Latest news with #Week16
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Here's how and why Brock Purdy might win an NFL MVP award this season
NFL MVP doesn't necessarily go to the best player. It didn't last year. There are certain factors that make predicting NFL MVP easier. It's very likely going to a quarterback, as it has each of the last 12 years. It will go to a player whose team makes the postseason; only twice has MVP gone to a player from a non-playoff team and it hasn't happened since 1973. So if you're really good at predicting who will make the playoffs, you can reasonably cut the field down to 14 players before Week 1 ever kicks off. Advertisement Because the award doesn't necessarily go to the best player, other factors are involved. Voters in all sports like to spread the award around to new winners. Narratives come into play. A good story, especially late in the season, can make the difference. And long before the season starts, San Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy checks a lot of those boxes. Brock Purdy's odds for MVP Purdy is not one of the favorites to win MVP at this point in the offseason. His odds to win are 28-to-1 at BetMGM, which ranks him 10th on the list. Lamar Jackson is the favorite at +600 and Josh Allen is right behind him at +650, which is understandable. Those two regularly put up monster numbers for very good teams. Advertisement But both have won an MVP. Jackson has won two, and that probably was a factor in him not beating Allen for MVP last season. Maybe someone new will win this season. Don't forget that Purdy almost won MVP a couple seasons ago. He seemed to have a slight lead over the field late in the 2023 season when the 49ers were rolling and he was putting up good numbers. But the Ravens came to California for a high profile Week 16 Monday night game late in the season, Jackson outplayed Purdy in a major way, Baltimore blew out San Francisco and that was the end of the MVP race. But Purdy was in position to win once already and it wasn't long ago. There's a path for Purdy to get back in that position late this season. Brock Purdy signed a five-year, $265 million deal with the 49ers this offseason. (Photo by) (Christian Petersen via Getty Images) 49ers have an easy schedule The first obstacle for Purdy, oddly enough, might be the 49ers making the playoffs. San Francisco has been one of the best teams in the NFL over the past few seasons, but it missed the playoffs last season. The 49ers went 6-11. However, oddsmakers aren't worried about the 49ers. They have a win total of 10.5, one of the largest in the NFL. Advertisement One of the biggest reasons for optimism is the 49ers have an advantageous schedule. The 49ers' schedule isn't just the easiest in the NFL this season, according to Sharp Football Analysis (which uses opponents win totals to project schedule strength, it's the easiest by a wide margin. That not only helps the 49ers in their quest to get back to the playoffs, it will probably help Purdy's numbers. Mostly MVP races are decided late in the season, and Purdy has an incredibly soft final stretch to the season. There's not one game the 49ers can't win over the last eight weeks, and they don't face a single defense that should scare anyone. Even better for Purdy, three of the games are in prime time. Nobody's MVP case has ever been hurt by winning games on Sunday or Monday night late in the season: Week 11: at Cardinals Week 12: vs. Panthers (Monday night) Week 13: at Browns Week 14: bye Week 15: vs. Titans Week 16: at Colts (Monday night) Week 17: vs. Bears (Sunday night) Week 18: vs. Seahawks If Purdy plays well down the stretch and the 49ers make the playoffs, the narrative part will come along too. The 49ers have lost some talent, and the newly-paid Purdy would be credited for carrying a lesser supporting cast into the playoffs. He'll put up good numbers, as he always does in Kyle Shanahan's offense. And he doesn't need to be a better player than Jackson, Allen or anyone else above him in the list. MVP doesn't necessarily go to the best player. We've seen that. Purdy could finish the season with the numbers, team success, narrative and newness on his side. That would have him in the MVP discussion. That's all you could ever ask from a 28-to-1 shot.
