Main characters of past NFL postseasons were missing when the Wild Card round began this weekend.
Enter the league's new faces.
With Baltimore Ravens' Lamar Jackson and Kansas City Chiefs' Patrick Mahomes not in the playoffs, and Tom Brady watching from a broadcast booth, these are the first playoffs since 1998 not to feature either Brady, Mahomes or Peyton Manning, and into that power vacuum has stepped a new generation vying to leave its own mark.
Of the nine teams left, three are quarterbacked by players only in their second year in the NFL. Two more are in their third and fourth seasons, respectively.
The only quarterbacks with a Super Bowl win on their resume are the most experienced: Matthew Stafford of the Los Angeles Rams (17th season) and Aaron Rodgers (21st) of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Stafford used that experience to calmly carve up theCarolina Panthers in a come-from-behind win Saturday, but these are also the no-experience-necessary playoffs, as bothChicago Bears' Caleb Williamsand New England Patriots' Drake Maye won their playoff debuts.
Williams was 9 years old the last time the Bears won a playoff game, during the 2010 season, until Saturday, when Chicago scored 25 points in the fourth quarter to overcome an 18-point deficit and beat division rival Green Bay Packers. Of the Bears' 10 longest plays from scrimmage, nine came in the second half and six in the fourth quarter.
Such a comeback was only shocking if you hadn't been paying attention. The Bears have made seemingly improbable turnarounds their calling card, with six regular-season wins coming after trailing in the final two minutes. Saturday's victory came after Green Bay led, 27-24, with four minutes still to play.
Williams,the No. 1 pick in the 2024 draft, has drawn scrutiny and criticism since his NFL debut because of his accuracy; his completion percentage ranked third-worst among this season's 38 qualified passers.
Yet, his seven fourth-quarter comebacks are the most by any quarterback in NFL history under the age of 25.
"We're here and I'm going to be here for a while, is my plan," Williams said. "Be in a bunch of games, be in these moments and come out victorious. That's the mindset for right now this year. That's also the mindset for the future."
One night later, Maye produced a performance against the Los Angeles Chargers that the second-year quarterback said "wasn't his best." Still, his touchdown pass late in the fourth quarter of his first career postseason game sealed New England's first playoff victory since the 2018 season.
Though both Williams and Maye were better than their older counterparts, Green Bay's Jordan Love and the Chargers' Justin Herbert, youth didn't win out entirely over wisdom during the weekend.
With eight consecutive wins to close the season, 26-year-old Trevor Lawrence and Jacksonville had become a dark horse title contenders. Their playoffs ended after just one game, however, after eight-year veteran Josh Allen scored three touchdowns to leada Buffalo comeback and earn the Bills' first playoff winon the road in 33 years.
"He definitely carried them," Jacksonville Jaguars coach Liam Coen said of Allen.
Stafford completed six of his seven passes on the Rams' game-winning drive in the final minute to beat Carolina and third-year quarterback Bryce Young on the road Saturday. It keeps alive the Rams' hopes of winning their second Super Bowl in five seasons.
"You see him out there, he just has the best composure of anyone I have ever seen," Rams tight end Colby Parkinson said. "He knows that we are going to go make it happen and we completely trust him."
Although Stafford has been an NFL mainstay for 17 seasons, Saturday marked only his 11th career postseason game. Rams star receiver Puka Nacua said of the comeback, there was "never a doubt — No. 9 (Stafford) is with us."
On the other end of the spectrum, although San Francisco's Brock Purdy is only in his fourth season, the 49ers' win Sunday that knocked out defending champion Philadelphia Eagles was already Purdy's seventh career postseason start.
Two of the most fascinating storylines left in the season center on whether the teams that were the AFC and NFC's best during the regular season can remain so in the playoffs largely because their quarterbacks have either unimpressive or untested playoff credentials.
In the NFC, top-seeded Seattle Seahawks will host the 49ers in next week's division round. Quarterback Sam Darnold, who fell apart with the Minnesota Vikings in last year's postseason, leading him to change teams and sign with Seattle in the offseason, has the chance to prove that his second consecutive superlative regular season was not a fluke.
But San Francisco will not make it easy. Though Darnold threw 25 touchdowns this season, he didn't throw any in two games against the 49ers.
And in the AFC, the Denver Broncos are the top seed for the first time since 2015. That season, they won the Super Bowl with future Hall of Famer Peyton Manning playing the last of his 17 seasons. A decade later, Bo Nix will be making his playoff debut in next week's divisional round, when the Broncos host Buffalo.
Of all the quarterbacks left, Rodgers has by far the most experience. But Pittsburgh, which claimed the last postseason berth on the final play of the regular season, isn't viewed as a favorite to advance to the Super Bowl — which leaves a path for Allen to become the new face of a changing NFL postseason landscape.
Allen is 8-6 in the playoffs in his career. Four of those losses came against Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs, who ended Buffalo's season each of the last two years.
With their nemesis, Kansas City, no longer a postseason obstacle, and a majority of the remaining quarterbacks possessing less experience than Allen, the Bills will try to mend the franchise's playoff heartbreak that dates to losing four consecutive Super Bowls between 1990-93.
"When your quarterback's that type of warrior, that type of competitor, it just goes through the whole team," Bills coach Sean McDermott said Sunday.
Whether Allen can finally go through the whole postseason and emerge a champion is now the question.
