With the Thanksgiving weekend wrapping up, and the calendar officially turning to December, the homestretch of the NFL season is approaching. Depending on your team’s outlook, some teams and fans have a lot to be thankful for as the holiday season is upon us, while others are turkeys.
Thankful: The reigning Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs have the most to be thankful for this holiday season. Not only do they have the most recent Lombardi trophy in their possession, but they’re also sporting an 11-1 record. Despite lacking a high octane offense of any kind and wins in dominant fashion, the Chiefs are still the champions until they’re dethroned. Their players, staff, and fans should be thankful for lucky breaks, mental miscues, and timely calls from the officials to help keep them atop.
There’s lots to be thankful for in Detroit. The most traditional Thanksgiving Day game host finally won at home on Turkey Day. The Detroit Lions squeaked past the Bears to improve to 11-1. It seems as though this could finally be the season where Detroit plays in a Super Bowl. On Thursday, the Lions looked like the Chiefs and all the great teams before them in ugly victories: play well enough to win a grind it out game, benefit from a break or two, and be the better team while allowing your opponent to mess up at the end.
As his former team flounders, there are a lot of reasons for Robert Saleh to be thankful. Not only do the Jets have to pay his buyout after firing him a handful of games into this season, but he is now a consultant with the Green Bay Packers. He went from a train wreck to a stable organization while still collecting the difference in his salary from the Jets. Less stress, a more relaxed role, a winning team, and a win Thanksgiving night.
Steelers fans should be thankful for head coach Mike Tomlin. Every button he’s pushing this year seems to be working.
Turkeys: The Matt Eberflus era came to a merciful end on Friday. He was fired one day after botching the Bears final 30 seconds in a 3-point loss at Detroit. It’s not right to celebrate someone losing their job, but Eberflus’ dismissal is not without its reasons. The Bears showed more patience than most would for such game mismanagement. In his final game as Chicago’s head coach, Eberflus’ team ran one play (a desperation throw in the final seconds) in the last half minute while keeping a timeout in their pocket. As confusing as it was in the moment watching a fan, the most perplexing part of it all may have been the expression on Eberflus’ face after Caleb Williams’ throw fell incomplete. The camera catching his blank countenance was a fitting closing shot.
The biggest turkeys in the league reside in New Jersey. After the biggest build up to a Jets season in recent memory, Gang Green is 3-9. Aaron Rodgers has done nothing to change the fortunes of a franchise that invested their present fully in him. The coach is long gone. The interim coach is over his head. The GM is fired. And the current day-to-day owner might be leaving the team when the new administration in Washington, D.C. takes office. Only the New York Jets can create such a mess.
Kirk Cousins should be thankful for the $180 million contract Atlanta awarded him in free agency, but to fans he may always be a turkey. Cousins threw four interceptions Sunday as the Falcons fell to 6-6 on the season. To the crier, Cousins has always been a pedestrian quarterback. To NFL owners, he’s been someone that should be weirdly paid top dollar for mediocre results. The saving grace is that the NFC South is so weak that the Falcons can still win the division in spite of Cousins’ inconsistent play.
