The NFL Trade Deadline isn’t until November 10, but two teams pulled off a pair of blockbusters last week that don’t just figure to define the playoff chase but will shape what might be the best Monday Night Football matchup of the season, so far.

Even before the Indianapolis Colts shipped Quenton Nelson to the Seahawks and the Bears paid a king’s ransom for Jeffery Simmons, Chicago vs. Seattle felt like a potential NFC Championship Game preview.

Now?

Monday night represents two franchises who took big swings towards maximizing their Super Bowl window in the NFC and a matchup between two of the premier players at their positions in an instant barometer of two of the biggest trades made so far, this season.

“He’s their best defensive player the day he shows up in Chicago,” a veteran scout told Between The Hashmarks shortly after the Simmons trade. “Their defense goes from adequate to good with him as part of it.”

Simmons is the anchor of the Bears’ entire defense, and remains an elite interior pass rush presence for defensive coordinator Dennis Allen, that Chicago had desperately been missing.

According to FTN Fantasy, Simmons has been double-teamed on 84 percent of his snaps so far this season, which should not just create opportunities for Montez Sweat to get after the passer but for Allen’s blitzing to be even more disruptive.

Only three teams in the NFL entered Sunday blitzing more often than Allen and the Bears are, and Simmons’ 24 quarterback pressures and 20 run-stops, according to Pro Football Focus, add another wrinkle of the rush concepts Chicago can throw at opposing quarterbacks.

Monday night, though, will be a test of strength against strength between former AFC South rivals, when it will be Nelson potentially tasked with neutralizing Simmons’ impact.

Nelson is the ultimate stonewall, and centerpiece of an offensive line.

In 275 pass protection snaps, Nelson hasn’t allowed a sack, he’s only given up six quarterback pressures, and is an immediate significant upgrade along an offensive line that’s allowed 16 sacks of Sam Darnold and Drew Lock so far this season, while Seahawks running backs are averaging only 3.9 yards per carry.

“I think Seattle has a certain identity they want,” a veteran AFC East Personnel Executive tells Between The Hashmarks, on the condition of anonymity to speak freely. “They want to run the ball, and they want to set up play action pass. I think he has an impact in both areas, and I love this deal for Seattle.”

Simmons and Nelson make both the Bears and Seahawks stronger where it matters arguably most of all in football, along the line of scrimmage. Monday night is a major turf war, and possibly a preview of one with even more significant stakes about four months from now.

Game on.

Sunday’s games were the ultimate counterargument to the belief that running backs don’t matter.

Six different running backs (Bucky Irving, Jahmyr Gibbs, Braelon Allen, Tyler Allgeier, Jaylen Warren, and Kenneth Gainwell) each rushed for over 140 yards. They combined for five touchdowns. Only Allen’s Jets came out on the losing end.

National Tight Ends Day seems to be a national holiday, but Sunday was for the running backs.

The Denver Broncos continue to defy the odds, and now they sit alone atop the AFC West.

Vance Joseph’s defense allowed Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs to drive 43 yards to the one-yard line, four seconds to go, on a razor’s edge that sliced so many hopes and dreams against this quarterback and this franchise over the years.

But, these are the Broncos that have come from behind nine times dating back to the start of last season, and never saying die has become a defining component of the DNA at Mile High.

When Mahomes flipped a shovel pass to Kenneth Walker to set up first and goal from the four, a familiar ending seemed like it might be written in the stars, with the division all but clinched more than three weeks before Thanksgiving.

Not so fast.

With four seconds left, Walker was stonewalled short of the goal line on third down.

A false start took a Mahomes touchdown pass off the board, setting up fourth and goal from the six yard line.

Malcolm Roach sacked Mahomes after the clock hit zeroes.

Ball game. Broncos 28, Chiefs 24. Division race tighter than ever.

Comebacks are simply what the Broncos do now, it’s engrained in who they are.

After all, the Broncos have now won six games this season, five them decided by one score or less.

