Everything you need to know about the NFL playoffs (2024)

The NFL announced the following schedule for next weekend:

NOTE: The Ravens (AFC) and 49ers (NFC) have a first-round bye and will face the lowest-seeded winner from their respective conference in the divisional round on Jan. 20 or 21.

Saturday (Jan. 13)

• (5) Browns at (4) Texans: 4:30 p.m ET on NBC
• (6) Dolphins at (3) Chiefs: 8 p.m. ET on Peaco*ck

Sunday (Jan. 14)

• (7) Steelers at (2) Bills: 1 p.m. ET on CBS
• (7) Packers at (2) Cowboys: 4:30 p.m. ET on FOX
• (6) Rams at (3) Lions: 8 p.m. ET on NBC

Monday (Jan. 15)

• (5) Eagles at (4) Buccaneers: 8 p.m. ET on ABC/ESPN

Robert Mays and Nate Tice break down the playoffs on this episode of The Athletic Football Show.

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Three … two … one … happy 2024 NFL playoffs!

If your New Year’s resolutions include watching more football, you’re both a distinguished goal-setter and in luck. The NFL playoffs begin Jan. 13, with the wild-card round stretching until Jan. 15. That gives you about a week to get acquainted and initiated into the league fandom, but luckily it starts here with a few minutes and everything you need to know.

Warning: Increased football viewership can cause excessive yelling at inanimate objects like your TV.

Read more here.

Tarp coming off the field at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore three hours before kickoff between Ravens-Steelers.

It’s cold, wet and rainy. The Ravens are locked in as the AFC's No. 1 seed. The Steelers need a win and either a Jaguars loss to the Titans or a Bills loss to the Dolphins (or a Texans-Colts tie) to make the playoffs.

Five postseason bids and four division titles remain unclaimed as the NFL enters Week 18, the final week of the regular season. So there’s a ton up for grabs today and tomorrow.

Here is a glimpse at all the scenarios for every team with playoff hopes intact.

Close your eyes, Packers fans, and picture this.

Jordan Love jogging off the field Sunday evening, arms raised with closed fists, the Lambeau Field crowd chanting his name. Jor-dan Love! Jor-dan Love! The scoreboard reads Packers 27, Bears 21. Love’s stat line: 27-for-36, 301 yards, three touchdown passes. The Packers are going to the playoffs.

Love, Green Bay’s 25-year-old first-year starting quarterback, already has endeared himself to those inside 1265 Lombardi Ave. and the fan base outside it. On Sunday, he has a chance to etch his name in Packers lore.

Beat the archrival Bears? At Lambeau Field? To clinch a playoff spot? In your first season starting? Who knows how the rest of Love’s career transpires, but that’s the stuff that’ll get you remembered for a long time in Green Bay. Love has authored a handful of impressive moments over the past 16 games, but none would be more significant than if he can power the Packers to an unlikely playoff berth against the Bears inside the hallowed walls of Lambeau Field this weekend.

If how he’s played over the past two months is any indication of what’s to come Sunday, that fantasy could soon become reality.

Read more here.

The Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco 49ers enter the final week of the regular season with nothing left to play for. Each has locked up the No. 1 seed in their conference and will enjoy a first-round bye in the playoffs.

Despite the top spots being locked up, there is still plenty left to play for in Week 18. The Eagles and Cowboys are tied atop the NFC East at 11-5; Dallas can clinch the division with a win at Washington. Meanwhile, the Buffalo Bills and Dolphins will meet next Sunday night to decide who will lay claim to the AFC East title.

As for the rest of the NFL, there’s plenty of intrigue heading into Week 18. Let’s take a look at where things stand as we enter the final week of the season.

There’s something familiar about what’s happening in the Browns’ locker room, something I’ve seen before.

Call it the Channing Change.

When the Cavaliers were seeking their first championship during the 2015-16 season, they acquired Channing Frye at the trade deadline to create more size and shooting. But it’s what Frye did in the locker room that was even more important than his range. There were certain cliques on that Cavs team, guys who just rolled with particular guys. Frye wasn’t even part of the team for the first four months, yet his demeanor upon arriving almost immediately broke through all of it and unified a team of enormous personalities to ultimately win a championship. He did it by simply being himself and bringing people together.

This isn’t a perfect helmets-to-helmets comparison, and I’m not predicting a Super Bowl victory in Cleveland (yet), but a lot of the same elements exist here, too. Joe Flacco turns 39 in less than two weeks. His experience and his presence have united and connected talented players who needed a veteran to show them where to go and how to get there. It wasn’t a clique problem for the Browns so much as a bunch of young, rudderless guys who don’t have a lot of experience with winning at this level who needed someone to hold the flashlight and guide the trail.

“Guys look at you a little bit differently just because of the fact that this is the 16th year I’ve been in this league,” Flacco said. “If I messed up in high school, I could be these kids’ dad.”

He’s not wrong. It’s a short list of athletes who can play professional sports at this age, and only a handful do it at an elite level. LeBron James is on it. So are Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady. Somehow Flacco is inexplicably adding his name.

Read more here.

It’s almost become routine for the Steelers this time of the year — needing a win and getting some outside help to qualify for the playoffs. Over the previous 14 seasons, Mike Tomlin’s team went into the season finale needing a win plus some outside help seven times.

Only twice did they come out on the right end of the scenario — the 2015 season and the 2021 season.

Another Week 18 game and here we go again. The Steelers face a win-and-need-help situation in Baltimore on Saturday, but there won’t be a scene like the one that took place five years ago when a win against the Bengals turned into a scene that had never been seen in the NFL.

The Steelers have five different ways to get into playoffs and don’t even have to beat the Ravens, yet only a 50.1% chance of making it, per The Athletic’s NFL projection model. The easiest would be a win against the Ravens and either a Jaguars loss or a Bills loss.

“We want to get in and get the help, but I am not going feel sorry for us for being in this position,” T.J. Watt said. “We have been in this position before.”

Some may say way too many times.

Read more here.

As we begin the final week of the regular season, nine teams have clinched playoff berths and 12 teams have been eliminated from contention. That leaves 11 teams vying for the final five playoff spots across the two conferences

Clinched playoff berth

NFC (two spots remaining)

• 49ers (also clinched NFC West and No. 1 seed)
• Lions (also clinched NFC North)
• Cowboys
• Eagles
• Rams

AFC (three spots remaining)

• Ravens (also clinched AFC North and No. 1 seed)
• Chiefs (also clinched AFC West)
• Dolphins
• Browns

Eliminated from playoff contention: Cardinals, Commanders, Giants, Panthers and Bears (NFC); Bengals, Broncos, Chargers, Jets, Patriots, Titans and Raiders (AFC).

To assess the crowded NFL playoff picture, The Athletic’s NFL projection model quantifies each team’s chances of reaching the postseason by projecting the score for every remaining game along with the resulting team win percentages. We then run that simulation 100,000 times to determine each team’s current playoff chances.

Read the full projections here.

Five postseason bids and four division titles remain unclaimed as the NFL enters Week 18, the final week of the regular season. So there’s a ton up for grabs Saturday and Sunday.

Here is a glimpse at all the scenarios for every team with playoff hopes intact.

As Sunday Night Football begins in Miami between the Bills and Dolphins, all 14 playoff spots have been clinched and the NFC wild-card matchups are set. The SNF result will determine AFC seeding and wild-card matchups.

Helpful links

• Updated NFL playoff-clinching scenarios and matchups
• Current NFL standings
• Everything you need to know about the NFL playoff format and schedule

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