It was a rough year for New England football fans. In terms of the Patriots, the next big thing to look forward to is a top 3 pick in the draft. However, it seems many Pats fans (including myself) will enjoy watching football games without the stress of the team, and the NFL playoffs will provide just the opportunity.

It’s honestly been a weird year across the entire league. Injuries have been more widespread than ever. Half of teams are down to their backup QBs (though most of them missed the playoffs). In the end though, I think the team that prevails in these playoffs will still have three basic things a typical Super Bowl contender needs:

1. A franchise QB
2. A strong defense (preferably elite)
3. A fairly healthy roster

There are very few teams that check these boxes, but once the playoff field has narrowed to these teams, it could get very exciting. Keep reading to be taken through my predictions and rationale for the playoffs. Get your popcorn ready, there will be some surprises.

Super Wild Card Weekend

I don’t get why this still needs to be called Super Wild Card Weekend. At this point fans should be used to the 14 team format. However, as usual, I don’t see the 7 seeds making much impact. QB Mason Rudolph may have led the Steelers to some surprising end of season wins, but I don’t trust him at all in these AFC playoffs. QB Jordan Love and the Packers could give Dallas a run for their money, but at the end of the day this Cowboys team looks more complete than in recent years. Dak Prescott has emerged as their clear franchise guy in a career year and the defense is elite. 

On the other hand, I have both 5 seeds winning, with the Eagles regaining their footing in Tampa after an embarrassing Week 18 loss, and the Browns preventing the high-powered Texans pass offense from doing much at all. That’s all for upsets in this round, but the bigger shockers will come later. 

As for the 3-6 games, Lions-Rams should be a fun one but I think these teams are almost headed in opposite directions. The Rams pieced together a nice season, but at the end of the day QB Matthew Stafford is aging as QB Jared Goff blossoms in Detroit. Chiefs-Dolphins will probably be lower scoring than most people expect, but the Dolphins really haven’t proven to me they can succeed against good teams so I cannot pick them to prevail here.

Divisional Round

The AFC should be fairly chalky, with the Ravens winning a defensive battle to take down Cleveland. Cleveland’s defense is great but Baltimore’s is on another level, and having QB Lamar Jackson leading the offense helps too. I do have the 3-seeded Chiefs taking down the 2-seeded Bills, but this should not be a huge shocked to anyone who’s seen the playoff history between these two teams.

In the NFC, I have the 49ers going one and done as the Eagles shock them. I think Philly still has the talent to make a deep playoff run. It seems to many they’ve looked lost in recent weeks, but I expect a sort of reset for these playoffs and expect the team to go in looking to prove all the haters wrong. This defense has a lot more talent than its performance this year has shown for, and the offense has still looked fairly strong. As for San Fran, the system may be great, but I don’t think we’ll see peak Brock Purdy in these playoffs.

The Eagles will move on to face their divisional rivals in Dallas for the NFC Championship, as the Lions make for a second straight shootout but fall short to Prescott and the Cowboys. That leaves us with four franchise QBs for the final two rounds of the playoffs: Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson, Jalen Hurts, and Dak Prescott.

AFC Championship

The Chiefs have been the guardians of the AFC Championship ever since QB Patrick Mahomes started playing. I think they have the tools to make it, but once they get there and have to play up against an even more complete team, their lack of WR talent could start to show. The Ravens have a much more well rounded offense that’s better suited to win this game, and TE Mark Andrews’ return will only help matters. Yes, we haven’t seen a Super Bowl run let alone a multi-game playoff run out of QB Lamar Jackson, but this is a new era under OC Todd Monken.

NFC Championship

I could see this one going either way. Honestly though, this Cowboys run defense is a little overrated, and I expect the Eagles to expose it. Look for a huge game out of QB Jalen Hurts and RBs D’Andre Swift and Kenneth Gainwell as the Eagles take this train all the way to the Super Bowl.

Super Bowl LVII

Ravens, 30, Eagles, 20

While Philly does have the tools to go far, I still don’t see them beating the Ravens. First of all, the Ravens have been the better team on both sides of the ball this year. Second of all, the general gap between AFC and NFC top dogs is growing, with the AFC pulling ahead. Despite the deep run, the Eagles may very well end up the modern NFC’s version of the 1990’s Bills.

Here’s a complete graphic of the bracket:

Please feel free to comment with your thoughts, and enjoy the games!