Sunday was just ridiculous, though.

This was also something entirely different.

This was an exorcism of a familiar demon, of sorts, because the loss drops Mahomes to just 80-2 in games that he entered the fourth quarter with a double-digit lead, according to the CBS broadcast.

Harrison Butker, missing from 54 yards out with 2:36 remaining, legitimately cost the Chiefs the game.

Butker’s miss handed the Broncos a short field that Denver converted into a two-play 54-yard sprint capped by a five-yard game-winning touchdown scamper from rookie back Jonah Coleman.

After the Chiefs signed the even more abhorrent Justin Tucker to the practice squad, it’s fair to wonder if Butker is going to find fatherhood and marriage the most rewarding facet of his life. He just might get the chance to practice what he’s preached here, pretty soon.

Denver made the Chiefs pay for Butker’s miss, but it was Vance Joseph’s defense that stole the show in the fourth quarter.

The Broncos sacked Mahomes twice in the final frame, held the Chiefs to 3-of-6 on third down, and made some critical stops down near the goal line to seal the victory.

For the better part of two years, the Broncos’ sustainability as comeback vultures has been debated in all corners of the internet, but the combination of timely defensive stops while leaning into rookie running back Jonah Coleman may be the ultimate salve for Bo Nix’s limitations as a quarterback.

Coleman seemed to pick up steam as the game went on, finishing with 41 rushing yards with a touchdown, and adding four catches on five targets for 63 yards — 75 of his yards from scrimmage came in the fourth quarter.

Whether it was a big Alex Singleton stop or Coleman’s hard runs late, the Broncos have now tied the 2008-2009 Indianapolis Colts, winning 15 consecutive regular season games that have been decided by one score or fewer.

Sunday’s win keeps hope alive that the Broncos can repeat as AFC West champions, while handing the Chiefs a two-game losing streak, after dropping their two toughest challenges this season to date.

Scoff at Denver’s margins of victory all you want.

Question Nix until you’re orange in the face.

These Broncos keep finding ways to win when it matters most, and the rest of the AFC West is running out of answers … and maybe time to figure out how to stop them.

A game that was hailed as a litmus test for the Buffalo Bills against a quality defense and a barometer the Baltimore Ravens turned into a disaster for the visitors in Orchard Park.

After what would have been a franchise record 259th career passing touchdown for Josh Allen was taken off the board with 10:21 remaining, he gave the Bills a 7-0 lead when it was ruled Khalil Shakir stepped out of bounds at the one yardline, he gave the Bills a lead on an Allen-Shove two plays later.

That’s when the calamity began for the Ravens in a 36-10 Bills win.

On the Ravens’ first snap, Lamar Jackson’s first after returning from an ankle injury, the quarterback’s thumb got stuck in Greg Rousseau’s arm, and he was rushed into the locker room, soon after ruled out for the game.

Jackson, it was revealed after the game, will require thumb surgery and is headed to injured reserve.

As if that weren’t enough adversity for a projected Super BOwl team to absorb, backup quarterback Snoop Huntley was knocked from the game with a foot injury in the second quarter, forcing undrafted rookie Joe Fagnano onto the field and into a game the Bills led 13-7.

Save for Derrick Henry and his 53 rushing yards and a touchdown, the Ravens could muster no offense in Orchard Park Sunday.

That’s about what one would expect with Fagnano limiting the call-sheet, in a hostile environment, against a Bills defense that finally had the chance to get downhill, to pin their ears back and wreak havoc against an emergency quarterback.

Losing Jackson is almost an unquantifiable void for the Ravens, because after all, Jackson is leading all quarterbacks with a 119.6 passer rating, .355 EPA per dropback, and a 41 percent passing DVOA this season.

Now, his season hangs in the balance. As does the Ravens’.

Huntley will undergo an MRI Monday to determine the severity of what Baltimore believes is turf toe, that could lead to some extended run for Fagnano.

