Welcome to Week 5 of The First Read. Now I know getting this out after 3 p.m. Eastern isn’t exactly living up to the name of “first,” but I was fighting through a little sickness last night into today and did my best to get this out.

A reminder: this is a free newsletter, but if you feel compelled to help support with a small monthly sub, that choice is always available. Thank you for reading.

News broke Saturday morning about a trade. Well, kind of. Starting with Adam Schefter, multiple insiders reported that Marvin Harrison Jr. was going to be traded and would be inactive for Sunday’s game against the Lions, but the destination was not finalized.

Houston seemed the most likely destination, given the open-ended reporting.

Reporters couldn’t announce Houston wouldn’t make the trade with a loss or mention that a backup team had a slightly worse offer. No one looks good in that scenario, so the reporting was kept intentionally vague.

Now can we question the process of needing to beat the Titans and not fall to 0-5 to feel comfortable making a trade? Sure we can. But we’ll get to the trade in a bit. First, we’ll note it was made because Houston won.

The Texans haven’t been a bad 0-4 team—they were 17th in DVOA through Week 4—but something was always missing. This 26-3 win over Tennessee was easily the closest Houston got to looking like a more complete team. 

When I wrote over at FTN last week about what was wrong with the Texans’ defense, I mentioned a pass rush that hadn’t been dominant. A lot of that stemmed from a lack of production from Danielle Hunter alongside Will Anderson. Well, Hunter had himself a game against Tennessee. Hunter had a league-high 11 pressures (37.9% pressure rate) and even though that only resulted in one sack, he was constantly making things tough for Cam Ward. It also helped that Anderson had six pressures and three sacks.

Let’s not get too carried away with a defensive performance against a Titans offense that still doesn’t seem to know what it’s supposed to be. At this point, that’s a feature, not a bug. But it was good to see more of the defense come together.

On the other side of the ball, C.J. Stroud continued to play well. Stroud’s 0.22 EPA per play was the fifth-highest this week and it was his second week in a row with at least a 60% success rate. Stroud had his highest rate of plays from a clean pocket this season, but when he needed to create, he could.

That brings us to the trade. Houston sent a second- and sixth-round pick in 2027 to Arizona for Harrison Jr. and a 2027 seventh-round pick. It’s a lot to give up for a receiver with a career 1.46 yards per route run rate — 0.60 in 2026 — but Harrison was the fourth overall pick just three years ago and NFL teams rarely give up on the scouting report and players with that type of early first-round pedigree.

It’s difficult to completely pinpoint what went wrong for Harrison in Arizona, but it often looked like he lacked the confidence in what he was doing on the field. If reuniting with Stroud, his college quarterback, gives him even a 2% boost, there still should be enough talent to work with. Harrison still averaged over 2.0 yards per route run against man coverage last season. He’s been underwhelming as a former top-five pick, not unplayable. 

ESPN has 226 qualified wide receiver seasons in their receiver tracking metrics. Harrison ranked 74th and 103rd in open score in that sample. Jahan Dotson, a first-round disappointment, ranked 225th and 226th. His 2024 open score was the same as Jameson Williams’s that season when Williams had over 1,000 receiving yards. 

It’s always seemed like a strange fit for Harrison in the Arizona offense. As a rookie, the Cardinals forced Harrison to run a seemingly endless number of back-shoulder fades with Kyler Murray while the chemistry and timing were never there. Expanding his role helped a bit in 2025 but the overall offensive ecosystem in Arizona was a mess outside of late-game Jacoby Brissett heaves.

Having a mutual trust between Stroud and Harrison could be beneficial for both quarterback and receiver. Should we trust a Houston offense under Nick Caley to suddenly unlock stardom from Harrison? Not at all. But it’s not a bad bet.

Houston is on the hook for less than $1 million of Harrison’s salary in 2026 and just $5.6 million in 2027. If the Texans pick up the fifth-year option for 2028, Over The Cap projects that to be $17 million. At $23 million over three years, that’s less than the $25 million average annual value Michael Wilson just received on his extension from the Cardinals (draft pick compensation not included).

It’s hard to say Houston bought low given the second-round pick, but it’s a chance to get more talent at receiver and help a quarterback who hasn’t gotten enough of it from his supporting cast lately. Harrison doesn’t have to be a star for this to work, but there’s still a small chance he can be.

Two NFC East games were lost (in one instance, technically not won) in the last second by late-game mistakes. Let’s start with the one that was less of an error.

During a sloppy game in London, the Eagles kicked a field goal to take a one-point lead with eight seconds left in the game. We saw a similar situation a few weeks ago with the Cowboys and Ravens in Brazil when the Cowboys tied the game with seven seconds remaining. The Cowboys decided to kick the ball into the end zone, which allowed the Ravens to run a play from scrimmage that went for 27 yards. Baltimore had a timeout and kicked a game-winning field goal as time expired.

On Sunday, the Eagles kicked off into the field of play in an attempt to run out the clock as the Jaguars had no timeouts left. But Ameer Abdullah returned the kick 53 yards, which set up a 57-yard game-winning field goal for Cam Little.

After the game, Nick Sirianni took responsibility and blamed his decision for the loss. It’s hard to fully blame him based on how many things needed to go wrong in that scenario. First, the long return. The Eagles had been one of the league’s worst kick return units by starting field position allowed, putting teams at the 32-yard line (30th). Just an average return would have put the Jaguars behind the touchback line with only a few seconds remaining. Philadelphia hadn’t allowed a return over 36 yards before Abdullah went 53 yards.

