Following Week 18 of the 2025/26 National Football League (NFL) regular season, the NFL playoff bracket with all 14 teams is now fully set, beginning with six glittering matchups set to unfold during Wild Card Weekend, starting tomorrow. The Philadelphia Eagles enter the play-offs as the defending Super Bowl champions and will open up their title defence with a home encounter against the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday, and the Week 18 results played a major role in the final seedings.

Two crucial games were played last Saturday, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs the Carolina Panthers, and the 49ers vs the Seattle Seahawks, plus the regular season finale last Sunday night between the Baltimore Ravens and Pittsburgh Steelers was as penal as they come. Defense put on a show in the Saturday games as very few points were allowed, but Tampa Bay squeezed past Carolina 16-14 in a game they had to win to stay alive in postseason contention, and Seattle locked up the No 1 seed in the National Football Conference (NFC) and the NFC West Division title after a hard-fought 13-3 victory over San Francisco. The 49ers missed out on a glorious opportunity to not only top the NFC, but also the chance to play all home games if they were to make it to the final, since the Super Bowl will be played on their home turf.

Despite losing to the Buccaneers on Saturday, the Panthers won the NFC South Division on Sunday, thanks to the Atlanta Falcons registering a 19-17 win over the New Orleans Saints, which automatically eliminated Tampa Bay from the play-offs. This made the Panthers (8-9), who limped into the play-offs having lost two straight, the only team to qualify for this postseason with a losing record, and their reward is a showdown with the Los Angeles Rams (12-5) in the weekend’s opener tomorrow, against whom they eked out a 31-28 win last November. That said, the visiting Rams are JustBet’s most heavily favoured NFL team this weekend and, based on track record, are expected to return home with the win.

The aforementioned do-or-die regular-season closer started out very pedestrian and it appeared that the game would snail-out to the final whistle, but then, with a little under nine minutes remaining, a shootout ensued in Pittsburgh. The Steelers were nursing a 13-10 lead before both teams started exchanging long-range bombs to ridiculously wide-open receivers, each more exhilarating than the previous. And when the dust settled, after a missed Baltimore field goal attempt as time expired, the Steelers emerged winners of the American Football Conference (AFC) North Division, and the Ravens left to ponder what could have been, following the 26-24 score line.

The Steelers will again close this weekend when they welcome the Houston Texans into Acrisure Stadium on Monday night, for another must-win situation. The Texans (12-5) enter the encounter riding a nine-game win streak, averaging 26.22 points over that stretch, while the Steelers (10-7) were stifled by the Cleveland Browns two weeks ago and narrowly endured the Ravens to get to this point. The Texans feature the NFL’s top-ranked total defence, holding opponents to just 277.2 yards per game, and are favoured by JustBet entering the weekend. The Steelers will be up against the NFL’s sixth-ranked pass defence (183.5 yards allowed per game) and must do better than their 22nd-ranked passing offence (202.4 passing yards per contest) if they hope to advance. With 243.9 passing yards allowed per game on defense, which ranks fourth worst in the NFL, the Steelers are in for a long night if they don’t find a way to spin the narrative. DK Metcalf is set to return for the Steelers, but that may not be enough to get them over the hump, unless another wave of luck comes their way.

The other four games slated for Wild Card Weekend bring their unique level of intrigue, and each is laced with the promise of high-flying action. The Green Bay Packers (9-7-1) and Chicago Bears (11-6) renew one of the biggest rivalries in the league tomorrow night at Soldier Field, Chicago. Green Bay has dominated this series over last few years, winning 12 of the last 14 meetings, but the Packers stumbled into the playoffs having lost four of their last five games, and the Bears are 6-1 in their last seven games at home, including a 22-16 overtime victory over the Packers on December 20, 2025. JustBet offers the visitor as very slight underdogs as this could go either way.

The Buffalo Bills visit the Jacksonville Jaguars early Sunday afternoon for an expected wild encounter. These team are white-hot heading into the playoffs as the Jaguars finished the season with eight-straight wins and the Bills are 5-1 in their last six. The Jaguars allowed a league-low 85.6 rushing yards per game, and the Bills averaged a league-high 159.6 rushing yards per game this season, so this is where the game could be decided. Buffalo’s James Cook was the NFL’s leading rusher, finishing with 1,621 yards, but Jacksonville’s No 1 ranked run defence has not allowed more than 74 yards in a game this season, so that should be interesting. The teams split the last 10 match-ups evenly, and JustBet offers the visitors as slight favourites, but this can only hold true if Cook has a great game and quarterback (QB) Josh Allen dons his superman cape, especially close to the game’s end.

The 49ers (11-6) visit the Eagles (12-5) as JustBet underdogs late Sunday afternoon, and their hot-and-cold season doesn’t offer much confidence. On the other side of the ball, the Eagles have not been very inspiring either but should hold off a San Francisco team that is riddled with injury and lacks consistency. The New England Patriots (14-3) welcome the Los Angeles Chargers (11-6) into Gillette Stadium on Sunday night for a mouthwatering matchup. The Chargers won the last two encounters over the previous two seasons, but this is a very different unit, playing excellent football for head coach Mike Vrabel, in his first year in charge.

To say these teams are hot is an understatement. The Patriots stumbled out of the gate with two home losses in their first three games, then rattled off 10-straight wins to improve to 11-2, suffered a loss to the lowly New York Jets, then won their final three games to take the AFC East Division. The Chargers started the season 3-0, won three-straight again in Weeks 8 through 10, and stitched four wins together after the bye week before dropping their final two games, though they did rest their starters last weekend. The Patriots’ second-year QB Drake Maye hasn’t played in the postseason before, while Chargers QB Justin Herbert is 0-2 in play-off games, but on the strength of the season, the home team is favoured by JustBet and should pull off the win.

In total, six teams that failed to make the postseason a year ago have made it this year, specifically the Seahawks, Patriots, Bears, 49ers, Jaguars, and Panthers. Wild Card Weekend is expected to be just that, wild, and anything that can happen may just do so.

Are you ready for some football?

JustBet continues to offer attractive betting options on all popular sports and events (including virtual games) as soon as they become available. Please visit one of the over 130 locations (or visit
www.supremegames.com/#/prelive) for details and place your bets on the prediction of your choice for maximum winnings…… Get in the GAME!