After 18 weeks of the 2023 National Football League regular season and the opening Wild Card weekend of the NFL Playoffs, there are eight teams left fighting for a spot in Super Bowl LVIII, as media companies eagerly anticipate the next round of games with their NFL broadcasting rights.
Here's a look at the NFL Playoffs schedule, betting odds and other storylines to watch.
NFL Playoffs Field: The 2023 NFL season started with the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles as the top two betting teams in a potential rematch of Super Bowl LVII. While both teams made the playoffs, only one team is left standing and remains an underdog heading into the second weekend.
Here are the current NFL Playoff teams remaining and their seeds.
- NFC: 1. San Francisco 49ers, 3. Detroit Lions, 4. Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 7. Green Bay Packers
- AFC: 1. Baltimore Ravens, 2. Buffalo Bills, 3. Kansas City Chiefs, 4. Houston Texans
The opening Wild Card games saw the Green Bay Packers upset the Dallas Cowboys. While that was the only seeding upset of the first round, the Texans and Buccaneers were both betting underdogs as the 4 seeds against the 5 seeds.
How to Watch NFL Playoffs: The NFL Playoffs will have four games taking place on Saturday, Jan. 21 and Sunday Jan. 22, which will bring the field down to four teams to compete in the Conference Championship games the following weekend to determine the two teams for Super Bowl LVIII.
Here are the second round of games and betting odds from DraftKings Inc DKNG.
- Houston Texans at Baltimore Ravens -9: Saturday 4: 30 p.m. on ESPN/ESPN2/ABC
- Green Bay Packers at San Francisco 49ers -9.5: Saturday, 8:15 p.m. on FOX
- Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Detroit Lions -6: Sunday, 3 p.m. on NBC
- Kansas City Chiefs at Buffalo Bills -2.5: Sunday, 6:30 p.m. on CBS
After Comcast Corporation CMCSA landed three of the six games in the opening weekend of the NFL Playoffs, the four games will be split between Comcast, Fox Corporation FOX FOXA, Paramount Global PARA PARAA and The Walt Disney Company DIS, with each NFL partner getting one game.
The Conference Championship games will take place on Jan. 28 with Fox airing the NFC Championship game and CBS airing the AFC Championship game. Super Bowl LVIII will take place on Feb. 11 in a game that will air on CBS and Nickelodeon.
Related Link: Kansas City Chiefs Lead 2023 NFL Betting, Boosted By Swift/Kelce Romance? Top Bet Teams In MLB, NBA, NHL Revealed
Super Bowl LVIII Betting Odds: With the field down to eight teams, here's a look at updated odds for Super Bowl LVIII from DraftKings. The list includes the current odds, the odds at the start of the NFL Playoffs and the preseason odds.
- San Francisco 49ers: +175, +220 start of playoffs, +1,000 preseason
- Baltimore Ravens: +290, +310 start of playoffs, +1,800 preseason
- Buffalo Bills: +500, +650 start of playoffs, +900 preseason
- Kansas City Chiefs: +700, +1,000 start of playoffs, +600 preseason
- Detroit Lions: +900, +1,800 start of playoffs, +2,200 preseason
- Tampa Bay Buccaneers: +2,500, +6,000 start of playoffs, +10,000 preseason
- Green Bay Packers: +2,500, +9,000 start of playoffs, +6,500 preseason
- Houston Texans: +2,800, +4,000 start of playoffs, +20,000 preseason
Super Bowl Storylines: Three of the four games in the Divisional Round of the NFL Playoffs are rematches from the regular season.
The Ravens defeated the Texans 25-9 in Week 1. The Lions defeated the Buccaneers 20-6 in Week 6. The Bills defeated the Chiefs 20-17 in Week 14. All three of the teams that won in the regular season are favorites in their playoff matchups.
The Dallas Cowboys were the only home team to lose in the opening round of the NFL Playoffs and all four home teams are favorites for the second weekend of games.
Speaking of home games, the Chiefs vs. Bills matchup will mark the first time in Chiefs' quarterback Patrick Mahomes NFL career that he will play on the road in the NFL Playoffs, outside of Super Bowl games. Mahomes holds a 12-3 record in the NFL Playoffs.
Several of the best teams against the spread from the regular season are still alive, with the Lions ranking first at 12-5 and the Buccaneers and Ravens tied for second at 11-6, according to data from Covers. The only team left that did not have a winning record against the spread was the Chiefs, who went 7-9-1 on the season.
Super Bowl LVIII could make history, with the Detroit Lions and Houston Texans fighting to make their first ever appearance in the big game. Meanwhile, the Buffalo Bills are one of the eight teams in the NFL that have been to a Super Bowl, but never won the title game, going 0-4 in Super Bowl history.
Before the start of the 2023 NFL season, a simulation of the popular NFL video game "Madden 24" from Electronic Arts Inc EA was done to predict a Super Bowl winner. The game predicted a Super Bowl matchup of the Chiefs beating the Buccaneers in the Super Bowl, which is still possible today.
At the start of the season, the video game simulation being right came with odds of +35,000 and the two teams making the Super Bowl had odds of +20,000. The current odds for these outcomes are +6,000 and +4,000, respectively.
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