The AFC North and NFC North are loaded, to an unprecedented extent in NFL history.
All eight teams in the two North divisions are above .500 after Week 7. Never before has the league had two divisions with every team having a winning record heading into Week 8.
The Browns lead the AFC North at 5-2 because they have the head-to-head tiebreaker with the 5-2 Steelers. The Bengals are 4-2 and the Ravens are 4-3.
The Vikings are 6-0, the only remaining undefeated team in the NFC. The Bears are in second place in the NFC North at 5-2, followed by the Lions at 4-2 and the Packers at 4-3.
If the playoffs started today, the Browns would be the No. 3 seed in the AFC. The Steelers would be the No. 6 seed and the Bengals would be the No. 7 seed. The Ravens would be out of the playoffs.
In the NFC, the Vikings would be the No. 1 seed and the three other teams would be the three wild cards: The Bears would be the No. 5 seed, the Lions would be No. 6 and the Packers would be No. 7 — as they have been each of the last three years.
We’re a long way from the playoffs, but right now, it looks like most of the biggest games down the stretch will be played in the North.
Vikings Clips
On Sunday, Vikings running back Aaron Jones made an early exit after a 17-yard gain in the fourth quarter. After the game, coach Kevin O’Connell said Jones aggravated a knee injury he suffered earlier in the season.
The injury happened in the Week 2 game against the Bears. He did not practice the following Wednesday but returned the next day and did not miss the Week 3 game.
Per a source with knowledge of the situation, Jones will have an MRI on Monday. The current hope is that it won’t be a long-term situation for Jones.
With the trade deadline only 16 days away, the Vikings were already believed to be interested in adding a running back. If Jones will be missing some time, the urgency to do so could increase.
The good news for the Vikings was that Jordan Mason returned on Sunday, after missing four games following a Week 1 thumb injury. Mason had 15 carries for 68 yards in his return.
Now 6-0, the Vikings have a gauntlet coming. They play the Lions in Detroit, the Bills at home on Monday night, the Packers at Lambeau Field, and the 49ers in Mexico City.
Vikings running back Aaron Jones was called questionable to return after going to get his knee checked out on Sunday and he did not return for the final minutes of Minnesota’s 16-10 win over the Colts.
After the game, Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell said that Jones aggravated the injury that he suffered a couple of weeks ago, but gave no other details about the veteran’s outlook.
Jones had eight carries for 26 yards and a catch for no gain on Sunday. Jordan Mason returned from injured reserve and paced the ground game with 15 carries for 68 yards.
The Vikings will return to action in Detroit next Sunday and the practice week should bring more insight into whether Jones will be part of the lineup.
The Vikings’ formula for winning this season has been heavily helpings of defense mixed with timely bursts of offense and that remained their approach against the Colts at home on Sunday.
Kyler Murray threw a touchdown pass early in the fourth quarter before driving the team to a field goal with under two minutes to play. Those points were the only ones scored by either team in the second half and the 16-10 win was secured when safety Harrison Smith picked off Colts quarterback Daniel Jones near midfield with 1:15 left to play.
It was Smith’s first interception of the season and it secured a 6-0 start for the Vikings. They will try to remain undefeated in Detroit in Week 8.
Murray had a 35-yard run to set up his touchdown pass to tight end T.J. Hockenson and he finished the day 14-of-24 for 150 yards. They got 15 carries for 68 yards from Jordan Mason, who returned to the lineup after a stint on injured reserve and looked much better than Aaron Jones before Jones left the game with a knee injury.
The Vikings only managed 275 yards, but that proved to be more than enough because the Colts could generate next to nothing whenever they tried to pass the ball. Jones was 13-of-21 for 108 yards while being sacked four times before his interception, which mitigated 29 carries for 141 yards from the Jonathan Taylor/Seth McGowan backfield duo.
While McGowan had a good game, giving him a key third down carry instead of Taylor came back to haunt Colts head coach Shane Steichen when he was stopped short and Spencer Shrader missed his second field goal of the day. Shrader also missed a 56-yarder after Steichen passed on trying to convert a fourth-and-1.
Steichen survived General Manager Chris Ballard’s firing this week, but efforts like Sunday won’t do anything to help his argument for staying much longer. The same could be said of Jones as the Colts owe it to themselves to see if Anthony Richardson might be able to put up anything better than what Jones has managed through seven weeks.
With the trade deadline approaching, there could be a number of other changes for the 2-5 Colts before or after next Sunday’s trip to Jacksonville.
It has been a frustrating afternoon for the Vikings offense, but the fourth quarter started off in better fashion.
