NFL Playoff Schedule 2016: Divisional Bracket Overview, Championship Predictions

The race to determine a Super Bowl champion is wide open.

There are no clear-cut favorites. It's not a foregone conclusion that the Carolina Panthers will beat the Seattle Seahawks, nor is it a lock that the New England Patriots will beat the Kansas City Chiefs.

This weekend's four games will decide who gets to play for a spot in Super Bowl 50, while the losers wonder what could've been.

Here's the latest bracket and some predictions for this weekend's games.

AFC Divisional Round Matchups

Kansas City Chiefs at New England Patriots

This is the closest thing to the irresistible force meeting the immovable object. In this case, the New England Patriots are the force, while the Kansas City Chiefs may be the AFC's last chance to stop the defending world champions.

New England's offense comes in with some question marks. Tight end Rob Gronkowski had to go to the hospital to get treatment on his knee. Wide receiver Julian Edelman makes his return to the Patriots' lineup for the first time in two months with a foot injury.

Combine that with New England's offense looking sporadic in the last two weeks, and home-field advantage may not even matter. The Chiefs defense is coming in to Gillette Stadium hot after picking off quarterback Brian Hoyer four times and shutting out the Houston Texans.

Kansas City is the hottest team in football right now. That defense is carrying the Chiefs, and New England's offense is not where it should be right now. The Chiefs go into Foxborough and pull off the upset of the year.

Kansas City 23, New England 20

Pittsburgh Steelers at Denver Broncos

The last time the Pittsburgh Steelers and Denver Broncos got together, Pittsburgh had to make a 14-point second-half comeback to knock off Denver for a huge home win.

That game featured Antonio Brown catching 16 passes for 189 yards and two touchdowns.

Brown won't go this time around.

The concussion Brown suffered at the hands of Cincinnati Bengals linebacker Vontaze Burfict will keep the Steelers' best playmaker out of Sunday's rematch with the Broncos. Receivers Martavis Bryant and Markus Wheaton combined for 16 catches against Denver, which might not even be enough offensively.

However, if the Steelers get the Peyton Manning of earlier this season, Pittsburgh will have a chance to pull off the upset. Wideout Emmanuel Sanders torched Pittsburgh's secondary on Dec. 20, with 10 catches for 181 yards. He'll get more attention this time around, which could open the door for Demaryius Thomas to catch more than five passes.

Brown's loss may be too much for the Steelers to overcome.

Denver 24, Pittsburgh 21

NFC Divisional Round Matchups

Green Bay Packers at Arizona Cardinals

The last time the Green Bay Packers went into Arizona to face the Cardinals, quarterback Aaron Rodgers had nightmares the same night.

Three fumbles and an interception is how Rodgers' last afternoon spent in Glendale went, and now the Packers have to go back to University of Phoenix Stadium to play a Cardinals team that had a week off and time to reflect after the 36-6 beatdown handed to them by the Seattle Seahawks.

Arizona is the best team remaining in the playoff race, but the loss to Seattle bring reason for caution. It was a Week 17 game, so take that with a grain of salt. The Cardinals didn't need that game. They should play better against the Packers after a week off, especially after recording nine sacks the last time these two teams got together.

It'll be a much closer game this time around, but the Cardinals seem more complete than Green Bay right now. Carson Palmer should do much better than December's 12-of-25 performance and lead Arizona to a huge win.

Arizona 27, Green Bay 21

Seattle Seahawks at Carolina Panthers

Could the Seattle Seahawks return the favor and upset the Carolina Panthers in Charlotte?

Not without running back Marshawn Lynch, they won't.

Lynch did not have a great game against the Panthers on Oct. 18, carrying the ball 17 times for 54 yards. But that was also when Seattle had a reliable backup running back, with Thomas Rawls in tow should things go wrong. ESPN's Sheil Kapadia talks about how important Lynch is to Seattle's running game, especially after last week's wild-card win over the Minnesota Vikings:

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If Lynch can’t go, it’ll be Christine Michael carrying the load once again. He ran 21 times for 70 yards in the wild-card win against the Vikings. So no, I don’t have a lot of confidence that the Seahawks will be able to run the ball effectively in this one. In the first game, they had some success with the read-option and might need to call on that quite a bit this time around, too.

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But where the Seahawks have the edge is when Russell Wilson gets the ball in open space. The MVP candidate had eight carries for 53 yards against Carolina in Week 6, but it was Cam Newton making more plays at the end to win the game.

At home, with the way he's played this year, it's not fair to rule Cam and the Panthers out of this game. Carolina has only shown to have a weakness once, and while Seattle may have a plan to exploit that, Carolina should survive this game and play at home for the NFC title.

Carolina 28, Seattle 23