Change is the one thing that you can count on in league
With every season — churn, churn, churn.
Change is once again the constant as the NFL rounds the final turn and into the December stretch run with the postseason picture coming into focus.
Brackets surely will be reshuffled in the last five weeks of the regular season, but as it stands, eight of the 12 playoff slots are occupied by teams that didn’t make it to the dance last season.
In the AFC, the familiar returners of Pittsburgh, New England and Kansas City are joined by Tennessee, Jacksonville and Baltimore, each of whom watched the playoffs from the couch a year ago.
There’s even more turnover in the NFC, where Atlanta is the only team currently seeded that made the playoffs last year. The other five — Philadelphia, Minnesota, the Rams, New Orleans and Carolina — failed to get that far.
Again, this is all subject to change, but the league’s constant push for competitive balance is yet again paying dividends.
This much about the NFL doesn’t change: You need to have stability at quarterback.
Seven of the eight division leaders are starting the same quarterback with which they opened the season, Minnesota being the exception. Who could have predicted the remarkable season the Vikings’ Case Keenum is having?
Meanwhile, all eight of the divisional cellar dwellers are on at least their second quarterback, the latest being the New York Giants, who this week benched longtime starter Eli Manning in favor of Geno Smith.
This is a passing league, and never has that been more evident.
Frequently, there isn’t just change, but dramatic change.
If Philadelphia wins at Seattle on Sunday night, for instance, the Eagles would clinch the NFL East and pull off the type of worst-to-first performance that has been so common in the league in recent years.
Fourteen times in the last 15 seasons, a team has won its division the season after finishing last or tied for last in its division. Of the 44 teams that have flipped the script that way in the modern era, 21 of them have done so in the last 14 years. That includes three such teams in 2005 (Chicago Bears, Giants, Tampa Bay Buccaneers) and 2006 (Ravens, Saints, Eagles).
Carolina, Jacksonville and the Chargers all finished last in 2016, yet are in or within one game of first place in their respective divisions.
Pray ball
The Dallas Cowboys are dangling by a thread, but at least they still have a prayer of making the playoffs. They improved to 6-6 with their blowout victory over Washington on Thursday and need to run the table for a realistic chance of grabbing a wild-card berth.
“We know our margin is very tight; it’s going to take 10 wins to get in,” tight end Jason Whitten said during the week. “Control what we control, but understand where we’re at. That’s what we play for. I believe we’re in the hunt.”
Running the table is a tall order for a team that had lost three in a row heading into the Redskins game and had been outscored 92-22 during that span. The team sorely misses suspended running back Ezekiel Elliott, who won’t be eligible to return until Week 16 against Seattle.
That’s the only one of the remaining four games that the Cowboys will play at home. They are on the road against the Giants, Oakland and Philadelphia, and you can bet the Eagles would love to slam the door on the fingers of their bitter NFC East rival.
Pinpoint passers
Second-year Philadelphia quarterback Carson Wentz, who has garnered the most Pro Bowl votes so far, is already in some lofty company.
He leads the NFL will 28 touchdown passes — two ahead of New England’s Tom Brady — and has five interceptions. Should he throw two more touchdowns without an interception, Wentz would become the third quarterback in NFL history with at least 30 touchdown passes and five or fewer interceptions.
Green Bay’s Aaron Rodgers did it in 2011 and 2014, and Brady did it in 2007. The Patriots star is on track to reach that milestone again, as he needs four more touchdown passes and has only three interceptions.
Keeping up with Harrisons
Pittsburgh receiver Antonio Brown has 80 catches for 1,195 yards, leading the NFL in both categories.
With three more receptions, Brown would pass Hall of Fame receiver Marvin Harrison for the most catches by a player in any five-year span.
Harrison, formerly Peyton Manning’s favorite target with Indianapolis, caught 563 passes between 1999 and 2003.