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Week 16 schedule contains odd glitch for the Saturday games
Earlier this week, Fox announced that it will televise a Week 16 Saturday doubleheader featuring the Packers at the Bears and the Eagles at the Commanders. The official schedule contains an odd glitch regarding those games. The version of the 2025 schedule currently shows that those games will happen on Friday, December 19. Advertisement Also, the official website schedule for each of the four teams contains a TBD as to the time AND the date of the Week 16 games. (For confirmation — and acknowledging the possibility they might change it before you click on it — here are the Eagles, Commanders, Packers, and Bears.) Again, there are other indications that the games are indeed set for Saturday, December 20. But if the use of "Friday, December 19" on the main schedule is a typo, it's a bizarre one. It wasn't the result of a misplaced finger; someone specifically picked Friday, December 19 as the date for those two games. While there's no reason to think the games will be played on Friday, it makes us wonder whether at some point the plan was to play the games (which supposedly will begin at 4:30 p.m. ET and 8:00 p.m. ET) on Friday. It meshes with the notion that, in time, the league will take even greater advantage of the fringes of the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961, which allows the NFL to televise games on Friday night and Saturday before the second weekend in September and after the second weekend in December. Advertisement Is it crazy to think that, as of last week, those games were going to be played on Friday night and that, after Senator Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) said in a committee hearing regarding the pivot from broadcasting to streaming that the NFL has "tiptoed up to the rule," the NFL decided to move the games from Friday to Saturday, which is the far more traditional spot for late-season non-Sunday games? Whatever the explanation, it's one of the very weird things we noticed when scouring over the schedule. And it could be a sign that, sooner than later, late-season Fridays will become the newest spot in the pizza into which the cheese is stuffed.
NBC Sports
15-05-2025
- Sport
- NBC Sports
Week 16 schedule contains odd glitch for the Saturday games
Earlier this week, Fox announced that it will televise a Week 16 Saturday doubleheader featuring the Packers at the Bears and the Eagles at the Commanders. The official schedule contains an odd glitch regarding those games. The version of the 2025 schedule currently shows that those games will happen on Friday, December 19. Also, the official website schedule for each of the four teams contains a TBD as to the time AND the date of the Week 16 games. (For confirmation — and acknowledging the possibility they might change it before you click on it — here are the Eagles, Commanders, Packers, and Bears.) Again, there are other indications that the games are indeed set for Saturday, December 20. But if the use of 'Friday, December 19" on the main schedule is a typo, it's a bizarre one. It wasn't the result of a misplaced finger; someone specifically picked Friday, December 19 as the date for those two games. While there's no reason to think the games will be played on Friday, it makes us wonder whether at some point the plan was to play the games (which supposedly will begin at 4:30 p.m. ET and 8:00 p.m. ET) on Friday. It meshes with the notion that, in time, the league will take even greater advantage of the fringes of the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961, which allows the NFL to televise games on Friday night and Saturday before the second weekend in September and after the second weekend in December. Is it crazy to think that, as of last week, those games were going to be played on Friday night and that, after Senator Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) said in a committee hearing regarding the pivot from broadcasting to streaming that the NFL has 'tiptoed up to the rule,' the NFL decided to move the games from Friday to Saturday, which is the far more traditional spot for late-season non-Sunday games? Whatever the explanation, it's one of the very weird things we noticed when scouring over the schedule. And it could be a sign that, sooner than later, late-season Fridays will become the newest spot in the pizza into which the cheese is stuffed.
Chicago Tribune
15-05-2025
- Sport
- Chicago Tribune
How the NFL navigates the scheduling puzzle with every game up for bid — and more broadcast windows
