There are all kinds of reasons that NFL players are underrated and unsung.
Perhaps they’re in systems that don’t best show their skills. Maybe they’re buried on a depth chart. Or, they’re in somebody’s doghouse, and their coaches can’t see their potential. Sometimes, young players haven’t quite put it all together, but there are enough flashes to make you sit up and take notice, and when it does work, it’s all good.
Week 3 of the 2022 regular season featured players at just about every position who showed up and showed out despite their underrated statuses, and here at Touchdown Wire, it’s our job to point them out.
Here are the Secret Superstars for Week 3 of the 2022 NFL season.
Jacoby Brissett, QB, Cleveland Browns
Brissett has the Browns’ starting quarterback job only because Deshaun Watson is suspended through the Texans game on December 4, but he’s been more than a basic backup in Kevin Stefanski’s run-heavy offense. It’s unknown what that offense will look like when Watson takes control of it, but given what the Browns were able to do with Brissett in their 29-17 win over the Steelers last Thursday, nobody’s missing a thing out there. Brissett completed 21 of 31 passes for 220 yards, two touchdowns, and no interceptions, and he was more than just a game manager when he needed to be.
Brissett’s connection with receiver Amari Cooper was key in this game — he hit Cooper for two explosive passing plays in the second half as Cleveland started to pull away.
The threat of the run has become such a valuable part of the Browns’ offense, and you can see it on this 32-yard completion at the start of the fourth quarter. The Browns have two tight ends, one running back, Cooper as the only receiver, and tackle Michael Dunn as the sixth offensive lineman. So, it’s it’s heavy run look all the way, and it’s third-and-1 from the Cleveland 29-yard line, which further presages a run play.
When Brissett takes the snap and fakes the handoff to running back Nick Chubb, you can see that the Steelers are thinking the same thing. Pittsburgh is playing Cover-3 here, but safety Minkah Fitzpatrick (No. 39) bites on the run fake, leaving cornerback Cam Sutton (No. 20) one-on-one with Cooper on the deep crosser. It’s also clear from Sutton’s movements on Cooper’s route that he thought he’d have some kind of help
“It was what we practiced,” Cooper said after the game of this play. “We knew what type of look we would get in that situation, and it just worked out how we practiced it. I was patient, ran my route and got open.”
Not that Brissett needed the threat of the run to get things done. This 28-yard play to Cooper in the third quarter came out of an empty package, and this was Brissett hitting Cooper in stride out of the right slot against man coverage, allowing Cooper to make gains downfield against cornerback Ahkello Witherspoon (No. 25). And check out Nick Chubb blocking downfield for Cooper out of the wide set to that side. This was a great man-beater against Cover-1, and Brissett played it perfectly.
“We go out there and practice hard and on our own time,” Cooper said of his chemistry with Brissett. “We are always communicating, even outside of the building because we know at the end of the day, we are responsible for how we are playing. Jacoby and I are both from South Florida so it is easy to relate to him. He is a cool person and a really fun guy to be around. The communication is there, so we just want to build off of what we have been achieving so far.”
Khalil Herbert, RB, Chicago Bears
The Bears selected Herbert in the sixth round of the 2021 draft out of Virginia Tech, and it surprised me that he went that low — I ranked him as the 10th-best running back in his class, and noted that he had a ton of potential.
I wrote of Herbert that “While he is an excellent tackle-breaker, Herbert’s size comes into play in a negative sense as a run-after-run power back. When he takes a body shot, no matter how hard he tries to get past it, it’s 50-50 whether he’ll go down.”
Against the Texans in a 23-20 win last Sunday, Herbert did everything he could to make me look like an idiot. Not that I need help. In any event, Herbert had a career game against Houston’s defense, running 20 times for 157 yards, two touchdowns, seven forced missed tackles, six runs of 10 or more yards, and eight first downs.
On this 11-yard touchdown with 6:53 left in the first quarter, Herbert showed just about everything you want in a shifty zone back — bounce outside, gap awareness, contact balance, and acceleration to the goal line.
And if you want a couple of killer jump cuts, this 19-yard run with 3:05 left in the game will be a greatest hit.
Herbert currently ranks second behind Detroit’s D’Andre Swift in DVOA for running backs, and considering the limitations of Chicago’s passing game right now, the Bears are rolling on Herbert’s juice more than anything else.
Mack Hollins, WR, Las Vegas Raiders
The Las Vegas Raiders are 0-3, the offense run by Josh McDaniels looks like an unmade bed more often than not, and everybody’s wondering what happened to Davante Adams. Against the Titans in a 24-22 loss on Sunday, it was Mack Hollins, the former Eagles and Dolphins receiver, who caught eight balls on 10 targets for 158 yards and a touchdown to Adams’ five on 10 targets for 36 yards and a score.
