The Big Lead

NFL Playoffs 2025: Previewing AFC, NFC Championship game matchups

By Sam Westmoreland

Feb 10, 2024; Las Vegas, NV, USA; The Lamar Hunt AFC Championship trophy at the NFL Experience at the Mandalay Bay South Convention Center. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
Feb 10, 2024; Las Vegas, NV, USA; The Lamar Hunt AFC Championship trophy at the NFL Experience at the Mandalay Bay South Convention Center. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
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The NFL Playoffs have blessed us with a pair of stellar conference championship game matchups this season, rife with storylines and potential highlight reel plays on both sides.

In the AFC, we have the Chiefs, the tried and true, dyed-in-the-wool dynasty. They've made the last six AFC championship games, and won three of the last five Super Bowls, including two straight. They've continued to look the part of title favorites on paper this year, going 15-2 (with one of those losses coming in the season finale when they benched their starters), with a dominant defense.

They feature maybe the best quarterback in the NFL, and an early contender for the greatest quarterback ever, in Patrick Mahomes, who is capable of absolutely unprecedented improvisational brilliance on the field any time he touches the ball.

But this Chiefs team, for all their success, doesn't feel as inevitable as teams in years past. The offense isn't explosive, and the defense isn't perfect.

They face a Bills team who are desperate to get back to a Super Bowl for the first time since 1993, and win their first ever. Josh Allen is playing like the favorite to win an MVP award, and the run game looks better than it has in ages. They spread the ball around and put up points like crazy.

But Buffalo is haunted by Kansas City in the postseason; they've lost three times in the last five years to them, including two of the last three seasons, and have yet to get past them at any point in Allen's tenure with the team. Can they finally banish the ghosts of past defeats and reach a level they've been eager to hit?

In the NFC, we have the Philadelphia Eagles, who are very, very good at what they're good at, and really not good at the things they aren't. Led by running back Saquon Barkley, their run game is as good as any in the NFL. Barkley has been red hot lately, and has powered the Eagles to two playoff wins. Their defense is terrifying, and has locked down virtually every opponent they face.

But quarterback Jalen Hurts has looked downright pedestrian throwing the football this season, and a knee injury suffered in last week's win over the Rams doesn't inspire much confidence.

They face the Washington Commanders, the feel-good story of this playoff season (I feel as weird writing that sentence as you do reading it). They are powered almost exclusively by quarterback Jayden Daniels, the human dynamo who has turned this team from beleaguered doormat into power punching title contender in just one season.

But the Commanders are in uncharted territory here, facing an opponent who has exploited their soft defense in both of their matchups this season. Can they find enough offense to get a win?

Check out our handy previews to answer all your questions:

NFC Championship: Commanders vs. Eagles

AFC Championship: Chiefs vs. Bills

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