Malik Willis, Ladd McConkey amongst Secret Superstars for Week 8

As any NFL season progresses, there will likely be extra unheralded gamers who stand up from humble beginnings to change into elements, and guys whose careers have gone sideways who in some way discover the highway again to relevance.

We prefer to rejoice these gamers each week in “Secret Superstars.” This week, we’ve got a backup quarterback who appears like a starter unexpectedly, a receiver who really offers Justin Herbert hope, Baker Mayfield’s new finest buddy, and a Texans security who helped engineer Anthony Richardson’s benching.

Malik Willis, QB, Inexperienced Bay Packers

When Jordan Love limped off the sector with 12:08 left within the third quarter throughout Sunday’s recreation with a groin harm towards the Jacksonville Jaguars, it marked the second time this season that Malik Willis, the 2022 third-round choose of the Tennessee Titans, needed to sub for the Packers’ franchise quarterback. Love suffered a sprained MCL towards the Eagles close to the tip of the season opener, and Willis performed nicely in two video games as a sub. In opposition to the Jags in a 30-27 win that lifted Inexperienced Bay to a 6-2 file, Willis’ stats weren’t wonderful – 4 completions in 5 makes an attempt for 80 yards and a landing – however there was one play that confirmed Willis’ progress as a quarterback and head coach Matt LaFleur’s confidence in him.

With 1:13 left in what was then a 27-27 recreation, Willis hit receiver Jayden Reed on a 51-yard vertical leak route that arrange Brandon McManus’ 24-yard game-winner. Essentially the most spectacular a part of this play is that Willis audibled into it on the line of scrimmage.

“Yeah, I used to be simply in search of the rotation,” LaFleur mentioned. “Rotation got here down. We ran the — it was the very same play, primarily, two performs in a row, the place we didn’t get the look. They introduced a nickel stress on the primary play. Didn’t get the search for it. After which the second play, they confirmed sturdy rotation. Acquired the look, and the remainder is historical past.”

Willis, who referred to as the audible, was calm within the second.

“No, we attempt to simply take it one play at a time,” Willis mentioned of the play. “We had been in search of a sure look and we didn’t get it the primary time. Really, we ran it twice. We simply ran the primary play. After which we ran it once more and we received the look we had been in search of and we simply canned proper into it. It was excellent. Like to see it.”

Seems like knowledgeable quarterback to me. LaFleur has mentioned that Love’s harm is just not critical sufficient to maintain him out for a very long time (he’s day-to-day, as are all of us), however so long as the LaFleur-Willis connection continues, all is just not misplaced in Titletown.

Isaac Guerendo, RB, San Francisco 49ers

It looks as if each week, there’s one other 49ers rookie tearing it up on the sector. That’s the standard of San Francisco’s 2024 draft class general, and with first-rounder Ricky Pearsall returning to motion 50 days after getting shot within the chest in an alleged armed theft try, that class is about to get even higher.

Pearsall caught 4 passes for 38 yards in his NFL debut and added a 39-yard run, however the actual rookie star of San Francisco’s 30-24 win over the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday was Isaac Guerendo, the 6’1, 225-pound fourth-round working again from Louisville. Kyle Shanahan and his coaches don’t have any drawback determining easy methods to make the most of Guerendo’s mixture of measurement, energy, and pace – he ran a 4.33-second 40-yard sprint on the scouting mix, which is 98th percentile for working backs.

All of it confirmed up on Sunday, when Guerendo carried the rock 14 instances for 85 yards, a landing, one other landing he may have had if he didn’t pull as much as give the 49ers extra time close to the tip of the sport, 6.1 yards per carry, three explosive runs, and 4 pressured missed tackles.

Christian McCaffrey has been out all season with knee and hamstring points, and with out Guerendo, who is aware of the place San Francisco’s run recreation is likely to be? Shanahan’s system is primed to make nearly any working again look higher, however Guerendo is excess of only a widget in a scheme.

Ladd McConkey, WR, Los Angeles Chargers

In Week 7, Justin Herbert accomplished 27 of 39 passes for 349 yards towards the Arizona Cardinals and had no passing touchdowns to point out for it in a 17-15 loss, main Chargers followers to rightly bemoan the state of the staff’s cap-strapped receiver corps. It was time for second-round rookie Ladd McConkey from Georgia to point out up as by no means earlier than, and that’s what McConkey did.

In LA’s 26-8 win over the New Orleans Saints on Sunday, McConkey caught all six of his targets from Herbert for 111 yards and two touchdowns. McConkey grew to become the primary Chargers rookie to file a 100-yard recreation since Keenan Allen did it in 2013.

Whether or not he was slow-rolling cornerbacks on deep vertical routes, or posting up safeties in the long run zone as you may not count on from a 6’0, 185-pound man, McConkey definitely appeared like a reputable WR1 in Greg Roman’s troubled offense, and no one on the staff disagreed after the sport.

“He simply makes performs and you need to discover methods to get him the ball,” Herbert mentioned. “He’s an entire receiver. To have that brief recreation and intermediate routes the place he’s been so good at it, particularly on third downs. Now you add open up a few of these go-balls that you need to respect … we’ve received a real ballplayer on our fingers.”

And when you may have your head coach evaluating you to Steve Smith Sr.? That’s a spicy meatball.

Cade Otton, TE, Tampa Bay Buccaneers

The Buccaneers got here into their Week 8 matchup towards the Atlanta Falcons with a determined want for perfect targets for Baker Mayfeld with each Mike Evans and Chris Godwin out resulting from harm. They wanted one other alpha goal in the event that they had been going to beat the Atlanta Falcons in an important NFC South matchup on Sunday. Tampa Bay fell simply brief in that regard on the fallacious aspect of a 31-26 rating, however tight finish Cade Otton was very happy to be Baker Mayfield’s new finest buddy.

