NFL Playoff Predictions

During week 18 of the NFL regular season, these were the outcomes of the division-clinching games: in the final game of the regular season, the Buffalo Bills secured the AFC East title for four consecutive years and the No. 2 seed in the AFC playoffs with a 21-14 victory over the Miami Dolphins, the Houston Texans clinched the AFC South title for the first time since 2019 by defeating the Indianapolis Colts, while the Jacksonville Jaguars lost to the Tennessee Titans to eliminate themselves from the playoffs. In the NFC, the Dallas Cowboys won the NFC East title after defeating the Washington Commanders, and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers clinched the NFC South title for three consecutive years with a win over the Carolina Panthers. 

Now that the outcome of those week 18 games is decided, the 2024 NFL Playoff bracket is officially set. Wild Card Weekend will be Saturday, January 13, 2024- Monday, January 15, 2024. The first game of the 2024 NFL Playoffs will be the Joe Flacco Browns traveling to Houston to battle the Texans, followed by the No. 6 seed Miami Dolphins leaving their sunny city to head to Kansas City for their AFC Wild Card Playoff game against the No. 3 seed Chiefs. The weather is projected to have high winds and a temperature below 0°F.  

The next day, the first NFC Wild Card game will have the No. 2 seed Cowboys staying home to face the No. 7 seed Packers. The final game this Sunday will be Matthew Stafford leading the No. 6 seed Rams heading to Detroit for a game against his former team in the No.3 seed Lions. 

For the final day of the NFL Wild Card Round, the No. 7 seed Pittsburgh Steelers will travel a short distance to take on the red-hot No. 2 seed Buffalo Bills in deep snow and 50+ mph wind gusts. The game was supposed to be Sunday at noon Central Time, but because of weather, the game was postponed to Monday at 3:30 p.m. Central Time, followed by the No.5 Seed Philadelphia Eagles flying down to Tampa to take on the No. 4 seed Buccaneers. The No. 1 seed teams for the AFC and NFC feature the San Francisco 49ers and the Baltimore Ravens. They get a first-round bye in the playoffs and are automatically in a Divisional Round matchup. 

For my first pick, I believe that 38-year-old Joe Flacco, coming off the couch that led the Browns to the playoffs, can lead the Browns to a win over a young team in the Houston Texans. Flacco can outthrow CJ Stroud this week, and the strong Browns defense can stand the Texans' offense. In game two, I have the Kansas City Chiefs dominating the Miami Dolphins in freezing temperatures. The Dolphins are 0-10 in games when the temperature is below 0°F. Tyreek Hill is looking to return to the Chiefs Kingdom and play against his old team and show them why they should not have traded him away. 

For the Sunday NFL Playoff games, at 3:30 p.m. Central Time, the Packers will take on the Dallas Cowboys. The Cowboys are 8-0 at home this season, and their offense, led by MVP candidate Dak Prescott and OPOY candidate CeeDee Lamb, can fly past the weak Packers defense with star cornerback Jaire Alexander. He is questionable to suit up. For the final Sunday Wild Card game, I have the Lions' powerful defense outlasting Ram's red-hot offense in a showdown to the end. With the Ram's quarterback playing against his former team in the Lions, and Lions quarterback Jared Goff playing against his former team in the Rams, this will be an exciting game. These two were traded to their current team in the same trade. 

For the Monday 3:30 p.m. NFL Playoff game, I picked the Buffalo Bills to destroy the Pittsburgh Steelers in Buffalo with high winds and snow. Without TJ Watt for the Steelers, I think the run game with Pro Bowl running back James Cook and star quarterback Josh Allen will be too unstoppable. For the final Wild Card matchup until next year, the Eagles will head to sunny Florida to take on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, clinching a division win last week. For my pick, I think the Eagles can still pull off a win against this No. 4 seed Buccaneers team without their wide receiver AJ Brown. 

The next round of the NFL Playoffs is the Divisional Round. 

The two No. 1 seed teams, the Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco 49ers will have a chance to play in the 2024 playoffs. With my Wild Card round picks, this will be my AFC Divisional Round bracket: No. 1 seed Ravens taking on the No. 5 seed Cleveland Browns and the No. 2 seed Bills taking on the No. 3 seed Chiefs. For the NFC Divisional Round bracket, I have the No.1 seed 49ers having the No. 5 seed Eagles come to their house and the No. 3 seed Lions going down to Dallas to play against the No. 2 seed Cowboys. 

I think the 2024 Divisional Round NFL Playoffs will be an exciting weekend of games, but my picks could be arguable. There is no order for the games yet, so for the AFC games, I have the No.5 seed Browns going to play against their quarterback Joe Flacco’s former team, the No. 1 seed Ravens, and losing the Ravens move on to the Conference Championship. For the next AFC game, I choose the No. 2 seed Buffalo Bills to stay at home and dominate against the No. 3 seed Chiefs, making that the first time the Bills have had a home game versus the Chiefs since October 9, 2020 (Week 6). On the NFC side, I have the No. 5 seed Philadelphia Eagles flying westward to the sunny place of San Francisco to take on the No. 1 seed 49ers. This matchup happened earlier this year in Week 13 of the NFL and ended in a 42-19 blowout win for the 49ers. I do not think this matchup will be much different since the Eagles are getting much worse. The 49ers have a strong chance to move to the Conference Championship game. In the second NFC Divisional game, I picked the No. 3 seed Lions to take on the No. 2 seed Cowboys at AT&T Stadium in Arlington TX. This matchup happened two weeks ago and ended in a 20-19 win for the Cowboys with a very questionable call at the end. The call would have won the game for the Lions, but it got called back for a controversial flag thrown. Even though the Lions should have won that previous matchup, I still think the Dallas Cowboys will win this matchup. 

For my 2024 NFL Conference Championship with my picks, I have the Baltimore Ravens taking on the Buffalo Bills and the Cowboys taking on the 49ers. For the AFC Conference Championship, the No. 2 seed Buffalo Bills will go down to Baltimore to take on the No. 1 seed Ravens. I have the Ravens winning this matchup in a close game. The Ravens are too unstoppable and will beat most teams. In the NFC Conference Championship, I have the No. 2 seed Cowboys flying to San Francisco to take on the 49ers. I think the 49ers have too powerful of a team and will take down the Cowboys, just like during week 5 when the Cowboys lost 42-10 against the 49ers. 

Now, it all comes down to this. For Super Bowl 58 on February 11, 2024, I have picked both No. 1 seed teams the Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco 49ers to take on each other in Allegiant Stadium. This will be a remarkably close game, unlike the 2023 Christmas game between these two teams when the Ravens won that previous game 33-19 with 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy throwing four interceptions. Both of these teams have a very stacked roster, but I still think the Baltimore Ravens will win a close 38-31-point matchup. It will come down to a final second offensive drive for the 49ers and will not fail to give Lamar Jackson his first Super Bowl ring. It will give the Ravens their first Super Bowl title since 2013 when Joe Flacco and the Ravens won Super Bowl 47 against the 49ers with a power outage happening during the game. 

Written January 15, 2024