play0:43Graziano: Colts will see what Riley Leonard can give them in Week 18Dan Graziano and Mike Greenberg discuss the Colts’ decision to give Riley Leonard the start for Week 18.
play2:06Rod Woodson expects a close game between Ravens and SteelersNFL Hall of Fame cornerback Rod Woodson joins Rich Eisen to preview the winner-take-all matchup between the Ravens and the Steelers.
Dan Orlovsky cannot believe Cam Newton’s Myles Garrett MVP take (2:22)Cam Newton stuns Dan Orlovsky by saying Browns defensive end Myles Garrett should be the NFL’s MVP this season. (2:22)
Graziano: Colts will see what Riley Leonard can give them in Week 18Dan Graziano and Mike Greenberg discuss the Colts’ decision to give Riley Leonard the start for Week 18.
Dan Graziano and Mike Greenberg discuss the Colts’ decision to give Riley Leonard the start for Week 18.
Rod Woodson expects a close game between Ravens and SteelersNFL Hall of Fame cornerback Rod Woodson joins Rich Eisen to preview the winner-take-all matchup between the Ravens and the Steelers.
NFL Hall of Fame cornerback Rod Woodson joins Rich Eisen to preview the winner-take-all matchup between the Ravens and the Steelers.
With one week to go in the 2025 NFL season, I’m ready to name my first- and second-team All-Pros. There are a few races that are particularly tight, and my pick at running back changed after what I saw in Week 17, but nobody’s going to fly up the charts from out of nowhere to be a first-team All-Pro in Week 18. All these players already established themselves as elite performers long before the final week of the season.
When I did my deep dive into the MVP race several weeks ago, I started with a clear mind and no strong feelings. I was surprised to find that so many of the factors I considered favored Maye, and I left that analysis with the Patriots starter as my favorite unless (or perhaps until) Matthew Stafford clearly knocked him from the top of the rankings.
Since then, Maye’s Patriots lost 35-31 to the Bills on a day on which he threw for only 155 yards, although he did run for two touchdowns to help keep things close. Stafford’s Rams lost to the Seahawks in a game where the offense scored 37 points and the veteran QB threw for 457 yards on 49 attempts. He did that without Davante Adams, which made me lean a little more toward Stafford, who unquestionably has a more talented receiving corps with everyone healthy than Maye does in New England.
A reader also sent in a question and asked how the two quarterbacks have fared in games against common opponents. Both Maye and Stafford have gone up against the NFC South (Panthers, Saints, Buccaneers and Falcons), the Ravens and the Titans. Here’s how they’ve played in those games:
In a close race between a handful of backs, though, Robinson’s performance on Monday night was just enough to vault him ahead of the pack. He was already a viable selection heading into the game against the Rams, but going for 195 yards on the ground and scoring twice against one of the league’s best defenses was a statement performance for Robinson. It also restored him to the league lead in yards from scrimmage, where he holds a 186-yard advantage on McCaffrey across 51 fewer touches.
Graziano: Colts will see what Riley Leonard can give them in Week 18
I’m not sure any RB has been more fun to watch with the ball in his hands this season. The explosiveness and big-play ability Robinson exhibited at Texas had been surprisingly difficult to access during his first two seasons in the NFL, but Robinson has been able to reel off big plays throughout 2025. He and Taylor are the only players in the league with 80-plus-yard touchdown runs this season, and they each have two.
There are hiccups. Robinson has fumbled four times, which hurts his value with EPA-derived statistics. He has been really disappointing as a pass blocker this season, a project for the 23-year-old to work on this offseason. And Taylor has had fewer negatives. But Robinson has just been so spectacular and fun to watch that I find it difficult to pick anybody else.
Everybody knows the ball’s going to JSN. Nobody has shown any consistent ability to stop him throughout a game this year, though.
A special season from a special player. Nacua is the most efficient receiver in football, averaging a league-best 3.9 yards per route run. He leads the NFL in receiving yards over expectation (434) and is second in yards after catch over expectation behind the next guy on this list, per Next Gen Stats. Targets thrown to Nacua have generated 105.9 EPA — 19 EPA ahead of any other receiver in the league.
The only player with more EPA in a single receiving season in the Next Gen Stats era, ironically enough, is Cooper Kupp from his 2021 campaign with these Rams. Nacua’s behind only by virtue of missing a game-plus with an ankle injury, and he still has Week 18 to catch up. And none of this covers what Nacua does as a blocker, where he has been essential for the Rams.
