The 2024 NFL regular season has officially ended, and the 2025 NFL playoffs will begin on Saturday, January 11, at 3:30 p.m., as 18 teams search for a Super Bowl victory.
The Kansas City Chiefs were the first team to secure home-field advantage and a bye in the playoffs after finishing the regular season with a record of 15-2 to obtain the top overall seed in the American Football Conference (AFC).
Meanwhile, the Detroit Lions secured home-field advantage and a bye with a 31-9 win over the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday night to finish as the top overall seed in the National Football Conference (NFC) with a record of 15-2.
Detroit will look to get healthier during its bye week and enter the second round of the playoffs close to full strength, though it remains unclear which team the Lions will face in the divisional round.
Both the Chiefs and Lions will enter the playoffs as the clear favorites to win their conferences, with teams from the AFC and NFC each looking to take down these teams on their home fields.
Although the Dallas Cowboys failed to make the playoffs for the first time since the 2020 season, instead being granted the 12th overall selection in the 2025 NFL Draft, the Lone Star State will have one team competing to win the Super Bowl.
The playoffs will begin on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. when the fourth-seeded Houston Texans host the fifth-seeded Los Angeles Chargers.
The second game of the weekend will be a matchup between division rivals. The sixth-seeded Pittsburgh Steelers will travel to take on the third-seeded Baltimore Ravens at 7 p.m.
Playoff matchups will resume beginning on Sunday morning. The seventh-seeded Denver Broncos will travel to take on the second-seeded Buffalo Bills at noon, followed by the second-seeded Philadelphia Eagles hosting the seventh-seeded Green Bay Packers at 3:30 p.m.
The last matchup on Sunday will come later that night at 7 p.m. when the third-seeded Tampa Bay Buccanneers host the sixth-seeded Washington Commanders in a rematch of Week 1.
Finally, the wild-card round of the playoffs will conclude when the fourth-seeded Los Angeles Rams host the fifth-seeded Vikings on Monday, January 13 at 7 p.m.
While sports betting remains illegal in Texas, those in states where the practice is allowed see the Detroit Lions as the favorites to win the Super Bowl with +370 odds on FanDuel Sportsbook. They are followed by the Kansas City Chiefs at +370 and the Baltimore Ravens at +550.
Following the first round of the playoffs, the matchups will shift to award the Chiefs and Lions matchups with the lowest-seeded teams in their conference to win in the wild-card round.
The second round of the playoffs will not begin until Saturday, January 18, but the matchups for this weekend will not be decided until the conclusion of games in this upcoming weekend.