Albert Breer Goes Inside Aaron Rodgers’s Wild Ride Back to the NFL Playoffs

The Steelers’ quarterback got emotional after a dramatic win over the Ravens. Plus, it’s time to praise the Jaguars, sizing up the MVP race and more in the Week 18 NFL takeaways.

Steelers defensive tackle Cameron Heyward and quarterback Aaron Rodgers celebrate after defeating the Ravens for the AFC North title on Sunday night. / Barry Reeger-Imagn Images

Jump to a topic

1. Pittsburgh Steelers
2. Seattle Seahawks
3. Jacksonville Jaguars
4. New England Patriots
5. Denver Broncos
6. NFC South
7. Los Angeles Rams
8. MVP race
9. Atlanta Falcons
10. Quick-hitters

The takeaways are back for 2026, with the ’25 regular season now complete, and the 272nd game giving you all the drama you could ask for. Let’s dive in …

Pittsburgh Steelers

It was pretty cool seeing Aaron Rodgers getting choked up on the field postgame Sunday night—and I think that was a real reflection from the Steelers’ quarterback on where he is. And it was followed, as I’ve heard it, by Rodgers telling numerous people in the organization how much he’s appreciated getting to be a part of what’s going on there now.

This year hasn’t been perfect, of course.

But it was clear listening to Rodgers postgame, as he joined NBC’s Melissa Stark with teammates T.J. Watt and Cam Heyward, that all this wouldn’t be as meaningful if it wasn’t this difficult to get back to the playoffs.

“It’s pretty emotional,” he told Stark. “It’s been a great year. I’m thankful for these guys.”

Game 272 was a home run. It had Lamar Jackson shaking the rust off and connecting for 50- and 64-yard touchdown strikes to Zay Flowers in the fourth quarter. It had Rodgers coolly directing three scoring drives of 60 yards or longer in the second half, and looking as in command as he has at any point since becoming a Steeler.

And what you didn’t see was how those relationships Rodgers has built within Pittsburgh’s organization paid off when it counted most.

dark. Sign Up. SI NFL Newsletter. Get MMQB's Free Newsletter

After the first of those Jackson touchdown passes put the Steelers down, 17–13, Rodgers directed an eight-play, 60-yard drive—and did it as the headsets went out midway through the series. For a few plays, including a seam throw to Pat Freiermuth for 31 yards, OC Arthur Smith was running out almost to the hashmarks to relay the calls to Rodgers verbally. At one point, backup Mason Rudolph threw Rodgers his wristband to try to help.

And the fire-drill nature of all that forced the Steelers to use their final timeout ahead of a crucial third-and-goal from the Ravens’ 2 with 3:53 left. Smith got Rodgers the call, an outside-zone run to Kenneth Gainwell, who wound up scoring.

After Jackson’s second bomb to Flowers, an adjustment would make the difference for the Steelers. All-Pro safety Kyle Hamilton had sustained a concussion early in the third quarter, and the Ravens started playing off the Steelers’ receivers. Pittsburgh reacted by throwing underneath the coverage. As the half went on, the Ravens’ defensive backs got more aggressive in attacking those routes. So Smith and Rodgers discussed taking advantage of it.

On third-and-10 from the Ravens’ 26 with a minute left, Rodgers smelled blood. He asked Calvin Austin III what he wanted in the huddle. Austin hesitated. A teammate jumped in and said, “Cook him.” Rodgers told Austin to run a hitch-and-go.

Sure enough, Chidobe Awuzie bit hard on the hitch, just as Rodgers intended, and Austin hauled in an easy 26-yard touchdown to take the lead.

Of course, the Steelers needed some help from there, with Ravens kicker Tyler Loop missing from 44 yards as time expired. But this was about the possibility of this being Rodgers’s last game. It was also about Mike Tomlin’s future in Pittsburgh. And it was about the Steelers’ special teams woes, in missing the extra point after Austin’s touchdown, then giving up a long return to position the Ravens for Loop’s kick.

Instead, this weird, wild ride that Rodgers is on will last at least another week.

Again, it’s been far from perfect. DK Metcalf has missed the past two games because of a suspension for hitting a fan in Detroit. Watt was returning from a collapsed lung. And the team’s on-field performance has been all over the place.

