With one week remaining in the regular season, the playoff field is almost set, as 12 teams have clinched playoff berths. But the playoff seeds remain in flux. Here’s a list of the teams remaining in contention for each playoff seed, and how they can earn those seeds.
NFC
1. Seahawks or 49ers. The winner of Saturday night’s Seahawks-49ers game in San Francisco will determine who gets the No. 1 seed in the NFC. If the teams tie, the Seahawks will be the No. 1 seed.
2. Bears or Eagles. If the Bears win or the Eagles lose, the Bears are the No. 2 seed. If the Bears lose and the Eagles win, the Eagles are the No. 2 seed.
3. Eagles or Bears. The team that doesn’t get the No. 2 seed gets the No. 3 seed. The Eagles are resting their starters and effectively conceding the No. 2 seed to the Bears and preparing to be the No. 3 seed.
4. Panthers or Buccaneers. If the Panthers beat or tie the Buccaneers on Saturday, the Panthers are the No. 4 seed. If the Panthers lose but the Falcons win on Sunday, the Panthers are also the No. 4 seed. If the Buccaneers win and the Falcons lose or tie, the Buccaneers are the No. 4 seed.
5. 49ers or Seahawks or Rams. If the Seahawks lose on Saturday, they are the No. 5 seed. If the 49ers lose on Saturday and the Rams lose on Sunday, the 49ers are the No. 5 seed. If the 49ers lose on Saturday and the Rams win on Sunday, the Rams are the No. 5 seed.
6. Rams or 49ers. If the Rams lose or the 49ers win, the Rams are the No. 6 seed. If the 49ers lose and the Rams win, the 49ers are the No. 6 seed.
7. Packers. The Packers are the only team that has clinched its playoff seed. The Packers are the No. 7 seed in the NFC regardless of anything that happens in Week 18.
AFC
1. Broncos or Patriots or Jaguars. If the Broncos win or the Patriots and Jaguars both lose, the Broncos are the No. 1 seed.
If the Patriots win and the Broncos lose, the Patriots are the No. 1 seed.
If the Jaguars win and the Broncos and Patriots both lose, the Jaguars are the No. 1 seed.
2. Patriots or Broncos or Jaguars. If the Patriots and Broncos both win, the Patriots are the No. 2 seed. If the Patriots and Jaguars both lose, the Patriots are the No. 2 seed. If the Broncos win and the Jaguars lose, the Patriots are the No. 2 seed regardless of what the Patriots do.
If the Broncos lose, the Patriots win and the Jaguars lose, the Broncos are the No. 2 seed. If the Broncos lose, the Patriots lose and the Jaguars win, the Broncos are the No. 2 seed.
If the Jaguars win, the Broncos lose and the Patriots win, the Jaguars are the No. 2 seed. If the Jaguars win, the Broncos win and the Patriots lose, the Jaguars are the No. 2 seed.
3. Jaguars or Broncos or Patriots or Texans. If the Jaguars, Broncos and Patriots all win, or the Jaguars tie, thie Jaguars are the No. 3 seed. If the Jaguars and Texans both lose, the Jaguars are the No. 3 seed. If the Broncos win, the Patriots win and the Texans lose, the Jaguars are the No. 3 seed regardless of what the Jaguars do.
If the Broncos lose and Patriots and Jaguars both win, the Broncos are the No. 3 seed.
If the Patriots lose and the Jaguars win, the Patriots are the No. 3 seed.
If the Texans win and the Jaguars lose, the Texans are the No. 3 seed.
4. Steelers or Ravens. If the Steelers beat or tie the Ravens on Sunday night, the Steelers are the No. 4 seed. If the Ravens win, the Ravens are the No. 4 seed.
5. Texans or Jaguars or Chargers or Bills. If the Texans and Jaguars both win, the Texans are the No. 5 seed. If the Texans, Chargers and Bills all lose, the Texans are the No. 5 seed. If the Jaguars win and the Chargers and Bills lose, the Texans are the No. 5 seed regardless of what the Texans do.
