What to know from NFL Week 17: Browns stun the Steelers to save Week 18

Never bet against the NFL’s capacity to produce drama. As the weekend dawned, it looked like the final week of the regular season would be a dud. After an unpredictable series of results, Week 18 will be chocked with high stakes: two winner-take-all divisional showdowns, a handful of teams playing for a first-round bye, another handful jockeying for playoff seeding.

Here’s what to know.

The Curse of Shedeur kept the Ravens alive

Last April, with a vacant future at quarterback, the Pittsburgh Steelers had three chances to select Shedeur Sanders in the NFL Draft. They declined at each juncture. The Baltimore Ravens reportedly wanted to take Sanders in the fifth round, but Sanders’s camp asked the Ravens to pass because he didn’t want to apprentice behind Lamar Jackson with little path to a starting job. They obliged.

Sanders instead went to the Cleveland Browns with the 144th pick, the Ravens eventually landed back on Tyler Huntley as their backup quarterback and the Steelers signed Aaron Rodgers and added defensive tackle Derrick Harmon, running back Kaleb Johnson and linebacker Jack Sawyer in the draft.

Eight months later, those machinations shaped Week 17. They allowed for a startling rejuvenation, a stunning upset and a revived showdown. A day after Huntley led the Ravens to a season-preserving victory in Green Bay, Sanders quarterbacked the Browns to a 13-6 shocker over the Steelers in Cleveland. On Christmas morning, it seemed likely Ravens-Steelers in Week 18 would be moot. Now, it will decide the AFC North and determine whether Rodgers and Mike Tomlin or Jackson and John Harbaugh will salvage their uneven season.

Sanders led a field goal drive on Cleveland’s opening possession, and on their second he lofted a 28-yard touchdown pass to rookie tight end Harold Fannin. Myles Garrett and coordinator Jim Schwartz’s ferocious defense handled the rest, holding the Steelers without a touchdown and limiting Rodgers to 168 yards on 21-for-39 passing.

Rodgers suffered without DK Metcalf, who served the first of a two-game suspension for his altercation with a fan in Detroit last week. He led the Steelers to the Cleveland 7-yard line on Pittsburgh’s final possession, but his final four passes — all to well-covered wideouts — fell harmlessly.

The Ravens stayed alive the night before with a 41-24 throttling of the Packers in which Huntley completed 16 of 20 passes and threw for a touchdown. After a week of withering criticism about his shelving of Derrick Henry in the fourth quarter of a pivotal home loss to the New England Patriots, Harbaugh both corrected his mistake and proved the criticism justified. Henry rushed for 216 yards and four touchdowns on 36 carries, furthering his dominance in the season’s final month: Henry has averaged 108.8 rushing yards in December games since 2019, the highest total in the NFL by more than 11 yards.

And so, the Steelers-Ravens rivalry will receive an unlikely chapter next week in Pittsburgh. A Ravens victory next week would even their records at 9-8, each with a head-to-head victory, and Baltimore would hold the tiebreaker in divisional games 4-2 to 3-3. Metcalf will remain sidelined. Jackson’s health after he missed Saturday night with a bruised back is in question, as it has been for most of the season. T.J. Watt may be able to return from a lung injury he suffered receiving a dry-needling treatment.

Both quarterbacks have fared poorly in recent postseasons. Both coaches need victories to settle uneasy fan bases. The storylines have been building for years, including a detour at last April’s draft that echoed Sunday afternoon.

The NFC South is up for grabs

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers got smoked by seventh-round rookie Quinn Ewers and the Miami Dolphins, closing the final gap to 20-17 only after a last-minute touchdown that became irrelevant after Tampa Bay couldn’t recover an onside kick. The embarrassing loss meant nothing to their playoff chances, though. They can still win the NFC South with a victory at home next week against the Carolina Panthers, who missed their chance to clinch in a 27-10 loss to the Seahawks in Charlotte.

Tampa Bay’s loss may not have knocked the Bucs out, but it reinforced their season’s death spiral. They have lost seven of eight and four in a row. Their lone victory during that slump came against the Arizona Cardinals, who are currently on an eight-game losing streak, by the score of 20-17.

