Asking the N.F.L. Playoff Questions That Need Answers

To play soccer amid a pandemic, N.F.L. gamers labored from dwelling loads. They took coronavirus checks each day. And after they did report back to group amenities, they have been required to put on a masks.

It has been a bizarre season. And likelihood is it’s going to get weirder.

The playoffs start Saturday, and much more than in years previous, nobody has even an inkling how they’re going to unfold. With an expanded 14-team area, consecutive triple-headers this weekend might compound the craziness and we’re nonetheless four-and-a-half weeks (hopefully) from the Tremendous Bowl.

Under, we attempt to sift by means of the chaos and ask the questions that may outline the upcoming postseason. We even attempt to reply them, too.

No.

Oh, ought to we maintain going?

On a tequila-streaked vindication tour after Inexperienced Bay drafted his potential successor within the first spherical, Rodgers reached the precipice of his third Most Useful Participant Award by throwing many times to Adams, who completed with 115 receptions for 1,374 yards and 18 touchdowns and grabbed nearly each ball in his radius: 115 of 116 passes deemed catchable by Pro Football Focus, tied for the perfect charge within the N.F.L.

Total, Rodgers’s excellent ball placement and aptitude for main receivers helped Adams acquire 592 yards after the catch, essentially the most at his place. However their partnership actually thrived within the purple zone, that chaotic area contained in the opposition’s 20-yard line the place passing lanes shrink and belief between quarterbacks and receivers is most important. There, Adams, regardless of lacking two video games with an harm, caught 23 passes and scored 14 touchdowns, each most within the N.F.L. in that space.

So, all love for Josh Allen and Stefon Diggs, whose thoughts meld reworked Buffalo’s offense, and Patrick Mahomes and Tyreek Hill, who wrecked defenses downfield as they typically have with Kansas Metropolis. However the telepathy between Rodgers and Adams, cultivated throughout seven years collectively, powered their season to recollect — and, they hope, a playoff run they received’t ever overlook.

Which A.F.C. group has the perfect probability of beating the Chiefs?

The Chiefs (14-2) have been the N.F.L.’s metronome in recent times — persistently scoring, successful, dazzling. However a latest disturbance within the drive has stripped their sheen ever so barely. Struggling to bury opponents as they did throughout final December’s surge, Kansas Metropolis — earlier than its backups misplaced Sunday to the Chargers — received seven consecutive video games by six factors or fewer.

Underestimate Coach Andy Reid, Mahomes and the crew at your personal peril. Nonetheless, the A.F.C. is rife with teams positioned to scare Kansas City, and that group is fronted by a contender that hasn’t received a playoff sport for the reason that 1995 season, somewhat over 4 months earlier than its present quarterback was born: the Buffalo Payments.

Reining in his carpe diem strategy, Josh Allen, 24, grew to become the primary participant with at the very least 4,500 passing yards, 35 landing passes and 5 dashing touchdowns in a single season. The league’s most improved participant, Allen guided the Payments to 9 victories of their last 10 video games — their solely loss in that span got here by way of a Hail Murray flung into triple coverage in Arizona.

The Payments, the No. 2 seed within the A.F.C., rank among the many league leaders in takeaways. Throughout their six-game successful streak to finish the common season, no group scored extra factors or had a better level differential, successful by a mean of 19.8 factors, in response to Professional Soccer Reference.

The Chiefs did beat Buffalo earlier within the season. However might they do it once more? The Payments would like to get an opportunity to reply that query within the A.F.C. championship sport.

Can Tom Brady and the Buccaneers beat good groups?

Alternately thrilling and exasperating, overpowering and underwhelming, the Buccaneers (11-5) rolled into their first postseason in 13 years by successful their final 4 video games, which simply so occurred to be Tom Brady’s finest four-game stretch in Tampa Bay: He had 333.3 passing yards per sport, 12 touchdowns, one interception and a 126.9 passer score. That all of it got here in opposition to a number of the league’s sadder defenses — Detroit, Minnesota and Atlanta twice — is irrelevant to the Buccaneers, who have been simply glad to see it. However now they have to attempt to replicate that manufacturing in opposition to higher competitors.

