Brock Bowers and Justin Jefferson are among those involved in some of the biggest positional matchup the NFL has to offer in Week 9.
Nine from New York … and beyond … it’s Sunday morning and afternoon, as well as a little Monday night, in the NFL.
With 18 weeks now on the league docket, the end of Week 9 essentially serves as the midway point of gridiron gains and losses alike. To the delight of the adoring viewing public, the playoff picture is hardly any clearer from when things kicked off: in addition to the 14 teams currently stationed on the playoff bracket, nine other teams are within two games of getting their own ticket.
Top NFL Positional Matchups To Watch In Week 9
Looking Back: Last week’s top individual matchups
Plenty of individual battles will determine the fate of the midway point’s playoff picture and beyond, but five in particular stand out …
Jared Verse gets slammed https://t.co/dBLCQ54brG
— Underdog NFL (@UnderdogNFL) November 1, 2026
OT Kelvin Banks vs. EDGE Jared Verse
Cleveland Browns at New Orleans Saints, 1 p.m. ET, CBS
Being stuck at two wins as your sweet Halloween haul dwindles is usually a sign that you should be preparing for next season. The pratfall nature of the NFC South, however, ensures that the New Orleans Saints can realistically insist on selling playoff tickets until further notice.
Sitting just a game behind first-place Carolina, the Saints get a pair of adrenalin shots with Kelvin Banks and a debuting Jordyn Tyson both coming off the injured reserve. That should provide a jolt to a meandering offense that has struggled to build on the momentum established late last season but the road back to relevancy comes against a Browns team looking to atone for last week’s divisional disappointment.
As inspiring as this season has been for those of the blank helmets, the Browns haven’t been able to make up for the loss of Myles Garrett. Jared Verse, who currently stands as the only asset acquired from that deal with a name and face, has yet to register a sack this season and is coming off a brutal showing against the Pittsburgh Steelers after spending the week claiming to be unafraid of Cam Hayward and Co. Verse was also the victim of tough takedown on a field goal but seemed to be more irked about the lack of Brown support in the aftermath.
While it’s way too early to call a winner of the Garrett trade (especially since Garrett has played but one game for the meandering Los Angeles Rams), Sunday feels like it carries a foreboding sense of now or never for Verse considering what he has to make up for.
Sauce Gardner Week 8 Vs The Jacksonville Jaguars ( 3 Tackles 2pbus) https://t.co/ilihaYogNN
— Grizzdasmoker (@glo_jeremiah) November 1, 2026
CB Sauce Gardner vs. WR George Pickens
Dallas Cowboys @ Indianapolis Colts, 1 p.m. ET, FOX
No matter who loses here, the New York Jets win: with the 2026 trade deadline approaching, one can’t help but look back on the business that the Colts and Cowboys engaged in with the New York Jets the last time around.
Both Sauce Gardner and George Pickens were involved in the respective blueprint that each team drew up when they called New York: Gardner had a direct role in the proceedings, as he was brought in through a deal that sacrificed Adonai Mitchell and two first-round picks. The Cowboys got Quinnen Williams in their own swap and the supposedly improved defense perhaps convinced Pickens to sign his franchise tag. Neither plan of contention has bloomed and both sides enter their interconference clash in an awkward spot.
Dallas enters this game with more to lose: it is still somehow within striking distance of a division title while the Colts are at the precipice of a full-on fire sale. Conventional draft logic suggests that the Colts are tanking but they’re a team with nothing to lose because they don’t have the comfort of their first-round pick to console them in this lost campaign. Indianapolis thus needs any kind of good vibe going into an uncertain future and watching Gardner take Pickens off his game be a sterling start for whatever this new era is supposed to be. Update: Pickens has been ruled out for Sunday’s game.
1st & 10, screen to TE Brock Bowers. Bowers initially steps down to block DE, Glaze pulls with the play-action, before slipping out. Bowers does good job creating good angle for Smith to get him ball. JPJ and Meredith lead blockers, Tucker downfield. #RaiderNation https://t.co/0LqBQ1OdIs
— Ryan Holmes (@Rholm22) September 30, 2025
EDGE Nick Bosa vs. TE Brock Bowers
Las Vegas Raiders @ San Francisco 49ers, 4:25 p.m. ET, FOX
The Raiders are back in the AFC playoff hunt after winning a joust with the Jets that turned out to be far more entertaining than it had any right to be. Their reward is facing a 49ers team that has not only had an extra week to stew over a trip to Atlanta that removed them from the ranks of the unbeaten but is also getting back Nick Bosa after five games out with a calf injury.
