Week fifteen of the 2025 NFL season is over and two huge injuries last week potentially impacted the playoffs as a pair of superstars were sidelined with torn ACLs. Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes and Green Bay Packers edge rusher Micah Parsons both exited their respective games.
The Chiefs were eliminated from the AFC Playoff picture and Green Bay saw the Chicago Bears retake first place in the NFC North. Those injuries have a huge impact on 2025 and also 2026.
Of course, that was just a small part of week fifteen.
The week had kicked off with the reeling Buccaneers losing to playoff-eliminated Falcons on Thursday. Fortunately for Tampa Bay, the Carolina Panthers decided they didn’t want the pressure of first place in the NFC South and they lost to the Saints.
Denver beat the Packers while the Chiefs lost to the Chargers. The Bears crushed Cleveland while the Jaguars went out and demolished the Jets and cost defensive coordinator Steve Wilks his job.
Buffalo came back from a 21-0 deficit in Foxboro to beat the Patriots and make things interesting in the AFC East. The Ravens shut out the Bengals and Washington hurt their draft position holding off the Giants.
A second shutout saw the inept Raiders fail to put up a point against the Eagles. The Rams held off the Lions in a high score thriller, and the 49ers outpaced the Titans. The Vikings crushed the Cowboys playoff hopes and the Steelers ended the Tua Era (error?) in Miami.
Now onto this week’s games to see if we can top the drama and action of week fifteen (but maybe leave the big, season-ending injuries behind).
Thursday Night Football features the Rams and Seahawks in a showdown for first place and potentially the first round bye in the NFC. Amazon Prime may have hoped before the season for a big game in week sixteen, but with Seattle and Los Angeles alternating between each other for the most impressive team in the league.
Saturday afternoon in the early window is a game that looked great before the season started but turned into a potential dud with the NFC East leading Eagles going to Washington. Saturday night has another great game with the NFC North leading Bears hosting the Packers in a rematch of the Packers win two weeks ago.
Sunday’s early window has a battle for supremacy in the NFC South with the Bucs visiting the Panthers. The Bills go to Cleveland and the Chargers visit the Cowboys as the two AFC second-place teams need to win to keep up the pressure on the division leaders.
The rest of the early window games are battles for draft positioning with the Bengals facing the Dolphins, the Jets visiting New Orleans, Minnesota in the wilds of New Jersey to face the Giants and the Kansas City and Gardiner Minshew visiting the Titans.
The later window has two of the most disappointing teams of the NFC, the Falcons and Cardinals, facing off in the desert. The Jaguars visit Denver in a potential AFC Championship Game preview. The Steelers go to the motor city to take on the Lions and the Raiders’ horrible offense are in Houston to face the Texans’ mighty defense.
Sunday Night Football features a flexed game with the Patriots headed to Baltimore to face Lamar Jackson and the Ravens.
The week wraps up on Monday Night Football with the 49ers visiting Indianapolis to take on Grandpa Rivers and the Colts.
Each week during the season, I make my picks with my buddy David on his SportsKrunch with DKrom podcast as we’ve done regularly for the past five years (and pre-pandemic as well).
Check out this week’s episode as we recapped week thirteen, handed out our weekly awards and aired our grievances, played “Truth or Exaggeration”, and of course all the game predictions and prognostications with our bold predictions--it is available here.
Please give a listen each week on your preferred podcast provider. All back episodes are available here at Apple podcasts.
Last Week: Straight up: 10-6; Against the Spread: 6-10
Season Totals: Straight up: 141-82-1; Against the Spread: 104-119-1
Lock of the Week: 11-4
Upset Special: 4-12
Now, on to the week sixteen picks!
2025 NFL Week 16 Picks
THURSDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL
RAMS 17 @ SEAHAWKS 16
Spread: Rams -1.5: Seahawks
Moneyline: Rams -115, Seahawks -105: Rams
O/U: 44.5: Under
(edit: I was right about the close game and Seattle covering the spread, but I expected both defenses to allow fewer points.)
SATURDAY
EAGLES 30 @ COMMANDERS 17
Spread: Eagles -6.5: Eagles
Moneyline: Eagles -285, Commanders +230: Eagles
O/U: 44.5: Over
PACKERS 22 @ BEARS 24
Spread: Packers -1.5: Bears
Moneyline: Packers -130, Bears +110: Bears
O/U: 46.5: Under
SUNDAY 1:00PM
BILLS 30 @ BROWNS 9 (LOCK OF THE WEEK)
Spread: Bills -10: Bills
Moneyline: Bills -550, Browns +410: Bills
O/U: 42.5: Under
CHARGERS 27 @ COWBOYS 24
Spread: Cowboys -1.5: Chargers
Moneyline: Cowboys -112, Chargers -108: Chargers
O/U: 49.5: Over
CHIEFS 20 @ TITANS 19
Spread: Chiefs -3.5: Chiefs
Moneyline: Chiefs -192, Titans +160: Chiefs
O/U: 37.5: Over
BENGALS 31 @ DOLPHINS 21
Spread: Bengals -1.5: Bengals
Moneyline: Bengals -125, Dolphins +102: Bengals
O/U: 50.5: Over
JETS 10 @ SAINTS 17
Spread: Saints -4.5: Saints
Moneyline: Saints -218, Jets +180: Saints
O/U: 40.5: Under
VIKINGS 19 @ GIANTS 21 (UPSET SPECIAL)
Spread: Vikings -3: Giants
Moneyline: Vikings -142, Giants +120: Giants
O/U: 43.5: Under
BUCCANEERS 20 @ PANTHERS 23 (OT)
Spread: Buccaneers -3: Panthers
Moneyline: Buccaneers -148, Panthers +124: Panthers
O/U: 45.5: Under
SUNDAY 4:05/4:25PM:
JAGUARS 20 @ BRONCOS 24
Spread: Broncos -3: Broncos
Moneyline: Broncos -155, Jaguars +130: Broncos
O/U: 45.5: Under
FALCONS 30 @ CARDINALS 27
Spread: Falcons -2.5: Falcons
Moneyline: Falcons -135, Cardinals +114: Falcons
O/U: 47.5: Over
STEELERS 17 @ LIONS 30
Spread: Lions -7: Lions
Moneyline: Lions -310, Steelers +250: Lions
O/U: 51.5: Under
RAIDERS 6 @ TEXANS 30
Spread: Texans -14: Texans
Moneyline: Texans -1450, Raiders +850: Texans
O/U: 38.5: Under
SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL:
PATRIOTS 22 @ RAVENS 18
Spread: Ravens -3: Patriots
Moneyline: Ravens -148, Patriots +124: Patriots
O/U: 48.5: Under
MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL:
49ERS 30 @ COLTS 13
Spread: 49ers -6: 49ers
Moneyline: 49ers -258, Colts +210: 49ers
O/U: 46.5: Under
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