The forecast for Chicago on Saturday night indicates that Soldier Field will have exactly the kind of weather a Packers-Bears playoff game deserves.
At 7 p.m. local time, when Packers-Bears kicks off, the forecast calls for snow flurries and wind gusts up to 30 mph. The temperature will be right around 32 degrees, but with the winds whipping off Lake Michigan, it will feel a lot colder than that.
The NFL schedule put both of this year’s regular-season games between the two teams late in the season, which meant a 16-degree game in Green Bay on December 7 and a 37-degree game in Chicago on December 20. So this will be the third cold-weather game between the two longtime rivals in five weeks.
In the regular season, each team won at home, but on Saturday, the Packers are 1.5-point favorites in Chicago.
Steelers offensive coordinator Arthur Smith spent a long time coaching in Tennessee, but he said on Thursday that he’s not spending any time pondering the prospect of returning there in 2026.
The Titans have requested permission to interview Smith for their head coaching vacancy. Smith was a Titans assistant under multiple coaches from 2011-2020 and used a two-year run as the team’s offensive coordinator as a stepping stone to the head coaching job in Atlanta.
Smith insists that the prospect of a second chance to run a team during a return to Nashville is not something that he’s spending any time thinking about with the Steelers set to host the Texans on Monday night.
“That’s not something I’m going to focus on because the only thing that matters is my current job,” Smith said, via Teresa M. Walker of the Associated Press. “It’s like trying to tell people all the time, I’m living the present. If you have perspective, you have life experiences, you’re wasting time worrying about the future if you deal with that. . . . Anything’s like that’s a distraction.”
Smith won’t be able to speak to the Titans or anyone else until after Monday’s game. If the Steelers win, he’ll have to choose whether to shift his attention long enough to throw his hat in the ring.
The Texans have one of the NFL’s best cornerback duos in Kamari Lassiter and Derek Stingley Jr., both of whom should receive some All-Pro votes.
Both, though, begin wild-card playoff week on the injury report.
Lassiter (ankle/knee) did not participate on Thursday, and Stingley (oblique) was limited.
Lassiter played through his knee injury in the Week 16 win over the Chargers and sat out Sunday’s game against the Colts as a precaution.
Lassiter said, via Aaron Wilson of KPRC, that he will play Monday night against the Steelers.
He made 91 tackles, including seven for loss, with four interceptions and 17 passes defensed.
This marks the first time in four weeks that Stingley has practiced on the first practice day of the week. He went on the injury report with his oblique issue in Week 16.
Stingley totaled 36 tackles, four interceptions and 15 pass breakups in 17 games.
Defensive end Denico Autry (knee), offensive lineman Tytus Howard (ankle) and running back Jawhar Jordan (ankle) were the others who didn’t practice for Houston.
Offensive tackle Trent Brown (ankle/knee), linebacker Jamal Hill (calf), defensive tackle Sheldon Rankins (elbow) and safety Jaylen Reed (forearm) joined Stingley as limited participants.
The Steelers’ 53-man roster is pretty healthy as the club begins its practice week for Monday night’s matchup with the Texans.
But one key player was not on the field on Thursday.
Running back Jaylen Warren did not participate due to an illness, according to Pittsburgh’s injury report.
Warren led the Steelers with 958 yards rushing and six rushing touchdowns this season. He also caught 40 passes for 333 yards with two TDs.
Otherwise, the Steelers’ injury report is quite clean. Quarterback Aaron Rodgers (left wrist), linebacker T.J. Watt (lung), receiver Ben Skowronek (hand), and long snapper Christian Kuntz (knee) were all full.
Defensive tackle Cameron Heyward was limited with rest.
When it comes to finding his next coaching job, John Harbaugh will attack the day with an enthusiasm unknown to mankind.
Starting next week.
The plan to press pause conflicts with the Harbaugh ethic. It’s a strategy, aimed at one apparent thing: Finding out whether the six games to be played this weekend will lead to more openings.
Multiple reports indicate at least nine teams have expressed interest in Harbaugh. With only six non-Ravens openings, that leaves three teams that currently have coaches. And 14 teams still have games to play.
For more than a few of the playoff teams, there’s no way Harbaugh would be a consideration. The Broncos and Seahawks, obviously, will be standing pat. Ditto for the likes of the Patriots, Chargers (that would be a very awkward phone call), Jaguars, Rams, 49ers, Bears, and Texans.
As to the rest, is it crazy to think the Steelers are thinking about the possibility of Mike Tomlin choosing to exit after 19 years? Sure, the Steelers typically hire coaches in their 30s and keep them for a long time. (Harbaugh, at 63, is four years older than Chuck Noll when he retired in 1991.) But if Tomlin walks, maybe they’d embrace a guy who seems to be more than ready to go for another decade or longer.
Some are suggesting that the Eagles would consider bringing Harbaugh back to Philly, where he spent 10 years before becoming Baltimore’s head coach. That would be beyond stunning, given what Nick Sirianni has accomplished in his first five seasons. There’s still a lingering sense that the Eagles are supremely talented, and that they fail far too often to get the most out of what they have. (It would still be an all-time “oh shit” move.)
In Carolina, is David Tepper (a former Steelers minority owner who knows very well what Harbaugh can do) thinking about an upgrade? Even though the Panthers won the NFC South, they were 8-9. And Dave Canales is 13-21 in two seasons, a winning percentage of 38.2.
Harbaugh, in 18 years, has won 61.4 percent of his games.
The two to watch most closely — and the two teams that folks around the league are indeed watching the most closely — are the Packers and Bills.
In Green Bay, new team president Ed Policy has already made it clear that a decision will be made after the season as to whether Matt LaFleur will get a new contract. Policy also has made it clear that he doesn’t like lame-duck arrangements, and LaFleur is signed only through 2026.
Less than two weeks ago, Policy saw what a Harbaugh-led team can do at Lambeau Field, when the Ravens steamrolled the Packers in a 41-24 win.
In Buffalo, it can be argued that the window has already closed on the Bills, and that the supreme skills and abilities of quarterback Josh Allen have created the impression that it remains open. An early, ugly exit against a Jaguars team that is, frankly, better than the Bills could be the thing that prompts owner Terry Pegula to make a change.
Regardless, the fact that Harbaugh’s agent initially said seven teams called combined with the decision to wait until next week to interview for any of the vacancies creates the inescapable impression that one or more of the teams playing this weekend could be contemplating a potential coaching change. And folks in the know are eyeballing Green Bay and Buffalo.
If nothing else, the Harbaugh factor adds plenty of spice to an already spicy six pack of first-round playoff games. Especially if Packers-Bears or Bills-Jaguars comes down to a 44-yard field goal that is missed.
