January 12, 2026
Bill Streicher/Imagn Images
Nick Sirianni tried nothing this season, and he's all out of ideas.
The first round of the NFL Playoffs is in the books, and the reigning NFL champs have officially been dethroned. We have three new obituaries, for the Carolina Panthers, Green Bay Packers, and, of course, the Philadelphia Eagles.
During the regular season, it was really hard to know what you were going to get from the Panthers on a week-to-week basis. Sometimes they were very bad, as they lost six games by double-digit points. Other times, they'd beat teams like the Rams or Packers, and they looked like they belonged.
I thought their loss to the Rams in the Wild Card Round was sort of a microcosm of their season. On the one hand, they simply made way too many unforced or boneheaded errors. Off the top of my head:
• WR Jalen Coker stopped on a route and a Bryce Young pass was intercepted as a result.
• Young had a super easy little dump down to Chuba Hubbard that would have likely gone for big yardage on a 3rd and 3, but they couldn't connect, and had to punt.
• Punt returner Trevor Etienne had a punt bounce off his facemask, and the Rams recovered.
• Young threw the ball away on a 4th down instead of at least heaving up some kind of desperation throw and giving a receiver a chance to make a play.
• With a four-point lead on the Rams' final drive, the Panthers played a soft-shell defense they hadn't played all game, and Matthew Stafford easily picked it apart for a game-winning TD drive.
• Young was unable to connect with an open Jimmy Horn on the game-ending play. Horn dropped it, but it was also a bad throw from Young.
Those were just some examples, but there were more.
And yet they also made their share of really impressive plays as well, like this gorgeous touch pass from Young to Jalen Coker for a late go-ahead lead.
Had the Panthers been in any other division, their season would've been over a week ago, and they would have faded into offseason obscurity, as usual. But, because they played in the wretched NFC South, they got to play one last game, and hey, it was a frisky, entertaining game that gave the Rams a scare.
The Panthers still have a long way to go before they'll be legitimate Super Bowl contenders, and there's a pretty good chance they won't even be favorites in their own crappy division next season. But for one day, they played a relevant game and nearly knocked off one of the Super Bowl favorites, which is more than we've been able to say about this franchise for a very long time. I suppose if we're factoring in typically rock bottom expectations, it was a successful Carolina season.
Prior to the Packers' devastating loss to the Bears in the Wild Card Round of the playoffs, there was some reporting that the Packers and head coach Matt LaFleur would be negotiating a contract extension.
Lol, what?
LaFleur's tenure in Green Bay started off well enough. In his first three seasons (2019-2021) he was 39-10 (0.796) during the regular season, but he only won two playoff games during that span and did not make it to a Super Bowl.
The Packers missed the playoffs in 2022, and then were the 7 seed in each of the three seasons from 2023 to 2025. Of course, if the NFL hadn't expanded the playoff field to 7 teams per conference in 2020, the Packers would now be on four straight seasons not even qualifying for the playoffs.
In 2025, following their trade for Micah Parsons, the Packers entered the season as favorites to represent the NFC in the Super Bowl. They did suffer a few bad injuries along the way — including to Parsons himself — but they lost their final five games, the last of which was a devastating meltdown in which they blew an 18-point lead to their most hated rival.
And you know what? They deserve every last bit of it. When Roger Goodell decided he didn't like the Tush Push anymore, he got the Packers to be the face of the movement to ban it this past offseason. The Packers were complicit because they didn't want to have to stop the play on the field, so they tried to stop it off the field, and failed anyway. The football gods noticed and handed down one of the worst possible endings to their season.
The Eagles' offense:
• QB Jalen Hurts: 2 Pro Bowls, 1 All-Pro, 1 MVP runner-up, 1 Super Bowl MVP
• RB Saquon Barkley: 3 Pro Bowls, 1 All-Pro, 1 NFL Offensive Player of the Year.
• WR A.J. Brown: 3 Pro Bowls, 3 All-Pros
• LT Jordan Mailata: 1 All-Pro
• LG Landon Dickerson: 3 Pro Bowls
• C Cam Jurgens: 2 Pro Bowls
• RT Lane Johnson: 6 Pro Bowls, 5 All-Pros
There are only four players without any postseason decorations who start for the Eagles' offense, and two of them are DeVonta Smith and Dallas Goedert.
Is this the most decorated offense in the NFL? It's certainly the most expensive.
