Rams will soon know if first-round bye in playoffs a possibility

Saturday’s game between the Minnesota Vikings and Green Bay Packers will determine if the Los Angeles Rams have a shot at a first-round bye in the postseason.

With a win on Sunday against the Tennessee Titans, the Los Angeles Rams will not only clinch a playoff berth, but the NFC West as well thanks to Sean McVay‘s team hanging on to a two-game lead over the Seattle Seahawks at the moment. After only winning four games all of last season, this was supposed to be a season consisting of rebuilding and learning for the Rams, but instead this team has worked their way up to being one of the most dangerous in the NFL sitting at 10-4 with two games to go.

At the moment, Los Angeles currently holds the No. 3 spot in the NFC thanks to their head-to-head win over the New Orleans Saints earlier in the year. But believe it or not, the Rams still have a chance at earning a first-round bye, although they would need a lot of help from the Minnesota Vikings. Since Los Angeles ended up on the losing end when facing Minnesota back in the middle of November, the only chance the Rams have at earning a first-round bye is if they win each of their final two games against the Titans and San Francisco 49ers while the Vikings end the year without winning another game.

On Saturday, Minnesota travels to Lambeau Field to take on a Green Bay Packers squad that will be playing without Aaron Rodgers once again since Mike McCarthy’s team has already been eliminated from playoff contention. In other words, the only thing the Packers have to play for at this point is pride and a spoiler role to cause some problems for the Vikings with their playoff seeding.

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Losing to Green Bay may seem unlikely for Minnesota when looking at how two teams currently compare on paper, but also keep in mind that Brett Hundley will be looking for a strong performance as well to prove he is in fact capable of being a reliable backup to Rodgers moving forward. Who knows, maybe the Rams will end up catching a break on Saturday by Hundley coming through to help the Packers knockoff the Vikings to keep the hopes of a potential first-round bye alive in the NFC playoff picture.