There has already been one coaching change in the NFL this season, and we may not be too far from a second. After the Tennessee Titans fired Brian Callahan earlier in the week, all eyes shifted south to Mike McDaniel, who was already on the hot seat after a 1-5 start to the year with the lone victory coming over the winless Jets.
With Tua Tagovailoa coming under fire for calling out his teammates for a lack of accountability, today's game against Cleveland loomed as a must-win for Miami. The Dolphins didn't get the job done, so McDaniel's seat is now scorching as we look back at the biggest winners and losers from another NFL Sunday, this time in Week 7, beginning with a further examination of the latest flop from Miami.
Winners And Losers From NFL Week 7
Loser - Mike McDaniel
While Vegas liked the Browns' chances to score a win in this game and the weather surely didn't help, no one can excuse a 31-6 loss to a team starting Dillon Gabriel under center. Miami actually outgained Cleveland on the day and only lost the time of possession battle by three minutes, which should have portended a close game, but the Dolphins were extremely sloppy in multiple facets of the game, losing the turnover battle 4-0 (with Tagovailoa tossing three interceptions before giving way to Quinn Ewers in garbage time), surrendering four sacks, committing 11 penalties for 103 yards and going 1-for-13 on third down attempts.
That kind of sloppy effort showcases a team that has quit on its coach, making it a matter of when (not if) owner Stephen Ross decides enough is enough. Just two years after being deemed the latest wunderkid from the Kyle Shanahan coaching tree, McDaniel is likely going to need to update his LinkedIn page soon.
Winner - Matthew Stafford
The Los Angeles Rams have been a bit of a forgotten team in the NFL contention sphere, with their results being largely quiet victories and a few confusing defeats. Sean McVay decided to defy convention with his team's trip to London, staying stateside until Friday before flying in to play Jacksonville, and Matthew Stafford made his decision look brilliant with one of the best passing performances in the NFL's International Series.
Even without the services of Puka Nacua, who missed the game due to injury, Stafford became the first passer to throw five touchdown passes in an international game after the Rams easily dispatched the Jaguars 35-7 to wrap up the NFL's London circuit for 2025. Stafford took what the defense gave him, needing only 182 passing yards to pick up his five scores, and took apart what had been a solidly-performing defense for the first third of the season to showcase why Los Angeles can't be counted out as an NFC West title contender.
Loser - Justin Fields
While Aaron Glenn backed the Jets' struggling quarterback last week after an abysmal performance in London against the Denver Broncos, Justin Fields left Glenn little choice but to bench him during Sunday's 13-6 loss to Carolina. Fields was awful in the first half, completing 6-of-12 passes for 46 yards while taking three sacks, leading Glenn to pull the plug in favor of veteran Tyrod Taylor after the break.
Taylor played slightly better than Fields, leading Glenn to declare after the game that he hasn't decided who will start for the 0-7 Jets against Cincinnati next Sunday. This could be it for Fields, who has now been benched by a third NFL team in five years, as a starting quarterback in the league for a long time.
Winner - Mike Vrabel
The firing of Brian Callahan in Tennessee further illuminated how lost the Titans have become as a franchise since they fired Vrabel following the 2023 season. It is fitting that Tennessee's first game after firing Callahan came against Vrabel's Patriots, who overcame a slow start to beat Tennessee 31-13 to extend their winning streak to four games and assume sole possession of first place in the AFC East over Buffalo, who is on bye in Week 7.
The Patriots were one of the NFL's worst teams a year ago and Vrabel has immediately instilled winning habits into the organization, putting Drake Maye in position to make the playoffs in his second season. Tennessee is now 4-20 since letting Vrabel go and things don't appear to be getting any better as the franchise continues to swirl in chaos, showcasing how important Vrabel's presence was to their success at the end of the 2010s.
Loser - Fans Of Competitive Football
With beautiful Sunday weather in most of the country, including unseasonably warm temperatures in the Northeast, the NFL needed to put up a good slate of games to convince fans to keep their television sets turned on. That was most certainly not the case in Week 7, particularly in the early window, as five of the six games were either blowouts or boring (pour one out for fans stuck with Jets-Panthers as their only early game), with only Philadelphia and Minnesota being competitive in the 1:00 slate.
This hasn't been a new occurrence as the NFL continues to stretch its schedule to the limits to increase standalone games, with Week 7 featuring two teams on bye, a Thursday night game, an international game, and a Monday night doubleheader. The product as a whole is suffering from those decisions, meaning we could be in store for more Sundays like this one where you have to look really hard to find a competitive game in the early window of the action.
Winner - Indianapolis Colts
Besides seeing their closest AFC South competitors get blown out early in London, the Colts further established themselves as a legitimate contender with an impressive win out in Los Angeles against the Chargers. Daniel Jones and the Colts' offense shredded a very good Chargers' defense, racking up 38 points and nearly 400 yards of offense against the league's 10th-best unit in terms of points per game entering Week 7.
The win allows the Colts to move to 6-1 on the year and can easily make it 7-1 in Week 8 as they take on the dumpster fire that is Tennessee. With a home playoff game likely coming to Indianapolis for the first time since 2014, it is time to start take the Colts seriously as legitimate Super Bowl contenders.
Loser - Washington Commanders
Sunday was an outright disaster for the Commanders, who followed up a late loss to Chicago in Week 6 with a brutal 44-22 loss in Dallas to drop them to 3-4 on the year. Injuries have taken a toll on Washington so far, who were without top receivers Terry McLaurin and Deebo Samuel on Sunday, and they suffered possibly their biggest loss of the year when Jayden Daniels departed with a hamstring injury.
Daniels, who has already missed two games this year with a knee injury, was immediately ruled out, which is an ominous sign for his availability for a critical Monday night matchup against the red-hot Chiefs in Week 8. Things could start to spiral out of control for Washington, which also has to wonder what happened to its defense after giving up 409 yards of offense to Dallas on Sunday.