NFL secret superstars of Week 4 include Joe Flacco and a boatload of 49ers

Photo by Justin Casterline/Getty Images

Here are the NFL’s under-the-radar dominators of Week 4.

Every week in the NFL, there are known entities doing amazing things on the field as expected, and that’s always worth the coverage it gets. But there are those players whose names are not as well known who are equally deserving of praise for their athletic exploits.

In “Secret Superstars,” our goal is to focus on the names you may not know as well (or at all), as well as some guys who may have faded from memory, and still want to show that they have something left in the tank.

We begin this week’s list with a highly intriguing example of the latter.

Joe Flacco, QB, Indianapolis Colts

Here’s a fun trivia question for you: Which NFL quarterback leads the league with six straight games throwing two or more touchdown passes?

The player name above you is a dead giveaway, but yes, it’s 39-year-old Joe Flacco, who stepped in for the Indianapolis Colts after the Pittsburgh Steelers beat up on Anthony Richardson, causing multiple injuries. Going back to his 2023 season as one of Deshaun Watson’s injury replacements for the Cleveland Browns, Flacco has six straight games with two or more throwing scores. Some quarterbacks can just fall out of a boat and look good on the field no matter how old they are, and Flacco – who completed 16 of 26 passes for 186 yards, two touchdowns, no interceptions, a passer rating of 105.9, and a Passing EPA of +7.0 in the Colts’ 27-24 win — is apparently one of them.

Who woulda thunk it?

“Veteran presence – obviously, he’s played a lot of football,” Colts head coach Shane Steichen said postgame. “Went in there and operated pretty darn good – threw two touchdowns. Moved the offense up and down the field. Did a nice job for us, for sure. You always want those guys, just in case something happens, and those guys can come in and operate. And he did that today for us. He did a hell of a job.”

The most impressive part of Flacco’s day began with 2:53 left in the third quarter, and the Colts already up 17-10. Flacco engineered a 10-play, 79-yard drive that ended with his 15-yard touchdown pass to Alec Ogletree with 14:50 left in the game.

“Yeah, the third down conversions were huge. I think I hit Pitt (Michael Pittman Jr.) on the first one. Hit Josh (Downs) on the next one. That was a – the huge thing about that is kind of the whole – their whole line kind of went to the left and just kind of left that whole right side open. And it made it a nice, easy throw for me because instead of having to throw it from the pocket and throw it over to my right and over top of a guy, kind of just hit him right in the chest. But Josh ended up being huge late in that game, just on the little option routes we were giving him underneath. We didn’t hit him on that last drive, I was looking for him again. But before that, he did an awesome job. I think everybody came up big. That’s what you’ve got to do. I mean, when you’re me, when you kind of come in and you get thrown into those situations, you just trust your guys to do the right thing and see what happens in the end.”

This is why Flacco will probably be a backup quarterback 20 years from now, no matter how the NFL looks.

Jordan Mason, RB, San Francisco 49ers

Kyle Shanahan obviously learned from dad Mike how to formulate a run game that is favorable for just about anybody, and that’s proven out over time. But when Christian McCaffrey started to have issues with his Achilles tendons (which has reportedly now become tendinitis in both – ouch), nobody thought San Francisco’s remaining backs would be able to pick up the slack at a CMC level.

Enter Jordan Mason, the 2022 undrafted free agent from Georgia Tech, to once again prove that Shanahan’s concepts are virtually RB-proof. Not that Mason is some bum off the street – he had 40 carries for 206 yards and three touchdowns last season – but if you had him with 447 rushing yards through four games this season? As Will Ferrell said in Anchorman, “I don’t believe you.”

Mason isn’t just a grinder, either – he’s an explosive dude. He leads the NFL with 13 runs of 10 or more yards, and his 23 rushes of 15 miles per hour or more also leads all running backs this season. His 123 yards on 24 carries against the Patriots in last Sunday’s 30-13 win over the New England Patriots was Mason’s third 100-yard game of the season, and the third of his young career.

