Look, by the time we hit the NFL schedule week 6, the "new car smell" of the season has basically evaporated. You know the feeling. The preseason hype for that one "sleeper" team has likely crashed into a 1-4 reality. Your fantasy roster is held together by duct tape and waiver wire prayers. This is the part of the calendar where the pretenders start falling off a cliff, and the contenders actually start to separate themselves from the pack.
Honestly, Week 6 is often the first real "survival" week of the year. We’re deep enough that injuries are a massive factor, but not far enough along for teams to start looking at draft positions. It’s gritty.
The London Factor: Coffee and Kickoffs
If you’re a fan of early morning football, Sunday, October 12, 2025, was your Super Bowl. The league continued its international push with the Denver Broncos vs. New York Jets at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Kickoff was at 9:30 a.m. ET.
Think about the logistics for a second. The Broncos were coming off a massive statement win against Philadelphia, only to have to pack up and fly across the Atlantic.
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London games are a weird beast. You’ve got a "home" team that isn't really at home, a crowd that cheers for literally every good play regardless of jersey color, and two rosters trying to figure out what time zone their bodies are in. For the Jets, it was a chance to find some rhythm. For Denver, it was about proving their early-season success wasn't just a fluke of the altitude back home.
Breaking Down the NFL Schedule Week 6 Matchups
The 2025 slate was particularly heavy on the Monday night "Doubleheader" trend that the league has been leaning into lately. We didn't just get one game to close out the week; we got two distinct matchups on ESPN and ABC.
Thursday Night: Division Grudge Match
Things kicked off in the NFC East. The Philadelphia Eagles headed to East Rutherford to face the New York Giants. This wasn't just another game. The Giants started rookie Jaxson Dart, who was making only his third NFL start.
Divisional games on short weeks are notoriously ugly. They’re fast, they’re physical, and they usually end with a lot of fans screaming at their TVs. The Eagles were trying to keep their hold on the division, while the Giants were just trying to see if their rookie could survive the Philly pass rush.
The Sunday Slate
The 1:00 p.m. ET window was crowded, to say the least. Eight games kicked off simultaneously. That’s a lot of RedZone channel switching.
- LA Rams at Baltimore Ravens: A heavyweight clash of styles.
- Cleveland Browns at Pittsburgh Steelers: Pure AFC North violence.
- Dallas Cowboys at Carolina Panthers: America’s Team traveling to Charlotte.
- LA Chargers at Miami Dolphins: A potential shootout in the humidity.
The afternoon window was a bit more focused but had a huge "flex" change. Originally, the Patriots and Saints were supposed to be the late game, but the NFL moved San Francisco at Tampa Bay to the 4:25 p.m. ET slot. This moved New England vs. New Orleans up to the early window. The league knows where the ratings are, and a 49ers-Bucs matchup is high-octane TV.
Why Bye Weeks are the Secret Villain
You can't talk about the NFL schedule week 6 without mentioning who wasn't playing. This week saw two major players take a seat:
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- Houston Texans
- Minnesota Vikings
For fantasy owners, losing C.J. Stroud or Justin Jefferson for a week is a nightmare. But for the teams, a Week 6 bye is actually kind of a "sweet spot." It’s late enough that the guys can heal up from the initial month-long grind, but early enough that you still have a massive runway for the second half of the season.
Some teams hate early byes (like Week 5), while others loathe the late Week 14 byes because players are already broken by then. Week 6 is the "Goldilocks" zone of rest.
Sunday Night: The Main Event
The Sunday night slot was a treat: Detroit Lions at Kansas City Chiefs.
Arrowhead Stadium is loud on a normal day. In prime time, against a Detroit team that everyone has been rooting for? It was electric. This game served as a massive litmus test for the Lions' defense. Could they actually contain the Mahomes magic? Honestly, these are the games that define the playoff seeding conversations three months before the playoffs even start.
Navigating the Monday Night Chaos
Monday, Oct. 13, 2025, gave us a two-course meal.
First, the Buffalo Bills visited the Atlanta Falcons at 7:15 p.m. ET on ESPN. Then, the Chicago Bears took on the Washington Commanders at 8:15 p.m. ET on ABC.
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The Bears-Commanders game was especially spicy. The narrative was all about the young quarterbacks. Caleb Williams vs. Jayden Daniels. The top of the draft class going head-to-head. It’s the kind of game that creates "highlights" that people will argue about on sports talk shows for the next decade.
Key Takeaways for the Week
- Travel matters: The Broncos and Jets had the toughest turnaround with the London trip.
- Flexing works: The San Francisco-Tampa Bay move proved the NFL is willing to shuffle the deck to get eyeballs on the screen.
- Division depth: The AFC North and NFC East rivalries in Week 6 showed that records often don't matter when you play a team you hate.
To truly understand how this week shifts the power balance, look at the injury reports heading into Week 7. The teams that "won" Week 6 weren't always the ones with the highest score—they were the ones who managed to get through sixty minutes of football without losing their starting left tackle or star corner.
If you are tracking your team's progress, focus on the turnover margin from these games. By Week 6, teams that can't protect the ball are usually exposed for good. Check the standings immediately after the Monday night games; that’s usually when the playoff "bubble" starts to take its first real shape.
Next Steps for Fans:
- Check the updated injury reports for teams coming off the London flight, as "jet lag" often leads to soft-tissue injuries in the following week.
- Review the "flex" schedule for Week 10 and beyond, as the NFL usually starts making those decisions based on the performances we saw in Week 6.
- Compare the rookie quarterback stats from the Bears-Commanders game to see who is leading the OROY (Offensive Rookie of the Year) race.