NFL Insiders on the Top Stories so Far: Rivers' Ascent, Brady's Descent and More

The AFC West scout has watched Philip Rivers for his entire 15-year career. But when he sat down to watch tape of the Chargers' longtime quarterback one recent afternoon, he was astounded by what he saw.

The scout relayed his assessment to Bleacher Report: "Really good accuracy, commanding the offense as well as I've seen any quarterback do this year, good use of his weapons and is absolutely dissecting defenses." 

All considered? "No one is playing quarterback better now than Philip Rivers," the scout said. "He's outplaying [Tom] Brady, [Aaron] Rodgers—everyone except [Chiefs quarterback Patrick] Mahomes, and maybe even him."

This scout isn't the only one who's been taken aback by Rivers this season.

B/R had conversations with three team representatives recently—the AFC West scout, an NFC coach and an NFC West front-office official—and asked them what they felt the top NFL storylines were three weeks into the 2018 schedule. Rivers' name came up constantly.

While Mahomes has rocked the sport and captured the attention of many in and around it, teams are privately just as amazed at what Rivers is doing.

The main thing they say is you can't fully grasp how well Rivers is commanding that offense until you break down film. It's not just his statistics, they say, though the numbers are good (as usual). Rivers has thrown eight touchdowns and one interception in three games, posting quarterback ratings of 103.7, 143.2 and 105.7 in those games.

Stephen Dunn/Getty Images

But what's impressing insiders is something simpler: his command. They say Rivers is playing Rodgers-like chess on the field—not simply benefiting from having additional talent around him, like receiver Mike Williams.

Interestingly, the three sources B/R spoke to said their views of Rivers before this season were that he wasn't necessarily a student of the game. In the past, they saw him as playing more off instinct and being less of a strategist. They say that's changed this year.

And it's a good thing Rivers is playing out of his mind, too. He needs to. That Chargers offense may be uber-talented, but the defense isn't, especially since it's missing Joey Bosa, who could be out half the season with a foot injury.

Past Rivers, here's what the three insiders pointed to as the good, the bad and the ugly in this young season:

Most surprising player: Jared Goff. All three named Goff—and shockingly not Mahomes. Why? Mainly because they already felt Mahomes would be extremely good this year (though maybe not this good) but weren't as high on Goff entering this season.

What's changed? "The way he reads defenses is night-and-day from last year," said the coach.

John Cordes/Associated Press

And what about Buccaneers quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick, who's one of the more shocking stories of the year? The three also formed a consensus there. All believe it's only a matter of time before Fitzpatrick crashes back to earth.

Most overlooked player: All three said the choice was easy: Ryan Tannehill. "I keep waiting for him to fall off a cliff," said the coach, "but he keeps surprising me."

The coach added, though, that just behind Tannehill was Panthers quarterback Cam Newton. The emergence of running back Christian McCaffrey has made Newton as dangerous as ever since defenses can't just focus on him anymore.

Most disappointing player: Two said Tom Brady, and one said Buccaneers quarterback Jameis Winston.

The scout said he wonders if Brady is hurt: "Everything about him looks off."

Paul Sancya/Associated Press

Winston was named because of his suspension for an alleged assault against a female Uber driver. "There's no way the Bucs trust Jameis Winston," the scout said. "No matter what they say publicly. Would you?"

(Narrator: Hell no.)

Most disappointing team: One source said the Cardinals, one said the Patriots and one said the Raiders.

All three had particularly critical things to say about Oakland coach Jon Gruden. Most of the ire involved the trade of pass-rusher Khalil Mack. 

Most courageous player: All said Rodgers, believing his knee is likely causing him far more pain than he or the team is saying.

Best coaching job: For all three, it's Andy Reid.

"Just put him in the Hall right now," the NFC coach said.

Reid's handling of Mahomes is among the best coaching jobs they've seen in years, maybe decades. The reason, according to the insiders, is Reid has allowed Mahomes to be Mahomes. He hasn't restricted him in any way.

Dustin Bradford/Getty Images

It can't be emphasized enough, the scout told me, how many coaches wouldn't do that. They are too much of control freaks. Reid doesn't care and refuses to allow his ego to get in the way.

What they're watching for: Unsurprisingly, we got less consensus in response to this final, more open-ended question.

The scout said: "Mitch Trubisky. He needs to play better. That defense is great, but the Bears can't go far if Trubisky keeps playing like this."

The coach: "The Browns. [Baker] Mayfield is the big story, but watch that defense. It might be the third- or fourth-best in football. Maybe higher."

The front-office exec: "J.J. Watt. I think he or [Mack] end up as Defensive Player of the Year."

One last thing: It needs to be mentioned because this is an area of agreement between these three sources and numerous other NFL executives and coaches.

All say the new roughing-the-passer rule is a disaster.

I'm told coaches and team officials are complaining about the rule constantly to the league office. The belief is this rule will soon change or, to be exact, the point of emphasis on it will shift.

The sources point to what happened with the controversial rule of penalizing players for lowering the helmet and initiating contact. In the preseason, the rule was widely criticized as being impossible for players to follow. The NFL said the rule would stay the same. But after massive amounts of criticism, the league made a tweak in the interpretation of the rule, exempting unintended helmet contact. That simple change/non-change dramatically reduced the number of those penalties once the regular season began.

Alex Brandon/Associated Press

The expectation is something similar will happen with the roughing-the-passer rule.

The NFL's executive vice president of football operations, Troy Vincent, released a statement Thursday, explaining that the committee reviewed video from this season and last, and the NFL has decided not to change anything with the rule. The league also released a video.

Some team officials do not believe this will hold, though. They think the stupidity of the rule will force the NFL to make some type of change, just as the league did with the helmet rule.

We don't know exactly what will happen with that. What we do know is this has been a wild season.

A season where Philip Rivers is playing like Tom Brady.

Mike Freeman covers the NFL for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter: @mikefreemanNFL.