But the important thing is Rodgers is back in the playoffs for the first time since 2021, and seeking his first championship since February 2011. He’s been through a lot in the interim, leaving Green Bay, becoming a Jet, navigating all that entailed, and landing where he is at 42.

As a result, he appreciates nights like these because he doesn’t know how many of them he has left. He appreciates getting to experience them with the people he’s with, too. And maybe, just maybe, he can make sure that group has a couple more of these.

---

Seattle Seahawks

Maybe you’re surprised by the Seahawks’ surge in 2025, but they aren’t. I think most of us figured during the summer that Seattle would be pretty good, coming off a promising, 10-win debut season from Mike Macdonald and his staff. But they have been much more than that.

With Saturday night’s 13–3 win over the 49ers—a game that never felt quite as close as the score—the Seahawks locked up the NFC West title and home-field advantage throughout the playoffs. They also have the NFL’s best point differential for the season at plus-191. And they’ve gotten there with a distinctive play style that may be most apparent in how, with so much on the line at Levi’s Stadium, they imposed their will on San Francisco.

Interestingly enough, that was probably best illustrated on a drive Seattle didn’t score on, their last of the evening. They got the ball with 10:21 left at their own 3-yard line, after Drake Thomas intercepted a ball bobbled by Christian McCaffrey. From there, the Seahawks churned out six first downs. Sam Darnold was 4-of-5 for 48 yards. Kenneth Walker III and Zach Charbonnet combined for 40 yards on the ground.

Seattle got the ball down to San Francisco’s 3. A delay of game penalty then led to Jason Myers doinking the ball off the right upright. But by then, the Seahawks had taken eight minutes off the clock, drained the Niners of their timeouts and effectively ended the game.

“We take a lot of pride in that,” Walker told me, postgame. “We talk about it all the time—in the run game, we talk about a softening process. We just knew we had them tired during the half and that drive. We knew we just had to keep going.”

And they’ve kept it going all year.

Part of it, of course, is that the Seahawks are really good, and GM John Schneider has gotten on a draft heater post–Russell Wilson, having taken Devon Witherspoon, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Derick Hall, Byron Murphy II, Nick Emmanwori, Grey Zabel and Charbonnet in the first two rounds over the past four drafts. He’s also, over that time, added key vets such as Darnold, Leonard Williams, DeMarcus Lawrence, Julian Love and Cooper Kupp.

But more than just that, this team was built in a smart, competitive, physical image that Macdonald wanted for his program.

“I see a championship team,” Walker said. “I believe in this team wholeheartedly. If we overlook any team, that’s when we mess up. But I know everybody’s got the same mindset. And that’s what we’ve had since the season started.”

Which is why, when I asked if any of this was surprising, Walker answered, “I definitely believed we could make it this far. And the whole team believed the same thing.”

And now, those on the outside are starting to believe, too, myself included.

---

Jacksonville Jaguars

Let’s not ignore what’s been accomplished in Jacksonville. I know people look at the AFC South a certain way, and that’s fair because of recent history. But this year’s been different. The Texans, after an 0–3 start, rode a defense that made a bunch of history to 12 wins in 14 games to close the year. The Colts were 8–5 when Daniel Jones sustained an Achilles injury.

Still, the Jaguars found a way to win the division with more wins, 13, than any South champion has had since Peyton Manning’s Colts went 14–2 in 2009. They also swept the AFC West. They won in San Francisco and Denver, and beat the Chiefs before Kansas City’s wheels came off. They won eight consecutive games to close the regular season, with a margin of nearly 20 points per game, finishing fourth in the NFL in point differential for the whole season.

This is no fluke. It’s also a credit to coach Liam Coen, GM James Gladstone and EVP of football operations Tony Boselli, who inherited a four-win team a year ago, and who’ve made this happen with a lot of the same guys who were around for that.

“It’s been a lot of little things,” star linebacker Devin Lloyd told me. “It’s all about the process, attacking the process the right way, from how we schedule the day, to how we attack practice, to coaching philosophies. Everybody’s just been locked in. In previous years, we weren’t.”

And the result has been an environment that’s maximized everyone, from Trevor Lawrence (4,007 passing yards, 29 TDs) to Travis Etienne Jr. (1,399 scrimmage yards) to Parker Washington (847 yards, mainly via a late-season explosion) to Josh Hines-Allen (eight sacks) and through a lot of other guys in between.

Lloyd, for his part, finished the season with 81 tackles,1.5 sacks and five picks.

