Turns out I was a little premature calling the weather “freezing” last Saturday, because the real cold is almost here. Which means we’ve hit that stretch of the NFL season when games stop being pretty. The ball becomes a brick, and the hits look even more painful. (I don’t know how these players do it. I’m so bad in cold weather that if you spend five minutes in my overheated car, you will sweat out every toxin in your body.)
Denver Broncos special teams coordinator Darren Rizzi is enjoying a well-earned bye after a wild weekend in which his unit beat the Kansas City Chiefs with blocked kicks, a game-winning field goal, dominant field position and long Marvin Mims punt returns — so he’s spending the weekend at his son’s college game (Miami at Virginia Tech). And when I quickly caught up with him on the phone, he told me what he tells his players this time of year:
“It’s officially special teams season.”
Why?
“It’s not glamorous, sure, but this is when disciplined teams use field position to grind out wins,” he said. “Possessions shrink; run games take over; every point becomes precious. We can make the difference.”
The Broncos are thankful for them.
This weekend, before Thanksgiving, as we talk about gratitude, let’s also be thankful for reaching this line of demarcation in every NFL season. Winter football is here. Now, we find out who can actually handle it.
Here’s what I’m hearing about:
Brandon Aiyuk, 49ers headed for a split
Burrow out, but close
A Sin City spotlight for Sanders
What a difference a year makes for one QB
A familiar Chiefs nemesis
Will Chicago’s “owner” return?
Needed reinforcements for the Bucs
Pardon my investigation
From Super Bowl to stunning schism
It’s been one of the biggest questions in NFL circles for the past month or more: What’s going on with 49ers wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk?
Now, we know.
As my colleague Michael Silver and I reported Friday, it appears the Niners and their star pass catcher are headed for a divorce, and that Aiyuk has likely played his final game for the franchise, despite repeated overtures from team officials and even players to try to bring Aiyuk back into the fold.
Aiyuk, who suffered a severe knee injury in October 2024, was expected to be back on the field by now. However, he has been absent from numerous meetings and other team activities throughout the season, leading the 49ers to void the 2026 guarantees (more than $25 million worth) in the four-year, $120 million deal he signed 15 months ago.
Aiyuk has chosen not to challenge this via an official grievance through the NFL Players Association.
It’s an incredible turn of events given where the 49ers were in February 2024 — playing in Super Bowl LVIII with a duo of star receivers (Aiyuk and Deebo Samuel) and on the verge of using their 2024 first-round pick on Florida wideout Ricky Pearsall.
Now, Samuel is in Washington, Aiyuk is in limbo and Pearsall, who survived a scary shooting incident shortly before the start of his rookie season, has been in and out of the lineup with various injuries during his short career.
With defensive stars Nick Bosa and Fred Warner sidelined by season-ending injuries, the 7-4 Niners need all the offensive might they can muster if they hope to mount a playoff run. It looks like running back Christian McCaffrey (who faces his former team, the Carolina Panthers, at Levi’s Stadium Monday night) and tight end George Kittle won’t have Aiyuk to help them carry the load down the stretch.
Bengals buying time for Burrow
Joe Burrow’s return to the starting lineup is close, but it won’t happen on Sunday.
Despite Burrow’s questionable designation for Sunday’s game against the New England Patriots, Joe Flacco will get the start, two league sources said. On Friday, Cincinnati Bengals coach Zac Taylor decided to give Burrow a few more days of rest with the hope he can be ready to go for Thursday night’s game against the Baltimore Ravens.
Going back to last month, the Bengals’ plan for Burrow was for him to return on Thanksgiving Day. It wasn’t a timeline they publicized, but it shows just how steady their internal confidence has been, even when no one on the outside was expecting such a quick return.
Taylor said Burrow, who was listed as a full participant in practice this week for the first time since surgery for a turf toe injury suffered in Week 2, did everything possible to put himself in a position to play this week. But with a short turnaround and a game looming on Thanksgiving night, Cincinnati is holding off.
By letting Burrow work with the first-team offense, he could build up valuable time with the starters. Flacco, who is nursing a sprained AC joint himself, is a veteran who doesn’t need the same practice time as a younger understudy. So, an experienced starter gets another nod, while Burrow reaps the rewards of extra practice reps without having to play twice in five days.
