AFC East: Buffalo Bills | Miami Dolphins | New England Patriots | New York Jets
AFC North: Baltimore Ravens | Cincinnati Bengals | Cleveland Browns | Pittsburgh Steelers
AFC South: Houston Texans | Indianapolis Colts | Jacksonville Jaguars | Tennessee Titans
AFC West: Denver Broncos | Kansas City Chiefs | Las Vegas Raiders | Los Angeles Chargers
NFC East: Dallas Cowboys | New York Giants | Philadelphia Eagles | Washington Commanders
NFC North: Chicago Bears | Detroit Lions | Green Bay Packers | Minnesota Vikings
NFC South: Atlanta Falcons | Carolina Panthers | New Orleans Saints | Tampa Bay Buccaneers
NFC West: Arizona Cardinals | Los Angeles Rams | San Francisco 49ers | Seattle Seahawks
Advertisement
When Derrick Henry scored his second touchdown of the game Sunday night, it put the Baltimore Ravens ahead 24-13 with 12:40 left. That was the last snap Henry played, and the New England Patriots came back to win.
Everything about the Ravens has seemed off this season, and that includes the coaching error of Henry not seeing the field for most of the fourth quarter even though he had 128 yards on 18 carries. For those ready for a change from the John Harbaugh era, the misuse of Henry was a major talking point in what has become a horrifically disappointing season. The Ravens fell to 7-8 and are on the verge of missing the playoffs.
Harbaugh, who is finishing his 18th season as Ravens head coach, was asked about his future Monday.
“Coaching at any level is a day-to-day job,” Harbaugh said, according to the team’s site. “Your job is to do the best job you can today. It’s never been about keeping a job. I try to do the job, not try to keep the job. Anything after today, I’m not thinking about.”
Advertisement
The Ravens are eight seasons into QB Lamar Jackson’s career and have only three playoff wins to show for it. The criticism usually goes to Jackson, but maybe Harbaugh deserves some too. At very least, the inability to win multiple games in a postseason since the 2012 campaign doesn’t look great for Harbaugh. The Ravens will have to wrestle with the idea of parting ways with a coach who has won 61.5% of his games and has a Super Bowl championship. This season has been so bad, in multiple ways, that it certainly seems like the Ravens are backsliding. Jackson’s prime won’t last forever, and that will have to be taken into account. They can’t afford to waste any more seasons with Jackson, a generational talent at quarterback, without getting to a Super Bowl.
The Ravens came into this season with Super Bowl dreams. Unbelievably, it seems possible they start next season with a new coach.
On Sunday against the Texans, the Raiders were competitive for a change. It was good to see Ashton Jeanty finally show some flashes of greatness, but let’s not go overboard. There shouldn’t be much celebration over a two-win team playing decently and losing. The good news for the Raiders is they face the Giants and depleted Chiefs to end the season and could get wins. Though, given how much they could use the first overall pick of the 2026 NFL Draft, maybe that’s not a good thing.
Advertisement
The Titans beating the Chiefs 26-9 would have been a startling headline a couple months ago. On Sunday, Tennessee caught a break facing a KC team that was without Patrick Mahomes and lost Gardner Minshew early in the game. Still, it’s better than losing to that Chiefs team. That win probably knocks the Titans out of the race for the first overall pick of next year’s draft, but winning games and gaining momentum is probably more important anyway. We probably heard the strongest endorsement of rookie QB Cam Ward, coming from Tennessee’s best player, Jeffery Simmons. “Cam has the right mindset. That’s the reason why I don’t want to go nowhere,” the star defensive lineman, who is often mentioned in trade rumors, said, per ESPN.com. “I see the competitive nature and the growth as a rookie of Cam.”
In Week 17, it’s Giants vs. Raiders in a meeting between the only two 13-loss teams in football. The intrigue, of course, is that the loser will be a heavy favorite to clinch the first pick of the 2026 NFL Draft. It gets interesting if it’s the Giants. It seems impossible to believe they’d draft a quarterback and move on from Jaxson Dart. But Dart was awful Sunday, with a passer rating of 27.4. If Dart has two more terrible games like that to end the season, would it at least be a conversation?
