Sky Sports' Neil Reynolds has the final word on Week 18 in the NFL, picking out his five big takeaways, player of the week and more; the Buffalo Bills beat the Miami Dolphins to clinch a third-straight AFC East title, while Trevor Lawrence and the Jacksonville Jaguars miss the playoffs
Wednesday 10 January 2024 14:57, UK
The playoff field is finally set: 14 teams remain on the road to Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas. And there are so many storylines to follow after the final weekend of the regular season served up headline after headline...
I want to start with Jordan Love, who has just been sensational down the stretch for the Green Bay Packers, guiding his team into the playoffs with a win against the Chicago Bears on Sunday.
Love, in the last eight games, has been arguably the best quarterback in the NFL. The stage doesn't look to big for him; he has thrown 18 touchdown passes to just one interception over that span and has truly come alive at the right time of the year.
Green Bay were floundering earlier this season, but Love has since caught the eye, looking like a veteran at the position. He can make every throw in the book... and the Packers have gone from 31 years of Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers right into another quality quarterback in Love. I can't wait to watch him in the playoffs.
Another first-year starter at QB, this one a rookie. CJ Stroud is deservedly onto the big postseason stage with the Houston Texans... he is going to make this team relevant for many years to come.
It has been a sensational campaign for Stroud, throwing for more than 4,000 yards and leading the Texans to the playoffs for the first time since 2019. You can truly see the power of a quarterback with him, because Houston had won only 11 games combines across the previous three seasons, compared to their 10 wins this year.
Saturday night was the first time this season that the Texans had played in prime time, and what was scary was Stroud's very first pass was for 75 yards, down the field for a touchdown to Nico Collins, and he just turns around and gives his team-mates a look, as if to say, 'That's what I do'.
It wasn't all positive in Week 18. The Jacksonville Jaguars had it all there in front of them, requiring a win against a Tennessee Titans team just playing for pride - but, time and again, Jacksonville didn't take advantage of their opportunities.
Trevor Lawrence couldn't get over the goal line on a crucial fourth-down play, he missed a wide-open Calvin Ridley down the stretch, his last throw to Evan Engram went over his head.
It is so disappointing to see the way this team has finished the season. They have lost five of their last six, with Lawrence missing that lone victory, seeing him defeated in each of his last five starts. He wasn't very well protected this season - the offensive line has been an issue - but the Jaguars' collapse is also on Trevor. It's a stunning slide and their QB is very much culpable in it.
After all of the excitement about the Miami Dolphins this season, and all of the concern about the Buffalo Bills, it's ultimately business as usual in the AFC East, with the Bills crowned division champions for the fourth year in a row - and Miami heading on the road as a wild card team in the playoffs.
The Dolphins, due to injuries, feel like they're right where they were last year, and that's a shame... I really feel like they could have done something special this season were it not for being decimated by missing some key players.
Buffalo are far from perfect, but they know they can always rely on Josh Allen to rise up amid the chaos. That's when he thrives and makes the plays that makes them a dangerous team further into the postseason.
If Sunday was Bill Belichick's final game as head coach of the New England Patriots, it ended in the most miserable of circumstances - in abject misery, to just about sum up their 4-13 season.
It was a pitiful, pitiable exit - and I think it will be confirmed as an exit in the coming days. The snow was falling, it was freezing, and he watched on as his team lost 17-3 to the New York Jets, a team that he didn't want to coach back in the day - and a team that he'd beaten 15-straight times previously.
The man who has taken centre stage in our NFL lives for more than two decades didn't want to show us his face at the end of that game. He went out behind a ski mask... not wanting us to see the pain and suffering which I'm sure was there.
His legacy is cemented as the greatest coach of all time but that was a sad exit... and one that I think will make him want to bounce back somewhere else.
So much of the excitement with the Texans is centred around Stroud and first-year head coach DeMeco Ryans, but wide receiver Collins has really had to step up... and he's enjoyed a career year, with close to 1,300 yards receiving.
Collins is a player who can take the top off a defense, and he can run after the catch like a running back. Plus, he has really had to pick up the slack when Tank Dell was lost to a leg injury in the second half of the season.
In the Saturday night win over the Indianapolis Colts, Collins caught nine passed for 195 yards and a touchdown. That's no fluke! He also had nine for 191 and a TD against the Denver Broncos in early December.
I've picked Diontae Johnson's 71-yard touchdown for the Pittsburgh Steelers in their Saturday win over the Baltimore Ravens that kept their season alive, ultimately sending them into the playoffs.
It broke open a stale game that was quite literally stuck in the mud in horrible conditions in Baltimore, while it was also notable for being the biggest play given up by the Ravens defense all season and it was indicative of this much more watchable and explosive Steelers offense with Mason Rudolph at QB.
As I mentioned earlier, the Titans has nothing but pride to play for against the Jaguars but they really enjoyed their role of playing spoiler to Jacksonville's party.
It's a reminder that, despite the Titans firing him after their 6-11 season, Vrabel is still one of the best coaches in the NFL. He loves his players, he cares about them and he is always going to put out a competitive team - even if they are talent-deficient in other areas.
New England should rush to get him as the potential replacement for Belichick. Having won three Super Bowls there as a player, Patriots fans would bite your hand off for that opportunity.
Legacies are born, cemented and destroyed in the postseason, where there is no tomorrow. Everything is magnified.
And the opening round of the playoffs is certainly not going to disappoint when it comes to headlines. There's Joe Flacco and his Cleveland Browns travelling to Stroud's Texans... the 38-year-old having been sat on his sofa for the first half of this season and now chasing a second Super Bowl title!
Tyreek Hill is returning to Arrowhead Stadium with the Dolphins as they take on the Kansas City Chiefs, plus there's Mike McCarthy - head coach of the Dallas Cowboys and the man who was fired by the Packers in 2018 - hosting his former team. On top of that, you've got quarterbacks Matthew Stafford and Jared Goff, who swapped teams three seasons ago, facing off, with Stafford's Los Angeles Rams visiting Goff's Detroit Lions on Wild Card Weekend.
Everywhere you look there's brilliant games and wonderful storylines. I can't wait for everything to get started on Saturday night when the playoffs begin, live on Sky Sports NFL.