As he explains it, it’s really happened with Coen and his staff, with coordinators Grant Udinski and Anthony Campanile alongside, removing gray where “half of us see the play this way, and half of us see the play another way, and we don’t go through it during the week, and all of a sudden it’s an explosive [play].”

Instead, with simpler lessons, the players play fast and, as Lloyd said, the “plays come to you.”

All of it sets Coen up as a viable candidate in a crowded Coach of the Year field. It’s pretty obvious who would get Lloyd’s vote, and a lot of his teammates see things similarly.

“He does things the right way,” Lloyd said. “He’s going to hold his players to a high standard. He’s going to get on you whenever he sees that you need to play better. But he’s also going to lift you up whenever he sees that you’re doing things really well. He takes care of us.”

And clearly, with their play, his players have returned the favor.

---

New England Patriots

While we’re there, the Patriots get a nod, too. Coming into this year, one team in NFL history, the 1999 Colts, had gotten to 13 wins a year after 13 losses the previous season. This year, the Patriots and Jags did it. And, sure, the 17-game season makes it a little more likely.

Still, it’s definitely a sign of what an unusual season this has been.

It’s been a special one, too, for the Patriots—and not only because they have become a winner again, but also because of how they’ve gotten there. After Sunday’s blowout of the Dolphins, veteran safety Jaylinn Hawkins pointed to one of the worst things he and his teammates confronted this year, something far worse than a football loss.

In November, linebacker Jahlani Tavai’s partner, Kalei Mau, suffered a severe and very rare blood infection and was placed in a medically induced coma, which caused their unborn daughter, due in March, to pass away in the womb.

“And the way I seen everybody show up on our team—everybody showing up for them—it was a big deal,” Hawkins said. “No matter what, there’s real life outside of football. And I just appreciate how everybody shows up for each other. Things are real and stuff happens, tragedy happens. I just appreciate all of my brothers.”

That bond has also shown up in how quickly a patched-together roster relying on a lot of rookies, castoffs, low-profile veteran additions and holdovers from Patriot teams that went 4–13 in both 2023 and ’24. Hawkins is a prime example: a journeyman whom special teams coach Jeremy Springer advocated keeping, and who’s since grown into a mainstay at safety. He now says it was pretty apparent early that things would change.

Mostly, because coach Mike Vrabel, whom Hawkins says “understands us as players,” quickly established what he was looking to construct and, as fast, got the players to buy in.

“I had faith we’d be something special,” he said. “I always believed it, regardless of how the first game went, or with those losses we had early in the season. I knew it would come to us.”

Sure enough, with a solid core of players and a young quarterback playing at an MVP level, a 1–2 start led to a 10-game winning streak. And when New England blew a 21–0 lead to Buffalo to snap the streak, Drake Maye responded the following week with a comeback win over Baltimore, plus blowouts of the Jets and Dolphins to finish the season.

Now, they head into the playoffs at 14–3 with a top-shelf head coach and a star at quarterback, playing with house money as a team no one expected to come this far this fast.

Except that is, the guys in the room.

“A true brotherhood,” Hawkins called it. “We have an identity we want to protect. And we care about each other. We all stuck together. We all shared our life stories. We were all vulnerable with each other. We’re close.”

And they’re winning, with the promise of a lot more to come.

---

Broncos quarterback Bo Nix helped the Broncos lock down the AFC's top seed and the West Division title on Sunday. / Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images

Denver Broncos

There are a million things you could say about the Broncos landing the AFC’s No. 1 seed, and you may still forget the most impressive thing about it. Remember the idea that this would be impossible, with Russell Wilson’s dead-cap hit? How taking on $85 million in dead money—$53 million last year and $32 million this year—would kill their ability to find his replacement and field a competitive team around whoever the QB was?

Yeah, Denver did it, and that’s a credit to a lot of people.

The main thing you need to know: While the Wilson decision didn’t close the path the Broncos had to real contention, it did narrow it quite a bit. And Denver has walked down that path about as skillfully and decisively as a team possibly could.

It started with foundational pieces such as left tackle Garett Bolles, receiver Courtland Sutton, edge rushers Nik Bonnito and Jonathon Cooper, and all-world corner Patrick Surtain II. All of them predated coach Sean Payton, and some predated GM George Paton.

