If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to remove my pundit hat and slap on my fan fedora.
It low-key sucks that we only have three more games left in the 2025 NFL season. There’ll be eight months until we see any regular season pro football, and, newsflash, that’s a long time.
Okay, now that that’s out of my system, let's get to the punditry.
Come the NFL Conference Championships, concocting one bold prediction for each team isn’t nearly as easy as regular season boldies, as playoff playbooks wildly differ from regular season playbooks by, like, 47%...and Conference Championship books are even more different than that.
So it’s possible that Rams head coach Sean McVay will dial up a quarterback draw for the not-exactly-fleet-of-feet Matthew Stafford, and nobody will see that coming. And we might see a dozen similarly weird play calls, or we might see none. Because, playoff football.
But we’ve committed to our weekly bold predictions, so let’s do it — let’s make one bold prediction for each team that's stayed alive to play in the NFL Conference Championship, predictions that might well inform this weekend’s picks on PrizePicks.
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NFL Conference Championships: One Bold Prediction for Each Team
Let’s see who might (or might not) do some cool (or not cool) football things in week number three of the NFL Playoffs.
Patriots vs. Broncos (Sunday, 1/25, 3:00 p.m. ET, CBS/Paramount+)
Patriots: TE Hunter Henry Could Lead the Team in Targets
Quick, without looking, who, in the regular season, led the 2025 New England Patriots in targets?
Based on the headline, you’d probably guess Hunter Henry, but you’d guess wrong — that would be WR Stefon Diggs, with 102. But Henry was a mere 15 behind, tangible proof that he, like a goodly number of TE1s, is a warm and fuzzy security blanket for his QB, this particular QB being MVP candidate Drake Maye.
In 11 of his 17 games, Henry saw 5+ targets, including a pair of double-digit performances. Plus he hauled in 60 of his 87 passes, and Maye — who has exactly one postseason game under his belt — might well lean on the Arkansas product.
Patriots TE Hunter Henry vs. Broncos PrizePicks Projection: 3.5 Receptions
Broncos: QB Jarrett Stidham Might Not Stink
Generally speaking, our bold predictions missives are loaded with facts and figures, but Stidham, Denver’s replacement for their injured QB1 Bo Nix, has few facts and fewer figures to draw from, having thrown just 197 passes in his six-year career. (For context, in the 2025 regular season, Nix put up 388.)
So since we're sorely lacking Stidham stuff, let’s bust out some oddball historical data: Are there any QB2s who started in a Conference Championship tilt? You betcha, although they all had a small handful of starts previous to the big game:
- Jeff Hostetler: New York Giants, 1990
- Case Keenum: Minnesota Vikings, 2017
- Nick Foles, Philadelphia Eagles, 2017
Hostetler dragged the G-Men to a 15-13 win over the 49ers, while Foles led the Birds to a 38-7 beatdown of Keenum’s Vikings. Both Hostetler and Foles won their Super Bowls.
Based on those performances, unscientifically speaking, Stidham has a 66% chance of not stinking.
Broncos QB Jarrett Stidham vs. Patriots PrizePicks Projection: 198.5 Passing Yards
Rams vs. Seahawks (Saturday, 1/17, 6:30 p.m. ET, FOX)
Rams: WR Davante Adams Might Shake Off the Rust, Big-Time
We’ll give Davante Adams the benefit of the doubt. Because, y’know, he’s Davante Adams.
Last week in Chicago, against a Bears defense that finished the 2025 regular season ranked 22nd in passing yards allowed, Adams was held to 2 catches on just 6 targets. But, y’know, he’s Davante Adams, so let's go ahead and blame it on Soldier Field’s sub-zero wind chill.
After all, the previous week, in warm and toasty North Carolina, the future Hall of Famer saw 13 targets. (Granted, he hauled in just 5 of them, but all good because, y’know, he’s Davante Adams.)
Adams has played a ton of playoff football — 13 games, 120 targets, 79 catches, 8 tuddies — while the rest of Seattle’s WR room — Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Cooper Kupp, and a bunch of other dudes — has played a collective total of 14. Take Kupp out of the equation, and that number plummets to four.
So who do you think Stafford’s gonna most likely gravitate towards? Davante Adams, that's who. Because, y’know, he’s Davante Adams.
Rams WR Davante Adams vs. Seahawks PrizePicks Projection: 49.5 Receiving Yards
Seahawks: QB Sam Darnold Might Rack Up Less Than 200 Passing Yards
This is the third time I’ve used this boldie during the 2025 NFL campaign, and I’m two-for-three. So unlike the chilly Darnold, I’m gonna keep riding my heater.
In last Saturday night’s divisional round game against an overmatched 49ers squad, the Seahawks pasted 41 points on San Fran, and Darnold managed just 124 yards. Ugh.
(It's worth noting that Darnold was yanked in the fourth quarter after the game was out of hand, replaced by Mac Jones. But still.)
(It's also worth noting that in terms of passing yards allowed during the 2025 regular season, the Rams [ranked 19th] were a scootch better than the Niners [26th].)
Darnold's weirdo stat-line is a rarity; as some less-than-deep-divey-but-still-deep-ish research tells us, the only other time in the 21st Century a team has scored 41+ points while their QB compiled less than 200 passing yards was last December, when Ravens QB Tyler Huntley threw for just 107 yards in Baltimore’s 41-24 win over the Packers.
And whatever Huntley can do, Darnold can do better. Or worse.
Seahawks QB Sam Darnold vs. 49ers PrizePicks Projection: 235.5 Passing Yards
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Make Bold NFL Conference Championship Picks on PrizePicks
Will any of these postseason boldies come to fruition? Who the heck knows, but one thing we do know is you can win real money on PrizePicks with your NFL predictions.
Just pick More or Less on at least two player projections and potentially win real cash with your picks every week.
And follow Playbook for the entire NFL season, where you'll always enjoy boldness galore.
