play1:06Will Dante Moore or Fernando Mendoza be QB1 in 2026 draft?Mel Kiper Jr. gives the cases for both Dante Moore and Fernando Mendoza to be drafted as the top pick in the 2026 NFL draft.
play0:40Why Jeff Saturday believes Lions’ Super Bowl window is closingJeff Saturday explains why the Lions’ Super Bowl window is starting to close, pointing to Ben Johnson’s departure as a key loss.
play0:30Purdy’s remarkable scramble ends in 49ers TDBrock Purdy miraculously evades the defense and finds Kyle Juszczyk in the end zone for the 49ers vs. the Bears.
Luke Kuechly: Panthers have been very particular in how they’ve built the team (1:22)Luke Kuechly joins “The Pat McAfee Show” and breaks down the Carolina Panthers’ improved roster this season. (1:22)
Will Dante Moore or Fernando Mendoza be QB1 in 2026 draft?Mel Kiper Jr. gives the cases for both Dante Moore and Fernando Mendoza to be drafted as the top pick in the 2026 NFL draft.
Mel Kiper Jr. gives the cases for both Dante Moore and Fernando Mendoza to be drafted as the top pick in the 2026 NFL draft.
Why Jeff Saturday believes Lions’ Super Bowl window is closingJeff Saturday explains why the Lions’ Super Bowl window is starting to close, pointing to Ben Johnson’s departure as a key loss.
Jeff Saturday explains why the Lions’ Super Bowl window is starting to close, pointing to Ben Johnson’s departure as a key loss.
Purdy’s remarkable scramble ends in 49ers TDBrock Purdy miraculously evades the defense and finds Kyle Juszczyk in the end zone for the 49ers vs. the Bears.
Brock Purdy miraculously evades the defense and finds Kyle Juszczyk in the end zone for the 49ers vs. the Bears.
I’ll go in chronological order, so we’ll start with what happened in Week 1 and work all the way to the games we saw over the past few days as part of Week 17. What mattered? What didn’t? And what seems like a bigger deal now than it did in the moment?
At 8-8, the Lions took a major step back for the first time under coach Dan Campbell and general manager Brad Holmes.
Of course, these teams have gone in drastically different directions since. Bowers spent two months trying to get right, and the offense never recovered. Smith and Carroll are likely to be one-and-done in Las Vegas. The Patriots quickly turned things around, and with the help of one of the easiest schedules in modern NFL history, they’ve gone 13-3 and won the AFC East with a week to spare.
Mattered then, didn’t matter in the long run: J.J. McCarthy, NFC Player of the Week. Even at the time, Vikings quarterback McCarthy winning Player of the Week for his performance during a topsy-turvy NFL debut was controversial. McCarthy had thrown a pick-six to Bears cornerback Nahshon Wright and done nothing on offense for the vast majority of the contest, but he was lights out in the fourth quarter, going 6-of-8 for 87 yards with two touchdown passes, plus a 14-yard rushing score.
This game also seemed like just another close win for the Vikings, who had run a gaudy record in one-score games under O’Connell in 2022 (9-0) and 2024 (8-1). They’re a more realistic 4-3 in those same games this season. Minnesota fell all the way to 4-8 before going on a four-game winning streak over the past month, buoyed by three games against NFC East competition and a six-takeaway win over the Lions on Thursday night.
Didn’t seem to matter then, matters now: Jayden Daniels suffers a minor knee injury late in a loss to the Packers. Coming off a scintillating rookie season, Daniels and his Commanders were seen as potential Super Bowl contenders after their run to the NFC title game in 2024. Daniels made it through his debut year unscathed, but late in a disappointing loss to the Packers, he suffered what was characterized at the time as a day-to-day knee injury.
The Colts have lost six straight, and unless they upset the Texans in Houston next week, Indy will fail to turn its 7-1 start into a winning record, let alone a playoff berth.
McVay responded to that defeat by firing special teams coordinator Chase Blackburn, marking the first time he has resorted to firing one of his coordinators during a season. The Rams have swapped out their kicker and now their coordinator, but it remains to be seen whether their special teams woes will linger into January. Subpar special teams in key moments are the biggest reason the Rams will likely be spending their postseason on the road.
Instead, while the Bucs beat the Jets and got to 3-0, the Panthers turned their season around with a blowout victory over the Falcons. Chau Smith-Wade chipped in with a pick-six, and while Young wasn’t spectacular, he went 16-of-24 for 121 yards, taking just one sack and protecting the football. The Panthers didn’t turn the ball over, and their defense was good enough to shut down Bijan Robinson throughout the game.
