{"id":812828,"date":"2026-03-15T00:51:03","date_gmt":"2026-03-15T00:51:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/812828\/"},"modified":"2026-03-15T00:51:03","modified_gmt":"2026-03-15T00:51:03","slug":"five-former-boise-state-standouts-eye-super-bowl-in-nfl-playoffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/812828\/","title":{"rendered":"Five former Boise State standouts eye Super Bowl in NFL playoffs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Several Boise State greats take aim at the Super Bowl as the NFL postseason begins. Wild Card Weekend features a battle between former Broncos in Florida.<\/p>\n<p>BOISE, Idaho \u2014 Five former <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ktvb.com\/bronco-football\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Boise State football<\/a> standouts take aim at a Super Bowl after helping lead their teams to an NFL postseason appearance.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Three squads featuring <a href=\"https:\/\/broncosports.com\/news\/2026\/1\/7\/football-nfl-broncos-wild-card-weekend\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Bronco products<\/a> are in action during Wild Card Weekend. A Sunday showdown in the AFC puts two Boise State greats against each other with a spot in the Divisional Round up for grabs.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>DeMarcus Lawrence, in his first season with the Seahawks, helped Seattle earn a bye and the top overall seed in the NFC. He was voted to the Pro Bowl for the fifth time in his career.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>JL Skinner also has the weekend off after the Denver Broncos clinched the AFC&#8217;s top seed and a first-round bye. The former Boise State safety tallied a career-best 12 total tackles during the regular season.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>More information on <a href=\"https:\/\/broncosports.com\/news\/2026\/1\/7\/football-nfl-broncos-wild-card-weekend\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">former Broncos<\/a> in action for Wild Card Weekend is included below.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Ezra Cleveland + Khalil Shakir\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Jacksonville Jaguars vs. Buffalo Bills\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>11 a.m. MT Sunday, Jan. 11 | CBS\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>                <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"photo__placeholder\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ebe97d35-0152-47d9-83c7-65d9e62f1ea4_16x9.jpg\"\/><br \/>\n                <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"photo__main\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ebe97d35-0152-47d9-83c7-65d9e62f1ea4_1140x641.jpg\"  alt=\"\" style=\"opacity:0\" onload=\"this.style.opacity=1\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Former Boise State standouts <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ktvb.com\/article\/opinion\/columnists\/scott-slant\/april-24-2020-this-day-in-sports-boise-state-football-nfl-draft-ezra-cleveland-curtis-weaver-john-hightower-ashton-jeanty\/277-9939bdd0-b454-48be-8a46-077fc8bf106f\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Ezra Cleveland<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ktvb.com\/article\/sports\/nfl\/reflected-choice-car-play-khalil-shakir-prefers-reliability-over-style-buffalo-bills-top-receiver\/277-52e994ef-daf0-4355-9c40-a26e9eae5fd1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Khalil Shakir<\/a> collide when the third-seeded Jacksonville Jaguars welcome the Buffalo Bills to EverBank Stadium at 11 a.m. MT Sunday.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Cleveland and the Jaguars clinched the franchise&#8217;s first AFC South title since 2022, winning 13 games across the regular season, Jacksonville&#8217;s most since 1999. Cleveland started 16 games at left guard and logged 1,137 snaps, the third-most across six years in the NFL.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Shakir enters the postseason as the Bills&#8217; leader in catches (72) and yards (719) despite being inactive in Buffalo&#8217;s 35-8 win over the New York Jets. The former Bronco has caught four touchdowns and totaled 124 yards on punt returns.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Los Angeles Chargers at New England Patriots\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>6 p.m. MT Sunday, Jan. 11 | NBC \/ Peacock\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>                <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"photo__placeholder\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/d47c1d4e-84d3-4bc6-951d-6cb0af2356ae_16x9.jpg\"\/><br \/>\n                <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"photo__main\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/d47c1d4e-84d3-4bc6-951d-6cb0af2356ae_1140x641.jpg\"  alt=\"\" style=\"opacity:0\" onload=\"this.style.opacity=1\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ktvb.com\/video\/sports\/high-school\/hs-football\/friday-night-flights\/boise-state-homedale-great-scott-matlocks-high-school-jersey-retired\/277-e88857dd-00af-4eb9-9a3e-ae6c5b48fd13\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">pride of Homedale<\/a> contributed in all three phases this season, helping Los Angeles reach the NFL playoffs for the second-consecutive season. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ktvb.com\/article\/opinion\/columnists\/scott-slant\/boise-state-football-fresno-state-loss-leaders-historic-low-yardage-matt-lauter-basketball-hawaii-pacific-shocker\/277-45922464-c8ca-4084-9ba9-895929cd6ae3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Scott Matlock<\/a> and the Chargers visit New England on Sunday night live on NBC and KTVB Channel 7.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Matlock totaled 505 snaps during the regular season, including 27 snaps as the Chargers&#8217; starting fullback in its 19-3 loss to Skinner and the Broncos. The former Boise State bruiser played 38 snaps in Los Angeles&#8217; loss to Houston in the Wild Card round last season.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Several Boise State greats take aim at the Super Bowl as the NFL postseason begins. Wild Card Weekend&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":812829,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[77],"tags":[7,6,84],"class_list":{"0":"post-812828","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl-playoffs","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-nfl","10":"tag-nfl-playoffs"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116230456243171462","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812828","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=812828"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812828\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/812829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=812828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=812828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=812828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}