After 17 long weeks, the NFL regular season is over. The league’s twelve best teams prepare for the playoffs while the rest of the league wonders what went wrong and how they can better prepare for next season.

The big story leading into wildcard weekend is the question mark at the quarterback position for the Oakland Raiders. After starting quarterback and MVP candidate Derek Carr broke his fibula in week sixteen and backup Matt McGloin injured his shoulder in the season closer against the Broncos, the starting quarterback will be rookie Connor Cook.

The Raiders hold the second seed in the AFC and a bye in the Wildcard round leading up to the playoffs, but got kicked back to the fifth seed after a loss to the Broncos under the lead of McGloin.

The Raiders will go up against the Texans, who are having a similar struggle at the quarterback position. In Week 15, Texan’s coach Bill O’Brien made the decision to bench starting quarterback Brock Osweiler due to his poor performance for backup Tom Savage. But after Savage suffered a concussion in Week 17, Osweiler was named the starter once again.

This season, Osweiler threw 15 touchdowns and 16 interceptions with only a 59 completion percentage. In the one full game and two partial games that Savage has played in, he has completed 46-of-73 passes for 461 passing yards and no touchdowns or interceptions.

The Texans and Raiders play in Houston on Saturday, January 7^th at 4:35 p.m.

The other big stories leading into the playoffs is the annual coaching carousal. Each year, several unsuccessful teams fire their head coaches and these coaches often tend to be rotated to another team who also recently fired a coach.

So far this season, San Francisco 49ers fired their coach Chip Kelly and General Manager Trent Baalke. The Los Angeles Rams fired coach Jeff Fisher. The Jacksonville Jaguars fired Gus Bradley. The San Diego Chargers released coach Mike McCoy. The Buffalo Bill’s head coach Rex Ryan and assistant coach Rob Ryan were fired together. Also, Denver coach Gary Kubiak has retired from coaching, allegedly for health reasons.

Excluding Kubiak and the Broncos, not one team who fired their coach had a winning record this season, with the average win percentage at a mere 26.3 percent.

Some of the popular coaching candidates for each team include New England staffers Josh McDaniels and Matt Patricia. Both Patricia and McDaniels have been with the Patriots for a large majority of their careers, so the likelihood of their leaving is uncertain.

McDaniels, who was a head coach for the Broncos in 2009 and 2010, has three interviews scheduled with the Rams, the 49ers, and the Jaguars. It’s clear that teams would hire McDaniels, but what isn’t clear is if McDaniels wants to leave the consistent success he has found with the Patriots.

Patricia also has a few interviews scheduled, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL.com. Patricia, who has never held a head coaching job, is set to meet with the Rams and the Chargers. Patricia also interview with the Cleveland Browns last year, but the Browns instead went with Cincinnati Bengals offensive coordinator Hue Jackson.

Any major career change most likely won’t happen for McDaniels or Patricia until after the Patriot’s playoff run is over. Until then, let the football world enjoy the race to the Lombardi trophy.

Brent’s Top 5 QB’s – Week 17 (Last week in parentheses)

1. Tom Brady – Tom Brady has 28 touchdowns and 2 interceptions. Enough said. (1)

2. Matt Ryan – Matt Ryan should be the league MVP since Brady had that four-game suspension. Don’t be surprised if you see Ryan and the Falcons in the NFC Championship game. (2)

3. Drew Brees – Drew Brees just had his fifth 5,000-plus passing yard season. That’s more than all other quarterbacks combined. Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, Dan Marino, and Matthew Stafford all have just one. (5)

4. Aaron Rodgers – He said he would run the table and he did. Six-game win streak for the Packers brought to you by Aaron Rodgers and Jordy Nelson. (3)

5. Ben Roethlisberger – First appearance on this list for Big Ben, and it probably should’ve happened before Week 17. (Not Ranked)