Then Cam Little had to hit a 57-yard field goal. Little has been one of the league’s best distance kickers and league-wide, kickers have hit 72% of field goals this year between 55 and 60 yards. It's a tough 1-2 punch, but it’s still the right approach in these end-of-game scenarios and I hope teams don’t play risk-averse because of this loss.

Washington had no excuse. The Giants had the ball in overtime on a first-and-10 from the Washington 24-yard line, only for a Cam Skattebo fumble to give the ball to the Commanders. In four plays, Washington got down to the Giants’ 26-yard line. From there, Washington had a two-yard run and then, with the clock still running and no timeouts, called for a pass play on second-and-8.

A pass isn’t the worst call if the instructions are to throw the ball away as soon as something isn’t open. Those clearly weren't the instructions since Jayden Daniels ran around and tried to scramble. Daniels must have thought the Commanders had a third timeout (only two are given in overtime) because he even lingered on the ground after the play before realizing the offense had to sprint to get set up in an effort to stop the clock. Instead, time ran out and the game ended in a tie.

Both Daniels and Dan Quinn took responsibility after the game, but neither gave details on exactly what happened or what the miscommunication was that led to zero situational awareness. It’s also hindsight, but it doesn’t help that Washington’s use of timeouts in overtime both came after incompletions when the clock was already stopped.

It’s about as bad a look as a team could have in a game-ending situation. The Commanders could have been tied with the 2-3 Eagles and Cowboys with a win over the 3-2 Giants, but now they sit 1-3-1 at the bottom of the NFC East.

0.40: That’s the EPA per rush the Steelers averaged against the Colts, the highest rate for any team in a game this season. Yet, Pittsburgh still had a 56.1% early-down pass rate. Jaylen Warren had 15 carries for 101 yards and a touchdown, plus six catches for 87 yards and an 80-yard touchdown.

3.0: Tied for the lowest yards per play in a game this year, accomplished by the Eagles in Week 4 against the Rams and the Browns in Week 5 against the Jets. Deshaun Watson was sacked eight times, and his 23.4% success rate was the lowest of the week.

95.0: Drake Maye’s QBR against the Raiders (a team with Maye’s performance would be expected to win 95% of the time), the highest QBR in a single game for a quarterback so far this season. 

3: Forced fumbles by Browns linebacker Quincy Williams against his former team, the Jets. That’s the most by a single player in a game since Jevon Holland had three in the 70-20 Dolphins win over the Broncos in Week 3 of 2023. 

7:03: The length of Baltimore’s overtime touchdown drive against Atlanta, the longest drive since overtime rules were changed to allow each team a possession. The previous long drive was a 6:36 touchdown drive by Jacksonville against Las Vegas in Week 9 last season. The Raiders still drove down the field for a touchdown but lost on a failed two-point conversion. 

53: Pressures by defensive backs in Week 5, tying Week 2 for the most in a week this season, but still with Monday Night Football to go and two teams on bye. 

Fourth down, down by four, tight coverage. Parker Washington is great. 

This is what many expected from both the Packers offense and Bears defense heading into the season. Jordan Love was an aggressive downfield thrower and had the thrower’s triple-double (name still to be workshopped) with double digits in average depth of target, average depth of completion, and yards per attempt. It’s the fourth of the season.

Christian Watson (4.77) and Matthew Golden (4.56) were first and second in yards per route run in Week 5 with multiple big catches down the field. Watson and Golden currently rank fifth and eighth in receiving yards for the season.

The Vikings found offense

During Minnesota’s undefeated start, which continued with a 23-13 win over New Orleans, there were questions about how good the offense could be after it had struggled for much of the first four weeks. The Week 5 game was the first real sign of life. It was also the first full game with both Kyler Murray and Justin Jefferson, and that seemed to matter.

Jefferson had six catches for 79 yards and a touchdown. The touchdown was a microcosm of the Murray-Jefferson connection throughout the game — trusting that the receiver would come down with the ball.

What was most promising was Murray’s willingness to get on the move. His scramble rate was 18.4% after being below 6% in Weeks 3 and 4 after his return to the lineup. Murray looked more comfortable as a scrambler and when throwing on the move. With the struggles of Minnesota’s traditional running game still, Murray’s legs might need to be a necessary weapon going forward.

Mike Evans is great

Let’s start with what might be the greatest trash talk we’ve seen in a while.

During San Francisco’s 32-29 win over Seattle, Evans had seven catches for 113 yards and a touchdown. He had a 37% target share, which was the fourth-highest mark of the week, and 30% of his targets went for 20 or more yards.

In Brock Purdy’s roughest start of the season — he finished with -0.19 EPA per play — Evans helped the quarterback have a reliable target downfield. Having that type of big ball-winner who can still win in so many other ways gives this 49ers offense an element it hasn’t really had under Kyle Shanahan and his involvement has been a huge success early in the season.

Sean Payton didn’t really change anything

Sean Payton took over play-calling from Davis Webb for Sunday’s game against the Chargers and despite a 23-17 win, the offense looked the same or worse. Bo Nix averaged -0.27 EPA per play and a 28.1% success rate. That was the sixth-worst EPA per play performance of Nix’s career and the fourth-worst by success rate. It was even lower than his Week 1 game against Kansas City (29.4%). Nix is holding the ball, can’t create explosives, and is making bad decisions.

Nix’s scramble rate has dropped to 2.3% after 5.4% last season and 7.9% as a rookie. Despite his low sack rate, Nix is still a net negative on the move because he’s not making other plays with his legs. This is a problem that looks to run much deeper than the play calls.