Week 6 handed the league a quarterback back, a pass rusher still gone, and a game in Paris that's happening whether anyone is comfortable with it. Here's what actually mattered.
Caleb Williams threw a touchdown on his first possession back from the hamstring injury that had kept him out since Week 2, and the report says he showed no sign of it. The health was never the hard part. The rhythm is. A quarterback who misses that much time usually comes back checking his legs before he trusts them, and the ball comes out late. Williams didn't look like that. My read: the risk now isn't the hamstring, it's a young passer who thinks every drive should look like the first one, and the turnover benders that follow when it doesn't. Watch his next few series next week, not his first.
San Francisco ruled Nick Bosa out for Monday night against the Washington Commanders and is still hopeful on Mike Evans and Kyle Juszczyk. Bosa is the one absence the 49ers can't scheme around. He's the pressure that makes the rest of that front look faster than it is. The Evans and Juszczyk half of the report is the underrated part: a fullback who blocks and a receiver who wins on schedule are exactly how you keep a shorthanded defense off the field. That's the survival plan Monday. I expect a heavier play-action and personnel-group mix from the 49ers, and I expect them to win with it.
Houston lost starting safety Reed Blankenship to a concussion in the second quarter of the London game against the Jacksonville Jaguars. Concussions are not week-to-week in any honest sense. The protocol decides, not the training staff's optimism, and the Texans' coverage gets a hole in the middle of the field until he clears. That's the area where a safety's communication matters more than his range, and it's the area opposing offenses probe first.
The NFL says Steelers-Saints in Paris is still on despite civil unrest and protests in France. This is the bill for building a season around international inventory. The league controls the stadium, the hotels, the buses. It does not control the city. My read is that the game gets played, and the NFL's real exposure here is reputational rather than operational. One incident in Paris turns into a referendum on the whole international series, and the league has scheduled far too many of these games to win that argument twice.
Week 6 lines are out for the full slate, including Chargers-Chiefs and Packers-Cowboys. I'll plant a flag: Packers-Cowboys will draw the money and the worse number, because brand matchups always do. Chargers-Chiefs is the game where the market has less room to be lazy. If you're playing one, play the one where the price is doing the work.
Jacksonville can start 5-1 for the first time in 27 years, and it would do it on a second consecutive London trip. The travel tax is real for most clubs and close to theoretical for this one. The Jaguars have treated London like a home date for years. My expectation is they get to 5-1, and the conversation shifts from cute start to division problem. If they lose, the same people will call the London stretch an excuse. Wrong then, wrong now.
Team president Mark Lamping said the Jaguars are unlikely to play three international home games in 2027 while EverBank Stadium renovations continue. Least glamorous item of the day, most revealing. The renovation calendar is now dictating football decisions in Jacksonville, and Lamping is pre-emptively lowering an expectation the league would rather he keep quiet. My read: the Jaguars end up with a smaller international footprint in 2027 than the NFL wants, and the scheduling office eats it because a stadium build outranks a September gate in London. That costs Jacksonville neutral-site comfort it has spent years accumulating.