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BERLIN — Above the Savignyplatz train station in Berlin looms a massive mural, four stories high and a city block wide, heralding the arrival of the NFL in Germany’s capital. In the graffiti-ringed mural, Bjorn Werner, a former Colts defensive end and a Berlin native, looks like he’s taking a line to bring down Godzilla. But it’s the mural’s other figure — a massive, hairy beast with the head and claws of a bear and the brawny arms and legs of a dual-threat quarterback — is the centerpiece, not just of the mural but of the NFL’s entire international effort.

The bear is the symbol of Berlin itself, and this particular bear-man sports a helmet with the NFL’s shield on its side. In a city where art and architecture carry deep symbolic weight, the message is clear and unmistakable — the NFL is lining up alongside Berlin, and woe to those soccer squads and exotic race car drivers who stand in their way.

Every NFL International Series game is now a mini-Super Bowl, a multi-day extravaganza celebrating and promoting American football. If you want a look at the future of the NFL outside the United States, don’t look on the field … look on the streets here in Berlin, where there's shield branding and merch-laden shops and kids running go routes in front of the Brandenburg Gate, a bring-the-house blitz of activation to make this game not just a game, but a happening.

“Replicating a Super Bowl-inspired week of programming, city takeovers, halftime performances and a robust game day experience is very intentional,” NFL SVP Jon Barker, Global Head of Major Events and International Games, told Yahoo Sports in an email. “We want to make these games special for our international fans and for our fans travelling over from the U.S.”

The NFL is exporting a whole lot more than just football, and its aims are much larger than just bringing first downs and field goals to the worldwide masses.

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NFL vs. F1?

The NFL long ago demolished competition from any stateside rival leagues like the NBA and Major League Baseball. Now, the NFL has its eyes on becoming a major international player, exporting the game in the manner of Premier League soccer and Formula 1. Will the Chiefs’ arrowhead or the Eagles’ wing one day possess the international awareness and fandom of, say, the Arsenal cannon or the Ferrari prancing horse? That’s yet to be determined, but the NFL is going all-in with its aims of exporting the game.

Previous NFL international attempts have struggled due to unstable foreign markets, inconsistent league efforts and player pushback. The NFL's most widespread and longest-lasting attempt, the World League of American Football, lasted roughly 16 years and went through multiple name changes, including NFL Europe, before folding in 2007. (Kurt Warner, Adam Vinatieri and Jake Delhomme all played in NFL Europe at one point in their careers.)

Since then, the league has focused on playing games in international markets ranging from Europe to Mexico to South America, with Australia on the docket for 2026. The league had previously capped the number of potential international games at four, but starting in 2024, the league upped that number to as many as eight. This year, the NFL will play six games internationally, its highest number to date. Locales in 2025 have ranged from Dublin to São Paulo to London to the season’s final two international games, this weekend in Berlin and next weekend in Madrid.

(Trivia: You probably already know the team that’s played the most international games — the Jaguars, 14 times including this season — but which team has played the fewest? That would be America’s Team, the Dallas Cowboys, who have played just once outside of the United States. Washington also has only played once overseas, but is scheduled for next week in Madrid.)

This weekend’s Colts vs. Falcons game in Berlin — the first regular-season NFL game ever in the nation’s capital — is of particular significance to the NFL.

“Germany has a rich history of American football,” NFL Germany CEO Alex Steinforth told Yahoo Sports. “It dates back to the post-Second World War and American troops bringing over the game. It was one of the first markets outside of North America that ever established a local league. The German football League is live since the ‘70s.”

Since then, Germany has long been one of the NFL’s most reliable and durable markets, with more than 20 million self-described NFL fans in a nation of 82 million — the largest fanbase in Europe. By the time NFL Europe ceased operations, the league featured five teams in Germany and one in the Netherlands.

