NEW ORLEANS — Next weekend's wild card matchups in the NFL look like this after the Saints defeated Carolina, but Green Bay also defeated Chicago. The Bears secured the seventh spot with Arizona falling to the LA Rams.
The Saints will play at 3:40 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 10 on WWL-TV. The Sunday date means that Alvin Kamara will be eligible to return if he passes COVID protocols, however, he won't be able to practice with the team leading up to the game.
The wildcard games are next weekend, followed by the divisional round games. This is the first season that only the top seed in each conference gets a bye. Prior to 2020 season, the top two seeds in each conference got a bye.
NFC
- Green Bay BYE (will play lowest remaining seed in second round)
- Chicago (7) at New Orleans Saints (2) - Sunday, Jan. 10 - 3:40 p.m. CBS (WWL-TV)
- LA Rams (6) at Seattle (3) - Saturday, Jan. 9 - 3:40 FOX
- Tampa Bay (5) at NFC East champion (4) *New York or Washington - Saturday, Jan. 9 - 7:15 NBC
AFC
- Kansas City BYE (will play lowest remaining seed in second round)
- Baltimore (5) at Tennessee (4) - Sunday, Jan. 10 - Noon, ESPN
- Cleveland (6) at Pittsburgh (3) - Sunday, Jan. 10 - 7:15, NBC
- Indianapolis (7) at Buffalo (2) - Saturday, Jan. 9 Noon, CBS
The NFC East champion is guaranteed to have a losing record. It will mark the third time in the past 11 seasons a division winner will have fewer wins than losses but will still host a playoff game against a team with a winning record. The other two were the Seattle Seahawks in 2010 (7-9) and Carolina Panthers in 2014 (7-8-1). In both cases, the home team won in the wild card round before losing the next week.
The lowest remaining seed after the wild card games will face the No. 1 seed in each conference in the divisional round Jan 16-17. The other two remaining teams will play at the home of the higher seed.
The conference championships will be played Jan. 24. Super Bowl LV will be played in Tampa on Feb. 7.