And that’s the place Tampa Bay has struggled. Going through groups that made the playoffs, the Buccaneers went 1-5. In 4 of these losses Brady threw a number of interceptions, and in an in any other case spectacular season — he threw for 4,633 yards and 40 touchdowns at age 43 — these have been the one video games by which he had multiple.

The Buccaneers’ roster — the linebacker trio of Shaquil Barrett, Lavonte David and Devin White maintain down the protection whereas Brady has Antonio Brown, Mike Evans, Chris Godwin and Rob Gronkowski, to throw to — is loaded. So loaded that their efficiency shouldn’t be so risky.

With the Bucs matched up with a 7-9 Washington group, not precisely higher competitors, perhaps they received’t be. However talking of Washington …

Can the winner of the traditionally dreadful N.F.C. East truly win a playoff sport?

In providing up the Footballers within the wild card spherical, the division is placing forth the group finest suited to upset Tampa Bay and right here’s why: strain.

No quarterback likes it. However some are higher at dealing with it than others. This season, although Brady’s offensive line largely did effectively at preserving him upright, he had the third-lowest adjusted completion proportion when pressured, in response to Professional Soccer Focus, and had a 54.5 passer score — decrease than that of Daniel Jones and Sam Darnold in that state of affairs.

Washington bedeviled quarterbacks with its excellent defensive entrance, led by the first-round picks Jonathan Allen (2017), Daron Payne (2018), Montez Sweat (2019) and Chase Younger (2020), seemingly the league’s high defensive rookie, who skipped into the tunnel following the group’s division-clinching victory over Philadelphia yelling, “Tom Brady, I’m coming. I want Tom.” Younger has been saying as a lot since the N.F.L. scouting combine.

The Footballers ranked sixth in strain charge and in sacks, and tied for second in yards allowed per play. In the event that they, too, can unnerve Brady, then Washington, solely the third group ever to qualify for the playoffs with a dropping document, maybe (perhaps, presumably) might be part of the opposite two — the 2010 Seattle Seahawks and the 2014 Carolina Panthers — in successful its playoff opener, as effectively.

After the highest-scoring common season in league historical past, groups’ playoff hopes hinge on how briskly and in what quantity they’ll put up factors. The Rams, ranked twenty second in offense, matched the Bears in factors, ending forward of solely Washington among the many playoff groups.

It’s ever extra apparent that the Rams — after needing to beat Arizona in Week 17 simply to safe a playoff spot — are as unbalanced as a weighted seesaw. A once-formidable offense has sputtered beneath Jared Goff’s command, inserting the onus on the league’s stingiest protection — first in yards and factors allowed — to drive Los Angeles’s playoff hopes.

Happily for the Rams, they face a well-recognized opponent within the division-rival Seahawks. Throughout their two regular-season conferences, they sacked Russell Wilson 11 instances, and Ramsey — who allowed an absurdly low 20.6 yards per sport in his protection, in response to Professional Soccer Focus — all however defused star receiver DK Metcalf, holding him to 1 reception for 11 yards on 4 passes thrown his method.

If the Rams beat the Seahawks and New Orleans defeats Chicago, Los Angeles would journey to play the Packers. Ramsey draping Adams, whereas Donald and his mates pester Rodgers — oh, what enjoyable that may very well be.

How harmful does Baker Mayfield must get up feeling for the Browns to win?

In his rookie season, Mayfield famously instructed reporters forward of a late-season win, “after I awoke this morning, I used to be feeling fairly harmful,” which spawned a downtown Cleveland mural, ignited the fanbase — and have become a punchline in dropping seasons therefore.

Now within the group’s first playoff game in 17 seasons, the place it would face the Steelers (12-4), Mayfield might be credited with serving to lead Cleveland (11-5) to its finest document for the reason that franchise was resurrected in 1999 and the success ought to assist his on-field fame catch up some to his off-field notoriety.

