#sam-darnold

#sam-darnold

ARLINGTON, Texas -- Week 7 has a weighty feel to it. It no longer feels early in the NFL season. We're in the thick of it now, with nearly two months' worth of evidence to support our opinions of these teams and these players. What might have felt like an overreaction in Week 2 feels less so now. This is also the point in the season where coaches get tired of underreacting. On Sunday, Jets coach Aaron Glenn seemed to have finally grown tired of watching Justin Fields' complete inability to sense or react to pressure, as he benched Fields for Tyrod Taylor on the second half of New York's latest lackluster loss.

Around Week 8, the MVP race starts to follow a predictable script: Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson (if the Ravens are rolling) will almost certainly feature. Between 2015 and 2019, the NFL had four first-time MVP winners Cam Newton, Matt Ryan, Mahomes and Jackson. But in the last five years, only Allen has been a first-time winner (Aaron Rodgers, Mahomes and Jackson were the other victors).

"I could give you a dissertation on what I think about the whole quarterback position," Kupp said. "In short, I do think the plugs get pulled on guys a little early."