Advertisement
The Jets might set an unbelievable NFL record. The fewest interceptions for a team in the Super Bowl era is two, by the 2018 49ers. The Jets, somehow, have zero interceptions. They also have just four takeaways; the record low is seven by those 2018 49ers. It’s even more baffling when you consider their head coach, Aaron Glenn, is known for his defensive acumen. Maybe the Jets will stumble into an interception or two the rest of the season (vs. Patriots and Bills), but it’s a remarkable drought that sums up their miserable season.
The Cardinals’ injury list is ridiculous. On Sunday they saw defensive tackle Walter Nolen, defensive end Josh Sweat and cornerback Garrett Williams leave with injuries. That’s the team’s first-round draft pick, their big free-agent addition and a starting cornerback. Nolen (knee) and Williams (Achilles) are done for the season. The Cardinals’ biggest goal for the remainder of the season might be surviving it without any more major injuries.
Advertisement
Cleveland had a shot to beat Buffalo on Sunday. They had three possessions in the fourth quarter, trailing by six points, and all they could get was a field goal, turnover on downs and a punt. There have been some horrible performances from the Browns this season, but also enough good efforts to keep them from being the Raiders. The hard news Sunday was a horrible leg injury to promising rookie running back Quinshon Judkins. Hopefully that doesn’t affect him into next season.
The idea of having well traveled 39-year-old Josh Johnson in your quarterback room is great, until he has to play. Johnson produced almost nothing when he had to play Saturday after Marcus Mariota exited due to injury. And we all might get to watch Johnson start against Dallas on Christmas Day if Mariota’s hand and quad injuries don’t heal in time. It doesn’t matter much. The Commanders are having a horrendous season and should be happy when it’s over.
Advertisement
The Dolphins got a glimpse of their 2026 future Sunday. After benching Tua Tagovailoa, the Dolphins lost 45-21 with Quinn Ewers at quarterback. If the Dolphins cut Tagovailoa, the salary cap hit will be so severe that they won’t be able to pay a decent veteran QB. It’ll probably be a year of Ewers or another rookie. This season has been rough in many ways, and it’s hard to see how it’s not significantly worse next season.
The version of the Chiefs we’re about to watch the final two weeks will be depressing. They wouldn’t have been great with Gardner Minshew at quarterback, but with Minshew done for the season too with a knee injury, the Chiefs will presumably turn to Chris Oladokun. It’s unlikely most fans had ever heard Oladokun’s name before he came in the game Sunday against the Titans. The Chiefs were blown out by those miserable Titans and it’s unlikely to get better. If these are the last few games of Travis Kelce’s career, it’s an unceremonious way to end a great run.
Advertisement
The Saints are getting some very good play from rookie quarterback Tyler Shough. They have won three straight and it seems like Shough will be their 2026 quarterback. “Tyler’s played some really good football,” Saints head coach Kellen Moore said, via NOLA.com. “Our team has played much better football as the season’s progressed, so those things certainly don’t go without the guys around him and everyone kind of stepping up and playing better.
“Tyler’s brought a really positive spark to us, some consistency. … I love where he’s at.”
Joe Burrow played well and said he was having fun, which might buy Bengals fans a week of not having to hear about how Burrow wants out of Cincinnati, even though he has never said that. Or close. There was bound to be speculation about what was behind Burrow’s unhappiness the past couple weeks, but the rush to say it must mean he dislikes the Bengals was irresponsible. Hopefully for Bengals fans, that talk will die down for a while.
Advertisement
The Falcons will be in an interesting place with Kirk Cousins next offseason. He has played reasonably well since becoming the starter, following Michael Penix Jr.’s injury. Penix is no sure thing to be ready for the season opener in 2026. The Falcons also can’t keep Cousins at a $57.5 million cap number in 2026. Cousins had an interesting offseason this year, and it’ll be complicated again in 2026.
The Ravens can’t blame Lamar Jackson’s injuries for the fall of their defense. Baltimore is 17th in EPA (expected points added) per play and when its defense needed to come up big Sunday night with Jackson out due to a back injury, the unit allowed Drake Maye to throw for 380 yards. Maye had never thrown for 300 in an NFL game before. The list of things Baltimore needs to fix this offseason is long.
