The 2024 NFL season is in the books. A season that was characterised by nip-and-tuck results — 141 games were decided by less than one score, tied with 2022 for the most in league history — ultimately ended with blowouts in some of the most high-profile spots.

Detroit cemented their status as Super Bowl favourites in Sunday night’s game against the Minnesota Vikings. Their 31-9 win, headlined by a four-touchdown performance by Jahmyr Gibbs, gave the Lions their first top seed in league history. Elsewhere, Denver and Tampa Bay booked their tickets to the postseason, while a rookie head coach lost his job despite a winning end to the season.

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WEEK 18 SCORES

Cleveland Browns (3-14) 10 @ Baltimore Ravens (12-5) 35

Cincinnati Bengals (9-8) 19 @ Pittsburgh Steelers (10-7) 17

Carolina Panthers (5-12) 44 @ Atlanta Falcons (8-9) 38 OT

Washington Commanders (12-5) 23 @ Dallas Cowboys (7-10) 19

Chicago Bears (5-12) 24 @ Green Bay Packers (11-6) 22

Jacksonville Jaguars (4-13) 23 @ Indianapolis Colts (8-9) 26

Buffalo Bills (13-4) 16 @ New England Patriots (4-13) 23

New York Giants (3-14) 13 @ Philadelphia Eagles (14-3) 20

New Orleans Saints (5-12) 19 @ Tampa Bay Buccaneers (10-7) 27

Houston Texans (10-7) 23 @ Tennessee Titans (3-14) 14

San Francisco 49ers (6-11) 24 @ Arizona Cardinals (8-9) 47

Kansas City Chiefs (15-2) 0 @ Denver Broncos (10-7) 38

Seattle Seahawks (10-7) 30 @ Los Angeles Rams (10-7) 25

Los Angeles Chargers (11-6) 34 @ Las Vegas Raiders (4-13) 20

Miami Dolphins (8-9) 20 @ New York Jets (5-12) 32

Minnesota Vikings (14-3) 9 @ Detroit Lions (15-2) 31

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MVP of the Week
Jahmyr Gibbs

Let’s park the ‘Sonic and Knuckles’ nickname for a second. Let’s instead think of the Lions running back tandem as a wrestling tag team.

In the world of the squared circle, breakups inevitably lead to speculation as to who will come out of a partnership better. This is often framed through the classic team of Shawn Michaels and Marty Jeanetty. Michaels went on to be an all-time great, while Jeneatty faded into obscurity.

This Sunday, Gibbs made his case for being the gridiron’s answer to The Heartbreak Kid. The second-year stud showed his explosive speed, short-area quickness and ferocious finishing wouldn’t be stymied under the added burden of a bellcow’s workload. Gibbs turned 23 rushes into 145 yards and three scores, also adding five catches for 31 yards and another touchdown. He showed patience and vision to go with his demonstrable physical gifts, helping his team take the number one seed on the greatest number of touches of his young career.

When Detroit’s GM Brad Holmes was hounded over selecting Gibbs with the 12th pick in 2023, he told reporters that the Alabama product would be used as an offensive weapon all over the field, not just as a running back. That has proven to be true, but this performance solidifies Gibbs as a star back by conventional metrics too.

With both Gibbs and David Montgomery under contract in 2025, the Lions running game will continue to dominate next season. With Gibbs demonstrating the ability to tote the rock, the split of the spotlight may shift, as the Lions build towards a world with a main event running back, rather than a tag team approach.

Losers
The NFL schedule makers

Can we really call league brass losers? By their own barometer of success they are absolutely winning. Since moving to the 17-game, seven team playoff format in the 2021 season, the league has increased opportunities for broadcast revenue, ticket money and more international expansion. As fans based in Europe, we can hardly grumble at that last point. The extra contest has facilitated an eight-game global schedule in 2025, something which would previously been unthinkable when teams only had eight home games per year.

