One of the big stories entering Week 7 was whether the NFL needed to move its first-ever Paris game due to civil unrest in the French capital. Weeks of protests have rocked Paris, with disturbing images leading many to argue that the NFL's presence was an unnecessary distraction, but the league powered forward and played the Steelers' 16-10 win over the Saints.

A lot of events surrounding the game, including fan experiences for both Pittsburgh and New Orleans, were postponed, but the game itself did go off. The NFL seems determined to keep pushing the envelope on its International Series, with commissioner Roger Goodell recently hinting that he wanted to play a game in Tokyo, Japan as soon as next season, but how much international football is too much?

The league's international situation is the focus of this week's NFL Skinny, which will also take a look at the biggest risers and fallers from another week of NFL action. Let's get started with our Big Skinny, which examines more on the league's foreign follies this season.

The Big Skinny: Has The NFL reached its international limit?

For most of its tenure, the NFL's International Series has felt like a joyous expansion of the sport's popularity worldwide. London has become a dedicated partner to the league, hosting three games a year and becoming a second home for the Jacksonville Jaguars, while past seasons have seen the NFL give games to Ireland, Spain, Mexico, Canada, Brazil and Germany.

Most of those games have gone off without a hitch, but this season seems to have a different incident in every game. Week 1's first-ever Melbourne game made headlines for the Los Angeles Rams' curious travel decision to essentially fly in the day before the game, where they got smoked by the San Francisco 49ers and helped potentially derail their season.

We also saw field concerns pop up in Week 3, prior to a Baltimore-Dallas showdown in Rio de Janeiro. The NFL sent its top field czar over to Brazil and they made sure the game was able to be played, but there were plenty of concerns involving player safety.

The Jalen Hurts saga largely revolved around the Eagles' trip to London, involving whether proper medical protocols were followed when Hurts developed blood clots that sidelined him for the season. Then there was the Paris game, which was pulled off without a hitch despite the fact the U.S. government has placed a Level 2 travel advisory on France due to the potential political unrests, which have developed into riots in certain areas.

It is true that the Saints-Steelers game was played in a part of Paris away from the primary demonstration zone, but the amount of security that is required to stage an NFL game is massive. It was certainly a questionable decision by the league to divert that many resources towards securing one football game given the current situation in France.

Aaron Rodgers also shared his gripes following the game, revealing that the NFL was discussing a full international week at one point before the owners pivoted to a 17th game instead. There hasn't been any corroboration on Rodgers' insights but Goodell has been aggressively pushing international expansion, aiming to hit the current CBA's maximum 10 international games next season with an aim towards reaching at least one new territory or city each year.

Aaron Rodgers claimed on Sunday that the 2020 CBA talks included the possibility of a 16-game "international week," with all teams playing in other countries in the same weekend. That was never a serious consideration, if it was ever even discussed. https://t.co/XSjExmPpaS

— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) October 26, 2026

The fact we have had this many issues pop up around this year's crop of games makes you wonder if we've hit the limit of what the NFL can successfully pull off internationally. Tokyo itself raises serious logistical questions in terms of time difference as well, which could require another bizarre arrangement of two teams going out to Japan in Week 1 and staging a game in the morning local time to fit a nationally televised audience into the broadcast window.

The NFL's current international expansion idea makes business sense but is raising a "they can do it, but should they?" dilemma here. Owners will undoubtedly push for up to 16 international games in the next CBA, which would theoretically see each team play one international matchup a year, but the adding logistical complications of such a plan are becoming quite evident.

Biggest NFL Risers after Week 7

Dallas Cowboys

The Philadelphia Eagles (who we'll discuss more in a minute) were clearly wounded entering Monday night's game against Dallas and it was good to see the Cowboys take advantage. A 38-21 win helped Dallas improve to 3-4 on the season and secure an important second NFC East win, moving them to within a game and a half of the 4-2-1 Giants.

That Week 1 win for New York is the key separator in the division, but the mountain injury concerns that the Giants have could open the door for a Dallas heater to pass them in the long run. The teams meet again in Jerry World in Week 17 and the dominance the Cowboys showed in the second half could prove to be a sign they're ready to pounce in a down division.

