With most of the playoff picture settled after Week 17's results, there were few headlines of note entering Week 18'. One notable one surrounded Seattle and San Francisco's battle for the NFC's top overall seed (in addition to the NFC West crown), offering a chance at redemption for Sam Darnold.
Nearly a year to the day after coming up short in the same spot with Minnesota, Darnold seized his chance at redemption.He delivered Seattle the NFC’s top seed, and that's where we'll kick off our final winners and losers of Week 18: In Santa Clara.
NFL Week 18 winners and losers
Winner - Sam Darnold
Despite how well Darnold has played for the better part of two seasons, a narrative has formed of how he comes up small in big spots thanks to last year's Week 18 clunker, a stinker in the Wild Card game against the Rams, and a four-interception day against Los Angeles earlier this season. While Darnold was not spectacular in a 13-3 victory over San Francisco, he was extremely efficient, completing 20-of-26 passes for 198 yards while avoiding the killer mistakes that cost him those previous big games.
The defense that Mike Macdonald has built for Seattle is Super Bowl-worthy and their home-field advantage could prove to be valuable in the playoffs. Seeing Darnold come through in a big spot like the one he was in on Saturday could prove to be pivotal the next time the Seahawks are in a clutch spot in January.
Loser - Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Despite getting their part of the job done with a win over Carolina on Saturday afternoon, the Buccaneers' fate was out of their control thanks to a late-season surge by the Atlanta Falcons. It took a very bizarre scenario where the winner of the Falcons-Saints game would determine who would win the division, but Atlanta's 19-17 win eliminated the Bucs from the playoffs for the first time since 2019.
It took a bizarre tiebreaker to end Tampa Bay's streak of four straight division titles, but they have no one to blame but themselves after losing seven of their final nine games. The one that the Bucs will regret the most is in Week 15, when they had the Falcons buried before a furious fourth quarter comeback set the stage for their own demise.
Winner - Carolina Panthers
Fortune was on the side of the Panthers on Sunday as they were the big beneficiaries of Atlanta's strong finish to the season. As a result of the NFC South ending in a three-way tie at 8-9, Carolina took the crown on a tiebreaker based on a 3-1 record against Tampa Bay and Atlanta to win the division for the first time since 2015.
There will be playoff football for the Panthers for the first time since 2017 and the Wild Card round brings a rematch with the Rams, who Carolina beat last month in a wild game to help put themselves in this position. Getting playoff action for Bryce Young is also very important since his future with the franchise isn't quite secure, making this run valuable information for their team-building efforts.
Loser - Chicago Bears
Even though they got the No. 2 seed as a result of the Philadelphia Eagles' loss to Washington, things did not play out well for Chicago on Sunday. Unlike a lot of teams with minimal seeding gains available, the Bears played their starters and lost to Detroit 19-16 to finish the regular season on a two-game losing streak, which is not an ideal way to get ready for the playoffs.
The defense did play a bit better in terms of points after Week 17's barn burner but Chicago still did allow the Lions to run for 4.5 yards per carry while Jared Goff threw for 331 yards. Drawing a wounded Green Bay team in the Wild Card round means there's a good chance Chicago wins a round but the Bears are not playing their best football, which makes them a loser for the week.
Winner - Myles Garrett
The clear winner of the day on an individual level was Myles Garrett, who secured his place in the history books with a record-setting 23rd sack of the season. Garrett's takedown of Joe Burrow allowed him to leapfrog the pair of Michael Strahan and T.J. Watt, who each had the record at 22.5, and make him one of the clear front-runners for Defensive Player of the Year honors.
The fact that accomplishment came in a rare win for Cleveland won't be lost on Garrett, who has been vocally frustrated with all of the losing he has experienced in his career. The Browns do have two first round picks this year and may be making a change at head coach so it remains to be seen how they can try and maximize the rest of Garrett's prime going forward.
Loser - New York Giants
It takes some very bad tanking to go from the first pick to the fifth pick in the draft over the last two weeks of the season, but the Giants did just that. After winning at Las Vegas last Sunday, the Giants entered Week 18 with a chance to secure the top pick if they lost to Dallas and the Raiders won, but they threw those odds away for a meaningless victory over a Cowboys' team that waved the white flag at halftime.
To add insult to injury, the Raiders did win, meaning the Giants would have secured a potentially franchise-altering top pick they could have auctioned off to quarterback-needy teams if they lost. The win, combined with losses from the New York Jets, Arizona Cardinals and Tennessee Titans, dropped the Giants to a much-less valuable fifth pick in what should be an (at most) two quarterback class, giving GM Joe Schoen (if he stays in his job, which is the current assumption) less value to work with to build his roster from a draft perspective.
Winner - Bills Fans
Houston's win early on Sunday ensured the highest the Bills could finish in the AFC was the No. 6 seed, virtually guaranteeing Sunday's season finale against the hapless Jets would be the final game ever at Highmark Stadium. Buffalo gave Bills Mafia a chance to party in the old barn one last time with an effortless blowout win over the tanking Jets, winning 35-8 even as Josh Allen departed after one snap to keep his consecutive starts streak alive.
The Bills' backups ran up the score against the Jets, going up 35-0 in the third quarter and racking up 470 yards of offense as Mitchell Trubisky threw four touchdown passes. Unless the Bills host the Chargers in the AFC Championship Game, the finale from Orchard Park was as good of a finish to the building as Buffalo could've scripted given the way this season went.
Loser - New York Jets
There was plenty of buzz on pre-game shows today that Aaron Glenn's job with the Jets was safe despite a historically awful finish to the season. New York did nothing to show signs that their coach has it figured out, falling 35-8 to become the first NFL team in history to lose five consecutive games by at least 23 points.
Glenn's team also made more ignominious history by being the first NFL team to go through an entire regular season without an interception, which seems impossible, but the Jets only registered four takeaways for the entire year. While the back half of the year was a shameless tank job that got the Jets the second pick in the draft, it's hard to find anyone who has confidence that Glenn has the proper infrastructure in place to support the development of a rookie quarterback.