
Ryan Fitzpatrick has struggled since signing his extension. A poor finale may have even more fans calling for a quarterback in the first round of the draft.
The last week of the NFL season means it’s the last week for football picks. Milt Northrop leads the Buffalo News picks at 118-105-7. I’m tied in second with Jay Skurski at 114-109-7, with the rest of the News cast on the outside looking in.
But let’s be honest, they don’t know that I’m playing along. So it’s really between Milt and Jay, but I like winning at things so we’re keeping this up.
The tiebreaker is best bets, but I sort of forgot to keep doing those midway through the year. My bad … I’ll concede a tie. Here’s what the standings look like:
Northrop: 118-105-7
Skurski: 114-109-7
Always Game Seven 114-109-7
Gaughan: 107-116-7
McKissic: 107-116-7
DiCesare: 106-117-7
Sullivan: 104-119-7
The Bills play in Foxboro this weekend, where they haven’t won since 2000. Week 17 games are tricky to pick and hard for fans to deal with because we aren’t entirely sure what we want.
We always want the Bills to win. That’s a given. But at the same time, we’d hate for something stupid to happen, like winning a meaningless game that would hurt our draft position. For a team that was thinking playoffs the first two months of the season, we sure have a lot of holes to fill — so much so that we can’t even agree on which to fill first, but that’s another story for another time.
With a loss, the Bills can pick inside the top 10. With a win, we could move as far back as 16. It doesn’t sound like much, but it does matter. And besides, that another 45 minutes you have to watch the draft.
The Patriots have won seven straight and can clinch home-field with a win. Tom Brady is probable while offensive linemen Logan Mankins and Sebastian Vollmer are out. How long will the starters play? Only The Hoodie knows and he’s not telling. For the rest of us, it’s all guesswork. I think Brady gets his team up a bunch and then comes out … leaving garbage time to kill bets this week.
Bills (+11 1/2) at New England
New England
Washington (+9) at Philadelphia
Washington
Tampa Bay (+12) at Atlanta
Atlanta
San Francisco at St. Louis (+10 1/2)
San Francisco
Chicago (+1) at Minnesota
Minnesota
Detroit at Green Bay (+3 1/2)
Detroit
Carolina (+8 1/2) at New Orleans
Carolina
Tennessee at Houston (+3)
Houston
Baltimore at Cincinnati (+3)
Cincinnati
Pittsburgh at Cleveland (+7)
Pittsburgh
Indianapolis (+3 1/2) at Jacksonville
Indianapolis
Jets (+2) at Miami
Miami
San Diego (+3) at Oakland
Oakland
Kansas City (+3 1/2) at Denver
Denver
Seattle (+3) at Arizona
Seattle
Dallas (+3) at Giants
Giants
Last week