Published: 2026/01/13 23:52:25
The NFL playoffs are officially underway. The Rams narrowly edged the Panthers, adn the Bears took down the NFC North-rival Packers in a wild comeback. On Sunday, the Bills held off the Jaguars, the 49ers took down the defending champion Eagles and the Patriots won a low-scoring affair over the Chargers.
What are the main lessons and takeaways from each wild-card matchup, and what’s next for these teams? We asked national NFL reporter Dan graziano and NFL analyst ben Solak to help size up every matchup from the opening round and look forward from all angles. For each wild-card game, Solak is answering one big remaining question and Graziano is judging the legitimacy of one potential overreaction.
Let’s jump in, making sense of potential offensive changes for the Chargers and Eagles, the Bills’ Super Bowl window, the Jaguars’ rushing attack, Caleb Williams‘ growth and Bryce Young‘s future. And check back all weekend for more snap reactions as games happen.
Jump to:
LAC-NE | SF-PHI | BUF-JAX
GB-CHI | LAR-CAR
Patriots vs. Chargers: A Test of Resilience
‘The Patriots STILL haven’t beaten anybody good!’ Overreaction?
No, not an overreaction. Oh sure, they won. Wich is all that matters at this point.but their performance did not scream “No.2 seed/Super Bowl contender,” and it did little to tamp down the notion of them being an untested team that could struggle against better competition. The Chargers are now onyl the third team the patriots have beaten this season that made the playoffs. One of the other two was the Panthers, who finished their season 8-10 after losing to the rams on Saturday. and the final one was the Bills, to whom they also lost to later in the season.
The Patriots made some plays when they had to against the Chargers. They made their field goal attempts,which really matters in games that are touchdown-free until the final 10 minutes. But they were also sloppy with the ball and didn’t generate much of their usual exciting, explosive offense. The Chargers’ defense was one of the best at limiting explosive plays this season, so that might have been a part of it. But it would have been hard to watch this game and not think a team with a functional offense could have knocked out New England in the first round.
So what happens now? Did quarterback Drake Maye & Co. get their stinker out of the way early and survive it? Do they learn from this and play better next week against the Steelers or Texans? Or does this advanced level of competition do them in, the way their critics feared all season that it might?
We’ll have to wait a week for the answers. Coach Mike Vrabel has pressed every correct button in his first season as the Patriots’ coach, and MVP contender Maye has not let anything bother him. They’ll get either the Steelers and a chance to avenge a Week 3 loss in which they turned the ball over five times, or a Texans team that would be coming in on a 10-game win streak and features an even tougher defense than the chargers.
This is the survive-and-advance time of the year, and the fact that the Patriots won ugly doesn’t disqualify them from winning it all. It just adds a little bit of strength to the arguments of those who continue to believe this team is playing over its head. — Graziano
Analyzing the Chargers’ Struggles
Why haven’t the Justin Herbert-led Chargers won a playoff game?
Herbert has officially gone 0-3 in his first three postseason starts. He is only the fourth quarterback this century to go winless in his first three postseason starts, joining Andy Dalton, Matt Ryan and Matthew Stafford.
The general NFL consuming public is reasonably suspicious of Herbert among the modern quarterbacking elites, as he doesn’t have the wins that Patrick mahomes or Josh Allen have, let alone QBs such as jalen Hurts or Brock Purdy. though herbert didn’t play a great game Sunday, it’s hard to construct an argument that he lost the game for the Chargers.
The Chargers clearly need new interior offensive linemen. Though the injuries at tackle submarined the whole line, all three starters on the interior were the expected ones preseason: Bradley Bozeman at center, Zion Johnson at left guard and Mekhi Becton at right guard. Bozeman and Johnson have not been starting-caliber players for years, and Becton is only an average-level starter.
On 12 of Herbert’s 18 starts in 2025,the Chargers gave up a rapid pressure rate (pressures in under 2.5 seconds) greater than 15%. The league average for quick pressure rate this season was 13.8%. The Chargers have also been consistently outschemed under coordinator Greg Roman. His usage of wonky personnel and diverse running schemes is valuable, but the Chargers haven’t delivered against playoff-caliber defenses. Though the offensive line was dreadful, few if any efforts were made to change the game around the offensive line. no screens, rollouts, trick plays. When was the last time the Chargers truly outschemed their opponent?
