Depending on how your favorite team finished an NFL regular season, your stance on Wild Card Weekend runs the gamut between…
…GO BEARS! (That’s my fave team)
…I’ll have the games playing in the background while I fold laundry.
…eh, wake me up at the Divisional Round.
The first weekend of the 2025 NFL Playoffs gives us the typical first weekend mixed bag: We’ve got the good (Bears-Packers), the bad (the warm-weather Chargers flying cross-country to play the Pats in a potentially snowy Gillette Stadium could be gnarly), and the ugly (the Panthers are 10.5-point dogs to the visiting Rams via PrizePicks Team Picks, one of the largest home underdog spreads in NFL postseason history).
While we’re mulling any possible goodness, badness, or ugliness, let’s make one bold prediction for each team, load up on snacks, and strap in for the beginning of what should be a fascinating postseason…a postseason that will be made even more fascinating if my Bears open a can on the Cheeseheads.
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NFL Bold Predictions for Wild Card Weekend
Let’s see who might (or might not) do some cool (or not cool) football things in the first week of the NFL Playoffs, including some PrizePicks picks for every Wild Card game.
Rams vs. Panthers (Saturday, 1/10, 4:30 p.m. ET, FOX)
Rams: QB Matthew Stafford Could Toss for 400 Yards
We had a big ol’ argument at the PrizePicks writers meeting re: the NFL MVP race. I went with Pats’ sophomore signal caller Drake Maye, while literally everybody else said, “Strength of schedule, dummy,” and rolled with Stafford.
Fair point. And strength of schedule — or, in this case, weakness of pass defense — might lead to a career day for the future Hall of Famer. The Panthers have a middling pass D (15th in the league) that’s three weeks removed from getting carved up by Saints rookie QB Tyler Shough (272 yards, 1 TD, 110.4 passer rating).
So with WRs Puka Nacua and Davante Adams in tow, Stafford could eat.
Rams QB Matthew Stafford vs. Panthers PrizePicks Projection: 246.5 Passing Yards
Panthers: QB Bryce Young Could Suffer 3 Sacks and Toss 3 Picks
Young has played exactly zero career playoff minutes, and the Rams were seventh in the league in both sacks (48) and interceptions (16). Might be a rough playoff debut for the neophyte gunslinger.
Panthers QB Bryce Young vs. Rams PrizePicks Projection: 198.5 Passing Yards
Packers vs. Bears (Saturday, 1/10, 8:00 p.m. ET, Prime Video)
Packers: Possibly No Packers WR Will Top 50 Receiving Yards
The Green Bay wide receivers room hasn’t boasted a true WR1 since Davante Adams was sent packing after the 2021 season. Their 2025 receiver battalion is arguably their least impressive.
How unimpressive are we talking? Welp, the only Packer pass-catcher to rack up 100-plus receiving yards in a single game this season was…tight end Tucker Kraft. For the sake of comparison, Rams WR Puka Nacua had six 100-yard outings all by his lonesome.
Yes, the 2025 Bears defense was hot garbage against the pass, allowing the 11th-most air yards in the league, but even the woeful 2025 Cowboys D could keep this blah Packers receiving corps under wraps.
Packers WR Christian Watson vs. Bears PrizePicks Projection: 53.5 Receiving Yards
Bears: RBs D’Andre Swift and Kyle Monangai Could Combine for 250 Yards
There’s precedent here, folks.
On November 28 — Black Friday — Swift and Monangai racked up, respectively, 125 and 130 yards against what was thought to be a quality Eagles D...and that was in Philly. Some quick math tells us that adds up to 255. So there you have it.
Without injured Pack EDGE Micah Parsons around to be all Micah Parsons-y, the Bears backfield could make some noise. And that would make me happy.
Bears RB D’Andre Swift vs. Packers PrizePicks Projection: 59.5 Rushing Yards
Bills vs. Jaguars (Sunday, 1/11, 1:00 p.m. ET, CBS)
Bills: QB Josh Allen Could Rediscover His Inner Josh Allen
Listen, Josh Allen is Josh Allen, and in any given week, Josh Allen will do Josh Allen things.
To that end, let's take a trip back to November 16, when the reigning MVP generated 6 tuddies — 3 through the air, 3 via the run — to go with 317 passing yards and 40 more on the ground.
The 11th-ranked Jags D is solid. But Josh Allen is Josh Allen.
