The 2024 NFL season is in full swing now and Week 7 will once again offer an insight into who are the playoff contenders and who are the pretenders.
There are plenty of high-powered match-ups on Sunday’s slate of games, with the Chicago Bears and Dallas Cowboys on bye weeks.
Week 7 will also see the final game in London this season, with the New England Patriots traveling to face the Jacksonville Jaguars at Wembley Stadium, a week after the Jags lost in convincing fashion to the Bears at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
The week began with Sean Payton returning to New Orleans in successful fashion, with his Denver Broncos easily beating the Saints on Thursday Night Football, 33-10.
With a full slate of football from morning to night, here are the three games you don’t want to miss.
Houston Texans (5-1) vs. Green Bay Packers (4-2) – 1:00 p.m. ET
Sunday afternoon sees a match-up of two up-and-coming teams who have aspirations of a surprise Super Bowl run.
Both the Houston Texans and Green Bay Packers are led by quarterbacks in their second season in the role – CJ Stroud in Houston and Jordan Love in Green Bay – who have shown plenty of reasons to be optimistic.
Stroud has grown from his historic rookie campaign last year to be an accurate, error-proof quarterback, now furnished with a host of offensive options at his disposal.
The Texans have the fifth-best passing offense through six weeks, led by Stroud, although they will continue to be without No. 1 receiver Nico Collins, who is out with a hamstring injury.
Stroud will have to be at his best to avoid throwing an interception to Packers safety Xavier McKinney who leads the league with five picks.
Meanwhile, Love – despite missing two games with a knee injury – looks to have shaken off any rust and had his best game of the season in Week 6’s big victory over the Arizona Cardinals, throwing four touchdowns and only one interception.
The 25-year-old is helped by the second-best rushing offense in the league, particularly with summer acquisition Josh Jacobs fifth in the league in rushing yards with 464.
Sunday’s clash will see two of the most creative offensive minds come together too – Packers head coach Matt LaFleur and Texans offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik – which should make for a fascinating encounter.
On Thursday, Houston head coach DeMeco Ryans praised his opposite number, LaFleur, calling him a “really bright coach.”
“He does a really good job of just creating a lot of chaos when it comes to the pre-snap and I think that is where they gain a huge advantage,” Ryans told reporters. “You talk about the motions, the snap points, and just being able to have many various plays whether it is a run game or in a passing game.
“He really makes you work as a defense to communicate pre-snap, makes you work post-snap to really know who you are matching in coverage. It is a very difficult offense to defend because of so much moving and Matt has done a good job at that. His entire career, Matt has been the head coach there in Green Bay, he has had a top offense, and those guys have been in the playoffs so it is a credit to him and the work that he has done.”
Detroit Lions (4-1) vs. Minnesota Vikings (5-0) – 1:00 p.m. ET
It’s been a long while since this NFC North clash has had such big implications.
The Detroit Lions and Minnesota Vikings are two of the hottest teams in football at the moment, both with reasons for optimism.
For Detroit, it is the week-by-week improvement the team has shown so far, culminating in the Lions’ 47-9 Week 6 road demolishment of the Dallas Cowboys – the victory, though, did come with the likely season-ending injury to star defensive lineman Aidan Hutchinson.
For the Vikings, they come off their bye undefeated and with a quarterback and defense playing lights-out in their five victories.
Sam Darnold has come to embody the team’s magical start to the season, thrown straight into the deep end on the eve of Week 1 after an injury to first-round rookie JJ McCarthy but excelling in the limelight; according to ESPN, Darnold is the sixth-favorite to win the NFL MVP award.
The key clash of the game though could be how the Vikings defense tries to slow down the potent Lions offense with their bevy of weapons.
In their running back duo of Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery, receiver core of Amon-Ra St. Brown, Jameson Williams and Tim Patrick and star tight end Sam LaPorta, Detroit has been a tough team to slow down.
But Minnesota’s defense, led by coordinator Brian Flores, has provided consistent problems for opponents. The unit leads the NFL in interceptions (11) with its complex blitz packages confusing opposing quarterbacks.
But Lions QB Jared Goff said he is relishing the opportunity to face that potent defense.