Hollins, who signed a one-year, $2 million contract with $700,000 guaranteed in March, was also the Raiders’ best deep receiver in this game — he caught two passes on two targets of 20 or more air yards for 108 yards.
The 6-foot-4, 214-pound Hollins really isn’t a speed demon — he ran a 4.53-second 40-yard dash at the 2017 scouting combine — but against Tennessee’s defense, he was all about the downfield stuff.
Hollins was also Derek Carr’s best answer on the Raiders’ final drive, which failed to tie the game when the two-point conversion failed. But with 2:13 left in the game, Carr unleashed this deep ball to Hollins, who made this 48-yard over-the-shoulder catch on fourth-and-15 to take the ball from the Las Vegas 27-yard line to the Tennessee 25.
Carr then threw a short pass to Hollins to get the ball to the Tennessee 20-yard line… and then, after seven straight incompletions (!!!), Carr recovered to hit Hollins for this nine-yard touchdown with 1:18 left in the game. Here, Hollins just used his size to win the battle against cornerback Terrance Mitchell — who was also the victim on Hollins’ deep pass on that drive.
The Raiders have a lot to figure out, but they’ve got one serious bargain in Hollins.
Christian Darrisaw, LT, Minnesota Vikings
The Vikings selected Darrisaw with the 22nd overall pick in the first round of the 2021 draft as part of a much-needed offensive line makeover, and after a few early bumps, it’s worked out pretty well. Darrisaw allowed five sacks, six quarterback hits, and 11 quarterback hurries in his rookie season, but in 2022, he hasn’t given up a sack, and he’s allowed just five quarterback pressures.
Darrisaw’s presence was of primary importance in Minnesota’s 28-24 win over the Lions on Sunday.
On the game-winning touchdown pass from Kirk Cousins to K.J. Osborn with 45 seconds left, watch how Darrisaw (No. 71) passes off Aidan Hutchinson (N0. 97) to guard Ezra Cleveland (No. 72), and takes end Charles Harris (No. 53) around the pocket. When Harris gets contentious, Darrisaw just throws Harris to the ground, giving Cousins the time to make the key play.
If there’s such a thing as a game-winning block, this would be it. Darrisaw shut out any Detroit pass-rusher he faced in this game, allowing no quarterback pressures of any kind.
Sebastian Joseph-Day, DI, Los Angeles Chargers
Chargers head coach Brandon Staley had experience with Joseph-Day from their time together with the Rams, back when Staley was Sean McVay’s defensive coordinator, and Joseph-Day was a 2018 sixth-round pick from Rutgers, trying to get his foot in the door as a rotational defensive tackle. So, when the Chargers had a desperate need to improve a run defense that was among the NFL’s worst in 2021, Staley made the call to sign the veteran to a three-year, $24 million contract with $16.5 million guaranteed.
The Chargers were blown out by the resurgent Jaguars on Sunday, but Joseph-Day stood out nonetheless. He didn’t have a single pressure of any kind against the Jaguars, but that wasn’t his job. His job was to stop the run, as it has been, and that’s what he did. Joseph-Day led all interior defensive linemen with six stops, he was double-teamed on eight snaps, and he was eating from every gap.
On this two-yard loss by Travis Etienne with 5:58 left in the third quarter, Joseph-Day (No. 69) starts head over right tackle Jawaan Taylor (No. 75), throws him aside at the snap, and bowls through to drop Etienne.
The Chargers are 1-2 and in an injury freefall right now, but in Joseph-Day, they acquired one player who has shown that he’s quite able to erase this team’s most glaring offseason issue.
Emmanuel Ogbah, DL, Miami Dolphins
If it feels internally as if I’ve been talking about Ogbah as a massively underrated force since 2020 and in 2021… oh yeah, it’s because that’s exactly what I’ve been doing. Fast-forward to the Dolphins’ 21-19 Sunday win over the Bills, which vaulted Mike McDaniel’s team to sole possession of first place in the AFC West, and what really stands out to me is that a defense I was worried about? I ain’t worried about it no more.
Against the Bills, edge-rusher Melvin Ingram got the marquee love for his two sacks, and great for him. But Ogbah was off the hook at a different level — had things worked out about a millisecond differently on 4-5 plays, we’d be talking about Ogbah as the Defensive Player of the Week.
