The 2022 NFL regular season is over. The 2023 NFL Playoffs are upon us.
The second full weekend of January will drop three days of postseason action on the world — two games on Saturday, three on Sunday and what could be Tom Brady’s final game on Monday night. Twelve teams will begin their journey to Super Bowl 57 in the Wild Card round.
The prize is a trip to Glendale, Arizona for a week of media availability and a place in the biggest football game in the world. Can comets like the Jacksonville Jaguars and Los Angeles Chargers continue to streak across the NFL’s sky? Will the apparent flaws of teams like the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and New York Giants prove fatal?
We’ll get our answers starting January 14. Here’s the schedule for the Wild Card round:
SATURDAY
4:30 EST: Seahawks @ 49ers (FOX)
8:15 EST: Chargers @ Jaguars (NBC)
SUNDAY
1:00 EST: Dolphins @ Bills (CBS)
4:30 EST: Giants @ Vikings (FOX)
8:15 EST: Ravens @ Bengals (NBC)
MONDAY
8:15 EST: Cowboys @ Buccaneers (ESPN/ABC)
THE BRACKET IS SET! #NFL
LET'S DO THIS THING. pic.twitter.com/eMOGViN9D4
— Sunday Night Football on NBC (@SNFonNBC) January 9, 2023
After that, the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles jump into the mix with the easiest paths to the Super Bowl in their respective conferences. Who’ll win it all? Here’s my mildly educated stab at a prediction.
Wild Card Round
- San Francisco 49ers over Seattle Seahawks
- Jacksonville Jaguars over Los Angeles Chargers
- Buffalo Bills over Miami Dolphins
- Minnesota Vikings over New York Giants
- Cincinnati Bengals over Baltimore Ravens
- Tampa Bay Buccaneers over Dallas Cowboys
It’s a mostly chalky opening round for the 2023 playoffs. Jaguars-Chargers feels like a coin flip. Los Angeles has the more talented roster but Jacksonville has better coaching and homefield advantage. Do you take the team that nearly lost to Joshua Dobbs at home in a de facto playoff game? Or the one that played its starters entirely too long in a meaningless Week 18 game and managed to lose to broken Russell Wilson? It’s not like you can ask the football gods to weigh in, because years of postseason returns suggest they hate both franchises equally.
Taking the Buccaneers over the Cowboys feels stupid, but right. Dallas remains a Mike McCarthy production, which means it will always seek out the hard way in the playoffs. Tampa Bay is playing what could be Tom Brady’s final game in the NFL and what probably will be his final home game as a Buc. These teams are both very different than they were in Week 1’s borderline unwatchable slog, but I’m not about to count out Touchdown Tom.
Divisional Round
- Kansas City Chiefs over Jacksonville Jaguars
- Buffalo Bills over Cincinnati Bengals
- Philadelphia Eagles over Tampa Bay Buccaneers
- San Francisco 49ers over Minnesota Vikings
The Jags’ run ends here, but it was fun while it lasted. Bills-Bengals is another coin toss game that will be influenced by more than just the level of talent on the field. Ultimately, we hope it’s a game Damar Hamlin will be in Highmark Stadium to attend. As much as I like Joe Burrow and a Bengals team that realizes its potential when the games matter most, I cannot bet against Buffalo, at home, potentially playing in front of the teammate who collapsed on the field preceding a what continues to be a stunning recovery that restored our faith good things can happen in this world.
The Eagles are a much better team than the Bucs, Touchdown Tom or no. The Vikings are ripe for disappointment — a 13-4 record and a -3 scoring differential! — and the Niners have the kind of defense that will spark months of speculation over Kirk Cousins’ long term future in the Twin Cities.
Conference Championships
- Kansas City Chiefs over Buffalo Bills
- San Francisco 49ers over Philadelphia Eagles
The Bills can win in Kansas City. They were a coin toss away from doing it in last year’s playoffs. But a large part of Buffalo’s regular season win at Arrowhead Stadium was its ability to bring pressure without blitzing. Von Miller had two sacks and two quarterback hits that afternoon, but he won’t make an appearance this postseason thanks to a torn ACL. That creates just enough cover for the Chiefs to escape with a win … again.
The Eagles are a very good team who still feel like an unfinished product — especially with Jalen Hurts nursing a sore shoulder and Lane Johnson dealing with an abdominal tear. The 49ers, on the other hand, have dealt with a smattering of injuries on the offensive side of the ball but keep rolling thanks to a smothering defense. I’m rolling with them in a grind-em-out game.
Super Bowl 57
- San Francisco 49ers over Kansas City Chiefs
It’s a rematch of Super Bowl 54 — and this time, the 49ers have replaced the shaky quarterback whose fourth quarter failings cost them a world championship with the final player selected in the 2022 NFL Draft. Brock Purdy isn’t going to throw his way to a title with a barrage of deep shots, but he can execute Kyle Shanahan’s “no one look too hard at our quarterback” offense effectively. He’ll get the ball to Deebo Samuel and Brandon Aiyuk and George Kittle and Christian McCaffrey and Eli Mitchell, they’ll carve out big gains after the catch, and the Niners get their revenge after blowing a 10-point fourth quarter lead in 2020.
