The Buffalo Bills and Indianapolis Colts will kick off a new era of NFL playoffs on Saturday as the field expands to 14 teams, creating a six-game Wild Card slate for the opening round.
 
Six games are the second most ever contested in a single playoff round, trailing only the Wild Card round in the strike-shortened 1982 season, when 16 teams qualified.
 
The Bills, who will host the opening game of the weekend, will be looking for their first playoff victory since 1995.
 
Hosting their first postseason game since 1996, the Bills will be looking to snap a six-game losing streak that dates back to their last win, a 37-22 triumph over the Miami Dolphins on Dec. 30, 1995.
 
The Cleveland Browns’ playoff victory drought is even longer. They last advanced when former head coach Bill Belichick defeated his future team, the New England Patriots, 20-13 on Jan 1, 1995.
 
Two other teams in action this weekend will be looking for their first playoff victories in at least 15 seasons.
 
The Washington Football Team has not celebrated a playoff victory since defeating the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in January of 2016 and the pre-Tom Brady Bucs haven’t won in the postseason since capturing Super Bowl XXXVII over the Oakland Raiders.
 
Quarterback credentials could be the key to success for the 14 teams vying for the Vince Lombardi Trophy, and six of the men who will be under centre have already lifted the trophy at least once.
 
Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, Drew Brees, Russell Wilson, Ben Roethlisberger and Patrick Mahomes have all captured the Super Bowl, tying 2021 with the 2014 playoffs for the most championship starting pivots involved in one postseason.
 
The other quarterbacks battling for their first rings also have their own tales to tell.
 
The Bills blew a 16-0 lead in the Wild Card round last season. It is the only time QB Josh Allen has lost a game after taking a 16-point lead; he is 14-1 in those scenarios. Allen also set the Bills franchise records in both passing yards (4,544) and passing TDs (37) this season.
 
Colts QB Philip Rivers is an undefeated 4-0 in the Wild Card round and only Brett Favre and Joe Flacco with five each, have won more Wild Card games.
 
Indianapolis head coach Frank Reich is also a former quarterback with the Bills and led the team to the largest comeback in postseason history in the 1992 Wild Card round, overcoming a 32-point deficit against the Houston Oilers.
 
The starting quarterback for the Los Angeles Rams is still a mystery, but if it is backup John Wolford, who made his debut in Week 17 for an injured Jared Goff, he would be the fourth QB in the last 40 seasons to start in the playoffs with one or fewer regular season starts, per Elias.
 
Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson rushed for 1,000 yards for the second season in a row, becoming the first in NFL history to have multiple 1,000-yard seasons. He is also trying to avoid becoming the 10th QB to lose his first three playoff starts since 1960.
 
With Derrick Henry in the backfield, Ryan Tannehill has not had to do much to find success in the playoffs with the Tennessee Titans. 
 
Tannehill completed 15 passes in two postseason victories last season, throwing fewer than 100 yards in both wins. He is the fourth QB to win multiple games in a single playoffs while throwing less than 100 yards in each and the first to do it since Terry Bradshaw in 1974.
 
Baker Mayfield will be making his playoff debut for the Cleveland Browns on Sunday night and he’ll be looking to buck a recent bad trend. Quarterbacks taken first overall are 2-8 in their first playoff games over the past 25 years.