By John Meylor
Chicago Bears quarterback Caleb Williams prepares to throw the ball during the second quarter against the Las Vegas Raiders at Allegiant Stadium. (Kiyoshi Mio/Imagn)
CoDeQua (a word amalgamating coach, defense and quarterback) is a weekly NFL column providing a snapshot of the league through the lens of the most interesting stories in each of the aforementioned categories.
We’re five weeks into the NFL season, and the league’s hierarchy continues to shape and form in definitive yet unexpected ways. The past two weeks since the last edition of this column have seen some predictable outcomes, such as the Texans firing off two straight wins as the attempted necromancy of their season continues. The Detroit Lions continued to steamroll every opponent put in front of them and Baker Mayfield single-handedly carried the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to contention in an early-frontrunning MVP campaign. Meanwhile, other developments are much odder, including the Patrick Mahomes–Andy Reid Chiefs sporting the same record as the Bryce Young–David Canales Carolina Panthers, San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan somehow coaching the most injured roster in the NFL to a 3-0 start against opponents in the formidable NFC West and the unspeakable collapse of the Baltimore Ravens, characterized by a defense giving up nearly 40 points per game. This week, the column dives into the weird and wonderful around the league: crowning the Defensive Player of the Year way too early, attempting to buy stock in a 1-4 team doomed for failure, and contemplating the most important quarterback rematch of October. Here are three bold statements for each:
Kellen Moore’s first win as a head coach positions the New Orleans Saints as the Best Bad Team in the League
Five weeks into the season, the underbelly of the league has yielded some fascinating results. Alongside some of the NFL’s twistier tire fires such as the Baltimore Ravens and Cincinnati Bengals, the bottom of the barrel has included many of the preseason projected low-win teams including the New York Giants, the Cleveland Browns and, yes, the New Orleans Saints.
Under first-time head coach Kellen Moore, the Saints entered the season sporting the lowest projected win total per FanDuel Sportsbooks and having the lowest-graded roster in the league per ESPN. It’s not an overstatement to say they were widely seen as the league’s biggest pushover by many, including this writer. Although their record through five games more or less is in line with those projections, Moore has imbued the team with a spunk the city hasn’t seen since the team began its rebuild. The Saints’ 26-14 spanking of the Giants on Sunday, which marked career first wins for Moore as a head coach as well as starting quarterback Spencer Rattler, acted as the culmination of a tough yet skittish brand of football the team has developed under Moore. Moore has something brewing in New Orleans, as the pairing of gutsy play-calling alongside elevated play from Rattler and its defense has turned New Orleans into the Best Bad Team in football.
The most noticeable improvement in the team and one of the most underrated storylines of the season has been the development of Spencer Rattler from an utterly subpar transition QB in 2024 to a competent starter in 2025. In seven starts last season, Rattler was an abject disaster, throwing more interceptions than touchdowns, averaging a paltry 188.7 yards per game and posting a 37.1 quarterback rating (the worst among qualifying passers that year). The difference is stark this year, with Rattler posting some fairly eye-popping improvements: bumping his quarterback rating by 20 points to 57.0 (18th), increasing his completion percentage by 10 points to 67.2% (14th) and flipping the script on his touchdown-to-interception ratio to 6:1 (6th in the league). Rattler has quietly saved a career that was looking fatal from the jump, and the arrival of Moore correlating with that development is no coincidence at all.
On the other side of the ball, Moore’s decision to bring his old boss Brandon Staley onto his staff as defensive coordinator has yielded great results for the Saints’ defense. A unit that ranked bottom-five in yards allowed per game now stands at 17th and ranks in the top 10 in fewest passing yards allowed and 19th in rushing yards allowed, improvements from 29th, 27th, and 31st from last year respectively. Additionally, the development of the defensive personnel has borne fruit, including a quiet breakout from DE Carl Granderson, who is on pace for a career-best 15 sacks and eight total defensive takeaways, the fifth most in the league.
Finally, Moore’s coaching has New Orleans handling themselves with a level of confidence and boldness that a team of this stature normally should not have. Aside from a Week 3 disaster that saw the Saints on the receiving end of a blowout from the Seattle Seahawks, New Orleans’ Week 1, 2 and 4 losses against teams that now stand at a combined 10-4 were all within one score. The Saints and Moore frequently kept pace with some of the NFL’s highest-tier teams, including Coach of the Year candidates Kyle Shanahan and Sean McDermott of the San Francisco 49ers and Buffalo Bills respectively. That Week 4 loss against the Bills saw Kellen Moore dial up his own version of the infamous “Philly Special” play, which, while unsuccessful, showed a willingness to stretch every inch of creativity and dynamism out of his offensive roster. The successful decision last week to go for it on 4th-and-5 in the fourth quarter to seal the game against the Giants showed a confidence Moore has in himself and his team that is sure to be the seeds of a greater cultural change down South.
The Saints may not surpass their projected win total this year. They may not even meet it, but don’t let that fool you; Kellen Moore is here to stay and the future is very bright in New Orleans.
Fun side note: The Philadelphia Eagles, for whom Moore orchestrated a prolific Super Bowl-winning offense as their Offensive Coordinator and playcaller last year, have looked completely lost on that side of the ball following his departure. All-Pros Jalen Hurts, A.J. Brown, and Saquon Barkley are all in the midst of major production downgrades compared to their 2024 campaigns under Moore. Hurts, Brown, and Barkley reportedly held a players-only meeting that lasted over two hours following their loss to Denver. You can bet they are missing their old OC right now.