Buffalo held the Ravens to just 144 yards of total offense, just 3-of-13 on third down, and on their own side of the 50-yard line on seven of the final nine possessions of the game.

Offensively, Allen had the chance to further cement his place in the Bills’ record book, when he eventually surpassed Kelly with 12:18 remaining, hitting DJ Moore for an 11-yard exclamation point touchdown pass with 12:23 remaining.

Allen finished 21-of-34 passing for 289 yards with two touchdowns and one tip-drill interception, while adding 30-yards and a score on the ground.

Eight different Bills caught a pass from Allen.

Meanwhile, James Cook did his part to shorten the game by rushing for 80 yards and a score.

Textbook Buffalo offense.

This was the kind of game the Bills’ defense desperately needed, if only from a confidence-building standpoint; victimizing Fagnano on an interception, recovering a fumble, sacking the Ravens’ quarterbacks four times and hitting them 12 more.

Sunday in Buffalo began as two teams vying for eventual playoff positioning, but suddenly feel like two teams headed in polar opposite directions as the Bills improve to 6-1, are leaning into a formula that has worked for them throughout the Josh Allen era.

The Ravens, though, are left to wonder where they go from here at quarterback after falling to .500.

Buffalo once again proved that its Super Bowl window is propped wide open so long as Allen is behind center, while the Ravens are left to wonder if their season didn’t come crashing down for good on their first offensive snap.

The Detroit Lions dressed up up as an Arena Football League team Sunday, and played like one when it mattered to knock off their previously undefeated bitter rival Minnesota Vikings.

Donning their ‘Rivalry’ uniforms, and trailing 7-6, Lions offensive coordinator Drew Petzing lined Amon-Ra St. Brown up about 13 yards behind the line of scrimmage, set him on a running start, and Jared Goff hit him for a 10-yard gain that seemed to spark Detroit. Not to mention create a millimeter of space against a Vikings defense that was swarming to the football.

Jahmyr Gibbs sprinted to the end zone for a 30-yard touchdown to give the Lions a 12-7 lead on the next snap, the Lions finally had momentum that they rode to a 19-15 upset.

It didn’t matter that Vikings quarterback Kyler Murray finally hit an explosive play, to Jordan Addison for a 51-yard gain to set up an eight-yard strike to T.J. Hockenson take a 15-12 lead with 8:44 remaining.

It didn’t matter that Brian Flores left no blitz concept on the white board, pressuring Jared Goff on 26-of-29 percent of drop backs.

Read that again.

Brian Flores sent pressure on 89.7 percent of the Lions’ passing snaps. And it didn’t matter, only in part, because as NextGenStats points out, Goff passed for 130 yards with a touchdown and n interception against the blitz, while his 17 completions against the blitz were tied for the most the Vikings have allowed all season.

For real, though, it didn’t matter because once again Jahmyr Gibbs was the difference.

Gibbs took over a game in the second half for the Lions, as the eight-cylinder hemi that continues to power Detroit, even against the stingiest defense the NFL has to offer.

Gibbs finished Sunday with 153 rushing yards, averaging 6.7 yards per carry, 116 of them coming after halftime, 30 of them coming on a touchdown run, and 35 coming on Detroit’s penultimate possession that was capped by Jared Goff’s game-winning touchdown pass to Jameson Williams with 4:09 remaining.

The 24-year-old dynamo just might be Brian Flores’ Kryptonite.

“If you don’t get home and he gets to the second level,” an AFC scout tells Between The Hashmarks, of Gibbs. “And he gets the ball against the second level of your defense, it’s curtains. He’s just too damn fast.”

Gibbs is also so much more than ‘damn fast.’

According to NextGenStats, Gibbs forced 12 missed tackles on his 25 touches against the Vikings, logging a career-high 99 yards after those missed tackles.

Gibbs continues to race into history, joining Ladanian Tomlinson, Adrian Peterson, and Maurice Jones-Drew as just the fourth running back since 2000 to post 10-plus touchdowns in each of his first four seasons.