“How hard he runs, that he almost always gets more than it’s blocked for,” Shanahan told me Monday, when I asked him why Mason is so successful in the 49ers’ run concepts (especially outside zone). “He usually goes to the right hole and hits his right, he runs violently and doesn’t slow down and runs very similar to how he did in college. He’s a very efficient, hard-running back.”

As they say, tape don’t lie.

Jauan Jennings, WR, San Francisco 49ers

The aforementioned Shanahan went into the season hoping that McCaffrey, Deebo Samuel, and Brandon Aiyuk would be his primary offensive weapons. But the 49ers also gave receiver Jauan Jennings a new two-year, $15.39 million contract with $10.54 million guaranteed, and that’s proven to be a ridiculously wise investment.

One week after he went off with a career-best 11 catches on 12 targets for 175 yards and three touchdowns against the Los Angeles Rams’ broken defense, Jennings came right back and showed some serious WR1 traits against the Patriots, catching three passes on six targets for 86 yards. Now, he leads the NFL in Receiving EPA at +25.1.

“I don’t think so,” Shanahan said postgame, when asked whether Jennings is now playing with a different confidence level. “I think Jauan was born this confident. He’s always like that. And you guys know how I think how Jauan is. He’s as confident as it gets, and I think that’s one of his best assets. He’s a very talented player, but Jauan never feels he can be denied. That’s why he’s been so important to us over the years.”

And where did all this explosiveness come from? Not what I’ve seen from him before. But this is where we are with the 49ers’ newest prominent weapon in the passing game.

Tyler Biadasz, Center, Washington Commanders

We all know how great the Commanders’ passing game has been with Jayden Daniels, but how about this run game Kliff Kingsbury has put together? Right now, Washington ranks third in the NFL in percentage of plays that are runs (53.8%), third in rushing yards per game (169.3), tied for fifth in rushing yards per play (5.1), first in rushing touchdowns (10), third in runs of 10 or more yards (18), and first overall in Rushing EPA (29.8).

As we discussed with the Ravens, it helps when you have great runners, and the Commanders do with Daniels, as well as Brian Robinson, Austin Ekeler, and Jeremy McNichols. But you need a line to make it go, and the Commanders have improved exponentially in that department. The epicenter of it all is (go figure) center Tyler Biadasz.

We’re about to get into the outstanding game put forth by Arizona Cardinals cornerback Garrett Williams, but on this 14-yard sweep handoff from Daniels to receiver Olamide Zaccheaus, Biadasz had Williams in his sights, and there was no way Williams was going to get to Biadasz’s friend. Instead, Biadasz lowered the boom.

Biadasz also had several outstanding seal blocks to assist the run game with big nose tackles right on his head in five-man fronts, and he did his best to keep Daniels clean – he allowed no pressures of any kind in 39 pass-blocking snaps. And in 148 pass-blocking reps this season overall, he’s allowed no sacks, no quarterback hits, and one quarterback pressure.

“I think that it’s probably been that way for a while,” Quinn said postgame of his improved offensive line. “It was in camp and we’re working through it and we had some injuries and we are still trying to work through that. We’re still doing some rotating at the tackle spot and that’s not the worst thing to have guys and depth. I thought Nick [Allegretti] and Sam [Cosmi] and Tyler [Biadasz] inside were really strong all the way through to make sure when we have our chances and get our runs and completions high like they were today that gives us a real advantage because then time of possession shifts and the ways that you can go through that.

“Although it’s no-huddle, there’s a lot of attacking and tempo and we can change some of that. It makes it difficult to prepare for, honestly, because there’s no-huddle and then you’re changing tempos and then you huddle and come out with different groups. The guys have really been putting in the work. It’s a lot to go through to get the guys ready for the week, but for the big guys, it was their kind of day.”

Great offenses need great centers, and right now, the Commanders appear to have one of those guys.

