Christmas Week Observations

The NFL is becoming like the NBA — there are games almost every day, it seems, and not many of them are good. Don’t get me wrong, I like having games on in the background during holidays as much as the next guy, but there’s a big difference from being in the background and meriting your focused attention.

I caught a little of Chiefs-Steelers. It’s obvious there are only three, maybe four, teams that can possibly make the Super Bowl in the AFC. The Texans, Steelers, Broncos (and probably the Chargers) are drawing dead. I don’t just mean they’re underdogs, I mean there’s no point in even playing the games.

I caught more of Texans-Ravens, and it was even worse. The Texans offense has nothing, and their defense can’t stop real teams like the Ravens or Bills. C.J. Stroud was so promising as a rookie, but he’s in a dead-end environment right now with that offensive line and coaching.

Mercifully I caught none of the Seahawks 6-3 win over the Bears. I had the Bears +3.5 in my home picking pool, so that was good. Also, I should have used the Ravens in Circa (easiest money of all time), but I didn’t have time to get the Christmas Day games in before submitting.

• Seems like players are dropping like flies now. I had to drop CeeDee Lamb for KaVontae Turpin in the Steak League, and half the league including Malik Nabers, Jalen Hurts, Tyreek Hill, Jaylen Waddle, A.J. Brown, Davante Adams, Tee Higgins, etc. are missing practices and/or questionable to play. Just a war of attrition at this point.

• Maybe Mike Tomlin had to switch to Russell Wilson after Justin Fields’ substandard play, but it would have been better for the Steelers to have developed Fields and found out. Wilson gives them no upside whatsoever.

• Isiah Pacheco is hurt again. It was only a matter of time before he fell apart, given his insanely hard running style. Marion The Barbarian 2.0.

• Xavier Worthy has come on of late. I wanted Brian Thomas in my Dynasty League, but he went one pick before me, so I settled on Worthy who might yet be worthy.

• Travis Kelce was wide open on at least four throws, like the Steelers didn’t bother covering him. Very odd.

• The Chiefs have locked up the No. 1 seed at 15-1 after a Wednesday game. Which means they have 11 days off until a rest-your-starters game in Week 18, and two weeks off after that due to the bye. This team is like the 1972 Dolphins in that no one thinks it’s the greatest of all-time despite the record. If the Chiefs tried in Week 18, which they won’t, they could go 16-1 and become the only team besides the 2007 Patriots to win 16 regular season games.

• The Ravens win and Steelers loss also is perfect for the Chiefs because now the Ravens will almost certainly play the Bills in the Divisional Round. The Chiefs get a bye, then an easy home game and only have to beat the winner of the Bills-Ravens war in Arrowhead to get to yet another Super Bowl.

• Josh Allen makes heroic plays every game, but Lamar Jackson makes it look easy. I like the Ravens to make it to Arrowhead for the AFC Title game, even though the game will be in Buffalo.

• Derrick Henry now has 1,783 yards with one game to go and is averaging 5.8 YPC on the year, a career high. No doubt Hall of Famer.