NFL Top 10 Moments of 2025: Chiefs Fall, Rivers Returns, Shedeur Sanders Slides

The downfall of the dominant team of the decade. A massive draft slide for a purported top quarterback prospect. The shocking trade of a generational talent.

Many of the most notable NFL events in 2025 would be best described as stunning or jaw-dropping. There was no shortage of developments that drastically impacted the league in the short term and whose effects will be felt for years to come. 

Before we ring in the new calendar year, let's recap the NFL's Top 10 Defining Moments of 2025:

In one of the most stunning regular-season games of the 2025 calendar year, the Bears overcame a 10-point deficit with under three minutes to play to send the contest to overtime. That's when quarterback Caleb Williams hit veteran receiver DJ Moore with a walk-off, 46-yard touchdown pass, sending Soldier Field into a frenzy. Chicago's thrilling victory over the NFC North-rival Packers allowed the upstart Bears to take control of its destiny in the division.

After losing starting quarterback Daniel Jones to a torn Achilles, the Colts stunned the NFL world by signing 44-year-old Philip Rivers — a grandfather who’d been retired for four-plus seasons — as his replacement in an attempt to keep their playoff hopes alive.

That effort fell short, but Rivers turned out to be more than serviceable in his return. In a Week 16 loss to San Francisco on Monday Night Football, he gave the short-handed Colts a chance by throwing for 277 yards and two touchdowns against one interception. In his first game with Indy this season, his first action since January 2021, Rivers threw a touchdown pass and led a go-ahead field goal drive in the final minute in a narrow Week 15 road loss to the Seahawks, one of the best teams in football.

In three games, Rivers