The AFC and NFC Championship Games are now set in stone. At 3:00 p.m. EDT, the Denver Broncos will play host to the New England Patriots. After that, familiar foes face off at 6:30 p.m. EDT when the Seattle Seahawks and Los Angeles Rams go head-to-head for a third time this season. With the final four teams locked in, let's take a look at the biggest stories going into next weekend.
5. The Patriots' incredibly easy path back to the Big Game
A lot has been made of the fact that the New England Patriots have had an easy go of things during the 2025-26 season. The Pats had the lowest strength of schedule of any team in the league this season. In fact, they had the tenth easiest schedule of any NFL team over the last 56 years, according to Pro-Football Reference.
The Patriots only played three games against teams with a winning record during the regular-season: the Buffalo Bills twice and the Pittsburgh Steelers once. Interestingly enough, they went 1-2 in those contests. They also only had four games against teams that reached the 2026 NFL Playoffs, and none of those squads made it past the Divisional Round.
One expected that the competition would improve in the postseason, and it did, but there are several asterisks next to the Patriots' opponents. New England beat a hobbled Los Angeles Chargers team that was without both of its starting tackles. In the Divisional Round, the Pats faced the Houston Texans, who were missing their number-one wide receiver, their starting tight end, and their starting running back. Next, they'll face a Denver Broncos team that just lost its starting quarterback for the remainder of the season.
The Patriots have answered the call every time they have been challenged this year. With that being said, the challenges have not been all that difficult to overcome.
4. Sam Darnold's all-time great career turnaround
Last season, after a historically bad performance in the Wild Card Round of the 2025 NFL Playoffs, fans wrote off Sam Darnold as nothing more than a one-year wonder who benefited from playing in the Minnesota Vikings' elite offensive system. The Vikes were so convinced that Darnold was a one-hit wonder that they let him walk in free agency and decided to hand the reins over to an unproven QB in J.J. McCarthy.
One team that wasn’t convinced Sam Darnold had peaked was the Seattle Seahawks. They awarded Darnold a highly respectable three-year contract with an average annual value of $33.5 million, well below the $50+ million contracts we see handed out to the league's better QBs. That deal has already paid dividends with the Seattle Seahawks in the NFC Championship Game on the cusp of their first Super Bowl appearance in 11 years.
Two years ago, it looked like Sam Darnold was another draft bust who would never amount to anything of significance in this league. He failed with the New York Jets and Carolina Panthers before becoming a backup to Brock Purdy in San Francisco. But when J.J. McCarthy tore his meniscus, everything changed for Darnold. Since that injury, he has led two different teams to 14-win seasons and was elected to back-to-back Pro Bowls.
Now, he's just two wins away from one of the greatest redemption stories in the NFL, going from draft bust to Super Bowl champion. There will be a lot of people rooting for Darnold and hoping he leads the Seahawks to a Lombardi Trophy. If he can do that, then he will have pulled out the most amazing career turnaround in the history of the National Football League.
3. Drake Maye and Mike Vrabel returning the Patriots to their former glory
It wasn't that long ago that the New England Patriots were looked at as a joke. Following the somewhat unexpected regression of Mac Jones, the Pats went 4-13 during the 2023-24 season before Jones was benched for Bailey Zappe. The sudden drop-off from 2021 to 2022 to 2023 led to the Pats parting ways with head coach Bill Belichick and drafting a new quarterback in Drake Maye.
Things didn't improve last season. Drake Maye showed promise, but the Pats once again went 4-13, which resulted in New England making a change just one season after Jerod Mayo was named the team's head coach. With Mike Vrabel on the market and mutual interest between both sides, the Patriots paired him with Drake Maye and offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels. The result is an elite team that is just one win away from its first Super Bowl appearance since Tom Brady was the starting QB.
After Brady left in the 2020 off-season, the expectation in New England was that Bill Belichick would be able to find a new quarterback and keep the team competitive. Though that appeared to be true in Mac Jones' first season, when the Pats went 10-7, New England's embarrassing 47-17 playoff loss to the Buffalo Bills changed the trajectory of the franchise. Two seasons after that, the Patriots looked like a bottom-feeder franchise with no hope for the future. However, Drake Maye and Mike Vrabel have sped through the rebuilding process, and once again have New England playing like a perennial Super Bowl contender.
