Albert Breer’s Week 6 NFL Takeaways: Why You Should Still Trust Howie Roseman and the Eagles

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1. Philadelphia Eagles
2. Carolina Panthers
3. Cleveland Browns
4. Kansas City Chiefs
5. Arizona Cardinals
6. Buffalo Bills
7. New Orleans Saints
8. Tennessee Titans
9. Houston Texans
10. Quick-hitters

Week 6 is almost complete. And here come your MMQB Takeaways …

Philadelphia Eagles

The two teams that played at Lincoln Financial Field on Sunday were going in different directions. We’ll start with the Eagles—who are clearly on the downside of that equation.

That’s not to say they’re big-picture screwed. But the small picture’s murkiness shows the big picture’s uncertainty.

Cam Jurgens was traded. Landon Dickerson’s hurt. Lane Johnson retired. A.J. Brown was traded. Saquon Barkley is hurt. Jalen Hurts is in the throes of a scary situation, dealing with blood clots. In their places? Six of the team’s 11 offensive starters Sunday are on rookie contract, and a seventh, Dameon Pierce, is on a one-year deal just above the minimum. The defense has more proven names, and its own deficiencies, so the future is cloudy.

This is where I’d stop and say the Eagles should have your trust. Few have drafted as well as GM Howie Roseman over the past decade. The team’s player development program is as detailed, involved and invested in as any in the league. That’s allowed them to harvest high picks like Johnson, Dickerson, Jurgens, Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean, just as they do diamonds in the rough like Moro Ojomo, Jordan Mailata, Willie Lampkin and Drew Kendall.

The thing now is that you’re seeing the core of the title-contending team of the first iteration of the Nick Sirianni era age out, which is leading to those big-picture questions.

Where does the team stand on Jalen Hurts as he gets to the end of the guarantees in the megadeal he signed in early 2023? How will the offensive line be retooled, with Johnson and Jurgens gone, and can Lampkin, Kendall and rookie Markel Bell be answers to that? What, for that matter, is the future of the defense, with Mitchell and DeJean likely looking for new deals in 2027, and DC Vic Fangio contemplating retirement? Would a team that’s been aggressive in pulling the plug sooner than later on head coaches consider Sirianni’s future?

Then, there’s the mounting cap debt that the team strategically built up over the past few years, as it loaded up for those title runs—a dynamic we’ll dive into in depth later in the week—that could influence the team to get a lot younger, like when Sirianni came aboard in 2021, under a COVID-19-driven, short-term rollback of the salary cap.

But, again, so many in the NFL still see the Eagles for what they’ve been, and that’s why no one should operate under the expectation that they won’t be able to figure all this out.

And if you needed a reminder of that—look at how their opponent on Sunday saw them.

The Panthers arrived in Philly at 2–2, coming off their bye and, before that, a statement win on Sunday Night Football over the Lions. Yes, Carolina won its division last year. But it did so at 8–9, and that preceded a first-round exit from the playoffs. So the Panthers still had something to prove coming into 2026, and beating the Eagles helps to do that.

“Yeah, I mean, the Eagles are a great team,” Panthers tailback Chuba Hubbard told me, after grinding out 120 yards on 28 carries against the Eagles. “Obviously, they’re dealing with some injuries, but they still play hard. We knew they were going to play hard. And it’s hard to win in Philly as it is. So we didn’t quite play to our standard today, but we ended up finding a way to get a win, and that’s most important. But yeah, respect to the Eagles”

Yes, respect to the Eagles.

Respect for all they’ve accomplished. Respect for the likelihood that they’ll wind up rising again, just as they have so many times over the past 25 years or so. Respect for Sirianni and Hurts, and everyone who’s put those pelts on the wall in the building, and still works there.

All that respect, to be sure, comes deserved. But also with the acknowledgment that whatever comes next might take a little while.

Carolina Panthers

The Panthers, for what it’s worth, deserve your respect, too. It wasn’t long ago that the franchise was lost. The Matt Rhule gamble didn’t work. Frank Reich lasted a year. GM Scott Fitterer was fired, and owner David Tepper looked like he hadn’t a clue on running a team.

Conversely, what we saw Sunday looked remarkably competent and coherent.

Carolina waltzed into Philly, and took care of business against a wounded team. The Panthers built a 19–7 lead and, in the fourth quarter, when things got tight again, they knocked the Eagles out. After Philly closed the deficit to 19–14, the Panthers forced a three-and-out and a turnover on downs on defense, and drove for an insurance touchdown and then notched three final first downs to drain the final 4:26 off the clock.

