{"id":661341,"date":"2026-01-07T14:43:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T14:43:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/661341\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T14:43:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T14:43:09","slug":"when-do-the-2026-nfl-playoffs-start-games-dates-and-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/661341\/","title":{"rendered":"When do the 2026 NFL Playoffs start? Games dates and times"},"content":{"rendered":"

While the Vikings<\/a> will not be in the NFL playoffs, that doesn’t mean you aren’t keeping tabs on how the NFL playoffs are about to roll out.<\/p>\n

In the NFC, the Seattle Seahawks<\/a> won the NFC West and have the best record in the conference, so they will be enjoying some rest on the opening weekend of the playoffs. Also representing the NFC West is the Los Angeles Rams<\/a>, who earned a wild-card spot and will travel to Carolina to play the NFC South division-winning Panthers. Rounding out the loaded NFC West is the San Francisco 49ers, who will face the defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles<\/a>.<\/p>\n

However, also being well represented is the NFC North, as the Chicago Bears<\/a> and Green Bay Packers<\/a> faceoff to see who is king of the division.<\/p>\n

In the AFC, the Denver Broncos<\/a> are the top seed and have a Bye Week with second-year quarterback Bo Nix leading the way. The matchups in the conference are a bit more unique as they include the Jacksonville Jaguars<\/a> hosting the Buffalo Bills<\/a>, the New England Patriots and Los Angeles Chargers, and the Pittsburgh Steelers and Houston Texans<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Here is the schedule for the matchups.<\/p>\n

Saturday, Jan. 10Carolina Panthers vs. Los Angeles Rams 4:30 p.m. EST\/ 3:30 p.m. CSTChicago Bears vs. Green Bay Packers 8:00 p.m. EST\/ 7:00 p.m. CSTSunday, Jan. 11Jacksonville Jaguars vs. Buffalo Bills 1:00 p.m. EST\/ Noon CSTPhiladelphia Eagles vs. San Francisco 49ers 4:30 p.m. EST\/ 3:30 p.m. CSTNew England Patriots vs. Los Angeles Chargers 8:00 p.m. EST\/ 7:00 p.m. CSTMonday, Jan. 12Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Houston Texans 8:00 p.m. EST\/ 7:00 p.m. CST<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While the Vikings will not be in the NFL playoffs, that doesn’t mean you aren’t keeping tabs on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":661342,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[77],"tags":[247,265,825,240,210,374,215,8048,925,232,214,53,692,391,324,231,258,25,7,27,345,221,253,20842,212,125,213,239,58,233,259,248,826,267,88,6,35196,84,8049,245,537,428,242,109,530,424,238,237,261,9,266,222,234],"class_list":["post-661341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl-playoffs","tag-american","tag-american-football","tag-american-football-conference","tag-angeles","tag-bay","tag-bears","tag-bills","tag-bo","tag-bo-nix","tag-broncos","tag-buffalo","tag-buffalo-bills","tag-chicago","tag-chicago-bears","tag-conference","tag-denver","tag-denver-broncos","tag-eagles","tag-football","tag-green","tag-green-bay-packers","tag-houston","tag-houston-texans","tag-hub","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-jaguars","tag-jaguars","tag-los","tag-los-angeles-rams","tag-minnesota","tag-minnesota-vikings","tag-national","tag-national-football-conference","tag-national-sports","tag-news","tag-nfl","tag-nfl-hub","tag-nfl-playoffs","tag-nix","tag-overall","tag-overall-positive","tag-packers","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-eagles","tag-positive","tag-rams","tag-seahawks","tag-seattle","tag-seattle-seahawks","tag-sports","tag-sports-news","tag-texans","tag-vikings"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=661341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661341\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/661342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=661341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=661341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=661341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}