NFL West battle shapes playoffs

There's a real-life battle for the National Football League’s West Division's lead on Thursday night – the Los Angeles Rams travel to Seattle to take on the Seahawks – and that one game will have great sway in determining the two teams that will advance to the JSFL Super Bowl.

Recliners first-round pick Puka Nacua leads his team into the playoffs tonight against the Spread Beaters

Some of the best players in the JSFL in 2025 will be spotlighted in Thursday's game as the Final Four face off this week.

Topping the list of players to watch Thursday will be the one of the top two wide receivers in fantasy scoring this season – Recliners wideout Puka Nacua (above). And because Seattle and the Rams have two of the better defenses this year, the Thursday night battle will either be a free-for-all in scoring or a low-scoring dud that could cripple chances to advance to the title dance.

That realization could either buoy or break the Silent Division champ Recliners as Chris will roll out RB Kyren Williams and Nacua against the Seattle defense (the top-scoring defense in the league, see below).

And pundits (Ron and I) thought Wednesday’s waiver-wire claims would be critical for Gerbils’ owner Chuck Nelson, who lost his starting QB in the regular-season finale as Patrick Mahomes suffered an ACL strain and is done for the season.

That currently leaves him with the “Paloose Rifle,” Washington State alumni Gardner Minshew II (currently still his starter, and, apparently, there still is a Gardner Minshew I still alive somewhere) or Tampa’s slumping Baker Mayfield.

Minshew brings significant NFL starting experience having played for the Jaguars, Eagles, Colts and Raiders. But, expect a change in the next day or two. Minshew is at Tennessee and is projected for 14 points, and Baker is at Carolina and is projected for 16. It is the biggest game of the season and you roll with a backup? Tough luck, Chuck.

NFL Schedule

Along with the aforementioned Thursday Night game featuring the Rams and Seahawks, the NFL rolls out two games on Saturday as the Eagles travel to the nation’s capital to take on the Commanders, and the Green Bay Packers travel to Chicago for a primetime game Saturday night. The Sunday night game has the New England Patriots visiting Baltimore and the playoff slate wraps up Monday with San Francisco (Go Niners!) traveling to Indianapolis. If Jeff needs anything from Christian McCaffrey on Monday to dispatch Chuck, so be it.

The biggest and lowest over/under spreads this week has only one game projected to top 50 points combined (Pittsburgh at Detroit). The dog this week is the 37.5 points projected between the Raiders at the Houston Texans.

Is McBride the MVP?

It is nice to have the first pick in the annual draft. Just ask Jeff as he used his draft capital to grab the No. 2-scoring running back in the league (Christian McCaffrey) and three guys on the second team All-JSFL scorers – the fourth-overall RB in James Cook III, the fourth-overall wide receiver in George Pickens and the No. 2-ranked kicker (Brandon Aubrey).

There were some interesting surprises in the All-JSFL selections for the top scorers in the 2025 regular season. Three Seahawks topped the scoring in WR Jaxon Smith-Njigba, the Seattle defense and the Seattle kicker (Jason Myers). The argument could be made that McBride, who outscored his closest competition at tight end by 56 points, could be the league MVP. At QB, Josh Allen posted nearly 50 more points than Jaxon Dart. At running back, Jonathan Taylor was the class of the league, outscoring Christian McCaffrey by 28. And the Seattle defense and kicker (both WTNEs) outscored the No. 2 player at their positions by 20 points.

