The NFC is likely to be making the grave mistake of letting Aaron Rodgers into the playoffs. Green Bay’s sudden sizzling streak, mixed with the collapse of the convention’s tender underbelly, has shot the Packers into playoff rivalry. As December dawned, it appeared doable the Packers would flip to Jordan Love with an eye fixed on both growth or showcasing him for a commerce. Three straight victories later, they might realistically steal the NFC’s ultimate playoff spot — and give Rodgers an opportunity to make a run in an underwhelming convention.
As the wild card aspirants — the Giants, Lions, Commanders and Seahawks — all misplaced this weekend, the Packers intercepted Tua Tagovailoa 3 times, held the Dolphins scoreless in the second half and erased a 10-point deficit to win in Miami, 26-20. It might have been the Packers’ most spectacular victory of the season and supplied additional indicators of life from a maligned protection that has allowed 19, 12 and 20 factors throughout Green Bay’s streak.
The Packers, seemingly a franchise in flux lower than a month in the past, are all of the sudden the league’s most fascinating staff. If they’ll beat each the Vikings (who don’t have a lot to play for) and the Lions (who confirmed in a horrible loss to the Panthers how susceptible they are towards the run) at Lambeau Field, they might have a 91 p.c probability to make the playoffs, based on FiveThirtyEight’s predictive mannequin.
Postseason underachievement has outlined the again half of Rodgers’s profession. He is 7-9 in the playoffs since profitable the Super Bowl after the 2010 season and hasn’t gained the NFC once more. He would nonetheless be a scary sight if he comes into the playoffs on a sizzling streak, taking part in with nothing to lose somewhat than freighted with expectations. The Packers’ protection is lastly taking part in as much as its expertise stage, and if David Bahktiari returns from an appendectomy, their offensive line will likely be as wholesome because it has been all yr.
The AFC playoff quarterback discipline might be outrageous. The Jaguars’ demolition of the Jets and the Titans’ loss to the two-win Texans moved Jacksonville into first place in the AFC South. That means with two weeks left, the beginning quarterbacks in playoff place in the AFC are Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrow, Trevor Lawrence, Lamar Jackson, Justin Herbert and Tua Tagovailoa.
All are first-round picks, with solely Jackson chosen exterior the high 10. All are remarkably younger; Mahomes, at 27, is the oldest. Two have already gained an MVP award, and it might be extra shocking than not if the others, maybe except for Tagovailoa, didn’t win one earlier than their profession ends.
In the brief time period, each AFC playoff recreation will likely be must-watch, a spectacular show of the league’s current and future. In the lengthy view, the assortment of passers exhibits how tough will probably be to interrupt into the AFC’s circle of rivalry. Whether Mac Jones or Kenny Pickett, for instance, will likely be viable NFL starters is one query. Whether they’ll often compete with these quarterbacks for the subsequent decade is one other one utterly.
The Broncos and Browns have already proven the dangers of allocating assets to a perceived franchise quarterback on the commerce market. Both cratered in the first seasons of Russell Wilson and Deshaun Watson for various causes, and now each will likely be delivery excessive draft selections to their earlier groups. But the desperation for AFC groups to discover a quarterback able to competing with these seven will solely improve.
It’s why the Raiders could also be eager to maneuver on from Derek Carr, why Jackson is justified in squeezing each penny out of the Ravens and why there will likely be a race to the backside subsequent season for faculty prospects Caleb Williams and Drake Maye. The would possibly of the AFC quarterback crop will form the league for years and years to return.
Death, taxes and Mike Tomlin profitable soccer video games. Tomlin will all the time discover a strategy to win eight video games. The Steelers had been as soon as 3-7 with a rookie quarterback and then traded a beginning wideout who netted a second-round decide. They are now 7-8 and not technically out of the playoff race.
Tomlin’s streak of by no means having a dropping report stays alive after certainly one of the season’s most emotional victories: The Steelers retired Franco Harris’s quantity two days after his tragically timed dying, and then Pickett and George Pickens, each rookies, related on a 14-yard landing move in the ultimate minute to erase what had been a 10-point deficit and beat the Raiders, 13-10.
Even if the Steelers stumble and Tomlin suffers his first dropping season in his sixteenth yr as Pittsburgh’s head coach, will probably be one other commendable efficiency. No coach has the next flooring. Still, Tomlin should enhance the ceiling in Pittsburgh. Since the Steelers began 11-0 in 2020, they’ve gone 17-19-1 in the common season and haven’t been aggressive in two playoff losses. Their final playoff victory got here in 2016.
Few coaches in the league have earned higher job safety than Tomlin. But it’s been a half-decade since the Steelers had been an elite staff. Getting there with Pickett, who has proven promise however not elite traits, towards the present AFC quarterback crop will likely be a large teaching problem. But who would need to guess towards Tomlin?
