4 NFL figures who flipped their narratives this season

At times last season, it looked like Russell Wilson might not want to play football anymore.

Mired on a poor Denver Broncos team, having lost some of the foot speed that made him such a weapon in his Seattle Seahawks prime, he was reduced to throwing checkdowns to avoid sacks ... while also taking a lot of sacks. The Broncos were so desperate to get out of the Russ business that they benched him and then released him so that he could sign somewhere else basically for free, knowing they would take an $85-million cap hit over the next two years.

Wilson was washed. How could anyone think otherwise when a team would hurl itself into salary-cap purgatory just to be rid of him?

This season, he's flipped that narrative on its head. Wilson hasn't just been adequate for a Pittsburgh Steelers team that's leading the AFC North; he's chucking the ball downfield like the Russ of old. After his 414-yard passing performance against the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday, he's averaging more than 270 passing yards per game this year, a career high. His yards per attempt and air yards per attempt are also career highs.

What? How? It's not as though Wilson was dropped into a perfectly calibrated passing attack: The Steelers averaged 184 passing yards in six starts with Justin Fields at quarterback as Wilson recovered from a leg injury.

Whatever the cause, Wilson looks reborn in Pittsburgh while Denver pays him $39 million to play for the Steelers. And he's not the only NFL figure whose performance this season has turned the established narrative about them upside down.

Bryce Young: Bust

If it was too early to declare the 2023 first overall pick a bust after his disastrous rookie season, it's probably also too soon to declare that everything is fine after a few games of unbridled competence.

But considering that the Carolina Panthers benched the 23-year-old after two awful starts (245 passing yards, zero touchdowns, three interceptions) and he only regained the job when Andy Dalton was injured, the former Heisman Trophy winner's recent stretch of play counts as a shocking improvement. He's gone three straight games without an interception and made at least one touchdown pass in five consecutive starts. He looks like he's slowly regaining his confidence. It still feels like the training wheels are on, and Young hasn't come close to matching some of the stellar performances from the 2024 quarterback rookie class. But Young is on the way to forcing the Panthers to consider if they might be better off sticking with the guy they traded a haul to draft rather than starting all over again.

Lou Anarumo: Genius

Two seasons ago, the Cincinnati Bengals won the AFC North with a 12-4 record and a defense that allowed the sixth-fewest points in the NFL. Defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo was one of those coaches who broadcast crews loved to rave about: He was a master at scheming up plans to slow down elite offenses, as evidenced by playoff victories against teams like the Kansas City Chiefs, Buffalo Bills, and Baltimore Ravens. He was on everyone's short list of future head coaches.

But if the Bengals somehow make it into the playoffs this year, it will be no thanks to Anarumo and his defense. The 4-8 Bengals have allowed more points than every team in the league except Carolina. It feels worse than that because the offense is absolutely humming, averaging just under 28 points per game - a situation that usually makes it easier for the defense to get stops. Over the last three weeks, the Bengals scored 38, 27, and 34 points and lost all three games. Anarumo's defense owes quarterback Joe Burrow an apology for submarining what would have been a strong MVP case.

Kirk Cousins: Underrated

Over a decade as a starter in Washington and Minnesota, Cousins wasn't on anyone's list of best quarterbacks, unless maybe someone in his immediate family was making the list. But his ability to pile up stats was undeniable: He threw for more than 4,000 yards in a season seven times and 29 or more touchdowns five times. Sure, he only won a single playoff game, but he was one of the better passers in the league even if no one wanted to give him that much credit. (It didn't help that many of his worst games came in prime time, where he had a 13-20 record coming into 2024.)

But the Atlanta Falcons did want to give him credit, and they did it in the form of $100 million guaranteed, even as the 36-year-old came off an Achilles tear that ended his final season with the Vikings.

It hasn't paid off for the Falcons. Cousins leads the NFL in interceptions with 13 in 12 games, he's posting his lowest passer rating since he became a regular starter, and Atlanta's managed fewer than 18 points in all six of its losses. The Falcons are somehow 6-6 in the awful NFC South, which means they still have a decent chance to return to the playoffs. In that case: Uh oh.

Scott Stinson is a contributing writer for theScore.