GREEN BAY – Now that the playoffs have arrived, our weekly Path to the Playoffs becomes Road to the Super Bowl, taking a look at what Green Bay's postseason journey could look like.
For the third year in a row, the Packers own the No. 7 seed in the NFC, so they will be on the road as long as they last, and they already know their next opponent and destination should Green Bay win at Chicago in the wild-card round on Saturday night.
With a win, the Packers would travel to Seattle to take on the No. 1-seeded Seahawks, who secured the conference's top spot and first-round bye with a 13-3 win over NFC West rival San Francisco last Saturday.
Two years ago, the Packers won as the No. 7 seed in Dallas to earn a road trip to face the top seed, and they almost toppled San Francisco that night out west. But the 49ers prevailed and eventually reached the Super Bowl.
Last year, the Packers bowed out at No. 2 seed Philadelphia in the opening round, and the Eagles also went on to the Super Bowl, winning the Lombardi Trophy.
This time, Chicago is the first stop and the two NFC North foes will meet for the third time in a span of 35 days, splitting the first two meetings in Week 14 (Packers won, 28-21, at Lambeau Field) and Week 16 (Bears won, 22-16 in OT, at Soldier Field).
It's just the third postseason meeting ever between the NFL's oldest rivals, following the 1941 Western Conference playoff, won by the Bears, and the 2010 NFC Championship Game, won by the Packers.
As noted, the current Packers are no strangers to playoff games on the road, as this will be their fourth (and perhaps counting) in the last three years.
Meanwhile, the Bears are in the playoffs for the first time since 2020 and hosting a playoff game for the first time since 2018 (Jan. 2019), when they lost to the Eagles, 16-15, on Chicago kicker Cody Parkey's "double-doink" on the final play, as his field-goal attempt hit the upright and then the crossbar before bounding away no good.
The Packers know their next game would be at Seattle if Green Bay wins, but if the Bears win, they would stay at home for the NFC Divisional round and have multiple possible matchups, depending on the other wild-card results.
The other matchups are: The No. 5 seed L.A. Rams are at No. 4 seed Carolina, and No. 6 San Francisco is at No. 3 Philadelphia.
If the Bears and Eagles both win, they would face each other in Chicago in the next round, and the Rams-Panthers winner would go to Seattle. If the Bears win and Eagles lose, Chicago would host the winner of the Rams-Panthers game, and the 49ers would go to Seattle.
The Rams and Panthers already met once this season, in Week 13, and Carolina won, 31-28, thanks in large part to intercepting Rams QB Matthew Stafford twice, returning one for a touchdown. The two teams haven't met in the playoffs since the 2003 divisional round, when the Rams were in St. Louis.
The 49ers and Eagles haven't faced one another since the 2023 regular season, and they last met in the playoffs in the 2022 NFC title game, won by the Eagles in Philly.
In the AFC, Denver has the No. 1 seed and first-round bye, while the wild-card matchups feature No. 7 L.A. Chargers at No. 2 New England, No. 6 Buffalo at No. 3 Jacksonville, and No. 5 Houston at No. 4 Pittsburgh, where former Packers QB Aaron Rodgers is back in the playoffs for the first time in four years.
None of those three first-round matchups in the AFC occurred during the regular season.
