Who's facing the most pressure to win in the NFL divisional round?

The divisional round of the NFL playoffs kicks off on Saturday and there are a few surprising teams still standing, including the Houston Texans, Green Bay Packers and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Those teams have already exceeded expectations this season and are all underdogs going into the divisional round.

It is a different story for top seeds Baltimore and San Francisco, and there are several players and coaches on those teams facing high expectations and immense pressure to win. Let's take a closer look at some of them.

Lamar Jackson, QB, Baltimore Ravens: Jackson is the favorite to win his second NFL MVP Award but is still missing one thing from his resume — playoff success. The Ravens are just 1-3 in playoff games started by Jackson, while he has thrown just three touchdowns to five interceptions in those games. Great players are ultimately measured by what they do in the playoffs and it is time for both Jackson and the Ravens (just two playoff wins in the past 10 years) to make a big statement and a deep run. If they lose to Houston there will be very real — and justified — criticisms. 

Kyle Shanahan, HC, San Francisco 49ers: Shanahan has had a wonderful tenure in San Francisco and has already taken the 49ers to three conference championship games and a Super Bowl. But he has not won one yet and has also had some ugly losses in the playoffs where his team has blown big leads. The pressure here is that he not only has the roster to win a Super Bowl, but everything seems to be falling in place in terms of the remaining playoff field. The 49ers have home field and the two teams that looked to be their biggest competition — Philadelphia and Dallas — are already eliminated. The 49ers spent the entire offseason talking about how if they had not lost all of their quarterbacks in last year's NFC Championship game they would have won. With every other top contender out of the way and Purdy playing at an elite level, they have no excuses to not get it done. 

Patrick Mahomes, QB, Kansas City Chiefs: Mahomes has already played in three Super Bowls and won two of them, but he is facing one big question coming into the divisional round — can he win a playoff game on the road? Sunday's game in Buffalo will be the first time in his career he has ever had to play a true road playoff game, and nobody really knows how that is going to go for him and the Chiefs. That is not meant to be a criticism because it is a testament to the Chiefs' success (and good fortune) to have played every playoff game in Mahomes' career in Kansas City. But it is going to be a challenge for him to not only have to play a playoff game in a very hostile environment but also in some of the most brutal weather conditions in the NFL — Buffalo in January.