PHILADELPHIA — Now that the truth is known, it falls to Jalen No. 1 to compensate for the absence of Jalen No. 2.

Now that the drop-off in Jalen Carter’s play in 2025 compared with 2024 has been explained by his deteriorating shoulders, the responsibility for a late-season surge falls more squarely on the shoulders of embattled quarterback ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Who's No. 1?

Not the Los Angeles Rams. Not for now anyway.

Before last Sunday's game against the Carolina Panthers, the Rams held the No. 1 seed in the NFC.

After their defeat, the Rams (9-3) are No. 2 heading into Sunday's game against the Arizona Cardinals (3-9) at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Ariz.

The Chicago Bears (9-...Read more

PITTSBURGH — The Steelers and the Baltimore Ravens are two teams trying really hard to keep their heads above water.

They are both 6-6 and will meet Sunday, and the winner will be in first place in the AFC North — and mostly because the other two teams in the division are horrific.

I can't help but wonder if the best thing for the ...Read more

It’s December, so that means football weather is upon us.

A quick disclaimer to fellow San Diegans: weather is the thing that happens usually while we sleep or like a half dozen other times throughout the year. May Gray, June Gloom and Fogust don’t really qualify.

In other, more unfortunate places people live, where they actually ...Read more

CHICAGO — Al Harris had a profound impact on the Chicago Bears long before being hired as defensive backs coach/passing game coordinator.

A two-time Pro Bowl cornerback for the Green Bay Packers, Harris is the assistant who was tasked with piecing things together while Jaylon Johnson and Kyler Gordon missed much of the season. He’s the guy ...Read more

MIAMI — Nobody inside team’s facility wants to say it out loud. Few even want to address it. They pretend it’s not happening and make excuses for it. But the numbers tell the story of a massive regression.

Tua Tagaovailoa is having the worst season of his NFL career heading into Sunday’s road game against the New York Jets.

Yes, we’...Read more

Super Bowl champion and NFL All-Pro Richard Sherman laid into Dallas Cowboys wide receiver George Pickens after the team’s 44-30 loss to the Detroit Lions on Thursday Night Football.

Sherman said the Georgia product looked uninterested and was not giving the requisite effort demanded of a star player.

“The big story here is George Pickens....Read more

BALTIMORE — A day after being absent from one practice for a fourth straight week, Lamar Jackson returned to the field Friday in Owings Mills.

The Ravens quarterback confirmed that he got his foot stepped on during Wednesday’s session, leading to his absence the following day, though he declined to name which player was the guilty party. He...Read more

The 2026 quarterback class was supposed to be deeper than this.

There was a possibility Texas’ Arch Manning would join the fray if things went well enough in his first year as a starter. That’s not happening.

Penn State’s Drew Allar, Miami’s Carson Beck, Clemson’s Cade Klubnik and LSU’s Garrett Nussmeier were all considered ...Read more

The Chicago Bears celebrated their Black Friday win over the Philadelphia Eagles as if they’d won the Super Bowl.

Players celebrated wildly and coach Ben Johnson danced shirtless in the postgame locker room, his team having ascended to the top-seeded position in the NFC.

Hard to fault the Bears, given they’re 9-3 and better than anyone ...Read more

DETROIT — It was now or never for the Detroit Lions in Thursday night's game against the Dallas Cowboys at Ford Field.

And they chose now.

Detroit entered the pivotal must-win matchup with its hair on fire, scoring 10 first-quarter points and holding off a ferocious comeback attempt from the red-hot Cowboys in a 44-30 victory.

With the win,...Read more

Here's a look back at Week 13's action and fantasy advice for the week ahead:

WEEK 13 RECAP

Packers 31, Lions 24: Amon-Ra St. Brown suffered a low ankle sprain early in the loss to Green Bay on Thanksgiving. With St. Brown’s injury and Kalif Raymond already out (ankle), Isaac TeSlaa played a season-high 92.1% of Detroit’s offensive snaps. ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — Whatever Justin Jefferson’s body language might have seemed to say during Sunday’s 26-0 loss in Seattle, the Vikings wide receiver used his words Thursday to make clear his current feelings about the state of his team’s season.

“The season isn’t over,” Jefferson said. “We still have five games left. I would never ...Read more

The 2026 quarterback class was supposed to be deeper than this.

There was a possibility Texas’ Arch Manning would join the fray if things went well enough in his first year as a starter. That’s not happening.

Penn State’s Drew Allar, Miami’s Carson Beck, Clemson’s Cade Klubnik and LSU’s Garrett Nussmeier were all considered ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — Eagles defensive tackle Jalen Carter will miss Monday’s game in Los Angeles and be considered week to week after undergoing a procedure on both of his shoulders, a source confirmed to The Philadelphia Inquirer Thursday.

ESPN was first to report the news on Carter, who has been dealing with a shoulder injury since the ...Read more

Los Angeles Times NFL writer Sam Farmer examines the matchups and makes his predictions for Week 14 of the NFL season.

All lines and over/under numbers are according to FanDuel Sportsbook.

Last week, Farmer posted a 11-5 (.688) record. Through the first 13 weeks of the season, he is 130-64 (.670).

Using point spreads with the scores Farmer ...Read more

A good week for us overall, the previous one, a bit of overdue luck our way on Week 13. Navigated some land-mine surprises for an OK 10-6 outright and cashed a solid 9-6-1 against the spread for some needed gains there. We scored an outright upset with Cowboys beating Chiefs on Bird Day and also had a trio of other ‘dogs-with-points covers by ...Read more

PITTSBURGH — The Steelers-Ravens rivalry is the best in the NFL and has been for quite some time.

The games are always highly competitive, physical and have a high dose of good, old-fashioned, slobber-knockin' football. There is trash talking, there are bragging rights on the line and there are almost always playoff and AFC North implications...Read more

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The stalest phrase in Kansas City first turned up some 5,000 miles, three time zones and one entire continent away.

Well, first turned up this year.

Chiefs head coach Andy Reid walked into a postgame news conference in Sao Paulo, Brazil, the aftermath of a Week 1 loss to the Chargers, and greeted a question from ...Read more