Wild Card Weekend Power Ratings

We talked this out a bit on the podcast the other day, but for the most part, it’s difficult to use week 18 data. You could say, “Well, I’ll use it only for teams that were trying.” This isn’t really black and white, plus you end up with games where one team has something to play for, and the other doesn’t.

You have backup QBs, resting players, lame duck coaches, etc. Honestly, this extends back to week 17 as well, and I downweighted some results because of that.

I’ve always bet the playoffs much more on matchups, experience, and maybe even a little form rather than pure power number adjustments.

Most of this week’s moves were adjusting the teams that played backups (PHI, GB, LAC, BUF) and trying to account for injuries as we head into the final couple of days of practice. In fact, there’s not a ton to learn about these teams 5 months into the season, most of the rest of the week is just continuing to look at the in-game matchups and, of course, monitoring injuries:

• LA Rams: Safety Quentin Lake returning?

• Carolina: Guards Robert Hunt and Chandler Zavala

• Green Bay: OT Zach Tom and WR Dontayvion Wicks

• Chicago: WRs Odunze and Moore, CB Kyler Gordon

• Buffalo: Bunch of defenders: Hairston, Lewis, Poyer, Bernard, Jones, Milano

• Jacksonville: Cole Van Lanen and Patrick Mekari

• San Francisco: LB Dee Winters and Luke Gifford, OT Trent Williams and WR Ricky Pearsall

• Philly: LANE JOHNSON! Nakobe Dean, Jalen Carter, Dallas Goedert

• LA Chargers: Omarion Hampton, CB Donte Jackson

• New England: Harold Landry, Jared Wilson, Robert Spillane, Khyiris Tonga

• Houston: Kamari Lassiter

• Pittsburgh: Pretty damn healthy

This afternoon, we’ll touch on all six games and where our money is going this weekend. 3 PM ET, live on YouTube and later uploaded as a podcast.