We’re onto Week 9 and I have a few notes coming for you on Election Day. Let’s dive in.

Detroit Lions

The Lions’ offense didn’t exactly crack the code on Brian Flores’s defense Sunday. Detroit scored 19 points and failed to hit 400 yards for a fourth consecutive game.

But what Drew Petzing’s unit did accomplish was playing the game on its terms, based on the chaos Flores’s group endeavors to generate. And that meant prioritizing managing down-and-distance, shifting personnel usage, and driving on the tendencies and rules of the Vikings’ scheme.

First, the Lions put more tight ends and backs on the field than usual—they were in 11-personnel (one back, one tight end) on only 16 of their 68 snaps. Tight end Sam LaPorta played 93% of the snaps. His backup, Brock Wright, played 76% of the snaps, and third-stringer Tyler Conklin played 31% of the snaps. That helped keep the Vikings off-guard presnap, not tipping off who would be in protection.

Second, the backs and tight ends were key in protection, as Detroit would’ve hoped they’d be. Both Jahmyr Gibbs and Sione Vaki were excellent in pass protection, and the Lions deployed Wright and LaPorta in the backfield at times to help with blitzing linebackers.

Third, the Lions leaned heavily on the run game, calling 39 runs to 29 passes. Ultimately, that helped them stay on schedule. On the Lions’ four scoring drives, they never lost yardage on first down, and faced just two third downs with more than seven yards to gain, one of which was a third-and-8 converted with an Amon-Ra St. Brown end-around.

The other one—a third-and-13—brings us to our fourth point, and that’s Jared Goff playing with veteran poise and no panic in the face of the aforementioned chaos. On the play, in the first quarter, Goff had an option to throw to Gibbs in the flat. Recognizing he had time, he kept his eyes on Gibbs, knowing the Vikings’ defenders are taught to follow the quarterback’s eyes. That small action pulled Minnesota safety Theo Jackson up toward Gibbs, and Goff triggered quickly and threw it over his head to Jameson Williams for 46 yards.

The result was a bushel of statistics that may not matter as much as points, but were pivotal to the Lions dealing the Vikings their first loss. Detroit rushed for 230 yards on 39 carries. The Lions churned out 24 first downs and had 35:43 time of possession.

Essentially, they played offense with a refusal to allow the Vikings’ defense to dictate the terms of the game to them, in a way that gave Minnesota’s group all the respect it deserved.

And if you’re a Lions fan, I’d say that should be pretty exciting. Because it means you’ve got a team that can play whatever style it needs to in a given week.

Chicago Bears

Back in the spring, Bears quarterbacks coach J.T. Barrett explained to the media the team’s plan to make Caleb Williams “do less” in 2026. The premise was simple: master the routine, make the spectacular less predictable and become a more dangerous player.

In many ways, it’s just what the Bills had to do with Josh Allen years ago.

“We don’t have to work as hard for our money,” Barrett said in May. “There are times where we could just work through our progression, and get the ball out on time, instead of having to create and extend plays.”

That quote reverberated for me over the summer when I sat down with Williams. I mentioned to him what the Bills did with Allen early in his career—then-Buffalo OC Brian Daboll actually had a lengthy cutup made of Tom Brady, whom he worked with in New England, taking easy-money throws to drive home their point on cashing in on lay-up. Williams took that in, and slyly responded, “70% completions.”

Sure enough, through five starts in 2026, Williams has completed 70.9% of his throws.

That, by the way, is despite facing the NFL’s first-, second-, eighth-, 18th- and 23rd-ranked defenses. Beyond the numbers, he’s playing within structure a lot more, which is certainly part of the impact Ben Johnson and his staff have had on Williams.

To get a closer look, I went back through all 36 called passes by the Bears on Monday night. By my count, Williams scrambled just four times. The first resulted in a 15-yard connection with Colston Loveland on third-and-1 in the first quarter. The second became a two-yard run in which Williams scampered out of bounds on a second-quarter first-and-10. The third was a desperation heave at the end of the first half. The fourth and final one was Williams’s third-quarter Houdini act where he bought time to hit Rome Odunze downfield for 22 yards.

He was more Clark Kent than Superman, and I’d say anyone watching the game would tell you he played really well against a Seattle crew ranked second in the NFL in total defense. He even hit that 70% marker, and even with a few end-of-half heaves factored in.

That, folks, is real growth, and exactly the kind of growth the Bears were looking for.

Los Angeles Chargers

The Chargers are 0–7, but they’ve been steadfast with teams that they’re not going to start wildly selling off pieces. The main reason: They still really like their core.

