Go here for this week's Rushing Matchups. 

Top 2 Passing Matchups

Kansas City vs Buffalo

The Chief's passing game has issues, but thankfully, last week, we saw the first glimpse that Travis Kelce can carry this offense throughout the playoffs. Kelce, who has had one of the worst seasons in his career was outstanding against Houston last week as he had 117 yards on seven receptions with a touchdown. Kelce showed a burst he had not shown all year, as he had a 49-yard reception and averaged 16.7 yards per catch, which was almost double his 8.5 for the season. The Chiefs will need this type of production to win the Super Bowl as the rest of their receiving room struggled last week. Outside of Xavier Worthy, who had 45 yards, no other Chiefs player had more than 15. DeAndre Hopkins, Marquise Brown, and JuJu Smith-Schuster were all held without a catch. The upside this week is that there could just be some rust that the offense has to shake off as their starters did not play in either Week 18 or Week 19 as they had the bye and chose to sit their starters in Week 18. Either way, they will need more production outside of just Kelce this week. They'll be facing a more prolific offense in Buffalo, where 177 passing yards likely won't suffice.

This is a situation where there are only four teams, and we have to pick two good passing matchups and two bad. The reality here is that none of these teams are good matchups. Buffalo's secondary has been extremely inconsistent. While they've performed well for most of the season, they have some extreme outlier performances as they've allowed three 300-yard performances, including a 494-yard outing against Jared Goff in Week 15. Since that Goff performance, the secondary has not been tested by an elite passing offense, as they've faced Drake Maye, Aaron Rodgers/Tyrod Taylor, Joe Milton III, Bo Nix, and Lamar Jackson. Last week against the Ravens, Lamar Jackson threw for 254 yards and two touchdowns which was slightly above his regular season average of 245 yards. The issue for Buffalo is that while Christian Benford is a top-tier corner, the rest of the secondary has flaws. Cornerback Rasul Douglas has seen a significant decline this season in coverage, while the safeties have been the real weakness, as the team has seen a significant dropoff from last season with Damar Hamlin and Taylor Rapp compared to 2023, where the team had Jordan Poyer and Micah Hyde. While Hamlin is a great story, he is showing why he's a sixth-round pick who is just now getting a chance in his fourth season, as he has been unable to consistently cover opposing receivers. Overall, this is an average pass defense, but the good news is that they completely shut down the Chiefs back in Week 11, holding Patrick Mahomes II to just 196 yards, although he did throw three touchdowns. Buffalo is dealing with some significant injury questions heading into this week. Star corner Christian Benford is dealing with a concussion that if he is not cleared from the protocol is a massive downgrade, safety Taylor Rapp looks like he's not going to play as he has not practiced on Wednesday or Thursday and if he's unable to go rookie Cole Bishop would get the start. Bishop has struggled in his limited playing time this season.

Buffalo at Kansas City

Buffalo has turned to a run-heavy offense over the last four games, as Josh Allen has thrown the ball fewer than 30 times in each of his last four starts. This has capped the upside of this offense, as Allen has topped 200 yards just once in those four games. This offense needs a receiver to emerge as a consistent option. While Khalil Shakir is the top-volume receiver on this team, he's averaging just 10.8 yards per catch. Even with a 34-yard reception last week, he only averaged 11.2 yards per catch, as his other five receptions went for just 33 yards. Besides Shakir, the Bills did not have another receiver surpass 15 yards last week against Baltimore. From a snap count perspective, Mack Hollins and Keon Coleman lead the team this season, but Coleman averages just 2.1 catches per game, while Hollins averages 1.7. This offense will likely continue to rely on Khalil Shakir to move the chains while running the ball heavily and taking a few deep shots to Coleman and/or Curtis Samuel, who sees about 30% of the snaps for this offense.

Kansas City's pass defense has been inconsistent this season, but at its best, it can be a shutdown unit. Led by All-Pro Trent McDuffie, this is a unit that the Chiefs have built through the draft as Jaylen Watson was drafted in the same 2022 draft as McDuffie, as was safety Brian Cook, with Justin Reid being the veteran of the group. Cook has been the one weak spot on this defense. On the season, excluding Week 18, where the Chiefs did not play their starters, Kansas City allowed 228 passing yards per game to opposing quarterbacks, which was 12th best this season. The inconsistency of the Chiefs has largely been with the pass rush, as, despite Steve Spagnuolo's pressure-heavy scheme, the Chiefs only have 39 sacks on the year compared to 57 last season. Getting pressure will be critical, as we saw the Chiefs have eight sacks last week against Houston, however in their first meeting with Josh Allen and Buffalo, they were unable to sack the quarterback as he threw for 262 yards and a touchdown.

