Week 14 may have had New York Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart on a bye, but the rest of the 2025 QB class had strong games. The AFC South was completely flipped, with the Indianapolis Colts losing and the Jacksonville Jaguars and Houston Texans continuing their respective win streaks.
We’ll look into the rookie quarterbacks and how the Jaguars and Texans are winning in this week’s film review.
Shedeur Sanders
Sanders played his best game as a pro and nearly brought the Cleveland Browns back from a double-digit deficit against the Tennessee Titans. Sanders threw for 364 yards, three touchdowns to one interception and added 29 yards and a touchdown rushing. He displayed pinpoint accuracy on short and intermediate passes and threw with anticipation.
Yes, it was against maybe the worst secondary in the NFL, but again, what stood out was the ball placement into tight windows and the pocket toughness. The biggest blemish was his 42.5 completion percentage, the result of taking several chances deep downfield.
2:57 remaining in the second quarter, second-and-10
On his best pass of the day, a 60-yard touchdown pass to Jerry Jeudy, Sanders got to his third read. Tight end Harold Fannin Jr. running a choice route was Sanders’ first read, followed by a through route by Cedric Tillman, and finally the dig from Jeudy.
The Browns came out in an empty formation and the Titans made a coverage check, but the corner on Jeudy didn’t get the check and played man coverage while the rest of the defense played zone.
The Titans dropped into a cover 3 and had a defender inside and outside of Fannin, and Sanders didn’t like the spacing with Tillman when he looked to him.
When Sanders progressed to Sanders, there was a zone defender inside of Jeudy, but Sanders started his throwing motion before Jeudy got inside the passing window.
Sanders threw a perfect pass, and because the defender on Jeudy was in man coverage, there was no one deep to tackle Jeudy.
SHEDEUR 60-YARD TD PASS TO JEUDY.
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— NFL (@NFL) December 7, 2025
Sanders threw several impressive passes against tight man coverage throughout the day. He did force some passes and got a bit lucky not to get intercepted more. Also, he intentionally stepped up against pressure and fought his tendency to run backward. On his lone interception, he had interior pressure, drifted backward and tried to heave a throw into traffic. Those are the plays that he obviously needs to eliminate. His play under pressure was his biggest red flag coming out of Colorado, and it’s still a concern. On the season, when pressured, his passer rating is 39.4 (64.1 against the Titans).
Big time INT for the Titans defense
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— NFL (@NFL) December 7, 2025
Overall, his performance earned him the starting spot for the rest of the season, head coach Kevin Stefanski announced on Monday. He’ll have his shot at convincing the Browns, who will have a top-10 pick, that he’s worth developing long term. He has the opportunity to play against some awful secondaries (Buffalo Bills, Cincinnati Bengals, Pittsburgh Steelers, Chicago Bears) and build on his success against the Titans.
Tyler Shough
A 3-10 record might not say it, but Saints head coach Kellen Moore and defensive coordinator Brandon Staley are quietly doing a superb job coaching in New Orleans. The defense ranks 16th in DVOA, FTN’s efficiency metric that accounts for strength of schedule. And Shough has put together some strong tape, particularly in the last four games, ranking 14th in expected points added (EPA) per attempt and adding 92 yards on the ground.
Shough played his best game of the season on Sunday against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He was particularly good on third down and hurt the Bucs’ defense with his legs on zone read concepts and scrambles. The Saints converted 41.7 percent of third downs, all through the air.
12:16 remaining in the fourth quarter, third-and-10
On third-and-10, the Saints called a “sail” concept, with Chris Olave running the sail route out of the bunch.
The Bucs were in quarters coverage with a “box” call. You can see why it’s called box, with four defenders forming the four corners. Olave did a good job of recognizing the zone and adjusting his route. Shough was on the same page and saw Olave coming out of his break slowly.
Shough started his throwing motion as Olave was breaking and threw a perfect anticipation pass in a hole in the zone.
Shough has all the tools you want in a quarterback. He has arm talent, he can throw with touch, prototypical size and even the athleticism to produce with his legs. He’s not a creator who’s going to try to buy time to look downfield, but if you don’t account for him, he has the speed to pick up yards on scrambles. Shough was drafted in the second round, so the Saints might not be entirely committed to him. They’ll likely be drafting in the top five, so another quarterback is in play, but Shough can make passing on another signal caller an easier decision with a strong finish to the season.
Cam Ward
I’ve written about Ward before, but the numbers don’t tell the whole story of the top pick who is playing in as bad an environment for a young quarterback as there could be. He’s on his second play caller this season, throwing to receivers who would not start for most NFL teams, behind an awful offensive line. If you look past the numbers and see the film, there’s so much to like about Ward’s play from the pocket. Of course, he has room to improve, but he’s seeing and doing so many advanced things.
