The Texans were down an offensive lineman at practice on Tuesday.
Right guard Shaq Mason missed practice with the knee injury that also kept him out of the last two games of the regular season. Juice Scruggs has been playing in Mason’s place.
Wide receiver John Metchie missed practice with a shoulder injury. He had two catches for 24 yards last Sunday.
Defensive lineman Denico Autry (knee) and linebacker Jake Hansen (ankle) were also out of practice. Defensive lineman Foley Fatukasi (ankle), linebacker Christian Harris (ankle), cornerback Jeff Okudah (concussion), and cornerback D’Angelo Ross (shoulder) were all listed as limited participants.
Defensive end Will Anderson (hand), offensive lineman Nick Broeker (hand), and tight end Teagan Quitoriano (calf) were all full participants.
There was a time when it looked like running back David Montgomery would miss the rest of the season, but he is expected to be back in the lineup for the Lions’ first playoff game.
Lions head coach Dan Campbell initially said Montgomery would have season-ending surgery, but Montgomery sought additional opinions and was told that he could return after several weeks of rest. He missed the final three games of the regular season and will have another couple of weeks before the divisional round, which seems to have done the trick.
Campbell told reporters at a press conference on Tuesday that he expects Montgomery to return to action in the team’s playoff opener. Montgomery had 1,371 yards from scrimmage and 11 touchdowns during the regular season.
Jahmyr Gibbs has shown he’s capable of big things as a lead back in Montgomery’s office, so it will be interesting to what impact the time off and Gibbs’s ascension have on the division of labor in the backfield.
Steelers quarterback Justin Fields was back on the gameday roster in Week 18 after missing two games with an abdominal injury, but he was one of two Pittsburgh players who dressed for the game without taking any snaps.
Given how much the offense struggled in their 19-17 loss to the Bengals and how much the team has looked in need of a spark on that side of the ball during their four-game losing streak, there were questions about whether it made sense to see if Fields could provide it. On Monday, head coach Mike Tomlin said that it was on the table as the team heads into their wild card game against the Ravens.
“I’m certainly open to utilizing Justin,” Tomlin said, via the team’s website. “He has an awesome skill set. We’ve done some of that in the past. We’ve done less of it in recent weeks. He experienced an injury a couple of weeks back that slowed some of that. But, certainly, in an effort to win this game I am open to any combination or combinations of the division of labor in an effort to do so, and so I’m certainly open to that as we develop plans this week.”
Fields played three snaps and ran twice for 17 yards in Pittsburgh’s 18-16 win over the Ravens in Week 11 and did not play in Baltimore’s Week 16 win, so finding ways to utilize him this weekend could be a wrinkle with some value in a matchup of teams that know each other well.
With the NFL playoffs beginning this week, the Lions are the betting favorites to hold the Lombardi Trophy at the end.
After beating the Vikings on Sunday night to secure the No. 1 seed in the NFC, the Lions are listed as +280 favorites to win the Super Bowl at DraftKings.
Following the Lions, the next-shortest odds go to the Chiefs at +350, Ravens at +600, Bills at +650 and Eagles at +700.
The longer shots are the Vikings at +1600, Packers at +2000, Buccaneers at +2500 and Chargers at +2800.
The extreme long shots are the Commanders at +4500, Rams at +4500, Broncos at +5500, Texans at +8000 and Steelers at +9000.
Ravens wide receiver Zay Flowers went for an MRI after injuring his knee in Saturday’s win over the Browns and head coach John Harbaugh said after the game that he’d have more to say about the injury after the testing was done.
On Monday, Harbaugh gave an update on Flowers’s condition during his press conference. Harbaugh did not delve into the details of the injury, but he did say that the wideout isn’t being ruled out of their wild card game against the Steelers.
“It’s not a season-ending injury, so it’s just gonna be day-to-day,” Harbaugh said. “Try to do everything he can do to get back as soon as he can and we’ll see where that takes us.”
The Ravens will host the Steelers on Saturday night, so they’ll start issuing injury reports on Tuesday. That will bring an update on what kind of activity Flowers is able to do at practice.
