#nfl

#nfl

The New England Patriots pulled off what seemed impossible at the beginning of the season: winning the AFC East. The Bills have had a grip on the division since Tom Brady's departure after the 2019 season, and while Miami has come close, it has never been able to claim the title during New England's half-decade hiatus. Making the playoffs for Josh Allen and company hasn't been an issue.

The two most productive wideouts in football, the Rams' Puka Nacua and the Seahawks' Jaxon Smith-Njigba, are competing for a trip to the Super Bowl this weekend in the NFC Championship Game. Both of those teams made significant receiver additions in free agency this past offseason, as the Rams signed Davante Adams and the Seahawks went for former Rams wideout Cooper Kupp.

Mayfield appeared to be angered after an Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter posted that Stefanski said Mayfield and another Browns quarterback, Deshaun Watson, had failed in Cleveland. Failed is quite the reach pal. Still waiting on a text/call from him after I got shipped off like a piece of garbage, Mayfield posted on social media on Tuesday. Can't wait to see you twice a year, Coach. The Browns drafted Mayfield, a Heisman Trophy winner at Oklahoma, first overall in 2018.

The 2026 head coaching carousel has now seen 10 vacancies open, as the Bills have fired Sean McDermott. HC firings generally lead to coordinator changes, and several other teams have proceeded with OC or DC moves to start their offseasons. Here are the current OC and DC searches transpiring. As the remaining HC searches conclude, more coordinator searches will be added to this list.

Young quarterbacks put some career highlights on their reel, and we even came pretty close to having three class of 2024 quarterbacks among the four starters in the conference championship games next weekend. Of course, we ended up with only one, as Bo Nix suffered a season-ending broken ankle late in the overtime win over the Bills, while Caleb Williams came up just short after an overtime interception helped the Rams pull out a victory in Chicago. The only quarterback from the 2024 draft class

Matthew Stafford and the Los Angeles Rams survived an incredible throw by Caleb Williams that forced overtime, beating the Chicago Bears 20-17 on Sunday night to advance to the NFC championship game. Harrison Mevis kicked a 42-yard field goal in OT after Kam Curl intercepted a deep pass by Williams on the Bears' first possession of the extra period. Stafford completed a 16-yard pass to Puka Nacua to get the Rams into field-goal range and set up Mevis, known as the Thiccer Kicker, for the game-ending kick.

The low-frequency electromagnetic waves produced by a power plant neighboring Levi's Stadium are apparently to blame for the 49ers' injury woes, a recent viral social media thread alleges. There is, in fact, some basis to the idea that electromagnetic waves can affect the human body, explained Dr. Nirav Pandya. As a sports orthopedic surgeon at UC San Francisco, he has used them before. To help treat injuries, ranging from rotator cuff tears to bone fractures.

Someone looking to understand America might do well to study the nation's embrace of football. N.F.L. games regularly outperform anything else on television, and, in 2025, some hundred and twenty-seven million viewers tuned in to the Super Bowl - more than ever before. As this year's championship approaches, Vinson Cunningham, Naomi Fry, and Alexandra Schwartz are joined by their fellow New Yorker writer Louisa Thomas to unpack the sport's allure, which has persisted despite increasingly dire evidence of the danger it poses to players' health.

The paper, written as part of the Football Players Study at Harvard University, tracked deaths among former players in the three leagues dating back to 1979. From that point until 2010, suicide rates between the three leagues were statistically similar and below the national average. Beginning in 2011 through 2019, however, the rate for former NFL players was 2.6 times higher than for the NBA and MLB, according to the study.

The Washington Commanders aren't a part of the NFL playoffs this year, but the teams that did qualify provided no shortage of entertainment on Wild Card weekend. The highlight was a rivalry clash between the Chicago Bears and the Green Bay Packers. It featured a massive second-half comeback, highlight plays left and right, and a heartbreaking loss for a team that's become more than used to playoff disappointment. For the Packers and former Washington assistant Matt LaFleur, it could force a difficult decision.

The defending Super Bowl Champions will play at least one home game in front of the rowdy fans in Philly after claiming a weak NFC East division which marks the first time in over two decades there has been a repeat champion in the division. It's been a turbulent season for the Eagles with injuries going so far as to force Philly to reach out Brandon Graham to unretire during the middle of the season.

