On to the picks! As always, the analysis of each of the following games is in exclusion of any other outcome.

WASHINGTON at Seattle: Neither team has a beatpath to the other, and they’re currently quite lowly ranked – #20 at #21. So, a very close game. If Washington wins, it immediately gets beatlooped away due to Seattle’s earlier victory over Tampa Bay – no change to the graph or rankings. If Seattle wins, they get the beatpath to Washington, which would bump Tennessee ahead of Jacksonville and Detroit – it would also help HOU, PHI, CAR, and a couple of others lower in the graph.

JACKSONVILLE at Pittsburgh: Jacksonville has a beatpath to Pittsburgh and has already beaten Pittsburgh once this season, in Pittsburgh. If Pittsburgh wins, they split the season series but Jacksonville would still have the beatpath through Denver. No change to the graph or rankings either way.

Overall, a fairly boring Saturday for the beatpaths.

NY GIANTS at Tampa Bay: Neither team has a beatpath to the other, but the Giants are highly favored. If the Giants win, they get a beatpath to Tampa Bay – Tampa Bay and New Orleans would each slide a tiny bit due to tiebreakers. If Tampa Bay wins, it’s beatlooped away due to games with Detroit and San Francisco. The Giants would lose their beatwin over Detroit, but Tampa Bay already has beatloops with those teams, so their beatpath graph relationship wouldn’t change. The end result would be that the Giants would drop a few slots, and Denver would rise above Tennessee.

Tennessee at SAN DIEGO: San Diego has a beatwin over Tennessee, from their comeback victory over Tennessee in Week 14. If Tennessee wins, they’d split the season series and shed the beatloss to San Diego. There’d be no change in the rankings, but… Tennessee would be the only team in the graph besides New England to have no beatlosses…