The stakes are about to get raised across the NFL as we enter the knockout stages of the 2025 season after 18 weeks of league play. Just 14 teams remain on the road to Super Bowl 60 as we get set to embark on one of the most wide-open playoff tournaments in living memory.
The Wild Card Round action runs from Saturday to Monday and will feature six games. Each has a compelling storyline and matchup, but I've narrowed it down to three key contests I will be keeping an extra-close eye on.
Battle of prolific quarterbacks in Jacksonville
For me, the game of the weekend will take place in Florida from 6pm on Sunday as the 12-5 Buffalo Bills visit the 13-4 AFC South champion Jacksonville Jaguars. This will be a showdown between two quarterbacks very capable of taking over a game.
Buffalo's Josh Allen has accounted for 39 offensive touchdowns in 2025 – second-most in the NFL. And he has a path to the Super Bowl that is devoid of Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson and Joe Burrow. And yet this opportunity comes at a time when Buffalo feels more beatable than in many a year. For the Bills to win this one, you would surely expect some magic from the player capable of taking over this entire playoff tournament. Allen can be the Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo of this postseason.
Jacksonville's Trevor Lawrence is in the form of his NFL life and his 38 offensive touchdowns rank third in the league. His growth under first-year head coach Liam Coen has almost been as dramatic as the Jaguars' turnaround. This team won just four games last year. But they are brimming with confidence having won eight in a row.
Lawrence summed up the mentality of the Jaguars heading into this biggest of games when he said this week: "We have all the confidence that we can beat anybody."
There will be other determining factors outside of the quarterbacks, of course. Will league-leading running back James Cook have a big role to play for Buffalo? How many takeaways will Jacksonville's ball-hawking defense come up with? This feels like a true coin-flip game that goes down to the wire.
A rivalry resumed
In the early hours of Saturday night into Sunday morning, the league's most-played rivals will meet for the 213th time as the 9-7-1 Green Bay Packers take on the 11-6 NFC North champion Chicago Bears for the third time this season.
And even though the Packers reverse into the playoffs as losers of four in a row, I think they will be quietly confident about facing an explosive Chicago team that does not always maintain its high level of play for all four quarters.
The Packers beat the Bears in Green Bay in early December and should have won the December 20 re-match at Soldier Field, even with star defender Micah Parsons gone for the year by that stage. The Bears were in hibernation for the first 50-plus minutes of that game before rallying late, recovering an onside kick, tying the game and winning on a stunning Caleb Williams throw in overtime. QB Jordan Love returns from injury for another crack at the Bears.
Chicago have lived on the edge for much of this season, but they have great belief that Williams will lead them to victory in the end. He is one of the most dynamic playmakers left in the race to Super Bowl 60 and has been a big reason why this team has become so enjoyable to watch and why Chicago have 11 wins this season compared to five in 2024. Homefield advantage might be just enough to see the Bears home, but this will be close and dramatic.
Purdy out for revenge
The second game on Sunday evening sees the San Francisco 49ers travel east to take on the Philadelphia Eagles from 9.30pm. This offers a chance at revenge for Brock Purdy. San Francisco's quarterback was knocked out of the NFC Championship Game in 2022 and when backup Josh Johnson went down, the Niners put Christian McCaffrey at quarterback and were effectively forced to run out the clock on their Super Bowl dreams.
Purdy was in red-hot form in Weeks 16 and 17 before running into the buzzsaw that is the Seattle Seahawks defense in Week 18. The Eagles are another problematic and physical defense with playmakers and dominant forces on all three levels. How Purdy – guided by head coach Kyle Shanahan – fares against that unit will be key.
There remain questions around the validity and consistency of Philadelphia's 24th-ranked offense. That unit and, in turn, quarterback Jalen Hurts, gets bogged down for long periods of far too many games. But the recent resurgence of running back Saquon Barkley has to help Hurts and the passing attack. Barkley, who averaged 62 rushing yards per game in the season's first 13 weeks, has been up to 100 per contest over the past month.
Nick Sirianni has never lost a home playoff game as head coach of the Eagles and given the devastating injuries San Francisco have experienced in this campaign, I think he keeps that unbeaten streak going at the weekend.Neil Reynolds Wild Card Round Eye on the NFL