Broncos’ Nik Bonitto is the Defensive Player of the Year, and on pace for an all-time great season
A storm is brewing out in Denver. After a 2-2 start in September in which the Broncos left plenty of meat on the proverbial bone, they finally delivered a signature win on Sunday, handing the Jalen Hurts–led Philadelphia Eagles their first loss in over a year and establishing themselves as contenders in the wide-open AFC.
Although the pairing of quarterback Bo Nix and head coach Sean Payton has claimed the lion’s share of the headlines surrounding Denver, the team’s performance this year has been defined by a ferocious defensive line, led by outside linebacker Nik Bonitto. Bonitto was in complete control Sunday, posting 2.5 sacks, five pressures and a 21.7% pressure rate. That performance was no aberration: Bonitto has had a monster season early and has played better than any player in the league on the defensive side of the ball.
Through the first five weeks of the season, Bonitto is the league leader in sacks (7.0) and quarterback pressures (31) and second in quick pressures (14) and get-off time (0.72 seconds). Betting favorites above Bonitto for Defensive Player of the Year are currently Cleveland Browns edge Myles Garrett and Detroit Lions edge Aidan Hutchinson, both of whom Bonitto currently leads in quarterback pressure rate as well (28.4% vs. 18.2% and 16.2% respectively). His pairing with fellow Broncos linebacker Jonathan Cooper has turned an already elite Denver defensive line into a high-octane cannon aimed solely at breaking opposing quarterbacks.
Bonitto’s season pace would put him at 24 sacks — which would break the NFL single-season record — and a whopping 102 quarterback pressures. His defensive performance isn’t isolated from its impact on the greater Denver defense, which currently ranks in the top five in almost every major defensive category, including second in points allowed per game (16.8) and fifth in total yards allowed per game (288.6). Despite sharing the field with 2024’s Defensive Player of the Year, cornerback Patrick Surtain II, Bonitto and the defensive line are contributing to these gaudy defensive numbers far more than the team’s backfield. The Denver secondary has stumbled in the first five games of the season, falling from inside the top five in 2024 for yards per completion allowed, passing yards per game allowed and total receptions allowed to outside the top 10 in all categories, including bottom five in the former.
Bonitto’s impact is undeniable for a defense that is the engine powering Denver from scrappy upstart to holistically formidable Super Bowl contender. He was awarded AFC Defensive Player of the Week from the NFL for his performance against the undefeated Philadelphia Eagles in Week 5, and now heads to London to play against the winless New York Jets for the third straight year. That game that feels ripe for him to truly put the league on notice and establish himself as the unanimous favorite for Defensive Player of the Year as his historic warpath continues.
The Caleb Williams–Jayden Daniels rivalry will be the future of the league, and Williams is about to flip its narrative
Caleb Williams and Jayden Daniels were the No. 1 and No. 2 overall picks of the 2024 NFL Draft, and their head-to-head matchup in Week 7 of that season was one of the best, most bizarre and most consequential games of that year. A game in which the 4-2 Commanders and 4-2 Bears, freshly breaking in their rookie quarterbacks and looking to revitalize their franchises ended in an 18-15 Commanders win that had its share of oddities, including a failed run-in touchdown from a Bears offensive lineman resulting in a fumble and a game-winning Commanders Hail Mary on a tipped 52-yard pass from Daniels.
From that game forward, the two teams and quarterbacks followed wildly different trajectories. For Chicago, the heartbreaking loss proved a harbinger of doom as the Bears closed out the season losing nine of their last 10 games and dismissing head coach Matt Eberflus as Williams’ play spiraled. Washington’s shocking victory rocketed Daniels and the Commanders into the stratosphere of the league’s elite, making the NFC Championship and earning Daniels Offensive Rookie of the Year honors.
In the offseasons, the two quarterbacks worked relentlessly at refining their play heading into the new season as their teams built around them. Washington signed former Pro Bowler Deebo Samuel and drafted rookie standout Jacory “Bill” Croskey-Merritt, while the Chicago Bears hired former Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson as their head coach, who was widely seen as one of the finest young offensive minds in the league and whom Washington had attempted to hire as head coach just a year prior.
Through the first five weeks of 2025, Williams and Daniels have been promising enough, boasting 2-2 and 2-1 records as starters so far respectively. Under Johnson’s explosive, timing-based offense, Williams has seen his game markedly improve as the Bears have jumped from bottom five in yards and points per game in 2024 to just outside the top 10 in both categories in 2025. Meanwhile, Daniels has had a somewhat turbulent if still largely productive season, with blowout victories over the New York Giants and Los Angeles Chargers bookending three very odd weeks for the sophomore QB. The Washington offense saw itself slaughtered by the high-flying Green Bay Packers defense in Week 2 and injuries sidelined Daniels for Weeks 3 and 4.
After many months of speculation as to Williams’ status as a potential bust and a consensus beginning to form, heading into their primetime matchup on Monday Night, Daniels and Williams are just about even in passing yards per game, touchdown-to-interception ratio and passer rating. Notably, Williams leads Daniels in all of these categories, signaling a potential readjustment in the hierarchy of the young guard of NFL quarterbacks. The collision course is undeniable for two dynamic young quarterbacks beginning to establish a rivalry that could define the next generation of football. Almost a year removed from their previous fateful duel, the stakes could not be higher for Williams–Daniels II and Caleb Williams seems poised to even the score.