28. Washington Commanders
The train has officially gone off the rails for the Commanders. After reaching the NFC Championship Game just last season, the Commanders are now an ugly 3-8, and the franchise quarterback has been dealing with injury issues all year. The Commanders desperately needed a jolt in Madrid with their matchup against the Dolphins, but they couldn’t get it.
The 2026 NFL Draft is now firmly on this team’s radar. General manager Adam Peters isn’t going to ask Dan Quinn to pack it in entirely, but it wouldn’t be shocking if the Commanders made some long-term decisions regarding Jayden Daniels, whose availability is in question at least for the next couple of weeks.
Heading into their bye week, the Commanders have now lost six straight games and host the Denver Broncos, who will also be coming off their bye, when they return. Again, business decisions will need to be made, and after this loss to the Dolphins, there’s no reason to subject Daniels to further injury.
27. New York Giants
The New York Giants gave a pretty great effort on Sunday against the Green Bay Packers, all things considered. There’s not an exact science with this, but oftentimes after a team fires its head coach during the season, you’ll see that team rally at some point soon after it happens. I wonder if you could sort of consider this game against Green Bay that kind of effort from the Giants, because they hung tough despite being so badly beaten and battered offensively.
Jameis Winston’s old habits came back to bite him in this game as he threw a late interception in the end zone trying to will his team to victory, and he couldn’t make it happen. The Packers made some incredible plays to get this win, as well, so it wasn’t like the Giants were just out there getting kicked around.
The infrastructure for this Giants team is there. Questions definitely loom about the future of the franchise with the most important players on offense dealing with injuries, but they showed heart in Week 11.