NFL Playoff Power Rankings: Will the 49ers or Eagles rule the NFL's elite 8?
Super Wild Card Weekend ™ is over. It ended not with a bang, but with a whimper.
Comparatively.
The Dallas Cowboys’ rout of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers was notable for Dak Prescott’s heroics and what may have been Tom Brady’s final game in Tampa, but was mostly a snoozer. This paled next to the action of the Jacksonville Jaguars’ rally back from a 27-0 deficit to further the Los Angeles Chargers’ existence of misery, the Cincinnati Bengals and Buffalo Bills’ battles against division foes with feisty backup quarterbacks and, uh, Kirk Cousins staring down fourth-and-eight with his season on the line and throwing a three-yard pass.
KIRK COUSINS WHAT THE HELL MAN pic.twitter.com/VNmoFZVnxP
— Christian D'Andrea (@TrainIsland) January 16, 2023
That leaves eight teams still grinding their way toward Super Bowl 57. The Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles jump into the mix for the Divisional Round after winning their respective conferences’ top seeds and the Wild Card bye that comes with it. But neither is the top ranked team in this week’s power rankings, which not only considers how each team has played in 2022 but how the rest of their postseason path might unfold.
Here’s how the NFL’s elite eight sort out before four more are sent home to clean out their lockers.