“For the defense to get the big stop, and then for the offense to respond, and go down and end it in a four-minute offense, I mean, that’s what you want in a football game,” Hubbard said. “That’s what you want from a team. That’s just a tribute to, obviously, the O-line, the coaches, the tight ends and the receivers. Everyone just doing their job at a high level. In that situation, everybody knows what you’re going to do. It’s really just man against man and executing your plays. We played tough football, and it showed.”

And while Hubbard and I were talking, the Panthers’ workhorse reported, one of the team’s stars wouldn’t leave him alone. That would be quarterback Bryce Young, whom much of the football-viewing public gave up on a year or two ago.

The Panthers stuck with him, and he’s rewarding them with coldly efficient play. Sunday wasn’t some laser show. But Young threw for 281 yards and two scores, and that was plenty.

“Yeah, I mean, he’s actually bothering me right now, so I’m going to talk very badly about him,” Hubbard said, laughing. “No, he’s a one-of-one guy. He’s a one-of-one player. Each year, he’s just gotten better. But I’ve said it since Day 1, been in his corner, he’s a special type of guy. He can make plays that not everyone can make. … And he’s cool, calm, collected in all moments. So it brings confidence to the offense and we’re lucky to have him.”

Carolina’s young group is playing confident ball in general, right now. And at 3–2, the Panthers are all alone atop the division they won last year.

Maybe beating the Eagles will make people take some notice.

Cleveland Browns

Speaking of confidence, Todd Monken’s is radiating through the Browns’ roster. Being around the team this summer, it was pretty clear the vibe was different in Cleveland. There was an energy and a defiance that the new 60-year-old head coach was bringing that the young team there was very clearly buying into. And that came out, once again, when I talked to veteran linebacker Quincy Williams after Cleveland’s game Sunday.

Williams didn’t seem remotely surprised that the Browns outlasted the Lamar Jackson–less Ravens, 13–10. In fact, as he seemed to see it, this was no more a measuring stick for his team than it was for the established power traveling into northeast Ohio.

“Man, we number one,” Williams told me. He reiterated, “Listen, we number one. We knew that they were coming in here to take our number one spot. We said, Think about it, somebody trying to run up in your house and take your favorite trophy. They can’t get it. So that was our mindset going into the game, going in the half, coming out of the half: Hey, man, they in our house and they trying to take something. So let’s ride.”

Ride, the Browns did.

They fell behind 10–0 in the first quarter and trailed by that deficit at the half. Deshaun Watson had 70 yards on 8-of-14 passing through three quarters. Andre Szmyt missed his first field goal of the year, a potential game-winner, from 48 yards out with 3:44 left, leaving the score tied at 10.  Any of these occurrences might have led to former Browns teams chalking this one up as another off day for a franchise that’s had a lot of those.

But Monken’s group wouldn’t.

“We ain’t the same old Browns anymore,” Williams said. “At the beginning of the season, we said that.”

They’ve spent their time since then proving it. On Sunday, that meant Watson piloting a drive in the fourth quarter to tie it, then two more to set up field goal attempts. It meant the Carson Schwesinger–led defense getting the ball back on the possessions in between. It meant a young Browns team not losing its head when things didn’t look good.

Yes, this is different.

“They’re taking ownership of their positions,” Williams said of his younger teammates. “It’s not that they’re not making young mistakes, but they’re actually making what we call vet-mindset plays. They’re anticipating plays, they’re making the play.”

And they’re all like that which, Williams would go on to say, has led to a team that’s connected.

Now, does that mean they’ll be there at the end in an AFC North race with three established powers at the top? Not necessarily. But it does mean that, with all the young talent on the roster, this 4–2 start is no mirage—it’s more a reflection of Monken’s vision coming to life.

So you’d say no one thought they’d be this good? That’s actually not true. They figured they’d be here. And if you don’t believe that, just listen to them.

Kansas City Chiefs

Kansas City is 5–0—and, surprise, Patrick Mahomes isn’t the team’s MVP. He probably will be, before too long. But for now, it’s fair to say that the distinction of Most Valuable Chief goes to the team’s big free-agent addition, tailback Kenneth Walker III.

Through five games, Walker has 665 yards and six touchdowns on 106 carries (for a robust 6.3-yard-per-carry average), and another 95 yards and two touchdowns on 14 catches. That puts him on pace to break Eric Dickerson’s single-season rushing record (2,105 yards) with 2,261 yards, along with 20 touchdowns and 2,584 yards from scrimmage, which would be another NFL record (Chris Johnson had 2,509 in 2009).

