NFL Week 16 is in full swing, with three games already in the books after Thursday and Saturday’s action. Sunday and Monday will bring another 13 hotly contested matchups as teams continue to fight to secure tickets to the postseason or garner a small degree of respectability after disappointing campaigns.
Three AFC teams — Kansas City, Buffalo and Houston — have clinched their divisions. Five more teams — Baltimore and Pittsburgh in the AFC; Detroit, Philadelphia and Minnesota in the NFC — have also secured playoff berths. The number of division champs or playoff qualifiers could expand by Monday night.
Here’s a rundown of five of the most compelling storylines of the week. (Find the full schedule here.)
1. Can Eagles keep winning?
The Eagles have won 10 straight games, the longest active streak in the NFL and the longest in team history. Sunday, they lay their streak on the line with plenty at stake. They’ll travel down Interstate 95 to take on the Washington Commanders (9-5), who rank second in the NFC East and can secure their first playoff berth since 2020 with a victory over Philadelphia and some help from the opponents of the Atlanta Falcons and Seattle Seahawks.
The Eagles have plenty of motivation of their own, however. Not only can they clinch the NFC East with a win Sunday, they also could take a step closer toward securing first place in the NFC. The Eagles, Lions and Vikings enter Sunday with identical 12-2 records. Philadelphia aims to ride its momentum and leapfrog Detroit, which is reeling from injuries while trying to fend off Minnesota, which has won seven straight and covets the Lions’ perch atop the NFC North.
Philadelphia defeated Washington 26-18 in Week 11. The Commanders hope improved health can help change their fortunes this time around. However, the Eagles are playing their best ball of the season while coming off their finest passing outing last week, boasting the league’s top rushing attack and an impactful defense. Philadelphia has won six of the last seven meetings with Washington. (Eagles at Commanders, 1 p.m. ET Sunday.)
2. Detroit Lions: Reeling or resilient?
For a large chunk of the season, the Lions have looked like the best team in football. But injuries may have begun to take their toll and Dan Campbell’s squad is in danger of losing not only its perch atop the NFC standings, but the NFC North as well.
A 48-42 loser to Buffalo last week, the Lions will try to rebound Sunday in Chicago. Missed opportunities on defense, in the red zone and in the turnover department derailed the Lions last week. “We couldn’t get out of our own way,” Campbell said. But he expects his players will learn from last week’s mistakes and use the loss as a motivating factor versus Chicago.
“This is not time to panic and freak out and act like things are worse than they are,” Campbell stressed this week, before adding, “It’s all correctable, and we will get it corrected.”
The host Bears are hoping to end an eight-game losing streak and have yet to figure things out despite the firing of coach Matt Eberflus three weeks ago. Rookie quarterback Caleb Williams has done a better job of taking care of the football, going eight straight weeks without throwing an interception. But he’s still not consistently accurate. Williams hasn’t topped 200 yards passing for two straight games, and the Bears have been outscored 68-25 in two games since Eberflus’ firing. Chicago must give its quarterback greater support, and it also must stop Jared Goff. The Lions quarterback ranks second in the NFL with 3,759 passing yards and needs just three more touchdown passes to surpass his career high (32). (Lions at Bears, 1 p.m., Sunday).
3. Penix’s Falcons starting debut
After leading the NFC South for a decent stretch, the Falcons went on a slide and lost four straight. They managed to end the skid last week, but at 7-7 and in danger of missing the playoffs, the Falcons made a change at quarterback.
Rookie Michael Penix Jr. gets his first start Sunday because coach Raheem Morris ran out of patience with veteran Kirk Cousins, who threw just one touchdown pass and nine interceptions in the past five games. Penix, the eighth pick of the draft, will face a Giants defense that surrenders just 200.4 passing yards per game and yet has only two interceptions. New York’s defense ranks 31st in the league against the run, yielding 143.7 yards per game, so look for the Falcons to lean heavily on running back Bijan Robinson, who has 1,102 rushing yards and eight touchdowns this season.
For the Giants, losers of nine straight, the quarterback carousel continues. Brian Daboll has returned to Drew Lock, who was inactive last week, but had no touchdown passes and two interceptions as the starter in Weeks 13 and 14. The Giants rank last in the NFL in scoring, with 14.9 points per game, so Atlanta has a chance to get back on track in the playoff race with a win and losses by the Commanders and Seahawks. (Giants at Falcons, 1 p.m. ET Sunday.)
4. NFC West race remains tight
Speaking of Seattle, things remain rather muddled in the NFC West, where the Rams have overtaken the Seahawks for first place. Just 1-4 after an injury-plagued start to the season, the Rams have won seven of their last nine and three straight to improve to 8-6. Seattle faltered 30-13 last week against Green Bay, which snapped the Seahawks’ four-game win streak.
The Seahawks now face a stiff challenge in slowing the 12-2 Vikings. The Rams travel to face the embattled New York Jets and the Arizona Cardinals (7-7) face the struggling Carolina Panthers. So it’s possible for the Rams to add to their division lead if Seattle slips further and gets overtaken by Arizona. The pressure certainly has reached a boiling point. Positions have fluctuated almost weekly in this hotly contested division, but time is running out. (Rams at Jets and Cardinals at Panthers, 1 p.m. ET Sunday; Vikings at Seahawks, 4:05 p.m. ET Sunday.)
5. Last-gasp AFC efforts
Things are largely set in the AFC playoff picture. The Chiefs, Bills and Texans all have earned division crowns. The Steelers and Ravens are both 10-5 after Baltimore topped Pittsburgh 34-17 on Saturday to clinch a playoff berth. They’ll battle it out down the stretch for the AFC North title. The last two AFC spots could come down to the wire, however.
The Chargers and Broncos (both 9-6) hold the sixth and seventh spots, respectively, following their Thursday night game won by Los Angeles. The Colts, Dolphins and Bengals, meanwhile, all continue to cling to life with identical 6-8 records. To reach the postseason, Indianapolis, Miami and Cincinnati all need to win out and hope for stumbles by teams ahead of them. They all have winnable games Sunday. The Bengals host the downtrodden Browns, the Colts face the hapless Titans and the Dolphins play the disappointing 49ers.
Who remains alive for one more week? The Bengals, who have won two straight with an electrifying offense but weak defense? (They have scored and given up an average of about 32 points in the past five games.) The wildly inconsistent Colts, who have had an up-and-down stretch, beating the Jets and Patriots but losing to the Lions and Broncos? Or the suddenly sputtering Dolphins, who after a midseason three-game tear have since lost two of the last three? (Browns at Bengals and Titans at Colts, 1 p.m. ET Sunday; 49ers at Dolphins, 4:25 p.m. ET Sunday.)
(Top photo of Darius Slay and C.J. Gardner-Johnson: Mitchell Leff / Getty Images)
