NFL Divisional Round historical oddities: Brady vs. Brees, young coaches & an AFC/NFC experience chasm

The NFL Playoffs are wonderfully bizarre this year, and I love it. As the divisional round of the NFL Playoffs kicks off later this afternoon, there are some fascinating storylines to watch – some of them can be beautifully illustrated with numbers. I previously did a breakdown of the matchups, as well as highlighted some players to watch. This, however, might help put this weekend into a little clearer perspective.

That is … telling. It could not be more stark HOW much more experience NFC QBs have over their AFC counterparts.

And there are so many fascinating stats to dive deeper into:

24: The number of playoff wins by which Tom Brady exceeds the entire AFC QB field.

85: The combined age of Brady and Drew Brees, making it the oldest QB matchup in NFL playoff history

75: The combined age of the Rams Sean McVay and the Packers Matt LaFleur, making it the youngest head coach postseason matchup since Don Shula and John Madden in 1970.

1,152: Combined passing touchdowns by Brady and Brees. According to Elias, this will be the first time that the top two career leaders in touchdown passes will meet in the playoffs.

10: Career 100-yard rushing games by Lamar Jackson, second most all time to Michael Vick (11)

2,906: Rushing yards for Lamar Jackson since 2018, first among quarterbacks.

1,562: Rushing yards for Josh Allen since 2018, second among quarterbacks.

2018: Three of the four AFC quarterbacks remaining are from the 2018 class (Allen, Jackson, Baker Mayfield).

8: Career road playoff wins for John Harbaugh, the most in NFL history.

5: Number of divisional round playoff teams that were not in the divisional round last year (Rams, Browns, Bills, Bucs, Saints).

16:2: Patrick Mahomes’ career playoff touchdown to interception ratio.