2024 NFL wild-card playoff picks: Rams stun Lions in Detroit, Cowboys roll past Packers, Chiefs edge Dolphins

The final week of the 2023 NFL season turned out to be a crazy one, and I’m pretty sure nearly everyone would agree with that — except for maybe Jaguars fans, who are probably too depressed to agree or disagree with anything this week.

If you see a Jaguars fan at any point this offseason, please give them a hug.  

With Week 18 in the books, that means it’s now time for the postseason, and up first, we have the playoff round that has suddenly become so predictable that even a caveman could get all his picks right. Am I overly excited that GEICO brought the caveman back? Yes. Will I mention him again? Maybe. 

Anyway, if you want to get your wild-card picks right, history says you need to do just two things: Pick against inexperienced quarterbacks and pick against the seventh seeds. 

Since the NFL expanded the playoff field in 2020, no No. 7 seed has ever won a game (0-6), which isn’t great news for the Steelers or Packers. 

I don’t want to pile on those two teams, but the fact that they both have a quarterback who has never started a playoff game could also be a problem. Since 2002, quarterbacks making their FIRST career playoff start in the WILD-CARD round are 15-39 straight-up, including 3-4 last year, but two of those three wins only happened because two first-time playoff starters were facing each other, so someone had to win. This year, the Packers, Steelers, Dolphins and Texans will all have a QB making his first career playoff start.

How many of these quarterbacks will I pick against? Let’s get to the picks and find out. 

Super Wild Card Weekend picks

No. 5 Cleveland Browns (11-6) at No. 4 Houston Texans (10-7)

Saturday, 4:30 p.m. ET (NBC)

We have Deshaun Watson’s old team against Deshaun Watson’s new team in a game that Deshaun Watson won’t be playing in, which feels kind of fitting. This game is only happening because the Browns decided to make one of the five worst trades in…


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Author : John Breech

Publish date : 2024-01-12 22:03:51

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