The NFL’s scheduling elves have given us a full Christmas Day of games around which to celebrate, and they saved the blockbuster game of Week 16, and maybe for the season, for Christmas night. After the presents have been opened and the feast eaten, we can concentrate as the Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco 49ers stage a showdown of No. 1 seeds.

Christmas Eve — and even Christmas Eve Eve — provided plenty of action, though, and a whole lot of playoff movement. Those games, and the winners and losers who emerged on Christmas Eve, were a good reminder that while the Ravens and 49ers are on top right now, staying there all the way to Las Vegas won’t be easy.

To all a good night? It depends if you’re a winner or loser.

RELATED LINKS
2023 NFL season, Week 16: What We Learned from Sunday’s games
2023 NFL season, Week 16: Notable injuries, news from Sunday’s games
Lions clinch NFC North with win over Vikings, first division title since 1993
Baker Mayfield, Buccaneers share mutual interest for return in 2024
2023 NFL season, Week 16: What We Learned from Saturday’s doubleheader
Jaguars QB Trevor Lawrence (right shoulder) to be evaluated after exiting Sunday’s loss to Buccaneers
Winners
Detroit Lions
Detroit Lions

Just two years removed from 3-13-1, the Lions are division champions for the first time in 30 years. They are the biggest winners this week. The offense was powerful, with a balanced running and passing attack. And while the defense yielded 390 yards to the Vikings, it also intercepted Nick Mullens four times and sacked him four times. The Lions have to tighten up the defense before the playoffs, but no postseason opponent is going to feel comfortable being the visitor at what is going to be a raucous and roaring Ford Field.

Baker Mayfield
Baker Mayfield
Tampa Bay Buccaneers · QB

Joe Flacco
Joe Flacco
Cleveland Browns · QB
The forgotten quarterbacks. Baker Mayfield is playing on a one-year contract, a stopgap for what was supposed to be Tampa’s rebuilding season. Joe Flacco was sitting on the couch when a desperate Browns team called. Both have been far better than anybody imagined — Mayfield has done nothing short of reviving his career after starting last season with the Panthers, getting benched, getting released and then playing well in a short stint with the Rams — and after big victories Sunday, both have their teams firmly in the playoff field, with the Bucs at the top of the NFC South and Browns the fifth seed in the AFC. Mayfield is almost certainly going to get a lucrative long-term deal after the season, and Flacco will be back on the sofa only if he wants to be, more than a decade after the peak of his career. In a season that has placed a premium on evaluation of available quarterbacks, Mayfield and Flacco have been home runs.

Cleveland Browns
Cleveland Browns
10-5
Montana to Rice. Brady to Moss. Flacco to Cooper?! Flacco and Amari Cooper, who had 11 receptions for a franchise-record 265 receiving yards and two touchdowns, carved up the Houston Texans’ defense and solidified the Browns’ hold on the AFC’s fifth seed. Flacco is the Browns’ fourth quarterback this season and, on Sunday, looked like their best, including the games Deshaun Watson played this season. With Flacco’s big arm, the Browns are now a dynamic downfield passing team. Kevin Stefanski and Andrew Berry have put on a clinic in managing adversity and adaptation, a particularly important skill in the year of the backup quarterback.