Superstars may lead the discussion when it comes to success in the NFL, but more often than not, it's the guys you barely know who will make the plays needed when they're needed. Such players can be underrated for all kinds of reasons. Perhaps they're playing in a smaller market, and the media isn't appropriately trumpeting their exploits. Maybe they're hidden in a depth chart behind bigger names who may not be doing as much. Or, it's always possible that a wayward coach hasn't quite figured out that one guy needs elevation to bring better results to the team.
Whatever the reason, we at SB Nation always like to bring the underrated names to you with the offseason Hidden Gems and in-season Secret Superstars series. You can also catch up on the AFC and NFC Secret Superstars for the 2026 season right here .
Here are our NFC Secret Superstars for Week 5 of the 2026 regular season. And if you haven't yet, download the new SB Nation app , so you can better read our stuff and join the conversation wherever you are!
(All advanced metrics courtesy of Next Gen Stats , Pro Football Focus , Sports Info Solutions , and Sumer Sports unless otherwise indicated).
"If you have a career day against the NFL's worst defense?" could be seen as football's version of "If a tree falls in the forest and nobody hears it, does it make a sound?" Yes, the falling tree makes a sound regardless, but what does it all mean , man?
In the case of Tampa Bay Buccaneers third-year running back Bucky Irving, it means a lot. In the Buccaneers' 24-16 Thursday night win over the Dallas Cowboys and their league-worst defense, the fourth-round man from Oregon by way of Minnesota had the game of his life. Irving ran the ball 21 times for 165 yards (7.86 yards per carry), with 120 yards after contact (5.71 per attempt), and he forced 11 missed tackles.
The 2026 Cowboys came into that game allowing 4.77 yards per carry, and 2.87 yards after contact per carry. That's not completely awful, and it's mostly because teams just want to tee off on the pass defense instead — and for good reason. But as the Bucs were starting undrafted rookie Jalon Daniels in relief of the injured Baker Mayfield, a comprehensive run game certainly would help, and that's what the Buccaneers got.
Not that the Buccaneers had enjoyed a comprehensive run game in the first month of the season. Irving had run the ball 56 times for 241 yards, one touchdown, and 11 forced missed tackles in the opening four weeks, and Kenneth Gainwell had been even less exceptional, with 26 yards on 13 carries.
So, was this a breakout or an anomaly? Yes, the tape shows all kinds of run fit breakdowns and tackling nightmares, but on Irving's 72-yard run at the start of the third quarter, tight end Cade Otton bumped into right guard Cody Mauch, nobody seemed to know who to block inside, and it was Irving who had to make the magic happen. Remember: It's not as if the Buccaneers' offense is all that dangerous, either.
"It was instincts, and once you see the run and the linebacker got upfield, so I had to make a cut, then I was just me," Irving said of that play. "I already [told] myself that once I trust my track, good things happen. That was just me trusting my track. I got back on my track when I was supposed to hit it."
Whether this represents Irving and the Bucs' offense getting back on track is another matter, but it was a good week for a formerly 0-4 team.
Life is always better in the NFC North when the Green Bay Packers and the Chicago Bears legitimately dislike each other, and with the beefs between Packers head coach Matt LaFleur and Bears head coach Ben Johnson , that's now the case. Sunday's game was the latest instance of the NFL's longest-running rivalry, and this one wasn't really competitive. The Packers blew the Bears right out of Lambeau Field with a 31-7 win, and quarterback Jordan Love was slinging the ball like there was no tomorrow.
In the first four weeks of the season, Love had completed four of 18 passes of 20 or more air yards for 144 yards, no touchdowns, one interception, and a passer rating of 37.3. But against the Bears, Love completed six of eight deep passes for 258 yards (32.3 yards per attempt!), two touchdowns, no interceptions, and a passer rating of 156.3, which is absolutely and utterly ridiculous.
The key man in Love's goal to push the ball down the field was receiver Christian Watson, who caught three of those deep passes on four targets for 126 yards and both touchdowns. The first score, a 42-yarder, came with 5:57 left in the first quarter. Watson motioned from right to left pre-snap, took off at the snap up the seam, and the Bears didn't seem to know what to do with that. Safety Xavier Woods got caught up in the wash, and that was that.
Then, the Packers opened the second half with a full "F**K YOU" playbook, in which Love was going to attempt to embarrass Chicago's defense deep until it stuck.
With 13:33 left in the third quarter, there was the deep incompletion to Watson on the left boundary that probably should have been pass interference on cornerback Tyrique Stevenson. Then, there was the deep pass to receiver J. Michael Sturdivant which was negated by offensive pass interference — a call the Packers very much did not enjoy. Finally, the 53-yard touchdown to Watson with 13:19 left in the quarter.
Quite a statement against a Bears defense that had allowed a grand total of six deep catches on 10 targets for 243 yards, two touchdowns, one interception, and an opponent passer rating of 104.2 in the first four weeks.
"You know, I think J-Mike did a great job making that catch, and it's one of those things, it is what it is," Love said of that particular sequence. "It's unfortunate, got called back, but it's what we always talk about. How do you respond? It's adversity, you never know when it's going to hit. To be able to go get that one to Christian (Watson), that huge play, I thought he did an outstanding job making that catch, but that's what it's all about right there.
"I said, 'Ball don't lie.'"
Ball don't lie, and at least in this game, the truth was that Christian Watson was the Packers' nuclear option whenever it was time for an explosive play.
The last time we checked in on 49ers cornerback Renardo Green, he was in Kyle Shanahan's doghouse during San Francisco's Divisional Round loss to the Seattle Seahawks last season , and hoping that Raheem Morris' new set of defensive schemes would bring out the best in him.
I had my eye on Green from his time at Florida State, because I love me a good press cornerback, the Seminoles played a metric crapton of press when Green was there, and Green was really, really good at it.
But the transitions didn't always play at the next level. The 49ers took Green in the second round of the 2024 draft, and he was up and down at best in his first two seasons, allowing 81 catches on 141 targets for 938 yards, five touchdowns, one interception, and an opponent passer rating of 86.5.
Now, in Morris' schemes, Green is starting to get the hang of everything. This was never more evident than in San Francisco's 32-29 Sunday win over the Seahawks. The first time Green faced Seattle since last season's dressing-down, he was as good as anybody could have hoped. Green was Sam Darnold's worst nightmare, allowing two catches on five targets for five yards, no touchdowns, two interceptions, a pass breakup, and an opponent passer rating of 8.3.
Green was on Darnold's reads from the jump, and it was impressive that he did it in multiple ways — he's not just a press guy anymore.
Moreover, Green is taking his film study to the field in new ways. His description of how he set Darnold up with his second interception of the day on a Darnold target to tight end Elijah Arroyo with 14:18 left in the third quarter was specifically impressive.
From ESPN's Nick Wagoner:
"It was a double tight end formation and one of them [Arroyo] released… You [can] run past him. So when he ran the over route, I played like he had a step on me. Once the ball went in the air, I just turned it on, and undercut the ball."
Green also undercut Darnold's throw to Jaxon Smith-Njigba with 12:40 left in the first quarter on a quick out route. Anytime you can get the best of the NFL's best receiver, you're doing some stuff. Green also knocked the snot out of JSN on his pass breakup with 1:13 left in the game — a play that helped decide things near the end.
Despite all the attendant and seemingly inevitable injuries, the 49ers are 5-0 on the season, and they're absolutely crushing everyone else in the DVOA sweepstakes . It's nice that Green is a big part of the equation after a rocky start to his career.