This Allen throwaway from the Miami 11-yard line with 3:50 left in the third quarter was all about Ogbah (No. 91), and his work against Bills right tackle David Quessenberry (no. 77) Ogbah bulled Quessenberry back into the pocket, had one of his near-sacks, and stopped the drive. This was third-and-goal; Tyler Bass kicked a 30-yard field goal on the next play.
I've been on the Emmanuel Ogbah bandwagon for a couple years now. He had seven total pressures against the Bills, and he was one step away from about five sacks. 91 is a frickin' dude all over the defensive line. pic.twitter.com/0blbUbC5bN
— Doug Farrar ✍ (@NFL_DougFarrar) September 27, 2022
Did Ogbah have a number of game-deciding pressures as Christian Darrisaw had a game-deciding block? It could be argued in the affirmative. And the Dolphins’ defense appears to have awakened; we have another member of that defense on this week’s list.
Rashaan Evans, LB, Atlanta Falcons
The Titans selected Evans out of Alabama with the 22nd overall pick in the 2018 draft, and things never quite worked out at team and player had intended. In his final season in Tennessee, Evans was a healthy scratch in the Titans’ playoff loss to the Bengals, and from there, he was free to determine his future as a free agent. The Falcons signed Evans to a one-year deal in March, reuniting him with head coach Arthur Smith (once the Titans’ offensive coordinator) and defensive coordinator Dean Pees (who was Evans; DC in Tennessee in 2018 and 2019.
So, somebody over there liked what Evans was cooking. In any event, Evans has looked like a new player in his first season in Atlanta, and this was never more the case than in the Falcons’ 27-23 win over the Seahawks on Sunday. Evans looked like the player the Titans took in the first round all those years ago, with 10 tackles, four stops, two pass deflections, a tackle for loss, and a quarterback pressure.
Evans’ work in deep coverage really stood out — he was great as a hook/curl defender from the slot, and also when asked to roll right up the chute in a Tampa-2 look. That’s what we’ll discuss here. Evans (No. 54) is defending the deep middle, and Geno Smith wants to lob a deep pass to receiver Marquise Goodwin (No. 11). but Evans is having none of it.
Evans did allow seven receptions on nine targets against Seattle, but that was underneath stuff for a total of 44 yards. The breakups he had in the deep third were far more impactful in a positive sense than any of those easy catches were in a negative sense.
Chidobe Awuzie, CB, Cincinnati Bengals
Interceptions are often a misleading representation of defensive back performance, just as sacks are for pass-rushers. If you get a ton of hurries and no sacks in a game, you’ve still made an impact (See: Ogbah, Emmanuel, above).
Chidobe Awuzie, the Bengals’ best defensive back, had such a day on Sunday against Joe Flacco and the Jets’ surprisingly productive passing attack. Awuzie had no picks in Cincinnati’s 27-12 win, but he allowed just three catches on nine targets for 36 yards, one yard after the catch, three pass breakups, and an opponent passer rating of 46.5.
And like Ogbah, Awuzie had several near-misses in his own way. All three of his breakups were impressive athletic plays showing off his top-tier technique, and it would have not been out of the question for him to walk out of MetLife Stadium with three interceptions.
At least one of those breakups prevented Jets touchdowns, and we’ll start with what Awuzie (No. 22) did on this slot fade from Flacco to Elijah Moore (No. 8) with 1:58 left in the first quarter in a third-and-5 situation.
That, friends, is blanket man coverage. The Jets went with a field goal on the next play.
Awuzie blew up another deep attempt from Flacco to Moore with 10:23 left in the third quarter, and it was another drive-ender. It’s fourth-and-5 from the Cincinnati 41-yard line, Awuzie is on an island once again, and once again, Moore is getting nothing.
So, there are two examples of a cornerback dictating terms to an opposing offense without any interceptions.
Jevon Holland, S, Miami Dolphins
Holland, the second-year man from Oregon, didn’t have any interceptions against the Bills on Sunday — but he did just about everything else. Holland had two sacks (including a sack/fumble), one quarterback hurry, eight tackles, two stops, and he had as many pass breakups (two) as receptions allowed (two on four targets for 20 yards, 11 yards after the catch, and an opponent passer rating of 64.6.
The sack/fumble came with 5:19 left in the first quarter, and Holland (No. 8) was aligned off left tackle Dion Dawkins (No. 73) in one of the Dolphins’ favored Cover-0 blitzes. Neither Dawkins nor running back Devin Singletary had an answer for Holland’s rush, and Allen never saw him coming.
Holland also excelled as a deep-third safety in this game; whenever you can scream down and prevent Stefon Diggs (No. 14) from catching a pass; you’re doing something right.
