We are a third of the way through the NFL season and it remains anyone’s guess as to who the best team in the league is.
Week 6 started with a stunner as the New York Giants not only beat division rival Philadelphia but destroyed them up and down the field at MetLife Stadium.
Three west coast teams had to navigate tricky trips east and came away with wins, although the Chargers did have to do it the hard way in Miami.
A busy weekend wrapped up with the Bears and Commanders playing out another tense game that went down to the wire, although not quite as dramatic as last year’s Hail Mary finish.
Check out our big takeaways from Week 6 in the NFL below.
1 – Another Philly Collapse Incoming?
That’s two in a row now for Philadelphia and however bad that loss to Denver was, going down to the Giants in the manner they did was infinitely worse.
This roster is way too talented to get outplayed like that, which then puts the onus squarely on the coaching staff.
In 2023, coming off a Super Bowl loss to the Chiefs the Eagles were cruising through the schedule before a late season collapse lead to a lot of questions over the status of head coach Nick Sirianni.
Four weeks into the 2024 season the pressure was at boiling point, before they went on a tear that ended with a Super Bowl victory against the Chiefs.
Their 3-0 start this season was good but the rumours of disquiet in the locker room, especially from receiver A.J. Brown were always lingering in the background.
On Thursday Night Football, the Giants didn’t even do anything overly special, they just executed with a rookie quarterback, undermanned receiving corps, rookie running back and a solid defence to take some of the pressure off their under fire head coach.
Last season’s run gave Sirianni some breathing room but it was not that long ago we saw another Eagles post Super Bowl appearance collapse and you wouldn’t blame anyone for starting to wonder if things are going to take a turn for the worse here.
2 – The Jets are on the verge of being historically bad
We know the Jets were going to be a bad team in 2025, but holy moly they have been even worse than expected.
The poor folks of north London had to endure an even more miserable experience than a Tottenham Premier League match as the Jets fell to 0-6 with a thoroughly inept showing.
If you want to spin it as a positive, the Broncos defence was dominant, giving the Jets all sorts of problems.
Not that the Jets needed any help falling in a heap, they are not that good and their star players are starting to get more than a bit fed up with the approach.
This is a team that had -11 passing yards and Wilson could well be a top ten receiver in the league if he had any sort of competent quarterback play.
Of course before you feel too bad for Wilson, he voluntarily recommitted to this mess with a four year, US$130,000,000 deal.
But for 2025 with the Jets, 0-17 is unlikely to happen, but it is on the table unless they remember the basics of the game.
3 – Baltimore might be forced to sell
It’s a phenomenon normally reserved for the other North American sports leagues, but Baltimore might want to think about a fire sale in the coming weeks.
Maybe not to the extent some MLB, NHL and NBA sides offload top line talent for a bag of peanuts to try and dump salaries, but some players may be more useful for 2026 if they fetch a return of draft picks and players now.
Their Super Bowl push this season is gone, but they are going to challenge again next season with their core back and healthy.
Lamar Jackson is still untouchable, Roquan Smith is a guy you have to keep, Kyle Hamilton is going to stay as a centrepiece of Baltimore’s defence for years to come.
But what if a team in need of a pass rusher calls and offers a fifth round pick for Kyle Van Noy?
That could turn into a solid running back who could spell Derrick Henry as a rookie before eventually succeeding him.
At 1-5 they need a miracle just to make the playoffs and with the injury list longer than a Marvel cast that seems unlikely, let alone still thinking a Super Bowl run is a possibility.
Realistically, Baltimore would have to go 8-3 the rest of the way to just get into the mix, but even a 9-8 record might not be enough in a competitive playoff field.
Even with a healthy Lamar Jackson, that’s a big ask and the Ravens might be well served starting to plan for next year.
4 – Baker is the benchmark for the 2025 MVP
The Cleveland Browns drafted an MVP calibre quarterback… then decided to ditch him only to see him go on to succeed elsewhere.
He has been nearly faultless to start the 2025 season and is getting some well deserved hype as the MVP frontrunner through six weeks.
His performance against the 49ers perfectly summed up his case, working with a depleted receiver room, he got the job done by any means necessary, going 17/23 for 256 yards and two touchdowns.
An efficient stat line does not tell the full picture though, with Mayfield having to dig deep into the bag of tricks to carry his team to victory.
Have a listen to Jim Nantz’s call of that play, it pretty much echoed what was going through everyone’s mind in the moment.
Mayfield was dead to rights, escaped the rush with no one to throw to, so he did it all himself running for a first down.
That might have been his best play of the game, but there was some stiff competition across the board.
Throwing a touchdown to a guy even most Bucs fans wouldn’t recognise on this play was impressive enough, but he gets up and lets the defender know they can’t stop him.
It would have been great to back him to win MVP a few weeks ago, but for the time being, all other contenders’ cases will be measured against what Mayfield does.
5 – The first coaching domino falls
Coaching is a cruel business, especially in the NFL where anything less than an instant turnaround is seen as a failure.
Now former Titans coach Brian Callahan found out the hard way after he was let go following his side’s most recent defeat.
He took over a 6-11 team in dire need of a rebuild and wound up going 3-14 in his first season, before a 1-5 start sealed his fate.
Especially after a lacklustre performance in Las Vegas last week where the Raiders were made to look like a playoff calibre side compared to the dysfunction in Tennessee.
While the Titans choosing to move on from Callahan was not a huge surprise, the timing does seem odd.
Tennessee was never a candidate for a worst to first transition in 2025 and whoever takes over next is looking at a multi-year rebuild, so why change coaches now when that guy was one of a long list of problems.
Granted, Callahan has made out alright with the parting of the ways as he will still be collecting a payday for a few more years.
Now former Chargers coach Mike McCoy takes over as the interim, and Tennessee has to go and find a coach to get the best out of Cam Ward.
There’s a guy in North Carolina who could be available soon…