2024-2025 NFL Playoff Bracket – NFL Playoff Picture & Super Bowl Matchup

The 2024-25 NFL regular season kicked off on Thursday, September 5, 2024. The regular season concluded after all Week 18 games were played on January 5, 2025. The 2025 NFL playoffs began January 11 with Super Wildcard Weekend. The 2025 Super Bowl was played Sunday, February 9, 2025, and was dominated by the Philadelphia Eagles.

The image above – which will be updated after each game of the 2024-25 NFL playoffs – displays the NFL playoff bracket after the NFC Championship. The Eagles were the first team to punch their ticket to the Super Bowl with a dominant win over the Commanders in the NFC Title game. They will head to Louisiana to face the Chiefs, who beat the Bills (again) in the AFC Championship, in what will be a rematch of Super Bowl 57.

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 2024-25 AFC playoff picture leaves out a couple teams who made the playoffs last year. Those teams are the Browns and Dolphins.

They are being replaced by the LA Chargers and Denver Broncos in the current playoff bracket. Be sure to bookmark this page and keep checking in with Sports Betting Dime for the latest NFL Playoff picture.

Here’s how the AFC playoff picture looks following Week 18:

• The Chiefs have clinched the #1 seed & will have a bye in the Wild Card Round
• The Bills have clinched the #2 seed & will host the Broncos in the Wild Card Round
• The Ravens clinched the #3 seed & will host the Steelers in the Wild Card Round
• The Texans are locked into the #4 seed & will host the Chargers in Wild Card Weekend

The top seven seeds in the NFC will make the playoffs. The early look at the playoff bracket leaves out two teams who made the playoffs last season. The 49ers and Cowboys made the playoffs last season but are not currently holding a playoff spot this season. They are being replaced by the Vikings and Commanders.

The Lions, Eagles, Buccaneers, Rams, and Packers are the teams who made the NFC playoffs last year that are currently holding a spot in this year’s playoffs.

Here are a few important notes about the NFC playoff picture:

• The Lions locked up the #1 seed & will get a bye in the first round
• The Eagles are locked into the #2 seed & will take on the Packers in the Wild Card Round
• The Buccaneers clinched the #3 seed & will host the Commanders in Wild Card Weekend
• The LA Rams have clinched the #4 seed and will host the Vikings in the Wild Card Round

NFL Playoff Dates & Schedule for Divisional Round

The 2024-25 NFL Playoffs will be the fourth 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 fifth 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.

There is no shortage of intrigue with the Wild Card matchups. One of the best matchups is between divisional rivals, as the Steelers head to Baltimore to take on the Ravens. We also get a rematch of the season-opener with Green Bay heading to Philadelphia. Two rookie quarterbacks led their respective teams to the postseason, as Bo Nix and the Broncos will take on the Bills, and Jayden Daniels and his Commanders will face the Buccaneers. If you want to see the betting lines for the games above, check out our NFL odds page.

The 2025 Super Bowl will likely kick off at 6:30pm ET on Sunday, February 9 at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Teams Who Have Clinched a Playoff Spot

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

While we didn’t see any team clinch a playoff spot last year until after Week 14, we had our first teams clinch an NFL playoff spot following Week 13 this year, as the Chiefs punched their ticket to the postseason after their Black Friday win, and the Bills clinched the AFC East after beating the 49ers on SNF.

The Detroit Lions became the first NFC team to clinch a playoff spot with their win on Thursday Night Football in Week 14. The Philadelphia Eagles also clinched a playoff spot after their win over the Panthers.

NFL Playoff Clinching Scenarios for Week 18

Entering Week 18, the final week of the regular season, there are still two playoff spots up for grabs – one in each conference.

There are three teams vying for the final spot in the AFC, with Denver being the team who controls their own destiny. Cincinnati needs the most help, as they need a Denver loss and a Miami loss or tie. The NFC only has two teams competing for the final spot, and it’s the NFC South divisional crown. Tampa Bay controls their own destiny, and only needs a win over the Saints to get in. The Falcons can get in if the Bucs drop their game with the Saints, and they beat the Panthers.

There are also a handful of teams who have already clinched a playoff berth that have the opportunity to clinch their respective divisions or the top seed:

• Ravens would clinch the AFC’s #3 seed with: (1) A win over the Browns OR (2) a Steelers loss
• Steelers would clinch the AFC’s #3 seed with a win over the Bengals + a Ravens loss
• Lions would clinch the NFC’s #1 seed with a win over the Vikings or tie
• Vikings would clinch the NFC’s #1 seed with a win over the Lions

Remaining Schedules for Teams in Playoff Hunt

In this section, I have left out teams who have already clinched playoff berths, as I am only concerned with getting in, not playoff standing.

Denver’s final game against the Chiefs got a lot easier with Kansas City clinching the AFC’s top seed last week, and now announcing they will rest all their starters. Cincinnati not only needs the most help, but also has the toughest game among the three AFC teams competing for the final playoff spot. The Bengals have to go into Pittsburgh, who they lost to at home in Week 13, and the Steelers are playing with the AFC North title on the line.

Teams Eliminated from Playoff Contention

Just like each of the past two seasons, we saw our first teams eliminated from NFL playoff contention following Week 13 of the 2024-25 NFL season. All of the Giants, Raiders, and Patriots saw themselves eliminated after they lost in Week 13. The Giants were technically the first eliminated, as they played on Thanksgiving, and the Raiders followed on Black Friday.

Week 14 saw four more teams get eliminated from playoff contention. The Titans, Browns, Jets, and Jaguars all got eliminated from the AFC playoff picture. Despite the Jaguars winning in Week 14, they still will not appear in the 2024-25 NFL Playoffs.

Week 16 was a tough week for NFC teams, as four of them were eliminated from playoff contention, including the Saints, 49ers, Cowboys, and Cardinals.

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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