The NFL’s Wild-Card Weekend is on tap starting Saturday and also brings our last Monday Night Football game of the season. Six teams – Carolina, Chicago, Jacksonville, New England, San Francisco and Seattle – qualified for the playoffs after missing the post-season last year. Here’s a look at each Wild-Card game.
NFL Wild-Card Round Predictions: Best Picks Against the Spread
This one gets us started with the Rams earning the NFC’s top Wild-Card spot and No. 5 seed on Sunday with an easy 37-20 win over Arizona. Matthew Stafford had four TD passes, his ninth game this season with at least three and no interceptions, second-most in a campaign in history. We will have to see if Stafford did enough to win his first regular-season MVP. Carolina lost on Saturday in Tampa and thus had to wait and see what Atlanta did on Sunday vs. New Orleans as to whether the Panthers would be NFC South champions and the No. 4 seed. The Falcons cooperated. Stafford had three turnovers when L.A. was upset, 31-28, at Carolina in Week 13.
The NFL’s oldest rivalry is renewed for the third time this season with the home team winning each – the Bears’ 22-16 OT win in Week 16 was truly a miracle. Both clubs lost Sunday. Green Bay was locked into the NFC’s No. 7 seed so rested most starters at Minnesota. Pack QB Jordan Love hasn’t played since that Chicago loss due in part to a concussion but will be ready. The NFC North champion Bears tried to win Sunday but lost in the final seconds to Detroit. But Philadelphia’s upset loss still handed Chicago the conference’s No. 2 seed.
Buffalo is the AFC’s No. 5 seed but 0-2 all-time in the playoffs vs. the Jaguars and 0-4 on the road in the post-season under star QB Josh Allen. But the Bills have won in the Wild-Card Round in each of the past five seasons. AFC South champion and No. 3 seed Jacksonville enters on an eight-game winning streak. The Jaguars have outscored teams by a whopping 153 points during that streak, the fourth-best differential in the final eight games of any team in the past 35 seasons. These clubs didn’t play this season.
The Niners had a chance to win the NFC West and earn the conference’s No. 1 seed on Saturday but were dominated at home by Seattle, 13-3, and thus earned the No. 6 seed. The three points were the fewest scored for San Francisco since Week 1 in 2017, the first game of Kyle Shanahan’s head coaching career. The NFC East champion Eagles had a shot at the conference’s No. 2 seed on Sunday, but they opted to rest starters and lost to Washington to earn the No. 3. Philly was the NFL’s only repeat division winner this season. The teams haven’t met since 2023.
Little bit surprised this got the Sunday night slot over Niners-Eagles. The AFC East champion Patriots are the No. 2 seed, and second-year QB Drake Maye might be the regular-season MVP. This team won only four games in 2024 but 14 this year, tying the NFL’s biggest year-over-year wins increase. But New England also had by far the league’s easiest slate. The No. 7 seed Chargers rested Justin Herbert and many guys Sunday and got handled in Denver. Herbert is 0-2 in his playoff career and had a career-high four picks in last year’s Wild-Card Round loss in Houston. These teams didn’t play this season.
As noted, this is the last Monday game of the season. AFC No. 5 seed Houston is the hottest team in the NFL on a nine-game winning streak, becoming only the seventh team to make the post-season following a 0-3 start. The Texans have the league’s top defence but are 0-5 all-time on the road in the playoffs. Pittsburgh won an incredible Sunday night game over Baltimore to claim the AFC North and the No. 4 seed but has dropped six straight playoff games, tied for the longest active streak. These teams didn’t meet this season and never have previously in the playoffs.
Pick ATS: Pittsburgh
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