NFL PLAYOFFS: Who plays when as Tom Brady takes on Cowboys and Damar Hamlin’s Bills take on Dolphins

We got our playoff schedule sorted, but not with a late dramatic twist as the Detroit Lions beat the Green Bay Packers Sunday night.

There’s no Aaron Rodgers — possibly forever as the quarterback ponders his future — and the Seattle Seahawks are advancing thanks to the shock result at Lambeau Field.

Sportsmail explains the playoff layout here.

The Seattle Seahawks make the playoffs after the Packers lost to the Detroit Lions Sunday night

THE SCHEDULE

SATURDAY 14 JANUARY

Seattle Seahawks at San Francisco 49ers, 4:30 p.m. ET, FOX

Los Angeles Chargers at Jacksonville Jaguars, 8:15 p.m. ET, NBC

SUNDAY 15 JANUARY

Miami Dolphins at Buffalo Bills, 1 p.m. ET, CBS

New York Giants at Minnesota Vikings, 4:30 p.m. ET, FOX

Baltimore Ravens at Cincinnati Bengals, 8:15 p.m. ET, NBC

MONDAY 16 JANUARY

Dallas Cowboys vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 8:15 p.m. ET, ESPN/ABC

Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers play the Dallas Cowboys Monday night

WHAT IS THE FORMAT FOR THE PLAYOFFS?

This is the third consecutive year of the current NFL playoff format, which features the top seven teams from the AFC and NFC.

The four division winners in both conferences automatically receive the top four seeded teams, regardless of record, and then the top three teams with the best records that did not win their division are wildcard selections. Because of this, it’s fairly common for a wildcard selection to have a better record — but a worse playoff finish — than a team that finished as division winners.

The 1st seeded team in each conference gets a bye to the second round – these are the Chiefs and Eagles – while 2nd seeded 7th seed, 3rd seeded 6th seeded and 4th seeded 5th seed are played during the wilds -card- Weekend.

The NFL has a re-seeding policy after each playoff round. This means that regardless of how the bracket started, the team with the lowest seeds will always switch to the team with the higher seeds.

There are four rounds for the playoffs: the wildcard round takes place next weekend, the divisional round on January 21–22, the conference championship games on January 29, and the Super Bowl on February 12 in Glendale, Arizona.

Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs are sitting out next week after ending the Western Conference top seed

WHAT HAS CHANGED WITH THE CANCELLATION OF BILLS-BENGALS?

It’s been an eventful week for players and fans alike, who watched in horror on Monday night as Damar Hamlin collapsed on the field and had to be resuscitated before leaving in an ambulance. A few days later, the same players and fans watched with delight as Hamlin recovered.

That made it a lot easier to focus on Week 18 and now the playoffs.

The Bills-Bengals game had a major impact on the playoffs in the AFC, so the cancellation of the game due to Hamlin’s injury could force some changes depending on the playoff results.

The AFC Championship game will be played at a neutral venue if the Chiefs and Bills reach that point.

Buffalo’s 35-23 win over New England on Sunday combined with Kansas City’s 31-13 win in Las Vegas on Saturday means the No. 1-seeded Chiefs (14-3) won’t make the conference title game against the Bills able to align (13-3) because the teams played an unequal number of games.

NFL owners passed a resolution Friday implementing new rules for this postseason in response to the cancellation of the Bills-Bengals game.