After a dismal 2024 season, the New England Patriots are back in the playoffs as the winners of the AFC East.<\/p>\n
But today, the Patriots can secure the No. 1 seed in the AFC for the first time since the 2017 season.<\/p>\n
Advertisement<\/p>\n
However, they will need a little bit of help from the Denver Broncos to lock that down.<\/p>\n
New England Patriots playoff berth clinching scenarios<\/p>\n
As things stand, the Patriots are the No. 2 seed in the AFC with a 13-3 record, the same record as the Denver Broncos. However, the Broncos have a tiebreaker advantage over New England, thanks to a better record against common opponents. Denver won all of their games against the common opponents, while New England\u2019s loss to the Las Vegas Raiders back in Week 1 means the Broncos have the edge if they finish tied with the Patriots.<\/p>\n
Still, if the Broncos stumble against the Los Angeles Chargers this weekend, the door is open. New England will be the No. 1 seed in the AFC with a win over the Miami Dolphins coupled with a Broncos loss or tie against the Chargers.<\/p>\n
Advertisement<\/p>\n
New England can also be the No. 1 seed with a tie against the Dolphins, provided the Broncos lose to the Chargers.<\/p>\n
It is worth noting that Jim Harbaugh has already announced that the Chargers will rest Justin Herbert, and it is believed Los Angeles will rest more starters on Sunday. Oddsmakers have already listed the Broncos as 12.5-point favorites.<\/p>\n
Also, New England could fall to the No. 3 seed with a loss to Miami. If the Patriots lose to the Dolphins and the Jacksonville Jaguars lose to the Titans, New England will drop to No. 3.<\/p>\n
AFC standings entering Week 18<\/p>\n
Here are the full AFC standings entering Week 18:<\/p>\n
Advertisement<\/p>\n
Denver Broncos (13-3) \u2013 xy<\/p>\n
New England Patriots (13-3) \u2013 xy<\/p>\n
Jacksonville Jaguars (12-4) \u2013 x<\/p>\n
Pittsburgh Steelers (9-7)<\/p>\n
Houston Texans (11-5) \u2013 x<\/p>\n
Los Angeles Chargers (11-5) \u2013 x<\/p>\n
Buffalo Bills (11-5) \u2013 x<\/p>\n
Indianapolis Colts (8-8) \u2013 e<\/p>\n
Miami Dolphins (7-9) \u2013 e<\/p>\n
Cincinnati Bengals (6-10) \u2013 e<\/p>\n
Kansas City Chiefs (6-10) \u2013 e<\/p>\n
Cleveland Browns (4-12) \u2013 e<\/p>\n
Tennessee Titans (3-13) \u2013 e<\/p>\n
New York Jets (3-13) \u2013 e<\/p>\n
Las Vegas Raiders (2-14) \u2013 e<\/p>\n
x \u2013 Team has clinched a playoff spot
y \u2013 Team has clinched division
e \u2013 Team has been eliminated from playoff contention<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After a dismal 2024 season, the New England Patriots are back in the playoffs as the winners of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":653552,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2050],"tags":[115,75782,117,53,256,54,258,7,253,392,125,1012,1159,110,393,1014,262,251,1167,249,255,2326,2094,6,208,57,1672,394,1743],"class_list":["post-653551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-england-patriots","tag-afc","tag-afc-standings","tag-baltimore-ravens","tag-buffalo-bills","tag-cincinnati-bengals","tag-cleveland-browns","tag-denver-broncos","tag-football","tag-houston-texans","tag-indianapolis-colts","tag-jacksonville-jaguars","tag-jim-harbaugh","tag-justin-herbert","tag-kansas-city-chiefs","tag-las-vegas-raiders","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-chargers","tag-miami-dolphins","tag-new-england","tag-new-england-patriots","tag-new-york-jets","tag-newengland","tag-newenglandpatriots","tag-nfl","tag-patriots","tag-pittsburgh-steelers","tag-seed","tag-tennessee-titans","tag-the-afc"],"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\/653551","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=653551"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653551\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/653552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=653551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=653551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=653551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}