1. The AFC North might be the best division in football

The AFC North has been a good division over the last few years with the Steelers and Ravens winning Super Bowls in the last ten years. The Steelers have won the division three of the last four years and were considered favourites before the season. Instead they are bottom of the division at 1-1-2, with only a tight win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. They have arguably the best collection of skill players in the league, with Juju Smith Schuster looking like the best young receiver in the league. Instead the defence is letting them down. Joint with them is the Cleveland Browns who with a bit of luck could have been 4-0. They have twice been to overtime, beat the New York Jets and missed kicks cost them against the strong New Orleans Saints. Above them are the Cincinnati Bengals and Baltimore Ravens. The Bengals have beat the Ravens, Falcons and Colts but lost to the Panthers. The Ravens have beat the Bills, Broncos and Steelers. None of the teams look like Super Bowl contenders but none of the teams are bottom feeders either.

2. The Chicago Bears could be great

Mitch Trubisky had the best game of his NFL career yesterday. He put up 354 yards on 26 attempts, throwing for six touchdowns. This was his best performance of his young NFL career, after looking like the Bears weakness to start the season. If the team can get Trubisky regularly throwing like an average quarterback, they become serious contenders. The defence has conceded just over 16 points a game although that did include games against the Cardinals, Seahawks and Buccaneers all of whom would have been considered weak offences prior to the season. Tarik Cohen proved himself to be one of the most unique offensive weapons, outside of Kareem Hunt and with the innovative Matt Nagy, I can see him being put in great positions to succeed.

3. The Giants made a mistake in the draft

The Giants have not been used to picking high in the draft over recent years. Since 2006 they had picked inside the top fifteen three times, with number nine pick Ereck Flowers, the highest they picked until earlier this year. Given the age and declining performance of Eli Manning, it seemed a given they would pick a replacement. With the number two pick they decided not to pick a quarterback, instead picking Saquon Barkley. He has 453 total yards in four weeks, an incredible amount given the lack of creativity in the offence that has never allowed him to pile up easy yards by scheme. It is not a dig at Barkley though, who looks like one of the best running backs in the league. But, he has the fourth highest cap hit in the league and defences are not having to do anything special to stop him, because Eli Manning cannot punish them. It would have made more sense to pick a quarterback who could have been groomed as the Manning replacement and accelerated if he looked bad. Baker Mayfield, admittedly off the board, Josh Rosen, Sam Darnold and Josh Allen have all started games and shown potential to be starting quality quarterbacks. The Giants have missed a chance to draft one of them and instead will spend more years of Odell Beckham Jr’s prime looking for someone to adequately pass him the ball.

4. The Atlanta Falcons are going to be in shootouts

The three games the Falcons have played after the opener have averaged over 69 points a game. Julio Jones has the most receiving yards in the league, ably backed up by Calvin Ridley and Muhammad Sanu. Matt Ryan is effortlessly putting up yards and his red zone woes seem to be over. The issue for Atlanta will be that teams are putting up just as many points against them. Quarterbacks are averaging over 350 throwing yards and they’ve given up over 100 rushing yards in those three games. Deion Jones and Keanu Neal are probably the two standout defenders for Atlanta and both are missing. Their absence has definitely been felt. If you want a high scoring game though, look towards Atlanta.

5. Do not forget about Andrew Luck

When the best young quarterbacks are mentioned, it is usually people discussing Mahomes and Wentz. Andrew Luck may be older than the pair, having not long turned 29 but he is just as likely to be he best quarterback in the league in a few years. He had played well in the preceding weeks without looking special. Against Houston he reminded everyone what the hype was about. He threw four touchdowns and a career high 464 yards for a passer rating over 100. He did that without T.Y Hilton and engineered a comeback from 18 points down. The Colts as a whole are not good enough to contend, but with Luck, they have a major piece.