The saying "everyone eats" isn't just for those in the buffet line at the Chinese restaurant, although let me tell you, I can bury some fried rice and spare ribs with the best of 'em. It also goes for some NFL offenses,
The Chiefs were the first to decide to go against the must-have a number one wide receiver trend, trading Tyreek Hill and yet still winning division titles and Super Bowls (meanwhile, the Dolphins have won jack diddly poo). The Bills decided to follow suit, dealing Stefon Diggs away and then having a great regular season, with Josh Allen winning his first MVP (the playoffs, on the other hand, were the same old story).
The 2025-26 Patriots are following suit, although not by choice. Vrabel and company were interested in D.K. Metcalf (he wasn't into them) and were ready to give all the money to Chris Godwin. However, when those attempts failed, they pivoted to the aforementioned Diggs, and while he has certainly aided the slotting of the team's other wide receivers, make no bones about it - this is an 'everyone eats' offense.
Mack Hollins would know. He played for the Bills last year and became an important part of that team and that passing offense. When I asked him if he saw the similarities, the veteran pass catcher nodded.
"I think any team I've been on where the offense has had success, it's kind of what happens," Hollins said. "Everybody kind of eats, and everybody does well, because, yeah, it does make it harder for defense. You can't just say, 'Hey, we're gonna just stop this guy, and their offense isn't gonna go well.'
"We've been fortunate this year, where it's like, if you stop one guy, somebody else might go off, or two other guys might have a good game. The tight ends might play better in this game. Receivers. Running backs. So it does matter. The more guys that can be successful, the harder it is for defense to sit there and say, 'Hey, we need to cover XYZ.' We've got a lot of options."
Diggs, who was obviously the primary focus of the passing offense for the majority of his time in Buffalo, has been talking up that wide receiver room almost from the moment he got here. With Drake Maye playing like a legit MVP frontrunner, the 31-year-old Diggs is looking like he knows a thing or two about a thing or two.
"I talked to you all a little bit about it before the season started," Diggs said. "I've been echoing it all year that we had a lot of guys that can play at a very high level. You kind of just seeing it. ... guys get open and catch the ball. We got a lot of them in there."
He's not wrong. Take a look at the Pats receiving leader each week so far. It's a smorgasbord of names and numbers.
Week 1: Kayshon Boutte (103 yards)
Week 2: Rhamondre Stevenson (88)
Week 3: Hunter Henry (90)
Week 4: Diggs (101)
Week 5: Diggs (146)
Week 6: Boutte (83)
Week 7: Diggs (69)
Week 8: Hollins (89)
Last year, that room demonstrably displayed their frustration on the field, and had no problem yapping about afterward. This year, there has been a more mature approach, no doubt aided by the two veteran additions, but also because Pop Douglas and Boutte have matured. A perfect example was that Week 3 loss to the Steelers. Boutte didn't see the ball a whole bunch, but instead of sounding off, quietly exited the locker room and waited his turn. It's still not coming as often as he would like, but he's making the most of it.
"We are willing to go out and do anything that helps anybody," Boutte said. "I think we all understand that at any given time, the ball can go to anybody, and I think that's part of the offense, too. So I like that, like you said, selflessness."
SAVE IT FOR SOMEONE WHO CARES
Myles Garrett sat on the end of the bench - all by his lonesome - near the end of Sunday's 32-13 loss to the Patriots. Moments earlier, he had spiked his helmet into the turf after being pulled from the game because it no longer mattered. The Browns' edge rusher had recorded five sacks of Maye, and yet it only prolonged the inevitable. Afterwards, Garrett vented.
“I’m frustrated,” Garrett said after the game. “I want to win. I don’t care how much time is on the clock. They got their starters in. There’s a chance we can win. I want to be a part of that. I don’t care how dire the situation looks; I want to try to make something happen. So I hate coming out of those situations. I hate, you know, that kind of inevitability and not being able to do anything about it. I want to win, and I’ll do anything.”
Except take responsibility for his own decision. As we wrote in the off-season, Garrett asked out, going so far as to post it all over his social media accounts.
"The goal was never to go from Cleveland to Canton, it has always been to compete for and win a Super Bowl."
It made sense. The Browns haven't been good, and with the albatross that is DeShaun Watson's contract, they might be hard-pressed to turn the corner anytime soon. Yet about a month later, Garrett inked an extension that included $122 million in guaranteed money. Suddenly, a Super Bowl didn't seem to matter as much, although the 29-year-old claimed that management had convinced him they had a plan at quarterback.
About that.
Dillon Gabriel doesn't look like the answer. I'm sure we'll find that out about Shedeur Sanders, too. In the meantime, Garrett sees the losses pile up.
“It doesn’t get any easier each week you ask me (that)," Garrett said.
Before you ask, no one across the league believes that the Browns would move their star player. With the amount of money they've doled out already, and the cap implications, now is not the time. According to Spotrac, a trade would nail Cleveland for nearly $68 million in dead cap for the following season. That would be the single highest in league history. If the Browns wait until the offseason, they could spread that number out over 2026 ($20.7 million) and 2027 ($47.8 million). The team's savings are negligible.
AWWWW, SHOUGHS...
The Spencer Rattler era is over, at least for now. The 1-7 Saints have benched the second-year quarterback in favor of rookie signal-caller Tyler Shough (pronounced Shuck). The change was bound to happen as the Saints lost game after game, even if they were surprisingly competitive for a stretch (including against the Patriots).
