Athlon Sports' weekly rankings of NFL teams. The Denver Broncos and Atlanta Falcons head into the playoffs as the No. 1 seeds in the AFC and NFC, respectively. Meanwhile, the Kansas City Chiefs have locked up the No. 1 pick in the NFL Draft.

Here are our NFL Power Rankings following the NFL Playoffs' Wild Card Weekend:

NFL football is the greatest reality TV program of all time. The Giants and Colts made sure of that back in 1958. Each NFL fall weekend is a completely new and original experience for every player, fan and coach alike. New stories, new personalities, new winners and new losers. And new statistics.

Here are the most important, most intriguing and most bizarre statistics from NFL's Wild Card Weekend:

A betting preview of each of every game (against the spread) on Wild Card Weekend in the NFL Playoffs.


Lock of the Week
Win or lose, this is Ray Lewis' last dance in front of the home crowd in Baltimore, expect the city's new team to soar past its former franchise.

The Minnesota Vikings and Green Bay Packers will face off for the second time in less than a week when their NFC Wild Card showdown kicks off on Saturday at 8 p.m. ET on NBC. The Vikings (10-6) beat the Packers (11-5) last Sunday 37-34 in Minneapolis to secure their playoff berth, while costing the NFC North champions a first-round bye in the process. Even though these teams have played each other 104 times, this marks just the second postseason matchup. Minnesota beat Green Bay 31-17 in an NFC Wild Card game at Lambeau Field on Jan. 9, 2005.

The 2012 NFL MVP race was a four-horse dead heat to the finish. All four candidates are deserving and worthy of being named the most valuable player in the league. And all four are going to be historic players who likely will land in Canton.

Another stellar NFL season is in the books. And unlike any year in the past, rookie quarterbacks, single-season records, franchise records and all-time greats produced at unprecedented levels. The NFL record books were completely rewritten this fall and Athlon Sports has compiled all the important numbers the fans need to know about 2012:

NFL Playoffs previews and predictions for Wild Card Weekend:

Athlon Sports' weekly rankings of NFL teams. The Atlanta Falcons and Denver Broncos head into the playoffs as the No. 1 seeds in the NFC and AFC, respectively. Meanwhile, the Kansas City Chiefs have locked up the No. 1 pick in the NFL Draft.

Here are our NFL Power Rankings following Week 17 of the season:

The Green Bay Packers and Minnesota Vikings each have something to play for when the long-time NFC North rivals meet up at 4:25 p.m. ET this afternoon on FOX. For the Vikings (9-6) it’s win and they are in the playoffs for the first time since 2009, while the Packers (11-4) can earn a coveted first-round bye with a second win over their divisional foe this month. If the Vikings fall to the Packers for a sixth straight time, they will need Chicago, Dallas and the New York Giants to all lose to extend their season by at least one more game.

NFL Week 17 previews and predictions for every game on the schedule, broken down into tiers in regards to what they’re playing for (in order of likelihood) on the last Sunday of the regular season:


First-round Bye:

Texans (12-3) at Colts (10-5)