What’s Hot and What’s Knott in Football – Week 16

By Rhys Knott

Drama is hot in Week 16. Thursday Night Football provided it in spades. But Puka Nacua’s shenanigans had served up plenty of controversy before the games had even begun. His brother even joined in to make some headlines. 

On the field, the Rams’ trip to Seattle demonstrated just how good football can be when two great defenses take on two great offenses. The Rams will have to improve their special teams if they are going to win the NFC. Firing the special teams coordinator may help.

As Christmas approaches, offenses decided to give their opponents some free points in the form of safeties. Plenty of quarterbacks gave generous gifts to defenders, too. 

Then there’s the uniforms. You just know there’s some long-winded marketing spiel that goes with the Seattle’s rivalry uniform, but no matter they try to polish them, the Seahawks still look like they’re wearing Oregon Ducks pyjamas. And just wait until you see the Saints’ Week 16 getup! 

Those pesky officials are at it again. Where is the Scooby gang with their Mystery Machine when you need them?

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What’s Hot in Football – Week 16

First up, Terry McLaurin is hot. There’s plenty of bad news surrounding NFL players this week, so let’s start with the one guy who is brightening up a kid’s day! Not so scary Terry.

Remember the drama we were talking about earlier? Well, how’s this for drama?

Brace yourself for a concept very alien to the internet. Two opposing concepts can actually be true at the same time. It’s hard to believe if you’ve ever been on social media or listened to a politician speak, but, believe it or not, it is true. The Seahawks’ defense is very, very hit, AND Matt Stafford threw for 457 yards. 

Stafford had a ton of help from the aforementioned Puka Nacua. In Davante Adams’ stead, Nacua rattled up 225 receiving yards!  

The most mindblowing part of the Thursday Night Football is that the Rams possessed the ball for 40:33 minutes, but the Seahawks still won the game! It’s largely because Rashid Shaheen is outrageously good at returning punts! He also has the longest kickoff return of the season, a cool 100 yards for a touchdown.

Shahid’s return is fantastic, and, as with all return touchdowns, if you only hold your opposite number a little bit, you’ll definitely get away with it.

But the hottest player on Thursday was Kobie Turner. Gifted musician Turner (seriously, watch this) hit Sam Darnold twice. Picked up 1.5 sacks, made three total tackles, deflected two passes and made this interception in the redzone!

We all know defense is more important (and fun) than offense, so let’s get into that immediately. Week 16 provided even more of those interceptions that should never happen. Aren’t these receivers’ gloves supposed to be sticky?  

14 different defenders made interceptions in Week 16, Jordan Poyer’s might be the funniest! 

Barrett Carter hauled in the most chaotic catch of the week with this one. Bodies are flying everywhere here! 

12-year veteran Bills lineman DaQuan Jones snaffled this one for the first interception of his entire life! 

Jalen Nailor went all not-so-secret Santa against the Giants, gifting Paulson Adebo his first pick since October 2024! 

Then Theo Johnson gifted one to the Vikings!

The pass rush came up big again in Week 16. Seven guys recorded more than one sack! In fact, all 30 of ESPN’s top Week 16 defenders got to the quarterback! 

Buffalo’s Greg Rousseau led the way with 2.5 in Cleveland! By far and away the most entertaining sack of the week came from Brian Burns as he levelled J.J. McCarthy.

Burns forced the fumble, Giants’ safety Tyler Nubin scooped it up and took it to the house. Everyone loves a scoop and score, but whoever designed a play that left the Giants’ best pass rusher unblocked is on the naughty step!

Elsewhere, the Packers and Bears served up a game for the ages. Caleb Williams made some plays as the Bears came back to win a game they had no right to win. Chicago’s star of the game is 34-year-old Brazilian kicker Cairo Santos.

Not only did the Bears’ kicker nail all four of his place kicks (he’s only missed five in 13 games) in the windiest of Windy City nights, he also kicked the game-turning onside kick that spun out of Romeo Doubs’ grasp.  

Remember Jaylen Warren? Some Steelers fans had even forgotten about the 27-year-old since Kenneth Gainwell has become the flavour of the week in the City of Bridges. After 152 yards from scrimmage on 16 touches, they all love the former Snow College Badger (yes, that is a real team). 90 of his yards came on two fourth-quarter touchdown runs!

Ashton Jeanty deserves an honourable mention too, who, despite copping plenty of strays, finally showed everyone how box office he can be against one of the toughest defenses in the league. Even by their own subterranean standards, the Raiders 2025 have been an unmitigated disaster.

Jeffrey Simmons is hot again. He didn’t manage to catch a touchdown on a scramble drill like he did last week, but he did force a safety. The Titans might be finally turning the corner with only two games of the season left, just in time to start all over again, then guys!

