Marcus Mariota, Zach Allen among Secret Superstars for Week 7

As any NFL season progresses, there will be more unheralded players who rise up from humble beginnings to become factors, and guys whose careers have gone sideways who somehow find the road back to relevance.

We like to celebrate these players every week in “Secret Superstars.” This week, we have a former second overall pick who showed mastery of a new offense, two guys from what might be the league’s most surprising defense in 2024, and two undrafted rookie defensive backs who have imprinted their names beyond anybody’s expectations but their own.

Marcus Mariota, QB, Washington Commanders

The NFL world let out a collective gasp when Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels suffered a rib injury on a 46-yard run on Sunday against the Carolina Panthers. It was Washington’s first offensive play of the day, and Daniels finished the drive that ended in a 23-yard field goal, but he was first ruled questionable to return and then out. Not what you want to see happen to one of the best rookie quarterbacks… well, ever.

Now, the Commanders would have to proceed with veteran Marcus Mariota, who signed a one-year, $6 million contract with Washington as his fifth NFL team in a 10-year career. The second overall pick in the 2015 draft has never really lived up to what was expected of him, though he’s had a couple of decent seasons. So, who would have expected what happened in an eventual 40-7 thwacking of the Panthers? I mean… yes, the Panthers are awful, but this was the Marcus Mariota we have seen.

After he replaced Daniels, Mariota completed 18 of 23 passes for 205 yards, two touchdowns, no interceptions, a passer rating of 132.8, and a Passing EPA of +15.2 that led all NFL quarterbacks on Sunday.

Mariota was pressured on five of his dropbacks, but he didn’t let that reduce his time to throw. Per Next Gen Stats, Mariota found most of his success on dropbacks over 2.5 seconds, completing 12 of his 16 attempts for 186 yards and a touchdown on longer dropbacks. Mariota also completed all six of his attempts on dropbacks over 4.0 seconds, totaling 88 yards and a touchdown.

And if you’re going to roam around in or out of the pocket waiting for routes to open, you’d better have answers against converging pressure. Mariota certainly did on this amazing throw to Terry McLaurin with 8:54 left in the game…

…and on this banger of a 15-yard completion to McLaurin with 44 seconds left in the first half, Mariota had already showed a newfound knack for pocket movement and timing passes.

“You know what, I’m really proud of Marcus,” Commanders head coach Dan Quinn said. “So, if your moment gets called, then you’re ready to deliver for the team and I think that’s a really powerful thing and he was able to do that tonight.”

Quinn said Monday that Daniels is week-to-week and a maybe for Week 8 against the Chicago Bears. It’s obviously best to keep the rookie under wraps until he’s fully healthy, as we don’t want a re-run of what this team did to Robert Griffin back in the day. If Mariota can keep this up when needed, that’s a very nice insurance policy for a 5-2 team looking pretty dangerous on both sides of the ball.

Zach Allen, DL, Denver Broncos

You know that a coach and his players have an airtight lock on things schematically when, all of a sudden, a bunch of unheralded people stand out as they never have before. That appears to be the case for Denver Broncos defensive coordinator Vance Joseph and his crew, because we have two Denver defenders in Secret Superstars this week after the Broncos embarrassed the New Orleans Saints 33-10 last Thursday night.

Most of the story of that game was the Saints’ horrible tackling (it was just that), and Sean Payton’s return to NOLA. But interior defensive lineman Zach Allen continued his rampage against enemy quarterbacks in that game with a sack, two quarterback hits, and three quarterback hurries from all over the defensive line. And now Allen, selected in the third round of the 2019 draft out of Boston College, and who signed a three-year, $45,75 million contract with $32.5 million guaranteed with Denver in 2023, has pressure numbers for an inside guy that lead the pack in the NFL.

Allen has at least four pressures in every game this season, so this isn’t a guy who racks up totals one week and then disappears for a month. He’s a constant pain in the butt for offensive lines.

“He’s really the leader right now,” former Broncos cornerback (and slot legend) Chris Harris recently said of Allen. “He’s the guy that everybody should take notice of up front when they watch the Broncos’ front seven.”

