NFL Week 16: Everything you need to know 🏈

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Welcome to Week 16 in the NFL! The race to the playoffs is narrowing down. Two teams have clinched postseason berths – the Denver Broncos and Los Angeles Rams – and nine other teams have clinching scenarios this weekend. Thirteen teams have been eliminated from contention … better luck next year!

Before discussing the weekend’s biggest matchups, we’ve lined up some essentials:

Week 16 picks from USA TODAY Sports’ NFL experts
Playoff picture and clinching scenarios for Week 16
It’s fantasy football playoff time! Do you need lineup advice?
Point spreads for every Week 16 game

➤ On tap for Thursday night: Los Angeles Rams at Seattle Seahawks — This isn’t just the best ‘Thursday Night Football’ matchup of 2025, but might be the biggest game of the season so far. The Rams (11-3) currently have the inside track for the NFC’s top seed and home-field advantage throughout the playoffs. The Seahawks (also 11-3) only trail the Rams in the standings due to Los Angeles’ win over Seattle in Week 11. This one is also huge for the San Francisco 49ers (10-4), who also have a shot at winning the division. Also paying close attention: the Chicago Bears (10-4). So much is at stake!

➤ Game of the week: Jacksonville Jaguars at Denver Broncos — The AFC South-leading Jaguars (10-4) visit the AFC West-leading Broncos (12-2) in a potential AFC championship game preview. Well, maybe the Buffalo Bills or New England Patriots, or even the Houston Texans or Los Angeles Chargers, might have something to say about that. Anyway, this is a big one in terms of AFC playoff seeding, with both teams coming in hot; the Broncos are riding an 11-game win streak and the Jaguars have won five in a row.

➤ Just going to rank some games I’m interested in watching without giving much context:

Green Bay Packers at Chicago Bears
Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Carolina Panthers
Pittsburgh Steelers at Detroit Lions
San Francisco 49ers at Indianapolis Colts
New England Patriots at Baltimore Ravens

The 212th meeting between the Bears and Packers lost a lot of luster when Green Bay suffered a myriad of key injuries in last week’s loss in Denver, most notably to star pass rusher Micah Parsons. The Buccaneers and Panthers – both entering Week 16 with identical 7-7 records – face off twice in the season’s final three weeks. A 44-year-old grandpa quarterback, Philip Rivers, against the 49ers on ‘Monday Night Football’? Yes, please!

TNF BETTING LOCK

Jaxon Smith-Njigba 100-plus yards receiving (+110). Smith-Njigba is having a career year – leading the NFL with a career-high 1,541 receiving yards – and we’re expecting his season-long success to continue against the Rams. In the two teams’ meeting in Week 11, Smith-Njigba had 105 yards receiving. Playing in the friendly confines of Lumen Field can only help his chances of matching that yardage total.

*Odds per BetMGM (as of publication; odds subject to change)

ONE BOLD PREDICTION

➤ The Bears will steamroll the Packers. Coming off an absolutely demoralizing loss in Denver will be tough enough, but the Packers must turn around and get amped up for a second showdown in three weeks against their longtime rival. The Bears rebounded nicely from their Week 14 loss in Green Bay to trounce a hapless Cleveland Browns team. Soldier Field will be rocking for this Saturday night showdown. We’ve already predicted that the Bears will win the NFC North in this space, and a win Saturday gives Chicago the inside track in the division with two games to play.

HOT READS

The best NFL reads from USA TODAY and our Sports Network:

The Rams and Seahawks meet on ‘Thursday Night Football.’ They also are one-two in the latest power rankings.

Tua Tagovailoa has been benched in favor of rookie Quinn Ewers. So, what’s next for player and team? Should the Dolphins cut bait on the quarterback? Not so fast, writes Nate Davis. There are three key factors that complicate the Tua situation in South Florida. All that ‘Tank for Tua’ stuff from 2019 seems really silly now. You know what else is silly? Fans rooting for their teams to lose games in order to get a better draft position. The state of affairs with Tua in Miami is a good reminder of that.

