Divisional Round Preview: The best weekend of the NFL season
The Athletic Football Show: A show about the NFL
The Athletic
4.6 • 3.3K Ratings
🗓️ 16 January 2026
⏱️ 94 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Four games, eight teams, all with legitimate designs on winning the Super Bowl. Friends, the best weekend of the NFL season is here. Robert Mays, Derrik Klassen and Dave Helman break down the Divisional Round games on this episode of The Athletic Football Show.
Rundown (timestamps are approximate)
5:34 Bills-Broncos
32:21 49ers-Seahawks
53:30 Texans-Patriots
1:18:57 Rams-Bears
Host: Robert Mays
Co-Hosts: Derrik Klassen and Dave Helman
Executive Producer: Michael Beller
Video Producer: Katy Duffy
Audio Producer: Michael Beller
Social Producer: Scott Krinch
Follow Robert on Bluesky: @robertmays.bsky.social
Follow Derrik on Bluesky: @qbklass.bsky.social
Follow Dave on Bluesky: @davehelman.bsky.social
Follow Robert on X: @robertmays
Follow Derrik on X: @QBKlass
Follow Dave on X: @davehelman_
Theme song: Haunted
Written by Dylan Slocum, Trevor Dietrich, Ruben Duarte, Kyle McAulay, and Meredith VanWoert / Performed by Spanish Love Songs
Courtesy of Pure Noise / By arrangement with Bank Robber Music, LLC
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Athletic Football Show. |
| 0:05.2 | I'm Robert Mays. |
| 0:06.4 | Divisional Weekend is here. |
| 0:08.7 | I started off the show saying this. |
| 0:10.3 | I firmly believe it. |
| 0:11.3 | This is my favorite football weekend of the year. |
| 0:13.0 | I think this is the best time of year in the NFL. |
| 0:15.5 | And if Wild Card Weekend is any indication, |
| 0:18.1 | I think that we're on track for one heck of a set of games. |
| 0:23.1 | We dove deep on all four of the Divisional Round Weekend games, |
| 0:27.4 | just went in chronological order, all of them on this show. |
| 0:31.4 | Let's get to it. |
| 0:32.3 | Me, Dave Hellman, Derek Classen, Divisional Weekend. |
| 0:35.3 | Here we go. |
| 0:41.6 | Thank you. Derek Klasson, divisional weekend. Here we go. I say it every year when we get here, and I definitely feel it. |
| 0:45.8 | Last night, I'm sitting in this office. I'm watching Bears tape getting ready for this, |
| 0:50.4 | and it just kept hitting me over and over and over again. This is the best football weekend of the year. |
| 0:54.9 | This is the best football weekend of the year. |
| 0:56.4 | And we have four fantastic games that we're going to be digging into today |
| 1:01.3 | for divisional weekend, which is my favorite two-day stretch of the NFL calendar. |
| 1:06.5 | And such a new-looking divisional weekend, too. |
| 1:09.2 | Like, with the exception of Josh Allen being here, and I guess you could throw in Matthew |
... |
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