When Carolina has protected the football, good things have followed. The Panthers are 7-2 when they avoid multi-giveaway games. They’re 1-6 when turning the ball over two times or more, a record they added to in Sunday’s loss to the Seahawks, when two short fields from a Chuba Hubbard fumble and a Young interception set a profligate Seattle offense up for a pair of touchdowns.
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The 2025 Texans have joined the club, following their 0-3 start by going 11-2 over the ensuing 13 games. They’ll get a chance to make it to 12-2 with a win over Philip Rivers and the Colts next week. Since that 0-3 start, they’ve fielded the league’s best defense by points allowed per drive (1.4) and EPA per play (minus-0.10).
And while the offense hasn’t always been great, it has needed to be impressive for only short stretches to pull out victories. The C.J. Stroud-led offense didn’t have a single drive over 35 yards after the first quarter in Week 17, but two long touchdown passes early in the game and two missed kicks by Los Angeles kicker Cameron Dicker were enough to swing a 20-16 victory over the Chargers.
It’s fair to suggest that the Texans were unlucky to start 0-3; the three losses were by a combined 13 points, and if the Bucs win next week, all three will have come against eventual playoff teams. Most teams that start 0-3 don’t have the juice to turn things around. Even without Stroud for a month in the middle of the season, the Texans had enough on defense to flip their season. They’re going to be a very difficult out come January.
Didn’t seem to matter then, matters now: Bears pull out a dramatic victory over the Raiders. After getting their season back on track with a 31-14 victory over the Cowboys, the Bears spent most of Week 4 trailing the Raiders. It took a D’Andre Swift rushing touchdown with 1:34 to go to put the Bears up 25-24, and after a failed 2-point try, the Bears had to keep the Raiders out of field goal range to hold on to their lead.
They didn’t, but it didn’t matter. The Raiders quickly got into deep field goal range, at which point Las Vegas coach Pete Carroll decided to chew up the remaining clock and attempt a 54-yard field goal. For the second week in a row, though, a game was decided by a blocked kick at the buzzer, as Josh Blackwell blocked Daniel Carlson’s attempt to give the Bears a one-point victory.
While acknowledging what Derrick Henry did Saturday against the Packers, it’s the defense — not an inconsistent offense — that has mostly driven the Ravens to within one game of winning the AFC North.
This was the game in which the worm turned. A Bills team that never seemed to turn the football over somehow coughed it up three times, including once in the red zone. Patriots quarterback Drake Maye went drive-for-drive with Bills QB Josh Allen, racking up 273 yards while doing a better job of protecting the football. Special teams — a liability toward the end of the Belichick era in New England — came through when Andy Borregales hit a 53-yard field goal with 15 seconds left to win the game.
The Bills won the rematch on Dec. 14, but this was suddenly a real rivalry. And when the Bills failed on their two-point try against the Eagles on Sunday afternoon, this Patriots win in Western New York was the biggest reason New England clinched its first division title since Brady’s departure after the 2019 season.
Will Dante Moore or Fernando Mendoza be QB1 in 2026 draft?
It wasn’t in the cards, as this was Brian Daboll’s final win on a Giants sideline. The Giants followed that emotional win over the Eagles with nine consecutive losses. The defense blew a 26-8 fourth-quarter lead against the Broncos the following week. The Eagles blew the Giants out the following week, with Skattebo fracturing his fibula and dislocating his ankle, ending his rookie season.
Dart missed time with a concussion, and while he’s coming off his best game in weeks, he hasn’t looked as convincing as a passer when the Giants have taken the quarterback run game out of the equation. Even after dominating the Raiders on Sunday, Dart ranks 26th in the NFL in Total QBR this season on plays that don’t involve a scramble or a designed run. They’ll try again with Dart, Skattebo and Malik Nabers back in the fold together in 2026, but the new era is yet to really arrive in New York.
With a limited depth chart behind Adams, the Rams instead leaned into something McVay had never really used on a regular basis: 13 personnel, getting three tight ends onto the field. The Rams used 13 personnel on a grand total of four snaps between 2023 and 2024, less often than anybody else in the league. They used it 24 times in the win over the Jags alone, and even once Nacua came back, the habit stuck.
Hunter wouldn’t be seen again, as the first-round pick suffered a season-ending knee injury in practice before Jacksonville returned from the bye. That injury might have turned out to be an unexpected blessing in disguise, as the Jags traded for Jakobi Meyers, who would eventually help transform their offense. Only the 49ers and Rams have averaged more points per drive since that Jaguars loss in London. And as for Lawrence, well, we’ll get to him later.