The Kansas City Chiefs and the Los Angeles Chargers both arrive into this season off the back of a 12-4 campaign, Denver Broncos have a new coach and a new quarterback and Jon Gruden’s revolution continues apace in Oakland. Here’s what to expect from the AFC West this time out. Kansas City Chiefs The Chiefs took the league by storm last season, falling only against the New England Patriots in the AFC Championship game....
Saturday, 4:35 p.m. ET, ESPN Weather: 50, Rain Coaches: Cardinals — Bruce Arians (21-11; first career playoff game). Panthers — Ron Rivera (32-31-1; 0-1 in playoffs) Players to Watch: Cardinals — With his team riddled by injuries, third-string quarterback Ryan Lindley (56.8 rating, 562 yards, two TDs) appeared in three games this season. He threw his first two NFL touchdown passes en route to a career-high 316 yards in Arizona’s 17-20 loss at San Francisco in the last game of the regular season....
From Thursday night through Sunday night, the action in both conferences was intriguing, if not thrilling in some cases. In others, there were absolutely lopsided results, either expected or not. Here’s how all 32 teams in the league stack up against each other going into the new year and penultimate week of the 2021 regular season: MORE: Updated NFL standings, playoff picture for Week 16 NFL power rankings Green Bay Packers 12-3 (previous ranking: 1) The Packers needed to grind a little to hold off the desperate Browns, but they still won with strong offense and defense overall to continue their march to the NFL’s top record and NFC’s top seed....
Houston won the division last season for the third time in four years behind a healthy Deshaun Watson and a defense that still features J.J. Watt and Jadeveon Clowney. Indianapolis, however, beat the division champion in the wild-card round of the playoffs. 2019 NFL PREDICTIONS:Standings, playoff projections, Super Bowl pick Based on SN’s picks for the entire 2019 season, here are our predictions for the AFC South. NFL predictions 2019: AFC South Houston Texans Watson passed for 4,165 yards and 26 touchdowns while locked in on Deandre Hopkins (1,572 yards, 11 TDs) last season, and Watt and Clowney combined for 25 sacks....
Gang Green finished 7-9 in 2019, hardly a record to hang your hat on, but the team finished on a 6-2 run despite the hodgepodge of talent, injuries and drama unfolding within the locker room. Wins in the NFL are wins in the NFL, after all — they all count the same regardless of who you play. There was a lone bright spot for New York, though, and that was the guy underneath center: quarterback Sam Darnold threw 13 touchdowns to four interceptions, completing 61 percent of his passes over that eight-game stretch and generally looked like a competent level starting QB at worst and a franchise answer at best....
Giants quarterback Daniel Jones set the world on fire with his first NFL snaps, going a perfect 5-for-5 for 67 yards and a touchdown as he tries to out-duel Eli Manning for the starting job. He’ll have a chance to build on his debut as the Giants travel to Chicago in Week 2. Arizona’s Kyler Murray and Washington’s Dwayne Haskins were among other rookie quarterbacks making their NFL debuts in Week 1 of the preseason, and it was Murray who had far greater success in coach Kliff Kingsbury’s new offense....
A lot has happened since then. Andrew Luck has retired, the Texans traded Clowney and they acquired a potential franchise left tackle in Laremy Tunsil. Things are different now. And no one was happier to hear these words than Texans fans everywhere: “(The injuries have) taken my joy of this game away. I’ve been stuck in this process,” Luck said. “I haven’t been able to live the life I want to live....
Eighteen NFL receivers are on pace to break the 100 receptions mark this season, including four on pace to break Marvin Harrison’s record of 143 catches. MORE: Top 20 wide receivers for 2015 Atlanta’s Julio Jones (34), New England’s Julian Edelman (30), Pittsburgh’s Antonio Brown (29), and San Diego’s Keenan Allen (29) would break Harrison’s record if they play all 16 games at their current pace. Only five players broke the 100-catch mark last season, led by Brown, who caught 129 passes....
MORE: 2016 Mock Draft | Swearinger: So long, Texans | Witch hunt vs. Pats? The money, which comes from taxpayer dollars, rubbed many people the wrong way, including U.S. Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.). Fourteen NFL teams have been paid $5.4 million by the Defense Department to feature military members and for advertisements. According to NJ.com, the bulk of the money ($5.3 million) was paid by the National Guard to 11 NFL teams....
