NFL Week 15: What's at Stake for Teams, Players This Weekend?

The final stretch of the 2015 NFL season is here, with just three games left on the schedule. The results of Week 15 will have a major impact on the playoff race. We’re going to cover the players, teams and coaches with the most at stake in Week 15.

The layout of the NFL landscape is incredibly balanced. There are only seven teams eliminated from the playoff race entering this slate of games despite 21 teams sitting below .500. The amount of average teams is as high as ever, with only a small handful of standout squads.

We’re on pace to see two teams with a .500 record or worse win their divisions. This isn’t very appealing at face value, but it makes the remaining games more unpredictable and fun to watch unfold. We’ll cover the relevant NFL storylines in this article.

Bill O’Brien: Complete the Comeback

Bill Wippert/Associated Press

Ever since their dismantling by the Miami Dolphins in Week 8, the Houston Texans have been a good team. They’ve dropped two straight games but are still 4-2 in their last six contests. This has left them tied for first place record-wise in the AFC South.

Their playoff hopes will either live on or be put on life support depending on their Week 15 game. A showdown with the Indianapolis Colts will help decide the tiebreaker between the two and give one team a one-game lead with two games left. This is as must-win as you’ll see in the NFL.

Head coach Bill O’Brien has done a great job this season with a limited offensive group. Now missing quarterback Brian Hoyer due to a concussion, the Texans must create an effective offense with T.J. Yates as the starter. Neither offense is likely to explode, but the output for Houston must be more than the six points score against the Patriots last week.

Chuck Pagano: Win or Go Home

Phelan M. Ebenhack/Associated Press

The next three weeks will likely have a significant impact on the Indianapolis Colts franchise. If the Colts miss the playoffs, head coach Chuck Pagano and his staff may be dismissed. It may not take more than this one game for the Colts to make up their mind, as a win this week is almost necessary for the team to again win the AFC South.

The Colts deserve some credit for staying in first place with a 40-year old backup quarterback, but the division has been terrible for the last few years. Winning the South should not be a struggle for the Colts, considering the state of their competition. But here we are as the team has dropped five of its last eight contests.

Winning against Houston at home will all but lock up the divisional crown. A postseason run with Andrew Luck is still possible and may change Pagano’s fate. Anything less than a playoff run likely ends the Pagano era.

Tyrod Taylor: Remove Long-Term Doubt

Michael Perez/Associated Press

Just looking at the raw numbers for Tyrod Taylor, one may be inclined to say he is hands-down a franchise guy in Buffalo. Relative to what they’ve had in the recent past, he is the best quarterback to call Western New York home in many years.  But the pass-happy NFL has inflated numbers to a place where even mediocre-at-best quarterbacks have similar touchdown-to-interception ratios as Taylor.

With the context of what Taylor was in college, and that he had just a small sample size of throws before his time in Buffalo, he has surpassed expectations. Taylor deserves to enter 2016 with the starting, but his inconsistent play does give reason to ponder whether the Bills should draft competition highly come draft time.

Even though the Bills don’t have a good chance at making the playoffs at this time, Taylor can quiet any doubts about his status entering the offseason. His late-game play and ability to read defenses are two bigger issues based off the last two months. If he can show growth there, he will have had an excellent first starting season.

Carolina Panthers: One Step Closer to Perfection

Bob Leverone/Associated Press

Whether the Carolina Panthers will publicly acknowledge their intentions to fight for a perfect 16-0 regular-season record or not doesn’t matter. The Panthers will be heavily favored in their last three games. Beating inconsistent teams like the Giants, Falcons and Buccaneers shouldn’t be too hard if Carolina plays anything close to its best game.

The stellar play for Carolina on both sides of the ball is what makes it not only a regular-season powerhouse, but the favorite to win the Super Bowl. It plays very well as a team, even if it lacks some household names on offense. The emergence of Cam Newton into an elite quarterback has also been a critical development this season.

A win this week pits Carolina at 14-0 with two divisional games remaining. The Panthers have done well with their familiar foes. Can they finish off the regular season 16-0?

AJ McCarron: Step Up After the Big Talk

Gary Landers/Associated Press

After logging his first significant time in the NFL last week, Bengals quarterback AJ McCarron has a major task to complete. He must help the Bengals clinch the AFC North division as the Pittsburgh Steelers are closing in. McCarron must play better in the final three weeks than he did in Week 14, where he tossed two bad interceptions.

McCarron caused some controversy when he compared his situation to Tom Brady’s back in 2001. He wasn’t necessarily saying he will be the next Brady, which seemed to be misconstrued at the time via social media. But he also wasn’t lacking confidence that he is up to the challenge. That’s a good thing.

The hope for Cincinnati is it can limit its game plan enough to keep McCarron efficient and somewhat pressure-free. The 49ers are up next for the Bengals, and they are one of the worst teams in the NFL. This week is a good one for McCarron to start getting his feet wet with his offensive weapons.

Brock Osweiler: Keep the Starting Gig

Joe Mahoney/Associated Press

The Brock Osweiler experiment may be coming to an end soon. Osweiler stepped in for an injured Peyton Manning five weeks ago and played decently, but it hasn’t been good enough to stave off Manning to this point. With Manning returning to practice this week, Osweiler may be starting his final game in 2015.

If Osweiler is going to put a firm stake into the ground and claim this job, the time is right now. A tough matchup with the Steelers awaits this week, then a showdown with the Bengals. Nobody can say Osweiler hasn’t received a fair chance to make his statement.

But as of today, it seems as though the upside of a healthy Manning is well worth benching Osweiler. The youth of Osweiler has shown, and although improvement will likely come with more snaps, we already know what Manning can be when he’s playing well. The spotlight will be bright on Denver’s offense this week.