“You have to be super passionate to get up in the middle of the night to follow your team,” says Steinforth of German fans. “It’s an interesting merger of German fan culture. … It brings together the best of both worlds. You have fans that have only recently joined the sport, you have fans who started watching the ‘70s or ‘80s when they went to the U.S. for a high school year, and then you have lots of people who joined us during the NFL Europe days. On average we can say the age of a football fan is significantly younger than in the U.S. It’s a sport that’s very popular especially among the younger demos, 15 to 39.”

Berlin itself hosted a number of preseason games in the early 1990s in the immediate aftermath of the fall of the Berlin Wall; the league has enough history in the city that, for a 1990 Rams-Chiefs preseason game, the city was still known as “West Berlin.” Germany as a whole has hosted five games since the 2022 season, two in Frankfurt and two in Munich in addition to Sunday’s game.

“A majority of people still identify themselves as fans of the league rather than fans of a team,” Steinforth says. “So you can get into this market as a team and really grow new fans. That is much more difficult in a more established market like the U.S., where (fandom) gets passed on from one generation to another.”

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Will the world embrace the NFL?

Looming over all this international pomp and circumstance is a single, dominating question: Will this work? Will NFL football connect with international audiences the way it has with American ones? Football is a uniquely American sport; its combination of violence and frequent ad breaks can be jarring to audiences accustomed to, say, the constant action and embedded advertising of a soccer match. Yes, it’s fun to don the uniform of a new team and proclaim yourself a fan of the Patriots or Rams or (heaven help you) the Jets, but will that translate to the kind of lifelong fandom that soccer clubs enjoy?

Barker believes so. “The beauty of NFL football lies in its captivating unpredictability. It’s a powerful blend of strategy, intensity and emotion,” he says. “Every play lasts only seconds, yet it can redefine the entire game. There’s a remarkable tension between structure and spontaneity: coaches and players executing complex plans that, in an instant, hinge on instinct and precision.”

The NFL only needs to look at the way that soccer has wrapped itself around the DNA of European countries as a guideline. European crowds bring a unified euphoria to a stadium that even the most raucous Packers or Cowboys fans can’t match. 

“At international games, something that is always fun to see is the sea of NFL jerseys in every crowd. Fans come repping their teams — which tend to include a complete variety of all 32 clubs,” Barker says. “As fans become more knowledgeable about our game, international games now feel increasingly like a home game for participating teams. The energy across every international game is unique and inspiring.”

Europe’s stadium-wide unity is bred around the soccer pitch and now applied to an NFL game … and that’s exactly what the league would like to commandeer and redirect. It’s why the league has created a Global Markets program, where teams can build their fanbases through a series of international events. Eleven teams — the Falcons and Colts, plus the Panthers, Lions, Packers, Chiefs, Patriots, Giants, Steelers, Seahawks and Buccaneers — all have a presence in Germany, and all will have representation in Berlin this weekend at fan events.

The league is also hoping to snag international fans when they’re still international kids. It’s why the NFL now places such an emphasis on flag football in its various host-city outreaches; it’s a whole lot easier to introduce a new sport to a country if that sport involves running rather than smashing.

The international conundrum: When to kick off?

One logistical challenge for the NFL in its international expansion efforts is the increasing time difference between potential host cities and the league’s domestic fanbase. There are three factors to consider here:

• By placing games in Western Europe, 5 to 6 hours ahead of U.S. time, the NFL effectively creates an entire new fourth block of football — Sunday mornings — that’s simply not realistic if you’re playing all your games stateside.

• The further away from the East Coast you go, the more you have to inconvenience the host fans. This is the problem the Olympics often faces: Do you put on your marquee event in the morning so that it’s on in prime time in America? A Western Europe start of 3:30 p.m. (9:30 a.m. ET) isn’t a huge sacrifice, but Australian audiences might face an 11:00 a.m. Monday kickoff for a game that would air at 8:00 p.m. ET Sunday night.

• On the flip side, the NFL could adopt the F1 approach, which is to say: cater to the host fans and let those in the rest of the world set their alarms. This works for F1 because of its globally dispersed fanbase; this might not play so well in, say, Pittsburgh if fans have to get up at 3:00 a.m. to watch the Steelers. But that sort of host-based scheduling does have the effect of targeting a new market in its prime time, while assuming — probably correctly — that one game’s worth of inconvenience isn’t going to cost the league its stateside fans.