Quarterback Kyler Murray scrambled for 35 yards on a third down to open the final 15 minutes of play against the Colts and then found tight end T.J. Hockenson for a five-yard touchdown on the next play. The score pushed the Vikings to a 13-10 lead with 14:36 left to go.
Murray had not made many plays with either his arm or his legs prior to that two-play flurry, but the Vikings’ defense has kept them around with four sacks of Daniel Jones. The Vikings also got a boost when Spencer Shrader missed a 56-yard field goal.
Shrader had not missed a field goal yet this season and the timing of his first miscue came at a bad time for the Colts.
The Colts have a halftime lead in their first game of the post-Chris Ballard era.
Jonathan Taylor’s 38-yard touchdown run in the first quarter staked the Colts to an early lead and a field goal just before halftime stretched their lead over the Vikings to 10-6 midway through Sunday’s game in Minneapolis.
Taylor has eight carries for 53 yards overall and the Colts have only picked up 107 yards on offense, but that’s been enough thanks to a Vikings offense that hasn’t executed in the biggest moments. They failed to convert on fourth down inside the Indianapolis 40-yard-line on their first possession and are just 2-of-7 on third downs overall. Two of those failures led to field goals and the Vikings will need to be sharper in those spots over the final 30 minutes to remain undefeated.
The Colts are 5-of-8 on those third down situations, which has gone a long way toward mitigating some of their less impressive offensive numbers. They’ll get the ball to start the third quarter and they can put the Vikings in a deep hole if they can continue to find the right plays at key moments.
The Vikings got a big kickoff return to open Sunday’s home game, but the Colts are on the board first.
After taking over in Colts territory thanks to Myles Price’s return, the Vikings faced a fourth-and-1 from the Colts’ 38-yard-line. They passed on a Will Reichard field goal and handed the ball to running back Aaron Jones out of the pistol. The Colts dropped Jones for a loss and took a lead a short time later.
Quarterback Daniel Jones converted a pair of third downs and running back Jonathan Taylor broke loose for 38-yard touchdown on the next first down.
The score has the Colts up 7-0 with under 10 minutes to play in the first quarter in Minneapolis.
The Jets won’t be getting running back Breece Hall back in the lineup for Sunday’s home date against the Dolphins.
Hall was listed as questionable on Friday due to the quad injury that’s kept him out for the last two games, but he wound up on the wrong side of that decision when the team released its inactive list for Week 7. Hall was limited in practice during the week and a move to full practice may be necessary for him to get back in the lineup.
Braelon Allen has 41 carries for 194 yards and a touchdown as the starter in Hall’s absence.
While Hall remains out, the Jets will be getting wide receiver Adonai Mitchell back in the lineup. He’s missed the last four games with a finger injury.
Dolphins at Jets
Dolphins: LB Willie Gay, WR Jalen Tolbert, CB Marcellas Dial, CB Reese Taylor, DE Rob Beal, OL DJ Campbell, OT Chukwuebuka Godrick
Jets: CB Jarvis Brownlee, RB Kene Nwangwu, RB Breece Hall, LB Joseph Ossai, OL Max Mitchell, G Dylan Parham, DL Jack Heflin
49ers at Falcons
49ers: DE Nick Bosa, WR Mike Evans, WR Deebo Samuel, LB Luke Gifford, LB Garret Wallow, S Marques Sigle, QB Kurtis Rourke
Falcons: QB Jack Strand, LB Divine Deablo, CB Avieon Terrell, QB Andy Dalton, WR Olamide Zaccheaus, RB Brian Robinson, DB Billy Bowman
Giants at Texans
Giants: OL Josh Sills, TE Theo Johnson, OL Marcus Mbow, CB Greg Newsome, CB Nikko Reed, S Jevon Holland, QB Jake Haener
Texans: T Blake Fisher, G Febechi Nwaiwu, T Nathan Thomas, TE Marlin Klein, RB David Montgomery, S Jalen Pitre, S Reed Blankenship
Bengals at Ravens
Bengals: S Russ Yeast, C Connor Lew, OT Myles Hinton, DE Shemar Stewart, DT Landon Robinson
Ravens: QB Lamar Jackson, S Jaylinn Hawkins, WR Elijah Sarratt, G Andrew Vorhees, DT Broderick Washington
Buccaneers at Panthers
Buccaneers: DL DeMonte Capehart, WR Emeka Egbuka, CB Ayden Garnes, T Luke Goedeke, G Billy Schrauth, S Antoine Winfield Jr.
