BY J.A. SCHWARTZ
The NFL playoffs kick off Saturday and will culminate with Super Bowl 59 in New Orleans on February 9th. The 2024 regular season whittled the field of contenders from 32 down to the 14 who qualified for the playoffs, and each of those teams have survived the gauntlet of the 17 game season to emerge as championship contenders. The Las Vegas sports books have established the Detroit Lions as the favorite to win it all, though the defending title holders, the Kansas City Chiefs, are right on their heels in terms of likely odds to be crowned kings of the NFL
There are several narratives that accompany the teams left standing as they prepare for the win-or-go-home, single elimination tournament. Each franchise has legions of faithful fans who hope their team’s successful 2024 campaign will culminate in the ultimate outcome: A championship trophy.
The Kansas City Chiefs, led by their incomparable quarterback Patrick Mahomes, are attempting to make history as the season enters its postseason phase. With another Super Bowl victory in 2025, Kansas City will become the first franchise in the Super Bowl era-the first Super Bowl was played in 1967-to win three consecutive championships. Eight different teams have won back-to-back Super Bowls, but none were able to pull off the three-peat that the Chiefs will endeavor to achieve. The most recent team to have that opportunity was the 2003-2004 New England Patriots, led by Tom Brady and coach Bill Belichick, but they were knocked out of the 2005 playoffs by Denver, ending their quest for three straight Lombardi Trophies.

Patrick Mahomes will be trying to help the Chiefs become the first team to win three consecutive Super Bowl championships.
Belichick won six Super Bowls with Brady, and his 31 postseason victories are the most all time. Andy Reid is second, with 26, with three championships, and those 26 playoff wins are more than twice as many as the nearest active coach, John Harbaugh of the Ravens, with 12. Reid has been blessed to have Mahomes piloting his offense full time since 2018, and over that span, the coach-QB duo have racked up an 88-23 regular season record, which is ten games better than the nearest challenger (Baltimore, with 78). Mahomes and Reid combined to win nearly 80% of their regular season games together, a rate of success that outpaces the Brady-Belichick tandem (they were 219-66 together, a .768 win percentage). Brady was 30-11 (.732 win percentage) in the playoffs with the Patriots, winning an unprecedented six Super Bowls during his time in New England (and adding a seventh in Tampa Bay in 2020). Mahomes has won 15 of his 18 playoff contests, a staggering .833 win percentage that outdoes his already stellar regular season performance. Two of those three playoff losses came at the hands of Tom Brady. Brady will forever have bragging rights over Mahomes in their head-to-head playoff matchups, as Brady’s Patriots beat Mahomes’ Chiefs after the 2018 season in the AFC Championship Game 37-31 in overtime, and Brady also got the best of Mahomes in their Super Bowl clash, when Tampa Bay defeated Kansas City 31-9 in 2021.
If Mahomes is able to guide his team to a third consecutive championship, he’ll close the gap on Brady’s legacy as the best and winningest quarterback in the history of the league. Keep in mind that Mahomes has yet to turn 30 (he’ll do so in September), and that at the same age, Brady had only won three of his seven titles. A win in the 2025 Super Bowl in New Orleans would make history for the Chiefs franchise as the only organization to win three straight Super Bowls. It would also stamp Mahomes as the only QB in the history of the NFL to win four rings before the age of 30 (Mahomes, Brady and Troy Aikman have each won three titles before turning 30), and would move him past Joe Montana on the list of career playoff victories by a quarterback-giving Mahomes 18 victories, still barely half of Brady’s unassailable benchmark of 35.
No rookie quarterback has ever won the Super Bowl, nor have any rookie signal callers even led their team to the championship game. The 2025 Super Bowl in New Orleans will afford two rookies the opportunity to make history, the Washington Commanders and Jayden Daniels, and the Denver Broncos, helmed by Bo Nix.
Daniels was the 2023 Heisman Trophy winner, starring at LSU, and was selected second overall by the Commanders. Washington, coming off a 4-13 season, could not have expected Daniels to come in and revitalize an organization that had been ripped apart by poor decision making and questionable leadership under former owner Dan Snyder.
In his first year as head coach of Washington, Dan Quinn handed Daniels the keys to the offense, and watched him take a team that hadn’t finished above .500 for seven consecutive seasons to a 12-5 record and a Wild Card playoff berth. Daniels did everything, leading the team in both passing and rushing yards, setting an NFL record for rushing yards by a rookie QB in the process. He completed 69% of his passes, the second best rate by a rookie in NFL history (behind Jake Browning, who completed 70.4% subbing for Joe Burrow in 2023). Daniels passer rating of 100.1 is the fourth best by a rookie all-time, trailing only Dak Prescott, Robert Griffin III and last year’s rookie sensation, CJ Stroud. He threw 25 touchdowns, and scored another six on the ground, accounting for 4459 total yards of offense for the fifth most prolific attack in football. For the first time since 2016, Washington had an above average scoring offense, despite having finished no better than 23rd in the league in their previous five seasons. The team owes that dramatic change largely to their gifted franchise savior, who will seek to restore Washington to its former status as one of the most successful organizations in the game.
