The First Read: One reason for hope for nine bubble teams still in NFL playoff hunt; top MVP candidates

In The First Read, Jeffri Chadiha provides a snapshot of the hottest stories and trends heading into Week 16 of the 2023 NFL season, including:

But first, why nine teams currently outside of the playoff picture still have hope for a postseason berth ...

It's about that time. We're in the stretch run of the regular season and we're going to be talking about playoff scenarios every week moving forward. The beauty of that exercise is that there are no dominant teams in the league this year. The San Francisco 49ers are probably as close as we'll come, and even they had to deal with a three-game losing streak earlier this year.

The biggest takeaway from Week 15 of this NFL season is that the playoff picture will be muddled until the final games are wrapping up three weeks from now. The division races are mostly competitive, but the true intrigue revolves around the teams that currently sit on the bubble for playoff spots. Only six teams have been mathematically eliminated as of this writing, so you can imagine how many squads are still praying for the opportunity to reach the postseason. There currently are six teams in both the AFC and the NFC that are within at least three games of the final wild-card spot. The question facing all of them is one we'll evaluate in this week's version of The First Read:

Why should they be hopeful?

Some of these teams have been trending in the right direction, while others have been dealing with a variety of challenges in recent weeks. The common denominator for all of them is that the NFL truly is unpredictable. Any one of these teams still in the hunt can find itself in the postseason if certain variables work out in its favor.

So here's one reason for each team that isn't holding a playoff