The NFL regular season has come to an end so it’s time to look at who the real contenders are and offer some final takes on teams whose season ended last week. Plus look ahead to the NFL wild card.
NFL Week 18 Takeaways
Teams I am Looking Forward to Watching Next Season
- Carolina Panthers: Bryce Young is fun and good. He’s a guy to build around, chase an unhappy stud receiver, allow Ejiro Evero to draft a killer defensive class and fly.
- Atlanta Falcons: Michael Penix, another QB of whom’s throws make me audibly exclaim in my living room. Zac Robinson’s year two defense should excel. Raheem Morris must fix an atrocious defense, and his coaching acumen is still a question mark but the Falcons should be fun next year.
- Assuming they draft a fun rookie and spend money in the trenches in free agency, The New York Giants. Don’t love keeping GM Joe Schoen around, he let MVP-caliber RB Saqoun Barkley walk and his draft track record is shakey at best. That said if Shaduer Sanders ends up in the big apple the Giants become a national story again.
Teams That Already Don’t Matter
- Miami Dolphins: Mike McDaniels football teams are soft, they get bullied, and at the first sign of adversity they quit. That’s the last place you want to be in the NFL. Keeping him and this current front office lines up a scenario far too easy to predict, Tyreek Hill and defensive vets mass exodus and the Dolphins are looking for a new coach and GM by Thanksgiving. I might change my opinion if they accept that this current roster isn’t doing it and endeavor on a complete tear down, starting with the signal caller that can’t stay on the field.
- Indianapolis Colts: Keep the failing coach and GM, yawn. Anthony Richardson needs to become Josh Allen this off season or the team is doomed. I don’t believe in anyone tethered to this completely rudderless ship. This team hasn’t mattered in a decade, we get it your QB retired unexpectedly, move on.
- Raiders: No pick high enough to solve QB, question marks at head coach. Bad teams stay bad.
The Most Crucial Off Seasons Belong To
- The Chicago Bears: Very obvious. If they don’t get an offensive minded head coach, they fail. Then they must address the offensive line, find a second pass rusher and get a defense that quit down the stretch to buy back in. It would probably be wise to fire GM Ryan Poles, but they won’t. I have 0 faith in the Bears to get this right, but hey maybe they will.
- Cleveland Browns: The GM, Coach, and Owner are all putting out vibes that they know the Deshaun Watson experiment was a terrible mistake. Now the team truly is a young QB and some offensive line help away from being right back in the mix if they can keep Myles Garrett and the defensive stars happy. I trust GM Andrew Berry, the Browns have a lot of work to do but they could turn things around quickly and if Watson is truly out of the equation they easily become a story America wants to root for again.
NFL Wild Card Look Ahead and Picks
Saturday 2:30 P.M. MT: Los Angeles Chargers @ Houston Texans
Justin Herbert back in the playoffs, life is good. The Texans offense has been unpredictable in a bad way all year long. You never quite know which version of CJ Stroud and company is about to show up. This is Strouds second bite at the Wild Card apple though and last year he put on a show. The Chargers boast the best scoring defense in the entirety of the NFL. Can the Texans break through that? My confidence in that scenario is low. This is the test for the Chargers, is the culture changed? Can you win on the road in January and be one of the NFL’s final 8 teams? With JK Dobbins back and Ladd McConkey playing well, if Queintin Johnston can just contribute a few key catches I think the Chargers can prevail but it will be close.
Texan’s confidence rating: 6/10
Charger’s Confidence rating: 7/10
Prediction: Chargers 30 Texans 23
Saturday 6:00 P.M. MT: Pittsburgh Steelers @ Baltimore Ravens
I just don’t want the Steelers anywhere near divisional round weekend. Nearly every other team in the AFC I would be fine with but not the Steelers. The offense has disappeared, Russell Wilson is bad again, George Pickens is nowhere to be found and the vibes are so bad. The Steelers simply do not belong in these playoffs. What scares me is they may stick around, just about every other team in this bracket I would have picked over the Steelers but these are the Ravens.
There is so much shared DNA in this playoff rivalry clash that quite literally anything could happen. If I know one thing about this weekend, I know that this game is going to be very ugly. I wouldn’t expect a huge passing day especially if Lamar Jackson’s favorite target Zay Flowers is sidelined. Ultimately games like this come down to who runs the ball better, and Derrick Henry is just getting started. I could see him being the MVP of the weekend.