“You just look at the film and you come up with a gameplan and get ready to go,” he said on Thursday. “I’ve got a lot of respect for coach Flores and, obviously, (Vikings head coach) Kevin (O’Connell) and those guys.
“They do a good job of getting those guys ready and I think what I’ve noticed, they’re extremely ball-aware – their defenders. … They know where the ball is, they’ve got their hands on the ball a lot, they’re putting their hands up at the line of scrimmage, they’re trying to knock balls down, they’re trying to bat balls up in the air, so it’s a challenge and it’ll be fun.”
With the NFC North boasting four potential playoff contenders, these in-division clashes could be decisive in who reaches the postseason.
There have been four instances in NFL history – before the current configuration of the league – where four teams from a division have made the playoffs, but there has never been a division in which every team has made the postseason.
Kansas City Chiefs (5-0) vs. San Francisco 49ers (3-3) – 4:25 p.m. ET
They have become two of the NFL’s juggernauts in recent years, but when it has really mattered, their rivalry has been rather one-sided.
The Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers have come to define the recent era of the NFL, with the two meeting in the Super Bowl twice in the last five years.
On both occasions, they have been thrilling encounters and, in both games, the Chiefs have prevailed.
Kansas City defeated San Francisco in Super Bowls LIV and LVIII in 2020 and 2024, with Andy Reid finding a way to out maneuver Kyle Shanahan on the opposite sideline.
Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes spoke about the teams’ recent rivalry ahead of their latest clash.
“I think when you have two great football teams that meet up in the Super Bowl and meet up in all these big games, there’s going to be a history between that,” he told reporters on Thursday.
“Obviously, we’ve been able to win those games, but we know how good this football team is, and we have a ton of respect for them. It’s not like one play couldn’t have changed all of these football games, and so we go in with that mindset of we just have to make the plays whenever they count.”
And in arguably the game of the year so far, the two teams will do battle again, this time in the regular season at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara.
The Chiefs travel to California well-rested after their bye week and as one of two undefeated teams left in the NFL.
The reigning Super Bowl champions have found ways to win this season – whether it be through their defense or manufacturing enough offense at just the right moments. But injuries are beginning to mount up for Kansas City.
Starting wide receivers Rashee Rice and Marquise Brown as well as running back Isiah Pacheco are all ruled out for the foreseeable future, meaning the team is increasingly relying on magic from Mahomes to survive.
The two-time NFL MVP will have his work cut out for him against a star-studded Niners defense loaded with impact players.
San Francisco has endured a somewhat stuttering start to the season, with three convincing victories and three surprising losses, leaving them at 3-3 after six weeks.
They have had to deal with their share of injuries too, with Deebo Samuel and George Kittle both missing time while star RB Christian McCaffrey has yet to feature this season.
A victory over Kansas City will once again stamp the 49ers mark on the NFC while a defeat could raise more question marks about their credentials against the biggest teams.
Full Week 7 Sunday schedule
Away @ home
New England Patriots (1-5) @ Jacksonville Jaguars (1-5) – 9:30 a.m. ET (in London, UK)
Seattle Seahawks (3-3) @ Atlanta Falcons (4-2) – 1:00 p.m. ET
Tennessee Titans (1-4) @ Buffalo Bills (4-2) – 1:00 p.m. ET
Cincinnati Bengals (2-4) @ Cleveland Browns (1-5) – 1:00 p.m. ET
Houston Texans (5-1) @ Green Bay Packers (4-2) – 1:00 p.m. ET
Miami Dolphins (2-3) @ Indianapolis Colts (3-3) – 1:00 p.m. ET
Detroit Lions (4-1) @ Minnesota Vikings (5-0) – 1:00 p.m. ET
Philadelphia Eagles (3-2) @ New York Giants (2-4) – 1:00 p.m. ET
Las Vegas Raiders (2-4) @ Los Angeles Rams (1-4) – 4:05 p.m. ET
Carolina Panthers (1-5) @ Washington Commanders (4-2) – 4:05 p.m. ET
Kansas City Chiefs (5-0) @ San Francisco 49ers (3-3) – 4:25 p.m. ET
New York Jets (2-4) @ Pittsburgh Steelers (4-2) – 8:20 p.m. ET