The Chiefs have gotten all this, remember, for $43.05 million over three years. Or, for context, a little less than Jayden Reed got from the Packers or Romeo Doubs got from the Patriots as complementary offensive pieces at receiver.

Walker, on the other hand, is clearly the centerpiece of what Kansas City’s doing in 2026.

“He’s a stud, man,” center Creed Humphrey told me postgame. “The explosive runs that we’re getting right now, we haven’t had a ton of those over the years. So just him being able to break off these long runs, it opens up so much. For people to have to start bringing more players into the box, it opens up the passing game for us as well. So he’s been great.”

During Sunday’s breezy 22–6 win over the winless Chargers, he went for another 128 yards and two touchdowns. Which kept the Los Angeles pass rush at bay—Patrick Mahomes wasn’t sacked—which made things that much easier for Mahomes in his fifth game back from a torn ACL and LCL.

Mahomes responded by hitting on 23-of-30 throws for 272 yards, hitting eight different receivers, Walker included, in the process.

And, thus, Sunday was just the latest example of why the Chiefs stand to keep getting better.

The defense is younger than it’s been in a few years. Mahomes is still working back from the reconstructive surgery. The receiver group is still sorting itself out. And Walker buys the coaches and players time to work through all that, as the catalyst for the team’s modified identity.

“It’s just the way we’re able to affect teams in the run game, the under-center stuff we’ve been doing, I think is definitely different than what we’ve done in the past,” Humphrey said. “And it’s been awesome. It’s making this a more complete offense, and we’re a more explosive offense because of it.”

They’re also one that, logically, should keep getting better.

Arizona Cardinals

The most eye-popping thing about the Cardinals’ win over the Rams is that it sincerely felt like no fluke. Matthew Stafford outplayed Jacoby Brissett, which is no affront to Brissett. The run games were relatively even—the Cardinals rushed for more yardage, the Rams for a better average. Arizona outgained the Rams, had more first downs than the Rams and had nearly 35 minutes of possession in Los Angeles.

And the Cardinals, for their part, certainly felt like the better team won Sunday. Which was them, by a final score of 18–16.

“I mean, honestly, man, I’ll give the credit to [defensive coordinator] Nick Rallis,” veteran safety Budda Baker told me. “He had a great defensive plan. Throughout the week, he told us, how he saw things, how he was going to call it. And that’s exactly how he called it. So shout-out to Nick. And whether he had some conversations with [head coach Mike] LaFleur or not, I think he definitely did a great job of the game plan. And we just tried to execute it. So shout-out Nick. Shout-out defensive coaches on the plan this week.”

The result was the Cardinals were able to contain Davante Adams (three catches, 39 yards) and Puka Nacua (he had just 21 yards on four catches going into the Rams’ final possession), and hold Sean McVay’s offense without a gain of more than 16 yards until just before the final two-minute warning. The Cardinals’ offense, meanwhile, consistently chipped away, setting up six field goals, four of them on drives of 10, 12, 15 and 14 plays.

These teams, as division rivals, know each other well, and even more so with LaFleur having arrived in Arizona from McVay’s staff. So there weren’t any real surprises. And just for the Rams to get a lead late, it took Stafford making vintage throws of 43 and 16 yards to Nacua to position the group for the go-ahead touchdown, scored with 47 seconds left. Then the Cardinals drove down and took the lead back.

So what gives?

Well, first of all, give the Cardinals credit. They’ve had these flashes, though inconsistent, that have shown progress under LaFleur. “I love Mike,” Baker said, “He does a great job of giving us the information on what we have to do to win.”

Shockingly, this week, there didn’t seem to be anything peculiar to it.

Texting with one Arizona coach after the game, the response I got was, simply, “Dude, they’ll be fine. They have Matthew Stafford.”

That, of course, is true.

But, at 2–4 and already three and a half games back in the NFC West, what they don’t have anymore is a ton of time to fix it.

Buffalo Bills

The Bills have a nice chance to reset now. Offensively, they’ve scored in the 30s each of the past two weeks without DJ Moore, and now Moore will have the bye week to rest his ailing shoulder. The defense, under new coordinator Jim Leonhard, has plenty of work to do, and should get Ed Oliver back soon after the bye.

And with Sunday’s 33–30 win over the Raiders, the Bills are 5–1 and in first in the AFC East.

Here’s the other thing they’ll come back from Las Vegas with: the benefits of having been sequestered among themselves, mostly in Orange County, over the past eight days, through a stretch bookended by wins over the Rams and Raiders.

