NFL Research spotlights the best nuggets from each slate of games. Here are the most eye-popping statistical accomplishments from Week 12 of the 2025 season.
1) Gibbs is closing in on Lions legend
Jahmyr Gibbs has become the premier touchdown scorer in the NFL. Since being drafted out of Alabama in 2023, Gibbs leads the NFL with 44 touchdowns. In Week 12 against the Giants, Gibbs added three more, including a 69-yard run in overtime to set up a 34-27 win.
Gibbs finished with 15 carries for 219 yards and two touchdowns, plus 11 receptions for 45 yards and another score. No context is needed to know this is an all-time stat line -- but here's some anyways:
Gibbs became the second player to rush for at least 200 yards and have at least 10 receptions in the same game, joining Hall of Famer LaDainian Tomlinson, who did so in 2002 against the Broncos. Gibbs also became the first Lions player to rush for at least 200 yards in a game since Barry Sanders did so twice during his 1997 MVP campaign.
The 44 touchdowns referenced earlier are tied with Randy Moss for the second-most touchdowns by any player in NFL history prior to their 24th birthday. Standing alone atop that list? Sanders, with 47 touchdowns. Gibbs, who doesn't turn 24 until March, has the rest of the season to surpass the Lions legend for that all-time record.
Including playoffs, this was the 13th game in Gibbs' career in which he scored multiple touchdowns, which ties him with Jim Brown and Rob Gronkowski for the most such games by a player prior to their 24th birthday.
Also, according to Next Gen Stats, he is very fast. Three of the top four speeds by ball carriers in 2025 belong to the Lions running back.
2) Smith-Njigba sets Seahawks record, eyes NFL one next
Jaxon Smith-Njigba set a new Seahawks single-season record for receiving yards in just his 11th game of the 2025 campaign.
In 1987, Hall of Famer Steve Largent led the NFL with 1,287 receiving yards. That output stood as the Seahawks single-season record until DK Metcalf broke it in 2020 with his 1,303 receiving yards. Five seasons later (and just months after Seattle traded away Metcalf), the Seahawks have a new single-season record holder.
In Week 11, Smith-Njigba became the first player in NFL history to record at least 75 receiving yards in each of his first 10 games in a season. In Week 12, he followed that up with a season-best 167 yards and two TDs against the Titans. He joined Hall of Famer Marvin Harrison (2002) and his teammate Cooper Kupp (2021) as the only players in NFL history with 11 consecutive games of 75-plus receiving yards at any point in a season.
Smith-Njigba's 1,313 receiving yards are the third most in the Super Bowl by a player through their first 11 games played in a season, trailing only Josh Gordon (1,400 in 2013) and Tyreek Hill (1,324 in 2023). The gap of 259 receiving yards between JSN and George Pickens, who ranks second in the league with 1,054 yards, is the largest after 12 weeks in the Super Bowl era -- surpassing Hill's 207-yard advantage over Keenan Allen in 2023.
To make this all the more impressive: The Seahawks have been the most run-heavy team in the NFL, with over 51 percent of their offensive snaps being run plays. No player in the Super Bowl era has ever led the NFL in receiving yards while playing for the team with the lowest passing rate in the league.
Smith-Njigba is on pace for 2,029 receiving yards with six games to play, which would break Hall of Famer Calvin Johnson Jr.'s record and make the Seahawks wideout the first player in NFL history with 2,000 receiving yards in a season.
3) Garrett's hot streak has him in position to obliterate sack record
Myles Garrett had another big day, and this time it came with a win. While the Browns' 24-10 victory over the Raiders will be remembered as the first of Shedeur Sanders' career, it was the Cleveland's 10 sacks -- particularly the three by Garrett -- that stood out statistically.
Garrett led the Browns with the aforementioned three sacks, six QB hits, four tackles for loss, and a pair of forced fumbles. According to Next Gen Stats, four of Garrett's eight pressures on the day came in the fourth quarter.
Week 12 marked the third game of the season in which Garrett had at least three sacks, all of which have come within his last four outings. Only Hall of Famer Lawrence Taylor has had more games with three sacks in a season (4; 1986).
Garrett has 14 sacks over the course of his last five games, which matches his total from the entire 2024 season, when he ranked second in the NFL. Those 14 sacks since Week 7 broke Hall of Famer Michael Strahan's record for the most sacks in a five-game span. Strahan had 12.5 sacks over the course of five games in 2001, the same season he broke the single-season sack record. Garrett, with his 18 sacks on the year, is in position to smash Strahan and T.J. Watt's (2021) shared record of 22.5 sacks -- the 2023 Defensive Player of the Year is on pace to finish with an absurd 28 sacks this season.
4) Winston's game puts him on par with pair of G.O.A.T.s
The Giants made things interesting in Detroit, taking the Lions to overtime but ultimately losing, 34-27, to fall to 2-10 on the season.
Jameis Winston made his second start for Big Blue and put together a ridiculous stat line in the process, throwing for 366 yards and two touchdowns and catching a 33-yard touchdown from Gunner Olszewski in what might wind up as the play of the season.
Winston became the second player in the Super Bowl era to record at least 300 yards passing and 30 yards receiving in the same game, joining Tom Brady, who did so in a 2015 loss to the Eagles.
Not to force another G.O.A.T. connection, but there is one: Winston became the second player in the last 40 seasons to average at least 10 yards per pass attempt, 30 yards per reception and account for three touchdowns in a game. The other player? Hall of Famer Jerry Rice, in 1986 versus the Cardinals.
5) Patriots CB Jones joins "Prime Time"
Marcus Jones burst onto the scene in 2022 to earn First-Team All-Pro honors as a punt returner. Also an everyday defensive back for the Patriots four seasons into his NFL career, from time to time he creates opportunities outside the return game to showcase his ability to make house calls.
Week 12 presented another one of those chances, as Jones took a Joe Flacco pass 33 yards for a pick-six. It was the second interception returned for a touchdown in Jones' career, bringing his career TD total up to five (he also has two punt returns TD and a receiving TD).
Jones became the second player in the Super Bowl era to register multiple pick-sixes, multiple punt return touchdowns and at least one receiving touchdown in his career, joining Deion Sanders on that exclusive list.
6) Colts pass rusher Latu continues his breakout campaign
Pass rusher Laiatu Latu is enjoying a breakout sophomore season. Latu not only leads the Colts with six sacks and three interceptions, but he's the first player in Colts history with six-plus sacks and three-plus interceptions in a single season.
Latu has an opportunity to become the first player since at least 1982 to lead his team outright in both sacks and interceptions in the same season. (Pittsburgh's T.J. Watt also has a possibility of earning that distinction, as he's currently tied for the most interceptions on the Steelers with one and has a team-high seven sacks.)
In Week 12 against the Chiefs, Latu joined rare company with his sixth sack and third interception of the season. Since 1990, he is just the third defensive lineman to record at least three interceptions in a season, joining Aidan Hutchinsonin 2022 and Hall of Famer Richard Dent in 1990.
