It starts Thursday night, first place in the NFC East on the line when the Washington Commanders invade Philadelphia to face an Eagles team that moved atop the division Sunday.

Same story in the AFC North, where the Baltimore Ravens are currently a half-game out of the top spot but can claim it by vanquishing their archrivals, the Pittsburgh Steelers, in the Sunday’s early window of games. Playoff implications will also be at stake in the other prime-time games, the Los Angeles Chargers hosting the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday night, while the Houston Texans visit the depleted Dallas Cowboys on Monday for Lone Star State bragging rights.

But the game of the week will kick off late Sunday afternoon, when the Kansas City Chiefs and Buffalo Bills resume their spirited rivalry in Western New York. If the reigning – and still undefeated – Super Bowl champions run their record to 10-0, their margin over most of the teams chasing them for home-field advantage in the playoffs will begin to approach an insurmountable cushion. But if the Bills can win their sixth straight, the head-to-head tiebreaker would pull them within one game of supplanting K.C. for the conference lead.

What will happen? Our panel of NFL experts renders its predictive verdicts:

(Odds provided by BetMGM)