What we learned in NFL Week 5: Mike Evans is perfect fit with Brock Purdy, Josh Allen extends MVP lead

There are stars on Hollywood Boulevard, so, naturally, when the Rams made not one but two blockbuster trades, acquiring Myles Garrett and Trent McDuffie, and the Chargers made the biggest coordinator hire in Mike McDaniel -- both dramatic all-in moves -- plenty of eyes and attention went to Southern California.

The Patriots have run football for much of the 21st century and are coming off a Super Bowl berth, so, naturally, when they traded for A.J. Brown, plenty of eyes and attention went to Beantown.

The Chiefs have run the NFL for much of the last eight years, so, naturally, when they signed Super Bowl MVP Kenneth Walker III to take the burden off a recovering Patrick Mahomes, plenty of eyes and attention went to Kansas City.

We love superlatives: "best" offseason, "worst" offseason, "most interesting" signing, "most surprising" team ... the list goes on.

How about one that just made sense? Mike Evans to the 49ers has been a perfect marriage of talent, tendencies and scheme. 

As we sort through who's legit and who's not at this still-early point in the season, we can also group the legit teams into tiers of "playoff legit" and "Super Bowl legit." At 5-0 and coming off a road win at the defending champs, the 49ers are "Super Bowl legit." Evans, who left Tampa Bay after 12 legendary years, is getting exactly what he was looking for: a place where he can contend for a title while being a huge contributor.

As for the 49ers' side of things? Well, after Evans went for seven catches, 113 yards, a touchdown and a two-point conversion against Seattle, Kyle Shanahan put it best:

"That's exactly why he's here."

These are the six lessons we learned in Week 5.

1. Mike Evans is a perfect fit for Brock Purdy, Kyle Shanahan and the 49ers

Listen, sometimes you have to toot your own horn: The 49ers signing Mike Evans was one of my favorite moves this offseason. Yes, I understood the injury/age concerns, but the fit was perfect: big, downfield wide receiver for a quarterback (Brock Purdy) who's more than willing to give his guys chances downfield.

And in Week 5 against the Seahawks -- a potential NFC Championship matchup -- Evans dominated. On the 49ers' final touchdown drive alone, Purdy and Evans connected four times for 75 yards, plus the two-pointer.

These two plays, within a minute of each other, are perfect examples of why Evans is so valuable. He can win on big in-breaking routes, and he can win on straight-line shots on the outside. What an absolute stud. He's a future Hall of Famer who's showing he still has a TON left in the tank. Last year, the 49ers scored 26 points combined in three games against Seattle (including playoffs). Sunday, they scored 32.

In Shanahan's system, the ability to attack the intermediate and deep-intermediate areas takes things to the next level. Currently, Evans is catching 2.6 passes per game on throws 10-25 yards downfield. It is extremely early, but that would be the highest rate for any player Purdy has played with, just ahead of Brandon Aiyuk. Evans isn't providing the over-the-top, long-speed prime Aiyuk did, but the fact that he's impacting the offense in a similar way is truly amazing.

That's exactly why he's there, indeed.

2. Sean McVay cannot rely on the Rams' special teams -- and the Rams have to fix it

This was originally going to just be a lesson learned, but it was so bad that we turned it into an entire story you can read here. 

Sean McVay cannot rely on the Rams' special teams -- and the Rams must fix it before it's too late ... again

Zachary Pereles

3. Parker Washington is the NFL's latest star wide receiver

How many NFL wide receivers can make both this play ...

... and this one?

You'd probably think of Ja'Marr Chase, Justin Jefferson, Puka Nacua ... players of that ilk. Well, Parker Washington showed that if he doesn't belong in that superstar group, he's up there among the groups right behind them.

Washington doesn't look the part of today's passing-game-revolves-around-me star wideouts, but he plays like one. Last year, he caught 19 of his 29 contested catch opportunities, the best of any player (min. 25 opportunities). Look at the other guys near the top of the leaderboard.

Washington has now caught four of his five contested catch opportunities this season already, too.

"We consider him an elite wide receiver, so I don't know what everybody else thinks, but we feel like he's pretty freaking good," Trevor Lawrence said after the game.

We agree.

4. The Bears' defensive issues aren't fixed ... or close to fixed

I am fine waving away the Bears' poor offensive performance Sunday with Caleb Williams out. I'm not particularly worried about that side of the ball when at full strength.

