This was the week the NFL’s young stars shined.
Rookie quarterbacks Justin Fields and Zach Wilson got their first career wins as starters. Former No. 1 overall picks Joe Burrow and Trevor Lawrence went toe-to-toe in one of the week's best games. Several other first- and second-year players, such as Kansas City Chiefs center Creed Humphrey, Chicago Bears wide receiver Darnell Mooney and Tampa Bay Buccaneers safety Antoine Winfield Jr., put on eye-popping performances.
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 4 of the 2021 NFL season.
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PFF TEAM OF THE WEEK
Offense
QB: Joe Burrow, Cincinnati Bengals
RB: Austin Ekeler, Los Angeles Chargers
WR: Tyreek Hill, Kansas City Chiefs
WR: Darnell Mooney, Chicago Bears
TE: C.J. Uzomah, Cincinnati Bengals
Flex: Cordarrelle Patterson, Atlanta Falcons
LT: Jonah Williams, Cincinnati Bengals
LG: Rodger Saffold, Tennessee Titans
C: Jason Kelce, Philadelphia Eagles
RG: Zack Martin, Dallas Cowboys
RT: Ryan Ramczyk, New Orleans Saints
Defense
DI: Jonathan Allen, Washington Football Team
DI: Christian Wilkins, Miami Dolphins
Edge: Shaquil Barrett, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Edge: Joey Bosa, Los Angeles Chargers
LB: Tremaine Edmunds, Buffalo Bills
LB: Bobby Okereke, Indianapolis Colts
CB: Greedy Williams, Cleveland Browns
CB: Ross Cockrell, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
S: Antoine Winfield Jr., Tampa Bay Buccaneers
S: Erik Harris, Atlanta Falcons
Flex: Cam Lewis, Buffalo Bills
Editor's note: The PFF Team of the Week was updated following Monday Night Football
Offensive Player of the Week: WR Tyreek Hill, Kansas City Chiefs
This week, Hill reminded the NFL why he is the most dangerous receiver in the game. The lightning-fast wideout beat the Eagles secondary both vertically and after the catch en route to a 92.6 receiving grade in Week 4. He generated a perfect 158.3 passer rating on his 12 targets, broke three tackles and produced four explosive receptions of 15-plus yards and 6.41 yards per route run.
TYREEK. HILL. HOW!!!!!
????: #KCvsPHI on CBS pic.twitter.com/UeNX2t2PNa
— Kansas City Chiefs (@Chiefs) October 3, 2021
Even with subpar outings in Week 2 and Week 3, Hill still ranks top three among NFL wide receivers in receiving grade (87.6), yards per route run (3.24) and passer rating when targeted (151.4) for the season.
Defensive Player of the Week: DI Jonathan Allen, Washington Football Team
Allen’s hot start to 2021 continued with a career-best 93.5 PFF grade against the Atlanta Falcons in Week 4. He disrupted Atlanta’s run game all day long, finishing with the fourth-best positively graded run-play rate among interior defensive linemen and four total run stops.
Allen didn’t record a sack, but he still earned a Week 4-leading 92.3 pass-rush grade thanks to eight total wins on 30 rushes. Allen went up against rookie left guard Jalen Mayfield for most of the game, and he looked like an unblockable force.
Rookie of the Week: C Creed Humphrey, Kansas City Chiefs
Humphrey had the difficult task of blocking a ferocious Philadelphia Eagles interior defensive line that boasts the likes of Fletcher Cox and Javon Hargrave. But while the first-year center saw matchups against those two for most of the day, he rarely ceded ground to the opposition.
Humphrey lost only one pass-block rep overall, and while it was a sack, losing just that one overall should be viewed as a win for a rookie against a defensive line of this magnitude.
The run game is where Humphrey really shined, though, as his 93.7 run-block grade was the second-highest among all offensive linemen in Week 4 and the second-best among all rookie offensive linemen in a regular-season game since 2006.
Now, the rookie is one of the three highest-graded centers in the NFL and made his name known as one of the best first-year performers through the first quarter of the year.
Offensive Line of the Week: Washington Football Team
Washington’s line lost only eight combined reps on 38 dropbacks. Five of which resulted in a quarterback pressure, and not a single one ended in a sack. And given that Taylor Heinicke was one of a few quarterbacks to surpass three seconds per throw for the week, that’s quite impressive.
Of their five pressures allowed, four came when Heinicke held onto the ball for longer than three seconds.
Secret Superstar of the Week: CB Cam Lewis, Buffalo Bills
Lewis, a 2019 undrafted free agent, spent the first few weeks of the year on the practice squad and entered Week 4 with only 75 career snaps to his name, all of which came in 2020. The Bills needed someone to man the nickel spot with Taron Johnson out due to injury and they called on Lewis to fill the void.
Lewis ended up earning an 81.9 coverage grade as he tallied up a pass breakup, a passing stop and a forced fumble while allowing zero first downs in coverage.
Play of the Week: Zach Wilson’s DIME to Corey Davis to take the lead in the fourth quarter
The No. 2 overall pick provided a sense of relief for New York by producing multiple highlight-reel deep throws that flashed back to his days at BYU.
Wilson uncorked four big-time throws against the Tennessee Titans after combining for just three in the first three games. And one of those passes was a perfectly placed deep shot thrown 60 yards through the air to Corey Davis to tie the ball game in the fourth quarter.
ZACH WILSON ???? COREY DAVIS
pic.twitter.com/TBRNr1NaYF— PFF (@PFF) October 3, 2021
Wilson’s arm talent is special. That’s why he went No. 2 overall and why the Jets pulled out the upset win on Sunday.
Biggest Game-Changing Moment: Joe Burrow’s clutch 31-yard touchdown to C.J. Uzomah
At halftime of their Thursday Night Football matchup against Trevor Lawrence and the Jacksonville Jaguars, the Bengals found themselves down 14-to-nothing and had a 24% chance to win the game.
Quarterback Joe Burrow and the Bengals scored on their first two second-half drives to tie the game before the Jags pulled away again with a seven-point lead.
Cincy eventually found themselves at Jacksonville’s 31-yard line on third down with nine minutes to play. Burrow dropped back to pass and had to improvise before finding tight end C.J. Uzomah on the run and delivering a big-time throw that he proceeded to take to the end zone.
This play boosted Cincinnati’s win probability to greater than 50%, and the Bengals would hold that the rest of the way en route to a 24-21 win.
PFF Win Probability Change for CIN: +21.2%
Burrow finished the night with an 89.1 passing grade, nearly eclipsing the career-high mark he produced in Week 3 (89.6).
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