NFLWeek 16 Previews

NFL Week 16 Previews

Every Week or so of The NFL Season, I Peer Over The NFL Schedule Like A Hawk, But When I scan The Teams Facing Each Other I’m Never Initially Excited except for Thursday Nights in Recent Weeks because the Commanders Eagles, and Commanders, With Marcus Mariota Facing The Drama Of The Eagles' Offense that NFC Championship didn’t Pan Out The Way Most Expected this Late In The Season. By Sunday Evening, The Result Would’ve Woken Me Up, But For Now, let’s Expect A few no-no-contest showdowns. The Packers Face The Bears For The Second Time In Three Weeks. Green Bay Will Look To Secure The NFC North Division and A Sweep Of The Bears. Maybe Chicago’s Takes Some Pointers From The Broncos, Who Slowed Down Packers Quarterback Jordan Love Just Enough To Escape With A Comeback Win. The Broncos and the Jags Face Off: Two Of The Hottest Teams In The Conference, Both Coming On Multi-Game Win Streaks, Both Fending Off Division Rivals For Playoff Position.

Panthers Vs Buccaneers

The Tampa Bay Bucs and the Panthers Highlight Week 16 As The Fight for the NFC South takes Place Between Two 7-7 Teams. A David And Goliath Matchup On Paper The Bucs Have The Pedigree and Talent That Belongs In Position To Fight For the Conference Crown Instead Lackluster Play(Ok, And Injuries) Baker Mayfield and Tampa Bay Remain Fighting At The Bottom Of The Conference, Fighting One Of The Preseason's Worst Teams To Maintain Their Playoff and Divisional Win Streak. Neither Team Enters Week 16 With Much momentum To Speak Of. The Bucs have lost two straight divisional games: a Week 14 mud fight against the bitter NFC South rival, the New Orleans Saints, and a Thursday night collapse against the Atlanta Falcons in Week 15.. Both Games, The Bucs' Offense Crumbled Under Pressure Late In The Fourth Quarter, But Tampa Got Out To a Score Lead, and Mike Evans Registered His First 100 Yard Game Of The Season In His Return. The Saints Played The Role of Spoiler Once Again, The Bane Of The Existence of the NFC South team. This Time, to the Panthers in Week 15, A game-winning field Goal Trapped The Panthers at 7-7 and Kept Carolina’s Lead Over The Division Short. The Panthers have lost five of their past six games, and both defenses are lagging, with Tampa ranking 28th in EPA per play since Week 10. The Panthers notched ahead at 27th. Week 16’s Matchup Will Bring Some Closure To The NFC South. A Division filled With Disappointments, Except The Saints, and Potential Spark A Revival Of The Bucs Team We Witnessed Earlier In The Season, or Carolina and Bryce Young Begin To Correct Their “Inconsistencies” And Start To Mold Some Form Of Identity As A Team.

Packers Vs Bears

One Game, One Week Separated The Last Meeting Between The Bears and Packers In Week 14, Where The Packers Prevailed 28-21 In A Crucial NFC North matchup, and A lot Has Changed For Both Teams, because Of How The Schedule Litigations Function. The Bears Faced The Browns in week 15, scoring the easy-going-away victory. The Packers, however, faced a Tough Bout In A Loss To The Broncos, In Which The Packers led 23-14 into the third quarter and Left Worse For Wear As Star Pass Rusher Micah Parsons suffered a season-ending ACL tear. Numbers Alone To Measure Depth and the Impact of Parsons' Presence On The Packers' Defense. Parsons Ranks Second In Pass Rush Win rate. The Packers don’t Have Another Player In The Top 20 In Win Rate. Parsons' 93.1 PFF pass-rushing grade ranks second. He’s totaled 80 pressures This Season, and More Parsons Occupies So Much attention, Freeing Up Other Defenders To Make Plays. The Packers' Defense Performed Well, Containing Caleb Williams, Preventing Him From Scrambling and Extending Plays, But Forcing Incompletions Down Field. Bo Nix found Better Success Against The Packers' Secondary Than Williams in Week 14 because the Quarterback possesses better Chops As A Passer. Williams ' Target throw Percentage(22.9%) Remains A bottom-three Figure In The League, Only Bested By JJ McCarthy and Michael Penix. ESPN Evaluation Places Williams ' Target Throw Percentage At The Bottom Of The League. The Bears Found Some Rushing Success Against The Packers in Week 14, +0.28 EPA Per Rush Play, 4.3 Yards Per Rush, But The Packers managed to contain Caleb Williams as A Rusher And A Scrambler, Just Three Scrambles For 13 Yards. Without Parsons, What Will The Packers' Defense And defensive Coordinator Jeff Haftley Throw At Williams To Keep Him from gaining The Advantage On The Ground? The Bears' Offense Didn’t Have Leading Receiver Rome Odunze In Their First Matchup With The Packers, which Opened The Door For Rookie Receiver Luther Burden To Step Up, Leading The Team With 67 Yards On Four Catches In Week 14. The Bears won't have either Odunze or Burden come Week 16. The focus shifts to tight end Colston Loveland and the sometimes forgotten but always potentially impactful wide receiver DJ Moore. Jordan Love Enters Week 16 Off Of His Worst Game Of The Season Against The Broncos, One Of The Best Defenses In Football. The Bears Rank 13th In Defense According To ESPN FPI efficiencies, But Turnovers skew the Bears' Defensive Numbers A Little. When Love Faced The Bears, He Generated A 120.7 Passer Rating against The Bears, Three Touchdowns, and Only 13 Pressures. The Broncos Pressured Love 31 Times In Week 15, But Then Again, The Broncos Represent An Outlier In Terms Of Defensive Impact. Very Little Has Changed From A Bears Point Of View To Suggest The Packers Won’t Advance Past The Bears Securing The Sweep and The NFC North Title. The Bears' loss would leave them vulnerable to the Lions, who face the Bears in Week 18. The Lions have an easier schedule ahead, with only the Steelers and Vikings remaining.

