NFL (2024 Season)

[Big John]

What about having the games slightly closer than a week apart? For example, a team plays five consecutive games on Sunday, Friday, Thursday, Monday, and Sunday. (This would also be made easier if games existed on all seven days of the week.)

The players union would object since it would decrease recovery time.

[thspfc]

What about having the games slightly closer than a week apart? For example, a team plays five consecutive games on Sunday, Friday, Thursday, Monday, and Sunday. (This would also be made easier if games existed on all seven days of the week.)

I personally would object because I like how the NFL has almost all of its weekly games on one day.

[NWI_Irish96]

What about having the games slightly closer than a week apart? For example, a team plays five consecutive games on Sunday, Friday, Thursday, Monday, and Sunday. (This would also be made easier if games existed on all seven days of the week.)

The players union would object since it would decrease recovery time.

Scheduling would be a nightmare. Teams and players already hate the Sunday-Thursday turnaround, so you couldn't logistically schedule every day of the week without taking 20+ weeks to play 17 games.

I'd actually like to see the NFL schedule fewer nights. I pretty much only watch Thursday games if the Bears or Colts are playing, but I watch most Sunday and Monday night games regardless of who's playing.

[thspfc]

Steelers 28, Browns 14

A pretty solid prediction.

The Harris touchdown run on Big Ben's last meaningful snap at Heinz will go down as one of the lasting images of this season and one of the great career sendoff moments ever. Especially if the stadium is renamed once the naming rights contract expires this offseason.

On a non-sentimental note, that atrocity was the cherry on top of a failed season for the Browns. The Browns is the Browns, I guess?

[hotdogPi]

Scheduling would be a nightmare. Teams and players already hate the Sunday-Thursday turnaround, so you couldn't logistically schedule every day of the week without taking 20+ weeks to play 17 games.

What I described above requires a single 4-day gap (Thursday to Monday) if no Tuesday or Wednesday games are allowed. If all seven days are allowed, go 5, 6, 6, 5, and 6, and you've gone from Sunday to Sunday with an extra game in there and no two games 4 days part.

Regarding most teams playing on the same day, if we're talking 18 games instead of 17, each team would only have to do this once per season, and they could play mostly on Sunday the rest of the season.

[webny99]

Have there been any situations in the past where it's the last week and two teams playing each other would both be guaranteed playoff spots if they tie? (It's happened in soccer before.)

🔔 Just realized there is a potential situation where this could happen next week 🔔

IF the Jaguars beat the Colts (massive IF, as they will be big underdogs, although they did beat them last year and played them close earlier this year), the Chargers and Raiders would both clinch a playoff berth by tying each other on Sunday Night Football. That scenario would eliminate the Colts and Ravens, and both the Chargers and Raiders have a head-to-head tiebreaker over the Steelers, so they're both in even if the Steelers also finish 9-7-1. We will know by kickoff if this could happen, as the Colts and Jaguars play at 1 PM ET.

Obviously, the NFL would not want this to happen, but that's the risk they take by putting Chargers-Raiders on SNF without knowing the results of Colts-Jaguars. My guess is that if the NFL had any respect for the Jaguars' chances, they would have put 49ers-Rams on SNF instead.

[NWI_Irish96]

Have there been any situations in the past where it's the last week and two teams playing each other would both be guaranteed playoff spots if they tie? (It's happened in soccer before.)

🔔 Just realized there is a potential situation where this could happen next week 🔔

IF the Jaguars beat the Colts (massive IF, as they will be big underdogs, although they did beat them last year and played them close earlier this year), the Chargers and Raiders would both clinch a playoff berth by tying each other on Sunday Night Football. That scenario would eliminate the Colts and Ravens, and both the Chargers and Raiders have a head-to-head tiebreaker over the Steelers, so they're both in even if the Steelers also finish 9-7-1. We will know by kickoff if this could happen, as the Colts and Jaguars play at 1 PM ET.

Obviously, the NFL would not want this to happen, but that's the risk they take by putting Chargers-Raiders on SNF without knowing the results of Colts-Jaguars. My guess is that if the NFL had any respect for the Jaguars' chances, they would have put 49ers-Rams on SNF instead.

There's no way two teams could orchestrate a tie without making it obvious, and if that happened the league would just boot them both our of the playoffs and put the next two teams in.

[Mapmikey]

For the record, my main opposition to the 17th game is that the players didn't want it. You're right that the final week this year is still important as ever.

