Turf Show Times
Do the Los Angeles Rams want the 5-seed because they would rather face the winner of the NFC South than the Bears or Eagles in the wild card round? Sure, that’s something, but it’s not the main thing. Here’s a better reason to get the 5-seed:
That’s why the Rams should be rooting for the Seahawks to beat the 49ers on Saturday, which is what opens the door for Sean McVay and Matthew Stafford to be the 5-seed if they beat the Cardinals on Sunday.
It doesn’t just give L.A. an easier path to the second round of the playoffs, it also means that the Rams could have an easier path to the NFC Championship game. It could even leave the door open for the Rams to host one — if not two — playoff games in the best case scenario.
Which is relatively more likely in 2025 than it has been in the history of the NFL playoffs:
We could see all three wild card teams win their opening playoff game this season.
We should at least see one and there’s a decent chance that we will see two.
The Packers beat the Bears in Week 14 and lost in overtime in Week 16. Green Bay lost to the Eagles, but only by a score of 10-7.
With a healthy-ish roster, the Packers could easily win their first round game. This is not an inexperienced 7-seed. In fact, the Packers are almost always the 7-seed under Matt LaFleur and they won a playoff game as a 7-seed as recently as 2023.
The most likely 3-seed is the Philadelphia Eagles, a team that had a three-game losing streak less than a month ago. The Rams were blowing out the Eagles in Philly until a late collapse and a blocked field goal.
The Eagles can beat anybody, but they can lose to anybody including the Giants and Cowboys.
If the 3-seed is the Bears, they might be one of the most overrated division winners in recent memory. The 6-seed, whether that’s the Rams or 49ers, is a better team than the Eagles and the Bears. We just saw San Francisco beat Chicago on Sunday.
The Bucs have lost 7 of their last 8 games but could host a playoff game in a week if they beat the Panthers and the Saints beat the Falcons.
The Panthers haven’t won consecutive games since mid-October.
“The winner of the NFC South is a relatively bad team” doesn’t need to be explained. The 5-seed will be favored to win the game, no matter who it is...
