It's Sunday morning, and there are a couple of significant developments. The biggest one involves Derrick Henry (hamstring). He was downgraded to questionable yesterday for the Titans, and Adam Schefter is reporting he's not expected to play. Which makes sense: Tennessee's game in Week 17 is a lot more important than this one.
Crazy though it might sound, the Titans are the 6 seed if they beat Houston next week and Pittsburgh loses a game no matter what happens against the Saints. Beating New Orleans doesn't get them any closer to a playoff spot. So Henry's not going to play, and I'm wondering how much intensity the rest of the team will bring with nothing at stake.
Dion Lewis will be the starter and main running back. He's nothing close to Henry as a runner, and he's facing a tough and motivated run defense. I think he slots in about 30th -- basically you're looking at the Patrick Laird area. I would not suddenly start him above a top 20 option just because he'll be in a featured role.
Regarding Ryan Tannehill, he suddenly becomes a little more likely to run in a touchdown on his own near the goal line; should be a little less rushing production and more passing. But: the Titans need to win next week, not this week. I think they'll want to win and get some momentum going, but I don't expect to see Tannehill leaping over the top of piles near the goal line, either. Where he's ranked (9th) looks appropriate. If I wasn't planning on using him, I'm no more likely to use him than I was. If I had a really close decision (Tannehill and Matt Ryan, as a for instance) I'd go with Ryan.
Other developments:
The Rams loss puts the Viking in the playoffs. They can win the NFC North, but not only need to win twice but they need Green Bay to lose at Detroit next week. Unlikely. So they're expected to hold out Alexander Mattison and give Mike Boone most of the work tomorrow night, with Ameer Abdullah also playing.
Christian Kirk (ankle) is expected to play at Seattle.
DJ Chark (ankle) is expected to play at Atlanta.
Curtis Samuel (knee) is expected to play against Indianapolis.
Jordan Howard (neck/shoulder) isn't expected to play for Philadelphia.
--Andy Richardson