The NFL playoffs began with an entertaining Super Wild Card weekend that included several upsets and a few blowouts. The NFL Divisional Round will finally let us watch the one seeds play high-stakes football, as the Kansas City Chiefs host the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Philadelphia Eagles will face the New York Giants for the third time this season. Patrick Mahomes (QB – Chiefs) is a shoe-in to win his second MVP trophy but he’s going to be locked in against a bad Jacksonville pass defense, while Chiefs head coach Andy Reid is going to face his former student, Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson to kick things off on Saturday afternoon. It’s shocking to even see the Jaguars with a winning pedigree, especially since last year was a disaster and the start to Pederson’s tenure in Jacksonville got off to a sluggish start. Trevor Lawrence (QB – Jaguars) erased a 27-0 deficit that included four interceptions in the first half, mounting an epic comeback against the Chargers to earn a second trip to Arrowhead.
DFS contests become a bit tougher to navigate with fewer teams and players available in the Divisional Round. However, the flip side to this is the reduced salaries of quality players since DraftKings and FanDuel cannot up-charge every single player within an offense when there are only eight teams. We’re getting the two best matchups on Sunday, starting with Joe Burrow (QB – Bengals) on the road against Josh Allen (QB – Bills), which we only saw for half a quarter before Damar Hamlin’s (S – Bills) scary injury in Week 17. The Bengals are +5.5 due to a porous, injured offensive line but Allen and the Bills have logged three offensive turnovers in each of their past three games, which will be important to avoid against Cincinnati’s underrated secondary. Finally, we’ll get a classic NFC matchup between Dallas and San Francisco in Santa Clara, California on Sunday evening. Rookie quarterback Brock Purdy (QB – 49ers) has outperformed expectations but the defenses and situations that he’s faced have been mediocre at best. How will he respond against Micah Parsons (LB – Cowboys) and Trevon Diggs (CB – Cowboys)? Will we continue to see the best version of Dak Prescott (QB – Cowboys) after he dazzled on the road against a stout Tampa Bay defense that couldn’t contain the Cowboys’ passing attack? There are a lot of questions and narratives entering these four Divisional Round games that will be fun to watch throughout the weekend.
