Winners Club: 49ers-Titans TNF Breakdown, Plus Omicron’s Threat to the Sports World

Tennessee is losing its grip on the AFC South as it hosts surging San Francisco.

Good morning! What a year this past week has been. COVID-19 is putting a damper on the home stretch of 2021 and sports leagues are feeling the strain.

More on how an increased number of positive cases and the threat of the omicron variant is affecting the NBA, NFL and, potentially, the College Football Playoff in today’s newsletter.

San Francisco 49ers (8-6) vs. Tennessee Titans (9-5)

8:20 p.m. ET, NFL Network

The Titans are losers of three of their last four games with the sole win in that stretch coming against Jacksonville. The 49ers, meanwhile, have won six of their last eight games to catapult into a playoff spot after a 2-4 start. George Kittle has emerged for San Francisco in the last three games, totaling 425 yards during that stretch. The opposite trajectories these teams are on over the last four weeks explains why the 49ers are a 3-point favorite on the road in the final Thursday night game of the year.

Photo credit: Mike Dinovo/USA TODAY Sports

SF-TEN Player Props: Jen Piacenti breaks down this NFC-AFC showdown and lets you in on five player props she’s targeting as well as her Against the Spread and Over/Under picks. “Defensively, these teams are pretty evenly matched. Offensively, San Francisco is trending in the better direction,” writes Piacenti.

TNF Best Bets: Frankie Taddeo presents all of the info you need to know on San Francisco and Tennessee before placing your wagers on Thursday Night Football and then offers up his own picks. “The Titans will be playing with desperation on the short week as the red-hot Colts have closed the gap to one game in the race for the AFC South crown,” writes Taddeo.

Dozens upon dozens of positive tests are affecting teams around the league, but the Titans and 49ers only have a handful of players on the reserve/COVID-19 list. The league updated its protocols a week ago, allowing for quicker returns for vaccinated, asymptomatic players.

NFL and Fantasy Football

Fantasy managers who are still alive in their respective playoff brackets are likely hoping for some sort of return to normalcy after a wild opening round to the 2021 fantasy postseason. And the NFL playoff race is as tight as it has been in recent history. Only five teams have been eliminated heading into Week 16 of the longest NFL regular season ever.

Start ‘Em, Sit ‘Em: Jaguars running back James Robinson was a “start” for Michael Fabiano in Week 15 and he delivered 75 rushing yards and a touchdown. Now, in another plus matchup against the Jets, the second-year player is Fabiano’s Start of the Week at running back. See who else made the cut and who he thinks should stay on your bench for this round.

Week 16 Projections and Rankings: The Rams travel to Minnesota to play the Vikings this weekend and Matt Stafford and Cooper Kupp are atop Shawn Childs’s projections at their respective positions. See how the rest of the top players shake out.

Photo credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

NFL Power Rankings: The Buccaneers slide and the Colts rise in the latest 1-32 breakdown of the best teams in the league. And after NFC teams dominated the conversation for much of the season, an AFC squad now holds the top spot and six of the top 10.

Tampa Bay to Sign Bell Following Fournette Injury: Le’Veon Bell, who last played for the Ravens earlier this season, is reportedly signing with the Buccaneers after Leonard Fournette was injured in a loss to the Saints. The team’s top running back is likely to land on injured reserve, which would rule him out for the remainder of the regular season.

College Football

Thursday brings two more bowl games: The Frisco Football Classic between North Texas and Miami (Ohio) at 3:30 p.m. ET as well as the Gasparilla Bowl, which pits UCF against Florida at 7 p.m. ET.

CFB Composite Picks: If you’re planning to bet on either of these games, check out Richard Johnson’s model before doing so. Miami is a 2.5-point favorite and Florida is favored by seven on SI Sportsbook.

CFP Announces COVID-19 Procedures: The committee is planning for the possibilities of postponements, cancellations and, in an extreme case, a vacated title as COVID-19 concerns swirl around the sport. Texas A&M already had to withdraw from its bowl game as a result of an outbreak.

NBA Action

There are 10 games going on around the association on Thursday night before the one-day hiatus for Christmas Eve. A bit of a programming note: The regularly scheduled NBA SO/UP picks will not be coming out later today. Instead, I recruited five guest pickers to help me pick each of the Christmas Day games. That will be up on si.com/betting later in the day.

How the NBA is Dealing with Omicron: The league is testing for COVID-19 more frequently as cases rise within its ranks and beyond. Former players and players you’ve never heard of are getting the call up as replacement players with so many stars sidelined. “The NBA’s new reality is that you are just as likely to see a roster of G-Leaguers than NBA regulars right now,” writes Chris Mannix.

NBA Power Rankings: The top three of Phoenix, Golden State and Utah remain unchanged while Brooklyn, Cleveland and Chicago are all on the rise.

Photo credit: Brad Penner/USA TODAY Sports

That’s all for today. As always, thanks for reading. Happy holidays and stay safe. I’ll be back on Sunday.