But the NFL roster cut rule change also created what waa a chaotic — and in many cases, devastating — two-day stretch from Friday morning through Saturday afternoon. NFL teams had until 4 p.m. ET Saturday to trim their 90-man rosters down to 53 players. Each team released up to 37 players, meaning more than 1,100 players around the NFL lost their jobs. While 320 of those players will be signed to practice squads (10 practice squad players per team), about 800 will not....
Knowshon Moreno, RB, Dolphins Even with the short shelf-life for running backs these days, Moreno is showing signs of reaching his limit already at age 27 in July. Brilliant in Denver’s Super Bowl run, he stayed on the market a while and ended up in Miami on a one-year, $3 million deal — all because of health concerns, which are showing already with offseason knee issues. Ryan Fitzpatrick, QB, Texans...
Five first-time candidates were on the list, including three — Andre Johnson, DeMarcus Ware and Devin Hester — who became first-timers in their first year of Hall of Fame eligibility. The other first-time finalists were former 49ers linebacker Patrick Willis and former Bengals and Ravens offensive tackle Willie Anderson. BENDER: How John Madden’s popularity offered something for every generation Hester is looking to become the first enshrinee who played primarily on special teams and was not a kicker or punter....
Quarterback: Joe Flacco, Ravens, 6 years, $120.6 Million All the stars aligned for Joe Flacco when he signed this record setting contract. Not only did Flacco, who has yet to even throw for 4,000 yards in a season, become the highest paid quarterback in the NFL, he received one of the most player friendly contract structures in NFL history. Flacco receives $63 million in the first three years of his contract, $50 million of which comes in the form of bonus money designed to limit his cap charges through 2015....
Some of the best early Sunday matchups include Raiders-Bills; Falcons-Jets; and Panthers-Buccaneers, in which Cam Newton and Carolina will face another strong young quarterback in Tampa Bay’s Jameis Winston. The Week 8 slate has seven 1 p.m. ET games and just two late-afternoon games. The prime-time slate looks great. Dolphins-Ravens, an important AFC battle, will kick off the Week 8 schedule on Thursday. Top-flight quarterbacks Ben Roethlisberger and Matthew Stafford will square off Sunday night as the Steelers take on the Lions....
That’s what a team of researchers at the University of Buffalo appears to have uncovered as it studied ways to make the NFL schedule more equitable, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported. MORE: All-time worst Thursday night games | 2015 Thursday night schedule | Must-watch games The team’s research, led by Dr. Murat Kurt, was launched after Bills president Russ Brandon made a formal complaint to the league in 2013 about having to play five games against opponents with more rest....
The Cowboys visit the Saints on Sunday night for a clash of NFC favorites. Dallas has looked the part of Super Bowl contender early, but its favorable schedule through the first three games gives way to a tough trip to New Orleans this week. On Thursday night, the Packers host the Eagles in a game that will be crucial to Philadelphia’s attempts to overcome its 1-2 start. The Eagles may pose the biggest test for 3-0 Green Bay to this point....
On Thursday night, the Buccaneers made their way to Charlotte to win their first game of the season, handing the Panthers their second loss. Sunday featured the rematch of the 2018 NFC championship game everyone was waiting for between the Saints and Rams, but an injury to Drew Brees in part led to an easy Los Angeles win. Fans also saw the latest chapter in the Antonio Brown saga as the Patriots blew out the Dolphins....
You can’t do anything to your jersey or your helmet or your cleats, if you’re an NFL player, or else you’ll be fined. It’s become a hard-and-fast rule that the league enforces at every opportunity. Once they stopped Peyton Manning from wearing black high-tops to honor Johnny Unitas, the horse left the stable. Whether they meant to or not, the NFL painted itself into a corner. It’s a just-because show of power, and it’s stupid; players should be able to do as they wish with their cleats, then deal with any fall out....
“It’s not healthy for the NFL to be in the kind of litigious position that it’s been for last several years,” Blank told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “I think that the commissioner is working hard to hold up the respect and integrity of the game, the competitive balance of the game and the shield. Having said that, I think we have to find ways to get to a better place sooner with the NFLPA than the process that we’ve gone through....
The Cowboys head coach came under fire after his team’s 13-9 road loss against the New England Patriots on Sunday, which franchise owner Jerry Jones described as a significant setback. “It’s a significant setback for our team,” Jones said after the loss in Foxborough, Massachusetts. “We needed this win. We needed to win against an opponent like this. We haven’t had them, and consequently, we are very aware of that and so we dig a hole that we really got a challenge as we look at the rest of the schedule....
