Happy Monday and welcome to the long wait for football. No Saturday games this week and nothing but coaching news and draft speculation to keep us occupied. A few nuggets before I launch into the initial prep for the weekend.

• The Bears appear to be close to finalizing a deal with Seattle OC Shane Waldron to become their new OC

• The Lions signed tight end Zach Ertz to help bolster a position they are thin at

• The Eagles moved on from both men who called the defense this season.

• Ron Rivera is interviewing for the Eagles DC job

• Mahomes-Kelce have now hooked up for more playoff TDs than Brady-Gronk

Championship Weekend Odds

We talked a bit about it at halftime, but I’m likely still a little too low on Kansas City (even with some adjustments, I’m closer to five points). I suppose I was high on Baltimore last week as well. Not sure I saw anything in that one that makes me want to downgrade them at all though!

Baltimore is not only very healthy and likely getting Mark Andrews back into the fold, but they are working with the largest possible rest advantage this week having played the early game on Saturday while Kansas City just finished their game like 12 hours ago. Kansas City traveling for the 2nd straight week plus the net rest disadvantage has to count for something.

Similarly, the 49ers will have the extra day to prep compared to the Lions, who will have to travel for the first time in the playoffs now. The real fly in the ointment is the Deebo injury though. San Francisco is the rare team that has multiple non-QB offensive players that probably matter to the spread, CMC being the other.

We’ll be getting together at 7 pm EST tonight to talk out everything we saw over the weekend and discuss our fair prices for the Championship games.

Snap bets: if you FORCED me, I’d currently lay it with both favorites, the under in Baltimore and the over in the Bay. I’ll see if Drew and help me adjust my fair prices a bit tonight or Wednesday on the podcast.

Injury Updates

This gets easier every week with fewer teams. Maybe the only positive for the Bills losing (I was rooting for them) is not having to sort through their extensive list of injuries again.

Lions

• Guard Jonah Jackson seems like an extremely long shot to play (knee). Kayode Awosika filled in at LG vs the Bucs.

• Tight End Brock Wright will almost certainly miss the NFC Championship as well, he was wearing a sling after the game. The Ertz signing says a ton about how bad this arm injury was.

• Frank Ragnow was beaten up a little during the game. I’d expect him to possibly miss/be limited a bit this week (but still play)

• DE James Houston ended up on the inactive list despite being activated off the IR. I’m assuming he’ll need to show a bit more in practice this week to be included on the NFCCG roster

• WR Kalif Raymond is one more name to watch. Donovan Peoples-Jones has been returning punts while he’s been out.

• Sam LaPorta seems to continue to improve. He was in on 64 snaps this week (36 routes run) compared to 45 vs the Rams (22 routes run).

49ers

• Deebo’s shoulder reportedly is not fractured. Likely be more updates this afternoon.

• Dre Greenlaw went into the game questionable but obviously played and made an impact.

Chiefs

• Guard Nick Thuney hurt his pec and will get an MRI today. Nick Allegretti filled in for him yesterday.

• LB Willie Gay hurt his neck and kept him out for most of the game

• CB Mike Edwards has a concussion

• Other names to watch for this week: Kadarius Toney, Derrick Nnadi, Charles Omenihu

Baltimore

• The team was quoted as “sticking to the timeline” with Mark Andrews. He has been practicing and the timeline seems to point to this week. I hope he plays, but will wait for confirmation.

• Marlon Humphry hasn’t played since hurting his calf on Dec 31st and missed practice again all week heading into the Texans game. No updates, but if he can get some limited time in this week it’d be pretty massive.

Quick Weather Peek

Not looking like anything super impactful this weekend with winds forecasted to be pretty calm. Still worth keeping an eye on as we go!

Baltimore

It’s way too early to really worry but, there will be some decent chances of rain this Sunday. Game is a 3:00 pm local kickoff.

San Francisco Santa Clara:

Looks nicer than what we had on Saturday. The game kicks off at 3:30 pm PST.

Tomorrow: a look at the remaining coaching openings in the NFL and the early hypothetical Super Bowl Lines.