With 49ers/Steelers and Saints/Falcons on the horizon, this is our last week of lackluster Monday Night Football matchups so stick with me! Both of tonight’s teams have a better chance at a top 10 pick than they do a playoff spot, but there’s still plenty of interest in tonight’s game for all of us fantasy nerds. Before we get to that, however, let’s do a quick Week 14 reset and take a look at what the playoffs would look like if the season ended today (take these with a grain of salt since some are based on tiebreakers):

Early-game action had T.J. Yates carrying the Texans over the Bengals, Chris Johnson reverting back to CJ0K form as the Titans lost to the Saints, the Lions squeaking by over the Vikings (there’s an ABP out for Calvin Johnon’s hot-streak), and the Eagles starting their season way too late in beating Miami. Elsewhere, the Jets cost Todd Hailey his job in a romp over the Chiefs, Matt Ryan led the Falcons to a close one over the Panthers, Indianapolis fell to 0-13 in losing to the Ravens, and Maurice Jones-Drew went absolutely hog-wild in the Jaguars’ 41-14 win over Tampa Bay.

There’s an elephant in the room when it comes to the late-games, but first: the 49ers started to lose their grasp on a 1st-round bye with a loss to the lowly Cardinals, the Packers made the Raiders wish there was a Mercy Rule, the Chargers kept their playoff hopes on life-support in beating the Bills, and the Giants took control over the NFC East in beating the Cowboys on the strength of yet another Dan Bailey icing (this time not by his own coach’s doing).

And lastly…this is starting to feel like Groundhog’s Day writing this every week, but Tebow did it AGAIN! With Belichick and Brady coming to town…is this the week that the magic pixie dust runs out?

As I mentioned above, neither of the teams in tonight’s game have any type of playoff ramifications to worry about, and if you look at each team’s quarterback situation, it’s not hard to see why. Former #1 pick, Sam Bradford, has all the talent in the world but has had trouble staying upright (though it looks like he’ll play tonight) while the Seahawks seem intent on running their ship aground with either Tavaris Jackson or Charlie Whitehurst at the helm. I think the Rams owe Bradford another season with some actual receiving weapons at his disposal, but a top-10 pick might do wonders for this Seahawks squad.

Both teams come into tonight’s game in the bottom-half of the league in the major offensive and defensive categories (outside of rushing yards allowed for Seattle and passing yards allowed for St. Louis). In looking at those numbers, it’s not very hard to see why both of these teams are pretty darn close to a barren wasteland for fantasy owners. Steven Jackson and Brandon Lloyd have been staples for fantasy owners this year, but both have been struggling as of late (Jackson hasn’t had double-digit points for four weeks) and are no longer the safe plays they were earlier in the season. On the Seattle side of the ball, the aforementioned Tavaris Jackson has pretty much sapped any fantasy value from his banged-up receiving corps and Marshawn Lynch is really the only Seahawk worth owning right now (outside of their defense for tonight’s matchup).

Fantasy-wise, I could definitely see Steven Jackson struggling against Seattle’s 11th-ranked run defense – especially if Seattle goes up early. I was a little down on Brandon Lloyd all week with rumors that Kellen Clemens or Tom Brandstater would be throwing him the ball, but I think his owners can breathe a little easier with Bradford likely to play. For Seattle, I think anyone relying on Doug Baldwin or Golden Tate might be in for a bit of a letdown against the Rams’ 8th-ranked pass defense (not to mention the fact that Tavaris Jackson is the one delivering them the ball). On the bright side for the Seahawks…their defense has a great matchup and should deliver double-digit returns for those that took a risk on them. And of course, Marshawn Lynch has a juicy matchup against St. Louis 32-ranked run defense and I’d be surprised if he doesn’t continue each and every one of these streaks: 14+ fantasy points in his last five games, 100+ yards in four of his last five games, six touchdowns in his last six games.

And finally, looking into my crystal ball for tonight…I’m going to predict a Seahawks victory to the tune of 24-13.

As always, let’s end this week with some of top fantasy-related news from Sunday: