In the era of supposedly exploding offense, the sideline stars of Week 5's Sunday and Monday night prime-time games were defensive coordinators. Matt Eberflus' Colts defense -- playing without its All-Pro linebacker and star safety, by the way -- held Patrick Mahomes and the electrifying Chiefs to 13 points in the upset of the week. One night later, the Monday Night Football cameras kept coming back to Robert Saleh, the 49ers' defensive coordinator whose crew was swarming Baker Mayfield and the Browns.
That these two games were sandwiched around the first head-coach firing of the season -- Jay Gruden's early-Monday-morning dismissal by Washington -- got me thinking that it's not too early to be trying to spot the up-and-coming coordinators who could be in line for head-coach interviews come January.