Best Wild-Card Performances: Giants Might Have Their Franchise QB

Five NFL wild-card games are in the books (we still have Monday night’s Cowboys-Buccaneers matchup) and the best performances deserve to be recognized by our MMQB staff.

Here are this weekend’s standouts:

Gary Gramling: Abracadaniel, Franchise Quarterback, Giants. There was a long list of “is he worth another contract?” quarterbacks coming into the season, and only one of them emphatically answered in the affirmative. For whatever reason, Daniel Jones—who has drawn unwarranted cackles from the punditry since the day he was drafted—was still getting heat early this season despite, for instance, spending a Monday night conjuring time and space in the face of the Cowboys’ relentless pass rush and firing peas all over the field only to see them dropped by a collection of also-ran receivers. He spent the season working with those receivers and often overcoming their struggles. He also had a creative offensive brain trust, led by Brian Daboll, and they all found a way through Jones’s increasingly reliable work from the pocket, underrated ability to create late in the down, and tendency to turn in big plays with his legs. Now, here we are, a historic performance (24-of-35, 301 yards passing, two TDs and 78 yards rushing against the Vikings) in a road playoff win for a quarterback who has earned the right to quarterback the Giants for the next half-decade.

Michael Rosenberg: Stefon Diggs, Bills. Diggs had seven first-half catches for 114 yards, on eight targets, and the one non-catch might have been his most impressive play of the day. He did a little simultaneous one-handed-catch/toe-touch in the end zone, and while it was clearly an incompletion (Diggs only had one foot down and not control of the ball), it was still a highlight-worthy play. Diggs was a second-team All-Pro and could make the Hall of Fame, but at this point in his career, he seems weirdly under-discussed. That speaks to the depth of talent at both the receiver position and on his own roster. But this is a guy who made one of the most memorable catches in postseason history when he was a Viking and has averaged 101 catches and 1,268 yards over the last five years. If we are going to say that Josh Allen sometimes reverts to his early career, sloppy self, let’s also acknowledge that Diggs is the player most responsible for helping pull Allen out of it in the first place. He keeps playing like the superstar he is.

Conor Orr: Brock Purdy, QB, 49ers. Here’s to the first rookie QB in NFL playoff history to record four touchdowns. Purdy started the game a bit wobbly and missed a few throws, but settled into a groove, throwing for 332 yards and three touchdowns while running for another. His off-schedule play helped keep the Seahawks at a comfortable distance, and he exuded a steely confidence akin to a 10-year veteran. This team is the closest thing we’ve seen to unstoppable amid a season with few true heavyweights.

John Pluym: Trevor Lawrence, QB, Jaguars. That’s right, I’m giving my game ball to the guy who threw four picks. There’s no doubt he was brutal for the first 25 minutes of the game. But he tossed a touchdown just before halftime to cut the deficit to 27–7. And the former Clemson standout was near perfection in the second half, throwing three more touchdowns. Lawrence finished the game 28-of-47 for 288 yards. The Jaguars have now won six consecutive games and a lot of that credit should go to Doug Pederson. But any team worth its weight in the NFL has a top-level quarterback and Lawrence has been one of the best down the stretch. Over the past eight games, he’s tossed 16 touchdowns with only six interceptions. Coming from behind was nothing new to Lawrence and the Jaguars, who have arrived after a dismal season under Urban Meyer. “You couldn’t write a crazier script,” Lawrence said after the game. “We said in the locker room that’s kind of how our season’s going. We’re never out of the fight. … I’m kind of speechless, honestly, just to see what belief can do and to see when a team believes in each other what you can accomplish.”

Mitch Goldich: Doug Pederson, coach, Jaguars. Let me preface this with an acknowledgment that the players deserve credit, too. But let’s start with Pederson. First of all, the two-point conversion to cut the lead to two points with 5:25 left in the fourth quarter is an all-timer. It was the right decision, especially after Joey Bosa’s helmet-slamming penalty cut the distance in half. And I know he’s not the only coach who would have gone for it there, but there are definitely NFL coaches who would have furrowed their brows and said, No, we can’t risk missing and being down by four points. I love that Pederson thinks glass-half-full about a field goal potentially winning the game. (Which, hello, it did.) Next: His play call on the fourth-and-1 on the game-winning drive was beautiful, with the formation looking like a QB sneak until the moment Travis Etienne Jr. was running a sweep up the right sideline and into field goal range. Lawrence said after the game that Pederson had a different call, then took a timeout and switched to that play. Beautiful. Pederson, who coached the underdog Eagles to a Super Bowl win with Nick Foles, has now coached seven playoff games. According to the Philly Voice’s Shamus Clancy, he has been an underdog in six of them, covered the spread in all six and won five of them outright. The man is 5–1 straight up in the playoffs as an underdog. It’s unreal. Give tons of credit to Trevor Lawrence and all the other contributors on the team, but Jacksonville also nailed the coach hire to replace you-know-who.

Claire Kuwana: Travis Etienne Jr., RB, Jaguars. Mitch has the play call covered, and John has the comeback QB, so I’ll give my game ball to the third star of the Jaguars’ winning drive: the running back who scampered for 25 yards on fourth-and-1, the last of his 20 carries on the day. In Etienne’s first playoff game of his career, he did what was necessary to pull off the comeback Jacksonville needed. As he said Saturday, “The running back, when it gets to that point of the game, you’re supposed to be the closer.” And alongside his former Clemson teammate, Etienne helped the Jaguars close out their first playoff win since 2017.