If the Jaguars lose, the Texans win and the Bills lose, the Jaguars are the No. 5 seed. (There are also scenarios that see the Jaguars as the 5 seed based on the strength of victory tiebreaker with the Chargers.)
If the Chargers win and the Texans lose, the Chargers are the No. 5 seed. If the Chargers win and the Jaguars lose, the Chargers could also get the No. 5 seed based on clinching the strength of victory tiebreaker over the Jaguars.
If the Bills win, the Chargers lose and either the Texans or Jaguars lose, the Bills are the No. 5 seed.
6. Chargers or Jaguars or Texans or Bills. If the Chargers, Texans and Jaguars all win, the Chargers are the No. 6 seed. If the Chargers and Bills both lose, the Chargers are the No. 6 seed. If the Texans win and the Bills lose, the Chargers are the No. 6 seed regardless of what the Chargers do.
If the Jaguars and Chargers both lose, and the Texans and Bills both win, the Jaguars are the No. 6 seed.
If the Texans lose and either the Bills lose and Chargers win, or the Bills win and Chargers lose, the Texans are the No. 6 seed.
If the Bills win, the Chargers lose and the Texans and Jaguars both win, the Bills are the No. 6 seed. If the Bills win, the Chargers win and the Texans lose, the Bills are the No. 6 seed.
7. Bills or Jaguars or Texans or Chargers. If the Bills lose, the Bills are the No. 7 seed. If the Chargers, Texans and Jaguars all win, the Bills are the No. 7 seed regardless of what the Bills do.
If the Jaguars lose and the Texans, Chargers and Bills all win, the Jaguars can be the No. 7 seed if the Chargers clinch the strength of victory tiebreaker over the Jaguars.
If the Texans lose and the Chargers and Bills both win, the Texans are the No. 7 seed.
If the Chargers lose and the Bills win, the Chargers are the No. 7 seed.
Panthers Clips
The Panthers have handed in their final injury report of the 2025 regular season.
It calls guard Robert Hunt questionable to be activated from injured reserve ahead of Saturday afternoon’s game against the Buccaneers. Hunt has been out since injuring his biceps in Week 2.
The Panthers could also activate wide receiver David Moore (elbow). Moore joins linebacker Krys Barnes (back) and defensive tackle Tershawn Wharton (hamstring) as the team’s other players with questionable tags.
Cornerback Robert Rochell (concussion) and linebacker Claudin Cherelus (calf, ankle) are the only Panthers who have been ruled out. Running back Rico Dowdle (toe) has no injury designation.
The Panthers will win the NFC South by beating the Bucs. They’ll also claim the division title with a loss and a win by the Falcons on Sunday.
The Buccaneers looked like Super Bowl contenders at their Week 9 bye. Since starting 6-2, Tampa Bay’s championship dreams have evaporated.
So what has gone wrong for the Bucs, who are 1-6 since their week off?
“I don’t know,” running back Rachaad White told JoeBucsFan.com after the latest failure, at Miami. “It boils down to for me, how I look at it, just being honest, we all just got to look in the mirror. We all gotta have a level of pride, a level of care. And right now, we all just, you know, are kind of floating around and blowing in the wind. So I think we need to come out with our piss hot and let’s see what happens.”
The “look in the mirror” line first emerged in the aftermath of the fourth-quarter prime-time collapse against the Falcons, during coach Todd Bowles’s post-game F-bomb fest, which he punctuated with this message: “Look in the fucking mirror.”
Mirror gazing hasn’t worked. Nothing has worked.
Injuries have been a factor. Especially for, we believe, quarterback Baker Mayfield. He has a habit of playing through anything/everything, without ever complaining. But some injuries impact performance. His miscues of late (six total turnovers in the last four games) may trace to the fact that he’s playing hurt.
Mayfield is currently on the report with right shoulder and knee injuries. Limited in practice on Tuesday, he fully participated on Wednesday. He’ll undoubtedly play on Saturday, in a win or go home (and win and maybe go home a day later) showdown with the Panthers.