Then, it was hitting on guys such as Marvin Mims Jr., Riley Moss and Troy Franklin outside of the first round, and getting free-agent signings such as Talanoa Hufanga, Mike McGlinchey, Zach Allen and Ben Powers. Most of all, of course, it was finding the next quarterback in the draft, which was one piece of good fortune, in that 2024 was a deep draft at the position, and another piece of skilled evaluation, in that the Broncos had Bo Nix ranked second in the class.

That’s Paton as an evaluator, with a strong staff, with now Jets GM Darren Mougey and Reed Burckhardt leading the scouting staff behind him. It’s Payton and a coaching staff that are excellent evaluators in their own right and know exactly what they’re looking for. And it’s the whole building, with the coaches leading the way, and developing the talent.

A lot of folks figured the Broncos would be in cap jail for some time after the Wilson flop.

And it sure looks like they’ve been out and on the run since.

---

NFC South

What a weird situation the NFC South gave us this weekend. The story started Saturday, when, after a two-month stretch with seven losses and only one win, the Buccaneers finally put an end to their slump, knocking off the Panthers in a downpour, 16–14, to pull into a first-place tie with Caolina atop the division at 8–9. That gave Tampa a shot at winning the division, but thanks to the Falcons’ upset of the Rams six days earlier, it didn’t assure them of anything.

So the guys’ feeling was …

“Yeah, it is weird,” tight end Cade Otton told me afterward. “And we talked about it. We just needed to take care of today, and then we'll worry about what happens after. And now that it’s after, we have to cheer on the Saints.”

Otton then jokingly added, “Who Dat?” maintaining that, as he saw it, the Bucs still had the ceiling to be a real Super Bowl contender, which is how so many of us saw them early on.

Then, Sunday happened.

And on Sunday, it was Panthers coach Dave Canales walking out to his front yard, after watching the game with assistant Scott Cooper, to find neighbors waiting to celebrate with him. It was GM Dan Morgan, having survived the high-anxiety situation that unfolded in front of his family in the living room, and EVP of football operations Brandt Tilis, after using a jigsaw puzzle he got at Buc-ee’s to calm the nerves with his wife, exhaling.

The Falcons beat the Saints 19–17, with Dee Alford’s pick in the final moments nearly returned for a touchdown, thwarting New Orleans rookie Tyler Shough’s last real shot at leading a comeback and a fifth consecutive win. Saturday’s loser was Sunday’s winner.

There are implications to that, too. For Canales, Morgan and Tilis, the three primary builders of this Carolina team, it’s validation and proof of concept for everyone around them, and most of all their players.

“What it’s meant is just proving to the guys if you have that mentality, if you take advantage of opportunities, and prepare ourselves each week like it’s a championship opportunity, good things will happen,” Canales said on a conference call after Atlanta’s win. “We’re in this position because of the hard work and that focus.”

And as for the Bucs? This snaps a string of four consecutive division titles and ends the team’s season before the playoffs for the first time since before Tom Brady arrived in 2020. Gone, too, is the chance for redemption after that 1–7 stretch.

It could affect Baker Mayfield’s looming contract negotiations (2026 is the final year of his deal). It could affect how the coaching staff is assessed this week.

Which only adds to what, as Otton said, was a pretty weird couple of days.  

---

The Rams are the NFC's fifth seed and will face the Panthers in the wild-card round on Saturday. / Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images

Los Angeles Rams

I’ll be interested to see the effect of the Rams’ decision making from here. On Monday, from the podium, after his team was stunned by the Falcons, Sean McVay declared his guys would play in Week 18 because, simply, “We need to play better.” It flew in the face of previous such calls from McVay—last year included—that valued rest over reps.

So how’d that go? The Cardinals made the Rams fight to come away with the No. 5 seed, and the chance to face the 8–9 Panthers in the wild-card round.

The Rams were up 16–6 at the half, down 20–16 with 16 minutes left, and won, 37–20.

“He’s always got what’s best for this team in mind,” veteran tight end Tyler Higbee told me, after the game ended. “And he felt like this was what was best. We’re all on board.”

The reality is that it’s been a funky few weeks for a team that looked like it was the NFL’s best for a good chunk of the regular season. There was the weird loss to the Panthers on Thanksgiving weekend. Then, 18 days after that, the overtime defeat in Seattle. Then, the inexplicable faceplant in Atlanta, featuring crumbling run defense and three Matthew Stafford interceptions that couldn’t be overcome with a furious late comeback.

