2022 NFL Playoff Bracket - NFL Playoff Picture, Clinching Scenarios Entering Week 18

The 2021-22 NFL regular season comes to an end after Week 18 finishes on Sunday, January 9th. The NFL playoffs start the next weekend (January 15-17) and feature our first ever Monday night wildcard game.

With Week 17 nearly in the books, the NFL playoff picture is nearly complete. We now have 14 teams who have officially been eliminated, and 11 teams who have already clinched a spot in the playoffs. This leaves just three playoff spots still up for grabs and a total of seven teams fighting for them.

We have broken down the current NFL playoff bracket and laid out all the Week 18 clinching scenarios below. The only thing we don’t have here are NFL playoff odds. You can jump to a specific section using the links below:

NFL Playoff Picture | Wildcard Matchups | Clinched Playoffs | Clinching Scenarios | Remaining Schedules | Eliminated | NFL Playoff FAQs

Entering Sunday of Week 18, the Chiefs and Packers hold the top seeds in their respective conferences. Kansas City needs a Tennessee loss on Sunday to hold onto the first-round bye in the AFC, but Green Bay has clinched a first-round bye in the NFC.

There is still a lot of shuffling to the playoff picture that could happen based off Week 18 results.

If the regular season were to end today, the wildcard matchups would be as seen above. The AFC would see a rubber match between the Patriots and Bills.

The most intriguing wildcard matchup in the NFC might be the 49ers vs Buccaneers, which represents a matchup between the last two teams to make the Super Bowl from the conference.

Only one team in the AFC had clinched a playoff spot ahead of Week 17: the Kansas City Chiefs. They clinched a playoff berth in Week 16 with a win over the Steelers. Four more teams in the AFC clinched playoff spots with wins in Week 17.

Five teams from the NFC had locked up their spot entering Week 17: the Packers, Cowboys, Rams, Buccaneers, and Cardinals. The Eagles joined the group to make it six now thanks to a win over Washington and a Minnesota loss.

Three of the four NFC divisions have been clinched, leaving the NFC West as the only division without a determined winner yet. Both teams in the hunt (Arizona and LA) have clinched playoff spots, though.

A few lucky teams have easy clinching scenarios heading into Week 18: win and you’re in! A few others are in positions where they need some, or a lot, of help.

I did not include the Titans, who can clinch the top seed in the AFC with a win over the Texans in Week 18, Bills, who can clinch the AFC East with a win over the Jets, Rams, who can clinch the NFC West with a win over the 49ers, in the table above since they have already clinched playoff spots.

Though the Colts blew a chance at clinching a playoff berth in Week 17, all they need in Week 18 is a win over the lowly Jaguars to get in. They are the AFC team with the easiest game in Week 18.

In the NFC, the 49ers have to go through the Rams in Week 18, who also have the NFC West title to play for. The Saints have a light game against the Falcons to close out their season.

The Texans were the first team to be eliminated from the playoffs, seeing their name on this list after Week 13. The Jaguars and Jets joined them here after losses in Week 14.

The Lions were the first NFC team to be eliminated. Detroit’s Week 14 loss to the Saints mathematically eliminated them from postseason contention. The Bears joined them in Week 15, and all of the Giants, Seahawks, and Panthers found themselves eliminated after Week 16.

Week 17 saw a bunch of teams eliminated from the playoffs. The Dolphins are the most notable, who went from sitting in the final wildcard spot in the AFC to being eliminated after an ugly loss to the Titans.

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.

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.

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.