The divisional round is in the books, and the NFL’s final four is set. It’ll be the Los Angeles Rams and Seattle Seahawks duking it out in the NFC Championship, while the New England Patriots will visit the Denver Broncos next Sunday for the AFC Championship. These matchups crystallized after another bonkers weekend of NFL playoff action that saw multiple overtime games and high drama throughout.
Naturally, when the games are of this magnitude, they leave a pretty big impression. For instance, C.J. Stroud throwing four interceptions in a playoff loss to the New England Patriots is going to be branded on his résumé more than had that happened in some random game over the regular season. The same can be said for Josh Allen, who has his reputation dinged after missing a golden opportunity for his first trip to the Super Bowl with Buffalo this postseason after falling to Denver.
Those are some storylines that are legitimate narratives now out in the ether. Then, there are some storylines that don’t really carry much weight and are overblown. Just as we did for Day 1 of the divisional round, we’re going to dive into some of the big-picture talking points that are coming out of the final day of this round below. To read the overreactions from Day 1, you can check them out here.
C.J. Stroud cost himself millions
Overreaction or reality: Overreaction
It was a downright terrible day for C.J. Stroud. The Houston Texans quarterback looked lost throughout his team’s 28-16 loss to the New England Patriots, and tossed four interceptions in the losing effort. Stroud was erratic with the ball for the bulk of the game and completed just 45.4% of his passes and finished with a 28.0 passer rating.
When you factor in his poor showing over Wild Card Weekend against Pittsburgh, Stroud became the first player in NFL playoff history with five-plus interceptions and five-plus fumbles in a postseason. Not great.
This disastrous postseason comes at a bad time for Stroud, who is extension-eligible this offseason. The knee-jerk reaction to this performance would be that the Texans should not sign Stroud to an extension and/or not ink him to a deal that pays him around $55 million annually with the upper-echelon quarterbacks.
That won’t happen, however. In all likelihood, the Texans are going to sign Stroud to a lucrative extension this offseason that makes him one of the highest-paid quarterbacks in the league. Why? Because they have no other choice. It’s either pay Stroud or reset at the position entirely. While he hasn’t given them a ton of confidence that he’ll live up to his eventual monster extension, they’ll inevitably slide it across the table for him to sign.
Bears comeback magic won’t carry over into 2026
Overreaction or reality: Reality
The Chicago Bears had one last rabbit to pull out of their hat, with Caleb Williams throwing a jaw-dropping 14-yard touchdown to Cole Kmet on a fourth-and-4 attempt to help send their divisional round matchup with the Rams to overtime. While L.A. was able to edge out the win in overtime, it was a herculean effort from Wil