NFL Winners and Losers: Caleb Williams and Jayden Daniels are both hits, and that’s historic

It’s rare for quarterbacks to go with the first two picks of the NFL Draft. And both of those quarterbacks going on to be superstars? That has never happened before in the modern era, believe it or not.

This year’s class looks like it will change that history.

It’s too early to declare victory on Caleb Williams and Jayden Daniels. After one season, Andrew Luck and Robert Griffin III, the first two picks of the 2012 NFL Draft, looked like superstars and that fizzled after RG3’s ACL injury. But it appears Williams and Daniels are going to be among the NFL’s best quarterbacks for a while. And it’s setting up for a memorable NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year race.

Williams had a better-than-average start as a rookie quarterback, but it looked poor in comparison to Daniels’ blazing hot start for the Washington Commanders. On Sunday in London, Williams looked like he might match Daniels the rest of the way.

Williams threw four touchdowns and was fantastic in the Chicago Bears’ 35-16 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars. The Jaguars are a horrendous team with perhaps the NFL’s worst defense, and that certainly didn’t hurt Williams. But he looked like a No. 1 overall draft pick should look. He showed great vision, he harnessed his improv skills, made play after play and had some impressive throws. His touchdowns to Keenan Allen in particular were masterpieces. On both he put the ball exactly where it needed to be for Allen to score. It’s not normal for a quarterback to look that good in his sixth game.

Williams has been slowly progressing, looking better and better each week. The Bears are 4-2 as their quarterback figures out the NFL at a rapid pace. Daniels looked like he mastered the NFL from his first day, which is even more rare.

Daniels didn’t have a banner day Sunday in a 30-23 loss to the Baltimore Ravens, but that doesn’t put much of a damper on the start to his rookie season. The Ravens are one of the NFL’s best teams, but Daniels still went 24-of-35 for 269 yards and two touchdowns.

The loss dropped the Commanders to 4-2, and few expected them to have that record after six games. Daniels has been incredible and he kept Washington in the game Sunday. It wasn’t his fault Washington lost. The Commanders just aren’t as good as the Ravens.

The history of quarterbacks who have gone 1-2 in the NFL Draft is not good. The best pair might be Jim Plunkett and Archie Manning in 1971, but Plunkett didn’t have success with a Patriots franchise that drafted him and Manning is best known for doing his best during a horrible Saints era. Jared Goff and Carson Wentz each had moments but Wentz faded fast after one great season. Most of the 1-2 pairings include a clear bust: Rick Mirer, Ryan Leaf, Tim Couch, Zach Wilson, Bryce Young (though the latter two still have a shot to redeem themselves). And it’s not just Williams and Daniels, Drake Maye looked pretty good in his first NFL start on Sunday and Bo Nix has had his moments this season too. This group of rookie quarterbacks looks strong.

It’s a bit hard to believe but there has never been a draft class in which quarterbacks have gone with the first two picks and both succeeded. Chicago and Washington are happy that it seems history is being made with this class. The Commanders and Bears will play in two weeks, and that game will feature two of the NFL’s best quarterbacks. Already.

Here are the rest of the winners and losers from Week 6 of the NFL season:

WINNERS

Justin Fields: With Russell Wilson healthy again, Fields’ job security is game by game. He has to play well to keep the job.

And in his first game since Wilson was healthy, Fields did well.

The Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Las Vegas Raiders 32-13 and Fields was a big part of that. He threw for 145 yards, which isn’t that impressive, but also rushed for 59 yards and two scores. He didn’t do anything that would have the Steelers considering Wilson as an option next week, especially after a 19-point win.

Pittsburgh is 4-2 and at some point this season there could be a quarterback change. But Fields is doing what he can to keep the job.

The NFC South-leading Falcons: Atlanta hasn’t played great football yet. But due to some nearly miraculous wins, the Falcons are 4-2.

They finally got an easy one on Sunday. The Carolina Panthers hung around for a while but the Falcons eventually pulled away for a 38-20 win. It’s not that hard to move the ball on the Panthers this season, but the Falcons still looked good with more than 400 yards.

Bijan Robinson had 95 rushing yards and two touchdowns, which was great news for fantasy managers who drafted him in the first round. Tyler Allgeier added 105 yards rushing and a touchdown. Kirk Cousins continues to look more comfortable, as he put up 225 yards and a touchdown in an efficient outing.

The Falcons haven’t hit their top gear yet, though it’s getting better. They’ll take being in first place. The Falcons are tied with the Buccaneers but currently have the tiebreaker due to a head-to-head win. That’s not a bad place to be in mid-October.

NFC North: It’s hard to get four playoff teams from the same division. The math is hard to work out, especially when teams take losses in tough divisional games.

But it sure seems like the NFC North has four of the best teams in the NFL. The Minnesota Vikings are 5-0. The Detroit Lions are clearly a championship contender. The Bears are 4-2. And the Green Bay Packers are looking good now that their quarterback is finding a groove.

Jordan Love looked very good in dismantling the Arizona Cardinals 34-13 on Sunday. He threw three first-half touchdowns and looked all the way back from a Week 1 knee injury. Love finished with 258 yards and four touchdowns. The Packers are going to be just fine. The only problem is they play in the best division in football.

