The Chiefs have the lead for the AFC No. 1 seed, the Lions have the lead for the NFC No. 1 seed, and there’s still plenty to be determined beyond that. Here’s how the playoff picture looks after Sunday Night Football of Week 16:<\/p>\n
NFC Playoff Picture<\/p>\n
DIVISION LEADERS<\/p>\n
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1. Detroit Lions (13-2): Clinched a playoff berth.<\/p>\n
2. Philadelphia Eagles (12-3): Clinched a playoff berth.<\/p>\n
3. Los Angeles Rams (9-6): Pulling away in the very competitive NFC West.<\/p>\n
4. Atlanta Falcons (8-7): Own the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Buccaneers.<\/p>\n
WILD CARDS<\/p>\n
5. Minnesota Vikings (13-2): Clinched a playoff berth, will clinch the No. 1 seed if they win out.<\/p>\n
6. Green Bay Packers (10-4): Getting swept by the Lions and losing to the Vikings takes them out of NFC North contention, even though they’re 10-1 otherwise.<\/p>\n
7. Washington Commanders (10-5): Stayed alive in the NFC East race by beating the Eagles.<\/p>\n
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OUTSIDE LOOKING IN<\/p>\n
8. Tampa Bay Buccaneers (8-7): Loss to the Cowboys knocked them out of playoff position.<\/p>\n
9. Seattle Seahawks (8-7): Big loss to the Vikings.<\/p>\n
10. Dallas Cowboys (7-8): Mathematically eliminated.<\/p>\n
11. Arizona Cardinals (7-8): Mathematically eliminated.<\/p>\n
12. San Francisco 49ers (6-9): Mathematically eliminated.<\/p>\n
13. New Orleans Saints (5-9): Mathematically eliminated.<\/p>\n
14. Chicago Bears (4-11): Mathematically eliminated.<\/p>\n
15. Carolina Panthers (4-11): Mathematically eliminated.<\/p>\n
16. New York Giants (2-13): Mathematically eliminated.<\/p>\n
AFC Playoff Picture<\/p>\n
DIVISION LEADERS<\/p>\n
1. Kansas City Chiefs (14-1): Clinched AFC West, have a 2.5-game lead for the No. 1 seed.<\/p>\n
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2. Buffalo Bills (12-3): Clinched the AFC East, but can they catch the Chiefs?<\/p>\n
3. Pittsburgh Steelers (10-5): Clinched a playoff berth and own the tiebreaker over the Ravens even after Saturday’s loss.<\/p>\n
4. Houston Texans (9-6): Clinched the AFC South.<\/p>\n
WILD CARDS<\/p>\n
5. Baltimore Ravens (10-5): Clinched a playoff berth with a big win against the Steelers, but Pittsburgh still owns the tiebreaker.<\/p>\n
6. Los Angeles Chargers (9-6): A big win over the Broncos on Thursday night.<\/p>\n
7. Denver Broncos (9-6): The loss to the Chargers hurt, but they’re still on the cusp of a wild card berth.<\/p>\n
OUTSIDE LOOKING IN<\/p>\n
8. Indianapolis Colts (7-8): Slim wild card hopes.<\/p>\n
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9. Miami Dolphins (7-8): Even slimmer wild card hopes.<\/p>\n
10. Cincinnati Bengals (7-8): The slimmest of wild card hopes.<\/p>\n
11. New York Jets (4-11): Mathematically eliminated.<\/p>\n
12. Cleveland Browns (3-12): Mathematically eliminated.<\/p>\n
13. Jacksonville Jaguars (3-12): Mathematically eliminated.<\/p>\n
14. Tennessee Titans (3-12): Mathematically eliminated.<\/p>\n
15. Las Vegas Raiders (3-12): Mathematically eliminated.<\/p>\n
16. New England Patriots (3-12): Mathematically eliminated.<\/p>\n
Clinching Scenarios<\/p>\n
The following playoff scenarios were released by the NFL on Tuesday:<\/p>\n
AFC<\/p>\n
CLINCHED:<\/p>\n
Buffalo Bills (12-3) \u2013 AFC East<\/p>\n
Houston Texans (9-6) \u2013 AFC South<\/p>\n
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Kansas City Chiefs (14-1) \u2013 AFC West<\/p>\n
Pittsburgh Steelers (10-5) \u2013 playoff berth<\/p>\n
Baltimore Ravens (10-5) \u2013 playoff berth<\/p>\n
NFC<\/p>\n
CLINCHED:<\/p>\n
Detroit Lions (13-2) \u2013 playoff berth<\/p>\n
Minnesota Vikings (12-2) \u2013 playoff berth<\/p>\n
Philadelphia Eagles (12-3) \u2013 playoff berth<\/p>\n
Green Bay Packers (10-4)\u00a0vs. New Orleans Saints (5-9); Monday, 8:15 p.m. ET, ESPN\/ABC<\/p>\n
Green Bay clinches a playoff berth with:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Chiefs have the lead for the AFC No. 1 seed, the Lions have the lead for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1681,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[77],"tags":[115,390,254,211,53,260,391,256,54,230,258,113,7,41,345,253,392,125,110,393,262,58,251,259,249,55,56,255,1867,6,84,109,57,1804,1865,169,252,261,394,1866,111],"class_list":{"0":"post-1680","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl-playoffs","8":"tag-afc","9":"tag-arizona-cardinals","10":"tag-atlanta-falcons","11":"tag-buccaneers","12":"tag-buffalo-bills","13":"tag-carolina-panthers","14":"tag-chicago-bears","15":"tag-cincinnati-bengals","16":"tag-cleveland-browns","17":"tag-cowboys","18":"tag-denver-broncos","19":"tag-detroit-lions","20":"tag-football","21":"tag-green-bay","22":"tag-green-bay-packers","23":"tag-houston-texans","24":"tag-indianapolis-colts","25":"tag-jacksonville-jaguars","26":"tag-kansas-city-chiefs","27":"tag-las-vegas-raiders","28":"tag-los-angeles-chargers","29":"tag-los-angeles-rams","30":"tag-miami-dolphins","31":"tag-minnesota-vikings","32":"tag-new-england-patriots","33":"tag-new-orleans-saints","34":"tag-new-york-giants","35":"tag-new-york-jets","36":"tag-nfc-playoff-picture","37":"tag-nfl","38":"tag-nfl-playoffs","39":"tag-philadelphia-eagles","40":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","41":"tag-playoff-berth","42":"tag-playoff-picture","43":"tag-ravens","44":"tag-san-francisco-49ers","45":"tag-seattle-seahawks","46":"tag-tennessee-titans","47":"tag-the-chiefs","48":"tag-washington-commanders"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1680\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}