The lesson? Well, as Higbee explained it to me, it’s one they got again in the third quarter on Sunday, as the Cardinals scraped their way all the way back as a heavy underdog.

“It’s the NFL,” he said. “If you don’t bring it every week, you’re going to get your tail kicked in. It doesn’t matter who you’re playing or what their record is. It’s always going to be a dogfight.”

And once this game declared itself as one, McVay got the response he was looking for. Now, we’ll see if it carries over to a wild-card weekend rematch in Carolina.

---

MVP race

Matthew Stafford and Drake Maye both have really good MVP cases. And we can lay that out right here, right now …

Maye finished with a team-record 72.0% completion rate, 4,394 yards, 31 touchdown passes, eight picks, an NFL-best 113.5 rating, and rushed for another 450 yards and four scores. He’s the primary reason behind the Patriots’ jump from four to 14 wins. He didn’t have a single multi-interception game, and didn’t have more than two turnovers in a game. And he did all this with three guys in their 30s—Stefon Diggs, Hunter Henry and Mack Hollins—as his highest-volume targets.

Stafford had more yards (4,707) and more touchdown passes (46) than any QB in the NFL, and was second behind only Maye in passer rating (109.2), despite playing in what many regarded as the NFL’s toughest division with what statistically was the most challenging schedule any playoff team faced. He had a couple of three-turnover losses (Carolina, Atlanta). Still, he was otherwise virtually mistake-free all year, even as the Rams navigated injury issues around him, both on the line and through the skill positions.

If you put these guys head-to-head, the argument for Maye is that he did it with less, and for Stafford, it’d be that he did it against tougher competition.

So, I decided to ask their teammates, too.

Hawkins: “Man, it’s Drake. Y’all know the truth. It’s Drake for MVP—it shows all over the tape. Matthew Stafford is a great quarterback; don’t get it twisted. All MVP candidates are great. But Drake is special, and he deserves it.”

Higbee: “It’s unbelievable, man. He’s gotten better since he’s gotten here. It’s just impressive to watch. Future Hall of Famer, in my opinion. He’s a special player who elevates the play of everyone here.”

I have an AP vote, so I can’t reveal what I’m thinking, other than to say I believe three other guys—Bills QB Josh Allen, Chargers QB Justin Herbert and 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey—have good cases, too.

We’ll see how it plays out.

---

Saints head coach Kellen Moore and Falcons head coach Raheem Morris shake hands after Sunday's game. Morris was fired by Atlanta shortly after the game. / Brett Davis-Imagn Images

Atlanta Falcons

The Falcons didn’t wait long to fire their head coach and GM. For the better part of the past two months, there was an assumption in NFL circles that Atlanta owner Arthur Blank was gearing up to clean house. His quarterback gamble was backfiring. The team looked listless and apathy was setting in with the fan base. Blank brought in the Sportology consultants to give the entire operation a once-over. He flirted with hiring Matt Ryan, too.

Then, Raheem Morris’s team responded with four consecutive wins, as buzz started to grow that he might survive. Then, hours after a 19–17 win over the Saints, Morris didn’t.

There are a couple of things to make of all this.

The first is that Blank was already down the road to starting over by the time Morris righted the Falcons’ ship. Once the consultants come in, things generally shift from a coach and GM trying to avoid giving their owner a reason to fire people to needing to provide those same owners with reasons to stay the course. So Morris and GM Terry Fontenot, evidently, didn’t give Blank enough of those.

Second, you have the quarterback decisions of 2024. This goes back to the decision making at the position before Morris arrived earlier that year. In 2023, Arthur Smith and Fontenot laid out a plan to delay going all-in on a quarterback because they didn’t like the options available that offseason, a year after they passed on the Kenny Pickett class over the first two rounds. Blank signed off on it, then fired Smith after a third consecutive 7–10 season.

That decision put tremendous pressure on Fontenot and Morris to fix the position in their first offseason, and they went over the top to do it, signing Kirk Cousins to a four-year, $180 million deal, including $100 million guaranteed, before drafting Michael Penix Jr. with the eighth pick. It was an unprecedented investment and it blew up on them. Cousins struggled to come back from his torn Achilles in 2024, then got hurt. Penix struggled as a starter in 2025, then got hurt.

So, now, the Falcons are starting over for the second time in the past two decades.