And sure, it's true that some – maybe all (?) – of the above players underperformed individually in 2025. Even so, it's unfathomable that a coaching staff could make a collection of players that talented look as bad as the offense did this season.
If they were only league average – which would have been an incredibly low bar – this team could have won another Super Bowl.
Instead, this coaching staff took what could have been a budding dynasty and turned it into a conservative hitch route snooze fest that was difficult and boring to watch all season. Congrats to fans around the NFL (and Eagles fans, for that matter), who don't have to tune into any more Eagles games this season.
Heads have to roll.
4) 49ers (13-5): The Niners were missing their best edge rusher, their top four linebackers, and they lost George Kittle to a torn Achilles in the first half in Philly. They found ways to get a few explosive plays on offense, and their injury-devastated defense was able to hold the Eagles' bulls*** offense to fewer than 20 points.
They'll be heavy underdogs in Seattle next weekend, but credit them for winning a playoff game with a whole lot of backups, as they have all season.
Last week: 5
3) Bears (12-6): Caleb Williams will miss a half dozen easy throws throughout a game, and then do something like this:
That's gotta be the biggest throw of the season, right? It was certainly the biggest play in the Bears' semi-miraculous comeback, of which the Bears have had many this season. ESPN "win probability" fun:
• In Week 4 against the Raiders, the Raiders had an 80.7 percent chance of winning with 9:04 left in the fourth quarter.
• In Week 6 against the Commanders, the Commanders had an 84.1 percent chance of winning with 11:27 left in the fourth quarter.
• In Week 9 against the Bengals, the Bengals had an 85.9 percent chance of winning with 42 seconds left in the fourth quarter.
• In Week 10 against the Giants, the Giants had a 96.9 percent chance of winning with 5:35 left in the fourth quarter.
• In Week 11 against the Vikings, the Vikings had a 75.1 percent chance of winning with 50 seconds left in the fourth quarter.
• In Week 16 against the Packers, the Packers had a 98.8 percent chance of winning with 4:26 left in the fourth quarter.
• In the Wild Card Round against the Packers, the Packers had a 95.4 chance of winning with 6:36 left in the fourth quarter.
The Bears won all of those games. In chart form:
| Bears opponent | Time left | ESPN win probability | Result |
| Week 4: Raiders | Q4, 9:04 | 80.7% Raiders | Bears W |
| Week 6: Commanders | Q4, 11:27 | 84.1% Commanders | Bears W |
| Week 9: Bengals | Q4, 0:42 | 85.9% Bengals | Bears W |
| Week 10: Giants | Q4, 5:35 | 96.9% Giants | Bears W |
| Week 11: Vikings | Q4, 0:50 | 75.1% Vikings | Bears W |
| Week 16: Packers | Q4, 4:26 | 98.8% Packers | Bears W |
| WC: Packers | Q4, 6:36 | 95.4% Packers | Bears W |
They're this year's Commanders. I would advise that they don't sign three dozen washed 30-somethings this offseason.
The Bears did suffer a couple of bad injuries against the Packers, losing LT Ozzy Trapilo and LB T.J. Edwards for the season.
Last week: 3
2) Rams (13-5): If you watched the Rams-Panthers game, you know that Matthew Stafford hurt his hand, when his follow-through hit a Panther defender's helmet. You might also be aware — since Greg Olsen mentioned it about 50 times — that Stafford was better in that game before the injury than he was after it.
X-rays came back negative, so Stafford will be good to go in the Divisional Round against the Bears, but it will be interesting to see if he is affected by it.
The Rams' path to the Super Bowl remains difficult, very likely requiring three road games to get there:
• WC: At Panthers ✅
• DIV: At Bears
• NFCCG: At Seahawks?
If they make as many mistakes the rest of the way as they did in Carolina, they're not going to make it.
Last week: 2
1) Seahawks (14-3): It was looking for a minute like the Seahawks earned the 1 seed only to have to play the Rams in their first playoff game. But nope. The Eagles did them a HUGE favor by no-showing against the Niners and instead setting up a Seahawks-49ers rematch.
And if you'll recall, the Seahawks absolutely obliterated the Niners a couple weeks ago to earn the 1 seed in the playoffs, and now the Niners are even more banged up than they were for that game.
It's looking like Seattle could have a relatively easy path to Santa Clara.
Last week: 1
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