Week 16 Reactions: Future Coming Into Focus

As usually happens after Week 16, the playoff picture got a lot clearer Sunday night, as a number of teams cemented their postseason spots or coughed away chances to play meaningful football in January.

Let's start in the NFC. The league's toughest division, the NFC South, became a two-horse race after the Saints downed the Falcons 23-13, while the Panthers kept pace by squeaking one out against the Buccaneers, 22-19. Curiously, neither teams' star rookie running back was a big factor in the victories. Alvin Kamara had what was by his standards a down game, managing "only" 90 yards from scrimmage – although his seven catches kept his fantasy value afloat in PPR – while Christian McCaffrey was nearly invisible, putting together only 58 YFS. In fact, few of the high-powered fantasy assets involved in those games did much. Mike Evans did top 100 receiving yards for the first time all season, but Tampa's only TD went to Bobo Wilson on his first career NFL catch. In the Superdome, Julio Jones hauled in 149 yards in a losing effort, his fourth 100-yard game of the year – a disappointing number for a player who had 25 of them over the previous three seasons.

Atlanta's still holds their fate in their hands for a wild-card spot, however. Their 9-6 record is identical to Seattle's, as the Seahawks effectively ended the Cowboys' season in an ugly 21-12 victory in Dallas, but the Falcons' Week 11 win gives them the head-to-head tiebreaker between the two clubs, meaning Atlanta is in the "win and they're in" position. It's easier said than done, though. They'll have to beat Carolina next week to do it, otherwise they'll need the Cardinals to somehow upset the 'Hawks in Seattle. That may not be quite as impossible as it seems. Russell Wilson had a terrible game Sunday, throwing for only 93 yards, but he did lead the team in rushing with 29 yards and tossed TDs to his two favorite targets, Jimmy Graham and Doug Baldwin. The Seahawks defense also showed signs of life, sacking Dak Prescott four times and getting a pick-six from Justin Coleman. To give you an idea of how bad both teams played here, Seattle became the first team since 1966 to win a game with more penalty yards (142) than yards on offense (136).

The other top NFC seeds all held serve in Week 16, pending Monday's Eagles game. The Vikings kept the heat on Philadelphia with a 16-0 win Saturday at Lambeau Field, while the Rams took care of business, barely, with a 27-23 road victory over the Titans, a game which potentially featured Todd Gurley sewing up his MVP case with 118 rushing yards, 158 receiving yards and two receiving scores – including a spectacular 80-yard romp on a screen pass in the second quarter. That Tennessee loss, combined with Baltimore's win Saturday, also shook up the AFC wild-card race. The Ravens now sit in the fifth seed, while the Titans cling to sixth with an 8-7 record that's matched by the Chargers after their 14-7 snoozer over the Jets. Marcus Mariota had another shaky performance – his 275 passing yards were his most since Week 11, but a 7.1 YPA was nothing special and he failed to generate a touchdown for the second time in the last three games. DeMarco Murray also suffered a knee strain in the game, which could put Derrick Henry firmly in the spotlight next week against the Jaguars. Jacksonville could potentially be locked into the No. 3 seed after falling victim to Jimmy Garoppolo and the 49ers on Sunday, so the Titans might luck into facing a team intent on resting key personnel before the playoffs, but if the Steelers falter in the early Monday game against the Texans and the Jags have a shot at a first-round bye in Week 17, Tennessee instead might need to rely on the Raiders downing the Bolts in Los Angeles to back into the postseason.

Jimmy GQ, by the way, has to be considered the real deal at this point. Matched up against what was by far the best defense he's seen since taking over the QB spot for San Francisco, he posted an 8.1 YPA along with 242 passing yards and two TDs, making him 4-0 as a Niner. Tom Brady understudies don't have a great track record outside of the Patriots' system, but Garoppolo seems to have found one just as much to his liking with Kyle Shanahan, assuming the pending free agent returns to the bay in the offseason with a fat new contract in hand. Give him an offseason and preseason to get further acclimated to Shanahan's dynamic playbook, and the weapons GM John Lynch might bring in a via a draft class that features an early first-round selection and an extra third rounder thanks to the Mitchell Trubisky swap, and Garoppolo could be flying off 2018 fantasy draft boards. His counterpart Sunday, Blake Bortles, did a good job of turning back the clock – and in his case, that's not a good thing. He fired up 382 yards and two touchdowns but also got picked off three times, bringing back memories of all that garbage-time production he supplied in years past. The Jags may have won their first division title since 1999, but they won't get far in the playoffs with this version of Bortles under center.

At the top of the AFC postseason rankings, the Patriots had an opponent's touchdown overturned on replay for the second straight week, this time in an even more inexplicable decision, although it was hardly the difference in a 37-16 romp over the Bills. Brady once again was fairly quiet, throwing for only 224 yards while letting Dion Lewis (153 YFS, two touchdowns) and Mike Gillislee (43 YFS and a rushing TD on seven touches) do most of the damage, but the future Hall of Famer did toss two TDs, matching his total from the previous three games combined. Assuming they take care of business next week at home against the Jets, the road to the Super Bowl in the AFC will run through Foxboro.

The Chiefs also punched their ticket to the playoffs with a convincing 29-13 win over the Dolphins. Kareem Hunt was once again the star of the show, topping 100 yards from scrimmage for the third straight game and scoring his fourth touchdown during that stretch, while Tyreek Hill hauled in over 100 yards and Travis Kelce found the end zone. Alex Smith also threw for over 300 yards for the fifth time this year, not bad for a guy who only had six such performances in 141 games coming into 2017. Kansas City's defense held Kenyan Drake in check, while the only Miami receiver to make a splash was little-used Jakeem Grant, who pulled down 107 yards and a TD after coming into the game with 70 career yards.

Let's not neglect the other end of the standings. The Browns and Giants locked up the No. 1 and No. 2 spots in the 2018 draft, respectively, saving themselves the trouble of trading up to try and get the young franchise quarterback both teams desperately need. Cleveland didn't put up much of a fight in the snow in a 20-3 loss to the Bears, with DeShone Kizer tossing two more picks, while Eli Manning's crew got blanked 23-0 by lowly Arizona. It was the Cards' first shutout since 1992 against, yup, the Giants, although Eli's off the hook for that one – Kent Graham got the start for New York. Larry Fitzgerald also become the oldest player in league history to post a 100-catch, 1000-yard season with Sunday's performance, catching nine passes for 119 yards and a TD – a fitting swan song if this was indeed the final home game of his career.