2025-2026 NFL Season Thread - God hates the Chargers

Wombat

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I think it is completely legitimate to say that this is the weakest #1 seed, regardless of who it is, seen in the AFC in decades. No one's a clear favorite:

NE: Given their great defense and average starting field position, their offense is actually middle of the pack.
Bills: Josh Allen is arguably _the_ QB left in the AFC, but I don't see them surviving three playoff level defenses on the road.
Steelers: Their opponent gets the closest thing to a bye in the AFC. Terrible defense (especially vs. its salary), and Rodgers may die out there vs a real defense. They'll probably have the worst odds of all AFC playoff teams entering the postseason.
Jaguars: I can't believe these words are coming out of my mouth - the Jaguars are one of the strongest contenders left in the AFC. Their offense has been great recently, and their defense has been holding up.
Texans: Terrible offensive line, will get knocked off in the wildcard round. Whether their opposing QB / Oline survives intact is a real question.
Broncos: Their defense is fantastic. Their offense is crap until Nix can take advantage of gassed defenses in the 3rd and especially 4th quarter, and that's way less of a guarantee against the strong defenses left on this list.
Chargers: That Oline will not survive three playoff level defenses on the road.

So a lot boils down to seedings - both between Denver and NE for who gets the bye and home field, but also which wildcard gets the 5 seed and the rights to beat up Steelers...

... which is why this year is probably the best situation for NE or Denver to get the #1 seed, beat whomever takes out the Steelers in the divisional, then have one real game in the way to getting to the Super Bowl. I don't like their odds vs Seattle or (more likely) the Rams, but if there was ever a year for a less than fantastic AFC team to get to the Super Bowl, this is it.
 
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Kirun

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Texans: Terrible offensive line, will get knocked off in the wildcard round. Whether their opposing QB / Oline survives intact is a real question.
One of the best defenses I've seen in the past decade. Their 4th quarter stats are insane. You don't need a 30+PPG offense if your defense is on that level.

I think people are sleeping on how good their defense is.
 
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gak

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c.gif
 
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Needless

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That's rough man. I picked up Rivers when Mahomes went down and played against a guy who had JT. Now I'm going to the championship game.
I actually had rivers and pierce on my bench I wanted the meme nine to come out but McCarthy got injured lmao
 
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Quevy

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I actually had rivers and pierce on my bench I wanted the meme nine to come out but McCarthy got injured lmao
Wow. I just realized the last week was Pierce's best game of the season from a fantasy prospective in our .5 ppr league.
 
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BrutulTM

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It's pretty amazing that the 49ers have managed to become a high powered offense with CMC and Kittle and 3 no-name receivers catching the ball. On top of that, the run game hasn't been that productive. It's interesting that they finally got the run game going this week against what's supposed to be a pretty good Indy run defense. Purdy and Shanahan deserve a lot of credit for this although a weak schedule has helped.

The 9ers defense is a problem though. They can't get pressure on the QB and until tonight they haven't been able to stop the run either. I think they made the decision to shut down the Colts run game and make Rivers beat them which they were successful at but Rivers was mostly standing back there. Good news for him because I have a feeling the old man isn't going to be able to take too many big hits.

The Bears and Seahawks games will be a big test for San Fran. They haven't played two teams this good for a while. I still don't think SF's defense is good enough to go all the way but if they can win or even make it a close game in the next two weeks then they have a shot.
 

Kirun

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The Bears and Seahawks games will be a big test for San Fran. They haven't played two teams this good for a while. I still don't think SF's defense is good enough to go all the way but if they can win or even make it a close game in the next two weeks then they have a shot.
The #1 seed is massively important for their chances. The bye week gives Fred another week. Don't forget that they beat Seattle and LA...when they had Fred. He's the largest reason why that defense blows balls now.
 

Regime

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The #1 seed is massively important for their chances. The bye week gives Fred another week. Don't forget that they beat Seattle and LA...when they had Fred. He's the largest reason why that defense blows balls now.
The Chargers geting the number one seed is pretty optimistic man but I think it’s possible.
 
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Wombat

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Well, yes, given that the NFC side is really the NFC West Off, not having to deal with one of your divisional rivals for at least one week (since you're on a bye) is a pretty massive swing in your chances to make it out of the NFC.

Does anyone really think the NFC South team, Eagles, Bears, or Packers/Lions wildcard are favorites to get to the NFC Championship?
 

Regime

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Well, yes, given that the NFC side is really the NFC West Off, not having to deal with one of your divisional rivals for at least one week (since you're on a bye) is a pretty massive swing in your chances to make it out of the NFC.

Does anyone really think the NFC South team, Eagles, Bears, or Packers/Lions wildcard are favorites to get to the NFC Championship?
I still think the Eagles will make it do the Super Bowl to face the Broncos.
 

Hoss

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Are they going to be in Kansas City, Kansas so the name will still be accurate?

Don't worry, it will be A city in kansas somewhere. So the name will be accurate.

Be curious if it will still be called arrowhead or get some corporate name like every new stadium gets these days.
That ship has sailed. Even if they don't get a corporate sponsor, there's no way it will be arrowhead again. I'm sure someone else owns the rights to that name. But also, and this is important, they are 1000% selling the naming rights. I guarantee that's part of the plan to pay for the thing. The best we can hope for is that Tay Tay buys the rights, puts it to a vote on twitter, and we get the name Stadium McStadiumFace.
 

Regime

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Don't worry, it will be A city in kansas somewhere. So the name will be accurate.


That ship has sailed. Even if they don't get a corporate sponsor, there's no way it will be arrowhead again. I'm sure someone else owns the rights to that name. But also, and this is important, they are 1000% selling the naming rights. I guarantee that's part of the plan to pay for the thing. The best we can hope for is that Tay Tay buys the rights, puts it to a vote on twitter, and we get the name Stadium McStadiumFace.
We’ll all call it arrowhead regardless of what corporate dumb shit name they put on it. It’s pretty close to state line in Wyandotte. The new training facility is near my aunts in Olathe.

It’s like if the cowboys stadium moved back to
Dallas or Plano. Hell not even that far.
 

Hoss

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Next step is someone will say "Well, since we're finally getting rid of that 'arrowhead stadium', lets talk about the problematic name and emblem". And before you know it, you have the kansas football team (which the redskins will happily let them use because they understand the struggle).