A grueling NFL season is down to four. The AFC and NFC Championship games are set with the Patriots and Broncos to decide the AFC, with the Rams and Seahawks battling to rep the NFC in the Super Bowl. With four teams left in the season it’s time to rank our remaining teams by who we think have the best chance to win it all this season.
No. 1: Seattle Seahawks
The Seahawks are the one team left in these playoffs that don’t have a discernible weakness. Defensively the team is top tier, and on offense the team has enough tools to dominate in a variety of ways. The element which really stood out about Seattle in their dominant performance against the 49ers was how the team didn’t solely rely on Sam Darnold and Jaxon Smith-Njigba to carry the load, instead pivoting to a dominant run game and defense to carry the team.
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Mike Macdonald has done an incredible job this season turning the Seahawks into one of the scariest, most-dominant defenses in the NFL — and pairing that with an offense built around explosive plays. That bodes extremely well for this postseason, where Seattle can become difference makers.
No. 2: Los Angeles Rams
The NFC runs through the west, and our No. 2 team to win the Super Bowl comes from the same division as the Seahawks. Matthew Stafford and the Rams offense can be as good as any team in the NFL but also they have a tendency to play down to their competition. We are going to need to see a lot more from Los Angeles to make it past the Seahawks in the NFC Championship Game, but there’s so much to like about this team when they’re on their game.
The big edge the Rams have against the field in the championship round is coaching. Sean McVay is the best head coach left in the playoffs, which gives Los Angeles a hell of a chance to contend — even if they seem out-matched talent wise. Matthew Stafford could explode for a massive game at any moment, and that makes them scary after narrowly winning back-to-back games against opponents they should have handled easily. We haven’t yet seem Stafford at his best, that says a lot.
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No. 3: New England Patriots
The Patriots haven’t been perfect these playoffs, but good enough to the AFC Championships. Drake Maye is still in his maturation stage, but the fact he’s able to get the team this far is testament to his ability as a second year QB. Mayes fumble problems are certainly a concern, but theres little doubting that the Patriots are back in the contenders picture once more.
Is it fair that the Pats have their new QB already? No. But we all have to deal with it. New England is back in contention for a Super Bowl win, and they’re the favorites in the AFC. Mike Vrabel has this team operating with incredible belief, and a secondary which is adept at making big plays on the ball.
There’s very little to dislike with the Patriots, and it’s for this reason they’re the favorites in the AFC,
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No. 4: Denver Broncos
The only reason the Broncos are this low are Bo Nix’s stunning injury, which really sets the Broncos back several degrees. The drop off from Nix to Jarett Stidham is dramatic, and even though the Denver defense is good, this might be too much for the team to bear. We saw the Patriots dominate their playoff game against the Texans, and when we get down to brass tacks we see that Houston’s defense is better than Denver’s, and that C.J. Stroud is a better QB than Stidham.
It’s an unfortunate turn of events, but here we are. Bad breaks happen in the playoffs, and Nix getting hurt on one of the final snaps on Saturday flipped this game on its head. As soon as that injury occurred it never mattered who won the other AFC playoff game, because they’re ostensibly getting a bye.
