Free tool on this page: Live bracket: the playoffs if they started today
Fourteen teams make the NFL playoffs, seven from the AFC and seven from the NFC. Each conference plays a knockout bracket over three rounds, and the two winners meet in the Super Bowl. One loss ends a team's season.
Who gets in
Each conference has four divisions with four teams in each. The team with the best record in a division wins it and is in the playoffs. Those four division winners take seeds 1 to 4, in order of their records.
The three best teams left in the conference also get in. They are the wild cards, and they take seeds 5, 6 and 7.
4 division winners + 3 wild cards = 7 teams in each conference
7 teams × 2 conferences = 14 playoff teams
32 teams − 14 playoff teams = 18 teams that miss out
A division winner always sits above a wild card, even when the wild card has the better record. It is happening right now: the Steelers lead the AFC North at 6-2 and are seeded above the Broncos, who are 7-2.
What the top seed gets
The top seed in each conference earns two rewards. It rests during the first round while the other six teams play. It also plays every conference playoff game in its own stadium.
Only one team in each conference gets that week off, which is why the race for the top seed often runs to the final weekend.
The four rounds
- Wild card round. Seed 2 hosts seed 7, seed 3 hosts seed 6 and seed 4 hosts seed 5. The top seed rests.
- Divisional round. The top seed hosts the lowest seed still alive. The other two winners play each other in the better seed's stadium.
- Conference championships. The last two teams in each conference play for the AFC title and the NFC title. The better seed is at home.
- Super Bowl. The AFC champion plays the NFC champion in a stadium chosen years ahead, so neither team is at home.
6 wild card games + 4 divisional games = 10 games
10 games + 2 conference championships = 12 games
12 games + 1 Super Bowl = 13 playoff games
Because the top seed always meets the lowest seed left, the bracket is not fixed. A seed 7 that wins in round one travels to the top seed next, whoever else wins.
This season the rounds fall in these windows:
- Wild Card: Jan 13 to 19
- Divisional Round: Jan 20 to 26
- Conference Championship: Jan 27 to Feb 2
- Super Bowl: Feb 3 to 15
The bracket if the playoffs started today
This bracket is built from today's standings and changes after every game. The gold box marks the team that would rest in round one.
AFC
Updated Nov 15, 4:31 PM ET, week 10.
Today's order is only a snapshot. The NFL playoff chances calculator plays out the rest of the season and shows how likely each team is to still be in this bracket in January.
How ties in the standings are settled
Teams often finish with the same record, and a tie can decide who gets in. The NFL settles ties with a fixed list of steps, and our guide to NFL tiebreakers covers each one. The result between the tied teams comes first. Division record or conference record comes next, and the list runs on from there.
Our method page lists every step in order, and the playoff picture shows which step is separating teams right now.
How to follow your own team
A seed tells you where a team stands today. It does not tell you how safe that spot is, because the games left on the schedule matter just as much.
Pick your team on the calculator to see its chance out of 100, the final record it needs and the games to root for this week. You can also flip any result and watch the number move.