The North

There is no doubt that the toughest divisions in the NFL are both Norths (AFC and NFC), with all eight teams in them entering Week 8 above .500. The low squads are 4-3 Baltimore and 4-3 Green Bay, respectively, which goes to show how tough the sledding will be for these teams to fight for a postseason berth.

We have never seen a division place all four of its teams in the playoffs in a given season, which makes sense since they beat up on each other too much to usually push someone to the bottom. Given the mediocre state of the rest of the league, especially in an NFC where only three teams outside the North are above .500, and it is certainly possible to find a way to get all of them into the postseason.

Sam Darnold

A visit from the Kansas City Chiefs and old friend Kenneth Walker raised the heat on the Seahawks, who had played uneven 3-3 football through six games, but Darnold stepped up in a big way against a strong defense. Darnold was much more efficient with the football on Sunday night, completing 20-of-28 passes for 257 yards with a touchdown and an interception in a 20-3 win over the Chiefs.

The big key for Darnold was avoiding big mistakes, with his one interception coming deep enough in Kansas City territory for the Dark Side defense to pick him up. Feeding Jaxon Smith-Njigba the ball was also a good call as he caught 9 passes for 150 yards and a score with no one on Kansas City able to keep him in front of them all night.

Biggest NFL Fallers after Week 7

Philadelphia Eagles

Things seem to be going from bad to worse for the Eagles, who cannot move the ball enough to take advantage of a solid defense. Saquon Barkley tried to gut through a hamstring injury on Monday night but was clearly hampered by it, making the situation untenable when backup Dameon Pierce left with his own injury in the fourth quarter, leaving practice squad call-up Elijah Mitchell as the only healthy runner at the end of the game.

Philadelphia is now 2-5 and in the middle of a three-game NFC East run with Sunday night's trip to Washington and a home game against the Giants on tap. Dropping both would all but end the Eagles' season at 2-7 and potentially cost Nick Sirianni his job as a scapegoat for a disastrous year.

Indianapolis Colts

The firing of Chris Ballard didn't do much to change the fortune of the Colts, who lost again on Sunday when they dropped a 16-10 contest to the Minnesota Vikings. Even though the AFC South is theoretically in play as the first place Jaguars are only 4-2, Indianapolis began the process of waving the white flag on their season by trading pending free agent Quenton Nelson to the Seattle Seahawks on Tuesday.

Compensation update; The Seahawks are sending a 2027 third-round pick and 2028 fifth-round round pick to the Colts in exchange for Quenton Nelson. https://t.co/17B0bR47yV

— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) October 27, 2026

The deal seemingly marked the start of a fire sale for Indianapolis as DeForest Buckner was dealt to the 49ers on Tuesday as well. Running back Jonathan Taylor could be next if the price is right. It's not ideal to be ripping things down to the studs when they don't even have a first round pick (it's headed to New York as the final piece of the ill-fated Sauce Gardner trade with the Jets), but interim GM Ed Dodds has clearly decided it's better to get some assets for pending free agents like Nelson instead of watching them walk out the door for nothing.

Kirk Cousins

The Kirk Cousins era in Las Vegas had a clear expiration date with top pick Fernando Mendoza waiting in the wings, but he appeared to extend it by playing solid quarterback to begin the season. Things have unraveled for the Raiders since as they have lost four straight while Cousins has regressed, completing less than 60 percent of his passes in three of those games while committing a few ill-timed turnovers.

Head coach Klint Kubiak backed Cousins this week, giving him another start against a struggling Jets' team, but a brutal four-game slate (at San Francisco, Seattle, at Denver, at Cleveland) following that game could allow the Raiders to soft launch the Mendoza era following their bye if Cousins can't right the ship.

Week 7 Game Balls

MVP: Jared Goff

The Lions picked up a key divisional win on Sunday thanks in part to Goff, who picked apart a Green Bay defense working hard to stop Jahmyr Gibbs. Goff completed 22-of-32 passes for 303 yards and two touchdowns, averaging a whopping 9.5 yards per attempt, to help Detroit improve to 4-2 on the season.

LVP: Bryce Young

All the momentum Young had been building over the past year and a half came to a crashing halt on Sunday as he was a complete disaster against the Buccaneers. A bad offensive line performance didn't help as Young was sacked five times, but he short-circuited several promising drives with three turnovers, leading to a blowout that put a massive crimp in Carolina's attempt to seize control of the NFC South.