Sunday will showcase the following games:
No. 6 Buffalo Bills @ No. 3 Jacksonville Jaguars
No. 6 San Francisco 49ers @ No. 3 Philadelphia Eagles
No. 7 Los Angeles Chargers @ No. 2 New England Patriots
No. 5 Pittsburgh Steelers @ No. 4 Houston Texans
Our experts' picks on those will be posted on Sunday ahead of the Bills-Jaguars game, so stay tuned!
Now, let's see who they picked ahead of today's action:
Rams @ Panthers
Paul (regular season champion): Rams 27-15 Panthers
The Rams enter the playoffs on the back of a big win over the Cardinals - a very, very welcome win after a couple of demoralising weeks.
McVay’s team gets boosted massively by the returns of Davante Adams and defensive captain Quentin Lake, the true defensive glue guy.
Carolina did well making the playoffs, but McVay and the Rams are looking for revenge after their regular-season loss in Charlotte.
Give me Warren McClendon’s Rams!
Eric (2nd place): Rams 30-26 Panthers
It's hard to say outright that the Rams are in a class above the Panthers when they actually lost to them halfway through the season, a game that was also in Carolina.
Sure, the records say a different story, but if the Panthers found a way to beat the Rams once, they can do it again - the key word here is 'can'.
I don't think they will. Stafford turned the ball over twice in their previous matchup and he's one to learn from past mistakes. Unless we see some bad penalties or costly fumbles go the Panthers' way, I think the Rams take this one.
Miguel (3rd place): Rams 24-11 Panthers
Although Carolina is playing at home and has achieved a surprising qualification for the playoffs with that NFC South debacle, their season will end in the Wild Card Round.
Los Angeles has a much more complete team and should have no trouble easily defeating the Panthers. It will probably be the most one-sided match of the playoffs this year.
Henri (4th place): Rams 37-10 Panthers
There is absolutely no way that the Panthers, after almost “cheating” their way into the playoffs with a losing record in the worst division in football, will be able to defeat the Rams here in the end.
After their slip-up against the Falcons, they showed their usual top-class offense against the Cardinals. And Sean McVay's boys should make short work of Carolina, barring a minor miracle.
Packers @ Bears
Paul: Bears 27-22 Packers
The Bears’ loss against the Lions won’t matter to them: they're the kings of the North, hosting the Packers in the postseason at Soldier Field for just the second time in NFL history.
It's January NFC North football.
Ben Johnson and Chicago have impressed me, more so than the Packers. I love the Bears’ running game, with Kyle Monangai and DeAndre Swift tearing it up. I'm even hoping to see Johnson mix some designed runs in there for Caleb, because this Packers defense doesn't scare me much. I'm all in on the Bears in the Wild Card round.
Give me Jahdae Walker’s Bears!
Eric: Bears 24-19 Packers
The Packers aren't impressive on the road this year, no matter who is quarterbacking, and the Bears have one of the best home records (6-2) in the NFL, tied second-best in the NFC with the No. 1-seeded Seahawks.
Chicago does this weird thing of not realizing they're playing a football game until the fourth quarter, then their offense simply decides to become unstoppable. Wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if we see Caleb Williams and company pull off another late-game miracle to send the Chicago crowd into a frenzy.
I'm going with Chi-Town.
Miguel: Packers 28-24 Bears
If Rams-Panthers is the most uneven matchup in the playoffs, Packers-Bears is probably one of the most evenly matched, plus you can never predict anything in a divisional battle.
Although Chicago has shown more consistency throughout the year, Green Bay has taken the last two weeks of the regular season as a break and has surely been preparing thoroughly for this.
I have a lot of confidence in Matt LaFleur’s work and believe that the Packers will win by a narrow margin.
Henri: Bears 20-17 Packers
Without the injury problems plaguing the Packers, this would be a no-brainer for me to pick Green Bay as the favourites.
But given how the season has unfolded, and especially with Micah Parsons out, Green Bay seems like a slight underdog to me here.
The two teams split their December matchups, but the Bears won the most recent. So I'm going with Williams and trusting him to lead an offence with a ton of weapons to send the Bears faithful back to their homes happy on Saturday night, getting ready for the divisional round.