Football

With four weeks remaining in the 2022 NFL regular season, five teams can clinch a playoff berth by the end of Week 15.

The San Francisco 49ers can become the first team to claim a division title if they defeat the Seattle Seahawks on Thursday night. The Kansas City Chiefs and Minnesota Vikings can win their divisions with a victory or with losses by the Los Angeles Chargers (vs. Tennessee Titans) and Detroit Lions (vs. New York Jets).

The Buffalo Bills will clinch a playoff berth with a win over the Miami Dolphins. The Dallas Cowboys will make the playoffs with a victory against the Jacksonville Jaguars or with losses by the Seahawks and either the Lions or Washington Commanders.

The Philadelphia Eagles, owners of the league's best record at 12-1, were the first team to clinch a playoff berth. They locked up their spot with Sunday's 48-22 victory over the New York Giants.

Odds are strongly tilted toward the Eagles winning the NFC East, but the Cowboys are making them work for it. Dallas' 10-3 record is tied with the Vikings for the second-best mark in the NFC.

The Eagles have a 26-17 victory over the Cowboys earlier this season. The two NFC East rivals will meet for the second time on Christmas Eve in a game that could swing the balance of power in the division to Dallas if the Cowboys beat the Jaguars and Philadelphia stumbles on Sunday against the Chicago Bears.

The Chiefs have the easiest path to clinching a postseason berth this weekend. Their opponent, the Houston Texans, have the NFL's worst record (1-11-1). Houston did play well in a 27-23 loss to the Cowboys in Week 14.

Kansas City is coming off an uninspiring 34-28 victory over the Denver Broncos on Sunday. Patrick Mahomes threw a season-high three interceptions, though he also had 352 passing yards and three touchdowns.

The NFC West race seemed like it was going to be a battle all season. The Seahawks have been a pleasant surprise, while the 49ers have had to navigate losing Trey Lance and Jimmy Garoppolo to injuries.

Instead, the 49ers have rattled off six consecutive wins, and Seattle has lost three of its last four games. A Seahawks victory would move them within one game of the Niners atop the division standings.

Despite losing to the Lions on Sunday, the Vikings have built up such a big cushion in the division that they would have to lose out and Detroit would have to win out for the NFC North to become a race.

The Dolphins-Bills game has lost some of its luster because of Miami's recent struggles on offense. Miami already holds a victory over the Bills, and sweeping the regular-season series would put pressure on Buffalo in its quest to win the AFC East for a third consecutive year.

After months of speculation about where Odell Beckham Jr. will play this season, it turns out the three-time Pro Bowl wide receiver is leaning toward not signing with a team until the offseason.

Per ESPN's Jeremy Fowler, the belief among several NFL teams is that Beckham will sit out the entire 2022 season and sign with a team at the start of free agency in March.

One team executive told Fowler that Beckham will "be the prize" among free-agent receivers.

Once the Dallas Cowboys signed T.Y. Hilton on Monday, it seemed to indicate Beckham's recovery from a torn ACL might not have him ready to play this season.

There was a very public flirtation going on between Beckham and the Cowboys for several weeks prior to the Hilton signing.

"We've got a quarterback could really make some music with him," Cowboys owner Jerry Jones told reporters on Dec. 5. "I think we've got an offensive line that would give the quarterback time to make some music with him."

Beckham sat courtside with Micah Parsons and Trevon Diggs at a Phoenix Suns-Dallas Mavericks game on Dec. 5.

One day after Beckham's visit with the team, ESPN's Ed Werder reported the Cowboys had concerns after he took a physical that recovery from a torn ACL has not progressed enough to ensure he would be able to play before mid-January.

"There is a possibility that signing Beckham, who closed out his two-day visit with the Cowboys on Tuesday, would have no benefit until the 2023 season, the source added," suggested by Werder.

During a Dec. 8 appearance on The Shop, Beckham said he doesn't "see the point" in trying to play in the regular season this year.

Beckham tore his ACL in the second quarter of Super Bowl 56 while playing for the Los Angeles Rams.

Studies have shown typical recovery time from that injury for NFL players is right around 50 weeks. Beckham wouldn't hit that mark until the last week in January.

Given where teams are at this point in the season and his desire for a multiyear contract, it's hard to see where Beckham is a good fit until there is more clarity on his ability to return to the field.

If Beckham waits until free agency, presumably more teams will be able to make him an offer because they will have more cap space available than they do right now.

Attorneys Lisa Banks and Debra Katz wrote a letter to House Committee on Oversight and Reform ranking member James Comer demanding that "sexualized and salacious photographs" of ex-Washington Commanders cheerleaders be removed from all official Congressional records.

Per ESPN's John Keim and Tisha Thompson, Banks and Katz wrote the letter on behalf of over three dozen ex-cheerleaders and stated that they were "humiliated and incensed by the GOP's reckless dissemination of these photographs."

Rebecca Shabad and Michael Kosnar of NBC News noted the attorneys are asking that the photos get erased from any congressional servers, websites and the Congressional Record, if applicable.

The letter is in response to a memo sent by Republicans after the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Reform released its official report following an investigation into what they called the Commanders' "decades-long toxic workplace culture."

As Keim and Thompson noted, the photographs "were originally sent by the team's former general manager and team president Bruce Allen to former Las Vegas Raiders head coach Jon Gruden and several other men" via email. Fifty-seven emails were included in the memo sent by Republicans to GOP staff members and media outlets.

NBC News provided more information regarding the photographs in the memo:

"Republicans released the 210-page memo last week that featured explicit photos of the former cheerleaders. Their lawyers said Tuesday that the images, 'which show women's breasts, buttocks and genital areas, were disseminated without the women's permission.' (The GOP report put black boxes over the women's faces and some body parts.)."

Banks told ESPN that including the photos was "outrageous and "unnecessary, inappropriate and unprofessional."

A Committee Republican aide told ESPN "the pictures are not, and won't be, part of the Congressional record."

As for the report, the committee found that "dozens of employees at the Commanders were harmed by a toxic work culture for more than two decades," and that team owner Dan Snyder "permitted and participated in this troubling conduct," among other findings.