Veteran right tackle Spencer Brown, who’s spent offseasons in Southern California, told me he arranged to have the rookie offensive line dinner at the famed Mexican eatery Javier’s in Newport Beach on Tuesday, a night after the win over the Rams. Brown had fish tacos, the tight ends were invited to come along and the guys even took a sunset swim in the Pacific.

“Pretty unique scenario,” said Brown. “I’ve never been a part of something quite like it. I know teams like the Jags, they go out there, and they’re gone from the United States for two weeks playing in London. Overseas games, it’s kind of the closest they can get to this. … It was a good trip, and that comes from a lot of trust. Joe [Brady] trusts us to be professionals out here. I’m sure some people worry about, Oh, they’re just hanging out at the beach, taking in the sunshine, tanning.

“I mean, there’s a little bit of relaxation going on, but I think we’ve got a lot of good guys on this team, a lot of good leaders, and when we’re ready to work, we go to work.”

Therein, Brown believes, lied the benefit of Brady’s handling of the trip. It was another chance, he thought, for the leaders to take ownership of the team, and show that responsibility to each other. They showed it, in this case, by coming off an overtime fistfight against the Rams to outlast a feisty Raiders team.

Their play was good in each game, in Brown’s estimation, but not great. And that’s fine, so long as they keep improving with the goal of peaking at the right time—“We want to put on a show in January and February”—and they’re pretty confident they will.

“Yeah, we are,” he said. “I think good teams are coach-driven and great teams are player-driven. Brady believes in us. He believes in us to right the ship. If something needs to be said, he believes we’re going to say it.”

And the past week gave everyone all kinds of opportunities to prove it.

New Orleans Saints

And on that topic—this is an interesting stretch for the Saints. After two weeks, New Orleans looked like it was on the way up, starting the year with a close loss in Detroit and a win in Baltimore. That was followed, though, by three consecutive losses and comments from owner Gayle Benson last week that, “We are 1–4, and that is not acceptable to me and falls short of what our fans truly deserve.”

Second-year coach Kellen Moore’s crew heard it, and responded with a 34–27 win over the Giants that was probably a little closer than it had to be (it was 34–10 with 10 minutes left).

“The one thing is you always have to put it in perspective, we all want the same thing,” Moore said to me of Benson’s comments. We all want to win games ultimately. That’s what we all want. We have the same goals and aspirations. And so, for our guys, I think it was just a week of really focusing on ourselves and focus on the task at hand. And I love the way our guys practiced. I thought there was physicality and energy and juice.”

Moore, though, had already started to turn the page when we talked. He was speaking from the Newark Airport Marriott, with the team slated to fly to Paris at 9 p.m. ET. They’d gone to the hotel to get a quick reset before flying to France.

The Saints have been working to mine the French market for a while, but the idea of spending the whole week there was Moore’s—based on the experience he had as a player going to London with the Lions in 2014. He liked the bonding time the team got and the chance to experience another country together, as well as the fact that the team got to have its work week in one place, rather than having to get on a transatlantic redeye at week’s end.

“I love that we’re going for the entire week because it allows us to get into our normal weekly routine,” Moore said. “And I think it’s important for our guys to experience a little bit of it, on the front end of the week. And that’s what this is going to provide us, by getting out there, have a little of the experience, get acclimated to the time zone and all the travel, and then just have a really good week of practice. So I think that’ll be a real positive.”

It’s definitely a lot easier to think that way now, with a three-game losing streak snapped.

Tennessee Titans

The Titans got their first win since the week before last Christmas, and it gave a team that’s been solidly with Robert Saleh some affirmation. Tennessee probably should’ve beaten the Eagles in Week 2, and was close against the Giants in Week 3. And maybe most impressive to Saleh himself, still learning his team, was how it kept, to paraphrase the coach’s well-worn catchphrase, its foot on the gas.

“Our guys don’t quit,” the coach told me postgame.

So this week, he challenged them to make the game-changing play, and in the 26–20 win he certainly got a few. The special teams unit blocked a punt and had a big punt return. Carnell Tate had a couple of crucial catches on offense. Wan’Dale Robinson, too. Jeffery Simmons was a one-man wrecking crew. The team even spotted the Colts a 13–0 lead and came back.

Along the way, Saleh says, he saw a ton of good signs, coming off being routed by the Texans last week.

“This was our hardest week of practice,” he said. “Not necessarily because of the work we put in but because it’s hard when you’re 0–5 and you just got punched in the mouth by a division opponent after what you felt was progress. And you’re the punching bag of the entire league. And that, to me, is where everyone can say, I’m done. And it was a hard week. There was a lot of truth told. There was a lot of discussions had, and the resilience of the group to stand up, wake up this morning and make the decision to go win a football game, make the plays and accept the challenges that were made, we got the right guys in this group. We got the right guys in this locker room. They’re all made of the right stuff.

