NFL Week 2 Team of the Week & Awards

The end of the Week 2 Sunday slate was pure madness. 

Greg “The Leg” Zuerlein nailed a game-winning 56-yard field goal to secure a Dallas Cowboys win over the Los Angeles Chargers in SoFi Stadium. Greg Joseph missed a 37-yard field goal as the time game clock expired to give the Arizona Cardinals a one-point win over the Minnesota Vikings. The Tennessee Titans stormed back to an overtime win over the Seattle Seahawks, and the Baltimore Ravens came back from a double-digit deficit to upset the Kansas City Chiefs.

Now that the first run of PFF analysis has been finalized and made available in PFF's Premium Stats, we get to fill you in on this week’s top performers. Here, we present PFF’s Team of the Week and player awards from Week 2 of the 2021 NFL season.

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PFF TEAM OF THE WEEK

Offense

QB: Daniel Jones, New York Giants
RB: Derrick Henry, Tennessee Titans
WR: Courtland Sutton, Denver Broncos
WR: Cooper Kupp, Los Angeles Rams
TE: Travis Kelce, Kansas City Chiefs
Flex: Tony Pollard, Dallas Cowboys
LT: Jordan Mailata, Philadelphia Eagles
LG: Ezra Cleveland, Minnesota Vikings
C: Connor McGovern, New York Jets
RG: Zack Martin, Dallas Cowboys
RT: Samuel Cosmi, Washington Football Team

Defense

DI: Aaron Donald, Los Angeles Rams
DI: Morgan Fox, Carolina Panthers
Edge: Micah Parsons, Dallas Cowboys
Edge: A.J. Epenesa, Buffalo Bills
LB: Matt Milano, Buffalo Bills
LB: Roquan Smith, Chicago Bears
CB: Jaylon Johnson, Chicago Bears
CB: Jalen Ramsey, Los Angeles Rams
S: Mike Edwards, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
S: Kareem Jackson, Denver Broncos
Flex: Casey Hayward Jr., Las Vegas Raiders

Offensive Player of the Week: QB Daniel Jones, New York Giants

The Giants may have let Thursday Night Football slip away from them in their one-point loss to the Washington Football Team, but quarterback Daniel Jones did everything he could to lead them to victory. He led all quarterbacks in Week 2 in total completions on passes thrown 10 or more yards downfield with 11, and even that could have been more, as two more of his downfield throws were dropped.

Related: Did QBs Daniel Jones and Taylor Heinicke show enough Thursday night to suggest they are the future of their NFL franchises? via Sam Monson

The third-year quarterback also led the position in positively graded throws and recorded the week's lowest negatively graded throw rate, an impressive feat, given that he was under pressure on 44.7% of his dropbacks.

Jones didn’t let pressure disrupt the timing of the offense, standing tall in the pocket and delivering accurate throws. He also showed off the impact he can make in the running game with three runs of 10-plus yards, tying Lamar Jackson and Jalen Hurts for the most of the week.

Daniel Jones with a DIME TD to Darius Slayton! pic.twitter.com/6A2wYy1uXU

— Bobby Skinner (@BobbySkinner_) September 17, 2021

The Duke product earned the first 90.0-plus single-game grade (91.3) of his career, a step in the right direction in a pivotal year.

Defensive Player of the Week: CB Jaylon Johnson, Chicago Bears

Johnson blanketed the Bengals‘ Tee Higgins and Ja’Marr Chase all game and put his tape study into action, just as he did in college.

Johnson was targeted seven times on 34 coverage snaps, and he allowed zero first downs and only two catches for nine yards. The play of the day from Johnson was his interception on a jumped hitch that he keyed immediately.

JAYLON JOHNSON FIRST CAREER PICK. HOW WE DOIN pic.twitter.com/ofXyjZyHIA

— Red Line Radio (@RedLineRadio) September 19, 2021

The second-year corner also broke up two passes in the contest, one of which came in man coverage against a Tee Higgins dig route early in the game. The other came on his only snap of the day in the slot.

