NFL Week 13 top storylines: Sam Darnold reunion, Shedeur Sanders’ next test – The New York Times

NFL
NFL Week 13
Sam Darnold faces his old team, while Shedeur Sanders has a bigger challenge ahead. Wesley Hitt / Getty Images
When it comes to the holidays, the NFL goes big. Thanksgiving week has meant football spread out over five days, with games on four of them.
The action kicked off Thursday with a Turkey Day tripleheader and continued with the Chicago Bears’ Black Friday win over the Philadelphia Eagles. Sunday features 11 more contests before everything wraps with Monday night’s New York Giants-New England Patriots matchup.
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With five of last year’s eight divisional leaders still trailing rivals as November winds down, things remain wide open and are shaping up for a high-pressure, wild and wacky mad dash to the finish.
Here are five of the most compelling storylines to follow this weekend.
At one point this season, the Texans appeared headed for disappointment, and the Indianapolis Colts looked like a surprise runaway winner of the AFC South. However, the Texans have weathered multiple storms to return to relevance and enter the weekend riding a three-game win streak. Meanwhile, the Colts have cooled off a bit, losing two of their last three games. Sunday, they’ll meet in Indianapolis, where the 6-5 Texans will try to maintain their momentum and pull the 8-3 Colts further into the pack.
Houston will get starting quarterback C.J. Stroud back from his three-game concussion-induced absence. Meanwhile, Daniel Jones, Jonathan Taylor and the Colts’ offense are bracing for a ferocious Texans defense that ranks first in the NFL. Last week, it thoroughly dominated the Josh Allen-led Buffalo Bills, recording eight sacks and three takeaways. Leading that defense are pass rushers Danielle Hunter (11 sacks) and Will Anderson Jr. (10.5 sacks).
Taylor has ranked among the leading MVP candidates this season and boasts a league-high 1,197 rushing yards and 15 rushing touchdowns. However, he is coming off one of his worst outings of the season after recording just 58 yards on 16 carries against the Kansas City Chiefs. Can Taylor get back on track this week, or will the Texans’ defensive front render him ineffective, make the Colts one-dimensional and ramp up the pressure on Jones? (Texans at Colts, 1 p.m. ET, Sunday, CBS)
Sanders got his first start for the Cleveland Browns last week and helped his team to a 24-10 win over the Las Vegas Raiders. In so doing, he became the first Browns rookie quarterback since 1995 to win his debut start, but the road only gets steeper from here.
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Not only do the San Francisco 49ers represent stiffer competition than did Las Vegas, 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh now has a full game’s worth of film on Sanders to dissect. The Browns would love to get their ground game going to ease pressure on their young quarterback. However, the 49ers rank among the better run defenses, holding teams to just 100.9 yards per game (tied for ninth-fewest), which could make things challenging for Cleveland’s offensive line and running backs Quinshon Judkins and Dylan Sampson.
Meanwhile, San Francisco’s offensive line will have its hands full with a Browns front anchored by Myles Garrett, who leads the NFL with 18 sacks and is closing in on Michael Strahan’s single-season record of 22.5. Garrett has averaged 3.25 sacks in his last four games. Standing in his way on Sunday is left tackle Trent Williams, a fellow future Hall of Famer. The last time they met was in 2023, and Williams held Garrett without a sack, although Garrett did record one quarterback hit.
Despite their rampant injuries, the 49ers have remained competitive and, at 8-4, find themselves in the thick of the playoff hunt. A major catalyst for an offense forced by injury to toggle between Brock Purdy and Mac Jones at quarterback is running back Christian McCaffrey, who entered Week 13 leading the NFL in scrimmage yards (1,581; 796 rushing, 785 receiving), rushing attempts (217) and receptions (81). McCaffrey’s 12 touchdowns (seven rushing, five receiving) are tied for third in the NFL. Last week, McCaffrey joined Larry Centers and Hall of Famer Marshall Faulk as the only running backs in league history to record 50 career games with 50 or more receiving yards.
Do the Browns have an answer for the three-time Pro Bowl selection? A win on Sunday can help them remain a step ahead of the Detroit Lions and in control of the final wild-card spot with four games left. (49ers at Browns, 1 p.m. ET, Sunday, CBS)
Old friends reunite on Sunday as the Minnesota Vikings pay Sam Darnold and his new team, the Seattle Seahawks, a visit. Darnold spent the 2024 season in Minnesota and enjoyed a career revival, posting a 14-3 record while putting up MVP-caliber numbers and helping the Vikings reach the postseason for the second time in five seasons. Despite that, the Vikings, who spent a first-round pick on J.J. McCarthy in 2024, opted against re-signing Darnold in free agency this past offseason. Now, he’s taken his big arm to Seattle, where he is 8-3 as a starter and directs an offense that leads the NFL in explosive plays.
