NFL Week 16 Takeaways: AFC Wild Card Image Nonetheless Unclear After Chargers’ TNF Win

It is starting to look quite a bit like Christmas—and the stretch run to the NFL playoffs.

As Week 16 will get underway, half of the league’s 14 postseason spots are spoken for, and three division races are settled—all within the AFC. However there’s nonetheless a variety of jockeying for place to be achieved, and quite a bit that may change over the subsequent three weeks.

The week kicked off with a Thursday evening battle at SoFi Stadium between two AFC West groups which have exceeded expectations and are jockeying for wild-card positions: the Los Angeles Chargers and Denver Broncos.

That contest went to the house group, with the Chargers prevailing in a back-and-forth 34-27 affair that was the very last thing anticipated from two defenses tied for the NFL lead in factors allowed getting into Week 16.

There is no scarcity of different video games with postseason ramifications over the weekend. Saturday encompasses a showdown of division champions that includes the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs and Houston Texans, and a battle for AFC North supremacy in Baltimore between the Ravens and Pittsburgh Steelers.

Sunday’s slate is highlighted by a chance for the Philadelphia Eagles to stitch up the NFC East in Washington and a gathering in Seattle between two NFC contenders within the Seahawks and Minnesota Vikings.

Sunday evening, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will attempt to transfer a step nearer to a different NFC South title and finish the Dallas Cowboys’ slim playoff hopes.

By the point the mud settles on Week 16, the postseason image can have cleared considerably. And simply as they do each week, Bleacher Report NFL analysts Gary Davenport, Kristopher Knox, Maurice Moton and Brent Sobleski are right here to interrupt down all of Week 16’s most impactful happenings with the largest takeaways from each sport.

In October, Los Angeles Chargers tight finish Hayden Hurst mentioned first-year head coach Jim Harbaugh and franchise quarterback Justin Herbert gave the impression to be meshing properly.

“It’s a little little bit of a bromance,” he told reporters. “I believe Jim needs to actually emulate Justin. He is received all of the bodily traits that Jim mentioned he does not have, so it is type of humorous. I believe they complement one another properly.”

Harbaugh’s fingerprints are throughout this group already. However after the Chargers beat the rival Broncos in a matchup with main wild-card implications, it is clear it is the mixture of quarterback and coach that makes the Bolts a nightmare matchup because the AFC’s (doubtless) sixth seed.

Herbert’s numbers have dropped, however that is by design in Harbaugh’s offense. The late scoring strike that salted the sport away gave the signal-caller 284 passing yards for the evening, and he might properly want extra shifting ahead. One lengthy Gus Edwards run coated up the fact that the Chargers miss working again J.Ok. Dobbins tremendously.

However Herbert continues to shine in Harbaugh’s offense. He is environment friendly. He is assured. And when a play must be made, he makes it.

Say what you’ll about Harbaugh: the oddball quotes, his exit from Michigan. However he wins.

The Chargers aren’t the most effective group within the AFC, and even the second- or third-best. However nobody needs them coming to city in Spherical 1.

Thursday evening, the Denver Broncos had a chance to not solely seize management of the AFC’s sixth seed but in addition ship a message to the convention’s different contenders.

It was a chance squandered, however all it actually did was inform us what we already knew: The Broncos are a vastly improved group.

They are going to nonetheless in all probability make the postseason, however they’re no menace to the AFC heavyweights. They by no means actually have been.

And that is not such a nasty factor.

This was a group from which nothing was anticipated in 2024, not with a rookie on the helm in Bo Nix. However after a bumpy begin, he has been precisely what Sean Payton wished him to be. Towards the Chargers, the 24-year-old threw for 263 yards and two scores, and he did not make expensive errors.

These got here within the type of ill-timed defensive lapses and dear penalties. However each underscore simply how younger a lot of this group is. Denver wants higher linebacker play, however the protection is already a power, with edge-rusher Nik Bonitto spearheading a superb line.

This is what is going on to occur—and admittedly, it is the identical factor that can occur to the Chargers group that simply beat Denver.

The Broncos will hit the street within the Wild Card Spherical to face one of many AFC’s top-three groups, and they’re going to lose in a nail-biter.

Then a Denver group with a superb core on each side of the ball for the primary time in a very long time will hit the offseason and begin filling in blanks.

And perhaps, simply perhaps, the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs will not stroll away with the AFC West in 2025.

This is a take a look at the remainder of the Week 16 schedule.

Saturday, December 21

Sunday, December 22

Monday, December 23