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The NFL’s worldwide party

The league is now deeply committed to spreading the NFL gospel to its host nations. For instance, this week in Berlin, the NFL has held flag football clinics and a Special Olympics Flag Football tournament. The Colts and the NFL contributed to the creation of a new elementary school playground. Both teams have dedicated pubs focusing on their new fans, complete with team-relevant experiences — the Falcons’ pub features Atlanta-style lemon pepper wet chicken wings and mac n’ cheese. (How that tastes filtered through German sensibilities is anyone’s guess.) Massive fan zones and NFL shops dominate the city’s center, and the league created an enormous flag football field right in front of Berlin’s iconic Brandenburg Gate.

The mural and the Brandenburg Gate field are the most obvious of the league’s branding efforts all around Berlin, but you don’t have to look far to see the league’s influence. Huge posters of Jonathan Taylor and Michael Penix Jr. are visible on kiosks; NFL shield stickers — helpfully pre-printed with graffiti to add that extra touch of Berlin “authenticity”— cover streetlight poles, newspaper bins and post office boxes.

“Watching kids around the world playing flag football, or hearing from U.S. fans who travel abroad and are genuinely surprised by how passionately fans in places like Brazil, Germany and the U.K. understand and love the game,” Barker says, “those are reminders that football really does have a global heartbeat.”

An International Series game is not merely a football game, in other words. This is an entire experience, a road show designed to promote the NFL as game, sport, brand, lifestyle and state of mind. Sunday’s game is the culmination of the week, yes, but it’s only one element of the overall journey — one the league hopes will continue long after the Colts and Falcons leave town.

“This is generational work,” Barker says. “I don’t expect to see the full impact in my lifetime — maybe my kids will, or their kids. In many ways, it reminds me of the early days of the NFL, when a small group of visionaries came together in Canton, Ohio, with a shared love for the game. I’m sure they couldn’t have imagined what it would one day become.”

The 2025 NFL Trade Deadline has been the talk of the league this week for obvious reasons. We got to see in real-time which teams either want to make a push for the Lombardi trophy or want to take the long view and look to 2026 and beyond. It's no different than in our fantasy football leagues.

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By this time of the season, we know which teams are most likely to make the playoffs or not. You can just look at their starters and tell. However, it's still a week-to-week game that we play. And we've got 13 games on tap between Sunday and Monday's action. But instead of trying to break each contest down, here are two players from each worth monitoring as we head into Week 10.

Atlanta Falcons @ Indianapolis Colts

Drake London will be everyone’s favorite option against the Colts’ secondary. But while they’re watching the Falcons’ WR1, I’ll be checking to see if a second option shows up. Darnell Mooney was supposed to be that guy, but he’s yet to crest five targets in a single game. Even worse, when London was out, Mooney was down to four looks. And his share plummeted to 3% when London returned. Wide receivers are averaging 36.5 PPR PPG when facing the Colts. London will get his, but let’s see if Mooney gets back into the mix.

I used to look at Alec Pierce as just a deep threat, a receiver with usage too volatile to start on a weekly basis. And the first part is still true. He’s averaging 20.7 air yards per target. But this is a different Colts’ offense. Daniel Jones has the 13th-most attempts of 20 air yards or more. And Pierce has a fantasy-viable role within it. His 7.8 targets per game over the last month lead the team. And in what should be a back-and-forth matchup, Pierce has WR3 appeal in Week 10.

Buffalo Bills @ Miami Dolphins

Divisional rematches are tough to call, but Miami’s run defense shouldn’t be much of a problem for James Cook, who appears on track to play despite dealing with an ankle injury this week. Bijan Robinson is the only rusher to score fewer than 10 PPR points against the Dolphins. And the Bills’ RB1 already cooked (pun intended) against this same unit for 118 scrimmage yards and a score back in Week 3. Buffalo jumped to 8.5-point road favorites, indicating it will control this game. And with Cook behind that offensive line, the Bills should do just that.

