The first month of the 2025 NFL season is in the books. The Dallas Cowboys are just below .500 with a 1-2-1 record. They’ll have to tighten up on defense to stay in the playoff hunt, but there’s still
time left to get that done. Given that, our Week 5 rooting guide remains optimistic of the Cowboys’ chances of making the tournament.
This next game is critical; the Jets are 0-4 and ripe for win total padding. If Dallas can’t take advantage of this matchup, they don’t deserve to be a playoff team. We may shift gears if they flop this Sunday and start focusing more on the draft order.
What about other NFC action this week? Here’s what we’re rooting for:
NFC East
- Broncos d. Eagles
- Chargers d. Commanders
- Saints d. Giants
The first two are no-brainers with our division rivals facing AFC teams. The Eagles may be out of Dallas’ realistic reach before long, but we’re still in the “you never know” phase of the season. If they do start running away with the NFC East, or at least get outside of Dallas’ range, we may end up rooting for Philly to beat other NFC teams in the wild card race. But we’re not there yet.
Whether they end up as division or wild card contenders, the Commanders are another obstacle we’ll need to get past. They should get Jayden Daniels back this week, but Los Angeles was 3-0 before a trap game loss to the Giants. They should be fully awake this Sunday, which could be problematic for Washington.
While we may be rooting for the Giants to win in future weeks, either to upset playoff contenders or to get ahead of them in the draft, we’d rather see the 0-4 Saints get their first victory. If we ever do end up shifting our attention to the 2026 draft, we want to be able to get ahead of as many teams as possible. So we can root for Kellen Moore to get his first win.
NFC vs NFC
- Rams d. 49ers
- Seahawks d. Buccaneers
All four teams are 3-1 going into this week, so these could go either way and help the Cowboys. But if you’re trying to figure out who’s the bigger threat going forward, the 49ers were 3-0 before a wonky day where they gave up four turnovers and a punt return TD to the Jaguars, and still only lost by six points. And with Brock Purdy having missed two games, this is a strong Frisco team that feels more dangerous than L.A. going forward.
We’re even more split on Seattle and Tampa. The Seahawks’ only loss so far was in Week 1 against the Niners, with Purdy playing. The Bucs just dropped their first game of 2025 against the Eagles. We’re slightly leaning toward Tampa as the bigger threat, as it may just be a matter of time before teams figure out how to frustrate Sam Darnold. We have more faith in Baker Mayfield’s chances of competing for the long haul.
NFC vs AFC
- Browns d. Vikings
- Dolphins d. Panthers
- Titans d. Cardinals
- Bengals d. Lions
The Bengals are teetering on collapse without Joe Burrow, while the Lions are 3-1. So while we’re still hoping for a playoff spot, Cincy hanging a loss on Detroit is the more desirable outcome.
With CLE-MIN and ARI-TEN, you have losing AFC teams going against NFC teams that are currently head of Dallas in the standings. So these are win-wins with the Browns and Titans, helping Dallas in NFC playoff contention but also in potential draft order with the AFC clubs.
With CAR-MIA, both teams are 1-3 so it’s kind of a wash. We’ll take the NFC team losing in that case, but it’s a minor tiebreaker.
AFC vs AFC
- Raiders d. Colts
- Texans d. Ravens
- Patriots d. Bills
- Chiefs d. Jaguars
These are solely for potential draft order help. AFC teams with worse records, or at least worse prospects going forward, beating their perceived betters. Some might argue that Kansas City will eventually surpass Jacksonville, but we’ll live in the present.
