NFL Picks Week 16: Teams Guaranteed to Pull off Wins

With just two weeks remaining in the regular season, the mighty have risen, the weak have fallen and the mediocre have left us with abundant questions.

And still, we have very few answers about which teams will be cruising through the month of January, and which ones are in for reality check. Even the best have fallen down, particularly over the last couple of weeks.

Fortunately, though, this week's slate of matchups provides us with some pretty good opportunities to predict who's going to survive at least for this week, and who has no shot. Here's a look at some of the teams that will be good to go in Week 16.

Washington Redskins
at Philadelphia Eagles

The Washington Redskins have proven they can win when Robert Griffin III is the one to lead them. They've proven they can win with Kirk Cousins in his place, too. And most importantly, they've been winning lately—often—which is something the other two contenders in the NFC East have failed to do.

The Giants have been the exception to the rule during their two most recent Super Bowl trips, but in general, the teams that play the best in December are the teams with the best chances of doing some damage in the playoffs.

And whatever has been thrown at the Redskins, they've handled it. They've weathered injuries to key players. They've scored huge wins over Dallas, New York and Baltimore. Now, they control their own fate—and fortunately, in Week 15, they get to play the Eagles, who have only won a single game since Week 5.

Meanwhile, the other two NFC East teams face notably more difficult matchups.

The opportunity is there for the Redskins, with or without RGIII; all they have to do is take it.

Pick: Redskins 

Indianapolis Colts
at Kansas City Chiefs 

Meanwhile, that other rookie quarterback has his own work to do this weekend to ensure his team stays in the playoff mix. As it stands, the Indianapolis Colts are projected as the fifth seed in the AFC, but at 9-5, they have the same record as Baltimore and have one game on the Bengals. All they have to do is keep winning, and their playoff position will stay pretty favorable.

Unfortunately, though, that won't be easy to do with the season finale coming against Houston—a team that beat Indy in Week 15. That's why this week's game against Kansas City is so important. It's a golden opportunity to pad the win column one last time before an important final matchup.

The Chiefs have had a tough time this season and are coming off a shutout loss at the hands of the Oakland Raiders. In their past two games, they've scored a mere seven points. The Colts shouldn't have any trouble getting the job done, even on the road.

Pick: Indianapolis

New England Patriots
at Jacksonville Jaguars

So the New England Patriots kind of got exposed on Sunday night, just like they exposed the Houston Texans less than a week earlier. They quite obviously played their worst game of the season—and it's not like a Bill Belichick team to play its worst game in the month of December, but here we are, and New England has no choice but to win out if it has any hope of regaining a first-round bye in the playoffs. 

Sunday's 41-34 loss was a huge blow. Not only did it prove to us that the Patriots are, indeed, extremely beatable, but it dropped them to 10-4, and the Denver Broncos usurped the second seed in the AFC. Now, to regain that bye, the Patriots need to win, and they need Peyton Manning & Co. to lose at least once.

But better to concentrate on what they can control—and they couldn't really ask for a better matchup than Jacksonville at a point when they really, really need a win. The Jaguars have won once in their last 11 games, and they've been held to 13 total points in their last two games—both against bad AFC East teams. San Francisco's offense posed a major problem to New England's porous defense. Jacksonville's should not.

Pick: New England