I don't want to add insult to injury, but just look at the Josh Allen's Buffalo Bills. Since Allen was drafted by the Bills, the Patriots have won a Super Bowl, moved on from Tom Brady, drafted his replacement, moved on from his replacement, parted ways with Bill Belichick, drafted a franchise quarterback, fired a head coach, hired a new coach, and made it back to the AFC Championship Game! The Patriots did all of those things before the Buffalo Bills could make it to one Super Bowl with an MVP-caliber quarterback.
I'm not calling the Bills a failure or saying that their organization is poorly run. Rather, this point emphasizes just how quickly the Patriots were able to return to championship form. After powering through a rebuild in just three seasons, the New England Patriots once again look like a perennial contender for the Vince Lombardi Trophy.
2. Matthew Stafford cementing his legacy as a Hall of Famer
There have been conversations in recent years about the Hall of Fame résumé of Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford. These discussions first popped up after Stafford led the Rams to a Super Bowl victory in his first season with the team. At the time, it felt premature to have those talks. Now, though, we might be seeing the greatest late-stage Hall of Fame push in NFL History.
During his tenure with the Detroit Lions, Stafford was always viewed as a good quarterback, but not a great one. This point was proven by the fact that he was only elected to one Pro Bowl during his time with the Lions. When you realize that Pro Bowl voting back then was largely a popularity contest, fans didn't seem to believe that Stafford was one of the league's best QBs.
Since arriving in Los Angeles, the narrative has changed. In five seasons, he has made the playoffs four times, won a Super Bowl, and been named a Pro Bowler twice. He's also having the best season of his career this year. He was named a First-Team All-Pro, led the league in passing touchdowns and passing yards, and will likely end up being named MVP. If he can top that off with a Super Bowl victory, then it will be one of the best seasons we have ever seen from a quarterback.
Stafford had an impressive résumé before this season, but hardly one worthy of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. One Super Bowl win and two Pro Bowl appearances are not enough to get players into the Hall of Fame. But two Super Bowl wins, three Pro Bowls, an MVP award, a First-Team All-Pro nomination, and the league lead in passing touchdowns and passing yards make his candidacy for the Hall much more viable. If he can find a way to win this weekend - and put up good numbers while doing it - his Hall of Fame résumé will get a huge boost.
1. Does Jarrett Stidham have a miracle in him?
Of all the things to watch out for this coming weekend and everything leading up to the AFC and NFC Championship Games, the most interesting storyline has to do with Jarrett Stidham, a player who hasn't thrown a pass in a National Football League regular season game since January 7th, 2024.
Following the biggest win of the Sean Payton era in Denver, Broncos fans came crashing back down to Earth when it was announced after the game that starting quarterback Bo Nix had suffered a season-ending broken bone in his ankle. Shortly after that, Jarrett Stidham was essentially named the team's starting quarterback when head coach Sean Payton said, "he's ready" during his postgame press conference.
These are somewhat unprecedented circumstances for the Broncos. The closest thing we have to this scenario is the 2017-18 Philadelphia Eagles. After starting quarterback and Pro Bowler Carson Wentz tore his ACL in Week 14, backup Nick Foles led Philly on a miraculous run that culminated in the franchise's first Super Bowl victory. But this isn't like that at all. Foles started two full games before the postseason and made another start before suiting up for the 2018 NFC Championship Game. Meanwhile, Jarrett Stidham has not thrown a pass in a meaningful NFL game in over two years, but is now being asked to go out and win a game so that the Broncos earn a spot in the Super Bowl!
In all likelihood, the Patriots will be able to stifle the seventh-year quarterback in what will be just his fifth NFL start. However... IF Stidham can perform well and have the Broncos playing competitively, that might not just be the story of the weekend, but maybe the biggest story of the season! People around the world are going to tune in to see if Jarrett Stidham can do the unthinkable and upset the Patriots. The hope for a miracle probably won't last long, but it's something that everybody will be interested to see play out because if Stidham does win the game, it will be one of the most amazing stories in the history of not just the NFL but all North American sports.