The Cowboys’ offensive ceiling makes them a Super Bowl menace. Dallas is bafflingly inconsistent, its protection has been springing leaks for the second half of the season, and Mike McCarthy’s recreation administration makes you cowl your eyes. But the Cowboys should be taken significantly in the playoffs, as a result of in the event that they play their finest offensive recreation, not many opponents can preserve tempo.
The Cowboys’ 40-34 victory over the juggernaut Eagles, assisted by 4 Philadelphia turnovers and outlined by Dak Prescott’s third-and-30 completion to newcomer T.Y. Hilton, revealed how tough Dallas is to cease. Its broad receivers, particularly CeeDee Lamb, are too robust to defend in man protection, and Prescott is simply too expert at choosing aside a zone. Defensive coordinators don’t have any good choices, particularly after they need to account for Ezekiel Elliott and Tony Pollard out of the backfield.
Eagles defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon prefers simplicity to keep away from surrendering huge performs. Prescott made a meal of that method Saturday. He accomplished all 24 passes he tried when Philadelphia performed zone protection, based on the NFL’s Next Gen Stats. The mixture of that offense and Micah Parsons will give any playoff opponent a headache.
Dak Prescott earned a season-high 91 NGS passing rating in Week 16.
Prescott accomplished all 24 of his passes towards zone protection for 300 yards & 3 TD, changing into the solely participant to earn an ideal 99 NGS passing rating vs zone in a recreation since 2018.#PHIvsDAL | #DallasCowboys pic.twitter.com/zdNto4GSXU
— Next Gen Stats (@NextGenStats) December 25, 2022
The Cowboys, by the manner, can nonetheless win the NFC East in the unlikely occasion they beat the Titans and Commanders and the Eagles lose to the Saints and Giants.
The Broncos are 4-11, and their future is even bleaker than the current. They tried and failed for years after Peyton Manning’s retirement to discover a appropriate quarterback and lastly made an all-in transfer this offseason. Rather than resolve the downside, they set the franchise on a course for utter catastrophe.
Even those that might peer round the nook and see Wilson’s decline coming couldn’t have foreseen how rapidly and disastrously it might arrive. The Broncos’ 51-14 loss to the Rams on Sunday supplied the lowest level in a season chocked with low factors. They are final in the league in factors scored per recreation. They are struggling with each other on the sideline. They are a large number, and it might not be doable to scrub up.
The Broncos’ new homeowners can fireplace Coach Nathaniel Hackett, however they don’t have any outs at quarterback. Even if they might discover a taker for him in a commerce, his lifeless cap hit can be $107 million, based on Spotrac. That solely drops to $85 million in 2024 and $49.6 million in 2025, when his precise cap hit will likely be $55.4 million, and Wilson will likely be 37. The Broncos can not realistically commerce or lower Wilson till 2026. Whether as their starter or a sunk-cost backup, they are caught with him.
Denver will ship its first-round decide, nearly actually a top-five selection, to the Seattle Seahawks together with extra draft capital. They surrendered large draft capital for the proper to tether themselves with out recourse to certainly one of the worst beginning quarterbacks in the NFL.
“I’ve got to play to the standards that I know how to play to, that I’ve been playing to my whole career,” Wilson instructed reporters after Sunday’s loss. But the participant who set that customary not exists. Wilson was reliant on his operating potential to open up the remainder of his off recreation. Without it, he’s a pocket quarterback who lacks the dimension and processing to function an NFL offense. He shouldn’t be at a stage of his profession the place he can recapture the athleticism and nerve required to run, nor one the place he’s prone to remodel his type of play.
Please, Panthers, don’t make us watch the Buccaneers in the playoffs. Carolina, which fired its coach and traded a franchise icon earlier this season, controls its personal playoff destiny after it dominated the beforehand scalding-hot Lions, 37-23. Even although Tampa Bay scraped out one other inconceivable win over a foul opponent, the Panthers will win the NFC South in the event that they beat the Buccaneers subsequent week and then beat the Saints in Week 18.
Anyone who cares about entertaining soccer ought to hope Carolina pulls it off. The Cardinals, who misplaced handily to the Broncos final week and began third-string quarterback Trace McSorley, led by 10 factors in the fourth quarter earlier than Tom Brady engineered his newest comeback. Somehow, the Bucs can flip Brady’s heroics right into a slog. There can be nothing attention-grabbing about watching them in the playoffs, which is exceptional given their quarterback is the finest participant of all time.
The Panthers, in the meantime, rebounded after a dispiriting loss to the Steelers with their finest win in years. Interim coach Steve Wilks has gone 5-5, together with 4-2 in the previous six video games. Given the state of the roster when he took over and the quarterback shuffling that endured, it has been certainly one of the finest teaching performances of the season. Their energy operating recreation would no less than present a problem, particularly matched up towards a Cowboys run protection that has usually been suspect.