Lions Vs Steelers

On August 27th, 2025, The Completed An innocuous-looking trade, sending 6-foot-5, 210-pound, 31-year-old Old Wide Receiver Tim Patrick To The Jags For A 2026 sixth-round Pick. On a star-studded roster That Featured Amon Ra st. Brown, Jahmyr Gibbs, Jameson Williams, and a Very Good Tight End In Sam La Porta and so On, Tim Patrick Represented The “Other Guy” as A Serviceable Veteran Option. Patrick finished with 33 receptions for 394 yards and three touchdowns in his second year with Detroit in 2024. Although ACL and Achilles Injuries Tore Away Much Of The Explosion Patrick Demonstrated In Denver. In A Game Against The Rams, Where The Lions couldn’t Run The Ball expectedly Against A Tough Los Angeles Front, and Jared Goff wouldn’t Suddenly Turn Into Josh Allen and Put The Offense On His Back, the Lions could’ve Used A Big Target who couldn’t Win Contest Catch opportunities or another Security Blanket Type To Pull Attention Away From Amon-ra St.Brown. The Lions won’t Make The Playoffs After Their Chance Dropped Below 30% Heading Into The Final Three Weeks, Needing One Of The Packers, Seahawks, or Bears To Outright Implode down The Stretch To Open A Door. When the Lions moved Patrick, The Trade Looked Like a Mistake, and the Way The Offense Misses Another option Outside Proves Such. Detroit Expected Rookie Isaac Teslaa To Fill the Void Of Patrick, and the Arkansas product Has Made Some Splash Plays—Catch of The Year-like plays—, But He’s an inconsistent Route Runner who hasn’t earned Jared Goff’s Trust Yet. The Lions face the Steelers, with Detroit needing every game to stay in the hunt for a playoff spot in case of an improbable collapse ahead of them in the standings. The Steelers discarded the Dolphins in a cold Game on Monday Night, but I don’t believe Pittsburgh Taught The Football World Anything We Didn’t Know About Them that Most Hadn’t already realized. The Steelers' Offense Can Produce Splash plays like DK Metcalf’s Catch and touchdown, But Down-to-down Consistency Leaves Much to be desired. The Ranks 19th in EPA Per Play and 14th in Success Rate Since Week Nine. The Steelers averaged 2.8 Points Per Drive, + 0.171 EPA Per Play Against The Dolphins, with Aaron Rodgers Registering One Of His Best games of The Season: 23/27, 85.3% 224 Passing Yards, 125.9 Passer Rating, Two Touchdowns, 0 Interceptions, +0.10 EPA Per Pass Play, +5.2% Completion Percentage Over Expected. Eight Steelers Pass Catchers Registered A Catch against, and Rodgers Generated A 135.4 Passer Rating Versus Man Coverage Of The Dolphins. Between Week 14 against the Ravens and Week 15 Against The Dolphins, Rodgers produced +0.332 EPA Per Play, 76% Completion Percentage, and 508 Passing Yards with two Straight games of 100 Or Better Passer Ratings. The Lions Play Man Coverage At the second-highest rate in Football and Their Coverage Just Got Chalked Up By Matthew Stafford 25/41, 348 Passing Yards, Three Touchdowns, 112.7 Passing Yards, But That’s MVP front-runner Matthew Stafford, not 42 Year 42-year-old former Four-Time MVP Aaron Rodgers. Jared Goff Came Out Of week 15, 25/41, 348 Passing Yards, Three Passing touchdowns, 112.7 Passer Rating, +0.35 EPA Per Pass Play, 77.8% Adjusted Completion Percentage, Because Of Multiple Drops and throwaways that impacted Goff’s final Box Score. The Rams Shut Down The Lions' Prolific Run Game, -0.16 EPA Per Run Play, 3.5 Yards Per Run, 70 Yards Rushing In Total. Since Week Nine, the Steelers' Defense ranks 28th in EPA Per Rush Allowed. The Lions could have a chance to bounce back with their offense against the Steelers.

