NFL Week 3 was as dizzying a Sunday in recent memory, with a record 12 games decided by one score or less, and Week 4 began with a pair of NFC East rivals pulling off trades in almost direct reactions to what they saw play out last weekend.

After head coach John Harbaugh, general manager Joe Schoen, and the Giants watched Jameis Winston pass for just 118 yards and one tackle for loss of running back Cam Skattebo that nearly resulted in a safety, New York flipped a fifth-round pick for J.J. McCarthy to the Minnesota Vikings, who couldn’t wait to get rid of the former No. 10 overall pick.

Somehow, the Giants might have even overpaid.

McCarthy has offered very minimal evidence that he is a competent NFL quarterback, completing just 57.6 percent of his 243 passing attempts for 1,632 yards with 12 interceptions to 11 touchdowns, before losing the starting quarterback job in Minnesota this summer to Kyler Murray and the backup job to the Ghost of Carson Wentzes past.

Yet, there is a very real possibility that Harbaugh believes he can be the coach to salvage McCarthy’s first-round draft grade, earned playing in Ann Arbor for Jim Harbaugh, and that McCarthy could eventually supplant Winston in an offense built around handing the ball off to Cam Skattebo 33 times per game and ball-controlling defenses into exhaustion.

“He is talented, but I wouldn’t have given up future assets for him,” a scout tells Between The Hashmarks, on the condition of anonymity to speak freely about another team. “The Vikings had to be thrilled to get anything for him. I just, if I were the Giants, wouldn’t have given up a fifth-round pick because odds are, he is not the answer, and they already have Jaxson Dart to figure out.

“New York isn’t winning the Super Bowl this year, so get the best pick you can next spring in a quarterback class that could be elite.”

Whether the Giants hope McCarthy can outplay Winston down the stretch or is an insurance policy on Dart’s suddenly ballooning injury history, it’s hard to see the upside in parting with a fifth-round pick believing McCarthy is an odds-on favorite to be either of those things.

Meanwhile, after a defensive breakdown in a final-moments collapse against the Baltimore Ravens and after watching defensive coordinator Christian Parker’s secondary allow 207 passing yards per game, the Dallas Cowboys sent a 2027 sixth-round pick and 2028 second-round selection to the Pittsburgh Steelers for lockdown cornerback Joey Porter Jr.

Porter Jr. held opposing quarterbacks to the lowest passer rating when targeting him, 55.9, of any cornerback last season, according to Pro Football Focus and NextGenStats points out that quarterbacks’ 55 percent completion percentage when throwing Porter’s direction ranks fourth among cornerbacks dating back to 2023.

So, yeah, this was a trade made with three-fold motivation; plugging a hole that Lamar Jackson exposed, gearing up for future games against Amon-Ra St. Brown, Justin Jefferson, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Davante Adams, and another against Malik Nabers this season, and signaling that Jones and the Cowboys are officially all-in.

Porter Jr., though, may not be a salve for what ails the Cowboys.

“He’s absolutely an upgrade,” an AFC Scout tells Between The Hashmarks, of Porter, on the condition of anonymity to speak freely about another team. “But he isn’t going to fix Dallas not being physical at the point of attack.

“I don’t see teams throwing it all over the place against them right now. It’s them getting out physicaled and a lack of communication on the back end that is getting them in trouble.”

Porter Jr. is a physical, handsy corner, so he could be part of the solution; but time will tell.

One thing is certain, the Giants and Cowboys surveyed the landscape of the NFC East, and the broader NFC, and realized not just that they aren’t out of it but that no one is running away and hiding with it, and made a trade to bolster their chances of surviving or even competing this season.

You have to at a minimum applaud the aggressiveness.

Inside this mailbag, we dive into what’s powering the upstart New York Jets, and whether Aaron Glenn has already done enough to save his job, hear from a league source on the top coaching candidates he already has his eye on in the next hiring cycle this winter, and get the insight from a coach and an executive on what’s ailing nad how to fix Drake Maye, in New England.

Let’s get after it …

Through the season’s first three weeks, the New York Jets are suddenly playing a competent brand of football that travels.

Now, New York’s only victory of the season’s first month came in the opener against the Tennessee Titans, but Aaron Glenn’s requirement to save his job beyond this January feels far more abstract than the number of victories the Jets put in the win column by season’s end.

However, the progress that the Jets have already made in taking the Packers to the brink in overtime, and having an answer for just about every Detroit Lions haymaker not named Jahmyr Gibbs, is almost undeniable right now.

Glenn’s Jets currently sit as the No. 15 ranked team in the league by DVOA (a metric that compares every play and every team across the league to a situation-based league baseline), up from 32nd in the league by the end of last season. The 2025 Jets’ DVOA finished at negative 35.9, and currently sits at negative -1.1.

Even by more traditional metrics, the Jets are playing much more like a professional operation than the inept laughingstock that proved to be every team on their schedule’s second bye week in 2025.

Through three weeks, thanks in part to Frank Reich’s influence, first-round rookie Kenyon Sadiq’s athleticism creating opportunities in the vertical passing game, and Geno Smith’s veteran command, the Jets are the league’s No. 13-ranked offense, and are averaging 21.3 points per game, up from 17.6 last season.

It’s on defense, where Glenn’s influence seems to not only be taking hold but where the quality of play is trending dramatically in the right direction.

Understanding Glenn’s defensive background and the pressure-oriented scheme he wants to run, general manager Darren Mougey went to work, acquiring veteran safety Minkah Fitzpatrick in a trade with the Dolphins, signing veteran edge rushers Joseph Ossai and Kingsley Enagbare, and adding some veteran stability up the middle by signing linebacker Demario Davis, and the results have been a unit that has contributed timely sacks while rising up the ranks from the league’s 25th-ranked Defensive DVOA last season to the 13th ranked, so far in 2026.

The talent on the roster has unquestionably improved, on both sides of the ball.

If the season ended after three games, Glenn has unquestionably done enough to coach the Jets beyond this season.

The season, though, does not end after three weeks, and the conversation is a bit more complicated than that.

Glenn’s clock management and situational awareness as a head coach may not just be his most glaring weaknesses as a head coach, but time will bear out if they wind up lowering the ceiling on a hard-charging ascending roster.

According to ESPN’s Rich Cimini, the Jets have now gone seven consecutive games without scoring in the final four minutes of a half, and own a negative-55 point differential in the final four minutes of halves, since Glenn’s arrival.

That’s a damning indictment of Glenn’s ability to manage a game, because games are so often won and lost in the “middle eight” of games between the final four minutes of the second quarter and first four minutes of the third.

There is also a reality looming come April that is impossible to ignore, and makes this conversation even more difficult to have in October.

The Jets currently own three first-round picks (their own, the Dallas Cowboys’ and the Indianapolis Colts), which is plenty of leverage to trade up to acquire one of the elite quarterback prospects in a loaded class at the position.

Woody Johnson is notoriously one of the most impatient owners in sports, could opt to reset the entire organizational infrastructure — or at least the coaching staff’s, entirely, to support an Arch Manning, or Dante Moore, or LaNorris Sellers with an offensive-minded head coach with a track record for developing quarterbacks.

Reich’s presence in that regard could be a valuable chip in Glenn’s back pocket, though.

There are so many positives to take away from the Jets’ first month of the season, including two one-score losses, that Glenn is at the very least playing his way into the conversation to keep his job in 2027 and beyond.

Glenn’s Jets are taking steps, there’s no denying it, so far.

If things continue trending in this direction, the wins are going to come, and for Glenn, each victory feels like a step closer to bolstering his job security to see it through to when the talent is in place and ready for this team to make a leap.

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