The Irrelevant Week 17

Sixteen weeks are in the book, and we have only one more week of regular season action. One more Sunday loaded down with more games than a single person could possibly watch before we get into the dreary, single games of the postseason.

And as happens every Week 17, most of the games mean absolutely nothing. The NFC East and West are still up for grabs, as is the last playoff spot in the AFC. Playoff seeding is at stake as well, with New England and Kansas City both aiming for a first round bye in the AFC and four different teams competing in the messy NFC.

But the rest of the league has very little to play for. By my count there are six games that are absolutely meaningless, as well as a couple others with minimal significance. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t worth watching! For each of these games, I’ve selected something to keep your eye on if it ends up on your TV, because even meaningless football is still football.

New York Jets @ Buffalo Bills

Interior Penetration

The easy choice here is to point to the two second year quarterbacks. In 2018 these teams both selected in the top ten, and both took players they expect to be the future of their franchises. Sam Darnold and Josh Allen have been very up and down through their first two years, and both are hoping to finish 2019 on a high note.

But quarterback is the low hanging fruit, and I’m going to be highlighting that position for a couple other games below. And, as it happens, these two teams targeted the same position in the top ten in 2019 as well. With the third pick the Jets selected defensive tackle Quinnen Williams, while at number nine the Bills took Ed Oliver.

These were two of my favorite players in the class, and while neither has dominated in their rookie years the way Nick Bosa has, both have shown flashes to leave their teams’ hopeful for the future. Of the two Oliver has been more promising, totaling five sacks despite only playing about half of Buffalo’s defensive snaps. As the season has gone along he has earned a larger role in this defense and has the opportunity to flash both in this game and in the playoffs.

Williams has had a bit rougher go of things. He missed some time early in the season and hasn’t been able to earn a full time role on what is a much weaker defensive line than Oliver is dealing with in Buffalo. He’s not as purely athletic and explosive as Oliver, so it’s unsurprising that his game hasn’t adapted as quickly. But he had a sack a week ago, giving him 2.5 on the season, and if he can repeat that performance he can build good momentum headed into 2020.

Cleveland Browns @ Cincinnati Bengals

Same old dysfunction

This year was supposed to be different for Cleveland. After two decades floundering at the bottom of the league, they finally had a franchise quarterback, a defensive superstar, and a coach everyone believed in. Sixteen weeks later Baker Mayfield has suffered through a severe sophomore slump, Myles Garrett is suspended indefinitely, and Freddie Kitchens could be on his way out after one year. And once again they find themselves at the very end of the season with no hope of reaching the playoffs (though at least this time it’s their in-state rivals that have locked up the first overall pick).

This shouldn’t be a shock of course. After all, these are the Browns. And I don’t say that in a sarcastic “this team is cursed” kind of way. I say that more as, “this team is dysfunctional from the top down and won’t be fixed until they see a change in ownership.”

The owners were the ones who hired Kitchens after half a season of experience as an offensive coordinator. The owners were the ones who signed off on bringing in Odell Beckham Jr, a volatile personality who causes conflict whenever the team isn’t winning (as he has this year, reportedly telling every opponent they’ve played to “come get me” as a sort of more direct trade request). This is the sort of situation that turned Garrett—a player known since his time in high school as a genial, friendly guy—into a player who would lose his temper and assault an opponent on the field.

What’s going to happen this Sunday? I have no goddamn clue. Maybe it will be uneventful, just another in a long line of dull battles for Ohio. Or maybe shit will go completely off the rails, with a meltdown on the field matched only by the chaos unfolding on the sidelines. Because these are the Browns, and even when we think they’ve hit rock bottom, they find a way to sink even lower.

Atlanta Falcons @ Tampa Bay Buccaneers

The chase for 30-30

At this point you have to give Jameis Winston credit for being as Jameis Winston as it is possible to be. He has a monumental lead in interceptions with 28 on the year, ten more than anyone else in the league and the most by any quarterback since Brett Favre in 2005. With two more he can become the first quarterback to throw 30 interceptions in a season since Vinny Testaverde in 1988.

If he does this however, he will also become the first player ever to throw 30 interceptions and 30 touchdowns in the same season. Because as mistake-prone as he is, his ability to generate yards, first downs, and points through the air is unmatched in the current NFL. He is second in the league in touchdown passes, and with 5 in his final game he can catch Lamar Jackson for the league lead at 36 (since Jackson isn’t going to play this weekend). And not only does he lead the league in yards, with 328 more he can reach the third most prolific season in passing yardage in NFL history. All of these goals are well within reach for Winston this weekend, because everything is within reach of Winston every weekend.

Chicago Bears @ Minnesota Vikings

Minnesota’s search for life on offense

Most of these games are irrelevant because both teams have already been eliminated, so any growth we see will have to carry over into next season. This is not the case for Minnesota, who after a loss on Monday to Green Bay is locked into the six seed. They have nothing left to play for, and their eyes will be on whoever they go on the road to face on Wild Card weekend.

Unfortunately they can’t just relax and enjoy their week off, because last week was an utter catastrophe. Their offense managed only seven first downs the entire game, the second time their offense has been suffocated by Green Bay this year. The offense is the strength of this team now, but it has gone completely silent in some of their biggest games, including their first matchup with Chicago this season.