NBC Sports President Rick Cordella put it best when summarizing what the NFL's scheduling department goes through each year. 'I have five kids at home and you never satisfy them all. Just try and do your best, so I think it's a little bit of that,' Cordella said Wednesday afternoon after he had a chance to look at the 'Sunday Night Football' slate for the upcoming season. 'They have really, really hard jobs. I have no doubt. We're all campaigning. We're all leveraging. We all pay a lot of money for these rights and we all want the same thing.' One would think the job has gotten somewhat easier the past couple years as the league has come up with more broadcast windows, including making Christmas Day a permanent fixture. The trade off though is that this is the third year under the league's broadcast deals that all of the games are up for bid for every network. CBS remains the primary home of the AFC, with the NFC on Fox, but if there is a great NFC matchup during a week when CBS has the doubleheader, that game will end up on CBS. That is the case in Week 1 with Minnesota visiting Green Bay in the 3:25 p.m. spot. Hans Schroeder, the NFL's executive vice president of media distribution, said this year's rotation of the NFC North facing the AFC North and NFC East created a lot of favorable matchups to divide among all the network's broadcast partners. 'We love every schedule in May. Hopefully we love it in December too,' said Schroeder, who is in his second year leading the league's scheduling team. 'We have a lot of great matchups, and the flexibility of those new TV deals that every game could go into any widow, I think that's the key and to marry that with a team that is relentless in their effort, I think led to a fun and really great schedule.' Even though the league announced the release date during the first round of the NFL Draft on April 24, the schedule wasn't totally finalized until Tuesday. Because some of the games started to be announced on Monday during network upfront presentations to advertisers, those matchups were locked in on Sunday night. The biggest final-minute decision with the early announced games came with the Fox Week 16 Saturday doubleheader on Dec. 20. The league knew it wanted Packers vs. Bears and Eagles vs. Commanders, but didn't finalize the home teams until Sunday night. Chicago Bears 2025 schedule: A closer look at each game — and our writers' predictionsIf ever there was a year where the league could opt to move the Buffalo-Kansas City game from CBS to prime time, this was the one. However, the Week 9 matchup will again be on CBS and is the only 3:25 p.m. game on Nov. 2. Going into this season, Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen have faced each other nine times, including the playoffs. The first matchup in 2020 was on Fox with the rest being on CBS. 'To be documenting the story of these franchises and star quarterbacks, we're thrilled to keep telling it,' CBS Sports president and CEO David Berson said. CBS also got what could be the most-watched game during the regular season with Kansas City visiting Dallas on Thanksgiving Day. The most-watched Thanksgiving game was in 2022 when the New York Giants win over Dallas averaged 42.06 million on Fox. The Chiefs and Bills are both slated to have nine games on CBS. It is rare that a Super Bowl rematch airs on the network that carried the game, but Fox gets Kansas City visiting Philadelphia on Week 2 in the 3:25 p.m. window. Getting the rematch satisfied a couple of requests that Fox made to the league. The network wants more variety in its late afternoon window, and is also getting more quality matchups when the top AFC teams play on their network. 'We didn't want to be so reliant on the Dallas Cowboys. I think we hear complaints sometimes that fans feel like it gets a little bit monotonous that our 4:25 (EDT) window is dominated by one team,' said Mike Mulvihill, Fox Sports president, insight and analytics. 'We're certainly still going to have our share of Dallas games, but we're going to have some Philly in there too. We're also going to have Buffalo, Cincinnati, Kansas City, Detroit, Washington. I think it is pretty different than what you're used to seeing on Fox, and I think it's actually going to be a little bit better.' NBC not only has the Kickoff game between Dallas and Philadelphia on Sept. 4, it has the matchup between the last two NFL MVPs when Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens visit Allen and Buffalo on Sept. 7 on 'Sunday Night Football'. ABC will have 13 'Monday Night Football' games — 11 simulcasts with ESPN and two exclusive games. There will also be two MNF doubleheaders on Sept. 15 and Oct. 20. The Week 7 doubleheader will have the late game between Houston and Seattle streamed on ESPN+. 'Thursday Night Football on Prime Video' features all 14 playoff teams from last year as well as 10 divisional matchups. Prime Video concludes its regular-season slate with Denver at Kansas City on Christmas night. Derek Carr's retirement did not have any impact on New Orleans' schedule. The Saints were already in a rebuilding mode under new coach Kellen Moore and join Cleveland and Tennessee as the only teams not slated to make a prime time appearance. Pittsburgh is already a national brand, so the waiting game on if Aaron Rodgers suits up in black and yellow or who will be Mike Tomlin's quarterback also didn't have much of a factor. The Steelers — along with AFC North rivals Baltimore and Cincinnati — have four prime time games. However, in case Rodgers decides to sign with Pittsburgh, his Week 1 opponent will be at the New York Jets and former Steelers quarterback Justin Fields.