If the season were to go to 18 games per team, it would most definitely have to start earlier. In my opinion, the last day of the regular season should be the first Sunday after Christmas. This year that was the 26th, which was week 16 in reality. For a 16 game season, that would mean starting Labor Day weekend. For a 17 game season, the last weekend of August. Some might argue starting earlier isn't feasible because it's too hot or because of the hurricane risk in the southeast. But in that case the Florida teams and the Saints could just play more away games early in the season, and more home games later on. (or the Saints could, you know, move out of New Orleans  )

I wonder if keeping the 16 game schedule but adding a 2nd bye for each team to expand the season to 18 weeks would have produced the same TV revenue windfall as going to 17 games.

This might be knowable somewhere...the NFL had 2 bye weeks per team in the 1993 season.

I always wonder why the bye weeks are so spread out over most of the season.  Why not have them all occur over a 2-week span mid-season?  This would greatly reduce advantage/disadvantages for teams that get theirs really early or really late.

[NWI_Irish96]

For the record, my main opposition to the 17th game is that the players didn't want it. You're right that the final week this year is still important as ever.

If the season were to go to 18 games per team, it would most definitely have to start earlier. In my opinion, the last day of the regular season should be the first Sunday after Christmas. This year that was the 26th, which was week 16 in reality. For a 16 game season, that would mean starting Labor Day weekend. For a 17 game season, the last weekend of August. Some might argue starting earlier isn't feasible because it's too hot or because of the hurricane risk in the southeast. But in that case the Florida teams and the Saints could just play more away games early in the season, and more home games later on. (or the Saints could, you know, move out of New Orleans  )

I wonder if keeping the 16 game schedule but adding a 2nd bye for each team to expand the season to 18 weeks would have produced the same TV revenue windfall as going to 17 games.

This might be knowable somewhere...the NFL had 2 bye weeks per team in the 1993 season.

I always wonder why the bye weeks are so spread out over most of the season.  Why not have them all occur over a 2-week span mid-season?  This would greatly reduce advantage/disadvantages for teams that get theirs really early or really late.

In a typical week, you have 1 game each on Thursday, Sunday and Monday nights, so if nobody is on a bye week that leaves 13 games to spread over 2 time slots Sunday afternoon. Having 4 teams on a bye reduces that to 11 games. Having half of the league on a bye reduces that to just 5 games. You end up with large chunks of the country getting a Jacksonville-Houston game or a Detroit-Carolina game and people find something else to watch.

[webny99]

Have there been any situations in the past where it's the last week and two teams playing each other would both be guaranteed playoff spots if they tie? (It's happened in soccer before.)

🔔 Just realized there is a potential situation where this could happen next week 🔔

...

There's no way two teams could orchestrate a tie without making it obvious, and if that happened the league would just boot them both our of the playoffs and put the next two teams in.

Have you seen the Chargers and the Raiders? If there's any two teams that could do it, those would be the two. 

[webny99]

On a non-sentimental note, that atrocity was the cherry on top of a failed season for the Browns. The Browns is the Browns, I guess?

Zero positives from the past two days for that franchise (except the fact that Big Ben is retiring, if you can count that). I was holding out hope that they would have a chance to win the division by beating the Bengals next week, but with the way they played last night, it wouldn't have mattered even if the Bengals hadn't beat the Chiefs.

I continue to be confused by their play calling. No idea why they wouldn't run it more against the worst run defense in the league. It's almost like Stefanski is giving Mayfield a chance to prove himself or something, but it couldn't be more clear that it just isn't working. He could end up costing himself his job while not really doing anything for Mayfield except putting more bad tape out there. Very strange to say the least.

[1995hoo]

For the record, my main opposition to the 17th game is that the players didn't want it. You're right that the final week this year is still important as ever.

If the season were to go to 18 games per team, it would most definitely have to start earlier. In my opinion, the last day of the regular season should be the first Sunday after Christmas. This year that was the 26th, which was week 16 in reality. For a 16 game season, that would mean starting Labor Day weekend. For a 17 game season, the last weekend of August. Some might argue starting earlier isn't feasible because it's too hot or because of the hurricane risk in the southeast. But in that case the Florida teams and the Saints could just play more away games early in the season, and more home games later on. (or the Saints could, you know, move out of New Orleans  )

I wonder if keeping the 16 game schedule but adding a 2nd bye for each team to expand the season to 18 weeks would have produced the same TV revenue windfall as going to 17 games.

This might be knowable somewhere...the NFL had 2 bye weeks per team in the 1993 season.

I always wonder why the bye weeks are so spread out over most of the season.  Why not have them all occur over a 2-week span mid-season?  This would greatly reduce advantage/disadvantages for teams that get theirs really early or really late.

