No one had a worse Week 6 than the Los Angeles Rams. After his team lost to the Cardinals as 13.5-point favorites on Sunday, Sean McVay announced Monday that wide receiver Davante Adams (ruptured hamstring) is out 6-10 weeks, defensive tackle Poona Ford (torn triceps) is out for the rest of the season, and defensive tackle Kobie Turner (groin) is out 4-6 weeks. Oh yeah, and new kicker Blake Grupe tore his ACL.

The "dream team" is quickly falling apart, becoming a nightmare just over a month before it began. Myles Garrett hasn't played since undergoing knee surgery after Week 1. Matthew Stafford looks like a shell of himself. At 2-4, the Rams are just the fifth preseason outright Super Bowl favorite in the last 50 years to be under .500 through six weeks.

It's yet another example of how quickly and how drastically things change in the NFL, and it should serve as a reminder of how quickly and how drastically things still can change. Last year, at this junction, the two best teams in the NFL were the Colts and the Buccaneers, both 5-1. Neither made the playoffs.

So, Week 6, what do we do with you? The best way to sum it up: We know a lot, but there's a long way to go. Here's what we learned.

Kyler Gordon completely changes the Bears' defense

Here's a list of defensive backs who have had three sacks and two forced fumbles in a single game:

• Rod Kush: Sept. 15, 1985
• Kyler Gordon: Sunday

This was Gordon's first game of the season! He's obviously not going to be a three-sack-per-game player, but he is one of the best blitzing defensive backs in the game, and Dennis Allen knows how to scheme up creative blitzes. From 2022-24, Gordon was one of just two cornerbacks with at least 100 pass rush snaps, and he had a 15.9% pressure rate. He's a physical, versatile playmaker who plays like he was shot out of a cannon.

And then the injuries came. He played in just five games (including playoffs) last year. Frustration mounted. On Sept. 1, GM Ryan Poles said "I don't know" when asked about Gordon's future with the franchise. Ben Johnson didn't have any nicer words, either. Gordon missed the first five games of this year. 

But Sunday's game shows just how important Gordon can be. In an NFL where secondary versatility is key, Gordon played 10 snaps on the defensive line and seven snaps at slot corner. He was on a pitch count, and the Falcons were still clearly clueless as to how to deal with him.

Gordon has a history of making an impact. Since the Bears drafted him, they have allowed just 6.9 net yards per attempt with him on the field compared to 7.6 net yards per attempt with him off the field. Welcome back, indeed.

Jonathan Gannon's Packers defense is rounding into shape

Before the season, I named Evan Williams as a potential breakout guy, and my goodness, is he breaking out. Jonathan Gannon is helping. Look at where he starts on this eventual interception.

Williams played 31 snaps as a box safety, 31 snaps as a free safety, nine snaps as a slot corner and seven snaps as a defensive lineman Sunday. He has always been a dominant run stopper, but now he's getting free rein to use all of his outstanding athleticism. He is the highest-graded safety in the NFL, per Pro Football Focus.

Williams' utilization is just one of many aspects in which Gannon has been terrific. Sumer Sports had a great breakdown of how he has made his defense so much more difficult to decipher.

And that heightened blitz number is giving teams fits: Green Bay's defense has the third-best EPA-based success rate in the NFL when it blitzes. Sunday, Dak Prescott was 12-for-20 for 79 yards — a season-low 4.0 yards per attempt — against the blitz.

Remember, Gannon is doing this with no Micah Parsons (yet) and injuries to Edgerrin Cooper and Javon Hargrave, among others. It might not have gone well in Arizona, but Gannon is shining in Green Bay.

The Giants have two rising superstars

The conversation surrounding the NFC East-leading (NFC Least?) Giants is who will start at quarterback after J.J. McCarthy came in for Jameis Winston and played well in a Week 6 loss to the Saints. The NFC East is very much there for New York's taking, even with a backup quarterback. There's another thing we didn't expect to say a month and a half ago.

Even if the season eventually comes crashing down — the schedule is about to get a lot harder, starting with the Texans on Sunday — New York can feel very, very good that it's found two young, ascending stars. Malik Nabers is starting to look like his pre-injury self, and Abdul Carter might be a superstar already.

Nabers had 12 catches for 165 yards against the Saints. In the past three weeks, he has had 29 catches for 398 yards and two touchdowns. It's the most receiving yards by any Giants player in a three-game span since Odell Beckham Jr. in 2015. Yes, that's prime OBJ, and Nabers is only a year removed from an ACL tear.

His 46-yard leaping grab was the top highlight, but the one at the 0:25 mark of that video is my favorite: He spins off one defender, shrugs off a linebacker(!), makes another guy miss and picks up a first down. This is, to me, Nabers' most elite quality: explosiveness anytime, any place. What should be a 4- or 5-yard gain turns into 13. His 52 YAC were a season high.