I learned Greg Dulcich was on the Dolphins about eight days ago, when I saw him catching passes from Tua Tagovailoa in primetime. And the performance doesn’t seem fluky. Dulcich’s five targets come in the wake of Darren Waller going on injured reserve without much competition from fellow TEs Tanner Conner or Julian Hill. But Dulcich also brought WR Malik Washington’s target rate down to the single digits. Dulcich instantly moved into the third pass-catcher role in an offense that should have to throw to keep up with the Bills.

Cleveland Browns @ New York Jets

Quinshon Judkins’ practice participation throughout the week has given us some clues that he’ll be active, but his in-game usage is still an unknown. The uncertainty puts Dylan Sampson back on the menu as a low-end RB3. In Judkins’ absence to close out Week 8, the other rookie rusher earned five targets to go with his three carries. The Jets have allowed the seventh-most yards on the ground to enemy RBs. So even if Judkins is available, Sampson has FLEX appeal for Sunday’s game.

Let’s assume Garrett Wilson is back. I need to see Wilson and Mason Taylor leading the team in targets. You’d have to go back to Weeks 4 and 5 when the two combined for 56% and 48% of Justin Fields’ attempts. Afterward, it took Wilson’s knee injury (and running against the Bengals’ defense) for the rookie TE to get back over five targets in a single game. Cleveland has only surrendered one TD to the TE position all season, but if Taylor can retain his feature position, he should be a fringe option for Week 10.

Jacksonville Jaguars @ Houston Texans

The Jaguars’ passing game is going to look rough for the first couple of weeks, but Jakobi Meyers was the ideal addition to mitigate the loss of Travis Hunter. Let’s assume Brian Thomas Jr. misses a game; the former Raider connected with Geno Smith on multiple out-breaking routes similar to where Thomas found success before injury. And once Brock Bowers returned, shifting Meyers to his WR2 spot, he moved to the slot for 55.9% of his snaps. If active, avoiding CB Derek Stingley Jr. on the outside may give Meyers some value in his first contest. But we should expect some miscues from Trevor Lawrence and Meyers in their first game together.

With Davis Mills operating the offense, even Nico Collins becomes a liability for fantasy managers. But Woody Marks becomes an interesting FLEX option. The rookie RB was already up to 47% of the carries with Mills under center. Plus, his three targets removed Nick Chubb from the passing game. Jacksonville ranks fifth in receiving yards allowed to opposing RBs. If OC Nick Caley wants to keep the pressure off of his backup QB, quick looks to Marks should be part of the plan.

New Orleans Saints @ Carolina Panthers

If there were any week to try and adjust to life without your deep speed option, facing the Panthers would be the one. Tyler Shough is averaging 5.4 yards per pass attempt, lending credence to the idea that the Saints should keep things short. In that scenario, Juwan Johnson would benefit from the schematic shift. Shough’s former teammate was not only responsible for the new QB1’s first TD, but was second on the team in targets. With Rashid Shaheed’s departure, Johnson should take on a larger role in the offense.

After watching Rico Dowdle plow through the Packers’ defense, it’d be a fair proposition for the Saints to ask Bryce Young to beat them through the air. But stacked boxes are a simple math equation. More defenders to stop the run means less to cover downfield. The result should be a return to fantasy prominence for Tetairoa McMillan. Even as Young struggled against Green Bay, the first-year receiver took 33% of the targets. And after watching Davante Adams and Puka Nacua dunk on the Saints for three TDs, McMillan should be able to get into the fun with the focus on Dowdle.

New England Patriots @ Tampa Bay Buccaneers

The Buccaneers are coming off their bye week, but I’m still operating under the premise that their secondary is the weak part of the defense. Drake Maye (third in EPA per dropback amongst all starters) should be able to take advantage of the situation either through the air or on the ground. But when he does take to the air, DeMario Douglas should be on the other end for a few targets. Kayshon Boutte’s hamstring injury could sideline him for the weekend, condensing the Patriots’ target tree. Douglas’ target rate was at a season-high 22% in Boutte’s absence. And as the primary slot option, he’ll provide quick relief for Maye against the Bucs’ pass rush.