One of the things I thought was dumb in 1993 was that the schedule was not set up so that each team had one bye week in each half of the season. For example, the Redskins had their byes in Weeks 4 and 8. I thought it would have made more sense if each team got one bye during Weeks 1—8 and the other bye during Weeks 9—18, perhaps with further restrictions like no team getting a bye in Week 1 (no reason for it that early) or Week 18 (so that no team would have an additional week's rest prior to the playoffs).

[Big John]

With the proliferation of fantasy football, there would be unfortune results if there were late-season byes.  Fantasy football managers were complaining about week 14 byes this year.

[webny99]

I continue to be confused by [the Browns'] play calling. No idea why they wouldn't run it more against the worst run defense in the league. It's almost like Stefanski is giving Mayfield a chance to prove himself or something, but it couldn't be more clear that it just isn't working. He could end up costing himself his job while not really doing anything for Mayfield except putting more bad tape out there. Very strange to say the least.

I subjected myself to some of Stefanski's post game press conference and have concluded that he's a bigger problem than Baker. He seems almost like a zombie; zero leadership, zero accountability, zero emotion. That can work for an OC, but it can't work for a head coach.

And every time I think about his COTY campaign last year, it seems less and less impressive. Won a bunch of close games, some of which had no business even being close. Got swept by the Ravens. Lost to the Jets. Barely clinched the playoffs against a team of backups. Wasn't even on the sideline for their playoff win. Seemed decent at the time because the bar is so low, but I definitely don't think he's the reason they made the playoffs. I think they should move on.

[JayhawkCO]

I continue to be confused by [the Browns'] play calling. No idea why they wouldn't run it more against the worst run defense in the league. It's almost like Stefanski is giving Mayfield a chance to prove himself or something, but it couldn't be more clear that it just isn't working. He could end up costing himself his job while not really doing anything for Mayfield except putting more bad tape out there. Very strange to say the least.

I subjected myself to some of Stefanski's post game press conference and have concluded that he's a bigger problem than Baker. He has zero leadership, accountability, or emotion. That can work for an OC, but it can't work for a head coach.

And every time I think about his COTY campaign last year, it seems less and less impressive. Won a bunch of close games, some of which had no business even being close. Got swept by the Ravens. Lost to the Jets. Barely clinched the playoffs against a team of backups. Wasn't even on the sideline for their playoff win. Seemed decent at the time because the bar is so low, but I definitely don't think he's the reason they made the playoffs. I think they should move on.

I wasn't sad to lose him as the Vikings' offensive coordinator a couple years back.  Not that we replaced him with anyone better however...

[thspfc]

Joe Judge's second annual highly embarrassing postgame conference included an anecdote about the 2018 Patriots:

"Lessons I've learned, I'll tell you right now alright? In 2018 I was part of a team who halfway through the season we were all pretty convinced we were getting fired. We didn't think we were going to make the playoffs. Had no concept of anything that was coming. We just knew we were going to keep showing up and improving week after week. And on the outside, we were all terrible. We didn't care about any of that noise on the outside."

Halfway through the season, that team was 6-2 and on a five game win streak which included victories over the Colts, Chiefs, and Bears, all of whom would go on to make the playoffs. That was the franchise that had made the playoffs 9 straight times. They had the greatest player and the greatest coach of all time. They were probably the betting favorites to win the Super Bowl, and if not they were at least top 3.

[JayhawkCO]

It's also telling about Judge that, despite getting hired when he was a special teams coordinator, the Giants' special teams currently rank 19th and had a couple of pretty embarrassing plays this past week.  They also were losing almost the whole game this week and still didn't try to throw the ball.  Granted, they had Glennon, who sucks, but they at least have to try.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

I wasn't sad to lose him as the Vikings' offensive coordinator a couple years back.  Not that we replaced him with anyone better however...

The problem isn't the OCs, the problem is Zimmer wanting the offense run his way or the highway. You can't run your way out of 3rd and 9 because running on 1st and 2nd netted you one yard.

[thspfc]

Some tricky ones because for a few teams we don't know who is playing and for how long.

Chiefs 28, Broncos 9
Cowboys 17, Eagles 14
Washington 27, Giants 10
Bengals 38, Browns 14
Ravens 26, Steelers 24
Packers 20, Lions 19
Colts 41, Jaguars 13
Bears 25, Vikings 23
Titans 30, Texans 23
Falcons 24, Saints 14
Cardinals 21, Seahawks 20
Bills 28, Jets 13
Buccaneers 38, Panthers 21
Dolphins 23, Patriots 17
Rams 37, 49ers 21
Chargers 27, Raiders 24

The last regular season game of 2021-22 will undoubtedly be the most important. Half of me wants to see the Steelers win, the Colts lose, and Chargers/Raiders end in a tie. More than half of me, actually. The meltdown would be hilarious.