The Broncos had been searching for a solution at quarterback since Peyton Manning led the team to a Super Bowl victory in 2015. Since that zenith, the Broncos have had a single winning season, and failed to field an offense better than 19th best in the league. They thought they had solved the issue at that position when they traded two first round picks, two second round picks and three veteran players to Seattle to acquire Russell Wilson in 2022. Before he had played a game for the team, the club signed Wilson to a five year $245 million dollar deal that guaranteed him $161 million.
After two seasons of lifeless performance by Wilson, Denver released him, preferring to absorb $85 million in dead cap money rather than allow him to continue to lead the offense. Sean Payton, in his second year as coach of the team, then decided to draft Bo Nix with the twelfth overall pick in the 2024 NFL draft. Nix had a long college career, playing five full seasons between Auburn and Oregon, finishing third in the 2023 Heisman voting behind fellow rookie Jayden Daniels. Payton trusted Nix with his offense at the start of the season, and Nix rewarded that trust, leading the Broncos to the tenth best scoring offense in the game, a 10-7 record and a Wild Card playoff bid.
Nix threw for 29 touchdowns, good for sixth in the league and more than both Josh Allen and Mahomes this past season. He proved adept at running the ball as well, adding four more TDs and 430 yards on the ground, which included 41 runs that led to first downs, fifth in the league among QBs in 2024. Denver and the Washington Redskins each won three Super Bowls since the game’s introduction in 1967.
Five different teams will enter the 2024 playoffs never having won a single championship, and two of those teams have never even been to the Super Bowl. The Los Angeles (nee San Diego) Chargers, Buffalo Bills, Minnesota Vikings, Detroit Lions and Houston Texans have all never won a title, and neither the Lions nor Texans have even won a Conference Championship to advance to the Super Bowl. The Texans are technically an expansion team, having entered the league in 2002, so their lack of championship success isn’t as striking as the other four teams listed above. However, the city of Houston housed the Oilers from 1960-1996 (winning two championships in the American Football League in 1960 and 1961), but never won, or even made the Super Bowl prior to moving to Tennessee to become the Titans in 1997.

Lions running back Jahmyr Gibbs celebrates a score against the 49ers in last year’s NFC Championship game. Gibbs led the NFL with 20 touchdowns during the regular season.
The Lions became an NFL team in 1934, and won championships in 1935, 1952, 1953 and 1957. In the Super Bowl era, however, Detroit has made the playoffs only 13 times in 58 years, and have never advanced to the ultimate contest. The 2024 Lions had the best offense in the league, scoring 564 points, and outscored their opponents by 222 points, both easily franchise best performances. It is not hyperbole to suggest that the 2024 Detroit Lions team represents the best chance for their long-suffering fan base to finally celebrate a Super Bowl victory.
Minnesota and Buffalo have both been to four Super Bowls, but neither franchise has ever won a championship, going 0-8 in those contests. Buffalo is the only team to have ever advanced to four consecutive Super Bowls, a record their fan base is understandably proud of, but they’d rather focus on winning this year’s title than wax poetic about the glory days of Mary Levy, Jim Kelly, Andre Reed and Bruce Smith. With Josh Allen at the helm, having perhaps his best season in the NFL (and being a leading candidate for MVP) anything is possible.
The Vikings entered 2024 with meager hopes, with Las Vegas establishing 6.5 wins as their over-under figure prior to the season. Given that Kirk Cousins, their quarterback for the past six seasons, left as a free agent to join the Falcons, Minnesota could have envisioned 2024 season as a rebuilding season. They drafted QB J.J. McCarthy with the tenth overall pick in the draft, fresh off a National Championship at Michigan, and figured to anoint him their franchise player under center. McCarthy hurt his knee in the preseason, and would miss the entire season, leaving the quarterback position to backup Sam Darnold.
Darnold, the third overall pick in the 2018 draft, had failed to establish himself as a pro, bouncing from the Jets to Carolina and to San Francisco in a futile attempt to find someone to unlock his talents under center. Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell finally clicked the tumblers into place for Darnold, leading to the best season of his career, and a 14-3 record that led the Vikings to the best record ever for a Wild Card team. Darnold completed a career high 66.2% of his throws, tossing 35 TDs against only 12 interceptions, with a 102.5 passer rating that was sixth best in the league in 2024. The Vikings will go as far as Darnold can take them, and he’s already surpassed any reasonable expectations the Minnesota fan base may have harbored about this season. Could a Super Bowl win be next?
Predictions:
AFC
Bills over Broncos
Ravens over Steelers
Chargers over Texans
Chiefs over Chargers
Bills over Ravens
Bills over Chiefs
NFC
Eagles over Packers
Buccaneers over Commanders
Vikings over Rams
Lions over Vikings
Eagles over Buccaneers
Lions over Eagles
SUPER BOWL LIX
Lions over Bills