So I went instead with Pickens, who has been the perfect fit for what the Cowboys needed as an outside receiver next to CeeDee Lamb for Dak Prescott. Pickens had consistently run higher-than-expected catch rates in Pittsburgh, but playing with subpar quarterbacks in run-first offenses, it was unclear whether all of that would translate to Dallas.
The only receivers generating more EPA per route run this year than Pickens are Nacua, Smith-Njigba and Diggs. Pickens has benefited from playing with Prescott, of course, but he has also been such an obvious and significant upgrade on the various wideouts the Cowboys have run out at the X spot over the past few seasons. It has been easy to question many of Jerry Jones’ trades over the past couple of years, but landing Pickens for third- and fifth-round picks was a coup for the Cowboys.
Second team: Ja’Marr Chase, Cincinnati Bengals; Nico Collins, Houston Texans; Chris Olave, New Orleans Saints
Another easy pick here. Would-be rivals such as Brock Bowers and George Kittle missed significant time with injuries, and McBride answered the bell week after week for the Cardinals. His 1,174 receiving yards place him more than 300 ahead of second-place Kyle Pitts Sr., and although that yardage figure obviously owes some sort of debt to a staggering 161 targets, McBride was able to get open enough to command that sort of target share and dropped just one ball all season.
The goal-line forcefield that seemed to pester McBride also disappeared after Kyler Murray’s foot injury, as McBride’s 11 touchdowns are one away from doubling his prior career total of six, gathered across three seasons.
If this were simply identifying the best linemen on any individual snap this season, I’d probably go with Andrew Thomas at left tackle and Johnson at right tackle. But if we’re picking the most productive or impactful tackles in the league over the full season, I can’t include them.
Of all the players to stay healthy for the entire season! (Well, almost.) Williams routinely misses a couple of games each year and plays for a 49ers team that has been ransacked by injuries all season, but the future Hall of Famer had been on the field for every game before suffering a hamstring injury on the Brock Purdy pick-six against the Bears on Sunday night. It’s unclear whether he’ll be able to return for the Week 18 divisional decider against the Seahawks.
Bolles was 13th in the league in run block win rate among tackles who played the majority of their team’s snaps this season. The 33-year-old benefited from playing on one of the league’s best lines (and one of its healthiest before center Luke Wattenberg went down with a shoulder injury), but Bolles has been entirely capable of handling some of the best edge rushers in football this season. He has also missed a grand total of just seven snaps all season, and that’s a difference-maker.
Rod Woodson expects a close game between Ravens and Steelers
The most important and reliable part of Chicago’s resurgent run game this season, Thuney was every bit the player the Bears hoped to acquire when they sent a fourth-round pick to the Chiefs this offseason. He ranks fourth in the league in run block win rate and leads all guards in pass block win rate, all while continuing his habit of virtually never coming off the field. Thuney has missed just five snaps all season.
Thuney has the league’s lowest quick pressure rate and is one of two guards who played more than 400 pass-blocking snaps without allowing a single sack this season, per Next Gen Stats. The other one, of course, was Nelson.
Like Indianapolis’ offense with Nelson, the Dolphins’ rushing attack simply doesn’t work without Brewer’s ability to get on the edge for all of the pin/pull and other outside run concepts Miami wants to run. Watch Miami’s run game closely and you’ll see Brewer reaching defensive tackles on zone rushes with ease and blocking linebackers like Jamien Sherwood and Frankie Luvu for yards at a time. Here’s Brewer locking up Derwin James Jr. on a counter concept for a De’Von Achane 49-yard touchdown.
With Tyreek Hill out and Tua Tagovailoa’s effectiveness waning before being benched, the Dolphins needed to rely on their run game to survive for much of the season. That run game ran through Brewer.
There’s a much bigger group of candidates for the second spot at edge rusher, even after Micah Parsons’ torn ACL ended his chances of landing the first-team All-Pro nod. I kept finding reasons to lean toward Anderson, who has continued to improve across his three pro seasons. In 2025, his missed tackle rate improved past league-average, and he has set career highs in sacks (12) and knockdowns (23) with a game to go.
Allen has a lot of help on what might be the league’s best defensive line, but if there’s one player up front the Broncos couldn’t afford to lose, it would be Allen. Bonitto and Jonathon Cooper are excellent at getting off quickly and going around the edge to squeeze opposing QBs, but Allen’s just completely unblockable at times on the interior, which helps funnel quarterbacks to those speedy edge rushers.