When the NFL schedule maker's put together the Week 17 slate, the had visions of it being littered with playoff implications, de facto division championship games and massive inter-conference heavy-weight matchups. Unfortunately, your perennial NFL heavyweights didn't exactly comply (we're looking at you Chiefs, Ravens, Lions, Packers, et all). With that being said, there is still plenty to look forward to this Sunday:
After having to watch Tampa Bay haplessly blow a 14-point 4th quarter lead to the Atlanta Falcons last Thursday, this week on Prime we get one of the absolute best matchups of the year: Los Angeles (Rams, of course) at Seattle. Not only will this game likely decide the NFC West, it could very likely decide the 1-seed in the NFC.
Why is this game on Thursday night? Well, this was supposed to be a battle of the two "heavy weights" in the NFC South. Instead, we've got a 4-9 Falcons team with Kirk Cousins playing quarterback against a 7-7 Bucs team that's quite literally limping to the finish (they last at home to the Saint last weekend. The Saints).
After a bit of a dud in week 13, Week 14 is the first massive, MASSIVE week as the NFL's stretch run towards the playoffs begins. This is the part of the season where every team claims they "control their own destiny," even if the math says they need three wins, two losses from rivals, a meteor strike and a priest to bless their offensive line (we're looking at you, Chiefs).
Thanksgiving and Black Friday football make up one of the best viewing stretches of the NFL season, and there's a chance that the slate this year could be the best NFL schedule-makers have ever produced. Sure, they got a little lucky - the Chiefs are on the ropes, the Cowboys are surging and Joe Burrow is making his triumphant return. Still, the NFL has said they expect 50 Million viewers for Chiefs-Cowboys. 50 MILLION!
The Stakes
Here’s a sneak-preview of Week 11 in the NFL, where the midseason narrative gets juicier than a teabag in hot water — and the advanced metrics back up the hype.
Maxx Crosby vs. Chiefs OL
Tony Romo recently coined the term “Pat GPT.” He was talking about Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, and his
The NFC West is always a competitive division, and this year is no different. The 49ers are atop the division with a 3-0 record, although those three wins have come at the expense of the health of several of their key players (George Kittle on IR, Brock Purdy out for extended time, and Nick Bosa lost for the season).
As Sunday night football approaches, two 0-2 teams try desperately not to let their season slip away before the calendar moves to September. Since 1990, 4 of 165 0-3 teams have made the playoffs or about 2.5 percent. In the case of the Giants, the Brian Daboll regime is trying to muster up a last ditch effort to prove Daboll is the long term answer in New York and avoid losing his job this season. For the Chiefs, this is not a position they are accustomed to. Kansas City has won the AFC West 9 consecutive seasons and expect this year to be no different. However with the Chargers coming out of the gates strong at 2-0 already owning a victory over the Chiefs, this is a must win if Kansas City wants to keep realistic hopes of making it 10 straight.
From now on, every overreaction must be counted against everyone's ledger. For the most part, we know what these teams will look like for this season, but they have to prove it. Teams have either dug themselves into a hole they'll be working their way out of for the foreseeable future or they've set up for long term success.
Now, most of this forecasting on which games you should be begging Scott Hanson to rave about on Sunday is based on one week's results. The NFL being a day-to-day business for the most part, so that's the only information that should be necessary for most of these teams. With the smattering early season injuries and, frankly, the NFL schedule-makers forgetting to make Week 2 good again, these are the games I will be locked into for the various narratives and potential fallouts.
We don’t always get premium matchups on Thursday night football. In fact, more often than not to kick-off the week we’re treated to an epic matchup between the Titans and Panthers (or something to that effect). Maybe Amazon has been talking to Roger Goodell, but this week's TNF matchup is one to get excited about. We’ve got the Green Bay Packers against the Washington Commanders. Both ascending teams. Both have promising Quarterbacks that many believe can work their way into the top 5. Both are on the short list of teams everyone believes can challenge the Eagles for NFC supremacy. This should be a good one, my friends. Here’s what you should be watching for:
(Yahoo Sports)
The full Sunday slate for Week 1 is finally here, and Roger Goodell and his cadre of schedule makers delivered a gem. Eagles-Cowboys and Chiefs-Chargers wet our appetite, but the truth is Week 1’s best matchups will happen on Sunday. Here’s what to watch for as you settle in for your first of 18 Sunday’s nestled in front of your big screen for the NFL season.
