Tom Henigan
The 2024 NFL regular season is officially over. After 272 games, the payoff seedings are decided and we finally know all the division winners. Before we look forward to the wildcard round, it is time to review the final week of the regular season.
Firstly, there were a few games this week that were meaningless for both teams involved, other than for their draft standings. Those results are as follows:
San Francisco 49ers (6-11) 24-47 Arizona Cardinals (8-9)
Jacksonville Jaguars (4-13) 23-26 Indianapolis Colts (8-9)
One thing to note that is that the Jaguars have fired head coach Doug Pederson following their 4-13 season.
Week 18 started on Saturday in the AFC North. The Cleveland Browns travelled to Baltimore to face the Ravens in the first matchup of the day. A win for the Ravens would secure them their second straight AFC North title and they took care of business, with a Nate Wiggins pick-six setting the tone early on. The Ravens didn’t look as good on offense as they would have liked to in their last game before the playoffs, but they cruised to a 35-10 win to lock up the division crown. With their loss, the Browns end the season 3-14.
After Baltimore’s win, the Pittsburgh Steelers were playing for just the number five seed but given that that could mean a trip to the out of form Houston Texans instead of travelling to the Ravens who have won four straight, the fifth seed seems the much more appealing option. Pittsburgh hosted the Cincinnati Bengals, who had won four straight games, and had to win a fifth to keep their playoff hopes alive. Despite an atrocious offensive display, the Steelers had a chance late on to get into game-winning field goal range. But a disastrous two-minute drill which ended with a Pat Freiermuth drop on 4th down, gave the Bengals a 19-17 win. Ironically, Freiermuth was one of Pittsburgh’s only good offensive players on the day, but his drop kept the Bengals’ season alive as the Steelers lost their fourth straight game.
Bo Nix threw four touchdowns as he led his team to a 38-0 win
Cincinnati’s win meant that to make the playoffs they needed a Miami Dolphins loss and a Denver Broncos loss. The Dolphins did indeed fall to the New York Jets by a score of 32-20, leaving them at 8-9, and the Jets at 5-12 to finish the season. Unfortunately for the Bengals, though, the Kansas City Chiefs’ backups could not stop the Broncos, and it was never close. Bo Nix threw four touchdowns as he led his team to a 38-0 win, securing Denver’s first playoff appearance since the 2015 season when they won the Super Bowl. That means that despite Joe Burrow leading the league in passing yards and touchdowns, as well as J’aMarr Chase leading the league in receiving yards and touchdowns, the Bengals have missed the playoffs. On the defensive side, Trey Hendrickson also led the league in sacks with 17.5. The Chiefs had already secured a first-round bye with the number one seed, hence why they rested their starters as they finish the season 15-2.
After the Bengals beat the Steelers, the Los Angeles Chargers needed to beat the Las Vegas Raiders to secure the fifth seed. They did exactly that, winning 34-20, meaning the Steelers, who were once 10-3, will be the sixth seed after they lost their final four games of the regular season. Los Angeles’ win means they finished at 11-6 while the Raiders ended their season at 4-13.
The result in the Chargers game means that the Ravens will host the Steelers and the Chargers will travel to face the Texans in the first round of the playoffs.
Despite New England’s victory, head coach Jerod Mayo was fired not long after
Houston is coming off of a 23-14 win against the Tennessee Titans. Given that his team was guaranteed the fourth seed no matter the result, C.J. Stroud played just one drive, on which he completed every pass and threw a touchdown. Tennessee’s loss dropped them to a 3-14 record, meaning they will have the number one pick in the 2025 NFL draft after the New England Patriots defeated the Buffalo Bills 23-16. Joe Milton III had a great game for the Patriots in the win against Buffalo’s backups. Despite New England’s victory, head coach Jerod Mayo was fired not long after, leading to speculation about the Patriots hiring Mike Vrabel as their next coach. The Bills end the season at 13-4 as the number two seed in the AFC and will face the Broncos in the wildcard round.
Moving over to the NFC, a game that was strangely meaningless was the Los Angeles Rams hosting the Seattle Seahawks. Despite the fact that the Seahawks trailed the Rams by just one game coming into this week, Los Angeles had already won the NFC West on a strength-of-victory tiebreaker. Seattle won this game 30-25 as Matthew Stafford was rested for the playoffs. The win for the Seahawks meant both teams finished 10-7 in a season where fifteen teams won ten or more games, the most in NFL history. Unfortunately for Seattle, they were the one team to win ten or more games and not make the playoffs.
