2025-2026 NFL Playoff Bracket – NFL Playoff Picture Ahead of Week 18

The 2025-26 NFL regular season kicked off on Thursday, September 4, 2025. The regular season will conclude after all Week 18 games are played on January 4, 2026. The 2026 NFL playoffs are scheduled to begin January 10 with Super Wildcard Weekend. The 2026 Super Bowl will be played Sunday, February 8, 2026.

The image above – which will be updated after each game of the 2025-26 regular season – displays the NFL playoff bracket after Week 17. You’ll find much more NFL playoff information on this page, including playoff schedule, teams who clinched a playoff berth / have been eliminated from playoff contention, playoff clinching scenarios, and remaining schedules. You can jump to a specific section using the links below:

NFL Playoff Picture | NFL Playoff Dates & Schedule | Clinched Playoffs | Clinching Scenarios | Remaining Schedules | Eliminated | NFL Playoff FAQs

NFL Playoff Picture

The top seven teams from the AFC will make the playoffs. The 2025-26 AFC playoff picture looks a lot different than last year! The Broncos hold the #1 seed, but lost their full-game lead over the Patriots after losing to the Jaguars in Week 16. Denver is still #1 thanks to owning the tiebreaker.

The Patriots currently sit in the #2 seed with a 13-3 record after their win over the Jets in Week 16.

The most notable teams not currently in the playoff bracket are the Chiefs and Ravens. Kansas City has been eliminated from the playoffs, but Baltimore is still alive, thanks to the Browns upsetting the Steelers in Week 17. It’s also worth noting the Colts, who held the top seed in the AFC for most of the first half of the season, have also been eliminated.

Be sure to bookmark this page and keep checking in with Sports Betting Dime for the latest NFL Playoff picture.

The top seven seeds in the NFC will make the playoffs. The current look at the playoff bracket in the NFC has the Seahawks on top. Seattle took over as the #1 seed after beating the Rams in a thriller on TNF of Week 16. LA had been the top seed prior to Week 16, but fell to #6 with the loss.

The Bears hold the #2 seed thanks to holding the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Eagles.

The most notable team not in a playoff spot right now is the Lions, who have now been eliminated from playoff contention just one year after being the top seed in the NFC.

Three teams from the NFC West have made the playoffs, with the Seahawks leading the division and holding the #1 seed, while the Rams and 49ers are in wild card spots.

NFL Playoff Dates & Schedule for Divisional Round

We typically see the first day of Wild Card Weekend (Saturday) see games played at 4:30pm ET and 8pm ET. Then we see a traditional set of kickoff times for the Sunday, starting at 1pm ET, with the second game at 4:30pm ET, and the final one at 8:15pm ET. Then the Monday has normally been an 8pm ET kickoff. None of these times are confirmed yet by the NFL, but that’s what we have seen in the past.

The 2025-26 NFL Playoffs will be the fifth year to feature “Super Wild Card Weekend,” where there will only be two games played on the Saturday so there’s a game to be played on Monday night of Wild Card Weekend. It will be the sixth year of the “new” playoff format that sees seven teams get in from each conference and only the top seed from each conference receiving a bye.

The 2026 Super Bowl will likely kick off at 6:30pm ET on Sunday, February 8 at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California.

Teams Who Have Clinched a Playoff Spot

The order of the teams listed above is not indicative of their playoff seeding, rather the order they clinched playoff berths in.

It took until Week 15 to see the first teams clinch playoff berths this season, as both the Broncos and Rams accomplished the feat. This is much later than last season, where a team clinched after Week 13 – we saw playoff berths clinched in Week 14 the year prior as well.

Week 18 NFL Playoff Clinching Scenarios

As we enter Week 18, there are still two playoff spots up for grabs, one from each conference. The Ravens and Steelers will play on SNF for the AFC North title. With Pittsburgh currently being one game up on Baltimore, a tie would result in the Steelers winning the division.

We see a similar scenario in the NFC South, where the Buccaneers and Panthers will play on Saturday for the division title. However, Carolina could still win the NFC South with a loss. If the Falcons beat the Saints in Week 18, and thre Bucs beat the Panthers, the three teams would be tied at 8-9. The Panthers own the tiebreaker between the three teams. So, the Bucs not only need to win, but they also need the Saints to beat the Falcons in Week 18.

