News Scores and Results Standings Full Schedule Playoff Picture Strength of Schedule Season Predictor Free Agency Power Rankings Mock Draft Hub Draft Tracker
Breaking
NFL Playoff Picture
Updated October 10, 2026
2026 Season · Through Week 5

NFL Playoff Picture 2026: Current Seeding and Bracket

Seven teams per conference make the playoffs: the four division winners, then the next three best records as wild cards. Below is who holds those spots today, based on all 65 games played so far.

Want to see what happens next? Scroll down and pick the winners of the remaining 207 games. The seeding and bracket update instantly. Your picks stay in this browser.

Showing results only

AFCPlayoff Seeding

Seed 1, first round byeSeeds 2 to 4, division winnersSeeds 5 to 7, wild card
SeedTeamRecord
In the playoffs
1Kansas City Chiefs4-0
2Jacksonville Jaguars3-1
3Cleveland Browns3-1
4Buffalo Bills3-1
Wild card spots
5Las Vegas Raiders3-1
6Baltimore Ravens3-1
7New England Patriots2-2
Outside the top 7, games back of the last spot
SeedTeamRecordBack
 Indianapolis Colts2-2tied
 Pittsburgh Steelers2-2tied
 Denver Broncos2-2tied
 Cincinnati Bengals2-2tied
 New York Jets1-31
 Miami Dolphins0-42

NFCPlayoff Seeding

Seed 1, first round byeSeeds 2 to 4, division winnersSeeds 5 to 7, wild card
SeedTeamRecord
In the playoffs
1San Francisco 49ers4-0
2Minnesota Vikings4-0
3New York Giants3-1
4Carolina Panthers2-2
Wild card spots
5Seattle Seahawks3-1
6Chicago Bears3-1
7Philadelphia Eagles2-2
Outside the top 7, games back of the last spot
SeedTeamRecordBack
 Atlanta Falcons2-2tied
 Detroit Lions2-2tied
 Los Angeles Rams2-2tied
 Green Bay Packers2-2tied
 Dallas Cowboys2-30.5
 Washington Commanders1-31

Pick the rest of the season

Pick one week at a time. Click the team you think wins and the seeding above changes with it. Games already played are locked to their real result and marked final.

The bracket if the season ended today

In the wild card round the top seed sits out, and the other six teams play: seed 7 at seed 2, seed 6 at seed 3, seed 5 at seed 4. The higher seed always hosts.

AFC wild card round
Seed 1 rests, no game this round
1Kansas City Chiefs4-0
Seed 7 plays at seed 2
7New England Patriots2-2
at
2Jacksonville Jaguars3-1
Seed 6 plays at seed 3
6Baltimore Ravens3-1
at
3Cleveland Browns3-1
Seed 5 plays at seed 4
5Las Vegas Raiders3-1
at
4Buffalo Bills3-1
NFC wild card round
Seed 1 rests, no game this round
1San Francisco 49ers4-0
Seed 7 plays at seed 2
7Philadelphia Eagles2-2
at
2Minnesota Vikings4-0
Seed 6 plays at seed 3
6Chicago Bears3-1
at
3New York Giants3-1
Seed 5 plays at seed 4
5Seattle Seahawks3-1
at
4Carolina Panthers2-2
How Auto pick and Simulate work. Each team gets a rating from two things: its record, pulled partway back toward .500 because four or five games is a small sample, and its points per game differential, which predicts the rest of a season better than record does this early. Ratings use real results only, never your picks. Auto pick gives every remaining game to the rated favorite, with a small home field edge. Simulate rolls each game at random using those odds, so the favorite usually wins but not always, and no team is ever given more than an 85 percent chance. Each run also re-rolls how good every team really is, because a 4-0 start tells you roughly, not exactly. Run it a few times and you will get different seasons, which is the point.
How the seeding works. The four division winners in each conference take seeds 1 through 4, ordered by record. The next three teams by record take the wild card spots, seeds 5 through 7. The No. 1 seed gets a first round bye. We break ties by win percentage, then head to head, then division record, then conference record. The league's official tiebreaker list goes further than that, so a very tight race can settle differently.