Patriots Vs Ravens

The Patriots Had Their Game Win Streak snapped, Lost To the Bills in Week 15 in the Most Odious Way, Blowing An Early three-score lead as The Defense Fell Apart And The Passing Offense Couldn’t Make Plays In Key Spots. Losing to MVP Josh Allen doesn’t Carry The Same Shame as Losing To Josh Allen in a Comeback Situation, the Ravens team the Patriots Face In Week 16 Suffered The Same Fate back in Week One when Allen And The Bills climbed out Of A Late two-score deficit (40-25 With Less Than 8 Minutes) in Week One. The Return Of Lamar Jackson And The Somewhat Subpar Performances He has entered the Final Stretch Of The Season have overshadowed How Well The Baltimore Defense Has Played Over The Past Month and Better. Since Week 10, the Ravens Rank 5th in EPA Per Play, Top Ten in drop-back EPA, and EPA Per Rush Allowed Coming Off A Game Where They Left Joe Burrow and the Bengals Scoreless Through Four games. The Ravens Haven’t Played A Top 10 Or Even A Top 15 Offense Along that Stretch Of Six Games, But Blanking The Bengals Counts For Something. Drake Maye Just Ended His worst game As A Passer In Week 15, finishing 60.9% Completion, 155 passing Yards, -0.131 EPA Per Dropback, and did not struggle. Maye Had No Success Down Field. Despite Maye’s Prowess (Deep Ball Catchable Rate Of 53.7%, 0.969 Per Dropback) as A Deep Passer, He Only Completed One Pass Over 20 Air Yards on Two Attempts. The Ravens Defense Held Joe Burrow to Zero Completions Over 20 Air Yards, Just Two At Or Above 10 Air Yards. The Ravens Defense Generated a 37.5% Pressure Rate Against the Bengals, But For The Season, The Defense Ranks 25th in Pressure Rate At (27.8%) while Drake Maye ranks 27th In Protection Rate. Right Now Patriots Receivers Average Less Than Two Yards Of separation ThePatriots' Defense Started The Season With The Strongest Run Game In The Sport, One Week Through November The Defense Had Allowed Just 75.4 rushing yards per game this season, the fewest in the NFL, 3.6 Yards Per Carry, and No Individual Running Back Had Reached 50 Yards Against The Patriots' Run Defense. Over The Last Five Games, the Patriots ranked in the Bottom Five In Success Rate Allowed, EPA Per Rush, and they have allowed at least 100 yards rushing and 4.0 yards per carry In That Span. The Ravens' Rushing Attack, Though Forgotten Compared To Last Season, Still Ranks in the Top Six In EPA Per Rush (0.006), First In Yards Per Attempt On The Ground 5.3, averaging 6.4 Over The Pass in the first Three Games. With The Drop back Offense For The Ravens Still Struggling, -0.05 EPA Per Play on 8/12 passing, 150 Passing Yards Against The Bengals, as the Ravens haven’t needed Lamar To Play The Role Of Super In Order To Dispatch The team's Recent Competition. Both the Patriots and the Ravens need this game to stay alive for the playoffs, as they are currently behind the Steelers for virtually the last spot in the AFC standings. The Patriots Need The Win For Breaker Purposes, As Another Loss To An AFC Team Would Push Them Behind The Bills In Terms Of Conference Record.