Kevin Givens and Maliek Collins, DI, San Francisco 49ers

Yes, this particular Secret Superstars is a bit 49ers-heavy, but you can’t deny the number of reserve role players who stepped up against the Patriots on both sides of the ball. And we have to include Givens and Collins, the veteran interior defensive linemen who were taking starters’ reps with all the injuries to San Francisco’s defensive line. Two of those players in particular stood out against the Patriots’ offensive line, as horrid as it has been this season.

DI Kevin Givens had three sacks and a quarterback hurry, and DI Maliek Collins chipped in with two sacks and four total pressures of his own. At one point, these two guys were so good at getting to Jacoby Brissett, they met at the quarterback for the twofer.

“I thought the defense as a whole and especially the D-Line really rose to the occasion for that game,” Kyle Shanahan said Monday. “Just with what’s happened the last two weeks and losing Javon last week, their backs were a little bit against the wall and Jordan Elliott going out in that game in the second quarter, that made it real tough, too.

“All the interior guys, Maliek, I had a good idea during the game. But even watching the film I thought Maliek Collins was a stud. That’s about it. I was pretty impressed with the guys live, and nothing really changed when watching them.”

Dayo Odeyingbo, DL, Indianapolis Colts

Under defensive coordinator Gus Bradley, you know that two things are going to happen: The Colts are going to play a ton of single-high coverage, and they’re not going to blitz a lot. This season, the Colts have rushed four defenders on 79% of their snaps, tied with the 49ers for the NFL’s third-highest rate. Which means that Bradley’s pass-rushers had better get home without help.

One guy who’s been doing that under the radar for a while is defensive lineman Dayo Odeyingbo, the 6’6, 286-pound Swiss Army knife from Vanderbilt who Indy selected in the second round of the 2021 draft. Odeyingbo’s size would lead you to believe that he’s built for the Colts to deploy him all over the defensive line, and that is indeed the case. It certainly was against the Steelers on Sunday when he had two sacks, two quarterback hits, and three quarterback hurries. Those quarterback disruptions were about equally divided between snaps at edge and 3-tech, and Odeyingbo had Pittsburgh’s blockers on a string all the way through the game.

“He’s been really, really important in our defense,” Colts defensive coordinator Gus Bradley said Tuesday. “You have like the big ends, and then there’s the LEO types. Like (Laiatu) Latu can be both. But maybe Zay [Isaiah Land] can be – he’s more of a LEO type. So, you have that flexibility where Dayo, because of some of the injuries we’ve had, it’s important to have that physicality on the edge and that’s what Dayo brings. He can rush, he can set the edge. He’s stout, he’s strong. So versus the run especially, he’s an important piece. We’ve lost some guys there with Tyquan [Lewis] and Kwity [Paye] and guys like that. So, he becomes even that much more valuable to us.”

Garrett Williams, CB, Arizona Cardinals

The Cardinals had no chance to keep up with the red-hot Commanders last Sunday in a 42-14 loss, but that doesn’t negate what second-year cornerback Garrett Williams was able to do to Jayden Daniels while covering Terry McLaurin. That’s a fearsome duo to deal with, but Williams had no issue at all. Overall in the game, he allowed three catches on five targets for 29 yards, no touchdowns, one interception, one pass breakup, and an opponent passer rating of 36.7. And there was a two-pass sequence from Daniels in which Williams picked off a pass to McLaurin, and then nearly took another away. Not that it would have changed the final result, but Mr. Williams was on point there, as he has been most of the season.

As rookie cornerback Max Melton said postgame, even the big play for Williams wasn’t enough to turn the tide.

“Yes, it happened right in front of me. I thought he was going to get up and start running. It definitely changed the game, but we have got to convert on that. That’s just one step. We just have to take more steps so we can win games. But that definitely could have been a pivotal turning point.”

All you can do is all you can do. The Cardinals ran into what has become an offensive buzzsaw, but Williams did his best to make a difference.