How Week 18's biggest NFL injuries could change the entire playoff picture

The 2026 season was full of all kinds of wild stuff. The Colts came out of nowhere and looked incredible, the Chiefs were terrible from the jump, and the Jaguars might not be the same-old Jaguars. It sure would’ve been cool if that level of mayhem kept going through the season and led to chaotic Week 18 … but it didn’t … not even a little bit. 

There are really only three games that truly matter this weekend: the Panthers and the Buccaneers (kind of), the Seahawks and the 49ers, and the Steelers and the Ravens. Fortunately, we’re getting all three of those games as stand-alone games. 

Unfortunately, four of those six teams are dealing with injuries to their best and/or most important players on the team. Here are the biggest question marks.

T.J. Watt, Steelers

On December 10th, T.J. Watt had some kind of freak dry needling accident that popped/collapsed/messed up his lung. He had surgery right away to get it all fixed, and he’s been sidelined since. 

For Weeks 15 and 16, he was listed as a DNP on the injury reports. In Week 17, he was upgraded to a limited participant, but he didn’t play. Now it’s Week 18, and the Steelers' season is on the line (again), and on Wednesday’s injury report, Watt was listed as a limited participant. 

Watt’s the best player on that roster and a future Hall of Famer… You have to imagine that if there’s even the smallest chance that he can get on the field, then he’ll be there. However, there’s a difference between ‘just being on the field’ and ‘playing like a future Hall of Famer.’

On a human level, having a jacked-up lung that was surgically repaired less than a month ago seems like a thing that could change the way you play… because of the whole breathing thing. 

But T.J. Watt isn’t a real human being; he’s a monster. It’s going to be very interesting to see how much of a difference maker he’ll be. 

The Ravens ran up and down the field against the Steelers in Week 14, and with Derrick Henry looking as good as he did against the Packers last week, you have to think that’s going to be a big part of their game again this week.

It’s a billion times easier to stop Henry behind the line of scrimmage, and that Pittsburgh defense is going to have a much easier time doing that when they have their starting defensive front on the field. 

Lamar Jackson, Ravens

Lamar Jackson gets late-season injuries; it’s kind of his thing. It’s a bummer that this year’s injury is piling on to another injury that he’s already been dealing with. 

Lamar Jackson hurt his hamstring in Week 4 against the Chiefs, missed three games, and has looked mostly bad since he’s come back. After that, he pretty much lived on the injury report. He was listed with a hammy, a knee, a toe, and an ankle three times. 

Then, in Week 16, he took a pretty wicked knee to the side/back and got hurt again. That caused him to miss the Week 17 game against the Packers. He says that he’s going to play on Sunday, which is probably a good thing… but it also might not be a good thing because of how he’s looked when he’s banged up, and how Snoop Huntley looked last week.

The hope for Ravens fans has to be that his week off gave him a little bit of reprieve, and that now he’s closer to actually being healthy. Whatever the case, this is a bad spot to be in.

If the Ravens lose on Sunday night, there’s a 1,000% chance that by this time next week, we get a report that he successfully had surgery on some part of his leg.

Baker Mayfield, Buccaneers

It was in Week 12 that Baker Mayfield sprained his non-throwing shoulder against the Rams. That’s nothing new for him. He’s tough, and he plays through just about everything he can… He plays worse, but he still plays. 

The good news is that it looks like he’s (relatively) over the left shoulder thing. The bad news is that now he’s on the injury report with a right shoulder and a knee. 

If there are two things that you want Baker Mayfield to have healthy when he’s playing football, it’s those two things above all else. 

He’ll headbutt dudes when he doesn’t have a helmet on, so his head isn’t important. If his fingers got caught in a wood chipper, he’d find a way to get the ball off. But his shoulder and his knee? 

Those are extremely important to his specific brand of hyper-aggressive, devil-may-care quarterbacking that everyone knows and loves.

He’s another guy who’s definitely going to play, but not at the level that he needs to be playing at. 

Trent Williams, 49ers

Trent Williams is in his 15th season in the NFL. He’s been a deserved Pro-Bowler in 12 of those seasons, and he’s been an All-Pro in four of them. He’s just about as good a left tackle as you’ll ever see…

And he’s questionable to play on Saturday night because of the hamstring injury that took him out at the beginning of last week’s game against the Bears. They didn’t miss him a whole lot in that game because the Bears’ pass rush is toothless, but the Seahawks are an entirely different story. 

If he doesn’t play, that means the 49ers are going to be without their future Hall-of-Fame left tackle against one of the meanest defenses in the NFL. Instead, it’ll be the six-foot-seven-inch and 330-pound Austen Pleasants. The dude is a certified chonko-boy, but he’s not anywhere close to being Trent Williams.

The matchup to watch in this game was the good-on-good between San Fran’s offense and Seattle’s defense. This injury has the potential to make that a butt whoopin’.

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