Johnson closed out this day with a 92.2 PFF grade, the best mark of his young NFL career by over 15 grading points.

Rookie of the Week: LB Edge Micah Parsons, Dallas Cowboys

With Demarcus Lawrence and Randy Gregory ruled out, the Cowboys were forced to call on their first-round rookie to move from off-ball linebacker to edge defender, an idea PFF’s Mike Renner floated as soon as word got out about Dallas’ need at the position.

Parsons proceeded to feast on Los Angeles Chargers right tackle Storm Norton for eight pressures, a 33.3% pass-rush win rate and a 90.8 pass-rush grade that was second to only Aaron Donald among all pass-rushers with at least 15 pass-rush snaps in Week 2.

Still thinking about how quickly Parsons closes here for the sack. A lot of DEs are stumbling to the turf when the QB breaks back across their face like that pic.twitter.com/Omjb1zUGwK

— Mike Renner (@PFF_Mike) September 20, 2021

It’ll be interesting to see how Dallas uses the rookie from here on out, but either way, it looks like they have a defensive star on their hands wherever Parsons is on the field.

Offensive Line of the Week: Baltimore Ravens

One of the biggest post-Week 1 storylines was how poorly the Ravens' offensive line fared against a mediocre Raiders pass rush, but the unit seemed to have put that performance behind them ahead of Sunday Night Football.

Baltimore Ravens offensive line in 2021

Now, that’s a rapid improvement. Baltimore’s big men in the trenches also did their part in the run game against Kansas City, giving their running backs 3.0 yards before contact on average.

Secret Superstar of the Week: T Jordan Mailata, Philadelphia Eagles

Mailata was one of the few standouts in the trenches in the 49ers-Eagles slugfest, opening up lanes in the run game and shutting down Nick Bosa, one of the best pass-rushers in the NFL.

The former rugby player earned an elite 90.7 run-blocking grade and didn’t allow a single pressure to the Niners. Given Jalen Hurts’ tendency to hold onto the ball and that over half of his reps came against the 2019 No. 2 overall pick, that’s simply incredible.

Play of the Week: Kyler Murray doing Kyler Murray things and saving the game for Arizona

Murray was a human highlight reel in Week 1, and Week 2 was no different.

The 2019 No. 1 overall pick tossed three big-time throws to bring his season total to nine, tying for the most in the NFL.

The best play of his day came on a fourth-and-5 at the Vikings’ 41-yard line with the Cards down two points with just over six minutes to play. Minnesota sent a Cover 0 blitz, moving the quarterback off his spot and forcing him to throw this dime off his back foot to Christian Kirk.

KYLER MURRAY. No words.

????: #MINvsAZ on FOX
????: NFL app pic.twitter.com/4FAtlnAs3q

— NFL (@NFL) September 19, 2021

Murray is off to a sizzling start that has oddsmakers moving around MVP boards. This just might be the start of the young passer taking the next step to elite status.

Biggest Game-Changing Moment: Rookie Odafe Oweh with the forced fumble dagger on SNF football to win Baltimore the game

The Ravens held a one-point lead over the Chiefs with just over three minutes to play, but as the world knows, that’s a lot of time for star quarterback Patrick Mahomes.

It only took the Chiefs passer three plays before he got his team into field-goal range. And with just over a minute left at the Baltimore 32-yard line, Kansas City opted to milk the clock and convert a short-yardage second down by giving the ball to running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire.

Then, the worst possible outcome occurred for the Chiefs, as first-round rookie Odafe Oweh punched the ball out of Edwards-Helaire's hands.

ODAFE OWEH WELCOME TO THE LEAGUE!

NOW ON NBC! pic.twitter.com/6hDbrKClBX

— Baltimore Ravens (@Ravens) September 20, 2021

Ravens’ win probability change: +64.2%