Minnesota needs to prove to themselves that they can turn it around. They need to figure out how to block Chicago’s dangerous defensive front. They need to make sure that Adam Thielen is healthy. They need to find a good balance between the run and the pass, rather than what we saw last week where they went run-heavy in the first half then abandoned the ground game in the second. They need to get their confidence back headed into the postseason, otherwise it is going to be a very brief stay.

Arizona Cardinals @ Los Angeles Rams

Chandler Jones hunting Jared Goff

The single season sack record is 22.5, held by Michael Strahan. Chandler Jones will enter this game with 19, leaving him four sacks short of setting a new record. Four sacks in a single game is a total he has reached twice already this season, against Daniel Jones in Week 7 and then again against Russell Wilson a week ago.

The Rams have a better offensive line than either of those teams, but Jones may be the best pure pass rusher in football, and with nothing else to play for the Cardinals will be gunning to get him as many sacks as possible. The question will become how aggressively the Rams are willing to counter this. A few years ago when Jared Allen came within half a sack of the record in a similarly irrelevant game, the Bears spent the remaining quarter and a half triple teaming him to keep him from setting the mark. Will the Rams do the same once Jones gets a couple sacks under his belt, or will they play it straight and give him a shot at the record?

Indianapolis Colts @ Jacksonville Jaguars

Nyheim Hines

This game could have playoff implications, but not for either of the teams actually playing in it. Both Jacksonville and Indianapolis have been eliminated, and the most interested eyes watching this game will belong to the Oakland Raiders. There is a scenario where—if everything breaks right—a Colts victory could be the difference between the Titans and the Raiders making it into the postseason.

If you find yourself watching this game, I’m not really sure what to say to you. There isn’t much of interest on either side of the field. Except perhaps when Jacksonville punts the ball away, and it ends up in the hands of Colts running back Nyheim Hines.

Nobody was really paying attention to the Colts-Panthers contest of a week ago, but those who were saw a spectacular performance from Indianapolis’s fill-in punt returner. Hines returned two punts for a touchdown in the game, making him responsible for a third of all punt return touchdowns this season. With only seven punt returns on the season, he is averaging 37.4 yards per return and scoring on 28% of his attempts.

Can he keep this up? Of course not. There is no way that the Colts have had the best returner in the history of football just sitting on their bench and didn’t realize it until Chester Rogers got hurt. But on the off chance they did, it’s worth flipping over to see Hines with the ball in his hands, to see if he can make magic happen once again.

Los Angeles Chargers @ Kansas City Chiefs

The end of Rivers?

Kansas City could still earn a first round bye, but that will only be possible if Miami beats New England which, yeah, isn’t going to happen. So for all intents and purposes, this game is as meaningless as the ones listed above. (Kansas City could be jumped by Houston for the third seed with a loss, but the difference between the third and fourth seed is not particularly meaningful.)

Instead we’ll focus on the other side of the field. This season has been a nightmare for the Chargers, from their continued struggles at the end of games to the ongoing disaster of their move to Los Angeles. And for the first time in years, some of these struggles can be placed at the feet of their quarterback.

Rivers has been a great player—a Hall of Famer in my mind—but this year he has struggled with consistency after being the one rock solid piece of this roster for the past decade and a half. And it may very well be time for the Chargers to move on from him. There’s a chance he could pop up somewhere else next year, but I think the most likely outcome is that he retires back to San Diego, a city he never moved from. His career never had the same dynamic moments as the other members of the 2004 quarterback class, but we shouldn’t allow ourselves to forget how elite he actually was as he goes out onto the field for possibly the last time.

New Orleans Saints @ Carolina Panthers

The Future of Cam Newton

This game matters, but only if the Packers lose to the Lions. If Green Bay wins (as they should), then the outcome of this game has no significance for the Saints. With a 49ers win over Seattle later in the night, they will be the third seed. If Seattle wins, they will jump up to the second seed and have a first round bye.

This game happens at the same time as the Packers-Lions matchup, so they won’t know for sure if a win matters until at least midway through this game. At the same time, I don’t expect them to take things too seriously. They will go out, light the Panthers up for a quarter or two with their starters—maybe give Michael Thomas some more breathing room on his single season reception record—and then coast the rest of the way.

This game is about the Panthers, and like a number of the games I discussed above, it is about the quarterback position. Early in the season there was a great deal of speculation that they would move on from Cam Newton, with people believing that they had found something in Kyle Allen. Of course, it took only another couple of weeks for Allen to fall to pieces and eventually find his way to the bench.

So now they are taking a look at Will Grier, their third round pick from this year’s draft. Grier was my favorite quarterback available this season, but the early returns have been grim at best. He struggled mightily in the preseason, unable to even earn the backup role for this team. And in his first start he averaged barely over five yards per attempt while throwing three interceptions and taking five sacks.

Obviously nothing firm will be decided with this game. But if Grier comes out and lays another egg, Carolina will be left with few options headed into the offseason. It remains to be seen what condition Newton will be in when he returns, and even if he will return at all. But with one quarterback who has proven he can’t start and another who looks shaky at best, rolling the dice on Newton’s upside may once again be their only path forward.