San Diego Chargers

Buffalo stretched their winning run to three matches with a 40-0 rout of the Houston Texans last Sunday.

Week 4 was also one to remember for the Chiefs and particularly Andy Reid, who became the first coach in NFL history to win 100 games with two teams thanks to a 42-30 defeat of his former employers the Philadelphia Eagles.

As the only team with a perfect record, the Arizona Cardinals will look to make it 5-0 at the expense of the San Francisco 49ers.

Stats Perform previews the pick of the action in the next round of matches and the best of the rest.

Buffalo Bills @ Kansas City Chiefs

The Bills are sitting pretty at the top of the AFC East at 3-1, but they have lost five of their past six meetings against the Chiefs.

Buffalo will be on a revenge mission after they were beaten 38-24 by Kansas City in the AFC Championship Game last season, the largest margin of victory for the Chiefs in those five triumphs.

The Bills' thrashing of the Texans was the second time this season they have kept an opponent scoreless, having also done so against the Miami Dolphins in Week 2.

Reid's side prop up the AFC West with a 2-2 record, but their 18 touchdowns is more than any in the NFL and Josh Gordon will be hoping to add to that tally if he makes his debut.

San Francisco 49ers @ Arizona Cardinals

The Cardinals' dream start to the season continued with a 37-20 victory over the Los Angeles Rams in Week 4, taking them to 4-0 for only the second time since moving to Arizona nine years after they previously won their opening four games.

If recent history is anything to go by, there will not be much in their showdown this weekend, as four of the past five meetings between the two sides have been decided by only three points.

The 2-2 49ers travel to State Farm Stadium having come out on top in four of their previous four meetings, having lost their eight clashes beforehand.

Deebo Samuel caught a 76-yard touchdown pass in San Francisco's 28-21 loss to Seattle Seahawks in Week 4, making him the fourth 49ers wide receiver to have multiple receiving touchdowns of 75-plus yards in a single season – joining Torrey Smith, John Taylor, and Jerry Rice.

Cleveland Browns @ Los Angeles Chargers 

The Browns and the Chargers have made promising starts to the season and both come into the game on the back of wins that took them to 3-1.

Cleveland have not beaten the Chargers on the road since back in 1991, losing five on the spin since then – a run that is tied for their third-longest active road losing streak against an opponent (lost 17 straight in Pittsburgh and six straight at New England).

The past two games mark the first time the Browns have allowed seven points or fewer back-to-back since September 10-17, 1995. They have done so in three straight games only once in franchise history (in 1976).

Nick Chubb (388) and Kareem Hunt (355) are the second pair of running backs in the last 30 years to have 350+ scrimmage yards apiece over their team's first four games of a season. The other was the Chargers' Melvin Gordon III and Austin Ekeler in 2018. 

Elsewhere

Tom Brady broke Drew Brees' NFL passing yards record in the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' win over his former team the New England Patriots in Week 4 and could inflict more misery on the Dolphins this weekend. The legendary quarterback has thrown 67 touchdowns against Miami the third-most by a player against any opponent in the Super Bowl era (Dan Marino – 72 v. the New York Jets, Brady – 70 v. the Bills). 

The Green Bay Packers head to Cincinnati to do battle with the Bengals, who they beat 27-24 in their last encounter in 2017. That snapped a three-game winning streak by the Bengals in the series. The Packers' last win in Cincinnati came in Week 3 of the 1998 season.

Urban Meyer has come under fire for his night out after the Jacksonville Jaguars suffered a fourth loss from four last week and he really needs a win when the Florida team host the Tennessee Titans. Tennessee are 7-1 versus the Jaguars since 2017.

NFC East leaders the Dallas Cowboys will go in search of a fifth consecutive home win over the New York Giants.

Henry has been one of the NFL's top tight ends – when healthy – and this deal gives the 2016 second-round pick an opportunity to prove he can avoid injury before signing a lucrative long-term deal. 

After missing all of 2018 with a torn right ACL, Henry had career highs of 55 receptions for 652 yards along with five touchdown catches this past season for the Chargers despite missing four games because of a left knee injury. 

He was sidelined for the final two games of the 2017 season with a lacerated kidney and missed a game as a rookie in 2016 with a knee injury. 

Despite missing 23 games in his career, Henry's 17 touchdown receptions since 2016 are eighth most in the NFL among tight ends. 

He was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2014, and died on Monday night in Charlotte, North Carolina, his family said in a statement.

Known for his passionate pre-game speeches and a smash-mouth brand of football that spawned the term 'Martyball', Schottenheimer went 200-126-1 in regular-season games from 1984 to 2006 while coaching the Cleveland Browns, Kansas City Chiefs, and the then Washington Redskins and San Diego Chargers.

Current Chiefs head coach Andy Reid said: "My heart goes out to the Schottenheimer family. Marty was a friend and someone I admired greatly.

