That's a wrap on the 2019 regular season. The league has to be happy with the play of some teams with nothing to play for (Miami, Giants), somewhat protecting the integrity of things, even with Houston and Baltimore resting players. And you couldn't have asked for a better game than the final Sunday night matchup. Let's get to it.
Falcons at Bucs: Falcons win on a walk-off pick six, Jameis Winston's 30th interception of the season. You can't make this stuff up. 100-yard game for Ronald Jones, though he lost two fumbles. Decent PPR numbers for Falcons receivers, great game for Breshad Perriman, who seems likely to sign as a starter elsewhere.
Dolphins at Patriots: Shocking that the Patriots lost this game, and that Ryan Fitzpatrick and DeVante Parker pretty much by themselves were able to break down this great pass defense and get a win. Don't underestimate what a huge difference it is for the Patriots to be going into the playoffs without a bye. Not that they can't win on the road, but it's a lot tougher for them. Kudos to the Dolphins. I didn't see it coming.
Bears at Vikings: Do we need to discuss this eyesore? Mike Boone had the huge game some of us were looking for last week, in nobody's lineup this week. Bears fans...I'm not sure. Looking forward to next season? Great job featuring David Montgomery, finally, in a meaningless Week 17 game. Sean Mannion did not make himself some money in his spot start.
Chargers at Kansas City: Kansas City took care of business and earned a first-round bye. Damien Williams had the kind of game a lot of us drafted him for in the second or third round this year. Little late for that, but yay for him. Austin Ekeler caught 9 passes for 43 yards, finishing 7 yards short of a 1,000-yard receiving season. Ouch. I like Philip Rivers so I'm curious whether the Chargers will actually move on, and where he might wind up. Hunter Henry and Keenan Allen with touchdowns, no Kansas City receivers did much.
Packers at Lions: Shockingly, the David Blough-led Lions almost won this one. Maybe they would have had Kenny Golladay not been knocked out with a concussion. Aaron Rodgers, Aaron Jones and Davante Adams all did enough to get Green Bay the win and the week off. Detroit continued with its running back committee, at least Kerryon scored if anyone actually started him.
Browns at Bengals: There were some reports that winning this particular meaningless game might have in some way affected Freddie Kitchens' job status. Pretty far-fetched, but losing it no doubt didn't help. Big game for Joe Mixon, touchdowns for Landry and Beckham, good game for Baker Mayfield, will be nice for the new coach to see. Bengals perhaps inspired by the great college quarterback they'll be drafting a few months from now.
Saints at Panthers: Oh hey, Saints win in a blowout. They did a little more via the pass than I expected, but they got their good rushing numbers, Christian McCaffrey got his 1,000 receiving yards, Chris Johnson's yards from scrimmage record is safe (that one might stand for a while I think). Carolina's offense awful of course. Touchdowns for Jared Cook, TreQuan Smith and Taysom Hill (some super tackling on that one). A couple more scores for Alvin Kamara, too late for everyone pal!
Jets at Bills: So yeah. Low-scoring dud. Jets gave LeVeon Bell a lot of work but also got him off the field early and healthy. Bills didn't use anyone important for long, so Duke Williams had a big game. Moving on.
Cardinals at Rams: Well, the Rams surprised us by playing it straight with all their starters. Sorry about that, lesson learned. A frustrating team this year, the Rams, which on its best days was better than a couple of NFC playoff teams, but that team didn't show up each week. Will be interesting to see how they change things in the offseason -- clearly the offensive line needs to be better. For the Cardinals, a reasonable question is how early to draft Kyler Murray next year. Can he be 2020's Lamar Jackson? Certainly he was a pretty good 2019 quarterback, fantasy and otherwise. They need to fix that defense if they're going to win anything, though.
Raiders at Broncos: Remarkable how close the Broncos were to being an 11-5 type of team. Seriously; they lost a lot of last-second games on field goals and whatnot, and their offense was considerably better once they set aside Joe Flacco. We weren't particularly optimistic about Drew Lock (no one was; 2nd-round pick), but he did pretty well down the stretch and a year two leap is not out of the question. Maybe the 2nd-best team in the AFC West next year, this year too actually. Raiders should be in the market for a wideout, as usual, and secondary help.
Eagles at Giants: Announcers spent a lot of time gushing about how impressive the Eagles were overcoming all their injuries. Yawn. Every team had injuries, and had the Eagles not played in a joke of a division they wouldn't have made the playoffs. They should get their ticket punched by Seattle right quick. Don't get me wrong, I probably think higher of Carson Wentz than a lot of people. But: 9-7 team. Big deal. Apparently the Giants' decision-makers were split on whether to bring Shurmur back, but have fired him. If you're unsure whether to fire someone or not, probably time to swing the axe. By the way: Boston Scott. I never understood why the Saints let him get away a preseason ago. He would have been a nice Kamara handcuff.
Colts at Jaguars: This was the only game I picked wrong in a Pick Sixem competition of picking six NFL games against the spread this week. Jacksonville having canned Doug Marrone, I figured they'd sleepwalk through things and go quietly into the offseason. Instead they scored 38 points, albeit without much of the production going to breakout DJ Chark. Marlon Mack had his big game, as expected. Jacoby Brissett...I don't know. He's no Andrew Luck, so one wonders if the Colts will try to bring in some competition.
Titans at Texans: Last week I was looking at NFL rushing stats and seeing where Nick Chubb was as far as leading the league. He was far enough ahead of Derrick Henry that I didn't even consider Henry catching him. And yet he did. What a year for him, which can be appreciated by anyone who wasn't counting on him for Week 16 Super Bowls; he sat out that one. Houston didn't care about this game and understandably rested key starters. Tennessee will not be an easy out for New England next week.
Washington at Cowboys: Cowboys put up huge numbers. I guess they're not going to bring back Jason Garrett and I can't really fault them, but I don't think it's a given Jerry Jones hires a better coach, either. Probably some college coach yes man. Washington is apparently going to hire Ron Rivera. Key will be finding an offensive coach who can properly bring along Dwayne Haskins.
Steelers at Ravens: Baltimore winning this game even without their key starters was not a total shock. The Steelers just didn't have much going for them on offense and knew there was zero chance of Tennessee losing to a Houston team that sat Deshaun Watson. Pittsburgh gets Ben Roethlisberger back next year, presumably, but needs to figure out something else on offense they can count on -- they don't have it right now, at running back or receiver. Feels like a team that should be rebuilding.
49ers at Seahawks: A great game that came down to the final play. I was rooting for San Francisco mostly out of a sense of it not feeling right that they'd have to enter the playoffs as a 5th seed after beating both would have been bye teams, Green Bay and New Orleans. San Francisco is good, Seattle will be a tough out in the playoffs. All four teams just mentioned are going to be interesting in January, while the Eagles and Vikings should make quick and ugly exits (though I guess Philly will be competitive next week, since Seattle's defense isn't very good). San Francisco has some impressive playmakers on offense. Imagine if they'd saved the money they wasted signing Jerick McKinnon and Tevin Coleman the last two offseasons.
And that's the season. We'll be talking a lot about the playoffs this week, but my first guess is that a San Francisco-Baltimore Super Bowl that many are expecting looks likely. Maybe Green Bay, New Orleans or Kansas City sneaks in, but will be tough to beat either top seed at home. I guess that's what everyone figures most years, though, so you never know. Feel free to weigh in with your upset picks below.