NFL Winners and Losers: Jets in turmoil after London humiliation

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Baker Mayfield’s MVP chances, internal problems for the Miami Dolphins and Jaxon Smith-Njigba’s lightning start to the season. Here are some of the winners and losers from Sunday in the NFL…

Winner: Patrick Mahomes

The Kansas City Chiefs were never going to submit to a rough start to the campaign, they were never going to go quietly into the night, not with Andy Reid at the helm, not with Steve Spagnuolo still calling the shots, not with Patrick Mahomes on the field. Nobody wants to run away with this, and the Chiefs know how to navigate an entire NFL season better than any. The Baltimore Ravens are plummeting towards a wasted year with others wobbling, the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles are still working things out, the Cincinnati Bengals are nothing with Joe Burrow and the Detroit Lions just squandered a golden opportunity to lay down their Championship credentials.

Reid and Mahomes out-classed the Lions on Sunday night as they stormed to a 30-17 victory, in which the Chiefs quarterback threw for 257 yards and three touchdowns while rushing for a score as Kansas City and their struggling offense put up at least 28 points for the third straight game. Mahomes has now completed 98 of 145 passes while registering 1,069 yards, 11 total touchdowns and just one interception in his last four games. And he gets his best receiver back next week as Rashee Rice returns from suspension. Rice’s availability should at least boost a non-existent downfield passing game, the decline of which has been stark since the days of Tyreek Hill.

Reid drifted from 11 personnel on Sunday in view of luring the Lions into putting their bigger, slower defenders on the field, before in turn attacking Detroit’s linebackers. Mahomes would finish 13 of 17 for 165 yards and a touchdown while throwing at Lions linebackers in coverage, per Next Gen Stats. Suddenly, the Chiefs are 3-3 and looking alive.

Loser: The Jets

“Kurt Warner’s hair is on fire in this booth,” said a bewildered Rich Eisen.

“I’m not normally speechless, but I’m trying to figure this out,” said Warner.

“The Brits are wondering what is happening in London. And so are the American announcers,” added Eisen.

Eisen and Warner, along with 61,000 fans inside Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and the millions watching across America, had just watched the worst two-minute drill you will see this season, perhaps in any season. Trailing 10-6 on first-and-10 from the 38-yard line with one minute left in the first half, the Jets elected to run the ball through Breece Hall instead of passing through Justin Fields. Hall would make just five yards as the clock ticked down, before Fields was swarmed for a sack on the next play. Then came a hasty timeout on third-and-seven, at which point you might have expected the Broncos to use one of their timeouts; a gift for Sean Payton. Josh Reynolds was then stopped shy to set up fourth down with around 30 seconds left, only for the Jets to let time expire as coach and players exchanged blank faces between the field and sideline. As Jets fans booed, an enraged Garrett Wilson finally cracked as he erupted in frustration during an exchange with Glenn on his way back to the sideline. It summed up a humiliating Jets performance in which Fields was sacked nine times while New York’s offense mustered -10 net passing yards.

You would be hard pushed to recall a worse performance by any team that has travelled over to London. The Jets remain winless at 0-6 with no sign of a turnaround and Breece Hall emerging as a tasty option for running back-needy teams ahead of the trade deadline. Garrett told reporters after the game he disagreed with his coach’s plan, while Glenn got chippy when quizzed on whether Fields would start the next game. Offensive coordinator Tanner Engstrand called a dreadful game, while Fields was again guilty of failing to get the ball out while struggling to diagnose what Vance Joseph was cooking up on defense. It is a franchise travelling backwards.

Winner: Baker Mayfield

Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield may be the NFL’s MVP frontrunner through six weeks of the 2025 season. He is playing out of his skin as one of the great modern career revival stories, evolving from written-off No 1 pick and Carolina Panthers bridge option into a beloved provider of downfield splash plays, gritty runs, textbook one-liners and a potent Tampa Bay playoff charge.

He strengthened his case as an MVP candidate on Sunday as he completed 17 of 23 passes for 256 yards and two touchdowns to inspire the Bucs to a 30-19 win over the San Francisco 49ers. And this week, he did it without Mike Evans, Chris Godwin and rookie sensation Emeka Egbuka, who managed just two catches for 24 yards before suffering a hamstring injury. Mayfield operated primarily through Kameron Johnson, a 2024 undrafted free agent out of Division II Barton, and 2025 seventh-round, 235th overall pick Tez Johnson, who made a stunning stretching catch to haul in Mayfield’s coverage-splitting bomb for a 45-yard touchdown.

