Ben SolakDec 2, 2025, 06:30 AM ETCloseBen Solak joined ESPN in 2024 as a national NFL analyst. He previously covered the NFL at The Ringer, Bleeding Green Nation and The Draft Network.
play0:58Aaron Rodgers calls out WRs, says Steelers earned fans’ boosBrooke Pryor reports on Aaron Rodgers and the Steelers following their Week 13 loss to the Bills.
play1:20Schefter: Colts’ early-season momentum seems to be goneAdam Schefter joins “Get Up” and discusses the tough road for the Colts to get into the playoffs after Sunday’s loss to the Texans.
play1:07Ryan Clark: ‘The Baltimore Ravens are cooked’Ryan Clark predicts that if the Ravens make the playoffs they’ll be “one-and-done.”
play2:19Stephen A.: Eagles are ‘coming apart at the seams’Stephen A. Smith explains why he believes the Eagles’ Week 13 loss was worse than the Rams’ loss to the Panthers.
play0:53Bills play lights out in Week 13 win over SteelersAlaina Getzenberg breaks down Bills performance in Bills 26-7 win over the Steelers.
play0:57Why Field Yates is still confident in Matthew Stafford for Week 14Field Yates breaks down Matthew Stafford’s fantasy Week 13 performance and outlook against the Cardinals in Week 14.
play1:26Eisen: NFC South is now a division that could be won by PanthersRich Eisen gives his thoughts on the current state of the Panthers and previews their upcoming schedule.
Aaron Rodgers calls out WRs, says Steelers earned fans’ boosBrooke Pryor reports on Aaron Rodgers and the Steelers following their Week 13 loss to the Bills.
Schefter: Colts’ early-season momentum seems to be goneAdam Schefter joins “Get Up” and discusses the tough road for the Colts to get into the playoffs after Sunday’s loss to the Texans.
Adam Schefter joins “Get Up” and discusses the tough road for the Colts to get into the playoffs after Sunday’s loss to the Texans.
Ryan Clark: ‘The Baltimore Ravens are cooked’Ryan Clark predicts that if the Ravens make the playoffs they’ll be “one-and-done.”
Stephen A.: Eagles are ‘coming apart at the seams’Stephen A. Smith explains why he believes the Eagles’ Week 13 loss was worse than the Rams’ loss to the Panthers.
Stephen A. Smith explains why he believes the Eagles’ Week 13 loss was worse than the Rams’ loss to the Panthers.
Bills play lights out in Week 13 win over SteelersAlaina Getzenberg breaks down Bills performance in Bills 26-7 win over the Steelers.
Why Field Yates is still confident in Matthew Stafford for Week 14Field Yates breaks down Matthew Stafford’s fantasy Week 13 performance and outlook against the Cardinals in Week 14.
Field Yates breaks down Matthew Stafford’s fantasy Week 13 performance and outlook against the Cardinals in Week 14.
Eisen: NFC South is now a division that could be won by PanthersRich Eisen gives his thoughts on the current state of the Panthers and previews their upcoming schedule.
Rich Eisen gives his thoughts on the current state of the Panthers and previews their upcoming schedule.
Second Take: It’s OK for the Bills to be a run-first team
Week 13 is in the books. Chippy week! Plenty of — as the broadcasters would say — pushing and shoving in Patriots-Giants, Jaguars-Titans and Steelers-Bills. As the weather gets colder and playoff hopes dwindle, so the skirmishes begin. Just know that if any of you hit my editors late, I’ll be coming over with bad intentions.
Every Tuesday, I’ll spin the previous week of NFL action forward, looking at what the biggest storylines mean and what comes next. We’ll seek measured reactions to everyone’s overreactions, celebrate the exciting stuff that nobody is appreciating and highlight what you might have missed.
Jump to a section: Big Thing: Panic meter for five teams Second Take: It’s OK for the Bills to run Mailbag: Answering questions from … you Next Ben Stats: Wild Week 13 stats
(Yes, I understand that the bigger DEFCON numbers are actually less severe. “DEFCON 1” just doesn’t sound as good.)
It is obnoxious to say that we all saw this coming, but generally speaking, we did. Watt’s explosiveness tailed off through the 2024 season before his injury and has dropped again this year. His get-off was 0.75 seconds in 2022, then 0.79 in 2023, 0.83 in 2024 and now 0.87 in 2025. That full tenth of a second matters for a speed rusher such as Watt, who has delivered a pressure rate below 10% in each of the past two seasons.
With a deep and young group of edge rushers behind him, the Steelers were well-positioned to get out a year early rather than a year late. But moving on from Watt didn’t fit their timeline, so he was extended at a $41 million annually — greater than the average annual value of Myles Garrett’s contract. Garrett has 19 sacks this season; Watt has seven.
