ClutchPoints
Week 15 of the NFL season was a banger, with close, high-profile matchups across the board. The Atlanta Falcons got things started on Thursday night with an incredible comeback to beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and shake up the NFC South race.
On Sunday, the Bills staged an epic comeback to beat the Patriots while the Chargers officially extinguished the Chiefs’ playoff hopes. In the afternoon, the Saints upset the Panthers to continue the carnage in the NFC South while the Rams made a statement against the Lions, the Broncos established themselves as contenders with a win over the Packers, and Philip Rivers played football for the first time in five years.
In prime time, the Cowboys and Dolphins both suffered disastrous losses that all but ended their respective playoff hopes, so there was a lot to digest from Week 15. Who came out of the wreckage as winners and losers?
The quarterback class from the 2024 NFL Draft has been a bit of a mixed bag to this point in their first two seasons. Jayden Daniels and Drake Maye are established as franchise quarterbacks, with Maye emerging as an MVP candidate in 2025. Caleb Williams has also cemented himself as a franchise QB under Ben Johnson after a rocky rookie year.
Outside of that, Michael Penix Jr. had an up-and-down season before a knee injury ended his second season prematurely. JJ McCarthy has struggled with injuries, and Bo Nix has struggled with inconsistency even while playing with a very good Broncos roster.
On Sunday, both Nix and McCarthy played the best games of their young careers. Nix led the Broncos to a big win over the Packers with a stellar day, finishing 23-for-34 for 302 yards and four touchdowns. His red-zone playmaking was the difference in the game for a Denver team that has now won 11 games in a row and is in the driver’s seat for the No. 1 seed in the AFC.
Later that night, McCarthy carved up the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday Night Football, rebounding from an early interception to put up 250 yards and three total touchdowns on just 24 attempts.
If both Nix and McCarthy can keep playing this way, the 2024 class could end up being one of those legendary draft classes that defines the league for years to come.
An epic Sunday slate was unfortunately marred by injuries to star players all across the league.
First, Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes went down with a devastating torn ACL near the end of Kansas City’s loss to the Los Angeles Chargers. The star signal-caller had already been playing through a left knee injury for a while, and Sunday proved to be too much for the three-time Super Bowl champion’s body. He already had successful surgery and has started rehab, but this injury will likely keep him out of the offseason program and could bleed into...
