Any given Sunday and all that, but if things keep on the way they’ve been (especially with Rice’s rise), Chiefs will be a tough out, for sure.
FWIW, I feel like KC has gotta get the #1 seed bad—giving it to one of the two FL squads, or worse still, BAL, is a bad idea. (Tinfoil hat warning—scriptwriter vultures will see the Mahomes road playoff game angle and it’ll be too good to resist giving KC a fat L).
Was thinking the same thing; our writer is usually reliable too. Shit happens sometimes.
Honorable mentions should be the other three NFCS coaches (all of which could realistically eat a pink slip at season’s end).
A few coaches’ seats aren’t warm yet, but if their seasons go off the rails, maybe their owners decide a change is necessary. Dallas (things REALLY have to go south for this one), Cleveland (if and only if that defense doesn’t hard carry that team to the playoffs), and Buffalo (recency bias hitting hard here, and they’re fresh outta fall guys now that Dorsey’s gone) are my current three “probably won’t but there’s a world it could happen” choices.
Chiefs shouldn’t have a name for theirs since we deadass barely run the shit anyway lol
After the bye? Whoever looked the best in practice honestly. Split reps best you can in practice and whoever looks the best, go with that.
After the season is…murkier, to say the least. Kirk, even off an injury, has to be the best option on paper IMO. But if Hall lights it up, or if Dobby the House QB finds a few more socks, things get less clear in a hurry. Six wins is definitely out of the Caleb Williams/Drake Maye tier, but perhaps it might be enough to figure out something for JJ McCarthy? IDK, shit seems a bit fucked for the Vikes.
(Side discussion—for all the memeing about Throw Rogan eventually winding up in Vikings purple, what about a different QB from NY coming to MIN? I’m not saying ZW would be any better as a Viking than he is as a Jet, but a change of scenery with their existing weapons and OL might be enough to salvage something.)