NFL awards and superlatives for Week 6: Baker Mayfield's fun makes up for Jets misery

Week 6 is almost in the books. Sunday started with the fourth of seven international games in the morning and ended with the Kansas City Chiefs beating the Detroit Lions on Sunday Night Football.

Going into the day, the schedule didn’t look like it was going to have the most juice, especially when the first game was the Broncos and the Jets, but as the day went on, it all delivered. That means we get another set of 10 awards to give out. 

The best place to start is with the earliest game on Sunday. Calling it “a game” is a pretty generous interpretation of what we all saw, but technically, that’s the correct word. 

Geneva-Conventions violation of the Week: Jets/Broncos

After World War II, all the good guys got together and came up with the Geneva Conventions to protect human dignity and stuff like that. The NFL made a deliberate choice to send the Jets and the Broncos over to London to play a football game… and that has to be a human rights violation.

The Broncos won one of the grossest football games of this millennium, 13-11. It was a big-time come-down game for them after they beat the Eagles in Week 5. Bo Nix was 19-of-30 for 174 yards and a touchdown, and as a team, the Broncos had a total of 78 rushing yards; almost every single yard was gained from slop.

They had 11 real drives, six of which ended in a punt, and four of those were three-and-outs. Their other drives ended in a fumble, a safety, two field goals, and a touchdown… But that’s nothing compared to the hell that the Jets put everyone through. 

Justin Fields was 9-of-17 for 45 yards, BUT he was sacked nine times for 55 yards. That means the Jets netted -10 passing yards for the whole game. They had 12 drives. Those ended in three field goals, seven punts (five three-and-outs), a turnover on downs, and an end-of-half drive where the clock management was so egregiously and poorly handled, you couldn’t even laugh about it.

On a fourth down with two timeouts left, the Jets converted with a fake punt and called a timeout (which was their first first-down of the game). With one minute left, from their own 38-yard line, they ran the ball for five yards and didn’t call a timeout. On second down, they snapped the ball with 44 seconds left, and Fields was sacked. The Jets then called their last timeout. On third-and-seven, Fields hit Josh Reynolds for a six-yard gain. 

Then it was fourth-and-one at midfield, with 29 seconds left… and the Jets just let the clock run down. It was absolutely abysmal and so perfectly Jets-like. 

One of two things is true here: Roger Goodell really appreciates the London culture and wanted to give them a game that was as boring as soccer -or- he hates them. Those are the only two options. 

Damned if you do, damned if you don’t: Rams kicking situation

The Los Angeles Rams are in quite a predicament: their kicker, Joshua Karty, is super sick at doing the knuckball/dirty kickoffs, and that really helps their whole operation… But he’s also kind of terrible at actually kicking field goals. 

In Week 6 against a very bad Ravens’ team, Karty doinked his first field goal of the day (his fourth miss of the season). Sean McVay normally shows a lot of cowardice when it comes to going for it on fourth down, and Karty’s inability to hit a chip shot made McVay unexpectedly more aggressive.

Later in the game, the Rams went for it on fourth-and-two, which they converted via DPI and ended up turning into a touchdown. Then they also went for it on a fourth-and-three from Baltimore’s six-yard line… they didn’t convert that one. It’s got to be gut-wrenching for McVay to show that kind of moxie.

It’s safe to assume McVay has a dry-erase board in his office. On one side, it says, ‘Karty Pros: His kickoff is sweet.’ On the other side, it says, ‘Karty Kons: 75 percent field goal make rate. He’s three-of-four inside 30. He’s three-of-four inside 40. He’s three-of-four inside 50. He’s one-of-two from 50+. He’s 14-of-16 on extra points. Kind of looks a little weird with his massive jaw.’

They already lost a game because of Karty’s kicks getting blocked, and I’m sure they’ll probably lose one or two more because of him as well. It’s a tough spot. 

One-Man Show: Jaxon Smith-Njigba

Seeing a wide receiver take over a game is a pretty cool thing, and that's exactly what happened with Jaxon Smith-Njigba against the Jaguars. 

Seattle ran a total of 54 plays and had a total of 346 yards on offense. 286 of those yards came through the air… and 162 of those yards came from throwing the ball to JSN. That means he produced 47 percent of the team's total yards and 57 percent of their passing yards.

It’s not just that, though. He had eight catches, and he was targeted 13 times. Roughly 25 percent of the Seahawks' plays went to JSN. It’s crazy, it worked, and it’s crazy that it worked. This dude is the real deal, and he keeps proving it every single week.

Rookie of the Week: Tyler Warren

It wasn’t a huge week for rookies, but it was a huge week for one rookie: the Colts’ first-round tight end, Tyler Warren. This dude has been having a pretty awesome season.

This season, he’s got the third most receptions of 31 qualified tight ends (29), and the most receiving yards (370). 

On Sunday, he was Daniel Jones’ guy. Warren caught six of his nine targets for 63 yards and a touchdown, but that was just the tip of the iceberg because the Colts use him as the tip of the spear on running plays. Brian Baldinger breaks it down excellently:

Those are the kinds of things that won’t get you an OROY, but they’re incredibly important and also super awesome. 

“Truly, madly, deeply”: Ladd McConkey

It only took for the Chargers to be down their two top running backs and their top wide receiver for Ladd McConkey to have a day that was reminiscent of his 2024 season. 

