Gaffney's 2025 NFL Week 15 Team of the Week

Jack Gaffney
Dec 16, 2025
3 min read

Week 15 is yet another in a line of brutal injury weeks in the NFL this year, with Patrick Mahomes and Micah Parsons suffering ACL tears less than three hours apart. Never mind some other notable players going down, such as Davante Adams; it was a rough week, to be certain. Still a lot of great noteworthy performances, however, and here's my best of in Week 15.

Gaffney's 2025 NFL Week 15 Team of the Week (First-Team)

Offense: Trevor Lawrence (QB, JAX), Tristan Wirfs (OL, TB), James Cook (RB, BUF), Kyle Pitts (Pass Catcher, ATL)

Bring up the fact that this was against the Jets all you want, Trevor Lawrence was absolutely on one for the Jaguars on Sunday. His 27.5 EPA was the best by a QB this week, and it's not even close, and he was also the only QB league-wide to have a passer rating north of 135, more than 300 passing yards, and three TDs, with five on the afternoon vs. New York. Hell of a game to have before Jacksonville's biggest test of the year out in Denver.

The key to the Buffalo Bills finding success on the road this year has ultimately come down to James Cook, and he delivered the goods in effectively a must-win outing vs. the Patriots. Three total touchdowns and 107 rushing yards were absolutely vital in Buffalo's tremendous second-half comeback effort, and now, Cook sits 28 yards away from Jonathan Taylor as those two backs duke it out for the rushing crown over the final three weeks of the season.

Many times have complete strangers on the street asked me, "Why don't you give up on Kyle Pitts?" The answer is very simple: he never gave up on me. Maybe the best game of his career, with nothing real to play for on his end, with 166 yards and three scores, now has the Buccaneers in a position where they may actually lose the NFC South to the Carolina Panthers. It's games, and more speciffically, catches like this that got him drafted as high as he was back in 2021.

Defense: Jeffery Simmons (IDL, TEN), Odafe Oweh (EDGE, LAC), Matt Milano (LB, BUF), Pat Surtain (DB, HOU)

Another week, and another First-Team bid for Titans' IDL Jeffery Simmons. Beyond the obvious, this is now back-to-back games with at least one sack, seven pressures, seven tackles, and five stops with at least 55 snaps logged. We're definitely now at the point where a First-Team All-Pro selection feels inevitable. The question then becomes how many votes is he going to get? Also, dudes haven't rocked like this in ages. Cherish this moment, America.

Elsewhere, Odafe Oweh and Matt Milano both put up a pair of multi-sack outings in what were two big road wins for the Chargers and Bills, respectively. Since getting traded from Baltimore to LA, Oweh hasn't been a super consistent pressure guy, but has racked up seven sacks in nine games, and that pressure note has taken a turn in the last two weeks with 10 total against Kansas City and Philly—excellent pickup for them.

What else can you really say about Pat Surtain at this point? Clearly, the best corner in the game, Jordan Love didn't make a ton of overtures to throw in his direction, but the one key time he did, he didn't put enough air under a deep ball, and Surtain made him pay big time.

Rookies: TreVeyon Henderson (RB, NE) and James Pearce Jr. (EDGE, ATL)

If you didn't know TreVeyon Henderson can go the distance on nearly any touch, you certainly do after this week. Can't fault him for the Patriots' loss, considering he only had three second-half carries, but his 143 rushing yards led the league outright in Week 15.

I don't know if the pick the Falcons likely gave up to get James Pearce Jr. will ulimately be worth getting him in the first place (especially if the Rams can land a long-term replacement for Stafford) but he's quietly put up 7.5 sacks since Week 10, two of which came in the first half vs. Tampa this week, and the later nearly took the Bucs out of field goal range to end the second quarter.