Pigskin Pundit’s Picks: Wildcard Week 2026

RAMS at PANTHERS
Much ado has been made of Matthew Stafford this season, MVP talk and all that.  I’m backing Maye because he has clobbered Staffie in all categories but two — gross pass yardage and tds.  Yet, listen to all the veteran pundits like Brady, and they seem to think Maye should ‘wait his turn’, as if MVP is like the ‘lifetime achievement Emmy’ Hollywood ‘awards’ actors who never won their own, but were around for so long…I don’t believe in longevity awards except the Iron Man designation in pro hockey, but ok, Staffie had a great year.  The Panthers did NOT have a great year, backing into the playoffs like two adolescents sneaking into a movie.  Don’t get me wrong, they can be fun to watch at times, but the Scrams would have been division winners in any other but their own this season, and they will be ready to take all nine lives from these black cats come Sunday.  No surprise upset in this one.  Rams slam the scams.

PACKERS at BEARS
This delicious division rivalry is white hot, so it’s fitting these two drew each other for the opening playoff weekend.  Chicago has ripped the division crown from Green Bay, and these teams swapped wins in December in two close contests, the Bears winning the last one.  The two QBs are close statistically, and these arctic warriors match up so well that this snowball fight can go either way.  Will Williams wilt in his inaugural playoff appearance?  We know Jordan Loves the spotlight of a big game.  In this tilt, I’m going with the ball-hawking of the Bears to be the difference, as they have been feasting on filched footballs to the tune of +22 in turnovers.  Bruins bury the Bay butchers.

BILLS at JAGUARS
These teams match up so well that they are almost indistinguishable statistically.  The Jags feel like they have something to prove, and they are right.  It’s time to make the Trevor Longhair pick pay off, as he has NOT been the generational QB everybody touted him as in college.  Duval needs to put up or shut up, and this game will go a long way to answering the legitimacy question.  Ironically, the same situation faces Buffalo, which a lot of pundits picked as their Super Bowl fave this year.  McDermott’s championship window is rapidly closing, and like Jacksonville, Buffalo needs to prove they can get all the way over the hump, or Josh Allen’s career will be a painful repeat of Jim Kelly’s 4-time losers.  The Pegulas have worked hard to build a champion for their bare-chested fanatics in Billsville, and my take on Buffalo’s failure to prevail is that their coach has held them back by making small mistakes in big games.  Now that they aren’t even division champs anymore, it’s also time to show out or get out.  Kansas City is out of the way.  Buffalo’s running game, including Allen’s superb and dangerous mobility, will probably be the deciding factor in this one, along with their playoff seasoning.  Allen has proven to be the generational QB more than Lawrence.  James Cooks the cats while Allen wrenches a road win.

49ERS at EAGLES
The Niners hammered out a wildcard billet in the fierce NFC West, where three of the four teams made the playoffs, and are a win better than Philly, which was never really threatened in their division.  That said, defense wins championships, and while Frisco put more points on the board this year than the Beagles, they were dead last in sacks, 29^th in picks, and 25^th in turnovers, while the Cheese Steaks are upper middle of the pack in each category.  That’s the stuff that decides playoff games.  Philly has been underwhelming this season, lulling many to sleep or indifference, but my gut says that beneath that perceived lethargy lurks a recent champion about to reappear and reassert the old form like the proverbial Phoenix bird.  Saquon Barks, Jalen Hurts, and the Liberty Bell Brigade tolls doom for the Gold Diggers in the city of Brotherly Lumps.

CHARGERS at PATRIOTS
Interesting matchup.  My buddy reminded me that the Chargers never do beat the Patriots in the playoffs, historically, and while that has always been during the 20-year dominance of one Thomas Edward Patrick Brady, I’ll entertain the belief that New England can keep that tradition alive.  I have never been a believer in the Chargers, and they have never failed to fail when it’s all on the line.  They have a great QB, although not better than ours, and they do have a better defense, which will be tough to overcome.  But they are a warm-weather team playing in Massachusetts in January, which isn’t supposed to matter and yet somehow seems to anyway.  Maye’s sophomore campaign has been beyond anything expected, as has the team this year.  Nobody saw this coming, and while they are a Cinderella team on paper, they don’t play like one.  Mike Vrabel will NOT have this team thinking that they are ‘just happy to be here’.  He’s way more driven than that, and that laser focus on excellence has returned to a team whose prior coach destroyed twenty-three years of that disciplined culture in just one lackadaisical season.  The Chargers are a good test for the renewed Pats to take stock of how deep a team they are, as playoff games are often determined by role-players stepping up to make the difference.  I think New England has enough offensive firepower in those muskets to brown out the Bolts’ defensive voltage.  Vrabel enables while the Chargers fizzle.

TEXANS at STEELERS
I call this one Duck Dodgers’ last stand.  Pittsburgh could barely get into the playoffs this year, in a perennially powerful, smashmouth division that this season was all sizzle and no steak.  The Steelers have a decent defense as always (their consistency in this department is indeed legendary), but Aaron Rodgers is not Aaron Rodgers anymore, and the Texans seem not only well-balanced but they DO possess the better defense.  Shape the game this way: Houston is ascendant, about to knock off Jacksonville for divisional dominance in the AFC South, while Pittsburgh is a team running on fumes and former glory, who were one errant kick away from missing the playoffs and John Harbaugh keeping his job.  This won’t be an easy road win for the Longhorns, but win they will.  Texans bend the Steelers to their will as they stampede towards the next round.

Enjoy the games!

-PP

Nathan Clark is a conservative commentator who resides with his wife in New Hampshire. He is passionate about preserving the vision of our nation’s Founders and advancing those tried and true principles deep into America’s future. His interests range broadly from flyfishing, cooking and shooting to pro sports, gardening, live music and fine-scale modeling.