“Tyler’s starting. We’re not looking back on that,” head coach Kellen Moore said. “Yeah, we're not doing this back-and-forth thing. I think, certainly, that's the goal. I think just the same way we talked about when Spencer went in there. We weren't gonna get into this whole debate each and every week. Tyler's in there. He's ready to go.
“That's the whole objective and plan of this thing, is let Tyler go and let him have a ton of success and navigate the things he has to navigate.”
The breaking point, no doubt, was Rattler's inability to protect the football. He turned it over six times in his last six quarters, forcing first-year Moore to say enough is enough after the opening series of the third quarter against Chicago.
“I felt like, at the end of the day, one of the more important aspects of this from a wider lens perspective is offensively we've gotta find a little bit more success, a little more consistency. I think that doesn't have only to do with Spencer. That has to do with everyone associated with the offense,” said Moore.
Shough didn't exactly set the world on fire in his first extended action, completing 17 of 30 passes for 128 yards and an interception (off Chris Olave's hands). But now the keys are his, and the 'old' rookie — he's 26 — has the opportunity he dreamed of.
“It was a good feeling, but also in the same breath, we had a lot of work to do,” Shough said. “My mindset is just to elevate this offense any way I can and go win. I'm gonna compete my butt off. Whatever it takes to do that.”
His first start comes against a Rams defense that is first in EPA per play and second in total sacks. It won't go perfectly — it rarely does — but the seven-year collegian (Oregon, Texas Tech, Louisville) who lost multiple seasons to injury is confident.
“I've always believed that I feel like I've been good enough," Shough said. "But there is a reality, as far as statistically, whenever you're not playing and you're hurt and you're sitting on your couch. And you're like, ‘Man, I wish I could do anything to get out there. So it kind of gives you that cool perspective when you're practicing and you get to go play in a game, what a great opportunity it is. So I'm gonna go play my ass off.”
HE'S EARNED IT
The Lions love to take care of their own (novel concept), and that isn't changing anytime soon. On Wednesday, the former sad-sack organization inked Aidan Hutchinson to a four-year extension worth up to $180 million. That includes $141 million guaranteed, the most ever for a non-QB, surpassing the mark set by Micah Parsons not too long ago. Hutchinson is just the latest in a long line of players GM Brad Holmes has doled out big dollars to, with the blessing of ownership — it's their money after all.
- QB Jared Goff $212M March 2024
- WR Amon-Ra St. Brown $120M April 2024
- OT Penei Sewell $112M April 2024
- DT Alim McNeill $97M October 2024
- S Kerby Joseph $86M April 2025
- WR Jameson Williams $80M September 2025
- OT Taylor Decker $60M July 2024
The spending spree can't - and won't - stop here. RB Jahmyr Gibbs, safety Brian Branch, LB Jack Campbell, and TE Sam LaPorta will be looking for theirs, rightfully so. Can't pay 'em all, they said. Maybe. Maybe not.
In the meantime, the Lions rewarded Hutchinson, who has come back from a broken leg suffered last season, to be even better. The former 2nd overall pick in the 2022 draft leads the league in total pressures, is third in pass-rush win rate, and tied for seventh in sacks (6). He's also forced four fumbles, tied for best in the league.
“He’s a tremendous, tremendous athlete, superior athlete,” DC Kelvin Sheppard said. “And not by God-gifted talent, I’m talking about hard work and dedication. And he’s conditioned his mind, his body to do that. Again, you try to pull Hutch off the field - It’s not disrespectful. He’s never saying, ‘Why are y’all taking me out?’ It’s, ‘I want to be out there,’ because that may be the one play that changes the outcome of the game ... if he can handle it, why take anything off of him if he’s handling it well?”
Detroit plays Minnesota on Sunday.
NERD NUMBERS
- Maye has had 200+ passings yards & a 100+ passer rating in 7 straight games. That's tied for the longest such streak in NFL history by any QB 23 or younger. Every other QB (at any age) with such a streak of 7+ games within a season went on to win AP NFL MVP that season.
- The Colts have averaged 3.5 points/drive in 2025 (highest in NFL since at least 1991). Top 3: 2025 IND (3.5), 2007 Patriots (3.1), 2018 Chiefs (3.1).
- Cincinnati's defense has allowed 31.6 PPG and 407.9 total YPG in 2025, both last in the NFL. It's the worst PPG allowed in franchise history (only season at 29.0+ allowed) and 2nd-worst total YPG allowed in franchise history (2018: 413.6 total YPG allowed).
- The Vikings have allowed eight total TDs over the last 2 weeks after allowing just 10 total TDs from Weeks 1-5 (Week 6 bye). Allowed season-high in points in back-to-back weeks (28 in Wk 7 vs PHI, 37 in Wk 8 at LAC).
- Ashton Jeanty has 34 forced missed tackles on run plays in 2025 per NGS (3rd-most in NFL).
- Jordan Love has a 112.8 passer rating in 2025 (4th-highest in NFL). Only Drake Maye, Jared Goff & Jalen Hurts have a higher passer rating than Love.
- Tucker Kraft leads the Packers with 30 receptions, 469 receiving yards & 6 TDs in 2025. He also leads all tight ends with 67.0 receiving YPG, and Kraft’s 6 TDs are T-2nd among tight ends behind Dallas Goedert (7).
- The Texans are the first team since the 1970 merger to allow the fewest PPG and total YPG and have a losing record through the first 8 weeks of a season.
- Bo Nix, Patrick Mahomes, and Dak Prescott are the only players in NFL history with 50+ offensive TD & fewer than 20 giveaways in their first 25 career games.
