Divisional Round losers postmortem: What's next for Bills, 49ers, Texans and Bears?

The Athletic

20 January 2026

When you're one of the last eight teams playing football in a season, that final loss is hard to swallow. No matter how bright the future appears, there's no guarantee you get another shot quite like the one you just had. And yet, there's plenty of reason for optimism in 2026 and beyond for the Bills, 49ers, Texans and Bears after their respective Divisional Round losses. Robert Mays and Derrik Klassen consider what the offseason ahead looks like for each of those teams on this episode of The Athletic Football Show. Rundown (timestamps are approximate) 3:00 Buffalo Bills 33:57 San Francisco 49ers 43:49 Houston Texans 59:05 Chicago Bears 1:17:20 Jeff Hafley to the Dolphins Connect with The Athletic Football Show Please take our listener survey: theathletic.com/survey26 YT: https://www.youtube.com/@TAFootballShow Podcasts: https://podfollow.com/the-athletic-football-show/view X: https://x.com/TA_FootballShow IG: https://www.instagram.com/tafootballshow TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tafootballshow Discord: http://discord.gg/theathleticfootballshow Call us: 847-448-0701 Email us: athleticfootballshow@gmail.com Host: Robert Mays Co-Host: Derrik Klassen Executive Producer: Michael Beller Video Producer: Katy Duffy Audio Producer: Michael Beller Social Producer: Scott Krinch Follow Robert on Bluesky: @robertmays.bsky.social Follow Derrik on Bluesky: @qbklass.bsky.social Follow Robert on X: @robertmays Follow Derrik on X: @QBKlass Theme song: Haunted Written by Dylan Slocum, Trevor Dietrich, Ruben Duarte, Kyle McAulay, and Meredith VanWoert / Performed by Spanish Love Songs Courtesy of Pure Noise / By arrangement with Bank Robber Music, LLC Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.