If you want to understand why the Washington Commanders named 30-year-old David Blough as their new offensive coordinator, look no further than Declan Doyle. Doyle was hired by Chicago Bears' head coach Ben Johnson to serve as his offensive coordinator when he took over last year. He was 28 years old at the time. Or look down to the Carolina Panthers, where head coach Dave Canales brought in Brad Idzik as his offensive coordinator in 2024, who was 32. Clearly, there has been a recent shift toward younger coordinators.

I mean I'm open to anything. I don't know exactly where I'm at with that yet. I mean I guess one of the good things if I did do that, you don't have to worry about somebody else leaving,

Cunningham has received an interview request from the Falcons for their GM vacancy, Jonathan Jones of CBS Sports reports. This marks the first known target for Atlanta as the team looks for a Terry Fontenot replacement. Both Fontenot and head coach Raheem Morris were fired immediately after the regular season ended. That move has left the Falcons with a pair notable vacancies in the organization.

Are they as good as their record?" Olsen questioned, referencing an oft-cited critique that the Patriots' schedule has been on the easier side. He replied by offering a comparison to college football conferences. "My answer to that is this is pro ball," Olsen said. "Someone's not playing in the SEC and someone's in the Sun Belt. [These are] all NFL rosters.

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Ward suffered his injury on the team's first drive of the game when he landed awkwardly on his right shoulder as he dove into the end zone to cap off a seven-yard touchdown run to give the Titans an early 7-0 lead over the Jaguars. The rookie quarterback's season is over after playing all 951 snaps on offense for the Titans up to that point.

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The 49ers offense, which had taken the Kyle Shanahan attack to new heights since their bye week, was limited to a 48-yard field goal by Eddy Pineiro with 1:06 left in the first half. It's kind of hard to expect to really win the game if we're not going to score more than a field goal, tight end George Kittle said in the aftermath. Shout out to Eddy, though. Thank you for making it.

Week 18 is primed to be a weekend to remember. Saturday features potential division-clinching matchups, and Sunday night will conclude the regular season with one of the league's best rivalries. There are two remaining playoff spots up for grabs, along with four divisions that have yet to be decided: the AFC North, AFC South, NFC West and NFC South. The AFC North is down to the Baltimore Ravens (8-8) and the Pittsburgh Steelers (9-7) in a win-or-go-home matchup.

Ben Solak, Seth Walder and Matt Bowen bring different perspectives into how they approach sports betting. Solak leans on his expertise in player evaluation and the X's and O's to find edges, while Walder relies on statistical models to pick out plus-expected value bets. Bowen, a former NFL safety, predicts positive matchups and game winners from tape study and his understanding of the league.

The San Francisco 49ers are taking on the Seattle Seahawks in a Saturday night showdown at 5 p.m. PDT on Jan. 3 at Levi's Stadium. The winner of Saturday night's game will take the NFC West crown and the No. 1 seed in the playoffs, earning a bye next week in the wild-card round. The 49ers will need to slow down the NFL's leading receiver, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, to keep the Seahawks from piling up the points.

"I'm not trying to plateau, I'm not trying to break even. I'm not trying to peak. I'm just trying to get better," Davis said. "And like when I'm getting better, it's like an indicator that I'm on the right track. And so, because I've done that, I think that gives me a lot of confidence that I'm looking forward to returning."

Sewell suffered a torn Achilles in Sunday night's loss to the 49ers, ending his 2025 season and starting a length rehab process for the third-year linebacker. Teller aggravated a calf injury on Sunday against the Steelers. He will miss the Browns' last game of the season and is set to hit free agency this offseason. After seven years in Cleveland, Teller may need to find a new home this offseason.

In the final seconds of the fourth quarter, the Rams had the ball while trailing the Falcons 27-24. On the first play of the drive, quarterback Matthew Stafford threw a pass to a wide-open Xavier Smith that was just out of his reach. Had the throw been more accurate, Smith likely would have scored the game-winning touchdown. On the next play, Stafford again tried to go deep.