Sunday was Gibbs’ third game this season with at least 150 rushing yards. He now has more 100-yard rushing games this season, than he did in 2025. The Lions still have nine games left.

And, according to the Lions, Gibbs surpassed Billy Simms for the franchise record for most yards from scrimmage by a player through the first seven games of a season. He now has 1,058.

With just about any other offense supporting it, it’s hard to imagine the Vikings losing this football game.

After all, Eric Wilson and Andrew Van Ginkel combined to sack Goff twice in the Lions’ first seven offensive snaps. And, the Vikings got to Detroit’s quarterback four times and hit him nine times.

Yet,

it.

did.

not.

matter.

The Vikings’ offense is being handcuffed by Murray’s inability to sense pressure, his far to few consistent big throws, to the point that after passing for 210 yards with a pair of touchdowns and in interception, the loss should trigger some difficult conversations at the TCO Performance Center about turning things over to Carson Wentz.

Because, even though Minnesota falls to just 6-1, the NFC North just might send at least three teams to the playoffs, and the Lions now have a head-to-head win and are 2-0 in division play.

Sunday showed the Lions’ resilience, and is the kind of win that can be a catalyst to a special season, especially after one of the most frightening injuries you’ll see on a football field.

With 14:48 remaining, Lions linebacker Jack Campbell had his body twisted extremely awkwardly when making a tackle.

Paramedics immobilized Campbell and carted him out of a silent Ford Field as players from both teams kneeled nearby.

Campbell is the heartbeat if the Lions’ defense. His injury that kind that make football so difficult to continue watching.

Seeing Campbell go down seemed to galvanize the Lions in the final frame, of a contest that figures to shape how the home stretch in the most difficult division in football takes shape.

Despite the Vikings’ defense seemingly having a mere two-touchdowns allowed margin for error, Minnesota still figures to play a factor. But, the Lions’ remaining schedule ranks 12th-most difficult in the league but easiest in the division.

It’s still early, but the Lions are shifting into gear in the motor city at exactly the right time.

Joe Burrow’s place among the top quarterbacks of his generation is often debated and couched by concerns of his lengthy injury history.

Performances like Sunday against the Tennessee Titans, who punched well above their weight in Cincinnati, are the basis for the argument that Burrow belongs within striking distance of the top of any ranking of his peers.

Burrow might be the most consistent, and best, pure pocket passer in the sport with the kind of deadly accuracy and ability to rise to the moment in the clutch that few can come close to matching.

Sunday, Burrow’s 30-yard touchdown pass to Ja’Marr Chase, after stepping up in the pocket and rifling the ball into the tightest of windows between defenders was one of the most impressive throws by any quarterback anywhere this season.

Burrow couldn’t have possibly placed the ball any better than he did, where only Tee Higgins could extend to snag it in tight coverage for a 17-yard touchdown. Just two of the best at their position playing catch at the pylon.

Spreading the wealth, Burrow passed for a career-high 462 yards with five touchdowns to three interceptions, while rushing for 10 yards and a touchdown.

Every jab the Titans’ offense threw, Burrow and the Bengals answered back with a haymaker of their own.

It was only one game, but Burrow’s performance Sunday wasn’t just reinforcing his reputation among modern passers but put him in the company of some of the greatest to ever play the position.

As ESPN points out, Burrow joins Hall of Famer Norm Van Brocklin, who in 1951, became the only other player in NFL history to pass for over 450 yards, toss five touchdown passes and rush for a touchdown in a single game.

Beyond the metrics, one Bengals legend believes it’s Burrow’s intangibles that make him best in class.

“It’s a trait that all leaders have,” legendary former Bengals wide receiver Carl Pickens tells Between The Hashmarks. “He keeps his composure. I watched him all day get guys lined up, his command of the huddle and pre-snap is excellent.”

Burrow’s rushing touchdown, proved to be the game-winner in overtime. Clutch personified.