Bills QB Josh Allen vs. Jaguars PrizePicks Projection: 230.5 Passing Yards
Jaguars: QB Trevor Lawrence Could Out-Yardage Josh Allen
T-Law flies into the playoffs as arguably the hottest passer in the league, having tossed 11 TDs in his last four games, highlighted by Week 15’s 5-touchdown barrage against the Jets.
If this game were played in chilly Buffalo, Allen would probably have the edge. But Lawrence — who grew up in warm-weather Cartersville, GA, played college ball in warm(ish)-weather Clemson, SC, and is currently decamped in warm-weather Jacksonville, FL — has the elements on his side. (Note: As of this writing, the game-time temperature in the Sunshine State is predicted to be in the mid-to-upper-70s.)
Jaguars QB Trevor Lawrence vs. Bills PrizePicks Projection: 235.5 Passing Yards
49ers vs. Eagles (Sunday, 1/11, 4:30 p.m. ET, FOX)
49ers: RB Christian McCaffrey Could Rack Up 225 Scrimmage Yards
Twice in his (likely) Hall of Fame career, C-Mac topped 225 total yards in a single game, as per StatMuse:
- 237 yards vs. Jaguars – 11/6/2019
- 237 yards vs. Seahawks – 11/25/2018
As noted, the Eagles let Smith and Monangai run all over them — 255 rushing yards, if you’ll recall — so it’s not hard to imagine McCaffrey — who, over the last month, has taken an average of 86.7% of the Niners’ RB snaps — doing tons of damage in the run game. And if San Fran QB Brock Purdy targets McCaffrey 7 or 8 times (the average is 7.5), the Eagles will have a problem.
49ers RB Christian McCaffrey vs. Eagles PrizePicks Projection: 60.5 Rush Yards
Chargers vs. Patriots (Sunday, 1/11, 8:00 p.m. ET, NBC/Peacock)
Chargers: RB Omarion Hampton Could Be Held to Less Than 50 Rushing Yards
Let’s head over to FantasyLand, where, in four of the last five weeks, rookie Hampton has topped 11.5 fantasy points. Spread out over a whole season, that stretch would land him at RB16.
Thing is, the Bolts are flying cross-country, after which they’ll have to deal with the league’s sixth–best rushing defense. If I were writing one of my epic Start ‘Em, Sit ‘Em columns, Big O would very much be on the bench.
Patriots: QB Drake Maye Could Play a Perfect Game
Passer rating is a much maligned stat that haters feel isn’t a proper representation of a quarterback’s performance. PR truthers, however, find it useful as a quickie impression of a game.
Me, I’m somewhere in the middle — it’s a fine stat until it’s not. But for the sake of this discussion, I’ll be a truther.
Sophomore Maye’s 113.5 PR average led the NFL in 2025, and was the third-best single-season average since 2020. A perfect PR is 158.3, and Maye posted a career best of 157.0 just two weeks ago, and the Bolts are trekking in from Cali, so LFG, Drake.
LFG.
Patriots QB Drake Maye vs. Chargers PrizePicks Projection: 243.5 Pass Yards
Texans vs. Steelers (Monday, 1/12, 8:00 p.m. ET, ABC/ESPN)
Texans: WR Nico Collins Could Have a Nico Collins Game
Collins is good at getting injured.
In 2024, he missed six games, while in ‘25, he sat for three. Of the 27 he played over the last two campaigns, he topped 100 yards on seven occasions, and found paydirt 13 times.
So he’s also good at being a WR1.
More importantly, he’s good at being a WR1 against the Steelers. Last time Collins took the field against Pittsburgh in 2023, he exploded for 168 yards and 2 TDs.
Nico Collins game, indeed.
Texans WR Nico Collins vs. Steelers PrizePicks Projection: 69.5 Receiving Yards
Steelers: QB Aaron Rodgers Could Be Sacked 5 Times
As has been documented numerous times in my epic Start ‘Em, Sit ‘Ems, I’m not the biggest Aaron Rodgers fan in the world (no Chicagoan is), so this one is more hopeful than bold.
That said, Houston’s 47 sacks tied them for fifth-most in the league, and they allowed the sixth-fewest yards through the air, so it’s not even that bold.
Y’see, Rodgers is old. And smug. And ripe for the sackin’.
Steelers QB Aaron Rodgers vs. Texans PrizePicks Projection: 214.5 Pass+Rush Yards
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Make Some Bold Wild Card Weekend 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.