Raiders Vs Texans

Lost in the Headlines of Phillips Rivers' Return to Football, Patrick Mahomes’s ACL Injury, and the Outstanding Performance from Broncos Quarterback Bo Nix, the Texans’ Quarterback CJ Stroud, Another Quarterback in A Similar Vein as Bo Nix, put together an Outstanding Performance in Week 15 against the Cardinals. Stroud Won Fans Over In Rookie Season, Winning Offensive Rookie Of The Year Behind A Solid Rookie Campaign, bUt His Two Follow-Up Seasons Have Frustrated and Bewildered Fans and Critics. Stroud and Nix both share Space In The Folder Of Quarterbacks On Winning Teams Carried By Their Defense. Stroud's performance, or lack thereof, will be crucial for Houston as they head into the final stretch of the season. He currently ranks fifth in adjusted EPA per play and ninth in completion percentage since Week 10. Recently, he completed a game with three touchdowns, a +14.8% completion percentage over expected (CPOE), +0.47 EPA per play, and a total of +16.5 EPA added. The Texans' offense is missing wide receiver Tank Dell, who was the third overall pick and suffered a serious leg injury in December of last season. Dell Had Underrated Running Skills, but his Threat Field Made Him An Excellent Option For The Texans Schematically On Influence Routes That Move Defenders and occupy zones. The Texans Face The Raiders, and no Matter Which Quarterback Starts For Las Vegas, they’ll face a Texans’ defense Number One In EPA per drop-back allowed -0.012. In A Lob-sided Affair, Houston Should Exit Week 16 With 10 Wins After Starting The season 0-3, And Even With Questions To Answer On Offense On The Ground and Through The Air, the Texans Can Find Proof Of Their Progress In The Recovery Of Their Lost Season.

Jags Vs Broncos

In Terms Of EPA Per Play and Loads Of Other Stats, No Quarterback Has Played Better Than Trevor Lawrence Over The Last Three Games 13 Through 15. The Former Number One Overall Pick and “Can't Miss Prospect” Has an EPA per dropback of +0.436, EPA per Play Of +0.478, A Success Rate of 56.8, second in Yards Per Attempt at 8.9, a 123.0 Passer Rating, and A 9-0 Touchdown to Interception Ratio. Lawrence Registered Six Touchdowns, Five Through The Air, One On The Ground, Against The Jets In A Historic Performance, all a part of An Excellent Game Win Streak where Lawrence generated 1212 Passing yards, 13 TDs, 4 INTs, and He May Need Another Historic Performance To Beat The AFC Number One Seed, the Denver Broncos, in Week 16. The Jaguars haven’t faced a team of the Broncos' caliber since Los Angeles lost to the Rams in London seven weeks ago, when the Rams beat the Jaguars 35-7. The Addition Of Jakobi Meyers, The Quiet Return Of Brian Thomas Jr, and the Slight Emergence Of Former Sixth-Round Pick Parker Washington. Meyers Has More Than Lived Up To Expectation 27 Receptions, 355 Receiving yards and three touchdowns And Providing A Security Blanket Over The Middle A Spot On The field Where Other Jags Receivers Played Reticent About Making An Impact has Become Lawrence’s Most Reliable Area( 65.9% completion rate, 0.642 EPA per play, and the highest success rate at 68.2%. 10-19 Area Down Field) With The Addition Of Meyers. The Broncos Defense Lawrence Faces didn’t Find A lot of Success Against Jordan Love, Who Finished 8/12 for 142 Passing Yards, One Pick, and One Touchdown, +0.385 EPA per drop-back, and a success rate of 53.8% On Passes Between 10-19 Yards downfield, The Highest Mark Of The Game For Lawrence. The Pass Catchers still Pace The League In Drop Rate, 10.37% so Meyers hasn’t Cured All Of The Jags' Pass Catching Ills. The Broncos have struggled to defend in the medium range all season, with a 49.5% success rate allowed as their linebackers have difficulty in coverage. The Broncos' Starting LineBackers surrendered a Completion Percentage of 75% Or Better. The Broncos Accommodate Their Worrisome Coverage Downfield With Pressures. The Broncos Lead The League In Pressure Rate. Opposing Quarterback Still Average The Second Best Average Depth Of Target In The League Against The Broncos, But Passes Down Don’t Always Win Because Of The Timing Disruption. Denver’s Leading Edge Rusher Nic Bonitto Generates Quick Pressures at Fourth-Highest Clip In The League, 10.9% and He’s a Force the Jags Have to Prepare For on All Snaps Sunday. The Jags Offensive Line Looked Good To Start The Season, Then Fell Off For A Stretch, and Again Looks Serviceable. Broncos Quarterback Bo Nix Posted a historic Game In Terms Of Personal History With a Sterling Four Touchdowns, Some High-level throws, +15.1% CPOE, 0 Sacks, 3.3 Time To Throw. He Carved The Packers Zone 21/30 For 267 Passing Yards Against The Packers Zone. Box Has Averaged 69.5% Completion Percentage, 282.5 Passing Yards, and a 5/1 Touchdown Ratio Over His Past Four Games Via Next Gen Stats. The Jaguars' Defense Plays Zone 76.45% Of Their Defensive Snaps, the eighth highest On The Season. The Broncos, Winners Of Eleven Straight, Meet The Jags Winners Of Six Straight. Someone's Streak will end by the end of this week's 16th Contest. The Jags Have Houston To Ward off In The Division, and The Broncos Have The Patriots and Chargers. One Team is Aiming For The Conference, another Team is Still In The Hunt For The Division