Chargers playoff schedule: Wild Card Round opponent, dates and times

Everywhere Jim Harbaugh goes, he wins. He did it at San Diego, he did it at Stanford, he did it with the San Francisco 49ers and he did it at Michigan, and now, he's done it with the Los Angeles Chargers. L.A. was in a very bad spot this time last year, when it opted to move on from Brandon Staley and reunited with its former quarterback in Harbaugh. Years of bad drafts and poor player development had left behind a top-heavy roster and an ugly cap situation, one that not even a turnaround artist as gifted as Harbaugh figured to turn around overnight.

Except that's exactly what he's done. The Chargers had already sewn up a Wild Card spot entering Week 18, but Los Angeles decided to remove all doubt anyway, hammering the Las Vegas Raiders in the regular-season finale to finish Harbaugh's first season at the helm with an 11-6 record — the team's best mark since 2018, and just its third playoff appearance in the last decade.

Now, there's just one question left to answer: Who will the Chargers be playing next weekend in the Wild Card round? There was some uncertainty entering Sunday, as Los Angeles could have wound up as either the fifth or sixth seed depending on the result of its game in Vegas. With the win, though, the bracket is set, so let's break down the matchup.

Who will the Chargers play in the Wild Card Round?

The Chargers win, combined with a Pittsburgh Steelers loss on Saturday night, locked L.A. into the No. 5 spot in the AFC bracket. That means they'll go up against the fourth seed on Wild Card weekend, which means a date with the AFC South champion Houston Texans.

We won't know the full first-round schedule until after Sunday Night Football for Week 18, but we do know that the Chargers will be hitting the road for Houston and will play on either Saturday, Jan. 11; Sunday, Jan. 12; or Monday, Jan. 13.

Chargers playoff schedule: Dates, times for every round

Here's a look at the full playoff schedule the Chargers could face.

It's hard not to feel pretty good about the path the Chargers have drawn here. Jumping to the No. 5 spot allowed L.A. to avoid Lamar Jackson and the Ravens, instead drawing a Texans team that's been maddeningly inconsistent this season. DeMeco Ryans is sure to have his defense hitting next weekend, but Bobby Slowik's offense has taken a huge step back in 2024, with a porous offensive line failing to protect second-year quarterback C.J. Stroud. Stroud, Nico Collins and the gang are still very much capable of catching fire, but the Chargers actually had the better regular-season schedule this year.

Win that, and a third matchup with the division-rival Kansas City Chiefs awaits. Yes, K.C. is the two-time defending Super Bowl champion, and yes, they just went 15-1 this year. But the Chargers were a whisker away from beating the Chiefs in both of their games this season, and you can bet that Harbaugh won't be afraid of a rematch. Pull the upset there against a Kansas City team that looks far more vulnerable than its record suggests, and suddenly a Super Bowl run is on the table.