7:50 remaining in the third quarter, third-and-8
On third-and-8, the Browns showed heavy pressure with a double A-gap mug look. The Titans had three receivers lined up to Ward’s right. After Ward motioned a receiver inside, he sniffed out a blitz with safety Grant Delpit moving closer to the line.
The Titans were on the road, so Ward had to move closer to the line to change the protection and even pointed out Delpit to running back Tyjae Spears.
However, after the snap, Spears blocked one of the blitzing linebackers, but the right guard also ended up blocking the linebacker, leaving no one on Delpit. Ward remained calm and slid away from Delpit to buy time to try to punish the blitz with a deep shot.
The free safety was tilted to the three-receiver side, so Ward knew he had a one-on-one shot with Van Jefferson to his right. Jefferson took an inside release on his go-route.
Ward threw a perfect pass off his back foot with just the right trajectory, but Jefferson dropped it.
Ward’s tape is littered with these types of plays in which his teammates have let him down. His production has been disappointing, but there’s plenty to like about how Ward is developing. The Titans have to find the right coach and upgrade the talent around him, but there are a lot of holes to fill. Such is the life of a quarterback picked No. 1 overall.
AFC South
With Daniel Jones’ injury, the Colts are dead in the water, especially without a capable backup. To make matters worse, Riley Leonard, who made some plays against the Jaguars, is dealing with a knee issue and might not be able to play next week. Things are so bad that the Colts are going to try out 44-year-old Philip Rivers. Rivers is literally a grandpa.
Even if Rivers is in condition to play, it’ll likely take a couple of weeks to ramp up, in which time the Colts could be completely out of the playoff race. Their loss to the Jaguars dropped the Colts to third in the AFC South this week.
The Jaguars and Texans are getting hot at the right time. The Jaguars are 5-1 since the bye week, and the Texans have won five games in a row. Since trading for Jakobi Meyers in Week 10, the Jaguars rank sixth in points per drive (2.47), ninth in EPA per dropback and seventh in explosive pass rate. Meyers, who has been a No. 2-type receiver during his career, has become Trevor Lawrence’s No. 1 receiver. According to Fantasy Points, in games with Brian Thomas Jr., Meyers has dominated in target share, targets per route run, and first-read target share.
Jakobi Meyers vs. Brian Thomas Jr. in their 1st two games together as Jaguars, per @FantasyPtsData:
Target Share
+ BTJ: 15.5%
+ Meyers: 25.9%
Targets Per Route
+ BTJ: 0.17
+ Meyers: 0.26
1st Read Target Share
+ BTJ: 22.5%
+ Meyers: 35.0%
— Dataroma (@ffdataroma) December 8, 2025
Not only does Meyers catch the ball more consistently than any other Jaguars receiver, but he’s also an excellent route runner who Lawrence can trust to be where he’s supposed to be.
Lawrence to Jakobi Meyers for the TD!
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— NFL (@NFL) December 7, 2025
C.J. Stroud and the Texans offense are playing better and have found some answers, but the story for the Texans continues to be the defense. The secondary doesn’t give you any space and has elite ball skills, the safeties close with furious speed and their front seven is relentless against the run and pass. When the Texans defense is on TV, turn up the volume and listen to how hard they hit. They’re trying to take heads off on every play. Jalen Pitre’s hit on Rashee Rice was one of the hardest hits I’ve seen in a long time.
0:44 remaining in the third quarter, first-and-10
On the first-and-10, the Texans played quarters with man-to-man technique to Travis Kelce’s side, which freed up Pitre playing safety to “poach” or help with routes coming from the other side of the formation.
Rice ran an underneath route that triggered linebacker Henry To’o To’o to match up on him. The matchup is fine with the initial route distribution, but the issue arises if the quarterback scrambles and To’o To’o actually has to run with Rice, which is what happened.
Patrick Mahomes reversed field and Rice took off with him, burning To’o To’o. Pitre saw this unfolding and came screaming off the roof to help To’o To’o.
Jalen Pitre lays a big hit
HOUvsKC on NBC
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— NFL (@NFL) December 8, 2025
Pitre hit Rice right as the ball arrived, dislodging it to force an incomplete pass.
The Texans rank second in defensive DVOA. Only the Seattle Seahawks defense is ranked higher. They’ve made some of the league’s best quarterbacks look pedestrian. Matthew Stafford, Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes, Sam Darnold and Jones have a combined passer rating of 69.1 against them. No quarterback in the AFC will want to see them in the postseason.
No matter who wins the division, both teams have a realistic shot at making the playoffs with favorable remaining schedules.