Here are all the division or homefield advantage-clinching scenarios as well:

The Broncos have a rather simple path to clinching the #1 seed in the AFC in Week 18:

1. A win vs LAC, OR
2. NE loss vs MIA + JAX loss vs TEN

This is looking quite positive for Denver after LA has announced Justin Herbert, among others, will not play in Week 18.

The Jaguars can clinch the AFC South title and still have a shot at the #1 seed:

• AFC South title = A win or tie vs TEN, OR a HOU loss or tie vs IND
• #1 seed = A win vs TEN + NE loss vs MIA + DEN loss vs LAC

The Patriots can clinch the #1 seed with:

• A win or tie vs MIA + DEN loss vs LAC

The Seahawks can clinch both the NFC West title and the top seed in the NFC in Week 18 with:

• A win or tie @SF

The 49ers can clinch both the NFC West title and the top seed in the NFC with:

• A win vs SEA

Remaining Schedules for Teams in Playoff Hunt

All of the schedules detailed above are for Week 18. I am including teams who have also clinched a playoff berth, but have divisions/conferences to clinch.

Teams Eliminated from Playoff Contention

The New York Giants became the first team mathematically eliminated from playoff contention this season. The Giants Week 12 loss to the Lions made it official that they would not be making the playoffs. This is a little earlier than normal, as no teams were eliminated until Week 13 in each of the last three seasons.

Week 13 saw a handful more teams eliminated from playoff contention, including the Titans, Raiders, Saints, and Cardinals. We’ll now be seeing a couple teams eliminated each week moving forward.

We saw two teams who were believed to be top contenders to win the Super Bowl back in the preseason eliminated after Week 15: the Chiefs and Bengals.

How Many Teams Make the NFL Playoffs?

Starting in the 2020 NFL season (2021 NFL Playoffs), seven teams from each conference get into the NFL playoffs. This makes a total of 14 teams in the playoffs.

Prior to this, only six teams from each conference made the playoffs, and 12 total. The format change starting in the 2020-21 NFL season was made to add two more teams to the postseason, one in each conference.

How Many Teams Get a First-Round Bye in the NFL Playoffs?

The change to the NFL playoff format ahead of the 2020-21 NFL season also saw an adjustment to the number of teams who get a first-round bye. With seven teams from each conference making the playoffs, only one team—the top seed—from each conference gets a bye through the wildcard round.

Prior to the change, the top two seeds in each conference would get a bye through the wildcard round. With only one team from each conference getting a first-round bye, the NFL added another wildcard game to each conference, totaling six wildcard games now instead of four.

How Do the NFL Playoffs Work?

As mentioned above, seven teams from each conference (the AFC and NFC) make the NFL playoffs. Each team who makes the playoffs is seeded from 1-7 in their respective conference. The two conferences do not mix or meet until the Super Bowl.

The top four seeds in each conference are given to the teams who win their division. These four division winners are ordered 1-4 based on their records. The final three spots—seeds 5 to 7—in each conference are called “wildcard spots”. These are given to the three non-division winners who have the best records in their conference.

The NFL playoffs begin with the Wildcard Round. The top seed in each conference gets a bye through this round, leaving three games to be played in each conference. The matchups are as follows: 7-seed vs 2-seed, 6-seed vs 3-seed, and 5-seed vs 4-seed.

The NFL playoffs are not a traditional bracket, where teams move through to a fixed spot. The second round of the NFL playoffs is called the Divisional Round. The 1-seed in each conference, who was given a bye through the Wildcard Round, will get matched up with the worst remaining team in their respective conference. If the 7-seed were to upset the 2-seed, they would have to play the 1-seed in the Divisional Round. After setting the best-vs-worst matchup, the remaining two teams in each conference (second-best and second-worst seeds remaining) will battle it out in the other Divisional Round matchup.

After the Divisional Round comes the Conference Championships, where there are only two teams remaining in each conference. These two teams will play for the right to go to the Super Bowl and play the conference champion from the other side.

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