The most meaningful touchdown of the 2025 NFL season was probably Calvin Austin III’s 26-yard score with 55 seconds left in Week 18. It sent the Steelers into the postseason, eliminated the Ravens. Got Jim Harbaugh fired, got the New York Giants their new head coach and sent Aaron Rodgers (presumably) into retirement with one last playoff berth.
The most irrelevant touchdown? That’s harder.
Obviously, every touchdown is important. Teams have fans, and when teams score points, fans are happy. Players have contracts, and the more touchdowns they score, the more dollars they earn. And so on and so forth. This isn’t to say there is any touchdown that is completely devoid of meaning. It’s just that some kind of feel that way.
So today, I’m attempting to find our most irrelevant touchdown of the 2025 NFL season. I did this a year ago, and the process resulted in the “winner” being a 1-yard Devin Singletary run in Week 12 that took a 30-0 game to 30-7. Super didn’t matter. Can we find a similarly ho-hum touchdown this year?
The Most Irrelevant Touchdown of 2025
There were 1,395 touchdowns scored in the 2025 regular season, starting with Javonte Williams’ 1-yard run in the first quarter of Week 1 and ending with that Calvin Austin III Week 18 score. Neither was irrelevant, but in between, there was a lot.
I have a process to eliminate the TDs in swaths. Let’s go.
No Defensive/Special Teams Touchdowns (1,395 to 1,374)
An interception, fumble recovery, kickoff or punt return touchdown is definitionally one of the most exciting plays in football. You give me a pick-6 by a third-stringer in the fourth quarter of a 37-7 blowout, and I’ll concede the score didn’t matter for results if you’ll concede that it’s still pretty cool to see.
Nothing More than +1 EPA (1,374 to 244)
The reasoning here is simple — if a team is expected to score (just to pick a TD) 2.09 points on the drive (like when the Packers had fourth-and-3 from the 22 against the Lions) and they score a touchdown (when Jordan Love hit Dontayvion Wicks for a score), well, that’s a big swing. On the other hand, if a team has first-and-goal from the 1 and ends up scoring … they were kind of supposed to, you know?
Nothing in Weeks 1-2 (244 to 222)
Early in the season, everything is a blank slate. We come in with our expectations, but we don’t know what might become notable by the end of the year. Raheim Sanders scored a touchdown in Week 1. It was his only score of 2025 in one of only four games he played, and it was actually his last carry until Week 16. He was truly irrelevant in 2025. That said, it was Week 1. Did we know beyond a doubt he wouldn’t pop? Dylan Sampson was a rookie. Quinshon Judkins was a rookie and unavailable. Sanders’ score proved to be irrelevant. At the time? We couldn’t know.
Nothing Within 1 Score (222 to 69)
Any touchdown in a one-score game carries at least enough tension to be worth crossing off our list. There is a tiny bit of subjectivity in this. Does it mean “the touchdown came in a one-score game,” or does it mean “the touchdown made it a one-score game”? The answer: Both, sort of. It’s both, but also I didn’t eliminate a touchdown where, for example, the score went from 14-7 to 21-7 with two minutes left. So this is a strong guideline, but not an out-and-out rule.
No QB with 225+ PPR Points, No Skill Player with 150+ (69 to 20)
Even if games are decided and/or teams’ postseason fortunes are locked, fantasy players monitor touchdowns like crazy people. The most notable players (using my 225/150 standard) are started virtually everywhere. So even if the touchdown might not have mattered much for the specific game, it matters for a lot of viewers.
No ‘Come On, He Was in Fantasy Lineups’ Guys (20 to 12)
This is a new addition to this year’s exercise, because there were several touchdowns scored by guys who didn’t actually meet our 225/150 thresholds but were definitely in fantasy lineups. Those were: Jordan Mason in Week 3, Justin Fields in Week 5, Cam Skattebo in Week 9, Lamar Jackson in Weeks 9 and 10, Jayden Daniels in Week 9 and Kimani Vidal in Week 10. They couldn’t be eliminated above, but … those guys were in fantasy lineups those weeks. Sorry.
After that, we’re down to 12 touchdowns. From there, we could knock out a few more for individual reasons. Here they are, in chronological order:
Honorable Mention
Darren Waller’s 4-Yard Reception, Week 5
This made the game 17-0 in the second quarter. The problem? Carolina outscored Miami 27-7 the rest of the way and actually won the game. Add in that, while Waller and Tua Tagovailoa were more-or-less irrelevant in 2025 on the whole, this was Waller’s second game of the season and he had scored twice in his debut. At the time, this was a really fun story.
David Martin-Robinson’s 1-Yard Reception, Week 6
Martin-Robinson ended 2025 with 8 targets and 36 yards over his two seasons, with this Week 6 score being his only touchdown. It came with 3 minutes left in a game the Titans were losing 20-3 to the also-irrelevant Raiders. But … it was a touchdown pass by the first overall pick. Cam Ward never did a lot as a rookie, but if the first overall pick throws a touchdown pass, you gotta take notice.
Jordan Addison’s 4-Yard Reception, Week 8
For the season, Addison averaged under 10 PPR points per game, including some total vanishing acts. This took a blowout from 24-3 to 24-10 in a forgettable Vikings season. The problem? After missing the first three games, Addison came out fast. He had at least 15 points in each of his first three games entering this game, sitting as WR11 in points per game in Weeks 4-7. He had crept his way into lineups.
