Gaffney's 2025 NFL Week 6 Team of the Week

Suddenly, in the NFL —more specifically, the AFC —all that was old is new again. The Patriots, Steelers, Colts, and Chargers all find themselves ruling the roost of each respective division, with the best QB play in the conference coming from New England and Indianapolis, and you have the Jets and Browns of the world in the gutter of the conference. All of this is to say, welcome back 2004!!!

As that relates to our Week 6 Team of the Week Squad? Five players from three of those teams make appearances between the first and second teams, and for the first time this year, we have an interior offensive lineman lockout at the two OL spots, both from the same team, no less!!! Let's get to it.

Gaffney's 2025 NFL Week 5 Team of the Week (First-Team)

Offense: Drake Maye (QB, NE), Quenton Nelson (OL, IND), Bijan Robinson (RB, ATL), George Pickens (Pass Catcher, DAL)

Not a top-five quarterback in the NFL (yet), but it'd be hard to find five quarterbacks playing better football right now than Drake Maye. He continues to light up defenses despite dealing with above-average pressure, and the deep ball numbers continue to be nothing short of absurd. Maye wound up 3-of-4 on throws 20-plus air yards downfield for three TDs and 107 yards, and had an earlier TD, and then a later 50-plus yard third down throw was wiped off due to very suspect penalties. Not the MVP front-runner, but Maye is absolutely in contention after six weeks.

For Quenton Nelson, I'm dropping this Twitter clip and letting you know that he was the highest outright graded offensive lineman in the league this week by PFF. Enjoy!!!

I will note that the first-team RB distinction was going to go to Rico Dowdle for the second week in a row, but that changed when Bijan Robinson went NUCLEAR against the Buffalo Bills. The 238 scrimmage yards and 170 rushing yards are both career highs (tied for, in the case of the rushing yards), as were the 8.9 yards per carry on the ground. Not entirely surprised this all happened, given the state of the Bills' defense in terms of defending the run, and how hurt they are, but Bijan was nothing short of unreal.

Speaking of unreal, George Pickens on Sunday vs. Carolina. Let it be known that the Dallas Cowboys aren't losing games because of him or Dak Prescott. Five of the nine catches Pickens had were chain movers on third or fourth down, which would've included his slant touchdown on Mike Jackson in the closing minutes of the third quarter. You can say whatever you want about his extracurriculars, but he's been playing some lights-out football in 2025. Pickens currently sits tied for the league lead in receiving touchdowns with six, and only trails Puka Nacua in total receiving EPA. I'm very excited to see how Jerry Jones botches his eventual contract extension talks this offseason. Should be a great time.

Defense: Vita Vea (IDL, TB), Jonathon Cooper (EDGE, DEN), Nate Landman (LB, LAR), DJ Turner (DB, CIN)

The only notes I'll give about the great Vita Vea were that he was double-teamed on 69.7% of his pass-rush snaps per NextGenStats, and ended up with five pressures vs. the 49ers, fourth among IDL in Week 6. Do with that whatever you will. Several hours prior to that, Broncos edge rusher Jonathon Cooper was giving Jets rookie right tackle Armand Membou the London Blues, to the tune of seven pressures and two sacks in the Broncos' win over New York; good enough to get him on here like his running mate Nik Bonnito a week ago.

Hard to ignore a 17-tackle performance, so with that in mind, the Rams' Nate Landman was an easy choice at linebacker this week. Those 17 tackles are a franchise record for LA, and that included this peanut punch fumble on Zay Flowers. Keep an eye on 53 in white here.

Lastly, we land on DJ Turner as our top DB of the week, who touted a spectacular -9.8 coverage EPA metric, allowed just two catches for seven yards on a whopping seven targets, and wound up getting a hockey assist on Jordan Love's second interception of this season.

Rookies: Cam Skattebo (RB, NYG) and Derrick Harmon (IDL, PIT)

The Cam Skattebo pick for this weeks offensive rookie feels pretty self-explanatory, but Steelers first-rounder Derrick Harmon was a standout on a good day for most of the Steelers' defensive front. He did pick up his second sack of the season, but seeing a 22-year-old kid pick up rep wins like this against a very seasoned Browns interior front is really impressive.

Gaffney's 2025 NFL Week 5 Team of the Week (Second-Team)

Offense: Baker Mayfield (QB, TB), Tanor Bortolini (OL, IND), Rico Dowdle (RB, CAR), Jaxon Smith-Njigba (Pass Catcher, SEA)

Defense: Byron Murphy II (IDL, SEA), Nick Herbig (EDGE, PIT), Devin White (LB, LV), Pat Surtain (DB, DEN)

Rookies: Matthew Golden (WR, GB) and Jacob Parish (DB, TB)

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