December 25, 2024
Mitch Stringer/Imagn Images
Good luck to those of you who have Lamar Jackson in your fantasy football championship round games. Bad luck to those of you who have Sam Darnold.
For the gambling degenerates, here are our Week 17 NFL picks. Well, some of our Week 17 picks, anyway. Here we'll just pick the Christmas Day, day after Christmas, and Saturday games. We'll cover the Sunday and Monday games on Sunday morning. To note, the team logos indicate who I think will win the game, not cover the spread. At the end of the picks, I'll note a few teams that I like based on the spread.
Chiefs (-2.5) at Steelers: The Chiefs will clinch the 1 seed with a win over the Steelers. The Steelers need a win to stay atop the AFC North.
George Pickens will likely return to the field for the Steelers, whose passing game was impotent without him. So that'll help. However, T.J. Watt did not look like he was near 100 percent against the Ravens last week after suffering an ankle injury Week 15 against the Eagles.
The Chiefs just win these games. 🤷♂️
Ravens (-5.5) at Texans: The Texans have been outgained in each of their last four games, two of which were against the Titans and Jaguars. This is a potential 4-5 seed playoff preview if the Steelers can hang on and win the AFC North. The Ravens will stomp the Texans in the regular season and then again in the playoffs if that's how the seeding shakes out.
Seahawks (-3.5) at Bears: The Bears have lost nine straight, including three straight losses by at least three scores. There are so many candidates for "current worst team in the NFL," but the Bears are in that conversation. The Seahawks are in desperation mode. If they don't win, they're all but done.
Chargers (-4) at Patriots: The Chargers lose to the good teams they face (Chiefs x2, Steelers, Ravens, Buccaneers, for example), but they beat the bad teams. The Patriots are a bad team, so, you know, give me the Chargers.
Broncos at Bengals (-3): The Bengals aren't completely dead yet. They need all of the following to make the playoffs:
It's possible, and they actually have the league's third longest win streak at the moment at three games.
Cardinals at Rams (-6): If they beat the Cardinals at home on Sunday, the Rams can clinch the NFC West with a Seahawks loss or a "strength of victory" tiebreaker over the Seahawks, which they would almost certainly win, but likely not clinch until Week 18. The Cardinals are done after Jonathan Gannon's defense no-showed in Carolina Week 16.
• Last 10 seasons, ATS: 443-374-22 (0.541)
MORE: Eagles power ranking roundup
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