I am worried about what I saw from the defensive side. Jordan Love lit the Bears up for 367 passing yards -- the most by any player in the rivalry in the history of Lambeau Field -- and connected on five passes of 30+ air yards. The only other quarterback to hit that many in a single game is Ben Roethlisberger back in 2015. My colleague Garrett Podell had a great story on the Packers coming back to life.

But the Bears? They are the worst team in the NFL defending deep passes ... by far.

And that's despite the Bears having played three of the league's worst offensive teams (Carson Wentz-led Vikings in a downpour, Eagles, Jets).

There are just so many examples of cornerbacks and safeties getting beat in man and in zone. Love was on a heater Sunday, sure, but there were wide-open dudes deep all day.

If we exclude the overmatched middle three teams on Chicago's schedule, the Bears are allowing 453 yards and 33 points per game this season, with opponents completing 70% of their passes for 10.6 yards per attempt. That's simply not good enough to get where the Bears want to go. All the defensive progress it looked like the team had made Weeks 2-4 appears to have been a product of the schedule.

5. This is looking like an outstanding NFL Draft class on the defensive side of the ball

The 2027 draft class has been getting a lot of publicity, even before the 2026 draft was complete. But the top of the 2026 draft, especially on defense, is looking great.

• David Bailey had his breakout game with a three-sack day against the Browns. Entering "MNF," only three players have more sacks this year than Bailey's five.
• Linebackers Jacob Rodriguez, Anthony Hill Jr., Arvell Reese, Sonny Styles and Josiah Trotter look excellent. Entering "MNF," Styles' 13 tackles were the most in the league this week. Rodriguez leads the NFL with 57 tackles this season. Hill is fifth with 47. Reese has had moments of dominance.
• Hezekiah Masses has three interceptions this season, tied for the league lead.
• Entering "MNF," rookies had accounted for 12.5 sacks in Week 5, its most of any season. Promising first-years such as Brandon Cisse and Malachi Lawrence contributed to that total.
• Mansoor Delane had a bye in Week 5 but has looked fantastic early for the Chiefs. Peter Woods and R Mason Thomas are also flashing.

There have been a lot of fun offensive players -- Denzel Boston, First impressions aren't perfect for projecting the future. But it's so far, so good for debut defenders this season.

6. There's more than one way to skin a cat when it comes to overtime strategy

The Ravens beat the Falcons in a 30-23 "Sunday Night Football" overtime thriller. It's not only an impressive win for Baltimore, which was without Lamar Jackson and got a late touchdown drive plus a two-point conversion to force overtime, but also the latest example to be considered for overtime strategy.

The Ravens won the toss, chose to receive and then went down the field and scored a touchdown. Then Kyle Hamilton picked off Tua Tagovailoa to seal the win. Through two years of having this rule ...

• Teams that win the toss and receive the ball are 3-3.
• Teams that win the toss and defer are 4-8-2 (including last night's Rams-Bills game).

It's a tiny sample size, and we can't draw any overarching conclusions beyond that. It's the one the NFL was hoping for: There's no "right" choice. Jesse Minter cited the win/loss records as part of his reasoning, but also the flow of the game.

"I did feel like our offense was rolling a little bit, and their defense was getting a little bit tired. And if you go out there, and you get Derrick [Henry] rolling again, now you're out of two-minute mode, and you're back into normal offense, that we could punish them with the run game a little bit, and that's what happened."

The Ravens' overtime drive took over seven minutes and forced the Falcons to use both of their timeouts. That's another advantage of taking the ball first: You don't have to worry about the clock on your opening drive. The Falcons, on the other hand, had to be in hurry-up mode after getting the ball with just 2:50 left and no timeouts.

Another advantage of taking the ball first is the idea of the "third possession." If it's still tied after each team has had one possession, the team getting the third possession of overtime gets the first crack in a next-score-wins scenario.

Other teams will argue they'd rather get the ball second, knowing exactly what they have to do offensively. This was a huge point of contention in the Chiefs-49ers Super Bowl a few years ago; Kyle Shanahan got flamed for taking the ball first, but really, it was a defensible strategy.

Finally, shout-out to Minter; the Ravens executed to near-perfection at the end of the Week 3 win over the Cowboys and again in Week 5.