Welcome to the Thursday edition of the Pick Six newsletter!
If there's one event on the NFL calendar that most fans weren't even aware of, it's the NFL's winter league meeting. The annual meeting usually flies under the radar because it doesn't usually produce a lot of news, but that was NOT the case this year.
The NFL's 32 owners got busy on Wednesday and we'll be covering everything they approved, including the addition of a regular-season game in Brazil for 2024 (Note to self: You now have six months to convince someone at CBS to send you to this game).
Besides the international stuff, we'll also be previewing the Thursday night game in today's newsletter, plus we'll be unveiling the vote tally in our latest MVP watch.
As always, here's your daily reminder to tell all your friends to sign up for the newsletter. To get them signed up, all you have to do is click here. Let's get to the rundown.
1. Today's show: Two former NFL players break down the latest NFL news
For today's episode of the "Pick Six NFL" podcast, we brought on two former NFL players to break down all of the latest NFL news: Brady Quinn and Leger Douzable.
Host Will Brinson joined them during Thursday's show, and the three of them had an interesting conversation about the recent report involving Bill Belichick. According to NBC Sports Boston, the Patriots have already made the decision to move on from Belichick after the season and they made that decision after New England's loss in Germany back in Week 12.
With all reports indicating that Belichick won't be returning in 2024, Quinn doesn't think it will be because the coach gets fired. Nope, Quinn thinks, in the end, Belichick will get traded.
"I feel like there will be some suitors, so they're not going to fire him, they're going to trade him," Quinn said of the Patriots. "They have to work together to make that trade happen. We know the end is coming. ... I think it's a new beginning for the Belichick with a team like the Chargers."
Whether Belichick gets fired or traded, Douzable thinks the Patriots will be making the right decision by moving on from him after 24 seasons.
"I think we saw the writing on the wall [with this]," Douzable said the Patriots and Belichick going their separate ways. "Teams don't usually last that long with one head coach. He's had a heck of a run there. Sometimes, it's just time to move on. I think the 'Patriot Way' is not what it used to be anymore. It's time for them to restart in with that franchise and bring in some new blood."
If you want to hear their full thoughts on the situation, then be sure to click here so you can listen to today's episode. The three guys also made some predictions for tonight's game between the Chargers and Raiders. If you prefer your podcasts in video form, you can also watch today's episode on YouTube by clicking here.
2. Thursday night preview: Prepping you for Chargers at Raiders
With both of these teams sitting at 5-8, the loser of tonight's game will essentially be eliminated from the playoff race while the winner will be able to keep a small, sliver of postseason hope alive. Both teams are dealing with a lot of injuries going into the game, but the Chargers arguably have it worse with both Justin Herbert and Keenan Allen out tonight. With no Herbert, that means we'll be getting a QB battle between Easton Stick and Aidan O'Connell.
My good buddy Jared Dubin put together CBS Sports' deep-dive preview for this game, and here's how he sees things playing out:
- Why the Chargers can win: Although the Chargers won't have Herbert or Allen, they will have Austin Ekeler and that might be the one guy that could help them steal a win in Las Vegas. The Raiders are surrendering 127.4 yards per game on the ground this year, which ranks 25th in the NFL, which means there should be room for Ekeler to run. If the ground game gets going, that will take pressure of Easton Stick and open the door for a win. The Chargers will also need a big game from their defense. The magic number for them has been 300 this season: When the defense surrenders less than 300 yards this year, the Chargers are 4-0 and that includes a 24-17 win over the the Raiders back in Week 4 (The Chargers are 1-8 when their defense surrenders more than 300 yards).
- Why the Raiders can win: When these two teams met back in Week 4, Aidan O'Connell was making his first start of the season and things didn't exactly go well for him (He got sacked seven times). However, going into this game, not only does he have more experience under his belt, but he gets to face a Chargers defense that has surrendered the fourth-most passing yards in the NFL this year. If O'Connell can take advantage of that, the Raiders should be able to walk away with a win.
You can get a full preview of the game from Dubin by clicking here.
You cant also read SportsLine.com's full preview of the game by clicking here.
If you're thinking about betting on the game, here's one prop I like:
- ONE PROP I LIKE: Austin Ekeler OVER 78.5 rushing AND receiving yards. With Easton Stick starting at QB for the Chargers, I feel like he's going to play it safe tonight and playing it safe would be dumping it off to the running back. Also, the Raiders have one of the worst run-stopping defenses in the NFL, so I also expect Ekeler to thrive on the ground. He totaled 100 yards in Sunday's loss to the Broncos and I feel like he'll get near that number again tonight.
My prime-time prop record is 20-12 this year.
Finally, if you're wondering who we're picking, here's who we have tonight:
Jared's pick: Raiders 17-10 over Chargers
My pick: Raiders 17-13 over Chargers
You can see who all of our experts are taking over on our CBSSports.com picks page. The Raiders are currently a three-point favorite and six out of eight of our experts are taking them to win straight up.
3. NFL headed to Brazil: Five things to know from the league's winter league meeting
The NFL's 32 owners got together in Dallas on Wednesday and here are five things you need to know from the meeting:
- NFL is headed to Brazil. For the first time in league history, the NFL will be playing a regular-season game in Brazil. The game, which will take place in 2024, will be held at Corinthians Arena in São Paulo. There will be a total of five international games on the 2024 schedule with three in London, one in Munich and one in Brazil. The NFL has said that the designated teams for the Brazil game will be announced in "early" 2024, which means we should know who's playing before the schedule comes out in May.
- NFL makes major change to international scheduling formula. For the past two years, there have been a total of five international games, but that number will be jumping up to nine starting in 2025 (eight games plus the Jaguars' London game). Under the current international scheduling formula, every NFL team is required to "host" at least one international game every eight years, but starting in 2025, all teams will be required to host an international game at least once every four years, which means that your favorite team will now be going abroad more often.