To his credit, Mayfield refuses to sit. His determination should be infectious. For whatever reason, not enough of his teammates have been sufficiently inspired by Mayfield’s approach.
It all comes down to Saturday. And the end result could entail the entire franchise looking in the mirror (starting with ownership) and making some important decisions about any and all changes that may need to be made in order to get more out of the roster in 2026.
He didn’t get his first start until Week 9. And he has done enough since then to put himself in position to get a trophy next month.
Saints quarterback Tyler Shough has landed firmly as one of the top two candidates for offensive rookie of the year, based on the current betting odds. Panthers receiver Tetairoa McMillan remains the favorite at -140. Shough has moved to +140.
In 16 games, McMillan has 66 catches for 929 yards and seven touchdowns. He has a pair for 100-yard games. Most recently, McMillan caught one pass for five yards in a 27-10 loss to the Seahawks.
Shough has been coming on strong of late. He completed 22 of 27 passes for 333 yards, two touchdowns, an average per attempt of 12.3 yards, and a passer rating of 142.7 in a 34-26 victory over the Titans.
Also, Shough has won four in a row. Two of his five wins (a franchise record for a rookie quarterback) have come against McMillan’s Panthers.
Shough can essentially defeat the Panthers for a third time on Sunday. If the Bucs beat Carolina on Saturday, a Saints win over the Falcons on Sunday would deliver the NFC South title to Tampa Bay. An Atlanta win would put the Panthers in.
The postseason won’t matter to the voting; the ballots are due next week. The closing arguments from McMillan and Shough in a pair of high-stakes games could end up making a big difference.
There’s some positive news on the injury front for Tampa Bay’s starting quarterback.
Baker Mayfield was upgraded to a full participant on Wednesday’s injury report after he was listed as limited for Tuesday’s walk-through.
Mayfield is dealing with right shoulder and knee injuries.
Though he’s been listed with different ailments in 2025, Mayfield has not missed a start this year. He’s completed 62.8 percent of his passes for 3,490 yards with 25 touchdowns and 10 interceptions so far in 2025.
Offensive tackle Tristan Wirfs (toe) was also upgraded to a limited participant after he was listed as a non-participant on Tuesday. Cornerback Benjamin Morrison (hamstring) was upgraded from DNP to limited as well.
Cornerback Jamel Dean (shoulder) and outside linebacker Anthony Nelson (knee) remained DNPs.
Offensive tackle Luke Goedeke (ankle) and defensive tackle Calijah Kancey (pectoral) remained limited.
Tight end Devin Culp (knee) remained full.
There’s some good news on the injury front for the Panthers with their Wednesday practice as they get ready for Saturday’s game against the Panthers.
Running back Rico Dowdle was upgraded to a full participant after he did not participate on Tuesday with a toe injury.
Head coach Dave Canales had said that Dowdle was more sore than usual coming out of Sunday’s loss to the Seahawks.
Dowdle leads the Panthers with 1,066 yards rushing this season. He’s also caught 37 passes for 277 yards.
Linebacker Krys Barnes (back) also returned to practice as a full participant on Tuesday.
But cornerback Robert Rochell (concussion), linebacker Claudin Cherelus (calf/ankle), and tight end Ja’Tavion Sanders (fibula) remained DNPs.
Defensive tackle Tershawn Wharton (hamstring), guard Robert Hunt (biceps), and receiver David Moore (elbow) remained full.
Another year, another Week 18 game in which the winner will become the No. 1 seed and the loser will hit the road as a wild card against a team with a lesser record.
In the aftermath of last year’s battle between the 14-2 Vikings and 14-2 Lions, Detroit proposed (at the urging of the league) that the teams be seeded regardless of division championship. No more home game for the best of four bad teams who are assigned to a given division.
The proposal never made it to a vote, because it would have failed. But it’s widely believed the Commissioner wants it. And it’s widely believed he’ll keep pushing for it.
It’s also believed in some key circles that it will happen when the season expands to 18 games.
The timeline for the inevitable addition of another regular-season game isn’t known. But it’s coming, by 2031 at the latest — unless the NFL Players Association successfully staves it off.