Allen also recently caught the attention of NFL Network and FOX Sports analyst Brian Baldinger, who knows of what he speaks, since he has his own office at NFL Films.

And no, we’re not done with Broncos defensive players this week.

Cody Barton, LB, Denver Broncos

The Broncos headed into Monday ranked third in Defensive DVOA after finishing 30th in 2023, and with a historically horrid start to the season. So, the turnaround has been beyond impressive. Another reason for that positive fliparound is the addition of linebacker Cody Barton, who played the game of his life against the Saints.

The well-traveled Barton, selected in the third round of the 2019 draft out of Utah by the Seattle Seahawks, was a roleplayer in the Emerald City for four seasons before he signed a one-year deal to play for whatever the heck defense Jack Del Rio and Ron Rivera were calling for the Washington Commanders in 2023, and then signing a one-year, $2.5 million contract to play for the Broncos this season.

Against the Saints, Barton had a sack/forced fumble, seven solo tackles, five stops, one catch allowed on three targets for five yards, a pass breakup, and an opponent passer rating of 42.4.

Barton also had a 52-yard fumble recovery return for a touchdown after yet another Broncos pressure on Saints quarterback Spencer Rattler.

That one came with 4:19 left in the game, Barton had already had another touchdown negated by a defensive offsides penalty.

“Tonight I did,” Barton said when asked whether he thought he’d get a second chance at a touchdown. “I was saying it all game. ‘It’s going to happen. I am going to get it back. I’m going to get it back.’ It ended up happening. You don’t know when it is going to happen. You just need to be ready when the opportunity presents itself. It happens quick.”

Barton also nearly had an interception on his pass breakup with 11:28 left in the first quarter, when he followed Saints receiver Mason Tipton across the field on a scramble drill. If only… well. He was close.

“It was just one of those nights where it just comes to you and you just kind of feel it,” Barton concluded regarding his defense. “It was a great team win. It was just one of those games. It was a great team win on the road on a short week. I am happy for everyone.

“Being on this defense is fun. It’s aggressive. Everyone has a chance to eat. Today, I feel like it was kind of my day. Some of those bigger splash plays came my way. If this game were tomorrow, you don’t know who it is going to be. That’s kind of how this defense is. It’s a lot of fun just running around.”

When you’re playing this well, it certainly is.

Eric Wilson, LB, Green Bay Packers

It’s challenging enough when you, as a defense, have to deal with C.J. Stroud and the Houston Texans. When you’re the Green Bay Packers, and you lose key linebacker Quay Walker to a concussion early in the second quarter, that certainly doesn’t help.

Unless you’re Packers defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley, you have a playbook full of evil for Mr. Stroud, and you have reserve linebacker Eric Wilson ready to help blow up Houston’s usually dynamic offense. Wilson, an undrafted free agent out of Cincinnati who started his NFL career with the Minnesota Vikings in 2018 and is on his third straight one-year contract with the Packers, upped his career sack total from nine to 11 in this game, where Stroud was pressured on 14 of his 29 dropbacks overall. When pressured, the usually stoic Stroud completed three of nine passes for 40 yards, no touchdowns, no interceptions, a passer rating of 48.4, and a Passing EPA of -11.77 – fifth-worst for any quarterback in Week 7.

“He made some big time plays,” Packers head coach Matt LaFleur said of his backup linebacker. “Especially being able to come in in relief of Quay. Certainly, Quay is the guy out there talking to everybody and to lose him was big. He [Walker] seems to be doing okay, but Eric (Wilson), I can’t say enough great things about him. He is the consummate pro in terms of just always knowing what to do and then being able to, when called upon, go out there and deliver. I’m really proud of him and we’re lucky to have a guy like that on our team.”

“Anytime as a defense, they were able to get pressure,” Texans head coach DeMeco Ryans said. “Whether it is with the stunts or with the blitzes, it affects the passing game, and you saw that today. There’s no excuses. We have to protect it and we have to go make plays.”

Stroud agreed – the results were suboptimal for his side.