Panthers: TE Ja’Tavion Sanders, LB Jaelan Phillips, QB Haynes King, RB AJ Dillon, C Sam Hecht, OT Stone Forsythe, DT TeRah Edwards
Colts at Vikings
Colts: LB Bryce Boettcher, LB CJ Allen, CB Sauce Gardner, TE Tyler Warren, WR Anthony Gould, G Dalton Tucker, QB Riley Leonard
Vikings: S Jakobe Thomas, QB Max Brosmer, CB Chuck Demmings, RB Demond Claiborne, OT Caleb Tiernan, DL Elijah Williams
Browns at Titans
Browns: QB Taylen Green, LB Justin Jefferson, CB Noah Igbinoghene, RB Audric Estime, DT Mike Hall Jr., C Parker Brailsford
Titans: WR Calvin Ridley, RB Tyjae Spears, RB Nick Singleton, TE Kylen Granson, OT Brandon Crenshaw-Dickson, DT Jackie Marshall, CB Jaylon Jones
With the Colts turning the page at the top of the front office — and possibly, in time, at the top of the coaching staff — the possibility of trading veteran players is on the table.
But with the deadline still 16 days away, and with most of three full weekends left to be played, it’s still too early to sell off contracts.
Via the Batman-and-Joker turned Batman-and-Robin of ESPNFL, the plan is to see whether the Colts can improve their 2-4 record in the coming three games against the Vikings, Jaguars, and Cowboys before deciding whether to trade away certain players.
The biggest name of the bunch belongs to running back Jonathan Taylor. Per the carefully (but also a little clunkily) worded report: “The Green Bay Packers, Seattle Seahawks, Denver Broncos and Vikings are among the teams that have, or are expected to, pondered the possibility of a trade for the star running back, according to sources.”
That feels like an effort by the Colts to maximize the market, in an effort to maximize the return. The more teams that are at the table, the more the Colts will get for their biggest star.
The Colts gave Taylor a new contract in the offseason, a two-year, $44 million extension. A trade would result in a 2027 cap charge of $10 million, and it would shift the final two years of his current deal to his next team, at a compensation package of $16.02 million for 2027 and $17.98 million in 2028. The deal also has $1 million in incentives attached to each of the final two seasons.
The Colts don’t have a first-round draft pick in 2027, thanks to the Sauce Gardner trade. Surely, they’d want at least that much for Taylor, especially after giving him a $15 million signing bonus when Taylor signed his extension.
Of the teams that were listed, the Vikings, Broncos, and Seahawks make the most sense. Each is a contender with an offense that would benefit from the presence of an elite tailback. The Packers, who are getting Josh Jacobs back today, make the least sense; adding them to the list seems to be nothing more than an effort to get the Vikings to give up a little more in an effort to ensure he won’t land with a viable division rival.
Other potential trade candidates mentioned by the report include veteran defensive tackle DeForest Buckner (who could go back to the 49ers, who traded him to the Colts), guard Quenton Nelson (who’s in the last year of his deal), and defensive tackle Grover Stewart.
Whatever the Colts do, or don’t do, at the trade deadline will impact the deck of cards the next G.M. has. Without knowing who the next G.M. will be, it’s impossible to know whether that person would prefer to have Taylor moving forward or whatever the Colts can get for him.
Regardless — and this is true for any team thinking about trading players before the deadline — the remaining weeks will be a factor. Some teams won’t be ready to make their moves until Week 9 has ended; in some cases, the final decision hinges on winning or losing in the last game before the window closes.
Entering Week 7, three teams are undefeated. If three teams exit Week 7 undefeated, it will be a rarity.
The 49ers take their 6-0 record to Atlanta. The 5-0 Chiefs face the Seahawks in Seattle. The 5-0 Vikings play the Colts in Minneapolis.
Via NBC Sports research, only twice since the merger have three or more teams been undefeated through seven weeks of a season (with the exception of the 1982 strike year).
In 2009, three teams were unbeaten through seven weeks: the Saints, Colts, and Broncos. In 2015, five teams were perfect through seven weeks: the Panthers, Packers, Broncos, Patriots, and Bengals.
On both occasions, two of the unbeaten teams through seven weeks made it to the Super Bowl. In 2009, it was the Colts and the Saints. In 2015, the Panthers and the Broncos played in the Super Bowl.
The 49ers last went 7-0 in 2019. That year, they made it to the Super Bowl, losing to the Chiefs. The Chiefs last went 6-0 in 2024, when they made it to the Super Bowl for the third straight year, losing to the Eagles. The Vikings last went 6-0 in 2009. They lost to the Saints in the NFC Championship.