Watt is no longer a blue-chipper, and with Ramsey relegated to safety to hide his diminishing athleticism, there are no top-tier players left on Pittsburgh’s defense. Because of all the veteran contracts, the Steelers’ defense is second in cap spending but 20th in success rate. The lack of team speed kills them in explosive play rate, too; they are 26th in surrendering both explosive passes and explosive runs.
Game planning for Rodgers and the Steelers is extremely easy. Top corners travel with Metcalf (Christian Benford did this week, and DJ Turner II did two weeks before) and press him at the line, disrupting the timing of Rodgers’ primary quick-game target. Rodgers will either throw up a prayer to an uninspiring downfield option (Calvin Austin III, Roman Wilson) or check down to running backs Jaylen Warren and Kenneth Gainwell. If he’s lucky, it’ll be tight end Darnell Washington.
A few times per game, one of those after-the-catch athletes will get a big gain. Warren is quick and hard to tackle; Washington is enormous and hard to tackle. Amazingly, 66.4% of Rodgers’ passing yards have come after the catch, which is second only to 2011 A.J. Feeley in the past 15 years. That’s 713 quarterbacking seasons worth of sample!
This is completely untenable. Rodgers’ 5.7 air yards per attempt is 703rd out of those 713 seasons; his minus-3.5 air yards to the sticks is 705th. Rodgers cannot and will not throw the football downfield yet remains in total control of the offense at the line of scrimmage and regularly checks out of runs and into passes. The passing game is completely inadequate. This, like every other aspect of the Steelers’ season, was foreseeable.
Aaron Rodgers calls out WRs, says Steelers earned fans’ boos
Brooke Pryor reports on Aaron Rodgers and the Steelers following their Week 13 loss to the Bills.
The Steelers’ short-term outlook is bleak. Their Week 14 game against the Ravens is winnable, but it’s on the road against a physical and ascending defense. If Pittsburgh loses, it’ll slip below .500 and lose control of the AFC North, which is its only path into the playoffs.
The long-term outlook is bleaker. There is no quarterback of the future on the roster, and the rest of the cap sheet is loaded with bad contracts. Metcalf is due $31 million next year, Watt is due $42 million, and Ramsey is due $17.9 million. The Steelers need to recover from their 2025 spending spree, and they’ll likely have no hardware — not even a division championship — to show for it.
The evidence that Mike Tomlin is the leader to pull them from this spiral is diminishing rapidly. While I remain confident that Tomlin is a good coach (look at how many of the Steelers’ young players or veterans on small contracts are positive contributors), it’s clear that his overarching organizational philosophy needs modernization. If there ever was an offseason to trade Tomlin, rip the roster down to the studs and start to rebuild, it’s this one.
I can explain the Lions’ recent losses pretty easily. The Lions went 0-for-3 on fourth down in their Thanksgiving loss, while the Packers went 2-for-2 (with some officiating assistance to boot). In the loss in Philadelphia, the Lions were 0-for-5 on fourth down. In the loss to J.J. McCarthy (the Lions really lost to J.J. McCarthy) and the Vikings, they were 1-for-3 in the red zone, and the Vikings got 17 points off three short fields.
The Lions have been losing in high-leverage moments lately. But those are the sort of moments in which losses become wins should one little thing break another way. I trust Dan Campbell and a veteran Lions team to endure that valley and emerge through the other side a little luckier.
In fact, Goff has been hit on 20.2% of his dropbacks, easily the highest of his Lions tenure. It’s below only his disastrous 2016 rookie season before Sean McVay arrived in Los Angeles to rescue his career. Those hits accumulate on Goff, who deserves credit for his toughness. But he isn’t Matthew Stafford or Josh Allen. He isn’t built to sustain this level of damage, and his internal clock will accelerate on long and late downs when he sees blitz looks.
The Lions’ offensive line was among the league’s best in Goff’s first few years in Detroit, but those days are behind us. Besides the interior talent drain, left tackle Taylor Decker is showing signs of his age, too. Without elite run blocking, Detroit faces more third-and-longs. Without elite pass protection, Goff struggles more on those downs. The offense loses an edge. It’s not a bad unit, but it isn’t elite anymore.
The defense is also running into issues. Under new defensive coordinator Kelvin Sheppard, the Lions remain committed to playing man coverage at above-average rates and on high-leverage downs. The Lions have run man coverage on 44.6% of their defensive snaps, easily the most in the league. On late downs, they’re at 68.7% (again, the most). In the red zone, they’re at 69.0% (third most).
Schefter: Colts’ early-season momentum seems to be gone
Just a nightmare roll of the dice right after the Colts went all-in. A QB injury, two divisional rivals peaking and a couple of close losses — and the cherry on top is Gardner being out multiple weeks because of a calf strain. He won’t go on injured reserve (there’s little point this late in the season), but the hope is that he’s back during the regular season. That is to say: not a guarantee.