Sure, Mayfield helped get them there by throwing extra touchdowns than in 2019, his fewest interceptions and ending with a modest (by 2021 requirements) 3,563 yards passing in an offense that demanded he play safely — which he did, at the very least in contrast with earlier seasons. However the Browns’ run hasn’t solely hinged on their quarterback.

Cleveland is fueled by an distinctive running-back tandem of Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt and an distinctive offensive line. At their finest, the Browns rampage throughout the sphere on the bottom. They’re 8-2 when Mayfield makes an attempt 30 or fewer passes and 6-0 after they rush for greater than 150 yards.

Mayfield remains to be vulnerable to bouts of inconsistency however, inside a balanced offense, is best positioned than ever to emphasize a protection: Together with his turnovers down and a gentle operating again duo, Mayfield excelled on play-action passes, rating among the many high 5 in passer score and yards per try on these performs, in response to Professional Soccer Focus. As long as the Browns can move the ball steadily and consistently, Mayfield’s daring remains to be an efficient shock assault.

Is Seattle’s protection repaired?

By means of 9 video games, a Seahawks group that when prided itself on its protection — that constructed its id on it, that received a Tremendous Bowl due to it — was successful regardless that that unit allowed a mean of 30.1 factors and 441.1 yards. A defensive turnabout started with a Week 11 victory in opposition to Arizona, and the Seahawks received six of their final seven video games of the common season by yielding the fewest factors and third fewest yards per play over that stretch.

Was this merely regression? Or did Seattle repair what was damaged?

Name it a patchwork repair. Carlos Dunlap, the defensive finish Seattle added on the commerce deadline from Cincinnati, had crucial victory-sealing sacks in opposition to Arizona and Washington. Jamal Adams, a flexible security picked up from the Jets within the low season, helped too, by including to the robust play from linebackers Bobby Wagner and Ok.J. Wright. With out query, the defensive enchancment was actual.

It simply may not be everlasting. With Adams and defensive deal with Jarran Reed injured, the protection’s total energy will once more be examined within the wild card sport in opposition to the Rams. Whereas the Seahawks would profit if Rams quarterback Jared Goff can’t play, they might wrestle to maintain strain on opposing quarterbacks within the subsequent spherical in the event that they don’t get these key items again shortly.

Which coordinator is most essential to their group?

From Leslie Frazier of Buffalo and Dennis Allen of New Orleans on protection to Eric Bieniemy of Kansas Metropolis and Arthur Smith of Tennessee on offense, quite a few coordinators had an outsize influence on their group’s success. However none might be fairly as important these playoffs as Greg Roman of Baltimore, the mastermind behind the Ravens’ revived — and fearsome — offense.

Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson referred to as Roman’s offense “predictable” in mid-November, earlier than the group misplaced three consecutive video games. Roman lately stated he hit “the reset button” after these losses, proper earlier than Baltimore thrashed Dallas in Week 13. Profitable their final 5 video games, a stretch that coincides with quarterback Jackson’s return from Covid-19, the Ravens lead the N.F.L. in dashing and rank second in factors per sport and yards per play.

A more healthy and extra secure offensive line has helped J.Ok. Dobbins, Gus Edwards and Jackson take benefit, particularly on the skin, in a reconfigured run sport.

Roman is conversant in resets. He was on Baltimore’s employees in 2018, when Jackson changed the injured Joe Flacco and Baltimore reworked its offense on the fly. And as San Francisco’s offensive coordinator in 2012, when beginning quarterbackAlex Smith bought damage midseason, Roman reimagined an offense that catered to Colin Kaepernick’s dynamism, serving to the 49ers attain the Tremendous Bowl.

The Ravens are peaking, however they’re trailed by recollections of what occurred final postseason, when Jackson dedicated three turnovers in an upset loss to Tennessee — their opponent on Sunday. If Roman will help Jackson get the primary playoff win of his profession, the Ravens’ largest win may have been altering the narrative on their ceiling.