NFC Wildcard Preview: Matchups and Predictions

The 2024 NFL playoffs have officially arrived. After Sunday night’s thriller between the Detroit Lions and the Minnesota Vikings, the NFC playoff bracket is officially set. After a dominant 31-9 victory at home in Ford Field, Dan Campbell and his Lions squad end the year with a franchise-breaking 15-2 record. In the battle for NFC’s top seed, the Lions successfully limited the Vikings most dangerous weapon Justin Jefferson who was held to just three catches for 54 yards. Quarterback Sam Darnold had a hard night as he could never find a groove and was constantly under pressure forcing him to leave the pocket making plays even harder to execute. The Lions truly won this game through Jahmyr Gibbs who had an expected larger role due to the injury of David Montgomery which gave Gibbs even more playing time. Gibbs finished the game with an outstanding 139 rushing yards in addition to four total touchdowns. The Lions are now able to rest through the intense wildcard round and wait to play the NFC’s lowest remaining seed back at Ford Field in just under a couple of weeks. As for the rest of the playoff teams in the NFC, let’s break down and predict each matchup to see who will be advancing into the divisional round.

https://x.com/NFL/status/1876114059407642737

The first NFC wildcard game will be hosted by the second-seed Philadelphia Eagles as they take on the seventh and lowest-seed Green Bay Packers. This season, the Eagles have surpassed their extremely high expectations this year by winning the NFC East with an incredible record of 14-3. With the addition of former Giants running back Saqoun Barkley, their running attack behind their strong offensive line and quarterback Jalen Hurts was nearly impossible to stop. Center Cam Jurgens has done a great job filling in for former Eagles and future hall of famer center Jason Kelce who retired at the end of last season. The Eagles have done a great job on all phases of offence as star receivers A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith have been spectacular despite each player battling through injuries this season. The most surprising thing about the Eagles is their new-look defence as defensive coordinator Vic Fangio has completely flipped things around in Philadelphia as they were one of the worst defences in football last season. Even with a strong roster, many critics believed he would have another failed tenure after having a horrible 2023 season coaching the Dolphins defence. But, drafting cornerbacks Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean and reacquiring C.J. Gardner-Johnson has shaped this Eagles defence into one of the best back elevens in the NFL. On the other hand, the Packers despite an improved 11-6 record still find themselves as NFC’s bottom seed going into the playoffs. Even though Jordan Love has increased his role on the Packers offence, repeating wildcard wins as the seventh seed seems unlikely due to the high level of football the Eagles play consistently. The Packers play at their best when they run the ball well with their running back Josh Jacobs who replaced Aaron Jones this offseason. For detail, when the Packers efficiently run the ball, it allows Jordan Love and his receivers to connect on long and deep play action plays where receivers such as Jayden Reed, Christian Watson, and even Romeo Doubs have all had long receptions this year through play action. 

Breaking down this matchup, the Eagles are a -4.5 favourite on the spread and a -250 favourite to win outright per BetMGM. While the Packers did defeat the second seed last year as NFC’s bottom seed, they are playing a significantly better team as the Eagles are not notoriously known for choking in the playoffs such as Mike McCarthy’s Dallas Cowboys. While I believe the Packers will hang around and truly keep it close, having their best defensive player Jaire Alexander missing the entire playoffs will be too much for their secondary to keep up with the Eagles explosive receivers. For my official prediction, I expect the Eagles to win this game by a couple of possessions in a back-and-forth game but the Eagles coming out victorious covering the 4.5-point spread too.