Whether owing to injury or ineffectiveness, Baker Mayfield has become one of the worst quarterbacks in the NFL. Mayfield ended up with big stats Sunday, but 76 of his 346 passing yards came on Tampa Bay’s last drive, and his two interceptions were backbreakers. Since mid-October, Mayfield owns the sixth-worst EPA per dropback in the NFL, better than only Cam Ward, Geno Smith, Max Brosmer, Shedeur Sanders and Brady Cook. That’s the company Mayfield has kept for more than two months.

The Panthers beat the Buccaneers, 23-20, in Carolina two weeks ago. The Panthers have had a resurgent season in Coach Dave Canales’s second season, climbing back into contention for the first time in years. The rematch will determine whether they can wrest control of a division the Buccaneers have won four straight seasons.

Drake Maye is making a convincing MVP charge

One week after the first 300-yard passing game of his career, Drake Maye played a flawless game in the New England Patriots’ 42-10 destruction of the New York Jets. The Patriots scored touchdowns on all six of the possessions Maye played, building a 42-3 lead that allowed Maye to exit one possession into the third quarter, removing any injury risk with the playoffs looming. On Maye’s 48 plays, the Patriots gained 26 first downs.

Maye completed 19 of 21 passes for 256 yards and five touchdowns. His 157.0 quarterback rating fell 1.3 points shy of perfect, which makes you doubt the validity of quarterback rating. He improved his completion percentage to 71.7, which would rank sixth all-time in a single season.

Sitting out the final 23 minutes left Maye third in the NFL with 4,203 passing yards on the season, just ahead of Matthew Stafford, with whom he’s in a two-horse race for MVP. Stafford can answer Monday night against the Atlanta Falcons. But Maye, albeit against a hapless opponent, played the position as efficiently as it can be played Sunday.

The Jaguars have control of the AFC South

The Jacksonville Jaguars had been one of the NFL’s most impressive teams for the past two months, a fact they finally began to receive credit for after last week’s dominant victory at the Denver Broncos. They nearly squandered their momentum, trailing in Indianapolis for most of Sunday afternoon before Trevor Lawrence rallied their Jaguars for their seventh consecutive victory, a 23-17 win that moved them to 12-4.

The Jaguars have already won 12 games for the first time since 2005. Their victory Sunday meant that Jacksonville can clinch its first division title since 2022 with a home victory next week over the 3-13 Tennessee Titans.

They have yet to fully shake the surging Houston Texans, who held on against the Los Angeles Chargers on Saturday and won, 20-16, for their eighth consecutive victory. The Texans have the best defense in the NFL by any tangible measure, and quarterback C.J. Stroud has been playing better as rookie wideouts Jayden Higgins and Jaylin Noel have emerged. Even if the Texans settle for a wild card, they’re a dangerous team.

There’s shakiness beneath Seattle’s dominance

With a victory next week, the Seahawks will claim the No. 1 seed in the NFC. They have been dominant this season behind Coach Mike Macdonald’s ruthlessly complex defensive system. Wideout Jaxon Smith-Njigba has become one of the best offensive skill players in the NFL. Even with a victory, though, the Seahawks would enter the playoffs with two queasy questions hovering. Can they rely on big plays and defensive takeaways over three rounds against the NFC’s best teams? And can Sam Darnold be trusted?

The Seahawks may not have enough offense to compete among the NFL’s elite. That may seem like an overstatement two weeks after they scored 38 points against the powerhouse Los Angeles Rams, but upon inspection that performance rings fluky. They scored eight of those points on a punt return, seven on a 55-yard run and eight in overtime. Eight of their 13 possessions ended with a punt or turnover.

Seattle’s offense hits lulls even at its best. The Seahawks scored 37 points against the Falcons in Week 15, but had just 6 at halftime. In their 27-10 victory over Carolina, the Seahawks were tied at 3 at halftime. It’s impressive they can wear opponents down and create advantageous situations for their offense with their defense and special teams. But Darnold, who has 14 interceptions and 10 fumbles this year, faltered last year in the postseason. Teams can’t expect to manage around their quarterback in the playoffs. At some point, the Seahawks will need to rely on Darnold. It’s an open question whether they can.

It’s also worth noting that Rashid Shaheed, a midseason trade acquisition who’s been a special teams weapon, suffered a concussion in the first half Sunday, an injury to watch when the playoffs arrive.