Welcome to the Divisional Round edition of The Worksheet, a comprehensive fantasy football preview, by Rich Hribar.

What is The Worksheet from Rich Hribar?

The Worksheet is a comprehensive weekly fantasy football preview for each NFL game. Rich Hribar analyzes the matchup for every notable fantasy player for every game every week of the NFL season.

For those new to this article, just because the fantasy regular season has ended doesn’t mean fantasy football stops.

The fantasy playoffs offer many new opportunities for playoff leagues, props, betting, and daily fantasy games.

Wild Card Weekend was far from super. Only one of the six games played last weekend was decided by single digits.

Only one game went over the game total, which was the game with the lowest total on the board.

For fantasy gamers and touchdown bettors, we had a ton of touchdowns scored by ancillary options.

Van Jefferson, Troy Franklin, Justice Hill, Ty Johnson, Curtis Samuel, Jahan Dotson, Dyami Brown, and Davis Allen were among those who reached paydirt this past week.

We have eight teams and seven games remaining in the NFL season.

Some Divisional Round recent history since the NFL’s last expansion to 32 teams in 2002.

Home teams have carried a significant edge over that span, posting a strong 60-28 record. They went 3-1 last season.

However, home teams are just 40-48 against the spread (2-2 a year ago).

That of course ties into favorites, with the favored team posting a 59-29 record (3-1 a year ago).

Those teams are 39-49 against the spread (2-2 a year ago).

Putting that together, the underdogs have had a strong run this round of the postseason covering the spread, but we have seen fewer outright upsets in the second round.

The last time we did not have at least two underdogs cover the point spread in the Divisional Round was in 2017.

The last time all four favorites covered the point spread in this round was in 2006.

We have a few large spreads this weekend.

If looking for larger upsets, underdogs getting 7 or more points have only posted a 12-31 record straight up.

Those teams have posted a 25-18 record against the spread but have struggled to pull off the huge upsets.

The Lions (-9) and Chiefs (-8) are large favorites this week.

Surprisingly, we do not see a lot of tight spreads in this round of the postseason.

Since 2002, we have only had 11 games in the Divisional Round in which a team was favored by less than a field goal.

Those teams are 6-5 heads up and against the spread,

Baltimore is a short favorite this week.

Regarding seeding, the No. 1 seeds have a 31-13 record straight up, but they are 17-27 against the spread.

Both No. 1 seeds lost in the Divisional Round twice over that span — 2021 and 2008.

No. 2 seeds are 28-15 over that span and have been better against the spread (22-21).

Since the NFL added a seventh team to the playoffs and removed the bye week for No. 2 seeds in the opening round, at least one No. 2 seed has lost in the Divisional Round every year.

It was Buffalo the past two seasons.

If looking at teams that pulled off upsets in the Wild Card Round, the lower seeds have been tougher bets to keep pulling out wins.

No. 5 seeds or lower have a 12-30 record over that span in this round but have kept games closer than expected, going 24-18 against the spread.

It has skewed even more heavily against those teams of late.

Teams that were No. 5 seeds or lower have gone 3-18 heads up since 2014.

If you are hunting for upsets, it is unsurprising that you want to focus on the No. 3 and No. 4 seeds.

Those teams have been 8-7 over the past eight seasons and have a 5-4 record since the NFL expanded the playoffs to 14 teams.

Those teams have also been the best bets to cover the point spreads, going 25-22 with the points since 2002.

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This article will be updated throughout the week to reflect major news or injury implications.

Click the matchups below for the individual game previews.

Divisional Round Fantasy Football Matchups

MatchupTime
Texans @ Chiefs -- FREESaturday -- 4:30 p.m. ET
Commanders @ LionsSaturday -- 8 p.m. ET
Rams @ EaglesSunday -- 3 p.m. ET
Ravens @ BillsSunday -- 6:30 p.m. ET