Simmons wasn’t alone; Kyle Dugger came out of nowhere to force what would turn out to be a crucial safety in Detroit, too. Had the Steelers only led by three points, the Lions could have kicked a simple field goal and taken that game to overtime. 

You know who else is hot? Cooper DeJean, now there’s a young man who is loving life in the NFL. He’s one of the most athletic defensive backs in the league and he loves a celly.

However questionable John Cena’s takes on Vince McMahon are, paying homage to a legend is very hot.

Another man who is carving out his place in the “Hot” section is New Orleans Saints’ kicker Charlie Smyth. The 24-year-old Northern Irishman scored 17 points in a 29-6 victory over the Jets! He did miss an attempt, but that was a 61-yarder as time expired in the first half, so we’ll let him off! The former Gaelic footballer has kicked 88.89% of his total kicks in four games and looks to be a regular fixture in NOLA.

Finally, as we approach the end of the 2025 season, we need to start a What’s Hot Hall of Fame.

We have three unlikely entries into the hall in Week 16. First off, it’s the grumpiest man in football (maybe the world?) Nick Sirianni.

Everyone is bored with the discord around the malcontent Eagles and how unimpressive they are, but they are creating history!

Philly is first team to win successive NFC East titles for 20 years! And Siriranni’s career is far from unimpressive.

Sirianni’s young career is almost as impressive as Brandon Graham’s. The 37-year-old has now won the NFC East on six different occasions! And he seems to be even better since he returned from retirement!

Staying in the NFC, but to someone at the other end of their career, another player having an impressive start to their career is Bears quarterback Caleb Williams. Chicago fans can finally start to believe in a quarterback.

What’s Knott in Football – Week 16

What’s Knott in Week 16, you ask? Well, first up it’s it’s the zebras again!

This time, on Thursday Night Football, the officials actually arrived at the correct decision with a little help from New York. But Brad Allen somehow forgot that he had blown the whistle, and the play was therefore dead. 

As if that wasn’t bad enough for “Executive Vice President of Football Operations” Troy Vincent (who leads the most convoluted department in the NFL that encompasses officiating), Sunday night gave us this absolute belter. Even the most ardent Patriots hater will tell you this is obvious pass interference!

But it didn’t end there, Troy Vincent is going to need to lie down in a dark room this week. Somehow Carl Cheffers (remember him from last week?) announced the Lions had scored a game-winning touchdown. But what actually happened was a pass interference penalty, not only negating the score but also leading to time expiring and the end of the game!

Hanging out with Adin Ross, a podcaster who has platformed confessed white supremacist Nick Fuentes, is a really bad look; taking them to your team’s practice facility is even worse. Well, that was Puka Nacua’s Week 16; he said officials make calls because they want to be on television (a comment that cost him a $25,000 fine) and claimed not to believe in concussions! Nacua, who missed the 2023 Senior Bowl after suffering a concussion while participating in the Senior Bowl practice week, even managed to perform an anti-semitic at Adin Ross’s request.

While all this was going on, Puka’s brother (Samson, a receiver for the Michigan Panthers) was arrested for stealing a car belonging to the L.A. Lakers’ rookie Adou Thiero! What a week!

These Saints’ uniforms are less Knott, but Knott nonetheless. The concept seems sound, gold and black is a unique colour combo, but that gold looks more like Dijon, and that’s just a bit odd. Sacre bleu and all that.

Having a fight while everyone is wearing a helmet and pads is very Knott, even Jake Paul wouldn’t try that. The Eagles and Commanders did, though.  

Not many things are more Knott than trying to hit a fan who is busting your chops, but trying to hit a fan and missing them might actually be more Knott.

Some reports suggest the “fan” had been harrassing Metcalf since the receiver played in Seattle so the $132 million man really should have reported him to security as soon as he clapped eyes on him! 

Blue wig guy wasn’t the only target D.K. Metcalf missed in Detroit, either; the Steeler only grabbed four of the nine Aaron Rodgers sent his way. 

Costing your team the game by being offside when a game-changing pick 6 is made is incredibly Knott. It’s a microcosm of the Giants’ season, though.

Not only has Abdul Carter, their 3rd overall pick been benched for turning up late and missing a team run walk-through, but he has now undeniably cost them a game. 

Had the pick 6 stood, Big Blue would have been 9-3 up with an extra point to come, instead the Vikings took the lead on a field goal two plays later and held on to it for the remaining 45 minutes!

RHYS KNOTT

NFL/FANTASY FOOTBALL ANALYST

Rhys has been watching the NFL for 30 something years and still hasn’t managed to pick a team to support. When he’s not fixatED on pass rushers you can find him blithering on about most sports on Twitter @wrhys_writes

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