Otton caught 9 catches on 10 targets for 81 yards, two touchdowns, 39 yards after the catch, and one impressively athletic play during which he hurdled security Jessie Bates III on a 29-yard catch early within the second quarter.

“Coach [offensive coordinator Liam] Coen had an incredible idea, and I used to be in a position to get open over the center,” Otton mentioned of his massive catch of the day (first play on the reel beneath). “Baker threw an incredible ball, and I noticed the security coming in low, so I attempted to select my legs up a bit of bit, and I used to be in a position to get previous him and made a giant achieve. It was an incredible play throughout, and clearly the road had nice safety too. So, whether or not it was me or another person, we simply must hold doing these issues and executing at each stage.”

It may have been anyone, nevertheless it was Otton, and never for the primary time. In Week 7, Otton caught eight passes on 10 targets for 100 yards whereas all of the receivers round him had been getting damage.

“Cade’s a man that generally will get overshadowed by the remainder of this ability group that we’ve got, however he does a ton of the soiled work,” Mayfield mentioned after the Falcons recreation. “He does lots for this offense, run recreation, move recreation, and in the present day he made a variety of performs that we wanted. Right this moment was a simply an instance of him getting an opportunity to showcase his abilities. He’s clearly a really clever participant, simply being in the correct spot on the proper time in a few of these zone-coverage performs that we had dialed up. He did an incredible job.”

Johnny (Jer’Zhan) Newton, DI, Washington Commanders

When watching the inside defensive linemen eligible for the 2024 NFL draft, the man who stood out to me above all else was Illinois’ Johnny (Jer’Zhan) Newton, who put up seven sacks and 43 complete pressures in his last collegiate season regardless of enjoying via Jones fractures in each toes. Newton’s well being standing dropped him to the thirty sixth general choose within the second spherical, and the Commanders jumped on the appropriate threat for a participant who ought to have been taken someplace within the first 20 picks.

Newton received off to a little bit of a sluggish begin in his NFL profession, however he began to point out his finest in Washington’s 18-15 win over the Chicago Bears. Jayden Daniels’ Hail Mary landing move, and Tyrique Stevenson’s protection brainfart had been the large tales of the sport, however let’s not overlook the latest enchancment in Washington’s protection. Newton, who had a sack, three quarterback hits, and three quarterback hurries in simply 18 pass-rushing snaps, is now a giant a part of that. He additionally had two stops and a fumble restoration.

“I felt him from the three-technique, [and] I felt him from inside to get the fumble restoration,” head coach Dan Quinn mentioned. “You guys have heard me say, ‘That is coming,’ and I felt that. It was good to see the stress that he was in a position to generate from the within,”

If Newton is ready to stay as much as his spectacular potential this season, the 6-2 Commanders will likely be that rather more harmful.

Za’Darius Smith, DL, Cleveland Browns

It stays to be seen whether or not Smith will likely be traded by the November 5 deadline, as has been broadly reported – possibly the Browns see themselves as not utterly out of it with Jameis Winston at quarterback. But when Smith did simply play his final recreation in a Cleveland uniform, he positive went out with a bang. In Cleveland’s last-second 29-24 win over the Baltimore Ravens, Smith sacked Lamar Jackson as soon as, and pressured him eight different instances, making life pure hell for Baltimore’s offensive line.

If the Browns now see themselves as potential contenders with Winston regardless of their 2-6 file – and stranger issues have occurred – they need to hold Smith on board, as a result of the mixture of Smith and Myles Garrett (who matched Garrett towards the Ravens with 9 complete pressures) is likely one of the NFL’s finest, and you may by no means have too many pass-rushers whenever you’re attempting to get out of a gap you created by yourself with a quarterback whose off-the-field fame is in some way worse than his lackluster play this season previous to harm.

Eric Murray, Security, Houston Texans

It was introduced on Tuesday that the Indianapolis Colts will trip with Joe Flacco versus Anthony Richardson at quarterback for not less than the close to future. There have been a number of causes for the choice: Richardson couldn’t get out of his personal approach in Indy’s 23-20 Sunday loss to the Houston Texans, his choice to faucet out for a play within the second half reverberated all through the locker room (this isn’t one thing NFL gamers do as a result of they’re drained), and the Colts are 4-4. With Flacco in that Texans recreation, they’d in all probability be 5-3, combating it out with Houston for management of the AFC South. This isn’t but a staff in developmental mode for subsequent season.

A extra under-the-radar cause? Each time Richardson threw a ball within the normal neighborhood of Texans security Eric Murray, unlucky outcomes had been positive to observe. Murray is much from the most important identify within the Texans’ secondary, however the 2016 fourth-round choose of the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs has been an underrated a part of DeMeco Ryans’ protection all season. And towards the Colts, Murray allowed two catches on six targets for 30 yards, 16 yards after the catch, no touchdowns, no interceptions, three massive move breakups, and an opponent passer score of fifty.7.

“I believed Eric did a very nice job to get his fingers on three passes there and bat them down. Tackling, all the things, he did a very good job for us. Not solely Eric, having Kamari [Lassiter] again was big for us and the way in which he competed and made performs. [Derek] Stingley [Jr.], thought he did an incredible job. Had some guys there that had been open. Stingley was enjoying with unbelievable effort to make a pair performs on the ball. Our again finish, simply all these guys stepped up and made performs.”

They did, and given Houston’s receiver points with Stefon Diggs misplaced for the remainder of the season with a torn ACL, and Nico Collins nonetheless laid up with a hamstring difficulty, that protection is extra necessary to Houston’s aggressive pursuits than it’s been all season.