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The Vikings do miss Darnold as McCarthy has taken his lumps in his first NFL action after missing all of last season to knee surgery. Minnesota owns a 4-7 record and entered the week ranked 28th in passing (180.2 yards per game) and 25th in scoring (20.4 points per contest), a year after finishing among the top 10 in both categories. McCarthy is coming off his worst game of the season (87 passing yards, zero touchdowns, two interceptions and a fumble in a 23-6 loss to the Green Bay Packers) and won’t play after entering the concussion protocol on Monday. Undrafted rookie Max Brosmer will start in his place.
Minnesota will need a strong performance from its defense to help contain Darnold. It’ll be interesting to see what aggressive defensive coordinator Brian Flores dials up, especially after seeing how Darnold struggled against a fierce Los Angeles Rams pass rush two weeks ago. Darnold threw four interceptions and, for only the second time all season, didn’t record a touchdown pass in that 21-19 loss to the Rams. Can the Vikings follow L.A.’s blueprint for containing Darnold? (Vikings at Seahawks, 4:05 p.m. ET, Sunday, Fox)
Two teams that initially led their divisions but now have begun trending in the wrong direction — the Bills and Pittsburgh Steelers — face off Sunday evening in the Steel City in what should feel like a playoff atmosphere.
Josh Allen and the Bills have lost two of their last three and, at 7-4, trail the New England Patriots by a healthy margin in the AFC East. They are currently clinging to the seventh and final spot in the conference playoff race.
Aaron Rodgers and the Steelers, meanwhile, saw their lead in the AFC North evaporate thanks to a 2-4 slide of their own and a 5-0 surge by the Baltimore Ravens, though they regained a half-game edge with the Ravens’ Thanksgiving night loss to the Cincinnati Bengals.
The Bills found themselves overwhelmed by a suffocating Texans defense last week, and they also struggled to get key stops on defense despite facing a backup quarterback in Davis Mills. Pittsburgh will get Rodgers back from a one-game injury-induced absence. The future Hall of Famer has directed an offense that has averaged 28.3 points per game during this 2-4 stretch. However, Pittsburgh’s defense continues to underachieve despite plentiful talent. The Steelers rank fifth in the NFL with 34 sacks, but they have surrendered an NFL-high 258.7 passing yards per game and, in these four losses, foes have averaged 31 points.
Will the Steelers defense serve as the get-right matchup for Allen and company? Or will the Pittsburgh unit that rocked the Colts for six turnovers and limited the Bengals to just 12 points show up and similarly harass the Bills? (Bills at Steelers, 4:25 p.m. ET, Sunday, CBS)
This time last year, the New England Patriots ranked among the worst in the league with a 3-9 record on their way to a 4-13 campaign that resulted in the firing of once-promising coach Jerod Mayo after just one season and the hiring of Mike Vrabel. Now, New England finds itself on a nine-game win streak with a 10-2 record and first place in the AFC.
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The Patriots, who hadn’t won 10 games in a season since 2021, lay their win streak on the line Monday night when they welcome the New York Giants to Foxboro. Balance has been key for Vrabel’s squad. New England is only the second team in NFL history to win nine straight games while scoring at least 23 points and holding opponents to 23 or fewer points in each of those contests. (The 1961 Houston Oilers were the first to do so.)
Meanwhile, the wheels continue to come off for the 2-10 Giants. Two weeks after firing head coach Brian Daboll and elevating offensive coordinator Mike Kafka to interim, the Giants fired defensive coordinator Shane Bowen. His dismissal came on the heels of a 34-27 overtime loss to the Detroit Lions — the Giants’ fifth one-score loss this season.
Rookie quarterback Jaxson Dart will return to the starting lineup after missing the last two games with a concussion. In his absence, Jameis Winston’s big arm and Kafka’s newfound freedom translated into offensive eruption last week as New York topped the 25-point mark for only the third time this season and amassed a season-high 517 yards.
Such success against a Patriots defense that holds teams to 301.2 yards and 18.8 points per contest could prove challenging, however. The Patriots very well could be improving their win total to 11 for the first time since 2019. (Giants at Patriots, 8:20 p.m. ET, Monday, ESPN)
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Mike Jones joined The Athletic as a national NFL writer in 2022 after five years at USA Today, where he covered the NFL, and eight years at The Washington Post, where he covered the Washington Commanders. He previously covered the Washington Wizards for The Washington Times. Mike is a native of Warrenton, Va.

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