Advertisement
The only good news for the Cowboys might be that George Pickens bounced back with 130 yards and a touchdown, which might help ease any concern they might have had about paying him in the offseason. But the defense is still bad. It gave up 452 yards to the Chargers on Sunday, which is more ammo against coordinator Matt Eberflus, a subject of critique from team owner Jerry Jones. This never was a good team, although the constant overreaction to all things Cowboys had people talking about them as a playoff contender for a short time a few weeks ago.
You can’t blame Monday night’s loss to the 49ers on quarterback injuries. While it will seem over time like Daniel Jones’ injury was the reason the Colts’ season fell apart after a 7-1 start, the swoon has been for multiple reasons. The run game has slowed way down and as we saw Monday night, the defense has taken a big step back too. It’s a rough end to the season after a fantastic start.
Advertisement
The Buccaneers are probably ranked too high. They have lost six of seven and fell out of first place in the NFC South. And yet, they’re still not in a terrible spot. If they beat the Dolphins in Week 17, they will play the Panthers in Week 18 with the NFC South championship on the line. But can Tampa Bay beat Miami, much less beat the Panthers in the finale? The defense hasn’t been good enough and Baker Mayfield’s play has fallen apart. His passer rating over the past six weeks is a paltry 72.6. Tampa Bay is alive, but far from well.
The Vikings still have a shot at finishing above .500, which is not what Minnesota was shooting for coming off a 14-3 season, but it would be a positive in an otherwise frustrating season. The problem is that J.J. McCarthy will either be out or playing through a hand injury. That won’t make it easy to win one remaining game, much less both of them. But playing well late should give the Vikings the belief that they can be a playoff team in 2026, as long as the quarterback play improves.
Advertisement
There has been angst about the officiating, but what were the Lions doing making it that close against the Steelers at home? And, to go a step further, how did the Lions get themselves in a position to need to beat Pittsburgh to realistically stay alive for the playoffs? This season has been an utter disappointment. They’re 4-6 since Week 5. And with many massive contracts on the books with more big extensions to come, it’s possible we’ve already seen the peak for this Lions core.
Since the start of October, the Panthers have won seven games. Six of them have come by exactly three points, and the other one was a seven-point win over the Jets. All those close wins pile up though, and the Panthers lead the NFC South with two games to go. They might still need to beat the Buccaneers at Tampa Bay in the season finale, but it’s still a great spot for Carolina to be in after seven straight losing seasons.
Advertisement
The Steelers just have to beat the Browns in Week 17 to clinch a division title. Or, they might clinch beforehand if the Ravens lose to the Packers on Saturday night. Either way, it feels like a long time ago that Steelers fans were chanting to fire Mike Tomlin (though many Steelers fans will want Tomlin out unless they win a championship this season). Aaron Rodgers isn’t just along for the ride either; the last three games he has four touchdowns, no interceptions and a passer rating of 106.4 as the Steelers have gone 3-0. It’s a remarkable story.
If the Packers recover an onside kick, we’re talking about them beating the Bears on the road with their backup quarterback, and what a remarkable job Matt LaFleur did to guide the win. One bad break can change the entire narrative for a team, and in the Packers’ case, it changed the trajectory of their season. Green Bay is down to a 12.4% shot to win the NFC North, via DVOA. With little shot at the No. 5 seed, their most likely playoff path starts at Chicago or at Philadelphia, not against the much weaker NFC South champion. Blowing that game might haunt the Packers.
Advertisement
Hey, remember when some wondered if Mac Jones should take the 49ers’ starting job from Brock Purdy? Purdy needed a little time to warm up after he missed time due to injury, but he was great Monday night, with five touchdowns. The defense still isn’t great, after allowing Philip Rivers to look half his age, but what Kyle Shanahan has done this season is nothing short of incredible.
The Broncos’ loss to the Jaguars on Sunday was huge for Los Angeles. The Chargers are just a game behind the Broncos in the AFC West race, and if they beat the Texans on Saturday (or Denver loses to Kansas City on Thursday), a Week 18 game at Denver will be for the division title. The Chargers already have a win over Denver and a win in the finale would give them a season sweep and the tiebreaker. There’s even a small path for the Chargers to get the No. 1 seed. Week 16 was really good for the Chargers.
