Several underdog teams, including the Jets and Saints, secured victories in Week 10 of the NFL season.
Colts running back Jonathan Taylor broke the franchise record for most rushing touchdowns and had a standout performance in Berlin.
The NFL world mourned the passing of former Commissioner Paul Tagliabue and Cowboys defensive end Marshawn Kneeland.
The 32 things we learned from Week 10 of the 2025 NFL season:
1. “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” If you didn’t think you’d be learning (or getting a refresher on) Biblical quotes in this week’s installment, that one is from the fifth verse of Chapter 5 of the Gospel of Matthew. Worth wondering if several of the NFL’s meeker teams read it prior to Sunday’s action.
2. The number of consecutive games won by the New York Jets, who started the 2025 season with an 0-7 record that rendered them the final team to break into the win column.
3. The NYJ prevailed Sunday despite being without arguably their two best defensive players, CB Sauce Gardner and DT Quinnen Williams, who definitely are no longer their best defensive players after they were stunningly exported ahead of the league’s Nov. 4 trade deadline.
4. The number of sacks collected Sunday against the Cleveland Browns by Jets DE Will McDonald IV, who established a new career high, tied the franchise single-game record and staked a claim as Gang Green’s current preeminent defender.
5. RB Breece Hall, whom the Jets ultimately decided not to trade, scored the only offensive touchdown in his team’s 27-20 triumph, taking a screen pass 42 yards to the end zone. New York’s other touchdowns remarkably occurred via both a kickoff and punt return – the first time in franchise history that had happened in the same game.
6. The number of Jets players who caught a pass Sunday … none of them gaining more than 5 yards, save Hall. Yep, there’s a reason this roster is about to get overhauled yet again. But, hey, they beat Cleveland … and might have hurt themselves long term in the draft order, but that’s a 2026 problem.
7. The New Orleans Saints also won their second game of the season, stunning the Carolina Panthers 17-7 in Charlotte. Tyler Shough became the first Saints rookie quarterback credited with a win since Dave Wilson in 1981 − when Archie Manning was still the face of the franchise.
8. Who needs WR Rashid Shaheed, a player New Orleans moved ahead of the trade deadline? However they wisely kept WR Chris Olave (62-yard TD catch) and CB Alontae Taylor (INT), who both had key performances Sunday.
9. Seems like perhaps the Panthers, though they didn’t actually lose any ground in the NFC South despite the loss, should focus more on their offense and less on touchdown celebrations.
10. The Miami Dolphins snapped a seven-game losing streak to the perennial AFC East champion Buffalo Bills with a 30-13 upset in South Florida. Good for embattled Fins coach Mike McDaniel, who moved to 1-0 since the team moved on from apparently more embattled GM Chris Grier. The Dolphins are now 3-7.
11. Miami RB De’Von Achane eclipsed 200 yards from scrimmage for the second time in his career, putting 225 (and two TDs) on Buffalo’s porous run defense.
12. Who needs OLB Jaelan Phillips, a player Miami moved ahead of the trade deadline – though Grier was apparently reluctant to do just that?
13. The number of penalties the Minnesota Vikings had (for 102 yards) in their defeat, which also included three turnovers.
14. The Baltimore Ravens, who prevailed in the Twin Cities for their third consecutive win, were only too glad to capitalize on those mistakes as they continue to capitalize with far healthier roster at their disposal.
15. Like the Ravens, the two-time-defending AFC South Houston Texans improved to 4-5 and served a fresh reminder that they’re still in the thick of the playoff race. Houston scored 26 points in the fourth quarter to stun the Jacksonville Jaguars 36-29.
16. Unlike the Texans, the Jags, who have now lost three of four, made a big pre-deadline acquisition … but got all of 41 receiving yards (still a team high Sunday) out of WR Jakobi Meyers.
17. Are the Seattle Seahawks the best team in the league? Pretty impressive when you can win by 22 points on a day when QB Sam Darnold’s MVP credentials take a hit with a season-high three turnovers and season-low 12 pass attempts.
18. The normally explosive Shaheed had just one catch for 3 yards in his Seattle debut, though he did gain 20 yards on two rush attempts and handled three kickoffs.
19. We should know more about the Seahawks a week from now, when they visit the Los Angeles Rams – with whom they’re tied atop the NFC West with matching 7-2 records.
20. However Rams QB Matthew Stafford is pretty clearly ahead of Darnold and the rest of the MVP field after another sterling performance, which included four TD passes, Sunday against the San Francisco 49ers.
21. Sunday, Stafford became the first player in league history with at least four TD passes but no interceptions in three consecutive games.
22.Indianapolis Colts RB Jonathan Taylor also kept his name squarely in the MVP debate – which is effectively a quarterback award – with another huge game Sunday in the NFL’s first-ever regular-season game in Berlin. (And it didn’t hurt that Colts QB Daniel Jones turned the ball over two more times.) Taylor rushed for 244 yards yards and three TDs – one an 83-yarder that was the league’s longest of the season, another the game-clincher in overtime.
23. Taylor overtook Hall of Famer Edgerrin James for the most rushing TDs (66) in franchise history. He also became the fourth player in NFL annals with at least three TDs in five games during a single season – all-time greats LaDainian Tomlinson, Marshall Faulk and Chuck Foreman being the others.
24. And yet Taylor has a dogfight on his hands to be the Offenisve Player of the Year with Seattle WR Jaxon Smith-Njigba, who has a shot to be the league’s first 2,000-yard receiver. He now has a league-high 1,041 through nine games.
25. As for new Colts CB Sauce Gardner? Really good player. But probably not worth two first-round picks and probably not the missing piece in what Indy hopes is a Super Bowl recipe.
26. The New England Patriots beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 28-23, prevailing in the (Tom) “Brady Bowl.”
27. The Pats, who already beat the struggling Bills earlier this season, also opened up a 1½-game lead in the AFC East while keeping pace with the Colts and Denver Broncos atop the conference standings.
28. If the season ended today (it doesn’t), the Colts and Seahawks would be the No. 1 playoff seeds. However the Philadelphia Eagles will overtake Seattle by winning Monday night in Green Bay.
29. In his Soldier Field debut for the Bears, DB C.J. Gardner-Johnson had the first multi-sack game of his seven-year NFL career. The second one forced the New York Giants to punt and gave Chicago possession on what would be its game-winning touchdown drive in the final minutes of the fourth quarter.
30.President Trump, who apparently wants the Washington Commanders’ new stadium named after him, appeared in the FOX broadcast booth at Northwest Stadium on Sunday with Kenny Albert and Jonathan Vilma. “I’d love to have your job someday,” said Trump. (How about now?)
31. RIP to Marshawn Kneeland and condolences to his family and Dallas Cowboys teammates after the 24-year-old defensive end apparently died by suicide.
31a. But a salute to Colts OT Braden Smith, who’s had his own mental health struggles but is now trying to affect change with the way the league deals with mental health. His agent detailed some of Smith’s laudable ideas to Pro Football Talk.
32. Finally, RIP to former NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue. The Hall of Famer’s 17 years running the league were hardly perfect, yet he also pushed it to new heights in terms of its earning power and footprint in the country’s sporting landscape. “Tags” died Sunday at the age of 84.