Ten weeks into the NFL season, the leading MVP candidate isn’t a quarterback, the hottest QB in football is 37 and the New England Patriots might have the coach of the year.
Start with Indianapolis Colts running back Jonathan Taylor, who bolstered his MVP credentials with another masterpiece on Sunday in the NFL’s first game in Berlin. Taylor ran all over the Atlanta Falcons in a 31-25 victory, piling up 244 rushing yards and three scores, including the walk-off winner in overtime. It’s already the fifth three-touchdown game for Taylor this season, making him the first player in history to do so in 10 games — only three others have done it over the course of an entire season. The 8-2 Colts remain atop the AFC.
As for coach of the year, the conversation needs to start with New England’s Mike Vrabel (and Indianapolis’ Shane Steichen, for that matter). Vrabel’s Patriots earned another statement win, beating the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 28-23. That’s seven in a row for New England, which is now 8-2 and has already doubled the franchise’s win total from each of the past two seasons. Visiting Patriots fans were serenading QB Drake Maye with “M-V-P” chants on Sunday.
From a 23-year-old contender for the award in Maye to a 37-year-old one: The Los Angeles Rams’ Matthew Stafford continued one of the best seasons of his decorated career, throwing for four touchdowns in a 42-26 rout of the San Francisco 49ers. Stafford is now the first quarterback in history to throw for four or more touchdowns and no interceptions in three straight games. His season touchdown tally is now at 25 (to go with just two interceptions), and he became just the ninth QB ever to reach the 400-touchdown milestone with his second score on Sunday.
Meanwhile, the Buffalo Bills might be in trouble. A week after a convincing win over their biggest rival, Sean McDermott’s squad was embarrassed in Miami, losing 30-13 to the Dolphins. Can the Bills really be legitimate Super Bowl contenders with uninspired losses to the lowly Dolphins (3-7) and Falcons (3-6) already on their resume? The Bills again had trouble stopping the run, but it wasn’t just the defense. Josh Allen and the offense — two turnovers, three sacks, no points in the entire first half — couldn’t do much of anything, either.
The squad the Bills are looking up at in the AFC playoff picture, the Los Angeles Chargers, worked over the Pittsburgh Steelers 25-10 Sunday night. It’s more impressive work from Jim Harbaugh, another Coach of the Year candidate, who’s now 7-3 despite losing two star tackles for the season. As for Pittsburgh, the Steelers followed up their biggest win of the year — an upset of the Colts last week — with a dud against another AFC contender. Mike Tomlin’s squad remains atop the AFC North, but the Ravens are coming fast.
Baltimore has won three straight after beating the Minnesota Vikings, 27-19. Four of the Ravens’ next five game are against teams below .500, and the only winning team they’ll see during that stretch will be the Steelers, who have suddenly lost three of four after starting 4-1.
The Detroit Lions have a new offensive play caller — head coach Dan Campbell, who took over the duties from offensive coordinator John Morton. (It was Ben Johnson from 2022-2024). Campbell shone Sunday in the role, his first stint calling plays since his initial season in Detroit back in 2021. The points came easily and the Lions beat the Washington Commanders 44-22 to improve to 6-3.
In Houston, the Texans staged a stunning rally, scoring the game’s final 26 points to upset the Jacksonville Jaguars, 36-29. And they did so without quarterback C.J. Stroud, who missed the game with a concussion. The Texans chose to extend backup Davis Mills last offseason despite trade interest from other teams, and they’re glad they did. He threw for 292 yards and two touchdowns and ran for another in his first win in almost two years.
In Charlotte, the New Orleans Saints cooled off the Carolina Panthers, 17-7, to put a dent in the Panthers’ playoff hopes. Carolina had won four of six coming in and four straight with Bryce Young under center, but New Orleans’ defense limited Young to 124 passing yards and an interception. Saints rookie Tyler Shough threw for 282 yards and two touchdowns in his first NFL win.
Five days after shipping their two best defensive players out of town — Sauce Gardner to Indianapolis, Quinnen Williams to Dallas — the New York Jets earned their second win of the season by beating the Cleveland Browns 27-20. And they did so despite Justin Fields throwing for just 54 yards. The Jets can thank Will McDonald (four sacks) and special teams coordinator Chris Banjo, whose unit racked up touchdowns on both punt and kick returns.
In the NFC West, the division’s top two teams rolled to decisive wins over opponents with backup quarterbacks. Stafford’s Rams routed Mac Jones and the San Francisco 49ers while the Seattle Seahawks bullied Jacoby Brissett and the Arizona Cardinals 44-22. Both the Rams and Seahawks are 7-2 heading into a pivotal meeting next week in Los Angeles. The winner will be in the driver’s seat in the division.
Seattle’s Jaxon Smith-Njigba also continued his torrid start: with 93 yards and a touchdown Sunday, the Seattle wideout joined Antonio Brown (2014) and Hall of Famer Michael Irvin (1995) as the only players in history with at least 75 receiving yards in each of their first nine games of a season.
