It may be Christmas week, but the NFL won’t be taking any kind of Holiday break. The league will hold Week 17 games on Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday – multiple gifts for fans, not so much for the players, especially those on the Kansas City Chiefs and Baltimore Ravens (both teams had Yuletide duty in 2023 as well).
A year ago, K.C. used a Christmas loss to the lowly Las Vegas Raiders to ignite their latest Super Bowl run. This year, the Chiefs can lock up a first-round bye and home-field advantage … by beating the Steelers in Pittsburgh on Wednesday. That game will be followed by the Ravens’ visit to Houston, where they’ll face the Texans and maybe catch part of Beyoncé’s halftime show.
The final Thursday night game of the year is less appealing, but the Seattle Seahawks will likely have to beat the Chicago Bears to keep their NFC West title hopes alive. If not, the Los Angeles Rams could clinch the division Saturday by beating the Arizona Cardinals. The LA Chargers and Denver Broncos can also secure wild-card bids Saturday.
That makes for a light Sunday – just nine games – though the Green Bay Packers’ rematch with the Minnesota Vikings could be the game of the weekend … though the Vikes will have far more at stake given the Pack cannot win the NFC North at this point.
The Detroit Lions can win the NFC North (plus the conference’s No. 1 seed) – and might do so Monday night by beating the 49ers in Northern California … if Green Bay knocks off Minnesota first.
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USA TODAY Sports’ panel of NFL experts will attempt to guess what’s in the Week 17 packages before they get unwrapped …
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