They have Sportology to help with the GM search. Another consulting firm, ZRG Partners, will help with the coaching search to try to replace Morris, who was very popular in the locker room (one staffer told me the players were “pissed” about the team’s decision). Cousins is still under contract. Penix just had reconstructive knee surgery. We still don’t have clarity on Ryan.

The Falcons have a lot of work to do. And Blank, clearly, didn’t want to waste any more time getting to it.

---

Browns defensive end Myles Garrett sacks Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow during the fourth quarter on Sunday. Garrett's sack gave him the NFL record previously held by Michael Strahan. / Joseph Maiorana-Imagn Images

Quick-hitters

We’ve got quick-hitters for you, before we get out of here. Let’s roll with those …

• Big shout-out to Myles Garrett—23 sacks is incredible. I’m glad it happened organically, too. I’m sure Mark Gastineau concurs. Garrett’s peers see him as a really good guy, and that much was evident in watching their reaction when he got the record-breaker against Joe Burrow in the fourth quarter on  Sunday.

• I’m going to miss Highmark Stadium, and I had a good conversation with Bills GM Brandon Beane, now in his ninth year in Buffalo, about that on Sunday night. “You could see, especially toward the end, people with tears in their eyes. It’s 52 years old … a lot of people grew up going to games there,” Beane said. “If you were coming just to watch a game and you weren’t looking for luxury, there’s not a bad seat in the place. Now, if you want VIP and a bunch of heated areas and suites stuff—don’t come here.” That, of course, is why the Bills are moving across the street and yet …

• The charm of that place was in the fans being right on top of the action, it was in all the bench seating, and the anything-can-happen atmosphere. I can’t count the number of times I was on the field there, and I’d see Bills players seeking out eye contact with fans, or shouting to them from the bench area or tunnel. It felt like a true community. I know the Bills are working hard to maintain that in the new place, but it won’t be easy (that said, shout-out to the Pegulas for making the new stadium open air, and for having a grass field).

• So the Dolphins were quiet coming out of Sunday’s rout in Foxborough. As we said in a column Friday, Mike McDaniel’s status remains uncertain, though owner Stephen Ross likes him and was seemingly looking for reasons to keep him as the season wound down. Ross is deliberating on it with president Tom Garfinkel and cap czar Brandon Shore, as they prepare for the GM search. One thing that I’ve heard could be a factor is whether evin Stefanski or John Harbaugh become available.

• Stefanski is going to be a popular candidate, if the Browns part ways with him on Monday. I’d expect both the Titans and Giants to have very real interest in him. And they won’t be the only ones.

• Speaking of the Giants, it’s good to see owner John Mara getting the game ball from the team on Sunday, after they beat up the Cowboys. Mara’s had a challenging cancer battle, by all accounts, so it was good to see him there. He’s going to do what he can to be a part of the looming coaching search, I’ve heard. And I’ll say this: Of all the owners, he’s probably the most normal, a guy almost anyone could imagine having a beer with. All the best to him and his family.

• It’s easy to forget what we’re watching sometimes. So it was good to hear some stories about some guys who got a real shot today, with teams resting starters. One example was the Packers rolling out Shemar Bartholomew and Jaylin Simpson at corner. Both were 2024 rookies. The former is on his fourth team, and signed with Green Bay’s practice squad a month ago. The latter is on his third team, and spent the season with the Packers’ practice squad. Neither has much NFL game action under his belt. And Sunday, they were out there covering Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison. Pretty cool.

• The Chiefs and Bengals both lost Sunday, to the Raiders and Browns no less, and there is a silver lining in it. Now, both will get to pick in the top 10. It’s rare when you have quarterbacks like these two teams do that you have that type of shot. It’ll be interesting to see how each tries to take advantage of it.

• Really good fight from both the Lions and Commanders. Both face some interesting decisions in the coming days on their staffs. But you can at least say that the foundation is still there. I think both will work with urgency to get things turned around in 2026. And for what it’s worth, Sunday’s win gave Detroit a fourth consecutive winning season, which is the first time the Lions have done that since right around the merger (1969 to ’72).

• I think the Colts are doing the right thing by keeping Shane Steichen and Chris Ballard. You know who else would agree? Teams out there looking for coaches. My feeling is Steichen may well have gotten a head coaching job somewhere else, if Indy had made the decision to let him walk.

More NFL on Sports Illustrated

feed