NFL Wild Card Sunday Top Betting Picks, Predictions January 12, 2025

January gets a bad rap. 

Sure, it’s the month that wipes away the holiday spirit with plenty of cold, gloomy days that bring little to look forward to.

But when else can you watch playoff football for five days straight?

Thursday’s Orange Bowl between Notre Dame and Penn State was a thriller, and Friday’s Cotton Bowl featuring Ohio State and Texas didn’t disappoint, either. Saturday’s NFL games weren’t quite nail-biters, but Sunday’s slate brings us three more intriguing matchups ahead of the final wild-card contest on Monday.

Can Bo Nix and the Broncos upset Josh Allen and the Bills? Will the Packers and Eagles clamp down in their rematch from Week 1? How much will the Buccaneers’ run game be an asset against the Commanders?

Our best bets for an NFL wild-card Sunday:

AFC WILD-CARD: DENVER BRONCOS AT BUFFALO BILLS (1 P.M. ET)

This game may be more competitive than you might expect. Sure, Denver looked shaky in the regular season’s final weeks, but the Broncos have proven they can hang with anyone. All but one of Denver’s seven losses were decided by one score, the exception being a 31-point shellacking at Baltimore in Week 9.

Bo Nix has been a different quarterback for the Broncos since that 41-10 blowout. From Weeks 1 through 9, the rookie signal-caller threw eight touchdowns and six interceptions on just 62.6 percent passing. From Weeks 10 through 18, he racked up 21 touchdowns against six picks while completing 70.3 percent of his throws. 

Nix should enter his playoff debut even more confident after going 26-of-29 with four touchdowns and no turnovers in a 38-0 win over Kansas City in Week 18. Denver will need Nix to remain poised against a Buffalo squad that went 8-0 at home during the regular season and won 10 of its last 12 games to close the year.

Nix has been great, but the Bills have the better quarterback in Josh Allen. The MVP candidate accounted for 4,262 yards and 40 total touchdowns while leading Buffalo to its fifth straight division title. The Bills should prevail on Sunday, but it likely won’t come easy against these upstart Broncos.

Broncos +8.5, -110 (DraftKings)

NFC WILD-CARD: GREEN BAY PACKERS AT PHILADELPHIA EAGLES (4:30 P.M. ET)

Neither team should feel great about its quarterback situation with the season at stake. Jordan Love will suit up for Green Bay, but he’ll likely be less than 100 percent after injuring his throwing elbow last week against Chicago. Meanwhile, Jalen Hurts will return for Philadelphia after missing the last two games with a concussion that also kept him out of practice until earlier this week.

Injuries aside, both signal-callers are going up against a top-10 defense. The Packers surrendered both the sixth-fewest points (19.9) and total yards (315.6) per game during the regular season, while the Eagles ranked second and first in those respective categories (17.8 points, 278.4 total yards).

Philadelphia has a 2,000-yard rusher in Saquon Barkley, but he’ll go up against a Green Bay unit that allowed 99.4 yards on the ground per game, the seventh-best mark in the league. The Eagles’ run defense ranked 10th at 104.2 yards and should limit the number of big carries by the Packers’ Josh Jacobs.

These teams combined for 63 points when they met in Brazil in Week 1, with Philadelphia winning 34-29, but Sunday’s rematch should be a less explosive game.

Under 45.5 points, -110 (FanDuel)

NFC WILD-CARD: WASHINGTON COMMANDERS AT TAMPA BAY BUCCANEERS (8 P.M. ET)

Baker Mayfield threw for over 330 yards in both of Tampa Bay’s playoff games last year, but the Buccaneers shouldn’t have to rely on him as heavily this postseason. Tampa Bay’s key weapon lurks in the backfield, where Bucky Irving has quietly engineered a strong rookie campaign to complement the play of his veteran quarterback.

Irving racked up 1,122 rushing yards during the regular season to become the Buccaneers’ first 1,000-yard ballcarrier since Doug Martin in 2015. The fourth-round pick was at his best in the season’s final weeks, running for 630 yards and four touchdowns to help Tampa Bay go 6-1 down the stretch. Irving posted all three of his 100-yard games this season during that span.

Mayfield will be challenged against a Washington secondary that anchored the league’s third-best pass defense (189.5 yards per game). If things aren’t clicking for the Bucs through the air, Irving could be an asset on the ground against a Commanders run defense that allowed the third-most yards per game this season (137.5).

Bucky Irving OVER 89.5 rushing yards, -113 (FanDuel)