For now, the current seeding could result in, for example, the 13-4 Seahawks visiting the 8-9 Panthers in the wild-card round. Yes, despite the five-game difference, the Seahawks would have to return to Carolina, where they won only three days ago, 27-10.
In the AFC, the Ravens (at 9-8, if they win on Sunday night) could be hosting a 12-5 team the following weekend.
Right, wrong, or otherwise, it’s moving in that direction. In time. And while it will create important questions about scheduling equity (really, why play two games against each division rival?), the easy answer is it doesn’t matter.
The man whose signature is on every football wants it. Eventually, he’ll likely get it.
If the Panthers win or tie against the Buccaneers on Saturday, Carolina wins the NFC South and hosts a playoff game next weekend. That’s not the only path to the playoffs for the Panthers, but it’s the only one head coach Dave Canales wants to think about.
Canales said he knows the NFL playoff scenarios, which also put the Panthers in the playoffs if the Falcons beat the Saints, even if the Panthers lose. Canales says he and his players are treating that scenario as irrelevant to their task this week.
“We’re aware of all those scenarios and it’s a pretty simple path. We’ve got to handle business and win the game, and that’s got to be our focus, first and foremost, against a team I really respect,” Canales said.
And if the Panthers lose?
“All the other scenarios will play out how they will,” Canales said.
There’s no scenario on which Canales wants to spend his Sunday nervously watching the Falcons play the Saints. Canales wants to spend his Sunday preparing preparation for a home playoff game, which he hopes the Panthers will earn on Saturday.
The Panthers have been the NFL’s most consistently inconsistent team this season.
A win over the Jets in Week 7 capped a three-game winning streak and lifted the team to 4-3 on the season, but the last nine games have featured no streaks in either direction. The Panthers lost to the Bills in Week 8, beat the Packers in Week 9 and they have kept alternating between losses and wins since that point.
Quarterback Bryce Young’s performances have followed a similar pattern. Young threw for 448 yards and three touchdowns in a Week 11 win over the Falcons and then threw a pair of interceptions in a loss to the 49ers the next week. He followed that up with a strong game to lead a win over the Rams and things have flip-flopped from there.
Week 17 was a down week for Young, which led to a question on Tuesday about whether he finds it easier to turn the page from a bad outing.
“You’re not going to like the answer,” Young said, via the team’s website. “But it’s really not any different. Again, good and bad come with sports, and I think that’s the maturity you have to have at this level. Coaches challenge us with it, and you really have to take it to heart, good or bad, you feel like things went well or didn’t, you have to flush it the same way. You have to have the same approach. So, I’ve been trying to do that for a while now, so, at this point, it’s the same.”
The big picture for the Panthers would look better if they could stack winning performances, but recent history says that Young and the Panthers are due for a good performance against the Buccaneers in Saturday afternoon’s battle for the NFC South so they’ll sign up for another rollercoaster ride to close out the regular season.
Though he hasn’t missed a start this season, Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield has been listed on the injury report with several different issues in 2025.
The Bucs have added another couple to the list.
While the club conducted a walk-through on Tuesday, Mayfield was listed as a limited participant on the estimated report with right shoulder and knee injuries.
Mayfield has been dealing with a left (non-throwing) shoulder injury since earlier in the season and has not been listed on the report with it in a couple of weeks.
At this point, it doesn’t seem likely that Mayfield is at risk of missing Saturday’s game against the Panthers, which may determine the winner of the NFC South.
Mayfield has completed 62.8 percent of his passes for 3,490 yards with 25 touchdowns and 10 interceptions so far in 2025. He’s rushed for 351 yards with a TD as well.
Cornerback Jamel Dean (shoulder), cornerback Benjamin Morrison (hamstring), outside linebacker Anthony Nelson (knee), and offensive tackle Tristan Wirfs (toe) were all listed as non-participants on the estimate.
Offensive tackle Luke Goedeke (ankle) and defensive tackle Calijah Kancey (pectoral) were limited.
Tight end Devin Culp (knee) was full.
