NFL crystal ball predictions for the 2025 season: Playoffs, Super Bowl picks

The Serby Crystal Ball is back from extensive repairs and the Road to Super Bowl 2026 has come into sharp focus.

Allow me to plug it in and away we go:

AFC Wild Card 

Broncos def. Steelers

Aaron Rodgers is back in the playoffs for the first time since the 2021 season, a little more than a month after his 42nd birthday. Can he get Mike Tomlin his first playoff win since the 2016 season? Rodgers was sacked five times in the Jets’ 10-9 Week 4 loss to the Broncos in 2024. Tomlin is horrified when Rodgers has a miniature darkness retreat delivered to the sideline for him to rest instead of heading to the halftime locker room. The Enigma bemoans D.K. Metcalf not staying on the red line in answer to a postgame question about a critical fourth-quarter Patrick Surtain II interception. Rodgers, asked about his future plans, says he will make up his mind sometime before the 2026 season. But Egypt first, then McAfee.

Bills def. Chiefs

Josh Allen versus Patrick Mahomes for the fourth time in the postseason, and this time the 2024 league MVP removes the monkey off his back to the glee of the Bills Mafia and chagrin of Taylor Swift, whose dream was performing at halftime of Super Bowl LX while fiance Travis Kelce is preparing for the second half in the locker room. Allen wins his fourth-quarter chess match, this time with Steve Spagnuolo.