November 10, 2024 8:25 pm ET Week 10 was another chalky week for the NFL. Even this week’s upsets were reasonable. The Pittsburgh Steelers coming off a bye? That’s eight straight wins for Mike Tomlin. An interim head coach making his debut in a rivalry game? That “we just fired our head coach” bounce is very real. It sunk the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday. Despite an underwhelming slate of games — you could have gone from the morning’s Munich game to Patriots-Bears to Eagles-Cowboys and never felt you were watching anything better than USFL action — we still wound up with plenty to learn. The Minnesota Vikings are regressing but the Jacksonville Jaguars were never gonna be the team to make them pay for that. The New York Jets bet on a 41-year-old quarterback coming off a torn Achilles and got exactly what they should have expected. The Chicago Bears are doing Chicago Bears things, which threatens to tank another young quarterback in Illinois. What stood out most from a busy slate? Let’s talk about it. Please bear with me for any Twitter embed issues. Our editing software has become a whole problem on that front the past couple weeks. Rest assured, if there’s a play alluded to in the text it’s worth clicking through to see if it didn’t make it into the article itself. 1. — Jacksonville Jaguars (@Jaguars) November 10, 2024 Jefferson was the intended target of all three of Darnold’s picks, each of which came when Minnesota was at the Jaguars’ 30-yard line or better. Fortunately for Darnold, none of this mattered because he was playing the Jacksonville Jaguars. Jacksonville became the first team in more than 15 years to force at least three turnovers and keep its opponent out of the end zone and still lose. Still, it was another troubling performance in an autumn that’s been the backdrop to a few. In Weeks 1-4, Darnold’s average expected points added (EPA) per game was 2.5 — not great, but solid. He’d had an EPA of at least two points in three of those four games and each was a Vikings win. In the five games since, Darnold’s average EPA is -1.5 per game. He’s cracked that 2.0 EPA mark only twice. On Sunday, the downfield passing that had elevated him became a detriment. He completed just two of 11 passes that traveled at least 14 yards downfield. via nextgenstats.nfl.com This is closer to the Darnold we can expect going forward; capable and flawed. The Vikings didn’t find a long term quarterback solution in the dustbin a la Geno Smith. They got a high value backup who can generate wins before the rest of the league catches wise to his game. He’s the younger, more viable version of late stage Joe Flacco. There’s clearly value to that. Minnesota has a talented team and Darnold can lead it to postseason success. But he’s also liable to collapse upon himself like a dying star at an inopportune moment. This is the duality of Sam Darnold. The only difference is we’ve never seen the first half of that equation last as long as it has in 2024. 4. George Pickens is the perfect receiver for Russell Wilson’s moon balls Geoff Burke-Imagn Images A high-arcing, wideout-stopping and occasional defensive-pass-interference creating deep ball has long been a part of Russell Wilson’s arsenal. While the Pittsburgh Steelers can’t match the depth or experience the Seattle Seahawks gave Wilson at wideout during his peak, they do have one ace in the hole. A young wideout who built his reputation on making tough catches near the sideline. That’s George Pickens, whose production the past two seasons hinged heavily on his ability to contort his body for back shoulder throws from Kenny Pickett. Wilson brings a new challenge to the table — one Pickens has proven capable of answering in the past… ah yeah that's why you let George Pickens get away with a certain degree of nonsense pic.twitter.com/tenIStmhqJ