Chuba Hubbard’s 3-Yard Rush, Week 8
Hubbard all but lost his starting job when he missed two weeks and Rico Dowdle ran for something like 10 million yards in his absence. This score, in the fourth quarter, took the score from 40-3 Bills to 40-9 Panthers (Ryan Fitzgerald missed the extra point, to add insult to injury). But at least the name value of Hubbard keeps him interesting.
Jake Tonges’ 2-Yard Reception, Week 8
Tonges popped when George Kittle was hurt, actually a top-10 PPR tight end through Week 6. But Kittle returned in Week 7, and this touchdown (with the two-point conversion, it made a 23-7 game 23-15) was Tonges’ only target between Weeks 6 and 14. The only thing that really keeps this from the top five is that it was a matchup of playoff teams.
Bhayshul Tuten’s 2-Yard Rush, Week 13
Tuten was a popular rookie sleeper/breakout pick entering the season. By Week 13, that was clearly not happening, and he was the lightly used backup to Travis Etienne Jr. who got a third-quarter score to ice a 25-3 Jaguars win. The only thing that keeps him from the top of the list is name value — Tuten didn’t turn into much overall, but there was enough excitement about him coming into the season that the score had to set off sensors for plenty of people.
Jeffery Simmons’ 1-Yard Reception, Week 15
Bad team scores a fourth-quarter touchdown to bring the game within 14 points. Yawn. Except, we already mentioned the whole “Cam Ward was the first overall pick” thing. Oh yeah … and it was Jeffery Simmons catching the ball. Defensive player! Very good defensive player! No way this was irrelevant.
With that, we’re down to five. The five most irrelevant touchdowns of the 2025 NFL season. Here they are, from No. 5 to No. 1.
5. Chris Rodriguez Jr.’s 3-Yard Run to Make the Game 29-16, Week 16
Eagles beat the Commanders 29-18
Scoring a touchdown (and getting the two-point conversion) to close to within 11 is cool. Doing it with 1:10 left in the fourth quarter is less cool, because … c’mon, you aren’t going onside kick-TD-onside kick-field goal. After flirting with fantasy relevance a couple of times in 2025, Rodriguez had just missed Week 15, so he wasn’t exactly rocketing into lineups in his return in Week 16. Still, he was probably rostered in most every league, so people at least took notice of the touchdown, even if it didn’t amount to much of anything — he ended up missing Week 17 too.
4. Antonio Gibson’s 1-Yard Run to Make the Game 27-6, Week 4
Patriots beat the Panthers 42-13
Gibson’s primary job early in the season was to frustrate people who had been excited about TreVeyon Henderson, because he got a handful of carries in games in Weeks 2-5 that most would have rather seen the rookie take. Gibson never got to 30 yards in a game and only had 3 targets in five games before he tore his ACL, so it wasn’t that significant, but it was still more than the Henderson-erati wanted to see. This was his lone score of the season, and it came in a relative blowout, but at least it was in the first half, so there was still an outside chance the Panthers could still have made a game of it. They didn’t, but still.
3. Bam Knight’s 1-Yard Run to Make the Game 20-3, Week 5
Titans beat the Cardinals 22-21
This was the dumbest game of the season. The Cardinals jumped over the Titans 21-6 in the first half, and they looked to be cruising to victory into the fourth quarter, when suddenly Arizona forgot how to play football, with Emari Demercado fumbling just before crossing the goal line and the Cardinals somehow turning their interception into a Titans touchdown. This score came in the first half, though, when Arizona appeared to be in cruise control. So no one took much note of it at the time — it was even before Knight became quasi-fantasy relevant later in the season. The fact that the score came before a big comeback does keep it kind of meaningful, though.
2. Jaylen Wright’s 3-Yard Run to Make the Game 45-20, Week 16
Bengals beat the Dolphins 45-21
If this score had been one week earlier, it would have ranked much better here. Because in Week 14, Wright had gone off for 24 carries, 107 yards and a touchdown. So he mattered to some people in Week 15, when he had all of 1 carry for 2 yards. So a lone score late in a blowout game between two irrelevant teams when he had 35 yards in the game super didn’t matter to anyone outside of the Wright family.
1. Andrew Beck’s 2-Yard Reception to Make the Game 35-6, Week 18
Bills beat the Jets 35-8
Beck is seven years into his career and doesn’t yet have 300 scrimmage yards. He’s averaging under a touchdown per season. His last game with multiple touches came in the 2023 season. The guy who threw the pass, Brady Cook, was never supposed to have played this year except that Justin Fields and Tyrod Taylor didn’t stop him. His last game with multiple touchdown passes came in the Music City Bowl. The Jets were finishing off a 3-14 season. The Bills ostensibly had a little bit to play for, except not really, and they had put Mitchell Trubisky into the game after a single snap for Josh Allen. No one involved in this play with the possible exception of the Bills defense was in any fantasy lineup, and given it was Week 18, even the vast majority of fantasy leagues weren’t really paying attention. This was the quintessential Scott Hanson “Well, we promised to show you every touchdown this Sunday, so here it is” play of the NFL season.