For as formidable as the Patriots defense has been, their strongest performances have come against Dillon Gabriel, Cam Ward, Spencer Rattler and Bryce Young. Baker Mayfield is a cut above that crew. But he’s down a couple of targets. New England has given up the sixth-most receiving yards to RBs. Rachaad White has earned a double-digit target rate in every game he’s started in place of Bucky Irving. On top of his usage as the short-yardage and early-down option, White’s pass-catching role should make him a top-24 bet for Week 10.

New York Giants @ Chicago Bears

I was wrong about locking in Tyrone Tracy Jr. as a mid-range RB2 for last week. The usage rates from last year didn’t apply. It didn’t even matter that HC Brian Daboll had only two RBs active on Sunday. Devin Singletary and Tracy were like a 1-2 punch. But Tracy was the RB2. His 38.5% share of the carries was a shock after his 2024 results. The four targets were a welcome backup prize, but Singletary also getting the short-yardage opportunities only further complicates the situation. However, against the Bears’ run defense, I’ll be watching to see if either gains an edge over the other.

If a player’s dad posts stats and film clips about their son’s usage, or lack thereof, I’ll be paying attention to what happens the following week. Rome Odunze’s bagel was the largest talking point outside of the Bears’ win. His two targets were a season-low mark. However, he had to square off against Cincinnati’s best perimeter corner in DJ Turner, forcing Caleb Williams to work the interior. New York’s pass rush and outside coverage push the work outside. So, on the one hand, caping up for Odunze sounds like the popular thing to do. But looking at the matchup, going back to him may be the reasonable option, too.

Baltimore Ravens @ Minnesota Vikings

I want to start Zay Flowers every week. Honestly, I’m excited about it. And going up against the Vikings is the ideal environment for him. Flowers has a 29.3% target rate when opposing defenses blitz Lamar Jackson, and the Vikings have the second-highest rate of sending five or more pass rushers. However, across Jackson’s four healthy games, he’s only thrown toward his WR1 three times in the red zone. But since Minnesota is giving up the ninth-highest explosive passing rate, Flowers is the receiver to watch from Baltimore on Sunday.

J.J. McCarthy has dropped back to pass 85 times. It’s been a one-score game on 73 of those dropbacks. It’s part of why he’s yet to surpass 160 yards through the air. There’s no need! But the Ravens, coming off of a mini bye, can push the Vikings offense. In that scenario, HC Kevin O’Connell may open up the offense for McCarthy to pass more. Baltimore has been getting healthy on defense, but still allowed 261 yards from Tua Tagovailoa in prime time. We need Jackson and Co. to cooperate, but McCarthy trying to mount a comeback will be important to analyze as we head into the back half of the season.

Arizona Cardinals @ Seattle Seahawks

It’s not a stretch to say Jacoby Brissett is better for the Cardinals right now. Just look at Marvin Harrison Jr.’s results. Actually, let’s go past the box score. The two have only two full games together, and the number of timing routes has gone up. They hooked up on three against the Packers. Harrison had four grabs on either a hitch or a comeback in the first quarter against Dallas. Their rapport is what generated six first downs on seven receptions. And while Seattle’s corners have been stingy toward opposing WRs, Harrison and Brissett being in sync will be what keeps the Cardinals in the game.

Outside of jet lag, there shouldn’t be any reason Rashid Shaheed misses his first game as a Seahawk. He spent six games with Seahawks OC Klint Kubiak before getting injured. During that period, Shaheed averaged 3.65 yards per route run on play-action concepts. Sam Darnold is the second-most efficient QB using play action, with an absurd 12 air yards per attempt. Divisional rematches are usually tough to call as both teams are familiar with each other, but the addition of Shaheed tilts things in Seattle’s favor.