Here’s what stood out from the NFL in Week 10:
Crowded at the top
For the better part of six seasons, the AFC has been ruled by three perennial Super Bowl contenders, each quarterbacked by one of the best in the game: Kansas City and Patrick Mahomes, Baltimore and Lamar Jackson, Buffalo and Josh Allen (with a nod to Cincinnati and Joe Burrow, as well).
The guard might be changing, for one season at least. While those big three are very much alive in the AFC playoff picture (sorry, Bengals), the No. 1 seed, and the coveted first-round bye that comes with it, looks to be going elsewhere come January. That’s because four upstarts keep stacking wins.
Start with the Colts, who entered the season with the fourth-longest odds to win Super Bowl LX; they now have the seventh-best odds to hoist the Lombardi Trophy in February. Sunday’s win keeps Indianapolis atop the AFC for the moment, thanks to a Week 2 head-to-head win over Denver and a better conference record than New England. The Chargers, at 7-3, are just a game behind the Broncos in the AFC West. Los Angeles has started 3-0 in division play and already owns a head-to-head win over Denver.
The Broncos’ 10-7 win over the Raiders on Thursday night wasn’t pretty, but it was Denver’s seventh straight victory and fifth straight in one-score games. Sean Payton’s defense is playing lights out, and the offense keeps doing just enough, whether it’s a shootout or a slugfest.
The Patriots are the only other team in football with a winning streak that long. Beyond Maye, who threw for 270 yards and two touchdowns, it was rookie running back TreVeyon Henderson who shone Sunday, piling up 147 rushing yards and two scores. It’s getting harder to remain skeptical of these Patriots. Vrabel’s team just keeps winning and now has two of the more impressive victories of any squad this season with road wins at Buffalo and Tampa Bay.
Bears keep finding a way
In a lot of ways, the Chicago Bears used to be this version of the New York Giants. Perpetually a play or two short. Out of the playoff picture by mid-November. Churning through coaches. Churning through quarterbacks. Desperate for hope.
It feels like a new era in Chicago, and Sunday spoke to why: Ben Johnson’s team keeps finding ways to win games it used to lose. Down 10 in the fourth quarter at home, the Bears scored the game’s final 14 points to escape with a 24-20 win over the Giants. It was Chicago’s sixth win in seven weeks and fourth straight victory in one-score games.
“I feel like I’m on repeat each and every week right now,” coach Ben Johnson told his team in the postgame locker room. “I got nothing new to say to you guys. Did you even waver for a second? We had them right where we wanted.”
Is it fool’s gold? Maybe. Of Chicago’s six wins this season, not a single one has come against a team currently above .500. But for a team that collapsed in November and December last season, letting a 4-2 start dissolve into a 5-12 finish, this is what the next step looks like. Not just winning games, but winning some ugly.
As of today, the Bears (6-3) are sitting in the seventh and final NFC playoff spot and are tied with the Lions for second in the NFC North. Detroit currently holds the tiebreaker after a head-to-head win in Week 2.
Daboll’s days numbered?
It’ll be a fascinating final stretch of the season for a handful of coaches whose future remains uncertain. In Miami, the Dolphins have already axed general manager Chris Grier. Mike McDaniel, 30-31 in four seasons, scored a stunning win Sunday as the Dolphins beat the Bills for the first time since September 2022.
And they didn’t just beat their division rival, they routed them 30-13. This was the McDaniel-era Dolphins at their best, racing off to a big lead (16-0 at halftime) before their opponent could catch its breath. De’Von Achane finished it off with two fourth-quarter touchdowns to seal Miami’s best win of 2025.
Meanwhile, no coach’s seat feels hotter than Brian Daboll’s in New York. The Giants are crumbling. Again. This season, New York has now lost four road games in which it led by 10 or more points. And any sugar high from Jaxson Dart’s ascension to the starting lineup — and subsequent wins over the Chargers and Eagles — has faded fast. The Giants have lost four straight, 11 in a row on the road, and are 3-19 dating to last season.
Daboll is now 20-40-1 in four seasons. Dart left Sunday’s loss with a concussion after running for two touchdowns.
Thanks to wins by the Jets and Saints, the Tennessee Titans (who were on a bye this week) are now the league’s only one-win team, and with eight weeks to go, they are in the pole position for next spring’s No. 1 overall draft pick. It would be Tennessee’s second straight after taking Cam Ward No. 1 in April. But first, the Titans will have to hire a coach. Tennessee fired Brian Callahan in October, and Mike McCoy is currently the league’s only interim coach.
A few others who could feel their seat warming if their team’s season continues to spiral: the Bengals’ Zac Taylor, though Cincinnati’s season was probably lost the minute Joe Burrow went down with an injury in Week 2. (Bengals owner Mike Brown was also notoriously patient with former coach Marvin Lewis.) The Falcons have lost four straight after a 3-2 start, but Raheem Morris is just midway into his second season. In Arizona, the Cardinals started 2-0 but have dropped six of seven, most of which have come without quarterback Kyler Murray, who was recently sent to injured reserve. Could third-year coach Jonathan Gannon be on the outs?
Source link
