It’s Super Wildcard Weekend, with six NFL games on top for the first round of the playoffs! Who will advance? Steve Cook has your picks!

Hi, hello and welcome to Super Wild Card Weekend! I’m not sure when Wild Card Weekend became Super, but we’re all here for it. Interesting thing about this season’s selection of first round matchups: We’ve seen all of them before! That may lead some to believe this weekend will be very predictable. If we know one thing about the NFL, it’s that just when you think you know the answers, Roger Goodell changes the questions!

It wasn’t a great year of picks for your humble correspondent. Pretty soon I’ll be right alongside the likes of Sean Payton & Jim Caldwell interviewing for new jobs. Before I can do that, we’ve got some playoff games to try & pick. The odds listed in this column are current as of Thursday morning, and I can promise that most of them will be different by the time you read this.

Saturday, January 14

Seattle at San Francisco (-9.5)

“There’s zero chance the 49ers beat the Seahawks 3x in one season” pic.twitter.com/GdHV2hmd9o

— 🍓 Strawbarry Bonds △⃒⃘ (@EvaLaMorte) January 9, 2023

It’s been great to see Geno Smith revive his career and lead the Seahawks to more success than anybody expected this year. Remember when everybody thought the Broncos won the Russell Wilson trade? Now the Seahawks have a top five draft pick thanks to Denver’s futility through the 2022 season. It’s a good time. I don’t think this weekend will provide much in the way of good times for the Seahawks. It was a fun run, but the 49ers have been on fire for months now. They might not have gotten the 1 seed, but I expect them to represent the NFC in the Super Bowl when all is said and done. Even with good ol’ Brock Purdy.

LA Chargers (-2) at Jacksonville

Over the last five weeks of the regular season, the Jaguars and Chargers have been two of the best teams by DVOA.

Jax: 3
LAC: 6

Two great young QBs with lots of talent around them.

This is the most compelling matchup of wild card weekend imo.

— Jordan de Lugo (@jordandelugo) January 10, 2023

Based off of these lines, Vegas is also expecting this to be the game of the weekend. Two young quarterbacks with two young teams full of talent. Both teams are hot as can be. We expected the Chargers to be here. The Jags? Not so much. They’ve pulled a 180 over the past year, getting rid of all the bad vibes and welcoming in some new ones. Last year’s AFC Championship team featured a traditionally moribund franchise with a second-year QB that had been drafted first overall. Can the Jaguars follow in those footsteps?

I won’t lie, I’m rooting for the Jags. It’s a great story and we all know that Tony Khan is my main man. Unfortunately, I think Justin Herbert has one of those breakout games on a big stage, and the Chargers pull out the victory. The Jags blew them out back in Week 3, which is just enough motivation to lead to a different result.

Sunday, January 15

Miami at Buffalo (-13)

The Bills would beat this Dolphins team with Dan Marino. https://t.co/M0nx0oSM90

— Nate Geary (@NateGearySports) January 10, 2023

Here’s the thing. The Dolphins aren’t going to win this game. They weren’t going to win this game if Tua Tagovailoa was playing, or if Teddy Bridgewater was playing, or if anybody else that’s ever played quarterback for the Miami Dolphins was playing. With that being said…we’re talking about a team that lost to the Bills by three points just under a month ago. A team that beat the Bills earlier in the season. I think Vegas & the bettors are over-reacting to the Tua news, leading to a spread that the Dolphins should be able to cover.

I think people will realize this later in the week, and the number will get a bit lower. So grab the Dolphins while it’s still a touch outrageous. The Bills haven’t blown out anybody other than the lowly Bears since early October. They win, but they don’t utterly dominate.

NY Giants at Minnesota (-3)

#Vikings fans, DON'T look at what time your Wild Card Round game against the #Giants starts on Sunday 🫣 #SKOL pic.twitter.com/YQJxtyes0m

— The 33rd Team (@The33rdTeamFB) January 10, 2023

Vikings fans gotta be feeling a bit nervous here. We’ve been higher than most on the Vikes all season, but the lows this team has shown have been lower than every other team in the playoffs. They can either kick some ass or get their doors blown off. Neither would be surprising at this point. The Giants have arrived here earlier than anybody expected, and have been a fun story. Brian Daboll seems to be working out as head coach, and Daniel Jones is finally showing something at the quarterback position.

I’d like to pick the Vikings this week since I’ve been riding with them most of the season. Unfortunately, the NFL did Minnesota dirty and didn’t schedule them at 1 PM on Sunday. We all know that’s when Kirk Cousins is at his best. 4:30? Not so much. We’ll go with those road dogg Giants to have a big game against a Vikings defense that can be taken advantage of.

Baltimore at Cincinnati (-8.5)

No need for a coin flip. Bengals beat the Ravens. Tyler Boyd, “They didn’t give nothing to us, we TOOK IT!” pic.twitter.com/kLZIVbKXtn

— Elise Jesse (@EliseJesseTV) January 8, 2023

After I finished last week’s column where I called Ravens fans out for whining about their team not being able to win the AFC North due to the fallout from Week 17, Roger Goodell & the NFL brass tried to hand the Ravens everything on a silver platter. If the Ravens had managed to beat the Bengals in Week 18, and if things ended up with the Bengals & Ravens facing off in the Wild Card round, there would have been a coin flip determining homefield. Most likely with Goodell & Ravens owner Steve Biscotti in a closed room. Heads, the Ravens would have won. Tails, the Bengals would have lost.

Katie Blackburn tried to do the right thing and sit the process out due to her obvious bias. If she thought that the other owners would credit her for that, she was mistaken. I could be wrong, but from what I’ve observed over the past three decades, Bengals ownership was often a pain in the other NFL owners’ ass. Mike Brown was usually that one no vote against whatever rule they wanted passed. This generation of Bengal ownership seems more reasonable than Mike Brown, and more wise as to which players to sign, but we’ve learned over the past couple of weeks that the Bengals ownership has absolutely no stroke with their fellow owners. Had the Dallas Cowboys been hosting that Monday night game and somebody on the road team suffered cardiac arrest, the NFL would have probably given the Cowboys a bye to the NFC Championship Game. Since it was the Bengals, the NFL tried to find any way they could to punish them, even if that UC Level 1 Trauma Center helped save Damar Hamlin’s life. The unmitigated gall! How dare they!

The Bengals had enough fuel from all of that to win in Week 18 and get at least one home game. There are reasons for Bengals fans to pause with the optimism heading into the playoffs. The offense hasn’t run smoothly on a regular basis for several weeks now. The offensive line is looking at trouble with Alex Cappa getting hurt just before the playoffs & La’El Collins already out for the foreseeable future. Lamar Jackson just might be ready to play. There might be rust involved there, but rusty Lamar Jackson is still more dangerous than anything else the Ravens could throw out at quarterback.

Even if the Bengals end up moving on to the divisional round, I don’t see them laying waste to the Ravens like people are expecting. If Lamar is officially declared out, expect this line to climb even higher.

Monday, January 16

Dallas (-2.5) at Tampa Bay

Tom Brady is 7-0 against the Dallas Cowboys.

Tom Brady is the quarterback of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. pic.twitter.com/THkgxcOhhC

— RJ Ochoa (@rjochoa) January 9, 2023

You’re giving me Tom Brady as a home dogg against a team he always beats, and a team that always chokes at this time of year? Easy money. Buccaneers all night long.

Week 18 Results: 6-10
2022 Regular Season Results: 122-143-8