Bottom 2 Passing Matchups

Washington at Philadelphia

Washington's passing offense keeps finding ways to move the ball as Jayden Daniels is carrying this team throughout the playoffs. Despite having limited talent around him outside of Terry McLaurin, Daniels has been able to create a connection with Dyami Brown this postseason that many people had been hoping for when Noah Brown went down earlier this season with a kidney issue. Over the last two games, Dyami Brown has 89 and 98 yards, pairing well with McLaurin, who has 80 yards or more in each of his last two games. The big question heading into this week is the health of Zach Ertz, who did not practice on Wednesday after suffering a rib injury last week. It seems as if it is just precautionary and that he should play, but keep an eye on it. If he is unable to go, this changes the offensive philosophy for the Commanders. This team likes to play two tight end sets, and while they could turn to rookie Ben Sinnott, he has seen a drastic decrease in snaps over the second half of the season, so they also could turn to more of a three-wide receiver set with Olamide Zaccheaus or Jamison Crowder seeing more looks. This week, the offensive line will be a critical piece for the Commanders as this unit has struggled, especially at the tackle position, as rookie Brandon Coleman and journeyman Andrew Wylie make up a bottom-tier tackle unit. The Commanders also lost right guard Sam Cosmi due to a knee injury. He will be replaced by career backup Trent Scott, who hasn't been a full-time starter since 2019.

Philadelphia's pass defense is coming off of one of their worst statistical games of the season, as they allowed Matthew Stafford to throw for 324 yards and two touchdowns last week. This was just the second time all season that a quarterback has thrown for more than 260 yards against this elite unit. (Baker Mayfield also topped 300 yards back in Week 4.) The 324 yards that the Eagles allowed were somewhat fluky due to 146 of his 324 yards coming on two late-game garbage time drives enabled by Saquon Barkley quickly giving the ball back to the Rams on a one-play 78-yard touchdown run. The Eagles' pass rush was excellent last week, as they sacked Stafford five times and should have a significant advantage against Washington's offensive line. The big question for Philadelphia will be the health of Quinyon Mitchell. The rookie left the game in the first quarter against Los Angeles and did not return. If he's unable to go, the Eagles will turn to Isaiah Rodgers. Rodgers has been an excellent backup throughout his four-year career but does lack the prototypical size as he's just 5-foot-10 and 180 pounds. The good news for the Eagles is that the Commanders have one of the smaller receiver rooms in the NFL since they lost Noah Brown earlier this year. Terry McLaurin and Dyami Brown are just 6-foot-0 tall, so it won't be as if Rodgers has to match up against a 6-foot-4 outside receiver giving up a significant size advantage. This is as deep of a secondary as any in the NFL, led by veteran Darius Slay Jr., with two of the best rookie cornerbacks in the NFL in slot corner Cooper DeJean and the aforementioned Mitchell. This secondary allowed the second-fewest passing yards per game this season and is a nightmare for just about any defense that they face.

Philadelphia vs Washington

The Eagles' plan throughout the postseason seems fairly locked in. Their path to the Super Bowl is running the ball as much as possible. Last week, against the Rams, Jalen Hurts threw the ball just 20 times and has now thrown 22 times or less in five of his last six games. This low volume has all but eliminated both A.J. Brown and Devonta Smith's upside. Brown has failed to top 15 yards throughout this playoff. While Smith has been slightly better, as he had 55 yards against the Packers, he still does not have more than four receptions in either of his last two games. The upside still exists if they fall into a negative game script or just game plan differently, but with the Commanders' run defense struggling, it's difficult to see a change in plans unless they're forced to. One thing to keep an eye on is the status of Dallas Goedert who didn't practice on Thursday due to an ankle injury. Goedert has been the team's leading receiver throughout the playoffs, averaging 52.5 yards per game. Without Goedert, Grant Calcaterra would see most of the snaps this week. Even though Calcaterra leads the tight ends in snaps this season due to all of the injuries Goedert has dealt with, he's shown far less upside than Goedert. Calcaterra has topped 50 yards twice all season and has not done so since Week 8. Jalen Hurts suffered a knee injury last week and was sacked seven times. The Eagles need to find a better way to get the ball out of the hands of Hurts if they're going to have success throwing the ball this week.

Washington's secondary continues to play at a high level. They've now defeated two of the best passing offenses in the playoffs in Tampa Bay and Detroit. Last week, while the Commanders gave up 313 yards to Jared Goff, they created three interceptions of Goff and another pick on a Jameson Williams pass. This rebuilt secondary has moved from the worst pass defense in 2023 to a very good unit this season. While they don't have a traditional shutdown corner, rookie Mike Sainristil has shown that he is a promising young player they can build around as he plays alongside veteran Marshon Lattimore, whom the team acquired mid-season. The Commanders pass defense stats benefit from a struggling run defense as they faced the second-fewest pass attempts in 2024, so while they only allowed 202 passing yards per game, which was the second-best, it largely has to do with the lack of volume they've seen. This could be another run-heavy game plan from Philadelphia as in their first two meetings, the Eagles averaged just 187 passing yards per game.