Los Angeles has gotten calls on edge guys Khalil Mack and Tuli Tuipulotu, but hasn’t budged on either. Tuipulotu is in a contract year, and while he’s way off the pace he set last year with 13 sacks (he’s got three through seven games), he’s still someone that the Chargers want to have around long term. Obviously, the 35-year-old Mack is in a different spot—and he could be moved by next week. But he’s beloved in that building, and hasn’t pushed to be traded. So the Chargers aren’t just going to give him away.

A couple other guys from Tuipulotu’s draft class that could elicit calls, too, but haven’t yet. One is linebacker Daiyan Henley, who’s another player the Chargers would like to keep long term. And receiver Quentin Johnston is under contract for 2027, with the team having picked up his fifth-year option.

We have a week left until the deadline, so things could change. But I’d say at this point, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see the Chargers stand pat in a lost season, with the thought that bringing back a lot of the pieces they have now in 2027 would serve everyone well.

Dallas Cowboys

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said this on Tuesday on 105.3 The Fan in Dallas: “In the NFL, this is after years of looking at all the teams, and all the coaches, there is zero correlation between how much you pay a coach or how many coaches you have as to winning. There is no correlation. And that’s a random sample of years and all 32 teams involved. So put that in your hopper and smoke it. … You can be pretty creative in hiring your coaches.”

Not sure what kind of hopper you’d smoke, but I can give a little context on the rest of Jones’s comment, and how it relates to his own history of hiring coaches.

Back in 2008, when I was covering the team for the Dallas Morning News, Jason Garrett was coming off his first season as offensive coordinator, and the Ravens and Falcons were hot after him as a head coaching candidate. Jones, who thought Garrett had enough potential to let him into coaching meetings as a player, desperately wanted to keep him. So Dallas gave him around $3 million per year to stay as OC.

The problem? That was more than Wade Phillips, coming off a 13–3 season in his first year in charge, was making as the team’s head coach. So Dallas had to go in and give Phillips a raise, too, as part of the deal to keep Garrett aboard.

The other thing that circumstance illustrated was Jones’s overall philosophy in building his coaching staffs, which goes back to the post–Jimmy Johnson late-1990s teams. Generally, he’s wanted the head coach to be a play-caller, and take care of one side of the ball, and then have a coordinator who’d essentially serve as the head coach of the other side of the ball.

You can see it in how he paired Dan Quinn with Mike McCarthy, and then promoted Brian Schottenheimer, and brought back Matt Eberflus to run the defense (Eberflus was fired after a year, and his replacement, Christian Parker, has had a rough go thus far). So that’s what Jones means when he says you can get “creative” in hiring your coaches.

Whether all this has actually worked out for the Cowboys, of course, is another question.

Arizona Cardinals

The Cardinals making Gardner Minshew II the team’s starter after Sunday’s miracle comeback against the Cowboys wasn’t the only significant move the team has made at the position this week. Coach Mike LaFleur also moved rookie Carson Beck—who dressed as the emergency third quarterback in each of the first eight weeks of the season—up to serve as Minshew’s backup, with Jacoby Brissett in the emergency role.

Until now, it would have taken injuries to Brissett and Minshew for Beck to enter a game. Now, he’ll be able to go in whenever. Which means he’s earned some trust from the staff.

Washington Commanders

I don’t think the Commanders are sellers yet—they’re actually still just two games back of the Giants in the NFC East. But they’ve gotten calls about guys. And one player I’ve heard that could be available is 2024 second-round corner Mike Sainristil. After playing over 80% of the team’s defensive snaps in Washington’s first two games, he’s played less than half every week since. On Sunday against Philadelphia, he played only on special teams.

Sainristil could have a market with teams that liked him coming out of the draft, and it’s worth mentioning that Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald was with him at Michigan, and Jesse Minter was the coach in Ann Arbor who converted him from receiver to defense. Also, ex-Commanders DC Joe Whitt Jr., who had Sainristil the past two years, is now the Steelers’ secondary coach.

New York Giants

I’d heard about Giants coach John Harbaugh calling Titans owner Amy Adams Strunk about Jeffery Simmons last week (The Athletic reported on it on Saturday). Part of the reason why the information was sensitive at the time was that some saw it as a faux pas—the call came after the teams’ general managers had already discussed it, and the Giants had been told no by the Titans.

Credit to Harbaugh for being as open about it as he was on Monday, saying he’d do whatever he needed to in order to help the Giants win. But, obviously, the chances of that working were always very, very small.

As we said last week, Tennessee has had a steady stream of inquiries over the past year and a half on Simmons, with teams fishing in the offseason and then at the trade deadline in both years to see if the changes at the general manager or head coach spots would spring him to market. I’m told more than half the league called on him over that time.

Jack Campbell

Finally, we started with the Lions here, and we’ll finish with them, too—our thoughts are with linebacker Jack Campbell and his family. It’s good to hear at least a more positive tone coming from Detroit’s players and coaches over the past 24 hours or so.