Wide receiver Courtland Sutton’s first six seasons ended without a chance to make the playoffs in the final week of the regular season, so the 2024 Broncos season was already something new for him.
Sutton helped make sure that he’d experience his first postseason action as well. He had five catches for 98 yards and a touchdown in a 38-0 rout of the Chiefs that earned the Broncos the final spot in the AFC bracket.
The win snapped an even-longer drought for the Broncos franchise as a whole. They have not been to the playoffs since winning Super Bowl 50 and Sutton said that the key to getting through “dark times” was being able to have faith that “the picture is going to get bigger and better in the long haul.” The picture has finally improved and Sutton was savoring the moment on Sunday.
“We’ve been through the ugly,” Sutton said, via the team’s website. “For us to be able to see this other side of it, and to be able to have this opportunity to continue this legacy of this season, man, this is really dope.”
The Broncos’ win earned them a trip to Buffalo next weekend and that will be a significant step up from the Chiefs second-teamers that they smacked around on Sunday, so they’ll have to be more than just happy to be there to turn Sutton’s first playoff trip into his first playoff win.
The Vikings’ nine-game winning streak came crashing to a halt on Sunday night in Detroit.
They failed to score a touchdown despite moving the ball into the red zone four times and gave up the final 21 points of the game in a 31-9 loss that sends them to Los Angeles next Monday night as the No. 5 seed in the NFC. It’s a big difference than the top seed in the conference, which the Lions secured, and it will forced them to face the only team other than the Lions that has beaten them this season.
The Rams got a 30-20 home win over the Vikings on a Thursday night in Week Eight and that game came days after the Lions beat them 31-29 in Minnesota. The Vikings will have to fix what went wrong on Sunday night in order to avoid a quick end to what felt like a special season. Head coach Kevin O’Connell’s postgame press conference centered on the need to do that without forgetting the things that got the Vikings to 14 wins in the first place.
“It doesn’t change anything about what this team is made up of,” O’Connell said. “You can’t win nine in a row and then we lose one and allow that to change how we operate. But that also doesn’t mean you can’t improve and late-season improvement when you have been playing really good football in the month of December — sometimes you get hit in the mouth a little bit and you’ve got to respond. I know we’ve built this thing in a way that we’re going to do that.”
The Vikings will likely see variations on the same things that the Lions did to make Sam Darnold and the rest of their offense so uncomfortable,which is why O’Connell said they will have to be “ready to improve immediately.” If they can, they might find themselves back in Detroit for another crack at the Lions very soon.
With the NFL playoff bracket set, two road teams are favored in the wild card round of the playoffs.
Both road favorites are the highest-seeded wild card teams, going on the road against the lowest-seeded division winners.
In the AFC, the 5 seed Chargers are three-point favorites at the 4 seed Texans. And in the NFC, the 5 seed Vikings are 2.5-point favorites at the 4 seed Rams.
The biggest favorites of wild card weekend are the Ravens, who are 9.5-point favorites against the Steelers.
The Bills are 8.5-point favorites against the Broncos.
The Eagles are 4-point favorites against the Packers.
The Buccaneers are 3-point favorites against the Commanders.
The NFL’s “Super” wild card weekend schedule has been set, with kickoff times, matchups and TV networks for the six playoff games now official.
Here’s how the first weekend of the 2025 NFL playoffs will look:
Saturday, January 11, 2025
4:30 p.m. ET: Chargers at Texans (CBS)
8 p.m. ET: Steelers at Ravens (Prime)
Sunday, January 12, 2025
1 p.m. ET: Broncos at Bills (CBS)
4:30 p.m. ET: Packers at Eagles (Fox)
8 p.m. ET: Commanders at Buccaneers (NBC/Peacock)
Monday, January 13, 2025
8 p.m. ET: Vikings at Rams (ESPN/ABC)
The playoff picture is almost set. Here’s how the NFL playoff picture looks after the Sunday afternoon games of Week 18:
NFC Playoff Picture
DIVISION LEADERS
1. Detroit Lions (14-2): Clinched a playoff berth, will clinch the No. 1 seed if they beat or tie the Vikings on Sunday night.
2. Philadelphia Eagles (14-3): Clinched the No. 2 seed.
3. Tampa Bay Buccaneers (10-7): Clinched the No. 3 seed.
4. Los Angeles Rams (10-7): Clinched the No. 4 seed.
WILD CARDS
5. Minnesota Vikings (14-2): Clinched a playoff berth, will clinch the No. 1 seed if they beat the Lions on Sunday night.
6. Washington Commanders (12-5): Clinched the No. 6 seed.
7. Green Bay Packers (11-6): Clinched the No. 7 seed.
OUTSIDE LOOKING IN
8. Seattle Seahawks (10-7): Mathematically eliminated.
9. Atlanta Falcons (8-9): Mathematically eliminated.
10. Arizona Cardinals (8-9): Mathematically eliminated.
11. Dallas Cowboys (7-10): Mathematically eliminated.
12. San Francisco 49ers (6-11): Mathematically eliminated.
13. Chicago Bears (5-12): Mathematically eliminated.
14. Carolina Panthers (5-12): Mathematically eliminated.
15. New Orleans Saints (5-12): Mathematically eliminated.
16. New York Giants (3-14): Mathematically eliminated.
AFC Playoff Picture
DIVISION LEADERS
1. Kansas City Chiefs (15-2): Clinched the No. 1 seed, first-round bye and home-field advantage throughout the AFC playoffs.
2. Buffalo Bills (13-4): Clinched the No. 2 seed.
3. Baltimore Ravens (12-5): Clinched the No. 3 seed.
4. Houston Texans (10-7): Clinched the No. 4 seed.
WILD CARDS
5. Los Angeles Chargers (11-6): Clinched the No. 5 seed.
6. Pittsburgh Steelers (10-7): Clinched the No. 6 seed.
7. Denver Broncos (10-7): Clinched the No. 7 seed.
OUTSIDE LOOKING IN
8. Cincinnati Bengals (9-8): Mathematically eliminated.
9. Miami Dolphins (8-9): Mathematically eliminated.
10. Indianapolis Colts (8-9): Mathematically eliminated.
11. New York Jets (5-12): Mathematically eliminated.
12. Las Vegas Raiders (4-13): Mathematically eliminated.
13. Jacksonville Jaguars (4-13): Mathematically eliminated.
14. New England Patriots (4-13): Mathematically eliminated.
15. Cleveland Browns (3-14): Mathematically eliminated.
16. Tennessee Titans (3-14): Mathematically eliminated.
Clinching Scenarios
Here are the full playoff scenarios released by the NFL:
AFC
CLINCHED:
Kansas City Chiefs (15-2) – AFC West, No. 1 seed, first-round bye and home-field advantage
Buffalo Bills (13-4) – AFC East, No. 2 seed
Baltimore Ravens (12-5) – AFC North, No. 3 seed
Houston Texans (10-7) – AFC South, No. 4 seed
Los Angeles Chargers (11-6) – wild card
Pittsburgh Steelers (10-7) – wild card
Denver Broncos (10-7) - wild card
NFC
CLINCHED:
Philadelphia Eagles (14-3) – NFC East, No. 2 seed
Los Angeles Rams (10-7) – NFC West
Tampa Bay Buccaneers (10-7) - NFC South
Detroit Lions (14-2) – playoff berth
Minnesota Vikings (14-2) – playoff berth
Washington Commanders (12-5) – playoff berth, No. 6 seed
Green Bay Packers (11-6) – playoff berth, No. 7 seed
Detroit Lions (14-2) vs. Minnesota Vikings (14-2); Sunday night, 8:20 p.m. ET, NBC
Detroit clinches NFC North division title and the NFC’s No. 1 seed, lone first-round bye and home-field advantage with:
- DET win or tie
Minnesota Vikings (14-2) at Detroit Lions (14-2); Sunday night, 8:20 p.m. ET, NBC
Minnesota clinches NFC North division title and the NFC’s No. 1 seed, lone first-round bye and home-field advantage with:
- MIN win
