NFL team concerns: Jaguars' disaster, Chiefs' WR problems - ESPN

Week 4 of the 2024 NFL season sure felt like a return to normalcy after so many surprises in September. The Lions and 49ers scored a bunch of points. The Patriots and Jets did not. The Falcons and Saints played a weird and sloppy game. Joe Flacco was dicing defenses from the pocket. Welcome back, 2023 — we missed you.

Every Tuesday, I'll spin the previous week of NFL football forward, looking at what the biggest storylines mean for what comes next. We'll take a first look at the consequences of «Monday Night Football,» break down a major trend or two, and highlight some key individual players and plays.

There will be film. There will be stats (a whole section of them). And there will be fun. Let's jump in.

Jump to a section:
The Big Thing: The Jags' tumble
All-Film Team: Quarterly callouts
Mailbag: Questions from… you
Second Take: Are the Chiefs in trouble?
Next Ben Stats: Wild Week 4 stats
Monday night multicast

Every week, this column will kick off with one wide look at a key game, player or trend from the previous Sunday of NFL action. What does it mean for the rest of the season?

In the middle of the 2022 season, the Jaguars were 2-6. It wasn't great, but it wasn't awful. They were only one year into coach Doug Pederson's tenure and still recovering from the abject disaster of the 2021 Urban Meyer season. You remember? He kicked his own players during warmups and called his assistant coaches losers. Nightmare stuff.

So 2-6 under Pederson wasn't really all that bad. The team was young and still discovering its identity. The Jaguars had lost five consecutive one-score games, but you learn a lot about yourself in losses like that — namely, how to clean up the little stuff and execute when the chips are down. This is my