Week 14 of the NFL season is in the books, and a few teams that had one foot in the grave survived another week. There are no new obituaries, so let's get right to the hierarchy.
Graveyard
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Hierarchy
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11) Falcons (6-7): Kirk Cousins' stats over the Falcons' last four games:
Kirk Cousins TD INT Fumbles
At Saints (L) 0 1 2
At Broncos (L) 0 1 1
Chargers (L) 0 4 1
At Vikings (L) 0 2 0
TOTAL 0 8 4
He has $27.5 million in guaranteed salary in 2025.
Last week: 9
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10) Cardinals (6-7): Kyler Murray in September and October: 22-17-1 (0.563)Kyler Murray in November, December, and January: 12-26 (0.316)Last week: 8
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9) 49ers (6-7): Brock Purdy has not had a good season with the Niners missing a bunch of their best players for long stretches. That should sound alarms for them as far as giving him a major contract extension this offseason. But, reportedly, that remains the plan.
Purdy had a good game Week 14 against the Bears. If I were a fan of the other NFC West teams, I'd be rooting for Purdy to put up big numbers in his final four meaningless games this season to artificially raise his asking price.
Last week: 11
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8) Rams (7-6): Puka Nacua had 105 catches for 1486 yards and 6 TDs as a rookie last year. In 8 games this year he has 54 catches for 708 yards and 3 TDs. If extrapolated over 17 games, he'd be on pace for 115 catches for 1505 yards and 6 TDs. So, you know, that rookie season wasn't a fluke.
Also, the Rams are over 0.500 for the first time this season.
Last week: 10
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7) Commanders (8-5): The Commanders have three easy games left on their schedule:
• At Saints (5-8)
• Eagles (11-2)
• Falcons (6-7, losers of 4 straight)
• At Cowboys (5-8)
Win those three games and they're in.
Last week: 7
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6) Seahawks (8-5): The Seahawks have a four-game winning streak and have taken control of the NFC West. The four teams they beat were the Niners, Jets, and the Cardinals twice, all teams with losing records, but three of those game were on the road, and three of them were also against divisional opponents.
Now their schedule gets tough:
• Packers (9-4)
• Vikings (11-2)
• At Bears (4-9)
• At Rams (7-6)
A Seahawks-Rams Week 18 game for the division would be fun.
Last week: 6
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5) Buccaneers (7-6): The NFC's division leaders' odds of winning their respective divisions, per Inpredictable:
1 seed: Lions: 87%
2 seed: Eagles: 97%
3 seed: Seahawks: 54%
4 seed: Buccaneers: 66%
This would be the third straight year the Bucs were the 4 seed in the NFC, if that's how this plays out. They won the NFC South with an 8-9 record in 2022, a 9-8 record in 2023, and they might only need 9 or 10 wins to get it done again in 2024.
Last week: 5
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4) Packers (9-4): Christian Watson is 6'4, 208, he has incredible athleticism, and he's a big play threat, averaging 21.7 yards per catch this season. But he has to be one of the most frustrating players in the NFL. You simply can't carry the ball like this in the NFL in 2024. Guys are going to knock it out:
And he also had a pretty obvious offensive pass interference penalty that wiped a TD off the board:
(It's not "tough." That's a pretty easy call.)
The Packers have the youngest roster in the NFL. They're talented, but I think their lack of seasoning showed in a huge game last Thursday night.
Last week: 3
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3) Vikings (11-2): Sam Darnold was 22 of 28 for 347 yards and 5 TDs on Sunday against the Falcons. He has 11 TDs and 0 INTs in the Vikings' last four games. He now has 28 TDs vs. 10 INTs on the season. He's 3rd in TD passes (again, 28), 4th in YPA (8.5) and 3rd in QB rating (108.1).
Related: There are a lot of great WR tandems in the NFL in 2024, but if you're giving me a choice of one, I'm taking Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison.
Someone is going to pay Darnold $40 million per year next offseason, and immediately regret it.
Last week: 4
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2) Eagles (11-2): Brandon Graham revealed that Jalen Hurts and A.J. Brown might not exactly be BFFs.
I mean, that seemed pretty obvious after Brown's thinly veiled critical postgame comments of Hurts on Sunday.
The Eagles are an 11-2 team with a nine-game winning streak. It'll be interesting to see if they can focus on the opportunity they have right in front of them.
Last week: 2
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1) Lions (12-1): Announcers LOVE Amon-Ra St. Brown. He two-hand shoves a guy in the face and they're like, "Look at St. Brown's block here... BANG!"
Lol.
Also, I'm also not sure how he got away with this clear OPI in the middle of the field:
Easiest prediction ever: Everyone loves St. Brown now, but if the Lions end up sustaining greatness for years that guy is going to be one of the most hated players in the sport.