NFL Week 5 ‘Higher Register’ - 49ers, Falcons & Chargers Tepid Takes

Week 5 kicked off that night, which meant it was time for the higher register take of the week: an opinion about Week 5 that you have to go to a higher register to believe.

Chris Brockman went first, and he went with his own team. It has been a rough month for the Los Angeles Chargers, the most disappointing team in the league by his telling, with talk of hot seats for "a guy that we like" and even trading the quarterback somewhere down the line. Chris did not care. "When I think about Week 5 and the Los Angeles Chargers, I think this is the week it all starts to click for them."

He had a little cover. Daniel Jeremiah, scheduled for the next day's show, has been watching the film, and his tweet last week read "higher register," pointing to plays the Chargers are making on defense. "I don't think they look that bad," Chris said. Rich wanted specifics. A win this week, or something more? Chris committed to more: a playoff run, stacking wins week by week, with this as the week it all clicks. "I'll go figure that," came the reply.

TJ Jefferson was next, and Rich warned that this is not his wheelhouse. TJ agreed he is a lower register guy. But the earlier conversation about the 49ers and Seattle had been rattling around in his head, and he landed somewhere loud. "With a Niners win over Seattle this week, Brock Purdy, he's got the MVP locked up." The room repeated it back to him. Locked up? TJ admitted it was more of an overreaction and that he did not know if he believed it, which is exactly why it qualified. As someone put it, "You got to go high register to believe it." Only Week 5, after all.

Then Rich took his turn, and it started with vocabulary. He had called the Buffalo Bills a wagon, and Kyle Long used the same word in hour two. Viewers had asked in the comments what that means, so Rich looked it up before using it. In sports, "especially ice hockey," which he did not know, calling a team a wagon means it is "an exceptionally strong, dominant, and unstoppable team that is rolling over opponents."

The team Rich had in mind was getting rolled in the first two weeks. "Whatever the opposite of a wagon is," he said. "A go-kart? I don't know. Boxcar?" But over the last two weeks, he has started to wonder about the Atlanta Falcons.

His take came carefully hedged, and he explained why the hedge mattered. "I kind of feel like the Falcons may be a wagon, which is two different conditional phrases. That's what makes the higher register work." Not that they are a wagon. Not even that he feels they may be. He kind of feels they may be, and he needs to see more.

The test is coming. "Here come the Ravens," Rich said. If Bijan hits the hole against Baltimore and goes another half the field for a touchdown, if Drake London does his thing, if Pitts keeps coming around and Jahan Dotson goes up on a post pattern again, then the Falcons may be the real thing. "And if they are, well, wouldn't that be a nice plot twist to the 2026 National Football League season?"

Rich admitted he had never heard wagon used as a hockey term before. The crew's resident hockey voice confirmed it, which explained the Sabres last year. As it turns out, the Sabres were a wagon before the Bills were.