Second has to be Jordan Love, because he won a playoff game last year and is shaking the rust off after his knee injury. Who is third? After a shaky start, Caleb Williams has played extremely well the last two weeks. The Vikings’ Sam Darnold, after three spectacular weeks, looked shaky against the Jets’ very-good defense.

Put Williams ahead of Darnold for now because he lacks Darnold’s baggage.

Running backs: The Packers let Aaron Jones go and signed Josh Jacobs, who has been an effective power runner. Jones went to the Vikings and became one of their most valuable players. The Lions invested heavily in David Montgomery (via free agency) and Jahmyr Gibbs (a first-round pick) and both have been spectacular. The Bears signed D’Andre Swift.

The Lions win because they have two starting-caliber backs. I’ll take Jones over Jacobs because of Jones’ versatility. Swift isn’t in the same class as the competition.

Coaches: The Bears’ Matt Eberflus has much to prove, although he looks much smarter with a real quarterback. The Lions’ Dan Campbell has helped turn Detroit into a league power. The Packers’ Matt LaFleur is one of the winningest young coaches in history. The Vikings’ Kevin O’Connell is widely respected and coaches one of the NFL’s two undefeated teams.

I’d put Campbell first because he ran away with the division last year and might have the best team in the league this year (at least before Aidan Hutchinson’s injury.) LaFleur has a higher winning percentage and has been on the job longer than O’Connell, so he wins a close decision for second, although O’Connell could change that ranking by winning a division title with Darnold.

Eriksson Ek was elbowed in the face on Saturday night by the Kraken’s Adam Larsson and has a broken nose. The center is expected to play Tuesday at St. Louis, the second of seven road games in a row that includes reigning Stanley Cup champion Florida, perennially difficult Tampa Bay and always pesky Pittsburgh.

“Those are two big losses,” defenseman Brock Faber said of Eriksson Ek and Spurgeon. “We’re just the next-man-up mentality. Everyone will play a little different role, and we can win hockey games with this team.”

In the Wild’s second game last season, forward Matt Boldy was injured in Toronto and was idle for two weeks.

During their ensuing practice in Montreal, defenseman Alex Goligoski got hurt, and the Wild actually had to face the Canadiens down a player since they didn’t have enough salary cap space to bring up a replacement.

And once they returned home, they didn’t have much time to reset since they had three games in six days before going back on the road.