Gaffney's 2025 NFL Week 2 Team of the Week

Jack Gaffney
Sep 17
4 min read

There was no shortage of standout performers in Week 2 of the 2025 NFL season, from gunslingers like Jared Goff, Drake Maye, Lamar Jackson, and Baker Mayfield, to defenders like Will Anderson, Micah Parsons, Nick Bosa, and more, which made this Team of the Week excercise a bit more diffucult that it was after Week 1. That said, here's who I've tabbed as the best of the best across the league for Week 2.

Gaffney's 2025 NFL Week 2 Team of the Week (First-Team)

Offense: Jared Goff (QB, DET), Trent Williams (OL, SF), Jonathan Taylor (RB, IND), Malik Nabers (Pass Catcher, NYG)

Goff ending up here should come as no surprise to anyone. Having as efficient a day as he did vs. the Bears without having a perfect passer rating (not for the lack of effort, mind you) is a difficult tight rope to walk. Three of his five TDs came on either third or fourth down, and he and that Lions offense were lethal in the play-action game the entire afternoon. An outing that he, and especially that team, needed badly coming off the Packers loss.

Onto the big boys upfront now, how about Trent Williams, a legit game-time decision this week, gutting it out with a knee issue and putting up a picture-perfect pass-pro sheet for 49ers-backup Mac Jones? That ended up being a huge part in why the ex-Patriot and Jaguar was allowed to go out and "hoop" in the words of the man himself.

It would've been extremely difficult, meanwhile, to have as good a day on the offensive front as Colts' bellcow Jonathan Taylor and Giants' wideout Malik Nabers did during Week 2. The former put up his second game of at least 165 rushing yards in his last three outings, dating back to Week 18 in January, and additionally cracked the 200 scrimmage yard plateau for the sixth time in his career. Take away that 68-yard run Taylor broke open, and he still would've been averaging just north of four yards per carry. Against this Denver defense, that's not exactly a bad day; it's their worst since they allowed Breece Hall to go for 177 in 2023.

As for Nabers, what a player this kid is. No one's been pressed at the line more through two weeks per NextGenStats, and he absolutely incinerated the Dallas Cowboys' defense over the weekend. Trevon Diggs had no answer, nor did ex-Bill Kair Elam, as the second-year man out of LSU was a part of a two-man carry job for this Giants offense with cohort Wan'Dale Robinson. His 165 yards led the league this week, and only Amon-Ra St. Brown found the endzone more. Granted, the degree of difficulty on both of Nabers' scores cannot be understated. There are maybe single-digit guys in the league who are doing this.

Defense: Devonte Wyatt (IDL, GB), Will Anderson (EDGE, HOU), Fred Warner (LB, SF), Nate Wiggins (DB, BAL)

If you were to list the top 50 reasons the Houston Texans fell to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday Night, I can promise you with 100% certainty that Will Anderson wouldn't have even cracked the top 200. He was so unbelievably dialed in as a run defender and pass rusher, it was scary. 10 pressures (four quick pressures) on 36 snaps is horrifying. For all the fanfare two weeks in that Micah Parsons and Bootsraps Bosa rightfully receive, the best EDGE in the league may arguably reside in Houston, Texas. Anderson is All-World.

Speaking of Parsons, if you wanted to know the answer to "whos on Green Bay has benifited the most from him being on that DLine?", that would be Devonte Wyatt, who's been very good these first two weeks as more of an every-down defender than he has been so far in his career, thanks to Green Bay dealing Kenny Clark. It's one thing to get some better opportunities to wreak havoc up front, it's another to actually do it, and Wyatt was up to the task against Jayden Daniels and the Commanders.

Fred Warner largely did what you'd expect for him to do vs. a bad Saints team. En route to NFC DPOW honors, he racked up a fumble recovery (which he caused), a very athletic PBU on an out route targeted to Juwan Johnson, along with 11 tackles. Like I said, just about what you'd expect. You can say the same for Nate Wiggins of the Ravens, who had a nice return to his rookie year form after a tough night in Buffalo in Week 1. He netted the best coverage EPA in the NFL at -11.5, allowed just four grabs for 15 yards, and the pick he ended up getting was a bit of freelancing on his part.

Rookies: Tet McMillan (WR, CAR) and Andrew Mukuba (DB, PHI)

Another great performance in a losing effort was from Carolina's Tet McMillan, who hauled in six passes for 100 yards in his return to the state of Arizona, and if not for those pesky sidelines, he probably would've netted around another 20-ish more yards on this spectacular non-catch you see below. Very quietly, McMillan finds himself eighth in the NFL in receiving yards early on in his career.

In the latest case of "Howie did it again", his second round pick Andrew Mukuba out of Texas did a bit of everything for the Eagles out in Kansas City, but most notably took advantage of a freebie pick from the decaying corpse of Travis Kelce. Mukuba also racked up a half sack and pressure, six tackles and four "stops" in Philly's 20-17 victory.