We’re on to Championship Sunday after the Chiefs, Bengals, Eagles and 49ers advanced with wins in the divisional round this weekend. We’ve been highlighting the best performances during the regular season and now the best efforts in the playoffs deserve to be recognized by our MMQB staff.
Here are the divisional round standouts:
Gary Gramling: Joe Burrow, QB, Bengals. In a world where seemingly every quarterback is getting an assist from some clever, play-action-based system (thanks, Mike Shanahan!), Joe Burrow is keeping the “spread it out, read the mail before the snap and shred ’em” approach alive. If you ever wondered what Tom Brady or Peyton Manning would have looked like in this era if they also had perfect functional athleticism for the position, that’s Burrow. And once again, on the road against an AFC blueblood in the postseason, Burrow’s now unique style of play won out.
Kareem Elgazzar/The Enquirer/USA TODAY NETWORK
Conor Orr: Fred Warner, LB, 49ers. When you can run down one of the best receivers in the NFL man-to-man while isolated in the slot, you know you’re pretty valuable. Warner was everywhere Sunday and made the kind of punctuating plays that ultimately handed the 49ers a trip to the NFC championship game. While the hysteria about rangy off-ball linebackers has died down a bit two years removed from the Buccaneers’ Super Bowl victory, Warner showed why you pay hand over fist for a good one.
Claire Kuwana: Zac Taylor, head coach, Bengals. There are a lot of players on the Bengals who should be recognized for Sunday’s game, but at the helm of it all is the main decision-maker, and that’s Taylor. With the exception of maybe Joe Mixon (20 carries, 105 yards, TD), it wasn’t like there was one obvious star in the win over the Bills. But the Bengals played with confidence, and that starts from the top. Their reliance on the run game (172 yards) was the right call for the weather, and with the offensive line’s (improved) performance in the divisional game despite being two starters down, both Joe Burrow and the rest of Cincinnati’s offense were set up for success. The Bengals nearly tripled Buffalo’s rushing yardage (63) and had possession for an additional eight minutes.
Michael Rosenberg: Travis Kelce, TE, Chiefs. Sometimes I wonder how we would view Kelce in a world where Rob Gronkowski had never played football. Would we be having GOAT discussions? Kelce’s performance Saturday was the stuff of legend: 14 catches on 17 targets on a day when Kansas City needed him to be great. When Patrick Mahomes was out and Chad Henne led the Chiefs on a 98-yard drive, Henne threw four passes to Kelce, including his first and last. Kelce is as good at getting open and making the catch as any tight end in history. He showed it again against Jacksonville.
