Cleveland lost two games in one week, vs. Las Vegas on Monday in Week 15 and at Green Bay on Saturday in Week 16. Standing at 7-8 going into Week 17, the Browns don’t have any mulligans left and must get all the breaks to go their way to make it a second consecutive playoff appearance. But as crazy it sounds, the Browns can still rise from the No. 12 team in the AFC to the No....
Week 7 results caused shakeups with postseason positioning in both conferences. While the AFC had a few big changes among the powerhouse top three seeds, the NFC is packed with more surprise ups and downs in the quest for the bottom three seeds. Here’s a breakdown of how things stand going into Week 8. MORE: Updated NFL standings NFL Playoff Picture AFC No. 1 seed — Steelers (5-2): First place, AFC North....
There will now be six games played over three days, starting on Saturday and ending with a Monday night game for the first time in NFL playoff history. While the matchups are intriguing, some are also familiar. Divisional rivals in the No. 6 Patriots and No. 3 Bills are meeting for a third time this season. So are the No. 5 Cardinals and No. 4 Rams. Both pairs split their regular-season meetings, so these grudge matches will hold extra importance....
The NFL is also celebrating the game’s overnight TV ratings, which revealed the matchup attracted the most viewers of any divisional playoff game in history. According to Fox Sports, an average of 48.5 million viewers watched the game, making it the most-viewed broadcast of any kind since last year’s Super Bowl. For comparison, the 28.2 overnight ratings for the game were higher than the 25.2 overnight for Game 7 of the 2016 World Series and Game 7 of the NBA Finals (18....
The Kansas City Chiefs, Buffalo Bills and Pittsburgh Steelers have punched a postseason ticket in the AFC, while the Green Bay Packers, New Orleans Saints, Seattle Seahawks and Tampa Bay Buccaneers have done so in the NFC. Five more teams could secure a postseason berth in the remainder of Week 16, as the playoffs picture becomes clearer. Here’s how they each could do it. AFC Kansas City Chiefs (13-1) The Chiefs have long clinched a playoff spot and a win against the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday will see the reigning Super Bowl champions secure the AFC’s No....
The New England Patriots are firmly on the way to another divisional title and few would bet against them meeting the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC Championship for the second consecutive season, while the Cleveland Browns are yet to live up to the preseason hype. Fans of the Miami Dolphins, Cincinnati Bengals and New York Jets, meanwhile, are in all likelihood looking forward to the offseason after a string of dismal performances....
The drama surrounding the duo threatened to unravel the franchise from the inside last season, with the Steelers going 9-6 as they missed the playoffs for the first time since 2013. Bell eventually moved to the New York Jets and Brown took his off-field shenanigans to the Oakland Raiders, but there were concerns about how the Steelers would cope without the two Pro-Bowl talents. If the first two preseason games are anything to go by, Pittsburgh has dealt with the departures very well....
Here is a betting preview for the evening’s action, with lines current as of Thursday. Check our odds page for updated point spreads and totals . Patriots at Panthers, 7:30 p.m. ET Line: Carolina -1, Total: 44 Line movement and notes: The spread has been bet down to a pick ’em at some sports books in Las Vegas. This total, along with Saturday’s Packers-Eagles game, is the biggest of the week....
Seattle Seahawks They’re defending champs led by wily old Pete, returning that defense that’s oh-so sweet. They go into the season as the team to beat, but it’s unfortunately unlikely the Seahawks will repeat. San Francisco 49ers The 49ers have been right there but not fine enough. Still Harbaugh’s gang is always tough. Some defensive concerns might make it rough, but we’re about to see Kaepernick strut his very best stuff....
But even if they cross every ‘T’ and dot every ‘I’, there’s no way to know whether a quarterback will succeed. Why is it the most difficult position in sports to peg? Why can’t anybody come up with an even halfway accurate evaluation process? MORE: NFL Draft review | Team-by-team grades | No baseball for Jameis, Bucs say Having been fortunate enough to watch so many quarterbacks play out careers, I’ve seen plenty — top-10 picks, lower-round, undrafted, you name it — succeed and even more struggle....
That’s why it remains a fun but also challenging exercise for The Sporting News to rank the starting quarterbacks in the NFL again in 2022. The rules are the same: Past performance carries good weight, but there’s more of an emphasis on upside and projections for the upcoming season. Looking to the near future, here’s looking forward to more than half the league having special talent at the most important position....
That said, the victory came with some controversy. The officiating was scrutinized, as the Bears fell victim to a few questionable calls during the game. MORE: Bears taunting penalty proves critical in “MNF” loss There were two calls, in particular, that seemed to swing the momentum in favor of the Steelers. The first came in the early stages of the third quarter when Justin Fields appeared to throw a 1-yard touchdown to tight end Jimmy Graham....
Watson is ranked 18th, according to the league’s announcement Sunday afternoon. The honor confused many. Watson has been accused of sexual misconduct and sexual assault in 22 civil lawsuits and 10 criminal complaints. So why would the NFL include Watson among its top 100 players? In truth, it wasn’t the NFL’s choice. The annual Top 100 is voted on by the players rather than the league or NFL Network. The players selected Watson — who led the NFL with 4,823 passing yards last season — for the fourth consecutive year....
The man expected to be the team’s starter when training camp began is now out of a job. Brock Osweiler was released by the Browns on Friday as the team began trimming its roster from 90 players to 53 before Saturday’s 4 p.m. ET deadline. SIGN UP to watch every NFL game this season on DAZN The Browns acquired the 26-year-old Osweiler from the Texans in March, absorbing his four-year, $72 million contract in the process....
The city has been chosen to host the 2024 game, but that arrangement has come into question with the recent ratification of a new collective bargaining agreement, which includes a 17-game regular season beginning as soon as 2021. The final game of the NFL season is normally played on the first Sunday in February, which in 2024 will be Feb. 4. The additional week in the regular-season schedule might mean that the 2024 game is pushed back to Feb....
“If you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying.” MORE: NASCAR controversies that could erupt in 2015 | Why Jeff Gordon decided to call it quits | Greatest drivers of all-time “Everyone is doing it, they just got caught.” “The quarterback (or driver) didn’t know that it was being done.” “Even if they bent the rules, it didn’t make a difference in the game.” “Why didn’t the officials notice?” “The conditions (weather or racetrack) caused it to get out of whack....
Dean Blandino, the NFL’s head of officiating, said Friday that recent changes to the NFL rules would not have affected Bryant’s controversial non-catch in the 2014 playoffs. “Still not a catch,” Blandino said, via the Dallas Morning News, at the NFL Officiating Clinic, which is being held in Irving, Texas. MORE: Ideal cities for NFL relocation He explained that the new wording to the rule requires a player to have “control, plus two feet, plus time....
“It should be my island until someone beats (the time),” Cardinals running back Chris Johnson said with a chuckle. “Then I would give the island up.” For almost a decade, thousands of draft prospects have shipwrecked while trying to break Johnson’s 4.24-second time set at the 2008 Combine. The closest any player has come was Kent State running back Dri Archer, who posted a 4.26 in 2014. MORE: 15 greatest performances in NFL Combine history...