All-JSFL Team

First Team                                                                Second Team

Quarterback                                                                Quarterback

326 points – Josh Allen (Rangers)                  279 – Jaxon Dart (Beaters)

Running Backs                                                             Running Backs

274 points – Jonathan Taylor (Tirades/Beaters) 243 points – Jahmyr Gibbs (Gerbils)

246 points – Christian McCaffrey (Packers)    226 points – James Cook III (Packers)

Wide Receivers                                                           Wide Receivers

204 points -- Jaxon Smith-Njigba (Who Dey)     174 points – Amon-Ra St. Brown (Beaters)

178 points – Puka Nacua (Recliners)                 163 points – George Pickens (Packers)

Tight End                                                                     Tight End

161 points – Trey McBride (Recliners)    105 points – Travis Swift (Invaidrs/Packers)

Defense                                                                        Defense

143 points – Seattle (WTNE)                     119 points – Houston (Gerbils)

Kicker                                                                            Kicker

179 points – Jason Myers (WTNE)               159 points – Brandon Aubrey (Packers)

39th season winds down

As we start putting the final bow on our 39th season, it brings back a lot of memories of laughs, agony (and a back spasm on a Long Beach golf course) over the past four decades.

For those new to the league, we started this journey in the fall of 1986 in the apartment of Roseville Press-Tribune staff writer Steve Saville. Most of the original eight owners, with two exceptions, were staff writers at the Roseville newspaper.

With only eight teams, the rosters were stacked. John Davis, one of the newswriters and the league’s first champion, built his roster around the trio of Miami Dolphin stars QB Dan Marino and the Marks Brothers (wide receivers Mark Duper and Mark Clayton). John is best remembered for the ungodly brunch (and crappy chicken wings) he cooked while hosting the 1987 Super Bowl. That was one of the early rules – if you won, you hosted the Super Bowl party.

Ron dominated the early decade around future Hall-of-Famers Joe Montana and Jerry Rice and RB Roger Craig and, thank God, he served up some amazing Super Bowl parties that laid waste to the chicken wings debacle.

Then, along came a guy named Jeff Lambert, who built a decade of dominance around Rams RB Marshall Faulk, and he was instrumental in the implementation of the “protect-only-one” player rule. Then came the stipulation to be able to protect said player for only two drafts (you can thank Hender for that, who started using it in his fantasy baseball league tgo increase trade activity). That rule has figured predominantly in a decade of rotating champions.

And, with that last big rules change (capping the number of seasons you could keep a protected player), another string of worst-to-first champions have included Chris Zimnoch and might again this season with Jeff returning to the champions’ chair.

Game(s) of the Week

No. 1 Packers vs. No. 4 Gerbils, Packers favored by 26: Chuck has tried, twice, to outscore Jeff and his Packers this season and he lost both times. He lost by 8 in Week 7 despite scoring 123 points, and by 28 in Week 11 (108-80). The Packers are heavily favored again in this one as the betting line opens with the Packers favored by 29 before Chuck decides who his quarterback will be after Mahomes was lost for the season. The Packers are favored at QB with Drake Maye at Baltimore, RB James Cook III at Cleveland, both WRs (A.J. Brown at Washington and Justin Jefferson at the New York Giants), flex in RB De’Von Achane at home to Cincinatti, and kicker with Brandon Aubrey at home to the Chargers. The Swami says the Packers will win again, and big.

No. 2 Recliners vs. No. 3 Spread Beaters, Beaters favored by 13: Despite having two of the league’s scoring leaders (Nacua and tight end Trey McBride), the Recliners come into this one as the underdog (the Beaters are favored by 13). Two traded-for running backs (Jonathan Taylor and Derrick Henry) will likely decide this one. Taylor gets the improving San Francisco defense at home and King Henry draws the New England Patriots at home. If Pringle gets anywhere near the 31 points projected between those two stud RBs, this one is probably over. Pringle’s boys also get favored at wide receiver as Amon-Ra St. Brown gets the Pittsburgh defense at home (in the highest projected scoring affair of the weekend); and at flex where WR Drake London (listed as of this writing as “questionable”) is at Arizona. The rest of the starters all are projected to counter each other’s production. If the Recliners can post another 100-point scoring effort like he did last week, that is his only chance. The Swami smells an upset but thinks the Beaters will close this one out.

The Rest of the Slate

There are three other meaningless games on the slate and we won’t say anything more about them (because I doubt Ron will report anything about them next week) except that the Invaiders will play WTNE, the Tirades take on Who Dey and the Band Aids and the Rangers tango.