NFL (American) Football Pick-Em Thread 2025

[Brendan0620]

Jacksonville's got themselves one great kicker.

2nd longest field goal in NFL history! 1st? Also Cam Little.

Watch on YouTube

[b_l_e_1]

Thanks clip. It was kind of fun being on the see saw pool this year, and that's exactly what this season was -a see saw ride. Teams that everyone expected to win lost, and teams that the big dogs at ESPN thought would stink got good all of a sudden. Imagine that

I simply got lucky and hot at the end of the year, which is what I'm hoping the Steelers are doing now, reminiscent on what happened circa 2005.
The Steelers were on the road in every game on their way to meet the Seahawks in Super Bowl XL, and believe it or not I could very well see a rematch of those teams in Super Bowl LX this year -yeah it's a pipe dream I get it but don't laugh, stranger things have happened...

Speaking of which, to say that this year wasn't strange and a wacky year in the NFL is an understatement at best.
I didn't see Detroit or Washington missing the playoffs, nor did I see a 4-13 Patriots team in 2024 being where they are now under first year head coach (and ex-Steeler and Patriot) Mike Vrabel.
I couldn't imagine the playoffs without Patrick Mahomes being in the mix, but yet that's we are now. With that being said, IMO there's no real clear cut favorite to win the SB, and I truly think that it's up for grabs by anyone now.

a nice consolation prize for having to deal with Mike Tomlin for at least another year Well done!

Yeah, that's kind of the small price we' in the 'Burgh will have to pay for making it into this year's playoffs

But the rumor mill here has taken a different turn as of late, being that we all know that the Rooney's will never fire Mike Tomlin: since the NFL draft is in Pittsburgh this April, there's talk that Tomlin won't want to be involved or be around that scene if the Steelers make an early exit from this year's playoffs, as the fan reaction to him at the draft would be brutal, to say the least.
The hot take around here is that Tomlin may just decide to take the Bill Cowher route and go to TV.
I can't say that I would really blame him if he did just that. For one, he avoids the headaches of being a HC in what will be such a hostile environment if the Steelers do exit the playoffs early. Two, if Aaron Rodgers doesn't come back and leaves for good, then he would need to worry about a starting QB once again. And three, he would probably get close to a nice $20 million/year offer to leave coaching altogether to take a cushy job on TV.
Can't say that I'd blame him if he did go to TV...one can only hope

Anyways, enough of the blah blah blah, it's off to the post season we go. Good luck everyone!

Rams @ Panthers -> Rams
Packers @ Bears -> Packers
Bills @ Jaguars -> Bills
49ers @ Eagles -> Eagles
Chargers @ Patriots -> Chargers
Texans @ Steelers -> Steelers

[oldmanclippy]

Yeah it was probably one of the craziest regular seasons in my lifetime. Chiefs dynasty straight into a brick wall, Patriots and Broncos doing great with 2nd year QBs, Colts falling off a cliff, Joe Burrow coming back super quick from turf toe but being held back by his team still, Sam Darnold playing back to back week 18 games for the #1 or #5 seed to go 14-3 again but pulling it off this time, the Bears having a great offense, the 49ers dragging themselves across the finish line with all those injuries, big Lions and Commies regressions, etc. Lots of crazy good games too.

I'm thinking Rams over Bills in the Super Bowl. Every NFC team has looked really vulnerable at times during this season, so I'm not sure I trust any of them to stay steady in the playoffs. Bills have a lot scarier competition, but they have a ton of playoff experience on that team and the usual impediment to their success is missing in action so this could be their shot. Can't trust the Bills defense in a Super Bowl though.

[Brendan0620]

Here is the playoff TV Schedule for the upcoming weekend.

Saturday January 11th:
4:30pm EST - 5 Los Angeles Rams @ 4 Carolina Panthers - FOX - Joe Davis and Greg Olsen

8:15pm EST - 7 Green Bay Packers @ 2 Chicago Bears - Amazon Prime Video - Al Michaels and Kirk Herbstreit

Sunday January 12th:
1:00pm EST - 6 Buffalo Bills @ 3 Jacksonville Jaguars - CBS/Paramount Plus - Jim Nantz and Tony Romo

4:30pm EST - 6 San Francisco 49ers @ 3 Philadelphia Eagles - FOX - Kevin Burkhardt and Tom Brady

8:00pm EST - 7 Los Angeles Chargers @ 2 New England Patriots - NBC/Peacock - Mike Tirico and Cris Collinsworth

Monday January 13th:
8:00pm EST - 5 Houston Texans @ 4 Pittsburgh Steelers - ESPN/ESPN 2 - Joe Buck and Troy Aikman

[oldmanclippy]

I can deal with streaming-exclusive regular season games since we don't get every regular season game anyways, but playoff games should all be over the air in every market. Really not pleased with that.

At least it's free on Twitch, I guess. But Twitch is a pretty bad user experience nowadays.

[Maverick89]

This was as fun as it was last year...with an expanded field (pun intended)! Congrats b_l_e_1!

Also man, I kinda feel for the Ravens kicker. And then today they decided to fire Harbaugh (which I think was a bad idea--they still had a chance to make the postseason but their chances went wide right with that last play).

Rams @ Panthers -> Rams
Packers @ Bears -> Packers
Bills @ Jaguars -> Bills
49ers @ Eagles -> Niners
Chargers @ Patriots -> Chargers
Texans @ Steelers -> Steelers

[flight50]

OMG. I had no idea Harbaugh was fired until now. That's messed up. Injured star players are costing some coaches their jobs. I definitely think that was a dumb move for the Ravens. I don't see them being any better next year.

[Brendan0620]

One team's dumb decision is another team's treasure. I'm sure Harbaugh will turn one of these coach-less franchises around; I'm thinking NY Giants, he'd be a good mentor for Jaxson Dart.

As for the streaming in the playoffs, I agree with Clippy here, I'm not a fan of the paid subscription streaming games during the playoffs. I get that everything is going to streaming now, from WWE RAW to even the NHL, but it's not the time to be pushing that for the playoffs yet, especially since NFL does huge ratings during this time of year.

[oldmanclippy]

Yeah Harbaugh is gonna be a hot commodity. Super Bowl winning coaches don't just pop up on the market every day.

[IonutL]

Rams @ Panthers -> Rams
Packers @ Bears -> Bears
Bills @ Jaguars -> Jaguars
49ers @ Eagles -> 49ers
Chargers @ Patriots -> Patriots
Texans @ Steelers -> Texans