Six Things We Learned from Week 4

Here's 6 things we learned from Week 4 of the regular season.

1. There's no question as to who the two best teams in the NFL are through the first four weeks of the season and that's the Denver Broncos and Seattle Seahawks. They both look Super Bowl bound thus far.
2. The Cleveland Browns appear to have found their starting quarterback... for the remainder of 2013. Brian Hoyer has done an admirable job as the Browns' starting QB the last two weeks, leading the team to victories over the Vikings and Bengals, respectively. I saw starting-quarterback potential in Hoyer during his time backing up Tom Brady in New England and am happy to see him succeed. However, I don't think he's the Browns' franchise signal caller, as I expect them to select one in the first round of next year's draft.
3. The Patriots are for real. I believed they would beat the Falcons last night, which they did, however I didn't expect the offense to put up 30 points. The running game was effective and the chemistry between Brady and his receivers appears to be improving by the week. The defense continued its impressive performance as a unit and effectively took Julio Jones out of the game. The loss of defensive tackle Vince Wilfork (torn achilles) is a huge blow. He's arguably the best at his position and one of the leaders of this team, he is irreplaceable. Nevertheless, beating a desperate Atlanta team on the road proved to me that this Patriots team is legit.
4. I'm hopping on the Kansas City Chief's bandwagon. This team has been reborn under new head coach Andy Reid. Granted, their schedule has been relatively soft but they face the Tennessee Titans this week, who are a surprising 3-1. The Chiefs don't have a difficult schedule and should make the playoffs.
5. Maurice Jones-Drew's best days might be behind him. His slow start has me wondering and while I think it's more due to him not being back to his pre-injury form, it's entirely possible that he's peaked. Not including this season, MJD had 1,954 combined career touches, averaging out to roughly 279 touches per season. Running backs have a short shelf life and considering how terrible the Jaguars passing offense has been for the past few years, MJD has had to carry the team on his shoulders and took a lot of punishment in the process. He might not be fully recovered, or maybe he's on the decline. Here's to hoping it's the former, because he's a hell of a football player.
6. The NFC East is the worst division in football. I'm just noticing now how bad the NFC East is; Dallas is 2-2, the Eagles and Redskins are both 1-3, and the Giants are 0-4. What's usually a competitive division has completely fallen apart. I certainly don't mind seeing the Giants winless, though.