The NFL playoffs are here and we picked the winner of every game

The 49ers are facing a familiar foe in the Seahawks, whom they have already beaten twice this season. In those two matchups, the San Francisco defense has held Seattle to just 20 combined points. Whether or not the Seahawks can cover the spread in this game will come down to their offense being able to break through against one of the best defenses in the league.

On the other side of the ball, third-string quarterback Brock Purdy has played as well as anyone could ask since taking over the starting role in San Francisco, going 5-0 to start his NFL career. While it would have been fair to expect the 49ers to drop off offensively since he supplanted Jimmy Garoppolo, San Francisco has instead scored more than 30 points in five of the six games where Purdy took the majority of the snaps.

The one game that Purdy's 49ers didn't clear 30? A 21-13 win in Week 15 against Seattle.

I don't expect Seattle to win this game, and there's a chance the outcome doesn't even feel that close, but given the size of the spread, it feels like the Seahawks can find a way to cover. San Francisco has the ability to control the pace of the game with running back Christian McCaffrey. Unless they're already up big at halftime, they are likely to spend the second half working against the clock rather than the Seahawks.

When these two teams met back in Week 3, it was a coming out party for the new-look Jaguars, as they took down the Chargers 38-10. A lot has changed since then.

First, the Chargers are far healthier than they were at the start of the year, although still not 100%. Also, the leading rusher in that game for the Jaguars was James Robinson, who was traded away mid-season.

This game has a chance to be the best matchup of the weekend, with two quarterbacks playing extremely hot and both defenses recently hitting their high-points. While the Chargers likely have an edge on pure talent, the Jaguars likely have the coaching advantage, with Jacksonville completely bought in to Doug Pederson's vision.

It feels like this game should be close, and when it doubt, I would always lean with a home underdog in the playoffs.

What could have been a thrilling rematch for the ages is likely instead going to turn into a dog walk. This is for the best.

Dolphins starting quarterback Tua Tagovailoa will not be playing as he continues to recover from multiple concussions he's sustained this season. Again, this is a good thing. We've learned enough times this season that a player's long-term health is of the utmost importance.

In his place will be rookie quarterback Skyler Thompson, who will be charged with getting the ball to receivers Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle, possibly the most dangerous tandem in the league. If Thompson can rise to the challenge, maybe the Dolphins pull off a shocker. But this Bills team can win in a lot of different ways, and Josh Allen's offense is a threat to score on every drive of the game.

It would be surprising to see the Bills score fewer than 30 in this game, and I don't think the Dolphins have the horses to keep pace.

This exact matchup played out a month ago, with the Vikings edging out the Giants 27-24, thanks to a 61-yard field goal off the foot of Greg Joseph as time expired. That's about as close as you can get.

With that in mind, the rematch should come down to which team can outdo its performance from three weeks ago. In their first meeting, the Vikings won the turnover battle 2-0; Kirk Cousins completed 70.8% of his passes and threw three touchdowns; and two pass-catchers — wide receiver Justin Jefferson and tight end T.J. Hockenson — cleared 100 yards in the air.

Meanwhile, Daniel Jones completed 71% of his passes for the Giants, throwing one touchdown and one pick, and while no New York receiver hit the 100-yard mark, three of them cleared 70 yards receiving.

Those numbers are pretty close, but it feels like the turnover battle might edge a bit closer in the rematch, and one extra possession is all the Giants could need to flip the outcome here. Either way, there's value in getting the full three points of the spread. If this line shifts to 2.5 closer to kickoff, it might be worth just staying away.

This rematch of Week 18 shouldn't be all that different from how things played out last Sunday.

The Bengals won that matchup 27-16, but it could have been a bigger margin, with Cincinnati all but playing with its food through much of the second half after jumping out to a 24-7 lead at halftime.

With Lamar Jackson still sidelined, Baltimore's best hope is a stellar performance from its defense, winning the turnover battle and leaving their offense with short fields to work with and getting Justin Tucker as many kicks through the uprights as possible.

Still, Tucker's field goals are only worth three points no matter how far he kicks them from, and the Bengals are going to be scoring touchdowns.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have not looked like a good football team all season, and they are now just the sixth team in NFL history to make the playoffs with a losing record.

Still, if there is any group of players that could put everything together right when it counts, it's this squad of veterans led by Tom Brady. Further, the Cowboys, who have looked dominant at times this year, just put up their worst game of the season against the Commanders last week, and have floundered in the playoffs of late.

Dallas has lost eight straight road playoff games, tied for the second-longest such streak in NFL history.

If the Cowboys can get past Brady and the Buccaneers, they could make a run all the way to the Super Bowl, but they undoubtedly drew the short straw in terms of first-round playoff matchups.

More than anything though, I've simply lost too much money betting against Tom Brady in the playoffs over the course of my life to make the same mistake again.