Detroit Lions @ Washington Commanders

Most will see Sunday as a “get right” spot for the Lions. But I’m wondering if it’ll be a “stay right” opportunity for Jameson Williams. He’s oscillated from five or more targets to one or two over the last five games. However, with everything else failing around Detroit’s offense, Williams’ goldilocks’d his role. He didn’t have to lead his team in looks (Amon-Ra St. Brown and Sam LaPorta earned those spots), but his 9.2-yard aDOT made him an easier target for Jared Goff. The setup was just right for Williams, and let’s hope it remains while the rest of the team gets back on track.

Without Terry McLaurin on the field, Deebo Samuel Sr. and Zach Ertz will be the primary options for Marcus Mariota. However, in deeper leagues or for dynasty formats, I’m keeping my eye on Jaylin Lane. Lost in the Jayden Daniels’ injury debacle was Luke McCaffrey’s broken collarbone, which ends his season. Lane was up to a 25% target rate in Week 9 with the second-year receiver active. Now, with the target tree condensed, Lane should be the ancillary relief option for Mariota.

Los Angeles Rams @ San Francisco 49ers

The rational part of me believes this will be a close game. Kyle Shanahan showed Sean McVay he can still cook up a winning game plan with a backup QB and no starting WRs available when the two teams met back in Week 5. But after another injury to the 49ers defense, my irrational side envisions a Rams landslide, bringing Blake Corum into the limelight. He’s averaged 11 carries and earned a target in L.A.’s last two blowout victories. And with the Rams projected as 4.5-point road favorites, Corum, with a goal-line plunge, isn’t out of the realm of possibility.

I’m not worried about George Kittle (yet). He’s out there running routes (86% route rate since his return). And his target share has been coming up each week (9%, 14%, 18%). We just haven’t seen the breakaway, explosive catches from Kittle we’ve grown accustomed to over the years. But his teammate, Jake Tonges, just got them for 41 yards and a score. Plus, across the other four receiving TEs the Rams have faced, L.A. has given up 14.5 PPR PPG to the position, which should provide some optimism for Kittle in Week 10.

Pittsburgh Steelers @ Los Angeles Chargers

I thought Jaylen Warren would eventually lead the backfield committee in Pittsburgh. But not to this degree. He’s handled over 70% of the carries in three straight games. Sure, Kenneth Gainwell has seen some targets and worked in the two-minute drill, but Warren gets the short-yardage (73%) and goal-line totes (100%). It’s his world, and Gainwell and Kaleb Johnson are just living in it.

You can look at Justin Herbert’s air yards per attempt and see where the wheels fell off the wagon for his offensive line. He was over 9.0 yards per throw for the first three weeks. And then, it fell to 6.5, 3.8 and 5.8. Coincidentally, that was when Ladd McConkey’s production started to pick up. The short-area slot guy has seen over 20% of Herbert’s passes in five consecutive games. And now, with Herbert likely under duress more often, it’s reasonable to expect the two to connect with the Chargers’ offensive line under construction again.

Philadelphia Eagles @ Green Bay Packers

If I had to guess, Jalen Hurts prefers to play out of the gun. I say “guess” because he was only under center on 15.7% of his dropbacks through Week 6. However, the offensive line injuries forced a shift in the Eagles’ pre-snap formations. In his last two games, Hurts has been under center 39.2% of the time. Accordingly, his EPAs per dropback in both contests were season-high marks (0.65 and 0.36). Even with A.J. Brown still working through his hamstring injury, enabling more efficient plays will be what the Eagles need to regain their swagger coming out of their bye.

I’ve been kicking around ideas about what the Packers are going to do without Tucker Kraft all week. Asking Jordan Love not to attempt a (failed) trick shot a few times a game seems reasonable. But it’ll still happen. Regardless, the down-to-down success of the offense depends on pass-catchers with YAC ability. Christian Watson fits that archetype. But things need to change. He can’t be scurrying 18.0 or 28.3 air yards downfield for a catch. Give him Matthew Golden’s part of the field to work (10.1 aDOT over his last four). It may be asking a lot of the guy who had ACL surgery this calendar year, but with the rookie still learning the offense, head coach Matt LaFleur will need his veterans to step up in primetime.