NFL Playoff Schedule 2024: Wild Card Matchups, Bracket Dates and Start Times

Wild Card Schedule

No. 5 Cleveland Browns at No. 4 Houston Texans (Saturday, 4:30 p.m., NBC)

No. 6 Miami Dolphins at No. 3 Kansas City Chiefs (Saturday, 8:00 p.m., Peacock)

No. 7 Pittsburgh Steelers at No. 2 Buffalo Bills (Sunday, 1:00 p.m., CBS)

No. 7 Green Bay Packers at No. 2 Dallas Cowboys (Sunday, 4:30 p.m., Fox)

No. 6 Los Angeles Rams at No. 3 Detroit Lions (Sunday, 8:00 p.m., NBC/Peacock)

No. 5 Philadelphia Eagles at No. 4 Tampa Bay Buccaneers (Monday, 8:00 p.m., ABC/ESPN)

Playoff bracket note: Highest seeds will play lowest advancing seeds in second round.

Reunions Dominate the Headlines

In 2021, the Los Angeles Rams shipped quarterback Jared Goff to the Detroit Lions in a trade to acquire Matthew Stafford.

The controversial trade paid off for the Rams, who rode Stafford's big arm and veteran instincts to a Super Bowl win that season. For the Lions, it took a bit longer, but they enter this postseason as NFC North champions for the first time since 1993, thanks in large part to Goff's contributions on the offensive side of the ball.

In the Wild Card Round, Stafford returns to the city where he played the first 12 seasons of his career, looking to spoil the Lions' return to the postseason and advance his red-hot Rams, winners of seven of their last eight, to the divisional round.

It is a story that could not have been written better by the best scribes in Hollywood but is not the only reunion in the opening round of the playoffs.

Mike McCarthy coached the Green Bay Packers for 13 seasons. Now the head coach of the NFC East-winning Dallas Cowboys, he hosts his former team in what could be a dangerous match-up for the No. 2 seed.

Packers' first-year starter Jordan Love is playing his best football of the season, running back Aaron Jones came on late and is complementing his quarterback well, as seen in the team's 17-9 win over the Bears.

Dallas is the more complete team but Green Bay has that youthful moxie that could prove to be the difference in a high-stakes game where most of the pressure will be on the Cowboys to prove they do not choke.

Again.