The NFL just delivered its greatest playoff weekend ever. Here's why Jay BusbeeJanuary 12, 2026 at 4:58 PM 37 When was the moment for you when you realized, "Wait a second, we might just be on a generational run of football games here?" Cody Parkinson's touchdown catch against Carolina was a fine start. Following that with Chicago's 25point fourth quarter, Josh Allen getting shoved over the goal line with a minute left against Jacksonville, San Francisco's desperation gamewinning drive … if this wasn't the finest wildcard weekend in NFL history, it'll do until a better one comes along.
- - The NFL just delivered its greatest playoff weekend ever. Here's why
Jay BusbeeJanuary 12, 2026 at 4:58 PM
37
When was the moment for you when you realized, "Wait a second, we might just be on a generational run of football games here?"
Cody Parkinson's touchdown catch against Carolina was a fine start. Following that with Chicago's 25-point fourth quarter, Josh Allen getting shoved over the goal line with a minute left against Jacksonville, San Francisco's desperation game-winning drive … if this wasn't the finest wild-card weekend in NFL history, it'll do until a better one comes along.
(And we've still got one game left! Aaron Rodgers against the league's best defense! Who knows what's next?)
Before the postseason started, a neat little stat circulated on social media: the 2025 season playoffs would be the first without Patrick Mahomes, Tom Brady or Peyton Manning since 1998. It was a sign of a (perhaps brief) changing of the guard, but more to the point, those legends' absence signaled an end, however brief, to the dynasties that have dominated the NFL for most of the 21st century.
The result: the most wide-open playoffs in recent memory. After years (decades?) of slotting in the Patriots, and later the Chiefs, all the way to the conference title game and figuring everything else out from there, we now have a postseason where you could make a convincing argument that virtually every team could go on a run and win the whole damn thing.
(While we're at it, how about a round of applause for the NFL Playoff Committee? You know there was a lot of pressure on them to put in an underachieving blue blood like Dallas over a team from a lower-tier division, but the Panthers acquitted themselves just fine.)
Caleb Williams celebrates after the Bears scored 25 fourth-quarter points to beat the Green Bay Packers in their wild-card game. (Photo by Todd Rosenberg/Getty Images) (Todd Rosenberg via Getty Images)
The 2025 season playoffs represent the absolute triumph of the NFL's ultimate goal: parity across the board. The NFL positions itself so that no one player, no single team, is bigger than The Shield itself. (Dallas, the one team that could arguably be considered its own independent brand, has done the NFL a favor by flopping short of the conference championships for three straight decades now.)
From a purely statistical perspective, this is already the greatest playoff round ever. The first four games had a total of 12 lead changes in the fourth quarter; according to NFL research, there had previously never been a single round in NFL history with more than five fourth-quarter lead changes.
Plus, the first four games of this year's playoffs were decided by a total of 14 points. Per OptaStats, that's the first time in NFL history there were four games decided by four points or fewer in a single round. The Chargers kind of spit the bit there at the end of the nightcap, but we still have one more game Monday night.
Who's going to win the Super Bowl now? I don't have any idea, and neither do you, and that's the whole point. The NFL is a glorious mess of uncertainty now. The Los Angeles Rams, whom many have picked to win it all, came just one single miracle catch from losing to the sub-.500 Panthers for the second time this season. The Patriots took until the fourth quarter to fully extricate themselves from a team that had no functional offensive line.
The Bears might run the table, or they might flop hard enough in the first three quarters that they end up in a hole even they can't climb out of. Buffalo could finally end their Super Bowl curse, or Josh Allen could be pounded into jelly next weekend. Seattle and Denver haven't even stepped into this Octagon, for which they have to be both thankful and extremely nervous.
As always, the NFL's best advertisement for itself is the game itself. Off-field concerns tend to fade into vapor for most fans when you've got a team driving for the lead with under four minutes left in the fourth. The joy that Bears fans feel after a generational victory, the hope that Patriots fans have at seeing a potential new dynasty getting to its feet, the prayers that Bills fans are offering up that maybe this is the year … yeah, that's the good stuff. That's why we watch.
So there's your bar, Pittsburgh and Houston. No pressure. Just deliver excellence.
Source: "AOL Sports"
Source: Sports
Published: January 12, 2026 at 11:28PM on Source: RED MAG
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