The NFL regular season officially ended on Sunday, January 5th, 2025. The playoff matchups are set, with the wildcard round beginning this weekend with two games on Saturday.
To start the playoffs, the fifth seeded Los Angeles Chargers will travel to play the fourth seeded Houston Texans at 4:30 PM EST on Saturday. After, at 8 PM, an AFC North division matchup will happen with the sixth seeded Pittsburgh Steelers and the third seeded Baltimore Ravens in Baltimore. They split their matchups in the regular season, with the Steelers winning 18-6 in their first game, and the Ravens winning the next, 34-17.
A day later, the second seeded Buffalo Bills, will host the seventh seeded Denver Broncos, at 1:00 PM EST. This is Denver’s first playoff game since 2015, breaking a 10-year playoff drought. A couple of hours later,at 4:30 PM, the second seeded Philadelphia Eagles will host the seventh seeded Green Bay Packers. These teams played each other previously in the second game of the NFL season, in Brazil. Marking the first time the NFL has played a game in South America. The Eagles won in a close contest, with a final score of 34-29. In the night game, the sixth seeded Washington Commanders will face the third seeded Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The game will be in Tampa at 8:00 PM EST. These teams previously faced off in week one, the Buccaneers beat the Commanders 37-20.
There is one game on Monday at 8:00 PM EST, the fourth seeded Los Angeles Rams hosting the fifth seeded Minnesota Vikings. Both teams faced each other in week 8 on a Thursday night game. The Los Angeles Rams won 30-20.
The number one seed in the NFC, Detroit Lions, earned a bye week for the first round of the playoffs. The two time-defending Super Bowl champion in the AFC, Kansas City Chiefs, also earned a first-round bye.
The divisional round will take place next week. The times and dates are still yet to be determined and will be announced once the last wildcard game ends on Monday night. However, there will be two games on both Saturday, January 18th, and Sunday, January 19th. On Sunday the 26th, the Conference Championship will take place to discover the Super Bowl matchup. The Super Bowl will take place two weeks later on February 9th with a time yet to be determined in New Orleans, Louisiana. The Pro Bowl games will happen a week before on February 2nd.