Broncos, Eagles, Lions rising heading into Wild Card Weekend

Sunday night’s purported game for the ages didn’t quite match the hype, with the Lions blowing away the Vikings to secure the franchise’s first top playoff seed and earn the bye week that comes with that honor. But that doesn’t quash what looks like a terrific playoff field.

The Lions and Chiefs might be the odds-on favorites to meet in Super Bowl LIX, but there are heavyweight contenders on each side of the bracket.

In the AFC, the second-seeded Bills were the one team that beat the Chiefs’ starters this season, and the third-seeded Ravens came up one toe short of potentially doing the same. Both are eminently capable of taking down the back-to-back reigning champions, who won’t give up the crown without a fight.

The NFC field might be even more wide open. The Eagles are well-rested and dangerous as the No. 2 seed, while the fifth-seeded Vikings won 14 games and had a shot at clinching No. 1. Then there’s the third-seeded Buccaneers, who had regular-season victories over the Lions and Eagles. Now they face the fearless Commanders and precocious rookie Jayden Daniels, whom Tampa Bay defeated way back in Week 1.

Four of the six wild-card games are rematches, with the four home teams in those games all beating their first-round opponents once already. Will things be different in the rematches? Or, in the case of Steelers-Ravens, who’ll take the rubber match?

Wild Card Weekend kicks off Saturday afternoon with Chargers-Texans and closes Monday night with the Vikings-Rams do-over. Three straight days of single-elimination football: We’re built for this.

In programming news, for fans of those teams who missed the playoffs, be aware that we’ll be cutting down our rankings next week to focus strictly on the 14 teams that made the postseason (and ultimately proceeding to pare down the list each week as teams are knocked out). Fear not, though: We’ll bring the other 18 teams back once the Super Bowl is over and start the process all over again. The offseason is closer than it might appear. We must be ready.