The only question is: Will Burrow’s return be too late to help save the Bengals’ dwindling playoff dreams?
Shedeur Sanders is turning his first start into a statement
Cleveland’s fifth-round pick, Shedeur Sanders, is set to make his first NFL start Sunday against the Las Vegas Raiders, one of the teams that repeatedly passed on him in the 2025 draft. Raiders minority owner Tom Brady, who has texted words of encouragement to Sanders in the past, was part of that decision.
Browns GM Andrew Berry made the selection and now, in late November, Sanders gets his chance. He took all the first-team reps on the field with Cleveland’s starters for the first time this week, and people inside the Browns building say there’s been a calm about Sanders that sticks out. Coaches and teammates have watched him roam the halls with his iPad under his arm, bouncing from meeting to meeting, stopping for extra one-on-one sessions with coach Kevin Stefanski. For a third-day pick who barely took reps earlier in the season, Sanders is, as one Browns player described it, “treating this start like a final exam he can’t fail.”
Shedeur Sanders will get his first NFL start against the Raiders after appearing in relief in a loss to the Ravens. (Nick Cammett / Getty Images)
One staffer told me they’ve seen him in the cafeteria, tray in front of him, iPad out, dissecting Raiders tape as if his career depended on it. Because, in many ways, it does.
Sanders has done everything possible to prepare, I’ve been told. He’s not in the league simply to fill a roster spot; he’s here to make a statement. Sunday isn’t just a first start. It’s Sanders’ opportunity to rewrite the narrative, and he’s determined to do just that — even if not many people believe he’ll be able to do it.
They chose … poorly
It was exactly one year ago: Nov. 22, 2024.
That day, Giants QB Daniel Jones and his representatives asked owner John Mara for his release after being benched, ending his time with the team that once made him its franchise quarterback. Fast forward 12 months, and Jones is staring down one of the most pivotal games of the season for his new team.
The leap from Big Blue castoff to Indiana Jones has been remarkable, and while the Giants are struggling this season, there’s still a contingent inside New York’s facility rooting for him and happy to see him thriving.
Colts QB Daniel Jones and defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo will face one of their biggest challenges of the season in Kansas City. (Michael Hickey / Getty Images)
Meanwhile, the Colts are expected to begin contract talks with Jones’ representatives this offseason to keep him as their starting quarterback moving forward.
The Colts, a half-game back of the AFC’s best record after their bye, will visit Kansas City on Sunday. The spotlight will be on the Chiefs, whose division aspirations are secondary to a more pressing problem: making the playoffs. And standing in front of them will be a familiar foe …
Kansas City’s kryptonite returns to Arrowhead
The cameras will be tight on Colts defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo’s face, like they always are when he faces Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce and the rest of the Chiefs offense. Anarumo was the defensive mind who last held Mahomes back from a Super Bowl berth when the Bengals stunned Kansas City in the 2022 AFC Championship Game.
Chiefs coach Andy Reid and Mahomes have told people around the league that there are two defensive minds they truly hate facing: Anarumo and Mike Vrabel.
For the Chiefs, the focus has been staying out of third-and-long situations and avoiding self-inflicted penalties. “The biggest thing for us is just play mistake-free,” a Chiefs source said.
If you want to understand how Anarumo approaches the Chiefs, forget the X’s and O’s for a second; his goal is to make this a gritty showdown.
The Colts plan to play tight man coverage and force Mahomes to work for every inch. Anarumo revels in keeping the Chiefs out of rhythm. He mixes looks — press, zone, disguised pressures — enough to keep Mahomes guessing.
The 59-year-old has made a habit of slowing down the league’s most dangerous offenses. And while this is a big game for Jones and the Colts, for Anarumo, who is expected to be in the running for head coaching opportunities with the New York Giants and the Tennessee Titans, Sunday isn’t just Week 12. It’s his real-time audition for a bigger job.
Could new-look Bears face an old-school foe?
