A week after a big win over the Kansas City Chiefs, the Buffalo Bills stumbled against the Miami Dolphins in South Florida.
Aaron Rodgers had one of the worst games of his future Hall of Fame career in the Pittsburgh Steelers’ loss to the Los Angeles Chargers.
Rookie running back TreVeyon Henderson had a breakout game in the New England Patriots’ win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
With the league’s trade deadline having passed last Tuesday following a flurry of moves, the final window for franchises to transform their outlooks with a major acquisition is now closed. From here on out, all answers and adjustments must come from within. And with just two months left in the regular season, several organizations are already having to confront their problems and limitations, starting with a slate of Sunday action that hardly qualified as scintillating but still proved plenty meaningful.
Here are the biggest winners and losers from Week 10 in the NFL:
NFL Week 10 winners
TreVeyon Henderson
A week ago, the New England Patriots’ second-round rookie running back was stuck splitting work with Terrell Jennings, a 2024 undrafted free agent who stepped in for injured starter Rhamondre Stevenson. But when Jennings exited Sunday with a knee injury, Henderson capitalized with a breakout performance that ignited a 28-23 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. With 55- and 69-yard scoring sprints in the second half, the Ohio State product exhibited the game-breaking ability that many expected him to tap into earlier in his debut campaign. Henderson didn’t manage much more beyond that, totaling 147 yards on 14 carries for the day. But the explosiveness brought to the table by the ball carrier and fellow Day 2 rookie Kyle Williams – who took a Drake Maye pass 72 yards for a touchdown – proved to be the difference for New England. The Patriots almost surely will continue to employ a time share in the backfield, but with Henderson seemingly checking with the coaching staff for the all-clear to score rather than kneel on his second score, it seems clear that the back is earning more and more trust from the team’s top decision-makers.
Baltimore Ravens
Did you buy the dip in stock for the preseason darling? If you want to get back in on Baltimore, there’s probably limited time to do so before others crowd you out. After conquering the Minnesota Vikings, 27-19, the Ravens are on a three-game win streak, and their next three tilts come against teams that are a combined 7-20 so far this season. John Harbaugh’s crew has not only gotten healthy but also cleaned up its act, committing just five penalties on a day when the Vikings were responsible for eight false starts alone. The once-maligned defense didn’t yield anything easy to J.J. McCarthy and Co. and also forced two turnovers, with a third coming on special teams. If Lamar Jackson stays healthy and conjures his usual magic, this is a proven formula that’s viable in December and January.
Houston Texans’ playmakers
It still seems like the two-time defending AFC South champions are a long shot to make a playoff push, let alone repeat for the division crown. But in a 36-29 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars, the Texans at least kept themselves from falling too far back in the postseason chase while highlighting their promise. Despite being without offensive engine C.J. Stroud, who was out with a concussion, Houston outscored Jacksonville 26-0 in the fourth quarter behind fill-in quarterback Davis Mills. Helping power that rally was standout target Nico Collins, who posted a season-high 136 receiving yards – nearly half of his team’s output – while also hauling in a two-point conversion. But the game also flipped in no small part due to edge rushers Danielle Hunter, who recorded 3 ½ sacks, and Will Anderson Jr., who built on a campaign worthy of Defensive Player of the Year consideration by recording the game-sealing strip-sack on the final play. For as encouraging as this game was, though, it also stood out as a reminder of why the Texans’ 4-5 mark is so disappointing.
DeMarcus Lawrence
It wasn’t the most laborious day for Lawrence or any of the other Seattle Seahawks defenders in a 44-22 rout of the Arizona Cardinals. But when linebacker Tyrice Knight twice strip-sacked Jacoby Brissett, the edge rusher cleaned things up both times by running the ball back for a score. With that, the four-time Pro Bowl selection tallied as many touchdowns in a single game as he did during his seven-year career with the Dallas Cowboys.
Jonathan Taylor
For all his accomplishments, Taylor will be hard-pressed to transcend legitimate questions of positional value in a fluid MVP race still dominated by quarterbacks. Yet the Indianapolis Colts running back made a strong case Sunday that he’s more than merely a product of his environment, racking up career and franchise bests with 286 scrimmage yards. On his go-ahead score in the fourth quarter against the Atlanta Falcons in Berlin, Taylor stayed patient with a muddled mess in front of him before bouncing it outside for an 83-yard touchdown. That pushed him past Hall of Famer Edgerrin James for the most rushing touchdowns in Colts history (65), a mark he’d extend in overtime with an 8-yard, game-clinching romp. Now, Taylor gets a week to rest up as he returns stateside before a big showdown against the Kansas City Chiefs.
Matthew Stafford’s MVP momentum
The Los Angeles Rams quarterback crossed the midseason point as the top choice for NFL MVP in USA TODAY Sports’ informal poll on the award. If he keeps stacking days like this, the 37-year-old former No. 1 overall pick could be exceedingly difficult to catch. Stafford tossed four more touchdowns in a 42-26 win over the injury-ravaged San Francisco 49ers. In doing so, he became the first quarterback in NFL history to have three consecutive games with at least four scoring strikes without tossing any interceptions. The Rams have continued to evolve their offense plenty, with the pivot to three-TE looks paying massive dividends. But it’s Stafford’s slinging that could have Los Angeles in prime position for the NFC’s No. 1 seed.