Houston Texans: The New England Patriots aren’t a very good team, and rookie quarterback Drake Maye didn’t change that in his debut. But one of the telltale signs of a good team is leaving no doubt against inferior opponents, and the Texans passed that test Sunday.

C.J. Stroud looked like an MVP candidate again and the Texans didn’t miss Nico Collins, the NFL’s leading receiver who went to IR with a hamstring injury, in an easy win over the Patriots. Maye wasn’t that bad but the Texans’ win was never in doubt.

Joe Mixon returned to Houston’s lineup and it was a reminder of how diverse and unstoppable the Texans’ offense might be if he stays healthy. Mixon had 132 total yards and two touchdowns.

Beating up the Patriots doesn’t make Houston a championship contender. But at 5-1, the Texans look as strong as any team in the NFL.

The Ravens’ offense: Derrick Henry has changed everything for the Baltimore Ravens.

It’s not often an offense with an MVP quarterback changes its identity and that’s a positive, but it has happened in Baltimore. Henry had 132 yards rushing and two touchdowns, Lamar Jackson had 323 yards passing, Zay Flowers had 132 yards receiving and tight end Mark Andrews reemerged with 66 yards and a touchdown in a 30-23 win over the Washington Commanders.

Jackson never had a great running back to work with but does now. Baltimore can move the ball any way it wants, with multiple stars on offense. It’s going to be very tough to slow the Ravens down this season.

LOSERS

The home Dallas Cowboys: The Cowboys have the weirdest split in the NFL this season.

They’re 3-0 on the road. And when they’re at home, they look like the worst team in football.

The Cowboys were embarrassed by the Detroit Lions 47-9 at home, and they’re 3-for-3 in that category. Dallas has a point differential of -66 at home this season. They’ve played one good quarter at home all season, when they turned a blowout loss to the Ravens interesting with a rally at the end. But in the other 11 games they’ve looked horrendous. Team owner Jerry Jones should send an apology letter to season-ticket holders.

The Cowboys’ defense continues to be an issue. The Lions moved up and down the field at will on Sunday. They have injuries on that side of the ball, but it has been a season-long problem. The only good news for Dallas is its next two games are on the road.

Denver Broncos’ momentum: The Broncos got on a bit of a roll to get to 3-2, and then had three potentially winnable games in a row. The first of those three games was against the Los Angeles Chargers.

And the Broncos came crashing back to Earth.

Don’t let the final score or box score fool you. The Chargers dominated the Broncos in a 23-16 win. Bo Nix ended up with 216 yards but almost all of that came after the Chargers led 23-0. Nix looked like a confused rookie as the Chargers built that lead. The Broncos defense wasn’t great after losing its best player, cornerback Patrick Surtain II, to a concussion on the first play.

The Broncos are 3-3 and that’s a fine start. They get the Saints next and the Panthers after that, so they have a chance at a couple wins the next two weeks. But Sunday wasn’t pretty for them.

Sloppy Browns: Cleveland isn’t a good team in just about any way this season, and it doesn’t help that it make bad mistakes at inopportune times.

Last week, the Browns wanted to go for it on fourth down near the end zone but had 12 men in the huddle, causing Deshaun Watson to walk to the sideline in frustration. This week, the Browns’ best chance to tie a close game against the Philadelphia Eagles was going for it on fourth-and-goal with about four minutes left. But left tackle Jedrick Wills Jr. had a false start, which moved the Browns back to the 13-yard line. The Browns figured that was too far to go for it so they settled for a field goal, which didn’t do Cleveland much good at that point. It was probably the wrong call to kick the field goal but it’s not like head coach Kevin Stefanski had a great option. They trailed 20-16 then, never got the ball back after Jalen Hurts completed a huge pass to A.J. Brown downfield and the Eagles went on to win 20-16.

That’s the Browns’ season. They aren’t good, Watson can’t make a play when he has to and the Browns don’t help themselves with bad mistakes. It seems like a lost season for Cleveland (1-5).

Officials in Tennessee: Officials didn’t have a grudge against the Tennessee Titans. They don’t care which team wins. The NFL isn’t rigged. But two bad non-calls in the fourth quarter wrecked any chance the Titans had to come back to beat the Indianapolis Colts.

Twice on third-down passes the Titans threw to DeAndre Hopkins, and twice there was enough contact that it should have been flagged. Neither one was called. The first one was an egregious miss by officials and sent Titans head coach Brian Callahan into a tirade against the officials.

The Titans probably shouldn’t have punted on fourth-and-7 with less than three minutes left after the second non-call but did, hoping to get the ball back. They did, but with just enough time to run one desperation play that never got off the ground. The Colts won 20-17. The Titans won’t be happy when they see the replays.

New Orleans Saints: Remember when the Saints were 2-0 and considered the surprise of the NFL? That doesn’t seem like just a month ago.

The Saints have lost four in a row since that hot start. Sunday’s loss was hard to avoid, with rookie fifth-round quarterback Spencer Rattler getting his first NFL action in place of injured Derek Carr. But it was still disappointing. The Saints fell behind 17-0, rallied to take a 27-24 lead at halftime, but then kept giving up big plays to Chris Godwin including a game-turning 55-yard score after some poor tackling. The Saints never got any momentum in the second half on offense or defense and lost 51-27.

The Saints looked like a huge surprise to start the season. At 2-4, those good vibes are long gone.