The International slate of NFL games kicks off in earnest on Friday September 5th with a showdown of AFC West rivals in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Both the Chiefs and the Chargers have nasty tastes to get out of their mouths from last years’ playoffs as the 2025 regular season kicks off. Everyone remembers the landslide defeat the Chiefs suffered in the Super Bowl to the Champion Eagles, but it’s a little easier to forget about the other side. The last time the Jim Harbaugh led Chargers took the field, they were suffering a 32-12 loss at the hands of the Houston Texans, who weren’t exactly considered juggernauts heading into the AFC playoffs. This matchup will go a long way in determining how the AFC West, a division chalk full of coaching experience, plays out this season.
We know you all love the Field Vision week-to-week power rankings! Well, they are back for our very rendition to kick-off the 2025 season! Not to play spoiler here, but the top of the rankings will look pretty familiar to where we left off in New Orleans last year (We're looking at you, Jalen Hurts). The bottom of the Top 10 gets a little bit fuzzier. Can CJ Stroud shake the sophomore slump in year 3? Do we actually trust JJ McCarthy? Does Jayden Daniels revert to the mean? All questions we're on the edge of our seats to find out! Well - here's goes nothing.
Image: Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports
In 2021, the NFL only had seven 1,000-yard rushers. That was a historic dip in production, given that an extra game was added to the roster. '21 was the peak of the
With the return of the run game and more controlled offenses with reserved play callers, explosive plays come at a high premium. Only a handful of offenses like Minnesota, Detroit, and Philadelphia were able to remain consistent down the field but all featured elite rushing attacks primarily.
As we look back at the 2024 season and the rosters that defined it, we take a look today at the best and worst secondaries according to roster talent this past season. As always, we used our Havoc Ratings which aggregates individual player contributions, so this is more of a commentary on the individual players that make up each unit than how the unit performed together.
When pundits and fans focus on NFL secondaries, the most common position highlighted is the cornerback. For decades, this position has been one of star power. Champ Bailey, Charles Woodson, Darrell Green, Deion, Revis, and Rod Woodson are some of the names that have topped most lists in the last 30 years.
Today's NFL is throwing back to the old days where running backs and linebackers became all the rage, but defensive linemen, especially interior players, have tremendous value. Obviously, edge rushers get all the glory, but the last few years have emphasized the importance of double-team guzzlers. Aaron Donald and Chris Jones added pass rushing abilities to the standard job description of defensive tackles and with the advent of more athleticism in quarterbacks, interior pressure comes at a premium.
The off-ball linebacker is one of the more challenging positions in football to evaluate. As we head towards the NFL draft, there are three consensus top linebackers to choose from: Jihaad Campbell (Alabama), Carson Schwesinger (UCLA), and Jalon Walker (Georgia). Of those three, Campbell and Walker are projected to be first-round selections.
Offense returned in a different way than most were assuming it would in 2024. After an offseason where the running back position was publicly devalued, rushing the ball drove the highest levels of success in both conferences. Efficiency became the name of the game in passing with less attempts for some, but explosiveness is still on the menu.
The first few rounds of NFL free agency are over, and teams are now focusing on Pro Days and last-minute tweaks to their draft boards. One way to create a road map for how teams will approach the NFL Draft is to examine their overall roster pre-free agency, what they did or didn't do to solve those issues, and then project those missing holes into the draft process.
Defensively, 2025 was the year of the DB. Several high-caliber defensive backs switched teams, and a few, including
Using Field Vision’s Threat Ratings to examine the best of the best offensive weapons from the 2024 season.
Using Field Vision's Havoc Ratings, let's reflect on who had the best-performing units during the 2024 season.
Threat and Havoc measure more in depth than generic stats possibly could by linking production and proven value. Some players with gaudier numbers don't serve as effective a purpose as a seemingly innocuous cog in the machine. The nature of Havoc and Threat is the ability to ignore the narratives of how good a player is or isn't and look strictly at production. Here, we take a look at either end of the spectrum at players who produced better or worse than you may have thought.