- Super Bowl LVI awarded to Los Angeles. The Super Bowl will be returning to SoFi Stadium in February 2027. The building also hosted Super Bowl LVI, which means Los Angeles will only be going five years between Super Bowls. Although that's a short gap, Miami actually had a shorter one when it hosted Super XLI and Super Bowl XLIV. With L.A. now hosting, that means the next four Super Bowl locations are set: Las Vegas (2023 season -- Super Bowl LVIII), New Orleans (2024 -- Super Bowl LIX) and Santa Clara (2025 -- Super Bowl LX) will all be hosting before the game heads to L.A.
- NFL to review controversial fumbling through the end zone rule. After the season, the league will be taking a look at the rule that takes away possession from the offensive team if they lose a fumble out of the defensive team's end zone. Under current rules, a fumble out of the end zone by an offensive player is a touchback that gives possession to the other team. A lot of people hate that rule, but I'm not one of them. I actually think they should keep the rule around.
- The kickoff could be undergoing a change. NFL executive vice president of football operations Troy Vincent made it sound like the kickoff as we know it could be on its way out, calling it a "a dead ceremonial play" on Wednesday. Roger Goodell didn't go that far, but he did say that the league is "going to have to innovate" to make the play safer.
The "Tush Push" is also expected to be reviewed this offseason, but it didn't sound like the NFL was thinking about banning the play.
The NFL owners will now go their separate ways until their next meeting in March.
4. MVP Watch: Lamar Jackson cracks the top five in our ranking
From now until the end of the season, we'll be taking a weekly look at the MVP race, but we'll be doing it with a twist. To give you an idea of how the voting might turn out at the end of the season, we're having 11 of our NFL writers here at CBS Sports turn in a ballot each week.
The 50 media members who actually vote on the award will each get to name up to five players on their ballot, so that's exactly how we handled the voting here.
Here's a look at our top five heading into Week 15, along with each player's point total. (A player got five points for a first-place vote, four points for a second-place vote and so on.)
1. Cowboys QB Dak Prescott (48 points)
2. 49ers QB Brock Purdy (36)
3. Dolphins WR Tyreek Hill (29)
4. 49ers RB Christian McCaffrey (22)
5. Ravens QB Lamar Jackson (22)
For the second straight week, Dak Prescott is on top. The biggest jump this week went to Lamar Jackson, who is now in our top five after being left out of it last week. A total of four different players received at least one first-place vote, including Jackson.
Prescott and Purdy were the only two players named on all 11 ballots. Overall, a total of eight players received at least one vote. If you want to see a full list of every player who got a vote, then be sure to click here.
5. Ranking teams under .500 by the chances they have of making the playoffs
No team wants to be under .500 at this point in the season, but 15 teams are currently dealing with that. To give those teams some hope, Doug Clawson decided to rank every sub-.500 team by their chances of making the playoff.
With that in mind, let's check out the top-five teams on his list:
- 1. Rams (6-7). "I'm riding the hot hand of Matthew Stafford and the Rams easy schedule in the next three games (Commanders, Saints, at Giants). Stafford, Kyren Williams, Cooper Kupp and Puka Nacua should carve up Washington's depleted defense on Sunday before winning against the Saints and Giants, enough to get them in the playoffs with nine wins."
- 2. Packers (6-7). "I expect the Packers and Rams to snag the last two wild card spots and for the Vikings to finish 1-3 and miss the playoffs after moving to Nick Mullens, their fourth starting QB of the season."
- 3. Buccaneers (6-7). "The Buccaneers are my pick for the least bad team in their division. If the three NFC South teams finish 8-9 then Tampa would win the tiebreaker. ... Who would have thought Baker Mayfield would start a playoff game after bouncing between four teams in the last year?"
- 4. Falcons (6-7). "The Falcons can set the pace in the NFC South wins over the Panthers and Colts in the next two games, but ultimately I think they'll lose road games in Chicago and New Orleans to finish the season with an 8-9 record at best."
- 5. Saints (6-7). "Entering the year I thought the Saints would be good enough to win the division with Derek Carr, but he's proven to be a downgrade from even Andy Dalton last year. New Orleans will probably split their final four games and finish 8-9 but lose the tiebreakers."
You can check out Clawson's full rankings here.
6. Extra points: Tom Brady to get roasted
It's been a busy 24 hours in the NFL, and since it's nearly impossible to keep track of everything that happened, I went ahead and put together a roundup for you.
- Date is set for Tom Brady's Netflix Roast. Back in May 2022, there was a report that Tom Brady would be the subject of a Netflix roast and we FINALLY know when that will be taking place. The "Greatest Roast of All-Time" will be going down on May 5. You can read more about it here.
- Justin Jefferson says he's playing this week. The Vikings receiver, who was briefly taken to the hospital on Sunday after taking a vicious hit, has made it clear that he plans to play on Saturday against the Bengals. Jefferson missed seven games with a hamstring injury before returning on Sunday against the Raiders.
- 2024 NFL Honors gets a host. Keegan-Michael Key will be hosting the "NFL Honors" show in February, marking the third time that he'll have hosted. The awards show, which is when the NFL reveals the winner of the MVP and all the other awards, will be televised live from Las Vegas on Feb. 5 and airing on CBS (9 p.m. ET).
- Browns lose two defensive starters to injuries. The hits keep coming for the Browns. The team has already been ravaged by injuries and now, they've also lost safety Grant Delpit, who has been placed on IR. Delpit, who's dealing with a groin injury, is the team's leading tackler. Defensive end Ogbo Okoronkwo could also be done for a few weeks after tearing his pec, coach Kevin Stefanski revealed this week.