The Chicago Bears beat the Green Bay Packers for the first time since 2018, winning 24-22 thanks to a game-winning field goal with no time left. The Bears finish the season at 5-12 with their win and ended a 10-game losing streak. This was a disastrous day for the Packers as wide receiver Christian Watson tore his ACL, leaving him out for the playoffs. Green Bay goes into the playoffs with an 11-6 record and their loss means that they are the seventh seed. The Washington Commanders beat the Dallas Cowboys late on, to move them to a 12-5 record as they finish with the sixth seed. The Cowboys end their season with a 7-10 record.
Green Bay will travel to Philadelphia in the first round of the playoffs
The Philadelphia Eagles rested key players, including record-chasing Saquon Barkley as they beat the New York Giants 20-13. The Giants season ends with a 3-14 record while the Eagles are 14-3 and, like they knew before the game, will be the second seed in the NFC. That means Green Bay will travel to Philadelphia in the first round of the playoffs.
The NFC South was one of three divisions still to be decided heading into week 18. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers needed a win against the New Orleans Saints to claim the division for the fourth year in a row. Despite a shaky first half meaning Tampa Bay trailed 16-6 at halftime, Baker Mayfield led his team to a comeback as the hosts won 27-19 and secured the division. The main highlight from this game was Mike Evans making a catch for nine yards in the dying seconds to hit 1,000 receiving yards for the eleventh straight season, tying Hall of Famer Jerry Rice’s record. The loss for the Saints means they end the year at 5-12. Tampa Bay’s win, along with the Rams’ loss means that the Buccaneers are the NFC’s number three seed and will host the Commanders in the wildcard round.
In the end, the Buccaneers didn’t need their victory as the Atlanta Falcons, who had to win to have any chance at the division, lost 44-38 at home to the Carolina Panthers. Bryce Young had five total touchdowns for his team in what has been a solid second half of the season. The Panthers end their season at 5-12 while the Falcons finish with a record of 8-9.
The Vikings entered the red zone four times but did not score a single touchdown
The biggest game of the regular season was the last game of the regular season. In what could be described as the most significant regular season game ever, the Minnesota Vikings travelled to Detroit to face the Lions. Both teams entered this game with a 14-2 record and, because they are both in the NFC North, the winner would finish 15-2 with the number one seed while the loser would end up 14-3 with the number five seed. These two teams met earlier in the season and the Lions won 31-29 in an extremely close game. This time, though, that was not the case. The Lions won 31-9 in a matchup where the story was red zone offense. The Vikings entered the red zone four times but did not score a single touchdown. The Lions, on the other hand, scored a touchdown on all three of their red zone trips. Jahmyr Gibbs was the star as he ran for three touchdowns and caught another one.
Jared Goff did not look great in this game as he threw two interceptions but that won’t be a major concern for Detroit. The Vikings may be concerned about Sam Darnold’s play, though, as he missed several touchdown passes in a game where he completed less than half of his throws. Detroit stepped up massively on the defensive side of the ball despite having sixteen players on injured reserve. Defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn called an excellent game for the Lions as Darnold and the offensive line could not deal with Detroit’s blitzes. The return of linebacker Alex Anzalone did help the Lions massively as they won the NFC North for the second year in a row and earned a much-needed first-round bye given that their last week off was back in October, in week 5.
After their loss, the Vikings will now travel to face the fourth seeded Rams in the wildcard round, the only other team they have lost to this season.
As it is the end of the regular season, debate about awards will spark given that they are based solely on regular season play.
For what it’s worth, here are my picks for each major award.
Most Valuable Player: Josh Allen
Offensive Player of the Year: Saquon Barkley
Defensive Player of the Year: Patrick Surtain II
Offensive Rookie of the Year: Jayden Daniels
Defensive Rookie of the Year: Jared Verse
Comeback Player of the Year: Sam Darnold
The NFL playoffs kick off on Saturday, January 11th, with the Texans hosting the Chargers to start the postseason.
Tom Henigan
Featured image courtesy of Anushka Srivastav via Unsplash. Image use license found here (Unsplash). No changes were made to this image.
In article image 1 courtesy of @buccaneers via Instagram. No changes were made to this image.?
In article image 2 courtesy of @detroitlionsnfl via Instagram. No changes were made to this image.?
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