New York Jets’ leftovers
After Sauce Gardner and Quinnen Williams got raptured to better settings via trade, you could forgive any Jets players who felt left behind as they faced the prospect of finishing out a lost season. Yet Aaron Glenn’s charges didn’t merely go through the motions coming out of the bye, finding a way to put together a 27-20 win over the similarly hapless Cleveland Browns. This one hinged largely on special teams, as New York became the first team in eight years to notch a kickoff return touchdown (Kene Nwangwu’s 99-yard runback) and punt return touchdown in the same game. That helped Gang Green compensate for an offense that generated just 17 yards in the first half. Running back Breece Hall, who stayed in place at the deadline despite catching the Chiefs’ eye and voicing his own disappointment in New York’s moves, once again propelled an otherwise rudderless operation, taking a screen for a 42-yard touchdown while adding 83 yards on 21 carries. On defense, Will McDonald IV wreaked havoc with four sacks. The outcome dinged the draft outlook for a franchise that’s gone all in on its early picks in the next two years, but it was nevertheless a nice outing for the organization on the day many within it honored the late Nick Mangold.
NFL Week 10 losers
Buffalo Bills
After knocking off the Chiefs last week, Sunday should have amounted to a cooldown exercise for a Bills team that had a seven-game win streak against the Dolphins. Instead, a stunning 30-13 loss reheated many of the same problems that have held Buffalo back this year. Between the passing game being inert for three quarters and the report earlier in the day that the Bills sought to acquire Jaylen Waddle at the trade deadline, it sure seems that Brandon Beane’s offseason pushback against questions of the team’s receiver setup was a case of ‘the GM doth protest too much.’ The more glaring concern, however, rests with the inability to stop the run. An already vulnerable defense was gashed for 197 yards on the ground, 174 of them coming from speedster De’Von Achane. Now in a 1 ½-game hole for the AFC East lead, Buffalo faces a difficult road of claiming the No. 1 seed that a week ago looked within reach amid the Chiefs’ missteps.
Carolina Panthers
A home date against the one-win New Orleans Saints should have been a launching pad for a Panthers team coming off a surprising upset of the NFC North-leading Green Bay Packers. But Carolina’s 17-7 faceplant revealed this is a team that still doesn’t appear to be a serious threat to end its seven-year playoff drought. In just his second start, Saints rookie quarterback Tyler Shough confidently dissected the Panthers defense, completing 19 of 27 passes for 282 yards and two touchdowns, both coming on long strikes. With New Orleans gearing up to stop the Rico Dowdle-led run game, Bryce Young was unable to deliver in the offense’s moment of need, throwing for just 124 yards on the day. The Panthers are just one game back of the Buccaneers in the win column and will face Tampa Bay twice in the final three weeks, but the gap between the two still appears considerable.
Pittsburgh Steelers offense
When Aaron Rodgers stumbles to one of the worst outings of his historic career, it’s natural to write off the performance in a 25-10 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers as an outlier. But even if the Steelers don’t flatline like this in the future, this attack might not bounce back to full health on its own right away. Rodgers looked unsettled all night, unable to find solutions downfield to the problems that the Bolts’ coverages and pass rush presented. His only break on the night came with a garbage-time touchdown to Roman Wilson, which broke an 0-9 mark on third down. But the problems extended well beyond him, as Pittsburgh as a whole struggled to adapt and get anything going. The lack of creativity was evident on a night when a critical fourth down for the Steelers resulted in an ill-advised fade to DK Metcalf that fell incomplete. Next week’s matchup home tilt against the Cincinnati Bengals’ historically inept defense provides an opportunity to straighten things out, but an otherwise unforgiving schedule down the stretch could spell serious trouble for Pittsburgh if the offense can’t get right.
Brian Daboll
The New York Giants coach has something that his hot-seat peers don’t: a highly promising rookie quarterback whose development has become the organization’s top priority for 2025. But Jaxson Dart’s presence only matters when he’s, you know … actually on the field. That’s been a problem for Daboll and a regime that shunted him aside through the offseason and the first three games before handing him the reins to the offense. In Sunday’s 24-20 loss to the Chicago Bears, Dart exited in the second half with a concussion, and the Giants again faded late. The defeat dropped them to 0-4 in road games in which they held at least a 10-point lead. Dart, meanwhile, has been evaluated for a concussion in three separate regular-season contests as well as another preseason one. A playing style that borders on reckless is certainly a contributing factor, but Daboll and the Giants aren’t doing him – or themselves – any long-term favors with the designed runs that do little to bring the passer along. A reset looks increasingly likely with every week, but subjecting the signal-caller to even more hits risks pushing this season into full-blown catastrophe territory.
John Morton
How does the Detroit Lions offensive coordinator end up in the losing category after a 44-22 win over the Washington Commanders? Simple: Coach Dan Campbell took over play-calling duties from Morton for the contest, and the offense responded with season highs of 546 total yards and 226 rushing yards. Less than two weeks after Morton acknowledged he had ‘failed’ Jameson Williams by not involving him more in the game plan, the speedy receiver notched 119 receiving yards and a touchdown with Campbell taking over. Maybe much of this merely reflects an overwhelmed Commanders defense, but Campbell said in the postgame he wanted to ‘try something a little different.’ The coach has been down this route before, stripping play-calling duties from Anthony Lynn midway through his inaugural season in Detroit prior to parting ways with the coordinator.