Overview
- Seattle and Denver earned the No. 1 seeds and first-round byes as the regular season concluded in Week 18.
- Wild-card games run Jan. 10–12: Rams at Panthers; Packers at Bears; Bills at Jaguars; 49ers at Eagles; Chargers at Patriots; Texans at Steelers, with national broadcasts on Fox, CBS, NBC, Prime Video and ABC/ESPN.
- Denver claimed the AFC’s top seed over New England via a common-games tiebreaker after both finished 14–3.
- Pittsburgh sealed the AFC North with a 26–24 win over Baltimore when rookie Tyler Loop missed a potential game-winning field goal.
- Carolina reached the postseason at 8–9, one of the few sub-.500 entrants in NFL history and now hosts heavily favored Los Angeles.