In that season, he averaged five catches and 72-ish yards per game. Going into Week 6, he was averaging four catches and 43 yards per game (and it was very inconsistent). In Week 6, he had seven catches for 100 yards and a touchdown. 

That was all punctuated by his 42-yard catch and run that set the Chargers up for their game-winning field goal. 

To put it plainly: Ladd McConkey is truly just a football lad who is loved by his coach… and whenever you get the words football, lad, and love in a sentence, there is only one thing that you can think of…

A bunch of football lads singing about love in a pub:

Did I give him this award just so I could watch that video again? Maybe. Maybe not. I’ll never tell. Whatever the reason, Ladd deserves recognition for having an awesome game. 

Game of the Year of the Week: Panthers/Cowboys

There were two options for the Game of the Year of the Week on Sunday: The Cardinals/Colts or the Panthers/Cowboys. If the Cowboys beat the Panthers, the GotYotW would, without a doubt, be the Cardinals/Colts. Fortunately, Carolina pulled it out.

This game had it all: 10 lead changes, only five punts, six touchdowns, a wide receiver that turned into a superhero, a running back fueled by vengeance, a clock-killing six-minute drive that ended with a field goal as the clock hit zero, an underdog win, and a Dallas loss. 

Don’t look now, but the Panthers are in second place in the NFC South with a 3-3 record, and after their Week 7 bye, two of their next four games are against the Jets and the Saints. 

Comeuppance of the Week: Cowboys

A bullet was uncharacteristically dodged in Dallas. In Week 4, we had the setup for one of the best revenge games in the past decade with Micah Parsons being able to play against the Cowboys. 

Unfortunately, that game ended in a very unsatisfying 40-40 tie. Luckily, Week 6 gave us another revenge game against the Cowboys when they played the Carolina Panthers and Rico Dowdle, who spent five years in Dallas.

Two weeks ago, this game wasn’t on anyone’s radar, but last week, Dowdle rushed for a career-high 209 yards, which put his name in the zeitgeist. And since he was in the spotlight, he decided to issue a warning to the Cowboys: “They gotta buckle up, and I think they know for sure.”

The Cowboys don’t have an unbelievably awful defense, but it still felt pretty unlikely for Dowdle to get anywhere close to that 200-yard rushing mark. He ended up rushing for 183 yards and having 56 receiving yards…So, revenge was definitely achieved. 

It’d be sweeter if Jerry Jones were lucid enough to understand what happened, but that’s probably not the case. Hell, Jerry doesn’t know the names of the players on his own team, so he probably thinks Rico Dowdle’s name is Rick Daughtry, or Ron Dortman, or Ray Downsley, or something stupid like that. 

Most Fun Player: Baker Mayfield

Not only is Baker Mayfield playing like he should be the 2025 MVP, but he’s doing it in the most fun way possible. He’s not just standing in the pocket and dealing or pulling the ball and making guys miss; he’s doing both of those things, and it rocks. 

On his way to leading the Buccaneers to a 30-19 win over the 49ers and having an NFC-leading 5-1 record, Mayfield was 17-of-23 for 256 yards and two touchdowns… And he did that without Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, Emeka Egbuka, Jalen McMillan, or Bucky Irving. 

That all pales in comparison to his third-and-14 run. If it were a college game, this play would’ve been his Heisman moment. 

Stock down: Trey Hendrickson

The Bengals don’t have a whole lot going for them. Yes, their offense will be better with Joe Flacco, but they’re not a serious team. That means that ultimately, the 2025 season is about getting draft picks from their natural draft position and also by trading away players… specifically their really good edge rusher, Trey Hendrickson.

The Bengals just gave him a $14 million raise before the season, which means that the team that trades for him is (more than likely) going to be taking on a mondo-sized one-year contract for a 30-year-old guy… who now might be a little bit injured.

Before halftime, Hendrickson got led to the locker room with a jacked-up back. We don’t know the severity of that injury just yet, but you have to imagine that a guy who’s turning 31 in a month and a half is probably going to be affected by a banged-up back.

To make matters worse for the Bengals, Za’Darius Smith just retired, so the Eagles’ edge rushing room is now made up of Jalyx Hunt, Josh Uche, Azeez Ojulari, and Patrick Johnson. They could definitely use Hendrickson, and the Bengals would’ve been able to make out like bandits in a trade with Philadelphia. Now? Probably not so much.

Old Guy of the Week: Poppa Joe

There are only two real quarterbacks that you can consider genuine old guys: Aaron Rodgers and Joe Flacco. Rodgers played a good game against the Browns on Sunday, but it’s the Browns, so it’s not super impressive. 

Flacco, on the other hand, ended up having a good game. It took him until the second half to get his wits about him, but he played pretty well… especially compared to what we’ve seen over the past three and a half weeks with Jake Browning. 

Two things went into that: he was traded to the Bengals during the week, so he didn’t have a full week of practice, and it was with a new team and entirely new system… so that’s pretty impressive. But this was also his second game against the Packers this season.

In Week 3, Flacco and the Browns handed the Packers their only loss of the season so far. If there were an available quarterback to trade for to give you a good shot at beating Green Bay, Flacco would be the right guy for the job. 

All of that aside, he’s 40 years old, playing for his sixth NFL team, and threw for 219 yards and two touchdowns. That’s pretty cool.