The 2024 NFL regular season has come to an end. After 18 days, with 17 games played by each of the 32 franchises, only 14 teams remain alive in search of the league title. The other 18 clubs are already getting to work on the 2025 Draft. With a bittersweet feeling, we continue our march toward Super Bowl LIX, hoping that the level of the postseason will surpass that of the regular season.
In the American League, the Kansas City Chiefs were clinched the top seed by virtue of a 15-1 record and there was no need to risk any injuries on the final day. The Chiefs fell to a 38-0 rout at the hands of the Denver Broncos, gifting them a ticket to the postseason instead of the Cincinnati Bengals.
The Chiefs will have a bye in the Wild Card Round, and will return to action for the Divisional Round, hosting the lowest seed of the teams that win next weekend.
Kansas City is looking to become the first team in the modern era of the game to win three consecutive NFL titles, having won Super Bowls LIV, LVII and LVIII — and falling in Super Bowl LV — in the past five years. This is their ninth consecutive postseason appearance, and 10th in the past 11 years. During that span, they have racked up eight straight division titles. In addition to those three NFL titles, the Chiefs were AFL champions three times, in 1962 (as the Dallas Texans), 1966 and 1969, and won Super Bowl IV, the last non-NFL title game before the leagues merged.
In the NFC, the top seed was decided down to the regular-season finale between the Minnesota Vikings and North Division rival Detroit Lions.
The Lions (15-2, first in the NFC North) claimed the top spot — and the bye week — after beating Minnesota 31-9 in the nightcap. But the cost was high, with Detroit losing rookie cornerback Terrion Arnold to injury, who joins a long list of injuries on the defensive side of the ball.
That bye week will be critical to seeing how many they can get back, and in what condition, when they return to action in the Divisional Round. For the Lions, this division title is their first since the 1993 season, and there is renewed interest in the franchise throughout the state of Michigan.
Expectations are high for the Lions, and that’s something that used to not be said about this franchise. Detroit has never appeared in a Super Bowl, and the last of its four NFL titles came in 1957.
The NFL Playoff Schedule
• January 11-13: Wild Card Round
• January 18-19: Divisional Round
• January 26: AFC and NFC Championship Games
• February 9: Super Bowl LIX (in New Orleans, Louisiana)
CREDITS:
Director: Alejandro Bernal
Text: Max Hackenbroich