"He was an outstanding mentor to me as a young football coach, and one of the most passionate coaches I've ever been around. He did things the right way. He was great for the league and really revived this franchise during his time here. I'm honoured I had a chance to get to know him and his family. My thoughts and prayers are with them during this difficult time."

Schottenheimer's coaching career began in Cleveland in 1984, and two seasons later he led the franchise to the first of back-to-back appearances in the AFC Championship Game. Both times, however, they lost to the Denver Broncos, and both times in heartbreaking fashion.

Postseason shortcomings will forever be associated with Schottenheimer, who was just 5-13 in the playoffs.

After mutually agreeing to leave the Browns following the 1988 season, he coached the Chiefs from 1989-98 and led Kansas City to six consecutive playoff berths from 1990-95, but his teams only won postseason games in two of those seasons.

He then spent one season with the team now known as the Washington Football Team, going 8-8 in 2001, before coaching the Chargers from 2002-06, where he once again enjoyed some regular-season success without a single playoff win to show for it.

In 2006, his Chargers were 14-2 and had the AFC’s top seed but lost to Tom Brady and the New England Patriots 24-21 in the divisional round. A month after that defeat he was fired.

In his 21 seasons as coach, his teams won 10 or more games 11 times – including five seasons with 12 or more victories – but he never made it to the Super Bowl.

Armed with the first overall pick, new team president Bill Polian had two quarterbacks to choose from: Peyton Manning – the son of a former NFL player who starred at the University of Tennessee – or Ryan Leaf, the big man with a strong arm who had decided to leave Washington State a year early to enter the league.

History, of course, tells us the Colts made the correct call.

Manning spent 14 seasons in Indianapolis, his hugely successful spell with the team including leading them to glory in Super Bowl XLI. His jersey number (18) was retired by the franchise, while there is a statue of him at the team's Lucas Oil Stadium.

The San Diego Chargers, meanwhile, claimed Leaf at two. Their marriage did not run so smoothly – or last too long (three seasons, to be precise). He played just 25 games in a career that also included a stop in Dallas, throwing 14 touchdowns and 36 interceptions, and is regarded as one of – if not the – biggest draft busts.

But what if Leaf had gone first instead? Let's start at the beginning…

THE COLTS

Having the first pick was the ideal building block for Polian, who was always going to hand new head coach Jim Mora a rookie QB to work with.

Manning started from the outset with the Colts. There were early teething problems and he finished his debut season with a 3-13 record, throwing more interceptions (28) than touchdowns (26).

However, the chance to learn on the job aided his development. The Colts went on to make the playoffs in the next two seasons and while 2001 was not so successful, a 6-10 campaign led to the arrival of Tony Dungy as head coach and, well, the rest is history.

Whether Leaf would have developed in the same circumstances has to be considered doubtful with how his career panned out, but Indianapolis would have at least afforded him time in which to prove himself.

They also had two rather useful pieces to help, as a running back by the name of Marshall Faulk and a wide receiver called Marvin Harrison were already on the roster.

Had Leaf still flamed out in a similar timeframe with the Colts – it should be pointed out he missed his second season in San Diego through injury - they may well have used the 2001 draft to find a replacement. The Chargers did exactly that, using the 32nd pick on Drew Brees.

THE CHARGERS

Here is where an alternative NFL timeline gets seriously interesting.

Manning as a Charger may not have blossomed in time to keep head coach Kevin Gilbride in a job – he was fired midway through the 1998 season, his second at the helm – but he may well have been the key to keeping the team in San Diego.

Owner Dean Spanos moved the Chargers to Los Angeles after an unsuccessful attempt to get a new stadium built. A failure to secure tax-payer funding led to relocation in 2017.

Surely, though, the presence of Manning could have made a difference. On-field success - perhaps even a Super Bowl triumph like the one the Colts enjoyed - could have led to them getting the backing required to stay put.

Instead, L.A. is now home, though they have so far struggled in competition with the Rams to attract fans. There have even been rumours that the Chargers could move again soon, this time overseas to become the NFL's permanent residents in London.

And what of Brees? Manning's presence would have made picking another QB a waste of draft resources. In 2001, the team to next take a player at the position after the Chargers were the Cowboys, meaning Drew could well have gone on to become a star in Dallas instead.

THE 2004 DRAFT

Of course, there is another Manning whose career would have changed if you take a sliding doors approach to the '98 draft.

After life with Leaf failed to pan out, the Chargers had better luck with Brees before then moving on to Philip Rivers.

However, they selected Peyton's younger brother Eli with the first pick in 2004, rather than Rivers, even though the former Ole Miss quarterback never had any intention of playing for them.

Eli ended up in New York with the Giants in a trade that saw Rivers, who was drafted at four, head in the opposite direction. The next QB taken that year? Ben Roethlisberger, who went to the Pittsburgh Steelers at 11. The Buffalo Bills also used their first-round pick on the position, opting for J.P. Losman after moving up to 22.

Yet had Peyton's place been in San Diego, several notable signal callers selected early in 2004 could have ended up in different locations to begin their pro careers.