Defying doubts and questions as to whether they would have a viable season throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the NFL successfully managed to complete their regular season on Jan. 3. 

The 2020 NFL playoffs would’ve been special even without COVID-19 because of the new collective bargaining agreement agreed upon by NFL owners and the NFL Players Association earlier this year. For the first time in NFL history, 14 teams will play in the postseason as opposed to the usual 12. Instead of the first and second seeds receiving bye weeks, only the first seed will have that luxury and the second seed will play the new seventh seed. 

Predicting how the NFL playoffs will play out is difficult but in this upcoming postseason, there are some clear favorites, strong contenders and dark horses who might just be able to pull off a Super Bowl run.