“This organization is going to have its day in the sun. We’re going to win a lot of football games here. And typically when you’re trying to rebuild something, you’re always going to run into one of these weeks. And I thought our guys passed the test with flying colors.”

We’ll have more on the quarterback of that group, Cam Ward, in my Tuesday notes.

Houston Texans

The Texans are ecstatic with where C.J. Stroud is, in his second year in Nick Caley’s offense. Houston’s still only 2–4. But Stroud & Co. have the Giants next week, a bye, then the Chargers, Browns and Colts—meaning there’s a realistic, potentially quick path back to .500.

And if they keep progressing, it’ll likely be largely on the quarterback’s back.

I’d say that only because when the Texans have struggled this year—and they have—it’s been on the defense and the run game, and not Stroud, which is a change from the past couple of years. As he’s gotten more comfortable with the increased presnap control he has in Caley’s offense, he’s settled in and used that control to elevate his play.

The proof was all over the field in Sunday’s 34–31 win over the Jaguars on Sunday. The Texans were able to mix paces, and go no-huddle easily. He understands where problems can arise within each play, and has learned how to adjust and solve those problems. And because he has command over his protections, he knows better how and where to move within the pocket, which is allowing him to stand taller and sturdier in there.

His first throw, low and away, to old college teammate Marvin Harrison Jr. on an in-breaker, was a good example of ball placement and playing on time. He was excellent against the Jaguars’ blitz. He had big third-down conversions in the second half. And to close the first half, he stood in there and took a hit from blitzing linebacker Dennis Gardeck as he let loose a throw deep to the post to promising second-year receiver Jaylin Noel for 50 yards.

That throw was one the Texans’ staff was still raving about while boarding their charter flight home from London.

Now, he did make one catastrophic mistake, throwing into a crowd from the 4-yard line, which allowed a Travis Hunter pick that kept Houston’s edge at 31–28. But he came back from it after the Jags tied it, and drove Houston back for the game-winning field goal.

Stroud finished with 312 yards, three touchdown passes, that pick and a 116.3 rating.

And he’ll return to the States with at least a few people who’ve never believed in him more.

Quick-hitters

Time for the quick-hitting takeaways for Week 6. Let’s rattle them off …

• The wild thing about the Sunday nighter is that Jordan Love threw for 276 yards, and it felt like it easily could’ve been 350 if not for a few drops. And, again, if not for a few drops, Matthew Golden might’ve had close to 200 yards receiving (he had 104 and a touchdown as is).

• Dallas can’t win having Dak Prescott throw the ball 54 times. Add in a sack, and the Cowboys had a run-pass ratio of 15-to-55.

• It was a big day for Caleb Williams in Atlanta. He was efficient, going 30-of-36 for 305 yards and a touchdown. And he was a playmaker too—his first drive back was capped with a scramble-drill touchdown to second-year star Colston Loveland—which is what the Bears were missing the past few weeks.

• The Patriots won Sunday with a MASH unit on the offensive line—the guards at game’s end were Myron Pryor and Walter Rouse. Yet, New England ran for 148 yards, Drake Maye wasn’t sacked, and he was hit only four times. So I’d say, a shout-out is in order for line coach Doug Marrone, plus OC Josh McDaniels and the whole operation.

• The Steelers have surprised me, and Aaron Rodgers looked sharp in leading the troops back from a 16–3 deficit in Tampa. I think you can see the team’s experience showing up in critical situations.

• The Buccaneers, now 1–5, have a saving grace—the division they play in. If you want to circle back to the Cowboys, they actually might, too.

• The Chargers are 0–6, with the Rams, Texans and Ravens coming up after their bye (which is this week), and it feels like something has to change. The Mike McDaniel–Jim Harbaugh run game finished with 73 yards on Sunday, a season-low, and the first time since the opener that the Chargers failed to his 125 yards rushing.

• Chauncey Gardner-Johnson really is a world-class knucklehead. I used to love how when the Saints and Falcons would fight, he was always right in the middle of it. Maybe he wasn’t throwing the punch, but he’d definitely always be on the scene. And that’s still the case, as the Bills’ safety was ejected for spitting against the Raiders.

• The heat seems to be turning up locally on the Colts’ decision makers.

•  Finally, there’s a league meeting starting Tuesday in New York, and we’ll be there with coverage—this one is generally a relatively quiet one, FYI.