NFL Playoff Field Is Set With Nearly Half the Field Turned Over

A new-look playoff field for the National Football League is now set, with a series of division titles and playoff seeds solidified on the final day of the 2025 regular season. 

After a frenetic day that saw the Panthers claim the NFC South division championship (with a losing record) and the Jaguars win the AFC South division title, the league released its schedule Sunday night for the wild-card playoff round on Jan. 10-12. The six games include:

Saturday

• Rams at Panthers (4:30 p.m. ET, Fox): Not long ago, Los Angeles was the betting favorite to win Super Bowl LX. Now, after losing two of three and three of six down the stretch, the Rams are looking to rebuild their confidence against upstart Carolina. 
• Packers at Bears (8 p.m. ET, Amazon): The matchup will revive one of the most storied NFL rivalries, back at a Soldier Field that the Bears are trying to leave. The teams split their two regular-season games this season, with each winning at home. Amazon will be seeking to beat the 22.1 million average viewership it generated during last season’s playoffs. A Christmas primetime game neared that total.

Sunday

• Bills at Jaguars (1 p.m. ET, CBS): Buffalo will be looking to win its first road playoff game since January 1993.
• 49ers at Eagles (4:30 p.m. ET, Fox):Philadelphia will continue the defense of its Super Bowl LIX title by hosting a San Francisco team that is aiming to play the upcoming Super Bowl in its own home venue, Levi’s Stadium. 
• Chargers at Patriots (8 p.m. ET, NBC): The primetime slot will be a national showcase for New England and quarterback Drake Maye, a top candidate for NFL Most Valuable Player. 

Monday

• Texans at Steelers (8 p.m., ESPN): Houston has the final game of wild-card weekend this time instead of the first one, as it did for each of the first eight playoff appearances in franchise history. 

Welcome Back

Overall, this season’s NFL playoff field includes six teams that were not in last season’s postseason, representing nearly half the total bracket. The grouping features a series of upstart stories of teams that have risen from long periods of competitive malaise, including the Bears, Patriots, and Panthers—in turn taking the place of league titans such as the Chiefs, now out of the postseason.

Further showcasing the rapid turnarounds seen around the league, this season’s Patriots and Jaguars joined the 1999 Colts as the only teams in league history to win at least 13 games a year after losing a minimum of 13. 

“Today is the biggest game in franchise history because it’s the next one,” Jaguars coach Liam Coen said after drubbing the Titans 41–7. “That’s it—because it’s the next one. That’s been the mindset and mentality of this group.”

The top seed in each conference, Seattle in the NFC and Denver in the AFC, will have a bye in the wild-card round. Carolina, just 8–9 on the season, prevailed in a three-way tiebreaker for the NFC South title, and the Panthers could be the last losing team to host a playoff game as the NFL continues to review potential changes to its postseason seeding system. The Panthers are in the playoffs for the first time since 2017. 

The NFL postseason will be the first since the arrival of Nielsen’s new Big Data + Panel measurement process, something that has helped further the league’s already-rising popularity. The league has been on track for its most-watched regular season since 1989, and the schedule has included single-game viewership records on linear television and on streaming. 

Draft Matters

The Giants’ Week 18 win over the Cowboys ensured that the Raiders, and not New York, will have the first pick in the 2026 draft, set for this spring in Pittsburgh. The Giants have won just seven games in the last two years, but three of those victories have occurred in the final two weeks of the season, helping ensure New York did not get the top pick. They fell to fifth in the draft on Sunday, as the win also pushed them behind the Jets, Cardinals, and Titans.

This will be just the second time the Raiders have the No. 1 pick. In 2007, the franchise selected JaMarcus Russell, but the LSU quarterback would go on to be one of the biggest draft busts ever. The selection will be a major inflection point for the franchise, now led in part by part-owner and Fox broadcaster Tom Brady. Among the top available talents will be Indiana quarterback and Heisman Trophy winner Fernando Mendoza.