With the conclusion of a wild professional football season, fans will be treated to many exciting playoff matchups starting this Saturday. With it being around a little over a month to go before the Super Bowl, many teams have a legitimate shot at winning the coveted trophy.

Seattle vs San Francisco: The Seattle Seahawks will prepare to face an uphill battle as they play against the San Francisco 49’ers. The 49’ers come into the game the heavy favorites, and they are favored to win by many experts. The Seahawks even making the playoffs is a surprise, but they will look to upset their divisional rivals. Expect the 49’ers to prevail in this win. 

Los Angeles (Chargers) vs Jacksonville: This matchup is much more of a tossup because of the very even offense that these two teams possess. They met earlier in the season with the Jaguars of Jacksonville winning 38-10, however, it was in week 3 which is way too early to determine the result of this upcoming match. Jaguars quarterback, Trevor Lawrence, will try to lead this team to a victory. While the Chargers’quarterback, Justin Herbert, will try to outplay his fellow youngster. 

Miami vs Buffalo: Miami Dolphins quarterback, Tua Tagovailoa, will be out for this game against the Bills. Therefore, playing against the Buffalo Bills is going to be a crucial loss for them and their lineup. There isn’t too much to predict for this game because anything other than a convincing win for the Bills would be considered an upset. Buffalo quarterback, Josh Allen, will look to send this incredibly talented team through to the next round.

New York (Giants) vs Minnesota: The Minnesota Vikings have done a great job at winning tight games this season, but all sports fans know that it isn’t a very reliable thing. They already beat the Giants this season, but it’s the playoffs now, and anything can happen. I personally believe that despite the closeness of this game in terms of offensive and defensive power on both sides, the Vikings should come out of this game victorious.

Baltimore vs Cincinnati: The Bengals defense will look to shut down an offense from Baltimore that will most likely be without the starting quarterback Lamar Jackson. However, on the other side of the field is the Cincinnati offense, led by Joe Burrow. The team is looking to square up against a difficult Raves defense. Expect this game to be a good one, but with Cinicinnati looking to get back to the Super Bowl, expect them to have an extra competitive edge which should give them the win. 

Dallas vs Tampa Bay: With the Dallas Cowboys you can never quite be sure of what you’ll see. However, this year’s team has done a very good job at doing the easy things right, which has led to many of their victories. It’ll be hard for the Cowboys to hold the Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback, Tom Brady, but that will be the key to winning the game. Even though you can’t ever underestimate what Tom Brady can do in the playoffs, this matchup might be too hard for the Buccaneers to overcome, which should send Dallas through. 

Aside from the playoffs, no matter what we see in these remaining weeks, no news will be better than the news that discusses Damar Hamlin. He is the Buffalo Bills’ safety, and is safely out of the hospital and on his way back to Buffalo. Viewers were left in horror after his shocking injury last week in Cincinnati, but now many can rest easy knowing that he is on the road to recovery, which is something we are all glad to hear. 

These first round matchups will all hopefully be nailbiters, contrasting to what we saw in the college football national championship. Hopefully these games will be close ones with each team playing at their best, and only time will give us the better picture of who should be expected to win the Super Bowl.