Advertisement
The Texans didn’t deserve to drop that much after barely beating the Raiders, but Jacksonville had to move ahead of them after the Jaguars continued their hot streak with a great win at Denver. Also, it was startling to see the Texans’ offense do almost nothing against the Raiders and the defense allow 21 points to a team that had just 75 yards the week before. The Texans are fine, but now that the path to the AFC South title is much harder, they get downgraded a bit.
Maybe we all should have taken a 35-6 win by Jacksonville against the Chargers in Week 11 a little more seriously. The Jaguars haven’t lost since then, and a 34-20 win at Denver on Sunday should make everyone take notice. Trevor Lawrence legitimized his hot streak by doing it against a very good Broncos defense. If the Jaguars win at the Colts in Week 17 (or if the Texans lose at the Chargers), all that would stand between them and an AFC South title would be a home win over the Titans in the finale. Liam Coen might end up stealing NFL Coach of the Year.
Advertisement
The Bills played with fire on Sunday. They were outgained by the Browns 294-259, and the Browns had 22 first downs to 16 for Buffalo. Cleveland could have easily won that game, which wasn’t a great look for a Bills team that everyone seems to be convincing themselves can win the AFC out of a wild-card spot. It was a tough game for the Bills to get up for, but Buffalo’s deficiencies are not going away. There isn’t much on offense aside from Josh Allen and James Cook. The defense is 24th in DVOA. It’ll be tough for them to win three straight road games in the AFC playoffs.
The Eagles have clinched the division and have almost no chance to get the No. 1 seed in the NFC. That means the next two weeks can be used for a combination of rest and fixing the ongoing issues with the offense. The offense has looked better lately, with 60 combined points in the last two games, but that came against the Raiders and Commanders. At least the Eagles get a couple games out of the spotlight before the playoffs start.
Advertisement
The win Saturday night was great, one of the best for the Bears in many years. Nobody in Chicago will want to hear this part, but it came against a Packers team without several key players, including Jordan Love and Micah Parsons, and required an onside kick and fourth-down touchdown just to get the game to overtime. The Packers, with Malik Willis, outplayed Chicago for 58 minutes. Ultimately it doesn’t matter because that win makes it very likely the Bears will be your NFC North champions.
It’s not like the Patriots blew out the Ravens, who didn’t have Lamar Jackson for most of the game, but a loss would have made things a little more worrisome for them in the AFC East race. The Patriots won and their chances to win the AFC East race are at 80.9% with two games to play, via DVOA. They still have a 31.3% shot at the No. 1 seed too. It wasn’t the easiest win, but Drake Maye’s monster 380-yard game saved them from a rough loss.
Advertisement
We’re not going to overreact. Denver is now 11-1 in its past 12 games. Just because the loss came in Week 16 doesn’t mean it should fall in these rankings. As long as the Broncos beat a Chiefs team down to their third quarterback and then beat the Chargers at home in the finale, they’ll be the No. 1 seed in the AFC. The Broncos are a very good team, and losing for the first time since Sept. 21 doesn’t change that.
The Rams might forever regret that loss at Seattle. They were a near lock when they intercepted Sam Darnold, leading 30-14 with 9:39 left in the fourth quarter. As we know, the Seahawks had a historic comeback to win. With that, the Rams went from having a comfortable lead in the race for the No. 1 seed to having just a 19% shot at the top seed, via DVOA. It’s not like the Rams couldn’t win three straight road games to win the NFC out of a wild-card spot, but that’s a lot different than winning two home games as the No. 1 seed.
Advertisement
As promised in this space last week, the Seahawks move up to the No. 1 spot after beating the Rams. Though it would also be fair to keep the Rams at No. 1. Seattle got outplayed for most of that game at home. But it got the win and are now two wins from getting the No. 1 seed. Another big development was Sam Darnold rebounding from a bad start to have a great finish in a big game, which should quiet some of the skepticism around him and give him some confidence entering the playoffs. That might be as important as the win itself.
