Welcome back to—last I checked—the internet’s only annual preseason Week 18 Sunday Night Football flex power rankings! It’s now Year 8 of this running bit, though of course for the first five years I was making predictions about Week 17, before the league went and pushed The Crown Jewel of the Regular SeasonTM one week deeper into January.
Longtime readers know, and first-timers may be able to quickly surmise, that I have never gotten it right. I have been close, I have been far off and one year they canceled the game altogether. All possibilities are on the table. I remain obsessed with this little parlor game, and I can’t stop until I finally get it right, so let’s dive back in for another bite at the apple.
I think it’s time to change up my strategy, perhaps a reasonable notion after taking so many Ls. For years, my focus mirrored what I thought was an effort by the NFL to showcase games that would settle division crowns. In each of the past two years, however, the final game of the season has featured teams chasing wild-card berths. This run coincides with the 2021 addition of two flexed Saturday games in Week 18.