But has it improved the product in any meaningful way? Week 18 had very little at stake. Aside from the Sunday Night Football showdown in the motor city and the NFC South race to the bottom, there was strikingly little to play for in the NFC. In the AFC, the North title was sewed up by Baltimore on Saturday night, while the Dolphins, Bengals and Broncos contested the seventh seed. Denver was given the gift of facing the Chiefs backups, essentially ripping out any drama from the late window on Sunday.

Maybe I’m a prisoner of the moment, but I can’t remember an NFL season ending on such a whimper. The Week 18 slate featured dead rubber matchup after dead rubber matchup. Putting aside concerns about player safety — a pretty massive issue to just park — the extra regular season game has not added any spectacle, intrigue, or drama.

Winner
Mike Evans

With 36 seconds to go in their matchup with the New Orleans Saints, the Bucs seemingly had nothing left to play for. Tampa Bay had sewn up the NFC South, in possession of an eight-point lead over their division rivals. You kneel here. No brainer.

Except Mike Evans was just five yards short of another 1,000-yard season. The Texas A&M alum had hit that mark in each of his previous ten seasons, the only player to reach 1,000 yards in the first decade of his career. Just five more yards, and he’d match the record consecutive tally of the greatest receiver of all time, Jerry Rice.

Risking catastrophe, the Bucs called Evans’ number one more time, hitting their star wideout on a quick out for eight. The celebration that ensued from the entire roster talks to the standing Evans’ teammates clearly hold him in. A picture of consistency, the veteran wideout scooped a $3m bonus on that catch. Sometimes, the weight of the achievement outmatches the financial rewards.

Losers
The New England Patriots

Entering this week, the Patriots were in pole position for the number one pick in the 2025 draft. In not starting prodigious rookie quarterback Drake Maye, it seemed the franchise was aiming to drop their last game of the season to ensure prime position in April.

A 23-16 win over the Bills with Joe Milton under center scuppered those plans, however, and proved to be Jerod Mayo’s final act as head coach. The former middle linebacker went one-and-done in Foxboro and, given his status as Robert Kraft’s chosen replacement for Bill Belichick, brings the decision-making process in this storied franchise under intense scrutiny.

Winner
Bryce Young

It can’t be understated how desperate things looked for Bryce Young at the start of the season. The first overall pick in 2023 looked broken in his first two games of the year and, after a particularly desperate showing in New Orleans, the young star could only look to God for hope in a post-game presser. A few days later, he was benched in favour of Andy Dalton.

After returning to action as Carolina’s starter in Week 8, he’s shown the ability to process defenses, make plays with both his arm and legs, and deal with pressure. In the Panthers’ 44-38 overtime win in Atlanta, Young completed 25 of 34 passes for 251 yards and three scores, while adding two more touchdowns on the ground. The Panthers need to develop their roster to make the most of this resurgence, but both Young and his head coach Dave Canales have proven they can be focal points for that process.

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Stats of the Week

• Just the 1,921 rushing yards for Derrick Henry in 2024. That’s the highest mark for any player not to win the rushing title. Henry is also the only running back in NFL history to log more than 1,900 rushing yards twice in their career.
• In a draft class headlined by stellar receiving talent, Brock Bowers and Malik Nabers have stood above their peers, and all other rookie passcatchers before them. Las Vegas’ tight end extended his record to 112 catches in his debut season, while Nabers has tallied 109 grabs, making the pair the most prolific rookies in the history of the league.
• Aaron Rodgers’ tenure in New York — and his career — may have come to an end on Sunday. Never one to go out quietly, the veteran quarterback joined Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Drew Brees and former ‘mentor’ Brett Favre as the fifth signal caller to amass 500 passing touchdowns in their career. Sitting just five scores behind Favre might give Rodgers that little extra incentive to return to the league in 2025.
• Ja’Marr Chase became the sixth player to take the receiving Triple Crown. At just 24, he is the youngest player to lead the league in catches, yards and touchdowns in a single season.