22. New York Giants
As the 2025 offseason went along, we talked on a variety of occasions how the New York Giants couldn’t spend too much time this season on the Russell Wilson experiment. Unless he was playing at an elite level, there’s virtually no reason to sacrifice the opportunity to get Jaxson Dart time on task.
Now, six games into the 2025 season, it’s clear that even three weeks of a Russell Wilson experiment were worthless for the Giants. Jaxson Dart is a stud, and he got his first signature win against an NFC East opponent with the Giants kind of taking it to the Eagles on a short week.
The Giants got such great contributions from their rookie class last year, and it’s wild to see that happen again in 2025 without the 2024 class making the same level of impact alongside them. No Malik Nabers puts a damper on the long-term outlook here, but the play of Dart and Cam Skattebo gives the Giants a chance to be a fun team in the NFC.
21. Houston Texans
Texans were on a bye week in Week 6
After playing a tough trio of games to start the year against the Rams, Buccaneers, and Jaguars, the Texans had a couple of much-needed “get right” games in Week 4 and 5 against the Titans and Ravens.
In the NFL, there’s no such thing as playing a Division II cupcake, but playing against a rookie quarterback on the worst roster in the league, as well as the beaten and broken Ravens, is about as close as it gets. And for Houston, it was a desperately needed bit of proof that this team can still play at an elite level. They’ve used the last two games against the Titans and Ravens to establish themselves as the #1 scoring defense in the NFL, and we’ve seen CJ Stroud and the offense execute much better than the first three weeks.
It’s fair to still be skeptical of the Texans at this point, but they’ll get a much better test coming out of the bye week, going on the road to face off against the Seahawks.