Carter, meanwhile, only had four pressures, but his impact was much larger than that. All four of his pressures were "quick pressures" (within 2.5 seconds), and he drew two holding penalties. His 19 quick pressures this season are tied for second-most in the NFL. The sack numbers aren't quite there yet, but he is absolutely wreaking havoc and looking like he will do so for years to come.

Yes, it's really the NFC LEAST

All four NFC East teams lost this week, one week after the Commanders and Giants played to a comically bad tie, and the Eagles and Cowboys both lost.

It doesn't appear to be getting much better. A quick synopsis:

• The Cowboys' atrocious defense took a step forward Sunday night against the Packers ... but now the offense has disappeared.
• Jalen Hurts is expected to miss the rest of the season with blood clots in his lungs. We're obviously wishing for the best for him, and football pales in comparison to his health. Looking at the football side of things, though, only three teams — including two winless ones — have a worse points-per-game output than Philly.
• The Giants are choosing between Winston and McCarthy and just lost to the Saints.
• The Commanders lost Terry McLaurin to a leg injury on Monday night. The offense has all sorts of problems everywhere outside of quarterback, and the defense is among the league's worst, especially against the pass.
  

Current SportsLine projections do not have a single NFC East team reaching eight wins.

Special teams matter more than ever

Let's take a look at how some Week 6 losers did on special teams.

• In the course of blowing a 13-0 lead to the previously winless Titans, the Colts had a punt blocked for a touchdown and gave up a 58-yard punt return.
• The Falcons' Zachariah Branch muffed a punt inside his own 10-yard line, leading to a Bears touchdown in a 31-23 Atlanta loss.
• The Giants' Charlie Jones fumbled a kickoff return, leading to a Saints touchdown in a 34-27 New York loss. Also, holding penalties nullified two big Jones returns.
• The Raiders' Segun Olubi had two special teams penalties — a holding penalty on a kickoff return and a face mask on punt return coverage — within five plays. The latter helped set up a Bills field goal in a 33-30 Las Vegas loss.
• The Rams — the worst special teams team in the NFL — gave up a 40-yard kick return that resulted in Grupe tearing his ACL on the tackle. Los Angeles was kicker-less for almost the entire game.
• The Ravens and Seahawks both missed field goals inside 50 yards in three-point losses.
• Pretty much everything is going wrong for the Eagles this year, and Braden Mann hitting punts of 28, 23 and 8 yards didn't help Sunday.

Yes, there was an 8-yard punt. No, it wasn't his fault.

Special teams are more important than ever. The kickoffs are crucial, and because teams often get shorter fields with the new kickoff rules, having a kicker who can connect from long distances is also crucial. For some teams, all you need is one first down to be in range.

Entering "Monday Night Football," teams in the top half in special teams EPA this season were 54-39-1 (.580 win pct). Teams in the bottom half were 37-52-1 (.417 win pct).

There's a massive AFC-NFC imbalance

There are eight AFC teams multiple games above .500 this season.

There are four NFC teams multiple games above .500 this season.

We already talked about the NFC East, but we're seeing a massive imbalance between the divisions, too. The NFC South is battling the NFC East to see who's worse. In the NFC West, the defending-champion Seahawks are 3-3 and can't stop turning the ball over, and the preseason Super Bowl-favorite Rams are 2-4 with huge injury issues.

Yes, the AFC has its share of duds. The Dolphins, Chargers and Titans are arguably the three worst teams in the NFL. But when you look at the potential playoff landscape of both divisions, you see far more drama in the AFC.

Both conferences have one powerhouse division where all four teams are above .500 (AFC North, NFC North). The difference is the AFC has two other divisions with multiple teams above .500 -- the AFC West (Chiefs, Broncos) and AFC East (Bills, Patriots) — while the NFC has zero.

This is going to lead to a far more competitive AFC playoff race than NFC playoff race. According to SportsLine projections, there are 15 teams projected to win at least nine games, and nine of those 15 are in the AFC. The NFC East and NFC South look almost certain to be one-playoff-team divisions, while all four AFC divisions have multiple teams that could push for a playoff bid.

But you really don't need all these numbers. So far this season, the Rams, Seahawks, Cowboys, Eagles and Buccaneers are all way worse than expected. The only AFC team way worse than expected is the Chargers (and maybe the Texans, though they're ascending after a 0-4 start).

Of course, as I said at the top, things change quickly. Maybe the Rams, Seahawks and Cowboys get rolling. Maybe some AFC teams fall off. But from what we've seen so far, the AFC is far, far deeper than the NFC.