“They rush as one. They have a lot of twist games upfront, so the more that they twist and turn, we just have to settle a little bit and just try to level it off. But I thought they did a good job sitting in their stunts. We just have to be better in protection, and I have to be better at getting the ball out on time. It is a multitude of things.”

It was certainly a multitude of things for Hafley’s defense up front, and it was definitely fun to watch for all non-Texans fans.

Beanie Bishop Jr., CB, Pittsburgh Steelers

Beanie Bishop Jr. matriculated from Western Kentucky to Minnesota to West Virginia over a six-year college career, and he amassed seven interceptions and 22 pass breakups over that time. No NFL team thought that he was worthy of a draft pick, so Bishop caught on with the Steelers as an undrafted free agent. He started getting more reps primarily as a slot defender in Week 4 against the Indianapolis Colts, and as generally happens, opposing quarterbacks wanted to see if he was going to be their Huckleberry.

The Colts, Dallas Cowboys, and Las Vegas Raiders got away with some stuff, but when the Steelers matched up with Aaron Rodgers and the New York Jets on Sunday night, BIshop was a completely different player. Rodgers targeted him seven times, and Bishop allowed four catches for 35 yards, no touchdowns, his first two NFL interceptions, and an opponent passer rating of 31.0. Not that Rodgers needs help being unhappy about the state of his offense (or anything else) these days, but this didn’t help.

Bishop had seen enough Rodgers tendencies on tape to know what to do on his first interception with 1:21 left in the first half.

“Yeah, you know, A-Rod, he likes to — whenever he sees the middle of the field open, he likes to throw the ball in there and I can’t remember if it was last week or a couple weeks ago, he threw the ball right at buddy’s helmet and kind of gave him a back shoulder pass, so just being able to see that stuff on film and just being able to react, know that it’s coming, that’s just how I played it.”

The second pick with 7:39 left in the third quarter was more about waiting for Jets receiver Garrett Wilson to bobble the Rodgers throw, and capitalize on the uncertainty. Bishop did get some grief from coaches and teammates for failing to turn this into a touchdown.

“Yeah, guys were giving me hell about not running fast, but I told him have they ever seen Le’ Veon Bell run the ball? It’s patience, you know? [Laughter] And coaches, they got on me earlier this week. They was like ‘Man, don’t cut back in there with all the offensive linemen.’ I’m like ‘Why not? Those guys don’t work on tackling.’”

An ascending defensive back who’s also a quote machine? Sounds like Mike Tomlin’s kind of guy.

Jaylen McCollough, Safety, Los Angeles Rams

You never know when your clarion call moment will be in the NFL. For rookie undrafted free agent safety Jaylen McCollough of the Los Angeles Rams, it was a short pick-six of Jordan Love in the Rams’ 24-19 Week 5 loss to the Green Bay Packers. In that game, McCollough was the “right time, right place” defender to take away the ball on whatever on Earth Jordan Love was trying to do here.

With that behind him, and with a bye week to prepare for Sunday’s game against the Las Vegas Raiders, McCollough was ready to get a lot more done. The Tennessee alum intercepted two Gardner Minshew passes in the Rams’ 20-15 win… and he was targeted just once. Which is pretty good math.

McCollough’s first pick came with 8:35 left in the third quarter. Minshew threw late on a Texas route to receiver DJ Turner from the backfield, and McCollough was right there to capitalize on the mistake.

And then, with 1:28 left in the game, McCollough closed things out with this pick of Minshew’s randomness from the end zone.

“I think it started against Green Bay,” head coach Sean McVay said postgame of how his secondary has come together of late. “There were a couple plays that they made, but I thought it started against Green Bay. I think we’re starting to find our identity, putting guys in the right spots, being able to take advantage of their skill sets. We got healthier where you get some healthier bodies back on the back end. We’ve scored two touchdowns in the last two games. We’ve forced some turnovers [and] been able to really apply a lot of pressure. I’m really pleased with the trajectory of where our defense is going right now.”

Apparently, an undrafted rookie shall lead them.