Tag: overreaction index

4 NFL overreactions: The Browns belong on the Chiefs and Bills level (question mark?)

The Bills, Chiefs and Browns all won blowouts in Week 3. They can’t all make it to the AFC title game. Also Bears, uh, what’s going on?

With only one game per week, no major American sports league creates a pathway to ruinous thinking quite as wide as the NFL’s.

A full seven days of analysis — or four, or six, or sometimes 10 or 14 — creates plenty of time to overthink and overreact. Are the Buffalo Bills and Kansas City Chiefs back and angling for another glorious playoff showdown? Are the Cleveland Browns positioned to win the AFC North for the first time since (oh my god) 1989? Can Chicago Bears fans at least hold out hope for the 2024 season since this one is (/fart noises).

These are all understandable takes after three weeks of the 2023 campaign. But are they reasonable? Well, that’s what we’re gonna take a look at in this week’s edition of the Overreaction Index.

I gave the Dolphins’ offense, which harnesses the things that worked for the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers and engineers it in a way to best suit Tua Tagovailoa, its flowers in my Monday morning recap. I took on Sean Payton’s dire performance and the Denver Broncos’ flameout in this week’s list of the Most Fireable Coaches. Let’s move past those and head to some other emerging stories that could be trends or merely blips on a horizon loaded with data points that create a star map to Super Bowl 58.

NFL Overreaction Index, Week 2: Are the Bengals and Chargers bowing out of the playoff race?

Are the Chargers and Bengals *really* down bad? Is Puka Nacua worth your rookie of the year bet? And is Broken Russ still, uh, broken?

Week 2 brought some stabilization to some of the opening week’s surprising developments.

The Kansas City Chiefs avoided an 0-2 start by slowing down the Jacksonville Jaguars’ hype train. The Buffalo Bills proved all they needed to get back on track was a visit from Josh McDaniels. The NFC South gave way to three undefeated teams which, OK, that one is still a little wild.

There are much weirder currents rippling to the surface beyond the sudden competence of what was formerly the league’s weakest division. New developments, some concerning and others encouraging, have given us new topics to debate. In a league where it’s never too early to make Super Bowl plans or abandon all hope for your team, there’s perpetually something about which we can needlessly worry despite knowing answers are on the horizon.

So what are we overreacting to after Week 2? Well, four things stood out, including the Rams’ rookie of the year candidate and the sudden, steep declines of the Cincinnati Bengals and Los Angeles Chargers.