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
NFL continues to navigate scheduling puzzle with every game up for bid and more broadcast windows
NBC Sports President Rick Cordella put it best when summarizing what the NFL's scheduling department goes through each year. 'I have five kids at home and you never satisfy them all. Just try and do your best, so I think it's a little bit of that,' Cordella said Wednesday afternoon after he had a chance to look at the 'Sunday Night Football' slate for the upcoming season. 'They have really, really hard jobs. I have no doubt. We're all campaigning. We're all leveraging. We all pay a lot of money for these rights and we all want the same thing.' One would think the job has gotten somewhat easier the past couple years as the league has come up with more broadcast windows, including making Christmas Day a permanent fixture. The trade off though is that this is the third year under the league's broadcast deals that all of the games are up for bid for every network. CBS remains the primary home of the AFC, with the NFC on Fox, but if there is a great NFC matchup during a week when CBS has the doubleheader, that game will end up on CBS. That is the case in Week 1 with Minnesota visiting Green Bay in the 4:25 p.m. EDT spot. Hans Schroeder, the NFL's executive vice president of media distribution, said this year's rotation of the NFC North facing the AFC North and NFC East created a lot of favorable matchups to divide among all the network's broadcast partners. 'We love every schedule in May. Hopefully we love it in December too,' said Schroeder, who is in his second year leading the league's scheduling team. 'We have a lot of great matchups, and the flexibility of those new TV deals that every game could go into any widow, I think that's the key and to marry that with a team that is relentless in their effort, I think led to a fun and really great schedule.' Down to the wire again Even though the league announced the release date during the first round of the NFL Draft on April 24, the schedule wasn't totally finalized until Tuesday. Because some of the games started to be announced on Monday during network upfront presentations to advertisers, those matchups were locked in on Sunday night. The biggest final-minute decision with the early announced games came with the Fox Week 16 Saturday doubleheader on Dec. 20. The league knew it wanted Packers vs. Bears and Eagles vs. Commanders, but didn't finalize the home teams until Sunday night. Bills vs. Chiefs remains on CBS If ever there was a year where the league could opt to move the Buffalo-Kansas City game from CBS to prime time, this was the one. However, the Week 9 matchup will again be on CBS and is the only 4:25 p.m. game on Nov. 2. Going into this season, Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen have faced each other nine times, including the playoffs. The first matchup in 2020 was on Fox with the rest being on CBS. 'To be documenting the story of these franchises and star quarterbacks, we're thrilled to keep telling it,' CBS Sports president and CEO David Berson said. CBS also got what could be the most-watched game during the regular season with Kansas City visiting Dallas on Thanksgiving Day. The most-watched Thanksgiving game was in 2022 when the New York Giants win over Dallas averaged 42.06 million on Fox. The Chiefs and Bills are both slated to have nine games on CBS. Hello again It is rare that a Super Bowl rematch airs on the network that carried the game, but Fox gets Kansas City visiting Philadelphia on Week 2 in the 4:25 p.m. EDT window. Getting the rematch satisfied a couple of requests that Fox made to the league. The network wants more variety in its late afternoon window, and is also getting more quality matchups when the top AFC teams play on their network. 'We didn't want to be so reliant on the Dallas Cowboys. I think we hear complaints sometimes that fans feel like it gets a little bit monotonous that our 4:25 window is dominated by one team,' said Mike Mulvihill, Fox Sports president, insight and analytics. 'We're certainly still going to have our share of Dallas games, but we're going to have some Philly in there too. We're also going to have Buffalo, Cincinnati, Kansas City, Detroit, Washington. I think it is pretty different than what you're used to seeing on Fox, and I think it's actually going to be a little bit better.' Under the lights NBC not only has the Kickoff game between Dallas and Philadelphia on Sept. 4, it has the matchup between the last two NFL MVPs when Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens visit Allen and Buffalo on Sept. 7 on 'Sunday Night Football'. ABC will have 13 'Monday Night Football' games — 11 simulcasts with ESPN and two exclusive games. There will also be two MNF doubleheaders on Sept. 15 and Oct. 20. The Week 7 doubleheader will have the late game between Houston and Seattle streamed on ESPN+. 'Thursday Night Football on Prime Video' features all 14 playoff teams from last year as well as 10 divisional matchups. Prime Video concludes its regular-season slate with Denver at Kansas City on Christmas night. No late surprises Derek Carr's retirement did not have any impact on New Orleans' schedule. The Saints were already in a rebuilding mode under new coach Kellen Moore and join Cleveland and Tennessee as the only teams not slated to make a prime time appearance. Pittsburgh is already a national brand, so the waiting game on if Aaron Rodgers suits up in black and yellow or who will be Mike Tomlin's quarterback also didn't have much of a factor. The Steelers — along with AFC North rivals Baltimore and Cincinnati — have four prime time games. However, in case Rodgers decides to sign with Pittsburgh, his Week 1 opponent will be at the New York Jets and former Steelers quarterback Justin Fields. ___ AP NFL:
