Most of the playoff spots had been determined by the time Week 18 kicked off. That did nothing to dull the thrill of the final games of the regular season, whether they determined seedings, established records or, in a handful of cases, decided who was in and who was out.
The NFL turns the page quickly this week to the first round of the playoffs. But first, let's take a breath and put a bow on Week 18 of the 2024 season with the biggest takeaways.
1) No team needed the first-round bye more than the Detroit Lions, with their injury-ravaged defense needing time to heal. Still, it was Aaron Glenn's defense that got the Lions the bye, repeatedly holding off the Vikings in the red zone Sunday, to secure the NFC North and the NFC’s top seed. The Lions pressured Sam Darnold, who struggled to find open receivers and who threw high even when they were open. He looked uncomfortable throughout, whether inside or outside the pocket. As a result, the game never became the anticipated shootout, but it did prove that the Lions may not be as vulnerable against explosive opponents as once feared. With a dominant offensive line, the Lions manhandled the Vikings in the second half. They will play at home for as long as they are in the field, and the Vikings become that most dreaded opponent for everybody else: a 14-win wild card. The Vikings, the fifth seed, will play the Los Angeles Rams in the Wild Card Round, another installment in the loaded NFC bracket.
2) With the Chiefs resting practically everyone who mattered, the Denver Broncos stormed into the playoffs as the AFC's seventh seed, ending the long-shot hopes of the Dolphins and Bengals. The Broncos head to Buffalo for the wild-card game, and they are a hard opponent to figure out. They have one of the top scoring defenses in the league and a red-hot, confident rookie quarterback in Bo Nix. But other than the Chiefs' B team Sunday, the Broncos defeated just one team that finished the regular season with a winning record, the Bucs in Week 3. Still, with Nix's emergence and constant improvement, the Broncos have the feeling of an ascending team, and the Bills will be a good test of just how far they've come. The Broncos' victory also accomplished something that the rest of the AFC field was almost certainly rooting for: They kept the Cincinnati Bengals and Joe Burrow from getting in. A slow start doomed the Bengals' season – they should spend the offseason figuring out why they start slow every season -- but they won their last five games of the regular season and would have been a dangerous entrant into the field.
3) It tells you everything about how the Bucs feel about Mike Evans that his teammates celebrated him getting to 1,000 yards receiving for the season more than they celebrated winning the NFC South. On a day when plenty of players were trying to trigger contract bonuses, Evans' accomplishment felt like the biggest. His 9-yard reception on the final play of the regular season, when the Bucs could have taken a knee, got him over 1,000 yards for the 11th straight season, every one of his career. It also earned him $3 million. His teammates were jubilant. And, oh yes, the victory gave the Bucs the NFC South for the fourth straight season and put them in the playoffs ahead of the Atlanta Falcons, who needed to beat the Panthers (they didn't) and have the Bucs lose. Baker Mayfield all but willed the Bucs ahead in the second half after a sleepy first half – his 28-yard run on third down was the critical play on the drive that gave the Bucs the winning margin.
The Bucs are perennially doubted and this season, the predictions had them falling behind a Falcons team that was supposed to be powered by Kirk Cousins. The Falcons are heading into the offseason wondering what might have been had they gone with rookie Michael Penix Jr. following their bye week at the start of December, when Cousins' struggles were becoming obvious. And they have a decision to make about what to do with Cousins. Meanwhile, as the third seed in the NFC, the Bucs will host the sixth seed – the Washington Commanders -- next Sunday. They have also managed a rare feat. They have transitioned from the brief but successful Tom Brady era, in which they won the Super Bowl as a wild card in the 2020 season, and continued to get to the postseason while their roster got younger.
4) Sunday certainly could have gone better for the Green Bay Packers. They lost to the Chicago Bears for the first time since 2018 on a last-second 51-yard field goal and, worse, wide receiver Christian Watson suffered an ominous-looking non-contact knee injury. Jordan Love's throwing arm got banged up and he was still experiencing numbness in his hand after the game. Finally, because the Washington Commanders also won, the Packers dropped to the seventh seed in the NFC, setting up a blockbuster wild-card game against the Philadelphia Eagles, who might be the most complete and healthy team in the NFC field as the playoffs begin. The season began for these two in Sao Paolo, Brazil, a 34-29 Eagles victory. It will come full circle next weekend, with a game that is the perfect representation of a beastly NFC field – an 11-win team having to go on the road in the first round to face a 14-win team.
5) The Steelers limp into the postseason on a four-game losing streak and with a sputtering offense which amassed less than 200 yards in Saturday night's loss to the Bengals. They've averaged 14.3 points per game during the four losses, after averaging 28.4 points per game in Russell Wilson's first seven games as a starter, during which the Steelers went 6-1. The skid has sent them spiraling from a two-game lead in the AFC North to a wild card as the sixth seed. They have the unenviable task of going to Baltimore, the third seed, in Wild Card Weekend. Until recently, the Steelers gave Lamar Jackson more trouble than any other opponent. That narrative ended three weeks ago, when the Ravens pounded the Steelers, 34-17. The beneficiaries of the Steelers' slippage are the Chargers, who are the fifth seed and go to Houston to play the Texans in the first round.
6) The New England Patriots showed a last spasm of life in beating the Buffalo Bills on Sunday -- not enough to save Jerod Mayo, who was fired after just one season -- causing a seismic shakeup in the top of the draft order for the second straight week. The Tennessee Titans, who finished 3-14, will have the first overall pick. The Cleveland Browns, also 3-14, will pick second. And the New York Giants, who were in the first overall spot before a stunning win over the Colts last week, will pick third. The Patriots will pick fourth. The Titans need a quarterback and the Browns do, too. Whether the Browns, who are still tied to Deshaun Watson for at least one more season, will draft a quarterback remains to be seen. This could leave the Giants potentially on the outside looking in at the top of the quarterback class for a second straight offseason. What they will do is a decision for another day. First, owners John Mara and Steve Tisch must determine if general manager Joe Schoen and head coach Brian Daboll should have a chance to make that decision. And whoever Robert Kraft hires must determine the direction of a Patriots team that has been adrift since Tom Brady departed.
