — with a fifth score on the ground. As a team, the Patriots rushed 31 times for 165 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Here’s the stat that tells me that Maye is feeling himself: On throws over 10 air yards, he completed 8 of 11 for 206 yards and three touchdowns. That's just the third time in his career he has completed over 70% of his downfield pass attempts (minimum 10 attempts), per Next Gen Stats. Maye owned the intermediate and deep parts of the field. Those throws require confidence and precision — all of which Maye lacked in his first three games of the year when he opened the season with one touchdown and six interceptions. But Maye hit 15-plus-yard plays to six different pass-catchers and hit 25-plus-yard plays to four different pass-catchers. That's confidence. He was elevating the likes of Efton Chism, Kyle Williams, Eli Raridon and DeMario Douglas. And if you’re not familiar with those folks, well, that’s the point. This is Maye's MVP form from last year — the style of play that eluded him in the first three weeks. So let’s add Brown back into the mix. He's progressing well in rehab and could return by Week 7. He was Maye’s most trusted target in training camp. Brown has been the most-trusted target with every QB he’s played for (on the field, at least). The receiver will be the best playmaker Maye has ever played alongside. When it comes together, New England’s offense will go exponential, particularly with games against three of the league's worst defenses — Bears, Dolphins and Lions — over the next five weeks.