Welcome to the Tuesday edition of the Pick Six newsletter!
With the regular season officially behind us, that means there are now only three things to talk about today: the playoffs, the playoffs and then probably some more playoff stuff after that. OK, so that’s actually only one thing, but it’s a big one, so I thought I should count it three times.
Actually we’ll be covering several things in today’s newsletter. Not only will we be ranking the six playoff games from best to worst, but Pete Prisco will unveil his final regular-season Power Rankings and we’ll be grading all 32 teams based on how they played during the regular season.
Also, if you want the latest information on who’s being interviewed and who’s being considered for each open job, then be sure to check out our coaching tracker here. There are certainly some interesting updates in there — like the Bears scheduling an interview with Mike Vrabel — so be sure to click over.
As always, here’s your daily reminder to tell all your friends to sign up for the newsletter. To get them signed up, all you have to do is click here. Signing someone up makes a great birthday present, which I’m only mentioning because it’s my sister’s birthday. Happy Birthday, Bekah! All right, let’s get to the rundown.
1. Prisco’s final regular season Power Rankings
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This is it, everyone: This is the final Power Ranking of the regular season. I hope you enjoy these, because Prisco won’t be putting out another Power Ranking until after the Super Bowl.
With that in mind, let’s check out Prisco’s top five:
Chiefs (same as last week)
Bills (same as last week)
Lions (same as last week)
Eagles (up one spot from last week)
Ravens (up one spot from last week)
Dropped out: Vikings
I’m not going to spoil the rest of the Power Rankings here, but I am going to give you a few nuggets. Here’s what has changed since Prisco’s last Power Rankings:
The biggest jump in the AFC went to the New York Jets. In what might have been Aaron Rodgers’ final game, he led his team to a win over the Dolphins and Prisco rewarded Rodgers’ performance by moving the Jets up two spots from 28th to 26th.
The biggest jump in the NFC went to the Saints. The Saints didn’t win, but they did go toe-to-toe with the Buccaneers in a game that they were actually leading by double digits in the second half. Although Prisco doesn’t normally reward moral victories, he did here by moving New Orleans up two spots from 27th to 25th.
The biggest tumble this week went to the multiple teams. No one dropped more than two spots this week, so we won’t be covering the biggest tumble, but we can tell you that the Vikings were one of the teams that dropped two spots, which knocked them out of the top five.
Finally, let’s get to the bottom of the Power Rankings. There have been a total of five different teams at the bottom of the Power Rankings this year, and I have a big announcement: We can now add a sixth team to the list. Not only did the Titans claim the No. 1 overall pick with their loss to the Texans on Sunday, but they also claimed the 32nd spot in Prisco’s Power Rankings. What a day for Tennessee.
If you want to know where your favorite team ended up in Prisco’s final regular-season Power Rankings, be sure to click here. If you want to argue with Prisco over his rankings, you can do that on Twitter by clicking here. I argue with him all the time about everything.
2. Ranking the best games on Wild Card Weekend
If you don’t have time to watch every wild-card game this weekend and you’re trying to figure out which ones you should watch, don’t worry, because we now have you covered in that department. Jordan Dajani ranked all six games best to worst, and based on what Dajani has to say, there is one game you definitely don’t want to miss.
With that in mind, here are his top four games on the schedule in the wild-card round:
1. (5) Vikings at (4) Rams, 8 p.m. ET, Monday (ESPN/ABC).“This game has fireworks potential as well. Matthew Stafford’s offense can be one of the most dangerous in the league when it’s clicking, and that offense gets to face off against Brian Flores’ aggressive group. Beautiful.”
2. (6) Commanders at (3) Buccaneers, 8 p.m. ET, Sunday (NBC/Peacock). “There won’t be much money thrown on the Commanders or Buccaneers to win the Super Bowl this year, but this wild-card matchup has the potential to be one of the best of the week. It’s a historically good rookie quarterback in Jayden Daniels vs. Baker Mayfield, who just became the fourth player in NFL history to throw 40 touchdowns while completing 70% of his passes in a season.”