Of course, that doesn’t explain away the four-interception game against the Texans in the 2024 postseason, nor the collapse against the Jaguars in the 2022 postseason. Taking the collective weight of those three losses and calling Herbert a postseason disappointment is a fair assessment. But of the three quarterbacks he has joined (and, not for nothing, Peyton Manning would also qualify if we included the 1999 season), he’s clearly more of a Stafford character than a Dalton one.
Postseason success will come to Herbert when he plays for a more well-rounded team. As unsatisfying as it is to say,it’s the truth. — Solak
49ers vs. Eagles: A Champion Falls
‘The 49ers can make a legit Super Bowl run.’ Overreaction?
Yes, overreaction. The 49ers are an easy team to like and respect. They are TOUGH tough. They’ve been without their two best players on defense (linebacker Fred Warner and defensive end Nick Bosa) for months.They played more than a month without quarterback Brock Purdy. Tight end George Kittle was in and out of the lineup all season — and he’s now out for however long their season continues after tearing his Achilles in philadelphia. It is indeed a miracle that they’re one of the eight divisional-round teams, and they deserve admiration for the extent to which they’ve fashioned chicken salad out of … well, everything that has happened to them this year.
But the 49ers have to go play in Seattle, and we just saw that game last weekend. Playing the seahawks at home with the division title and the NFC’s top seed on the line, the Niners put up a meager 173 yards of total offense in a 13-3 loss. Now, the Seahawks will be at home and coming off a bye, while the Niners will limp in after a physically brutal win over the defending Super Bowl champs.
Will it help that left tackle Trent Williams, who didn’t play in Week 18, is expected to play next week? Sure.But the 49ers still won’t have Kittle, and their run game isn’t very good without him. Running back Christian McCaffrey remains a playmaker for Purdy in the passing game, but they averaged 3.5 yards per rush attempt in Sunday’s win. That’s not out of character for the Niners,as they averaged 3.8 in the regular season (30th in the NFL). They’re limited in what they can do on offense, and the Seahawks have the kind of defense that can take advantage of that.
There was a point in the fourth quarter when I thought, “Whoever wins this game is getting smoked in the next round,” and I kind of stand by it. the 49ers are just about out of players, and the eagles couldn’t do anything against a team that was just about out of players.
It was a fitting end for a 2025 Eagles team that was never as many believed it to be.Even as they marched down for the go-ahead score, it never felt like they would get it. A child born during the third quarter of this game could have figured out the Eagles were going to Dallas Goedert on the final play, and they did despite him being triple-covered. It was peak 2025 Eagles — no creativity, no juice. they weren’t a great team; they just won a lousy division. Meanwhile, the Seahawks won the only division in NFL history in which three teams won at least 12 games.Kudos to Kyle Shanahan, Robert Saleh and Co. for getting as far as they got with their roster crumbling around them. But it’s only getting tougher from here. — Graziano
eagles’ Offensive Future: A Crossroads
The lingering question: Is the Eagles’ offensive breakup inevitable?
There is no worse-kept secret in the NFL than the frustration internally and externally with the Eagles’ offensive coaching this season. Coordinator Kevin Patullo, promoted to replace the outgoing Kellen Moore, has been a longtime assistant for coach Nick Sirianni. But Patullo was evidently underqualified for his role. Wide receiver A.J. Brown was visibly upset to varying degrees throughout the year. running back Saquon Barkley was not nearly as productive as he was last season. Quarterback Jalen Hurts continued to struggle with throwing to the middle of the field.
There will almost certainly be a new offensive coordinator in Philadelphia next season — the fifth in five years. But perhaps the greatest question is if anything else will be new in the Eagles’ offense? Brown, who went over 20 minutes of game clock in the second half without a target and was seen arguing with Sirianni on the sideline, was a rumored target for many teams at the trade deadline. His contract represents a significant dead cap ($66.9 million) if he’s traded, and he would likely have to collaborate with the Eagles’ front office and finagle the finances if he demands a trade.
Other than Brown, tight end (and key red zone option) Dallas Goedert will be a free agent. At 31, he’ll want to cash in on what probably will be his final good years, and the Eagles don’t have a ton of cap space to pay him. But they also don’t have a good TE2 waiting in the wings. Right tackle Lane johnson, a franchise mainstay for more than a decade, missed the end of the season because of a foot injury and will turn 36 this spring. How much longer does he want to play — and how effective would he be? It feels like a bigger change than a mere coordinator switch is on the horizon for Philadelphia’s offense as the Eagles look to get back on top of the NFC. — Solak
