Gaffney's 2025 NFL Week 13 Team of the Week

The annual Thanksgiving week of NFL action was an up-and-down affair from Thursday all the way to Monday, but at the very least, it opened up a ton of interesting playoff scenarios, and dramatically hampered some award-contending players' cases for said awards; chief among them being Matt Stafford and Jaxon Smith-Njigba. Beyond that, here were my top performers in the final slate of November games.

Gaffney's 2025 NFL Week 13 Team of the Week (First-Team)

Offense: Jordan Love (QB, GB), Alec Anderson (OL, BUF), Bijan Robinson (RB, DET), A.J. Brown (Pass Catcher, PHI)

Hard to overstate how impressed I was with Jordan Love's performance in Detroit to kick off the Thanksgiving Day slate. He made full advantage of the clean pockets he was getting for most of the afternoon, and his poise and execution on those third and fourth downs were quite literally the difference between Green Bay winning or losing that game. Tons of dynamite throws throughout the tape for him.

This week's skill position guys didn't come home victorious as Love did, but it wasn't exactly for a lack of effort on either's part. A.J. Brown was the only one of the five multi-receiving TD scorers this week to crack 100 yards and 10 catches, and looking at the state of the Eagles' offense, he probably was underutilized if anything. Meanwhile, in an absolutely miserable loss in the Meadowlands, Bijan Robinson nearly led the Falcons in both receiving and rushing yards, with 142 on the ground (6.2 per carry) and 51 receiving, and even that wasn't enough to beat the now 3-9 New York Jets.

One of the bigger pre-game storylines going into this week was that the Buffalo Bills would be starting reserve tackles on both sides of the line. Their right tackle, Alec Anderson, hadn't played there since college, as he's usually a reserve IOL, and he played a key role in Buffalo's historic rushing display and convincingly and emphatically took T.J. Watt's lunch money in pass pro repeatedly. Hell of a performance that keeps the Bills in the fight for the AFC East still.

Defense: Derrick Brown (IDL, CAR), Micah Parsons (EDGE, GB), Ernest Jones (LB, SEA), Mike Jackson (DB, CAR)

Derrick Brown and Mike Jackson weren't the only Panthers to make it here this week, but outside of Bryce Young, those two guys arguably won Carolina their biggest home game since...probably the 2015 NFC title game? Jackson did give up an early TD to Davanta Adams (where they lined up him way to far off the ball for some reason), but his pick six not too long after completely flipped that game, and despite being the man in coverage on that ridiculous Puka Nacua one-hander, ended up with the second best coverage EPA in the league in Week 13, behind our next player: Ernest Jones.

Hard to say that both of the picks Jones got weren't cans of corn, but even outside of those two plays, he was hyper-active all afternoon with 10 stops (second most in the league this week) and a dozen tackles to go along with them.

Micah Parsons is no stranger to Thanksgiving games at this point, and he was nothing short of a one-man wrecking crew vs. the Lions. 10 pressures, 38.5 percent pressure rate, 2.5 sacks, and on a historical note, is now the only player in NFL history to have five seasons of at least 12 sacks to begin their career. Not Reggie White, not Bruce Smith, not Derrick Thomas, no one before now.

Rookies: Kyle Monangai (RB, CHI) and Carson Schwesinger (LB, CLE)

If you had Kyle Monangai down as the first rookie to come home with two games of 100-plus yards, congrats on being a Rutgers alum, I guess. Jokes aside, 130 yards on the ground against that Eagles front is nothing to scoff at, and while his two big games this year have bookended three pedestrian outings in the last five weeks, it'd be a worthwhile venture to get Monagai involved a bit more if you're Ben Johnson. This also marks four straight games in a row with a touchdown for him as well.

Gaffney's 2025 NFL Week 13 Team of the Week (Second-Team)

Offense: Bryce Young (QB, CAR), Tristan Wirfs (OL, TB), James Cook (RB, BUF), Zach Ertz (Pass Catcher, WSH)

Defense: Leonard Williams (IDL, SEA), Myles Garrett (EDGE, CLE), Dre Greenlaw (LB, DEN), Derek Stingley (DB, HOU)

Rookies: Jayden Higgins (WR, HOU) and Latham Ransom (DB, CAR)

Main Image via