3. (7) Packers at (2) Eagles, 4:30 p.m. ET, Sunday (Fox).“The Packers entered Week 18 with the No. 7 rush defense in the NFL, and containing Saquon Barkley will be key. When Green Bay played Philly in Week 1, Barkley scored three total touchdowns. The last time the Eagles won 14 games, they went to the Super Bowl. What can they do this time around?”
4. (6) Steelers at (3) Ravens, 8 p.m. ET, Saturday (Prime Video). “We could talk about Russell Wilson’s struggling unit taking on an improved Ravens defense, but this game is really about the Ravens offense vs. the Steelers defense. The Ravens are the first team in NFL history to rack up 4,000 passing yards and 3,000 rushing yards in a single season, and set an NFL record for yards per rush with 5.76! Can the Steelers defense contain Lamar Jackson and this red-hot attack?”
If I’ve learned one thing about making picks in the wild-card round over the past few years, it’s that you don’t want to overthink things. Over the past three years, home teams have been rolling in the opening round of the playoffs: Since the start of the 2021 season, home teams have gone just 14-4 on Wild Card Weekend, but two of those home losses were by the Cowboys, who won’t be around to choke away a home game this weekend.
With that in mind, let’s get to three of my picks for Wild Card Weekend:
(6) Steelers at (3) Ravens, Saturday, 8 p.m. ET (Prime Video): The Ravens have averaged 28.7 points per game during the regular season with Lamar Jackson at QB over the course of his career, but that number is just 16 points per game in the postseason. In clearer terms: The Ravens have been one of the highest scoring teams in the NFL since Jackson took over as starting quarterback, but they always seem to choke in the playoffs. If the Steelers had shown any signs of life over the final four weeks of the season, I would have thought about taking them here, but I’m going with the Ravens in a thriller. PICK: Ravens 23-20 over Steelers
(7) Broncos at (2) Bills, Sunday, 1 p.m. ET (CBS): I could see an upset happening here, but I just can’t bring myself to take a rookie quarterback on the road, especially since only three rookies quarterbacks have won a road playoff game in NFL HISTORY and none have pulled it off since Russell Wilson did it with the Seahawks in 2012. Josh Allen is going to be on a mission to get the Bills to the Super Bowl and that starts with a win here. PICK: Bills 24-17 over Broncos
(7) Green Bay at (2) Philadelphia, Sunday, 4:30 p.m. ET (Fox): During the regular season, the Packers played five games against teams that won 11 games or more and they went 0-5 in those games. I think what I’m trying to say is that the Packers have struggled against good teams and the Eagles are a good team. PICK: Eagles 27-24 over Packers
If you want to check out the rest of my picks for the wild-card round, be sure to click here.
Also, Will Brinson went through and picked ALL 13 games for the playoffs, including the conference title games and Super Bowl LIX. He has one of the teams in the postseason winning their first Super Bowl ever and if you want to see who that team is, you can check out all of his picks here.
4. 2024 regular-season grades for every team: Lions pass with flying colors, Jets fail out of school
During the regular season, we handed out grades every Monday here, but if you read yesterday’s newsletter, you may have noticed there were no grades. That’s because we we’re saving them for today. Instead of handing out weekly grades, Will Brinson went through and graded each team’s ENTIRE SEASON.
Let’s check out a few of the grades that Brinson handed out:
Lions: A+.“Incredible season for Detroit, the best in franchise history. Dan Campbell’s vision came to life, as the Lions exploded on offense throughout the season and stepped on the gas when they needed it most, winning their final two games to secure the division and the No. 1 seed.”
Steelers: B+.“Incredible season for Detroit, the best in franchise history. Dan Campbell’s vision came to life, as the Lions exploded on offense throughout the season and stepped on the gas when they needed it most, winning their final two games to secure the division and the No. 1 seed.”
Bengals: C-.“Going 9-8 isn’t “bad,” but when Joe Burrow puts together the kind of historic season he did — 4,500-plus passing yards, 40-plus TDs, less than 10 picks has only been done three times now and the other two guys went 30-1 and won a pair of MVPs — and you miss the playoffs because you started slow (again) and the defense was bad throughout the year, well, it’s hard to be excited.”