Aaron Rodgers does not want to miss a chance to face the team he once claimed he owned, the Chicago Bears. As of Saturday morning, his availability for Sunday’s game in the Windy City remained uncertain.
Rodgers fractured a bone in his left wrist against Cincinnati, but he pushed through practice with added protection and looked steadier than some inside the building expected. There’s something fitting about this storyline unfolding at Soldier Field. Since becoming Green Bay’s QB1 in 2008, Rodgers has piled up more wins there than almost anyone — the third-most of any starting quarterback in that span. Including Bears QBs.
If Aaron Rodgers, left, can’t play against the Bears on Sunday, it will be Mason Rudolph time. (Harry How / Getty Images)
Rodgers keeps saying he doesn’t want to be the villain in Chicago anymore. But if he walks out of the tunnel Sunday and derails the Bears’ momentum, even while wearing Steelers colors, it’s going to reopen every old wound in that city.
If Rodgers can’t go, it’ll be Mason Rudolph running the show for Pittsburgh. He worked with the starters early in the week after stepping in against the Bengals when Rodgers went down. And for offensive coordinator Arthur Smith, this would be familiar territory: Rudolph could become the ninth different starting quarterback he’s won a game with since 2020.
Tampa Bay timelines
The Buccaneers’ ship has run aground after a 5-1 start. Tampa Bay is just 1-3 over the last month as it sails into Los Angeles battered, bruised and slightly ill, to take on the high-powered Rams. So when might reinforcements arrive?
A ravaged receiving corps is waiting on the return of Chris Godwin after he reinjured the fibula he fractured last season in Week 5 against the Seahawks. Two league source say he is expected to return for “Sunday Night Football.”
Bucky Irving (shoulder), who hasn’t been featured since Week 4, will not play Sunday night, but the team is hopeful to have its lead back again in the near future, most likely next week. In the meantime, expect another heavy dose of Sean Tucker after his career-high three-touchdown day against the Bills.
Baker Mayfield was at the forefront of early MVP discussions, but an offense can only withstand so many absences. And while he isn’t using that as an excuse, Mayfield has also dealt with injuries himself. The hope is that the return of both offensive line protection and pass catchers can help him — and rookie wideout Emeka Egbuka — return to their sizzling early-season form.
Tampa Bay remains the NFC South favorite. And the team is expecting Mike Evans and Jalen McMillan to eventually come back and further boost an offense looking to make a deep January run. For now, Baker will return to the site of his career resurgence to try to deal a blow to L.A.’s hopes of a first-round bye.
A turkey table setter
And finally, save some room on your Thanksgiving table for a special Wednesday edition of the column. With luck, it will give you some good NFL chatter to discuss with those cousins you see once a year. Here’s a safe debate topic that doesn’t involve politics: Would the NFL ever implement a minimum number of wins a team must reach to keep its first-round draft pick?
My friends over at “Pardon My Take” were using their weird but brilliantly wired brains to dream up ways to prevent tanking in the NFL, and I’ll admit it — Big Cat and PFT Commenter might actually be onto something. If a rule like this ever passed, some of Sunday’s Week 18 slate would instantly become must-watch TV for teams outside the playoff picture, scrambling for that final win to retain a top-three pick. Think of it as an unorthodox, chaotic, American spin on relegation in global soccer.
So, of course, I had to ask around the league. Here’s what I heard, via text:
“Wowwwwwwwww. I love that. No tanking!” — AFC executive
“They won’t do that. They should.” — NFL owner
“Zero chance that ever happens. The league loves parity.” — NFC team president
“December would be nuts. We’d be starting injured veterans just to scrape out a third win, so we don’t lose our shot at a franchise QB.” — NFC head coach
“You think coaches get fired fast now? Imagine if this became a thing?” — Super Bowl-winning veteran
And from a GM who said such a plan would have no shot: “Just because you get the first pick doesn’t mean you’ll get it right,” he argued. “Put a team out there that competes and let the chips fall. The Mavericks had like a .1% chance of getting the first pick and ended up with (Cooper) Flagg.”
Teams can chase wins, rules can change, but the one thing the NFL can’t escape? Drama.
And we wouldn’t have it any other way.
Be back in a few days!