It’s thus all hands on deck for the Raiders, who will likely explore any and all avenues to contain Bosa, who had no issues getting into the Rams back field during his only full game of service in Melbourne in Week 1. San Francisco kept the pass rush fort reasonably maintained while he was out and welcomed back old friend DeForest Buckner back from the sinking ship in Indianapolis.
Advanced metrics have Brock Bowers hovering in the upper third of tight end blocking grades. Frankly his best efforts could come on the ground: Bosa’s return could potentially have Bowers taking a bigger blocking role on the outside, especially as the Raiders try to further establish a run game where Mike Washington Jr. is starting to get the better carries over Ashton Jeanty. Las Vegas has lost each game where Kirk Cousins climbs the 300-yard plateau but is a perfect 3-0 when it gets at least 95 on the ground.
Pop Douglas TD! 21 unanswered points in the second half for the @Patriots. NEvsMIA on CBS/Paramount+ Stream on @NFLPlus https://t.co/iJTf7W2lDs
— NFL (@NFL) November 1, 2026
S Javon Bullard vs. WR DeMario Douglas
Green Bay Packers @ New England Patriots, 4:25 p.m. ET, FOX
With Jordan Love and Drake Maye, two of the more fanatical flingers in the league, doing battle in front of Tom Brady and the top FOX crew, offensive fireworks could be well on display in the late slot. A good bit of Brady’s attention will no doubt go to the holy war between Christian Gonzalez and Christian Watson.
Maye, however, goes into this game without his top two targets: ex-Packer Romeo Doubs is on IR while A.J. Brown is back in the medical reports with a knee issue. Even with veteran Mack Hollins returning, it figures to be a busy Foxborough fracas for DeMario Douglas, who has benefitted from the Patriots’ 3-1 surge: he has 4 touchdowns to match the quartet and has caught 85% of his targets in that span, second in the league (min. 20 targets) by two-tenths of a percentage point to only Chicago breakout Luther Burden.
That puts the onus on the Packers’ slot/safety hybrid man Javon Bullard, who is in the midst of a career-year since establishing himself as an indispensable part of the defense: quarterbacks are just 55.3% successful when aiming for Bullard targets (nearly 23 full percentage points lower than last year’s output) and he has put up 7 pass breakups while displaying a newfound propensity to blitz. Douglas has been hard to chase down when he does get his hands on the ball: he’s credited with 85 yards after the catch over the last four games after getting just 31 in the opening half of this year to date.
JUSTIN JEFFERSON OH MY MINvsDET on FOX/FOX One Stream on @NFLPlus https://t.co/DUTDY0f59E
— NFL (@NFL) November 1, 2026
CB Christian Benford vs. WR Justin Jefferson
Buffalo Bills @ Minnesota Vikings, 8:15 p.m. ET, ESPN (Monday)
Rumors of Justin Jefferson‘s demise, it appears, were greatly exaggerated: the big play staple reintroduced himself to the highlight reel with an acrobatic grab against the Lions last week. That, however, wasn’t enough to keep the Vikings’ perfect season rolling and the road to recovery traverses through several dangerous opponents, such as the ever-potent Bills.
While Minnesota appears committed to the Kyler Murray bit, Jefferson has formed uncanny, if not undeniable, chemistry with Monday starter Carson Wentz. In small, yet similar, sample sizes (seven starts with Wentz and five with Murray), he’s averaging over 33 more yards with Wentz throwing to him and his best game this season came when Wentz stepped in for an injured Murray and gave him 2 scores during the Week 1 win over Green Bay.
Tasked with jamming Jefferson this time around will likely be Christian Benford, one of the leftovers from a Bills team that had to witness the All-Pro playmaker put up 193 yards in an Orchard Park classic back in 2022. Benford has had a middling campaign as CB1 in what’s been an eccentric year for the Buffalo secondary so a quest against Jefferson could be a great test of whether he’s ready for the big times that the Bills inevitably find themselves in.
Geoff Magliocchetti is on X @GeoffJMags