Raven’s Confidence rating: 6/10
Steeler’s Confidence rating: 5/10
Prediction: Ravens 27 Steelers 17
Sunday 11:00 A.M. MT: Denver Broncos @ Buffalo Bills
A moment to say, I did it, I survived as a fan for a decade of darkness. During that time I opted out of maybe seven Broncos games at most. I endured, and here we are the playoffs. It says something about loyalty and sticking with something. Eventually if you stand by the ones and things you love the most they will reward you.
Unconditional love brings unconditional love. Shout out to the Avalanche for getting me through it. It’s good to be back in the playoffs. Stick with the hard things and eventually, they’ll reward you.
My reward this year: An absolute shellacking by an all-time MVP QB. The Bills don’t care about the regular season, their season starts in January and the Broncos are the tune up for bigger and better opponents. Denver’s defense has been wildly overrated all year long and have been dominated by every good offense they’ve faced. Poor Riley Moss doesn’t stand a chance against Josh Allen. I’m also not sure the Broncos can stop James Cook and the Buffalo run game.
The strength of the Broncos D is the pass rush and so offsetting that with a heavy dosage of Cook and scat back Ty Johnson early would make the most sense for the Bills. Buffalo will score points, the test will be can Bo Nix and this offense keep up? I think they will to an extent but they don’t have the weapons or running game to keep this game super close.
Bill’s confidence rating: 8/10
Bronco’s confidence rating: 6/10
Prediction: Bills 45 Broncos 28
Sunday 2:30 P.M. MT NFL Wild Card: Green Bay Packers @ Philidelphia Eagles
This is an interesting one for me. I’ll just spoil it early. I’m taking the Eagles, dominant ground game, good home-field advantage, facing a shakey defense for Jalen Hurts to get his legs back under him out of concussion protocol.
Also I cannot believe I am saying this but after watching the last month of the season, I really do not believe in the Packers. I thought I would, I’m a big LaFluer fan, they’ve got a good running game and I’m a massive Jordan Love fan. The truth is this though, the passing game has been unspectacular at best for the whole season. LaFluer has reigned in the gun slinger tendencies of Love and made him more of an uber-efficient game manager. They’ll need the gunslinger to beat the Eagles and I am just not sure they have him to be completely honest with you. Riding Josh Jacobs and a good ground game can only take you so far. Would I be shocked if they won? No, but I am never picking them in this spot.
Eagle’s confidence rating: 9/10
Packer’s confidence rating: 7/10
Prediction: Eagles 32 Packers 24
Sunday 6:00 P.M. MT Washington Commanders @ Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Here it is, the wild card game I have no read on that really could go anyway you slice it. I like both of these QBs quite a bit but one is a rookie and the other is the now playoff vet in Baker Mayfield. In this game I really do think it comes down to the offenses and these two QBs. The Washington Dan Quinn defense is going to show up as is Todd Bowles vaunted unit.
Both teams have good run games and a solid set of receiving targets. It’s just a matter of who I trust more. I came into this preview thinking for sure I would pick Jayden Daniels but in this spot it’s hard for me not to grab Baker. He looks even better than last year and last year he was able to come up with a playoff win. How deep can the Bucs go? I don’t really know, but if Baker plays well he can beat half the teams remaining in the playoffs. I’ve stay realistic but this is where I chose fun, this feels like a shootout with maximum drama that goes all the way to the finish. I am ready for this one, truly will be waiting all day for Sunday night.
Buc’s confidence rating: 7/10
Commander’s confidence rating: 7/10
Prediction: Buccaneers 45 Commanders 42
Monday 6:00 P.M. MT Minnesota Vikings @ Los Angeles Rams
A lot of people might tell you this is the toss up of the weekend, vegas has it as a pickem, but I like the Vikings here. Kevin O’conell is going to come out with something to prove after his offense was dominated on Sunday night in Detroit, as is Sam Darnold who will hear a lot of hate this week.
The Vikings are a contender though and the Rams aren’t and really it all comes down to consistency, as it does with most things in the NFL. The Rams have not consistently had their A game throughout this season. Some weeks they out shoot Josh Allen but other weeks they struggle to put 20 points on the dead 49ers defense. Whether it be because of injuries, a streaky Matthew Stafford year or bad luck the Rams just don’t have it this year. They rank low in the confidence meter because they’ve been so streaky and inconsistent this year. Darnold bounces back and the Vikings get a big win on the road here to advance.
Ram’s confidence rating: 5/10
Viking’s confidence rating: 7/10
Prediction: Vikings 41 Rams 27