Baker’s ‘Baker doing Baker things’ moment came with the Bucs staring at third-and-14 while holding onto a 20-19 lead with 2.48 left in the third quarter. Mayfield miraculously escaped two sack attempts in the backfield, before escaping on the outside, pump-faking, side-stepping another diving tackle effort and barging through one more defender to reach for the first down. Bryce Huff ripped off his helmet straps in anger. He could not believe it; in contrast, the Bucs are getting used to Mayfield magic. Todd Bowles’ side are 5-1 and dark horse Super Bowl contenders behind their red-hot quarterback, who has thrown just one interception all year.

Loser: Mike McDaniel

The Miami Dolphins are flirting dangerously with disarray and large-scale change after coming up shy once more in Sunday’s 29-27 defeat to the Los Angeles Chargers.

The prospect of a morale-boosting comeback emerged when the Dolphins overturned a 10-point fourth-quarter deficit with 14 straight points to take a one-point lead on Tua Tagovailoa’s touchdown pass to Darren Waller with 46 seconds left. Justin Herbert, though, was on hand to break Dolphins hearts when he escaped what looked a certain sack to find Ladd McConkey, who races 42 yards to set up his side’s game-winning field goal.

Tagovailoa labelled it a ‘shock’ before calling out attendance, or lack of it, at player-only meetings, later clarifying that he was talking about players arriving late.

“I think it starts with the leadership in helping articulate that for the guys, and then what we’re expecting out of the guys,” Tagovailoa said. “We’re expecting this. Are we getting that? Are we not getting that? We have guys showing up to player-only meetings late. Guys not showing up to player-only meetings. There is a lot that goes into that. Do we have to make that mandatory? Do we not have to make that mandatory? So it’s a lot of things of that nature that we got to get cleaned up. It starts with the little things like that.”

Tagovailoa was guilty of three interceptions in the game as Miami slipped to 1-5 with their season rapidly fading away and pressure mounting on head coach Mike McDaniel, whose leadership has come into question while seeing his once explosive offense stutter this season. Punctuality issues and outright no-shows at meetings tends to spell trouble.

Winner: Jaxon Smith-Njigba

He had to wait for center stage behind D.K. Metcalf and Tyler Lockett, but Jaxon Smith-Njigba has arrived as one of the NFL’s elite wide receivers. The former Ohio State first-round pick made eight catches from 13 targets for 162 yards and a touchdown as Seattle beat the Jacksonville Jaguars 20-12 to improve to 4-2. It marked his fourth 100-yard game of the campaign and means he leads the NFL with 696 receiving yards after leapfrogging Puka Nacua, who suffered an ankle injury in the Los Angeles Rams’ win over the Baltimore Ravens elsewhere on the night.

His relationship with Sam Darnold continues to blossom while aiding his quarterback’s unlikely push for MVP contention having rebuilt his career in Minnesota last season. Smith-Njigba had the Jags defensive backs in a blender all day, notably escaping a dizzy Jourdan Lewis with a devastating inside-outside break for a catch at the sideline. He has asserted himself as one of the league’s most gifted route-running technicians capable of hurting teams at all three levels. There was a cruel introduction to life with the Jags for new trade arrival Greg Newsome, who could only watch as Smith-Njigba burned by on a simple vertical for a 61-yard touchdown. We are looking at an Offensive Player of the Year candidate.

Loser: The Cowboys

Rico Dowdle stood on business. The Carolina Panthers had warned the Dallas Cowboys to ‘buckle up’ ahead of facing his old team. He delivered on his warning, and some.

“They weren’t buckled up,” said Dowdle at the end of the night.

He had just erupted for 239 scrimmage yards as the Panthers defeated the Cowboys in a 30-27 win thanks to Ryan Fitzgerald’s field goal as time expired. It was good for the most scrimmage yards in a game against a former team in NFL history, as well as the most scrimmage yards in a single game by any player in Panthers history.

It came a week after Dowdle had amassed 234 scrimmage yards in Carolina’s 27-24 win over the Dolphins, making him the seventh player in the Super Bowl era with two straight games of 225-plus scrimmage yards and a touchdown. What’s more, 122 of his 183 rushing yards against the Cowboys came after contact, per Next Gen Stats. Quite the revenge game. Only the Cowboys.

At this time it is worth reminding that Jerry Jones referenced the need to stop the run as a reason for bringing Kenny Clark from Green Bay as part of the Micah Parsons trade. Through six weeks they are the fourth-worst run defense in the NFL, while being the worst team in the league in total yards allowed. Dak Prescott and his offense, which just saw George Pickens have his best day yet as a Cowboy with nine catches for 168 yards and a touchdown, and staring at another wasted effort.

Watch the 2025 NFL season live on Sky Sports, including every London and European game as well as every minute of the playoffs and Super Bowl LX; Get Sky Sports or stream with no contract on NOW.

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