Eagles vs Packers

• Eagles -4.5
• Packers +4.5

Going into the next wildcard game, the third-seed Tampa Bay Buccaneers will be hosting the sixth-seed Washington Commanders on Sunday night in an entertaining wildcard matchup. Despite a mediocre 10-7 record, the Buccaneers were just able to win the weakened NFC South with a sketchy win against the New Orleans Saints. This season, Bucs quarterback Baker Mayfield had to heavily rely on his veteran receiver Mike Evans as his go-to target who just tied Jerry Rice’s record for eleven consecutive seasons with 1000 receiving yards every season. With the loss of Chris Godwin this year, rookie receiver Jalen McMillan has been a solid replacement and has well earned a starting spot on this Buccaneers offence. Although the Buccaneers offensive line has been subpar this season, rookie Bucky Irving has complimented their rushing attack as he has rushed for over 1100 yards with eight touchdowns to go with it. As for the Commanders, they have heavily exceeded their low expectations with an impressive 12-5 record. Second-overall pick quarterback Jayden Daniels has completely flipped the 2023 Commanders awful offence using his elite throwing ability in addition to Daniels being able to rush for many big gains too. With newly hired offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury, he and Daniels have been the perfect combination allowing them to win many high-scoring competitive games such as their week 16 victory against the Eagles where Daniels led a game-winning touchdown drive with such little time. It is important to mention that these two teams collided all the way back in week one where the Buccaneers won 37-20. 

Going into their rematch, Commanders newly acquired cornerback Marshon Lattimore will be going head to head against Mike Evans who have both gotten into big fights resulting in ejections. While the stakes in this game are very high, expect these two players to collide and bring the playoff intensity. Here is a link to their biggest fight back in 2020: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6_g5EQdN5k&t=88s. As the home team, the Buccaneers have opened as a -3 point favourite and a -166 favourite to win outright per Yardbarker. As my official prediction, I believe that the Commanders red-hot offence will expose the limited secondary and pass-rushing front of the Buccaneers and will win in a high-scoring thriller. I expect the Commanders to be in the lead for large portions of the game and even with a solid performance from Baker and the Buccaneers offence, the mismatch that the Commanders offence has over Todd Bowles’ defence will be too much for the Buccaneers to overcome. 

Buccaneers vs Commanders

• Buccaneers -3
• Commanders +3

At last, the fourth-seed Los Angeles Rams will host the fifth-seed Minnesota Vikings in a rematch at the beautiful Sofi Stadium. For the Rams, an underwhelming 10-7 record was somehow good enough to clinch them the NFC West before week 18 even started allowing them to rest their starters in their regular-season finale against the Seattle Seahawks. As for the Vikings, they have had an incredible regular season going 14-3 while missing their first-round rookie quarterback J.J. McCarthy with Sam Darnold being his replacement. Due to Darnold’s surprising success, the Vikings will likely resign Darnold to a longer-term contract and will either bench or trade McCarthy come the offseason. Despite their incredible record, they will be on the road during the wildcard round as they lost their week 18 game against the Lions where they lost the first seed, the NFC North, home-field advantage, and a wildcard round bye week. It is going to be a tough mountain to climb for the Vikings as the Rams are well-rested and have the luxury of playing at home. While it has been an up-and-down season for the Rams, they have battled through many injuries to their quality starters with receivers Cooper Kupp and Puka Nacua missing parts of the regular season. But as they showed in their week 14 victory against the Bills, they can hang with any team in the NFL and can beat the best quality of NFL teams when healthy and playing at their best. 

Going into this matchup, it is important to note that the Rams beat the Vikings at home earlier this season winning 30-20 impressively. The key matchup in this game is going to be Rams head coach Sean McVay and quarterback Matthew Stafford going against the disguised and well-balanced defence that the Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores has built using his key players in slot corner Byron Murphy J.R., and linebackers Jonathan Greenard and Andrew Van Ginkel. Per CBS Sports, the Vikings are currently 1.5-point favourites and -125 favourites on the money line even on the road. As for my official prediction, I believe that the rest and preparation the Rams received in week 18 opposite to the Vikings playing their starters in week 18 in addition to playing at home will all play in the favour of the Rams leading to their victory and covering the small 1.5-point spread. While the Vikings are a great team and will probably be leading for large portions of the game, I expect the Rams to be resilient enough to come back in the fourth quarter and even have a go-ahead score to win at the very end of the game.

Rams vs Vikings

• Rams +1.5
• Vikings -1.5

Let me know in the comments below your thoughts on these predictions and insights. I additionally have a forums page in my community where you can post anything NFL or UFC related too. Please stay updated by following the official X account of Blitz & Brawlers where we will be uploading daily sports articles. If you want to read about the AFC wildcard round, I made a post yesterday breaking down and predicting each matchup.