It’s the final week of NFL Football, and we’ve got three games that will have a massive impact on the NFL playoffs. Luckily for us, two of those games take place as standalone games on Saturday. The Panthers at the Buccaneers, and then the Seahawks at the 49ers. Let’s dive into these Saturday games, make our NFL picks, and best bets.
First up is the Carolina Panthers at Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Kickoff on Saturday is set for 4:30 ET on ABC/ESPN. If Carolina wins this, they are the NFC South champions and punch their ticket to the playoffs. If Tampa Bay wins, they also need the Atlanta Falcons to lose on Sunday. If Atlanta wins on Sunday, it creates a three-way tie for the South, and Carolina would ultimately hold the tiebreaker and find their way in.
The Saturday nightcap has a chance to be the game of the week. Two heavyweight fighters step into the ring. The Seattle Seahawks and the San Francisco 49ers. The winner takes the NFC West crown, and more importantly, the #1 seed in the NFC. Which comes with a first-round bye. These teams met all the way back in Week 1 in Seattle, and the 49ers came out on top 17-13. The loser not only has to play Super Wild Card Weekend, but they’ll also have to do so on the road.
Saturday NFL Picks, Preview, and Best Bets:
Mitchell Evans Over 10.5 Receiving Yards (-110)
The Panthers have lost tight end Ja’Tavion Sanders for the rest of the season to a broken ankle. That makes this a great spot for Mitchell Evans to step into a bigger role. If you are into patterns, Evans is in sync with the Panthers’ winning streak production-wise. He’s gone over this total in three of the last six games for the Panthers, and it’s been the three games they won in that time frame. Coincidence? Maybe it is, but clearly, when the Panthers win, he gets involved. With Sanders down, Evans gets more looks and cruises past this number.
MITCHELL EVANS CALLS GAME ☘️#IrishInTheNFL☘️
— Notre Dame Football (@NDFootball) October 5, 2025
Brock Purdy Over 15.5 Rushing Yards (-114)
The 49ers quarterback has been using his legs more down the stretch this season. Especially in big games that are close, which is what we expect in this one. Against the Bears last week in a back-and-forth shootout, Purdy ran six times for 28 yards and scored twice on the ground. Three weeks ago, against the Titans, Purdy dashed for 44 yards. Purdy has rushed for over 16 yards in his last three games against the Seattle Seahawks.
Purdy’s second rushing TD of the half!
CHIvsSF on NBC
Stream on @NFLPlus + Peacock pic.twitter.com/2mquifVQ5L— NFL (@NFL) December 29, 2025
Carolina Panthers +3 (-120)
Carolina is on a very strange pattern of winning every other week. Not a couple of games, but for 10 straight weeks it’s been win, loss, win, loss, and so on. That’s a trend if I’ve ever seen one! But this is more so about the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. They are favored by three at home, despite the fact that they’ve lost eight straight games in a row outright. Tampa Bay went from chanting MVP at Baker Mayfield to completely falling to pieces. Carolina is a competent team; they’ll punch their playoff ticket Saturday.
San Francisco 49ers +1.5 (-108)
Taking both dogs on Saturday, and honestly, I’m a little baffled as to why either of these teams is the underdog. Yes, Seattle has been a very good team, and this should be a close game. But I’ll take the 49ers, who have just been on fire lately. Their defense is probably what makes them the underdogs, but Kyle Shanahan and company just know how to win games. If San Francisco can win this game. They won’t have to leave their home stadium all the way to the Super Bowl, which will be hosted at Levi’s Stadium if they get that far.
