Dan Johnson has been an editor, writer, and analyst for DraftKings and DraftKings Network since 2024. He’s previously held editorial posts at The Paris Review, Macmillan Publishers, Bedford/St. Martin’s Press, ASSIGNMENT Magazine, and FantasySixPack. You can find his various editorial work & writing (sports-related and non-) at all of the above.
Conference play always feels like the moment the sport exhales and gets serious. Talk disappears, and every possession starts counting toward a bracket you can’t see yet. UT Martin walks into Nashville with the OVC’s best record and a real nonconference résumé in its pockets. Tennessee State opens league play in its own gym with […]
December 18, 2025
Thursday night in Seattle should play out like a playoff preview wearing a regular-season label. Both teams enter 11-3, tied atop the NFC West, with San Francisco lurking at 10-4. Los Angeles has already clinched a berth, and it’s fighting to keep its grip on the NFC’s No. 1 seed. Seattle can clinch with a […]
December 18, 2025
Monday night in Pittsburgh should feel like steel on your teeth, with breath hanging in the lights. Miami shows up playing loose after a season that got reset in public. Pittsburgh shows up tense, because the home crowd has been sharp lately. This game also lives under one brutal reality: T.J. Watt is not walking […]
December 14, 2025
Sunday night in Arlington feels like a sealed-room trial, with every snap echoing inside the roof. Dallas is chasing oxygen, because the playoff math is thinning after Detroit hung 44. Minnesota arrives scarred from a month of stalls, then freshly rinsed by a 31-0 shutout. The week’s loudest news is Trevon Diggs staying on IR, […]
December 14, 2025
Bank of America Stadium gets weird late in the season, when bad blood and bad math start sharing a locker. Carolina is still playing for something real, and the week has carried that quiet urgency. New Orleans is playing spoiler, which is always when divisional games get sharp. The Saints have lived in close losses […]
December 14, 2025
Levi’s Stadium in December has a way of stripping games down to intention. San Francisco is chasing posture, not permission, trying to look like itself again before the calendar tightens. Tennessee arrives carrying the strange energy of a bad record with nothing left to hide. One team wants control and clarity. The other wants to […]
December 14, 2025
Lumen in December is a volume test. The noise bends protections, the air bites, and every visiting offense feels rushed before the ball is even snapped. Seattle has built this season around that edge, stacking defensive stops until opponents crack. Indianapolis arrives with its season already bruised, now carrying the strangest late-year pivot imaginable. Below […]
December 14, 2025
Empower Field in December isn’t polite. The air is thin, the turf is hard, and visiting quarterbacks feel every third down in their lungs. Denver has leaned into that edge all season, turning home games into attrition tests instead of track meets. Green Bay arrives rolling offensively, but this is the kind of spot where […]
December 14, 2025
SoFi on a December afternoon doesn’t feel cold, but it still sharpens edges. This is where structure gets tested. The Rams come home with control of the NFC in sight, playing fast and clean in a building designed for offense. Detroit arrives carrying urgency, not comfort, chasing a wild-card berth while patching together a secondary […]
December 14, 2025
NRG is the kind of dome where a contender can make a bad team feel small. Arizona walks in battered and searching, with the season already drifting into evaluation mode. Houston walks in with real January ambition and a defense that has started to look inevitable. The week’s noise lives in the injury cloud around […]
December 13, 2025
Paycor in mid-December feels like a confessional. Cincinnati already throttled Baltimore once, that 32–14 Thanksgiving humiliation that splintered belief on both sidelines. Since then the Bengals have lived under a spotlight, with Joe Burrow wondering aloud whether the grind still feels fun. The Ravens arrive dragging a month of stalled possessions and questions about whether […]
December 13, 2025