Cowboys: D.“Jerry Jones laughed at the idea of stepping down as GM of the Cowboys , which remains a problem. Yes, they lost Dak Prescott to injury and that should give them some leeway, but the expectations were sky high for this team and ultimately it ended up being a victim of its own offseason decision-making.”
Jets: F-.“The Jets were a train wreck from Jump Street once again. They fired their coach midseason, traded for Davante Adams , never won a game they needed to and only looked competent on offense when they were already out of the playoffs. The defense melted down, and there are tons of players openly talking about how they don’t want to come back.”
5. 2025 schedule: NFL finalizes home-and-away opponents for all 32 teams
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The 2025 NFL schedule won’t be released until May, but you don’t have to wait that long to find out who your favorite team is going to play. Thanks to the NFL scheduling formula, we know who the home and away opponents will be for all 32 teams, which means we can take a sneak peak at the 272 games that will be on the schedule in 2025.
Here are 10 of the biggest games that will be on the 2025 schedule:
Chiefs at Bills
Lions at Chiefs
Ravens at Chiefs
Lions at Ravens
Chiefs at Cowboys
Bengals at Packers
Bills at Steelers
Texans at Chargers
Rams at Eagles
Commanders at Vikings
If you want to see the home-and away opponents for all 32 teams, then be sure to click here. The dates and times of each game will be released at some point during the spring.
6. Extra points: Titans fire their general manager
It’s been a busy 24 hours in the NFL, and since it’s nearly impossible to keep track of everything that happened, I went ahead and put together a roundup for you.
Ran Carthon out in Tennessee after just two seasons. The Titans have the No. 1 overall pick in the NFL Draft this year, but Carthon won’t get to use it. The Titans decided to fire their general manager on Tuesday after two seasons where the team went 9-25. You can read more on Carthon’s firing here.
Chargers add Ezekiel Elliott. With just five days to go until their wild-card game against the Texans, the Chargers made an interesting move on Monday night by adding Ezekiel Elliott to their practice squad. The move does make some sense: For the Chargers, it adds some depth at running back, and for Elliott, it will give him a chance to pick up a few playoff wins.
Christian Watson done for the year. Matt LaFleur’s decision to play Watson in a mostly meaningless Week 18 game has totally backfired. Watson tore his ACL against the Bears on Sunday and will be sidelined for the next few months. We’ve got the full details on Watson’s injury here.
Derek Carr won’t take pay cut to help Saints. The Saints are projected to be more than $70 million over the salary cap as we head into the offseason and it doesn’t sound like Carr wants to help them fix that. The QB made it very clear this week that he won’t be taking a pay cut to help the team. You can read his full comments here.
Colts fire their defensive coordinator. The Colts didn’t fire head coach Shane Steichen, but they did decide to part ways with defensive coordinator Gus Bradley. The Colts surrendered the fourth-most yardage in the NFL this year, so it’s easy to see why they were disappointed with Bradley’s performance. You can read more about Bradley’s firing here. Bradley was one of two defensive coordinators who got fired on Monday along with Cincinnati’s Lou Anuramo.
Commanders take one step closer to possible stadium in D.C. In one of his last acts as president, Joe Biden signed a bill that will give D.C. control of the site where RFK stadium used to stand. The city will now be able to develop the 170-acre site as it sees fit, which opens the door for the Commanders to build a stadium there. You can read more about Washington’s stadium situation here.
Bears request interview with Mike McCarthy. The Bears requested several coaching interviews on Monday and the most notable one was definitely with McCarthy, who is currently the coach of the Cowboys. The Cowboys haven’t granted permission yet, but in one week, the Bears won’t need their permission, because McCarthy becomes a coaching free agent on Jan. 14. You can check out our full story on McCarthy here. The Bears have also requested interviews with Arthur Smith, Brian Flores and David Shaw, among others. You can check out all the candidates for each job by following our coaching tracker here.
