There will be six national telecasts this weekend, including a tripleheader on Saturday on the NFL Network.
The weekend starts with San Francisco going to Seattle on Thursday night in a division battle between the top two teams in the NFC West. The 49ers are 9-4, while the Seahawks are 7-6 and currently seeded eighth. The 49ers aren’t sure if Brock Purdy will be ready to play.
That will be followed by Indianapolis at Minnesota, Baltimore at Cleveland and Miami at Buffalo on Saturday. The Miami-Buffalo game is one of the featured games of the week. Buffalo has a two-game lead over the Dolphins, who are currently the sixth seed. The Bills also need a victory to stay ahead of the Chiefs for the top seed because the Chiefs have an easy game against the Texans
The Sunday and Monday night primetime games are Giants at Washington and Rams at Green Bay, with Detroit-Jets being the main CBS Sunday afternoon game and Cincinnati at Tampa Bay the featured late game. .
Fox has a single game with three in the afternoon and two at night but none are compelling. Dallas at Jacksonville will get the most coverage early.
Baltimore, Tennessee, Cincinnati and New England, currently seeded third, fourth, fifth and seventh, need victories over Cleveland, the Chargers, Tampa and Las Vegas.
The Chargers are currently seeded eighth but would probably move up with a victory over Tennessee, which has lost three in a row and is in danger of losing the AFC South title to the Jaguars.
The Jets, seeded ninth, play the surging Lions. No other AFC team has fewer than eight losses but the Jaguars, who play Dallas, have a realistic shot at making the playoffs. They are aiming to having the division title at stake when they play the Titans in the season finale.
In the NFC, Philadelphia figures to keep rolling with a victory over Chicago. There is not much drama left in the conference. The Vikings, 49ers and Cowboys figure to make the playoffs and the other three seeds aren’t considered contenders.