Every Sunday, we cut through the noise to spotlight the NFL's most important developments and break down why they matter moving forward.
NFC East race turning into the saddest pillow fight
No NFC East team won in Week 5, despite two of them playing each other. The Dallas Cowboys were embarrassed by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Thursday, the Philadelphia Eagles choked away a late lead in London, and the Washington Commanders and New York Giants stumbled their way to an ugly tie Sunday.
Both New York and Washington were well within range of game-winning field goals in overtime. The Giants fumbled away their chance when Cam Skattebo was stripped of the ball on Washington's 23-yard line. Then the Commanders bungled their final play, leaving themselves without time to spike and stop the clock in the final seconds. It was a comedy of errors from both squads that was fitting for an NFC East that is shaping up to be the NFL's worst division.
Dallas is struggling to stop anyone on defense; the Eagles' inability to avoid late-game collapses has Nick Sirianni on the hot seat; the Giants are hard to trust with Jameis Winston at quarterback; and the last-place Commanders can't seem to find a way to get wins.
One of those teams has to win the division. It doesn't look like any of them want to, though.
Vikings are dangerous if they get that version of Murray
Kyler Murray completed 80 percent of his passes, threw for 229 yards, and ran for another 51 in Sunday's 23-13 win over the New Orleans Saints. He wasn't intercepted and found Justin Jefferson six times for 79 yards, including an impressive 15-yard touchdown in traffic.
It wasn't a prolific day, but Minnesota doesn't need that from Murray. With a defense that held the Saints to 142 yards and forced three turnovers, the Vikings are always going to be in great shape as long as the offense strings together long drives and doesn't make significant errors. While there were a pair of costly fumbles by the Vikings' offense that helped out the Saints, Murray's steady and efficient performance made up for those mistakes.
Feeding Jaylen Warren is a winning strategy
In the first two games of the season, Warren split carries in the Steelers backfield with offseason acquisition Rico Dowdle. But with the latter out of action in the last three weeks, Pittsburgh has asked Warren to be a workhorse - and he's carrying his team to success.
Warren has racked up 490 yards of offense over that three-game stretch. On Sunday, he turned a short pass from Aaron Rodgers into an 80-yard receiving touchdown down the right sideline and later cut through several would-be tacklers for a 50-yard rushing score.
The Steelers have averaged 28.3 points in their last three games after scoring 23 in the first two weeks combined. Nobody deserves more credit for that turnaround than Warren.
Will Anderson will be tough to beat for DPOY
Anderson took down Tennessee Titans quarterback Cam Ward three times Sunday, bringing his sack total to 7.5 in 2026, the highest in the NFL through five weeks. With Myles Garrett on injured reserve and Micah Parsons yet to make his season debut, there aren't many pass rushers capable of keeping up with the Houston Texans star's torrid pace.
The Buffalo Bills' Gregory Rousseau, Vikings' Dallas Turner, and Steelers' T.J. Watt are all making their presence felt in opposing backfields too, but Anderson is the clear early front-runner for the Defensive Player of the Year award.
Browns' tightrope act was doomed to fail eventually
For a little bit, it looked like Cleveland was going to do it again Sunday.
After three straight fourth-quarter comebacks, the Browns were in good shape to make it four in a row when Denzel Boston caught a go-ahead touchdown with just over six minutes left against the New York Jets.
But a bobbled snap by punter Corey Bojorquez set up the Jets for a go-ahead TD of their own minutes later. One more stop from New York's defense ended Cleveland's win streak and, at least for now, toppled Cleveland from first place in the AFC North.
Malik Willis isn't doing much to keep his job
The Miami Dolphins aren't going to be a playoff team after gutting the roster in the offseason. Presumably, they'll have one of the top picks in the 2027 NFL Draft and an opportunity to take their quarterback of the future. That's increasingly looking like the right course of action, because Willis isn't offering much hope that he'll be their guy.
Granted, Willis doesn't have much to work with in Miami. The Dolphins' wide receiving corps is comfortably the NFL's worst on paper, and star running back De'Von Achane is done for the year with a knee injury. Still, that doesn't excuse Willis repeatedly throwing across his body into traffic, resulting in two interceptions in a 31-24 defeat to the Cincinnati Bengals.
Bears' backup QBs finally looked like backups
It was no Caleb Williams, no problem for Chicago for two weeks. But the Bears desperately missed their starting quarterback during Sunday's 31-7 loss to the Packers. Tyson Bagent threw two interceptions against Green Bay before he was replaced by Case Keenum, who threw a pick of his own.
Meanwhile, the Packers' offense finally figured things out by chucking the ball deep all day at Lambeau Field. Jordan Love completed six of his eight deep passes for 258 yards and two touchdowns. Christian Watson and Matthew Golden had six catches each for 143 and 123 yards, respectively.
Jaguars successfully navigate a dreaded long snapper injury
Losing a long snapper for any stretch is quietly a doomsday scenario for an NFL team.
When Ross Matiscik suffered a shoulder injury in the first quarter in London against the Eagles, the Jaguars had to turn to DaVon Hamilton - a 335-pound nose tackle who snapped in high school - to get the job done. The big guy did pretty well, but it was up to holder Logan Cooke to make sure it wasn't too disastrous of a situation.
A high snap from Hamilton contributed to Jaguars kicker Cam Little missing a crucial extra point late, but another high snap from Hamilton in the final second of the game was corralled by Cooke, who successfully teed up Little's 57-yard game-winner.
Adam Stites is a contributing writer for theScore.
