As the temperature outside cools down, things are heating up in the football world.
We are a week out from Thanksgiving and Christmas decorations are already all over the place. If your NFL team is not playing its very best right now then they may have waited too long. Such is life.
How did Week 11 go specifically, though? Who is beginning to establish themselves all the more seriously and who is excited for the College Football Playoff for NFL Draft purposes?
We here at The Skinny Post, Michael Peterson and RJ Ochoa, are here to answer those very questions.
Are we witnessing the end of the Chiefs dynasty?
RJ:
This is like the bad guys in scary movies. I am not going to believe it is over for the Chiefs until it is officially over for the Chiefs. We have seen them do things that were unprecedented and until they aren’t at home for an AFC Championship Game in the Patrick Mahomes era they have all benefit of the doubt.
Things are getting tense, though! Kansas City is digging a hole that might be too deep for even them to climb out of. In some ways they may be victims of their own success as reports were that the Broncos viewed this as the biggest game in Denver for them since the 2015 AFC Championship Game. The Chiefs are at the center of everyone’s list and they may finally be showing the effects of that.
Michael:
It’s hard not to believe that it’s possibly coming to an end when…well..you sort of want it to. As a firm supporter of new teams constantly coming in and out of contention each and every year, I get extremely bored with the same teams in the big game every other season. It makes for a ho-hum end to what could have been an otherwise incredible football season.
The Chiefs are not their usual selves on offense and the defense can only do so much. Their best players are getting older and their youngsters aren’t necessarily stepping in without a hitch. The Chargers, Broncos, and the three other teams who have beat the Chiefs have seemingly figured out how to stop the KC offense enough to keep themselves in the fight the entire time.
I will never entirely count the Chiefs out ever, but they’re literally a .500 team with a 5-5 record. With games against the Texans, Colts, and Broncos remaining on the schedule, there’s a chance the Chiefs tip-toe the line of ending the year with a losing record. Dates against the Titans, Cowboys, and Raiders will surely get them to at least eight wins, but it’ll be that one game against the very up-and-down Chargers that may end up deciding if this ends up being the worst season for Mahomes under Andy Reid.
How likely is it the Patriots and Broncos remain atop the AFC at the end of the regular season?
Michael:
I truly would have said no to this question a week ago, but I can’t help but feel like these are the two teams of destiny this year. I don’t think anyone in the football world would have had either of these teams at the top of their divisions at this point in the season and both teams are showing no signs of slowing down.
The Broncos’ biggest tasks will be finishing their business with the rest of the AFC West and that’s looking easier and easier with a recent win over the Chiefs and the Chargers looking laughable against the Jaguars.
As for the Patriots, I only see two losable games remaining on their schedule which are against the Bills and Ravens.
RJ:
On some level a Patriots and Broncos title game would bore me. I guess that’s because if you told me that Patrick Mahomes and Joe Burrow weren’t in it that I would have assumed at least one of Josh Allen or Lamar Jackson would be. We aren’t even getting Justin Herbert in this hypothetical!
It is wild (and sad) for teams like the Bills, Bengals, and Ravens who have been the ultimate bridesmaid to the Chiefs that the new would-bes are teams we didn’t consider like the Patriots and/or Broncos.
Let’s do it. Give me a Broncos and Patriots game with a ticket to San Francisco on the line. That is exactly what happened last time the Super Bowl was there a decade ago, after all.
How real is this Bears team now that they’re on top of the NFC North?
RJ:
It sort of feels like the Bears are setting themselves up to lose a heartbreaker of a playoff game where we all wonder how it was possible because of their great regular season success. We don’t have to get that far to wonder!
Chicago is very good. And they are pulling off games that they would have certainly dropped in the past. I do not disagree with this at all.
But I in no way trust them. I would still take the Lions to beat them 80% of the time. I’ll note that a Chicago win against Philly would make me see them as a bit more for real, but until that hypothetical Black Friday result I have my reservations.
Michael:
So I do believe this Bears team can be a competitive group each week, but I’m not sold on them being a contender in the NFC and they’ve taken advantage of a cake schedule over the past two months while also getting some luck.
The Bears are 7-1 over their last eight games with wins coming against the Cowboys, Raiders, Commanders, Giants, Saints, Bengals, and Vikings. Every single one of those teams has a record below .500. This is just a smoke and mirrors record that should not let anyone believe they’re a real contender in the NFC.
Who or what are tanking teams hoping for after this season?
Michael:
If there is a team hoping to find the savior of their franchise in this year’s draft, you’re going to be extremely sad to hear that – as far as we can tell at this point in the college football season – there is not that type of player. There’s been about half a dozen quarterbacks on a merry-go-round through the recent first-round mock drafts and I think there’s been at least that many who have been tabbed as a potential top quarterback off the board.
As far as coaches who could be in the running for their first head coaching gig, there aren’t many of those types available either. There’s always going to be the offensive coordinator who called the top offense in the league or the defensive coordinator who allowed the fewest point all season long, but that’s about as far as the predictions go. No names have popped up nor have they stayed all that long in the spotlight if they did.
Maybe tab current Rams offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur somewhere if you feel like a betting man.
RJ:
Every year when a team is bad they have usually come to terms with the fact that they are tanking for a certain quarterback in the draft. In other circumstances they are pining for a particular coordinator to be their next head coach when the current season wraps.
There is no Joe Burrow in the draft or Ben Johnson on a different staff right now, though. For lack of a better way to look at this… there is no dangling carrot for teams who are stuck on the treadmill.
The NFL is the ultimate league of selling hope, but dare I say there isn’t a lot out there right now if your team is in need of a serious catalyst. That is a strange thing for this of all leagues.