I'm going to do an in-depth review of my predictions from August next week. But at a glance, it looks like I went 3/7 on AFC playoff teams and 5/7 on NFC playoff teams. Overall, I was middling to quite bad with the AFC, and pretty solid with the NFC. I still think that the Seahawks would've made it if not for Russ suffering the first major injury of his career. The couple weeks that it took them when he got back to get their offense back in sync was really what costed them the season. They scored 28 points total in three games over that stretch, and since then have scored an average of 29.6 per game over their last five.

[JayhawkCO]

I'll take Pats over Dolphins, but otherwise I agree with all your other picks.

Here was what I predicted before the season:



AFC - Either 3 or 4 playoff teams (depending on the Chargers), but I'm pretty happy about my awards.  Mahomes shouldn't win, but the other three I feel like are winners.  Gruden already got fired but Culley likely won't.

NFC - 5 out of 7 playoff teams.  Nagy likely going to get fired.  Pitts probably a winner, but none of the other awards correct there.

[webny99]

Kyle Brandt from GMFB picked the Eagles to make the playoffs before the season. Great prediction that almost no one else saw coming.

AFC - Either 3 or 4 playoff teams (depending on the Chargers), but I'm pretty happy about my awards.

Could be 5 if the Steelers or Ravens somehow get in. I'd say having 6 of 7 mathematically alive entering Week 18 isn't too bad.

[webny99]

The last regular season game of 2021-22 will undoubtedly be the most important. Half of me wants to see the Steelers win, the Colts lose, and Chargers/Raiders to end in a tie. More than half of me, actually. The meltdown would be hilarious.

I was going to say the result of Steelers-Ravens doesn't matter as long as the Jaguars beat the Colts, but that's not quite true. If the Ravens won, the Raiders would clinch a playoff spot, so that would leave them with nothing to play for (Chargers would still be win and in).

The Steelers winning would eliminate the loser of Chargers-Raiders unless they tie, so that's obviously a much more dramatic scenario. I would have thought this was something only nerds like me care about, but it's definitely been out there this week.

I still think that the Seahawks would've made it if not for Russ suffering the first major injury of his career. The couple weeks that it took them when he got back to get their offense back in sync was really what costed them the season. They scored 28 points total in three games over that stretch, and since then have scored an average of 29.6 per game over their last five.

I think going 1-2 with Geno when they could have very easily gone 3-0 was the killer. Both losses were decided by a late FG, one caused by a Geno fumble in overtime. Would have been less pressure on Russ to come back if they had a better record too (although he seemed to be determined to come back ASAP regardless).

[Roadgeekteen]

Texans aren't firing Culley

[webny99]

Texans aren't firing Culley

Makes sense, it would be crazy to create more drama by firing a coach who seems to have calmed things down and gotten as much as possible out of a bad roster. They've already matched last year's win total and Mills has been decent, so there's not much more you could ask out of a coach that knowingly walked into a terrible situation. Besides, not a lot can change until the Watson situation is resolved, so it makes sense to keep things as stable as possible.

The Jaguars, on the other hand, have a massive offseason ahead.

[NWI_Irish96]

The last regular season game of 2021-22 will undoubtedly be the most important. Half of me wants to see the Steelers win, the Colts lose, and Chargers/Raiders to end in a tie. More than half of me, actually. The meltdown would be hilarious.

I was going to say the result of Steelers-Ravens doesn't matter as long as the Jaguars beat the Colts, but that's not quite true. If the Ravens won, the Raiders would clinch a playoff spot, so that would leave them with nothing to play for (Chargers would still be win and in).

The Steelers winning would eliminate the loser of Chargers-Raiders unless they tie, so that's obviously a much more dramatic scenario. I would have thought this was something only nerds like me care about, but it's definitely been out there this week.

I still think that the Seahawks would've made it if not for Russ suffering the first major injury of his career. The couple weeks that it took them when he got back to get their offense back in sync was really what costed them the season. They scored 28 points total in three games over that stretch, and since then have scored an average of 29.6 per game over their last five.

I think going 1-2 with Geno when they could have very easily gone 3-0 was the killer. Both losses were decided by a late FG, one caused by a Geno fumble in overtime. Would have been less pressure on Russ to come back if they had a better record too (although he seemed to be determined to come back ASAP regardless).

I need the Steelers to lose for all the people who told me that the best thing about a 17-game schedule was that nobody would finish with a .500 record.