NFL Week 4: The Eagles can rest in the knowledge that everybody else stinks, too

Four weeks into the NFL season, only one concrete fact has surfaced:

Nobody’s good. Not really good.

So as the Eagles recover with a Week 5 bye, they have that going for them, at least.

They are a 2-2 team that is two lucky plays from being an 0-4 team. They’re not the only lucky ones.

The NFL — where everyone now plays soft-core, prevent defense, and where half of the no-preseason, under-conditioned stars are, unsurprisingly, injured — has devolved into a collection of mediocre ballclubs so uniformly flawed that they routinely resurrect failed quarterbacks. Looking at you, Jared and Geno.

Even the best are rubbish.

The Chiefs are 4-0, but they’ve scored only 20 more points than their four victims. They won their second game by one point because knucklehead Bengals receiver Ja’Marr Chase ran his mouth at the refs and a specious pass-interference call set up a last-second field goal. Patrick Mahomes has an 89.7 passer rating, 18th in the league, and has thrown five interceptions, even more than Jalen Hurts.

» READ MORE: Eagles stats: Missed tackles on defense and pressure on Jalen Hurts were too great to overcome vs. Bucs

The fact that they’re sweating their upcoming games against the Saints, the hobbled 49ers, and the Las Vegas Gardner Minshews should explain why nobody’s really sweating the back-to-back Super Bowl champions.

The Vikings are 4-0 as Sam Darnold continues his out-of-body experience; a career 78.3-rated passer with a 21-35 record for three teams, he leads the league with a 118.9 rating, 11 touchdowns, and a 9.59 yards-per-attempt average. If there ever was a question whether Justin Jefferson was the league’s best receiver, consider what he’s done for Darnold, and let that argument end.

Darnold’s sudden bout of competence coincides with the Vikings’ unrelenting pressure of the opposition’s quarterbacks — they led the league with 17 sacks coming out of Sunday — as they continue to blitz like maniacs. They’re doing so under second-year defensive coordinator Brian Flores, the former Dolphins coach and the hottest head-coaching candidate … who also is suing the NFL and three of its teams.

Do you think the Vikings will remain unbeaten after their 9:30 a.m. Sunday date with Aaron Rodgers and the Jets in London? Or their post-bye visit from the Lions, who are really the best team in the NFC, having just dismantled formerly undefeated Seattle?

» READ MORE: Nick Sirianni says the Eagles have some studying to do during the bye. There’s a lot to evaluate.

The Bills remain the class of the AFC despite a bad loss in Baltimore on Sunday night, followed by the Texans, who rebounded from a loss to Minnesota with a win against Jacksonville. But “Class of the AFC” is not a particularly high bar. Neither is “Class of the NFC,” which might actually fall to the Buccaneers and early MVP candidate Baker Mayfield.

The former Progressive insurance pitchman is making the pitch that his renaissance of 2023 was no fluke and his $100 million contract is not wasted. Mayfield was the best player on the field in the 33-16 win over the Eagles on Sunday, and the field included future Hall of Fame receiver Mike Evans, to whom Mayfield has thrown three of his eight TD passes.

Mayfield also has committed just three turnovers. By comparison, Hurts has committed six.

Mayfield’s chief MVP opponent, the Bills’ Josh Allen, has committed just two and has no picks, has the No. 2 rating at 116.5, and should have won it last year.

Doug Pederson’s seat could hardly be hotter. After the Jaguars’ late-game collapse at Houston, when asked about play-calling by Press Taylor (the coach whose promotion Eagles brass would not allow, which led to Pederson’s firing after the 2020 season), Pederson absolved himself and his staff and pointed to his players for the team’s 0-4 start:

“As coaches, we can’t go out there and make the plays, right?”

If the sound of a bus running over players seems familiar, that’s because this is essentially what Pederson did to his Eagles as a rookie coach after a late-season loss at Cincinnati. Pederson was asked if Zach Ertz and Rodney McLeod avoided tough plays — if all of his players played as hard as possible — and the coach replied, “Not everybody.”

» READ MORE: Marcus Hayes: Nick Sirianni’s Eagles remain undisciplined, unacceptable, and unwatchable. Should he be fired?

That was 2016. The players, galvanized by Pederson’s public criticism, rallied in 2017 and won the Super Bowl. I do not foresee that happening on the Treasure Coast.

Then again, the Jag-abonds will play Weeks 6 and 7 in London against the Bears and Patriots, a brace of awful contests that could reset the Jaguars‘ season and avenge the British pox on America that is Piers Morgan.

The wiry owner of the 76ers and New Jersey Devils and lots of other stuff, including a piece of Premier League club Crystal Palace, was caught hugging No. 2 overall pick Jayden Daniels before Daniels burned up Arizona in the desert, 42-14.

What’s not to love?

Daniels is off to the hottest start of any quarterback in league history through the first four games of a season, completing 82.1% of his passes, about 3% better than Tom Brady in 2007 — Brady’s first of three seasons paired with Randy Moss, the second-best receiver in history. Daniels’ top receiver is Terry McLaurin, who is excellent, but who is not Randy Moss.

» READ MORE: Jeff McLane: The Eagles are ill-prepared on offense and defense. After Isaiah Rodgers’ punt return blunder, add in special teams, too.

Daniels, a Heisman Trophy winner out of LSU, has just three TD passes but has four rushing touchdowns, tops among quarterbacks, and 218 rushing yards, second among QBs behind reigning MVP Lamar Jackson. Former dual-threat quarterback Jalen Hurts lags behind with 163 yards and two TDs.

I didn’t realize how much I missed dominant running backs until I watched Ravens workhorse Derrick Henry and Eagles star Saquon Barkley reach 480 and 435 rushing yards, respectively, in just four games, with an 87-yard touchdown for Henry and a 65-yard score for Barkley, as each averaged 6.0 yards per carry. Henry has five rushing TDs; Barkley, four.

Magnificent.

Preseason MVP favorite Joe Burrow and preseason Super Bowl favorite Cincinnati averted an 0-4 start by beating the Panthers, who in recent seasons have been football’s worst team. … Mike McDaniel, the genius coach and funky Ivy Leaguer who was supposed to save the Dolphins, has now lost six of seven games dating to the playoffs and the end of last season.