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The most thrilling divisional playoff round in NFL history — each of the four games ended on a walk-off score, resulting in three underdog victories — has given this Sunday’s pair of title games an unusual look. The losses by the top-seeded Packers and the defending champion Buccaneers mean that neither Aaron Rodgers nor Tom Brady will be playing for a spot in the Super Bowl for the first time in 12 years.

Their absences are fitting, emblematic of an ongoing transition to a new NFL era. Ben Roethlisberger officially announced his retirement yesterday. In the previous two years, Drew Brees, Eli Manning and Philip Rivers all called it quits. Brady is 44 and may soon walk away, too. Rodgers is a 38-year-old with a murky future and plummeting popularity.

A deep crop of young and talented quarterbacks — Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrow, Josh Allen, Justin Herbert, Kyler Murray, Lamar Jackson, Mac Jones — may spend the next decade or more battling for supremacy, though it’s unclear which players will ultimately define their era, a la Brady, Brees, Rodgers, Roethlisberger and the Mannings.