Getty Gallery: 2/6
No. 1 New Orleans Saints
In what looks to be a wide-open NFL playoffs, the Saints are as safe of a bet as any team to reach the Super Bowl. The Saints have now secured the NFC's No. 1 seed and would potentially play both of their postseason games in New Orleans. The Super Bowl at Mercedes-Benz Stadium will also be indoors, meaning the Saints could potentially not have to play outside in order to hoist another Lombardi Trophy.
The Saints offense is especially dangerous at home and has a major advantage with home field secured. We are used to seeing a prolific New Orleans offense, but this Saints defense is the best we have seen in years. Combine all that with one of the best running back tandems in the NFL in Alvin Kamara and Mark Ingram. This team is going to be a very tough out come January. Not to mention Drew Brees is playing as well as ever.
Ingram noted the Superdome is clearly an advantage for the Saints.
“Clearly, with us being in the dome, our fans, our home field is clearly a weapon for us, clearly an advantage for us,” Ingram explained to NOLA.com. “That would be huge. We just got to keep doing what we got to do.”
The Saints take on the Panthers in Week 17 in a matchup that will not impact the playoff standings.
No. 2 Los Angeles Rams
What to make of the Rams heading into the playoffs is anyone's guess. Will we see the explosive Rams offense we saw at the beginning of the season or the unit that has struggled at times in December? Head coach Sean McVay gives them a chance to overcome their recent struggles, but there are serious doubts as to whether the team can return to its earlier form.
McVay believes L.A.'s problems are fixable, and we saw that against the Cardinals.
”I think it’s pretty clear," McVay explained to USA Today prior to Week 16. "It’s not really a magic solution. We’re not taking as good of care of the football. We’ve got to do that. When we do get the turnovers, we’ve got to be able to turn those into points and not just field goals, but touchdowns. Then, we’ve got to avoid the negative plays and we’ve got to create them on defense. It’s a simple solution. Things that we have done at different points in this year and we’ve just got to get back to emphasizing those things and making sure we understand how important they are because we’ve been in a lot of games like what that Philly game was.”