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Happy New Year and welcome to 2026, football fans! Also, welcome to the final weekend of NFL regular-season football. Two playoff spots, four division titles and the No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft are all for the taking in Week 18.
Before breaking down the best matchups of Week 18, we’ve lined up some essentials:
- Predictions and point spreads for every Week 18 game
- Playoff picture and clinching scenarios for Week 18
- Head coaches on the hot seat
➤ On tap for New Year’s Day: ‘Thursday Night Football’ is done for the season. Instead, there’s a tripleheader of College Football Playoff games to feed your football appetite. If you’d like to read more about that, subscribe to our ‘Path to Playoff’ college football newsletter. From an NFL perspective, these games will be good to keep an eye out for future draft prospects, most notably those in the Rose Bowl, which features projected No. 1 pick Fernando Mendoza.
➤ Game of the week: Seattle Seahawks at San Francisco 49ers — Winner gets the NFC West and home-field advantage for the playoffs. For the 49ers, that would mean not leaving the friendly confines of Levi’s Stadium through Super Bowl 60, since the NFL’s championship game will be held in Santa Clara. The last time these two teams met was in Week 1, with the 49ers prevailing. That was a lot of football ago, so please take a moment to take a deep breath and ponder all that has happened since then.
➤ Just going to rank some games I’m interested in watching without giving much context:
- Baltimore Ravens at Pittsburgh Steelers
- Carolina Panthers at Tampa Bay Buccaneers
- Miami Dolphins at New England Patriots
- Los Angeles Chargers at Denver Broncos
- New Orleans Saints at Atlanta Falcons
Ravens-Steelers is a winner-take-all, loser-goes-home-sad showdown for the AFC North; the Browns made this possible. Thank you, Cleveland! The Falcons assured that Panthers-Buccaneers won’t be a winner-take-all matchup for the NFC South. The Dolphins will look to play spoiler as the suddenly allegation-riddled Patriots still have a shot at the AFC’s top playoff seed. In order for New England to earn home-field advantage, the Broncos will have to lose to the Trey Lance-led Chargers. Depending on what happens in the Panthers-Buccaneers game, the Saints-Falcons game could actually factor into the playoff picture.
➤ Dud of the week: Kansas City Chiefs at Las Vegas Raiders — It’s been a decade or so since the Chiefs would even be considered for ‘Dud of the week’ status. It’s been that bad in Kansas City. All that is at stake in this one is draft positioning, with the Raiders in the driver’s seat for the No. 1 overall pick in April’s annual selection meeting.
HOT READS
The best NFL reads from USA TODAY and our Sports Network:
Despite losing consecutive games, the Los Angeles Rams remain the top team in the latest power rankings. Let Nate Davis explain why.
It’s the final week of the NFL regular season, which means ‘Black Monday’ is just around the corner. Michael Middlehurst-Schwartz names the head coaches on the hot seat going into Week 18.
The NFL is chaos … glorious chaos, writes Nancy Armour, and that’s why the league is king among sports leagues in this country.
Myles Garrett isn’t the only player chasing a record in the season’s final week.
Here’s how Tyler Dragon sees the rest of the season – through Super Bowl 60 – playing out.
The Pro Football Hall of Fame revealed the 15 modern-day player finalists for the class of 2026.
RACE FOR NO. 1 PICK IN 2026 DRAFT: RAIDERS’ SELECTION TO LOSE
Here is a look at which teams hold top-10 picks in the 2026 NFL Draft going into Week 18:
- Las Vegas Raiders (2-14)
- New York Giants (3-13)
- New York Jets (3-13)
- Tennessee Titans (3-13)
- Arizona Cardinals (3-13)
- Washington Commanders (4-12)
- Cleveland Browns (4-12)
- New Orleans Saints (6-10)
- Cincinnati Bengals (6-10)
- Kansas City Chiefs (6-10)
ON THIS DAY IN NFL HISTORY
59 years ago today, on Jan. 1, 1967, the matchup for Super Bowl I – then referred to as the first AFL–NFL World Championship Game (so catchy, don’t understand why the league didn’t keep it ) – was decided as the Green Bay Packers and Kansas City Chiefs won their respective league championship games.
In the American Football League title game, the Chiefs defeated the two-time defending AFL champion Buffalo Bills, 31-7, at War Memorial Stadium (queue up George Carlin’s iconic baseball vs. football monologue: ‘War. Memorial. Stadium.’). Chiefs running back Mike Garrett scored two touchdowns, and defensive backs Johnny Robinson and Emmitt Thomas each had interceptions as the Chiefs prevailed.
In the National Football League title game, the Packers defeated the Dallas Cowboys, 34-27, in the first of back-to-back championship game thrillers between the two teams, as Vince Lombardi’s Packers dynasty matched up with the rising force that would become ‘America’s Team.’ This one took place at the Cotton Bowl, where the Cowboys came within 2 yards of a tying score on the game’s final moments. Instead, on a fourth-and-goal play, Packers linebacker Dave Robinson made the game-saving play, getting to Cowboys quarterback Don Meredith, whose pass was intercepted by Tom Brown.
Two weeks later, the Packers easily dispatched the Chiefs, 35-10, in Super Bowl I at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
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