Now that longtime playoff nemesis Kansas City has been eliminated from the playoffs, the Bills – who have been eliminated by the Chiefs from the playoffs four times since 2020 – see a clearer path to the Super Bowl, Jarrett Bell writes.

A reimagining is due in Kansas City with the Chiefs missing the playoffs for the first time since 2014. Nate Davis presents a seven-step plan for the team to restore itself to championship relevance a year from now.

Despite being a Heisman Trophy finalist, Diego Pavia’s NFL draft prospects weren’t strong (not to mention he’s older than current NFL starters Drake Maye, J.J. McCarthy, Cam Ward and Jaxson Dart). The Vanderbilt QB had the profile of a late-round pick or undrafted free agent. Then, the Heisman ceremony happened and Pavia committed a massive unforced error. Ripping Heisman voters and then posting a social media video from the club flipping off a sign that read ‘(expletive) Indiana’ won’t exactly endear him to NFL teams. Michael Middlehurst-Schwartz writes that the blowback only hurts Pavia’s delicate draft situation.

This week, Netflix revealed that Snoop Dogg will perform during halftime of the Lions-Vikings game on Christmas Day.

FANTASY ESSENTIALS

If you’ve made it this far in your fantasy football playoffs: Congrats! Optimize those lineups to continue the championship chase …

Week 16 Start ‘Em, Sit ‘Em: Quarterbacks | Running backs | Wide receivers | Tight ends

RACE FOR NO. 1 PICK IN 2026 DRAFT

Here is a look at which teams hold top-10 picks in the 2026 NFL Draft going into Week 16:

New York Giants (2-12)
Las Vegas Raiders (2-12)
Tennessee Titans (2-12)
Cleveland Browns (3-11)
New York Jets (3-11)
Arizona Cardinals (3-11)
Washington Commanders (4-10)
New Orleans Saints (4-10)
Cincinnati Bengals (4-10)
Los Angeles Rams (from Atlanta Falcons, 5-9)

ON THIS DAY IN NFL HISTORY

93 years ago today, on Dec. 18, 1932, the NFL held its first playoff game. It was weird.

A first-place tie between the Portsmouth Spartans and Chicago Bears necessitated a one-game playoff to determine the league champion – in the 12 years prior, the NFL title-winner was decided based on best regular-season record. Sometimes that led to controversies that continue to this day.

In 1932, the Spartans (a franchise that would become the Detroit Lions in 1934) and Bears each finished with six wins and one loss (the Spartans had four ties; the Bears had six. Yes, six!). The two teams had squared off twice during the season, but those games ended in (you guessed it!) ties. The 1932 league championship was to be determined on the field. And that’s where the tale of the first NFL playoff game goes sideways.

The game was originally scheduled to be played at Wrigley Field. However, a blizzard forced the game indoors at Chicago Stadium. Yes, Chicago Stadium, an arena that was home to the NHL’s Chicago Blackhawks (and eventually the NBA’s Chicago Bulls). The 1932 championship tilt was the first NFL game (that counted) played indoors. Basically, the first NFL championship game was played inside an ice hockey rink. Special rules were put into place for a game that would be played on a field that only had 60 yards between goal lines and was 45 yards wide. Just look at this setup!

The Bears won the game, 9-0. The game’s lone touchdown came on a Bronko Nagurski pass to Red Grange, which the Spartans argued was not thrown from at least 5 yards behind the line of scrimmage, as the rules of the time dictated. The disputed score stood. A new passing rule set in 1933 and enjoyed to this day would forever change the game: the forward pass would be legal from any point behind the line of scrimmage.

This game also featured the sorta-kinda use of hash marks (the ball was placed so it wouldn’t be too close to the hockey boards). The next season, the NFL officially would adopt hash marks, ending an era (going back six decades if you count the college game) in which the ball was placed where the previous play ended.

In 1933, the NFL divided its teams into two divisions and began hosting official championship games. Those games would evolve into what football fans know today as the Super Bowl.

The extemporaneous 1932 playoff manifested an updated forward pass rule, hash marks, divisions and an annual championship game, thus making it one of the seminal moments in NFL history.

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