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In The Usual Suspects, the stone-cold-classic 1995 crime thriller, the bad guys seem pretty obvious — blindingly so, really, loud and in your face and claiming all of your attention every time they’re onscreen. But the real villain is lurking right there in plain sight, an apparently broken wretch who’s been pulling the strings all along without anyone noticing.

Why do I lead an NFL column with a reference to a 30-year-old movie about a villain hiding in plain sight? Oh, I don’t know … have you checked the AFC East standings lately?

The New England Patriots are back, friends. Winners of nine straight, led by an old-school lead-with-the-forehead head coach, quarterbacked by the best signal-caller to join the NFL since the pandemic, held together by one of the top scoring defenses in the league, the Patriots are now officially a legitimate capital-P Problem for the rest of the league. Again.

You can understand why the NFL universe might be troubled by this development. After Tom Brady left the Greater Boston area for Florida and Bill Belichick decided to go re-enact the plot of Old School, the NFL thought it was done with the Pats for a decade or so. The Chiefs took up the “new dynasty” mantle, and everyone safely relegated the Pats to the six-win bin along with the Jets and Titans. Nightmares are never as scary in the daylight, and the Patriots’ two-decade run through the NFL faded into memory.

Until this season. 

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Mike Vrabel, who won three Super Bowls with the Pats and — perhaps even more impressively — led the Titans to the AFC championship game and, later, a No. 1 seed as a coach. (The decisionmaking that led to Tennessee releasing him is one reason why Tennessee has a single win this year, and New England has 10.) Vrabel has rebooted the culture in New England, bringing back the Belichickian swagger but not the needless Belichickian crustiness. The former linebacker now oversees a team whose defense ranks sixth in points allowed, eight in yards allowed, and second in rushing yards allowed. He’s also unlocked an offense that thrown for more yards than any team in the league. The results have been obvious, as has the praise from players up and down the roster.

“I think (Vrabel) has done a great job bringing us close together as a team, helping us to play for each other, not just for ourselves,” running back TreVeyon Henderson said after New England’s win over Cleveland. “So, I have been thankful to have him as a head coach. He has been doing such a good job of pushing me, pushing everyone on this team no matter who we are."

“He brings it every day, he challenges us but he also cares about us and cares about us outside of the building,” Drake Maye said in October. “He's just awesome to play for.”

Sure, players said that about Belichick too, but it always felt more like a hostage-video confession than a true expression of affection. Some wins come at more cost than others.

Maye himself is a key factor in the Patriots’ renaissance. His 3,130 yards (without a bye) lead the league. He ranks second in yards per completion at 8.8 (to Sam Darnold) and passer rating of 110.7 (to Matthew Stafford), and as a result is very much in the MVP conversation. It’s way too early to compare him to You Know Who, but a reliable young quarterback is a rare asset in the modern NFL. And if you’ve got a quarterback with this kind of touch …

… good things will follow.

Five games remain in the regular season for New England, starting with next Monday’s battle with an old nemesis, the New York Giants. Following the very late Week 14 bye, New England wraps the year with a run through the division, plus a visit to Baltimore. Difficult but manageable, especially given the AFC East lead the Patriots have posted over the 7-4 Bills.

And from there, who knows? If the Patriots were trying to get into the College Football Playoff, analysts would point to the ugly Week 1 loss to the Raiders, plus a whole bunch of high-calorie victories over teams like Miami, New Orleans, Tennessee, Cleveland, Atlanta and the Jets. But style points don’t matter in the NFL, victories do. Get into the playoffs — and they’re 99 percent likely to do so, per NFL.com — and the Patriots can do all kinds of damage. Again.

"You want high expectations," Maye said prior to the start of the season. "This city, the Patriots are used to winning, and that's what we're trying to get back to. You want people to expect you to play well."

Pat Patriot isn’t walking with a limp anymore, and the rest of the NFL has dropped its coffee cup. Only difference between this Patriots season and The Usual Suspects: the Pats’ season isn’t anywhere close to finished.

Turns out that retreating from head coach to offensive coordinator wasn't a great fit for Chip Kelly. At least not in the NFL.

The Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday fired the former UCLA coach moments after they were defeated by the Cleveland Browns, 24-10, falling to a 2-9 record. Kelly's stint as offensive coordinator was an abject failure: Among 32 NFL teams, Las Vegas is tied for last at 15.0 points per game and is 30th with 268.9 in total yards per game.

Kelly bolted from UCLA in 2023 after six overwhelmingly mediocre seasons as head coach to become offensive coordinator at Ohio State, which won the NCAA national championship in 2024.

Another opportunity arose immediately thereafter when Pete Carroll became the Raiders' head coach and invited Kelly to run the offense.

Although Kelly's NFL experience was limited to failed head coaching stints with the Philadelphia Eagles and San Francisco 49ers, he jumped at the opportunity, saying on a podcast that "the one thing about the NFL that I love is it's the ultimate level of competition. It's football at the highest level."

Read more:An open letter to UCLA chancellor Julio Frenk about Bruins athletics

Carroll, who is struggling to find traction with the Raiders at age 74 after a decorated career as coach of the Seattle Seahawks and USC, swiftly learned that Kelly wasn't up to the task despite being paid $6 million this season, double any other offensive coordinator in the NFL.

"I spoke with Chip Kelly earlier this evening and informed him of his release as offensive coordinator of the Raiders," Carroll said in a statement. "I would like to thank Chip for his service and wish him all the best in the future."

Carroll became enamored by Kelly's ability to put points on the scoreboard 16 years ago. USC was handed its worst loss in Carroll's nine-year tenure when Oregon — coached by Kelly — pounded the Trojans, 47-20.

If Carroll wondered if he'd ever get payback, it came Sunday. But the dismal state of the Raiders falls on him as head coach.

"I am grateful for the opportunity with the Raiders, bottom line in this league you have to win," Kelly told NFL reporter Jay Glazer. "I really loved those players, But hey, we gotta win. I get it."

Read more:Hot coaching commodity Lane Kiffin has a tough decision 12 years after USC fired him

It's difficult to see where Kelly will turn next. A return to the college ranks as a head coach seems a stretch. His abrupt departure from UCLA in February of 2024 put the Bruins in a difficult position. Most high school recruits had been signed and top transfers gone.

The Times' Bill Plaschke wrote that Kelly was clearly uncomfortable with the way college football was evolving, with NIL player pay, the transfer portal creating roster uncertainty and cozying up to 17-year-old high school players as important as ever.

And the timing and manner in which he left made him appear selfish. "With him, it was Chip first, Chip all day, Chip every day, and he didn’t care who knew it," Plaschke wrote.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

The 2025-26 NFL regular season is heading into the stretch run, and Week 12 saw plenty of favorites win, but not cover — with the Monday Night Football game between the San Francisco 49ers and Carolina Panthers still to be played.

It's never too early to look ahead to next week, though, and sportsbooks have already posted lines for every matchup.

Here are the odds for every Week 13 NFL game at BetMGM:

Thursday

Green Bay Packers at Detroit Lions (-3, 49)

Kansas City Chiefs (-3.5, 51.5) at Dallas Cowboys

Cincinnati Bengals at Baltimore Ravens (-7, 51.5)

[Check out all of Yahoo's sports betting content here in our new betting hub]

Friday

Chicago Bears at Philadelphia Eagles (-7, 44.5)

Sunday

1 p.m. ET

San Francisco 49ers (-6.5, 40.5) at Cleveland Browns

Jacksonville Jaguars (-6.5, 41.5) at Tennessee Titans

Houston Texans at Indianapolis Colts (-3.5, 44.5)

New Orleans Saints at Miami Dolphins (-5.5, 41.5)

Atlanta Falcons (-2.5, 39.5) at New York Jets

Arizona Cardinals at Tampa Bay Buccaneers (-2.5, 45.5)

Los Angeles Rams (-9.5, 46.5) at Carolina Panthers

4 p.m. ET

Minnesota Vikings at Seattle Seahawks (-9.5, 42.5)

Buffalo Bills (-3.5, 47.5) at Pittsburgh Steelers

Las Vegas Raiders at Los Angeles Chargers (-10, 41.5)

Sunday Night Football

Denver Broncos (-6.5, 43.5) at Washington Commanders

Monday

New York Giants at New England Patriots (-7.5, 47.5)