Sunday marked Burrow’s seventh fourth quarter comeback and 10th career game-winning drive.

This hasn’t been a one-off either, and Burrow may be authoring the most underrated MVP campaign in recent memory.

Over the past three games, Burrow has completed 75.4 percent of his passes for 944 yards, 14 touchdowns, three interceptions, a 128.8 passer rating, .40 EPA per drop back, and three Bengals victories.

According to Pro Football Focus, Burrow’s three-game streak of passing for at least four touchdowns with at least four passing touchdowns ties Matthew Stafford, Russell Wilson, and Peyton Manning for the longest in NFL history. It’s the only active streak.

Burrow might also be one of the more under-appreciated quarterbacks of his era, because he’s quietly moved into a tie for the third-most 400-plus yard passing games before his 30th birthday, with nine, trailing only Dan Marino and Patrick Mahomes by one game.

You can slice the data however you want.

Whether it’s EPA, PFF grades, or historic company alongside Norm Van Brocklin. The conclusion is the same: when Burrow is upright and in rhythm, he isn't just one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL.

He’s the most lethal surgeon from the pocket in the game today, and maybe one of the greatest ever.

We’ve partnered with my pal, Aaron Schatz, and the good people of FTN Fantasy to deliver the critical stat and key trend you need to know ahead of the Monday Night Football game each week.

Monday night has colossal playoff implications in the NFC.

The Seahawks’ offense is the worst in the NFL this year when opponents are playing single-high coverage, with -42.8% DVOA passing the ball.

Just how bad is Seattle when defensive coordinators drop into single-high?

No other offense is below -20%!

On the other hand, the Seahawks passing offense is fourth with 59.0% DVOA against 2-high coverage.

The Bears pass defense is average both ways, but they use single-high more often than they use two-high coverage.

Both of these offenses are doing a terrific job protecting the quarterback, with Seattle ranking second and Chicago fourth in “time to pressure,” underscoring just how long it’s taking defenses to get to these quarterbacks through the first seven weeks of the season.

Mother Nature and the monsoon she unleashed may have been the best player on either team in Tampa Bay on Sunday.

The Buccaneers’ best player, and Tampa’s entire offense, however, was running back Bucky Irving.

Irving was terrific, rushing for 170 yards and a touchdown in some of the worst elements you’ve ever seen, the kind of rain that made it look like Baker Mayfield was throwing with his left hand and Michael Penix, his right.

No slow track, no mud, no rain could slow Irving or Buccaneers running back Kenneth Gainwell, who chipped in 140 yards while averaging 5.6 yards per carry.

“This is that, like Little League Football,” Irving told reporters after the game. “You wake up on Sunday, it’s raining, nobody’s coming to save you, unless it’s the lightning though, that’ll save you. Being there, to know we went out and executed at a high level, now we just put this game to bed and move on.”

According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, the Buccaneers’ 16-0 win over the Falcons was the first by a team without completing a pass since the 1974 Buffalo Bills.

Modern offenses are built around high-flying passing attacks, but sometimes you just need an all-terrain vehicle to plow through the mud. Sunday, Irving was the 4x4 the Buccaneers needed.

The Chiefs have lost two straight games, but this season have rewritten the formula.

For all the handwringing about Kenneth Walker’s usage, entering Sunday with 138 touches, rookie Emmett Johnson emerged as a legitimately competent change of pace back Sunday in Denver, and that’s potentially very, very bad news for the rest of the league.

Johnson was tremendous in all phases; catching all five of his targets in the passing game for 128 yards and a touchdown, rushing for 15 yards, and even returning a kickoff 44 yards.

In the first half, Johnson caught three passes for 119 yards, the most by a rookie running back in Andy Reid’s career.

The Chiefs lost to the Broncos, but may have found their identity for the second half of the season, with Johnson both in a timeshare with Walker and possibly emerging as their most explosive receiving threat they’ve been searching years to find.