Week 9 is upon us, and the completion of this weekend will mark the midway point of the 2025 NFL season.
It’s also the final slate of games before Tuesday’s trade deadline. Plenty of teams are looking to make a statement before then, including those involved in FOX’s five-game slate on Sunday. The slate is highlighted by a divisional clash between the Minnesota Vikings and Detroit Lions, with Tom Brady, Kevin Burkhardt, Erin Andrews and Tom Rinaldi on the call.
Here are the stats and storylines to watch across FOX’s five-game Sunday slate.
Minnesota Vikings at Detroit Lions, 1 p.m. ET
Justin Jefferson has exactly as many catches (41) as he did after seven games last season. But instead of the five touchdowns he had at this point in 2024, he only has one.
The Vikings (3-4) already have more losses than they finished with last season, but everything is still in front of them, with four games still to be played against the Lions and Packers. Can they win at Detroit, with the Lions coming off a bye week and J.J. McCarthy back for his first snaps in seven weeks?
The Lions are third in scoring, but let’s talk about Jared Goff’s accuracy. He had the second-best completion percentage in a 400-pass season ever last year at 72.2%, and he is at 74.9 this season. So, he and Drake Maye (75.2) are challenging Drew Brees’ NFL record of 74.4. Minnesota’s opponents are completing 68.3% of their passes in 2025, with 11 touchdowns against three interceptions. It could be a long day for the Vikings.
The brief excitement of the Panthers being 4-3 took a hit with last week’s 40-9 loss to the Bills, and with Bryce Young uncertain with the same ankle injury, it’s a tough sell to see them winning in Green Bay. Since the start of 2024, the Panthers have five losses of 29 points or more. No other NFL team has more than two such losses in the same span.
If there’s a weakness to the Packers’ defense, it’s that they have only four takeaways in seven games. Only the Jets (1) have fewer turnovers forced.
Carolina, on the other hand, has 12 turnovers, one off the NFL high this season. A top-five run defense for Green Bay means the Panthers may throw the ball a lot, and we’re not saying they’ll lose by 29, but it’s a good situation for the Packers to have momentum when they host the Eagles on Monday night in Week 10.
Can we talk about J.K. Dobbins? The Broncos running back is third in the NFL with 634 rushing yards, a bargain for Denver on a one-year deal worth just over $2 million. He’s on course to rush for 1,347 yards, which puts him on pace to hit all eight yardage-based incentives in his contract to earn an extra $2.5 million. He’s a big part of why the Broncos have jumped from 18th in rushing a year ago to third, from 4.14 yards per carry in 2024 to 5.01 this season.
The Broncos face a Texans team that has the NFL’s No. 1 scoring defense, No. 1 total defense and is fifth against the run. If Houston (3-4) is going to get back into playoff contention, this is a win it needs. The Athletic’s playoff simulator has the Texans with an 18% chance to make the playoffs, but it more than doubles to 38% if they can win here and next week vs. the Jaguars.
Could the AFC South generate a wild-card team? The division hasn’t since the 2020 Colts, but the Jaguars are 4-3 and have the Raiders, Jets and two games against the Titans left on their schedule. Take care of those, and they could go 2-4 in the rest of their games and still be 10-7.
The Jaguars are coming off a humbling 35-7 loss to the Rams, though, but the Raiders are coming off a 31-0 loss to the Chiefs. The key here is takeaways. The Jaguars’ defense is second in the league with 14, and the Raiders have 12 turnovers, tied for the second-most. Geno Smith has 10 interceptions, and so does the Jaguars’ defense.
The most surprising aspect of Liam Coen’s first year in Jacksonville? He had the NFL’s No. 1 third-down offense in Tampa last year, and the Jaguars are 31st, converting just 33%. Flipping it around, the Raiders’ offense under Chip Kelly is 31st in scoring, 30th in total offense and 32nd in red zone, so this should be a bounce-back game for Jacksonville.
Tyler Shough gets his first NFL start for New Orleans. He’s 26, and only the fifth rookie quarterback that old to start an NFL game in the Super Bowl era. The only two to win? Chris Weinke, 29, after a minor-league baseball career in 2001 and Roger Staubach, 27, after four years serving in the U.S. Navy in 1969.
The challenge for Shough is that the Saints are 1-7 and average just 16 points per game, and they face a Rams’ defense third in the NFL in scoring (16.7 points allowed per game). The Rams have held their last two opponents to seven and three points, so it’s tough sledding for the Saints.
It’s almost mean to set this up, but 17 quarterbacks have made their first NFL start while playing for the Saints, and none of them — not Spencer Rattler, not Ian Book, not Danny Wuerffel — have thrown more than two interceptions in that first NFL start.
Greg Auman is an NFL Reporter for FOX Sports. He previously spent a decade covering the Buccaneers for the Tampa Bay Times and The Athletic. You can follow him on Twitter at @gregauman.
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