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The NFL season has hit the halfway mark, and Week 9 shook up the playoff race in both conferences.
The Buffalo Bills maintained their stranglehold on the top spot in the AFC. The big movement came over in the NFC, where the Minnesota Vikings’ loss to Buffalo moved them out of first place in the North. That means the Chicago Bears are now the No. 2 seed, chasing only the San Francisco 49ers.
Here is the up-to-date NFL Playoff Picture if the playoffs started after Week 9.
AFC
1.
Buffalo Bills (7-1)
2.
Denver Broncos (7-2)
3.
Jacksonville Jaguars (6-2)
4.
Pittsburgh Steelers (6-2)
5.
Kansas City Chiefs (6-2)
6.
Cincinnati Bengals (6-2)
7.
New England Patriots (5-4)
The top six in the AFC are reasonably set. All of those teams ended Week 9 with two or fewer losses.
What’s especially impressive is that the Chiefs and Bengals, as the two reasonably certain playoff teams in wild-card spots right now, have the second- and third-best point differentials. The Bengals are an offensive juggernaut, averaging 30 points per game after their first eight games. This conference has six legitimate contenders with these two wild-card teams.
The final wild-card spot is going to be contested tightly. The Patriots currently have the spot, but the Browns are tied with them at 5-4, while the Raiders and Ravens are just one game back.
Don’t sleep on the 3-5 Texans, though. They’ve now won three of their last four games.
NFC
1.
San Francisco 49ers (7-1)
2.
Chicago Bears (7-2)
3.
New York Giants (5-2-1)
4.
Carolina Panthers (3-5)
5.
Detroit Lions (6-2)
6.
Minnesota Vikings (6-2)
7.
Green Bay Packers (6-3)
All four teams in the NFC North look like contenders, and the Bears will enter Week 10 in the lead. The Vikings’ loss to the Bills moved them out of first place and down to the No. 6 seed, with Detroit moving up to No. 5 because of its head-to-head win over Minnesota.
Chasing the Packers for the final wild-card spot are a pair of 5-4 teams out west: the reigning-champion Seattle Seahawks and the Los Angeles Rams.
While Seattle has lost four of its last six games, the Rams have won three straight. Los Angeles, though, lost wide receiver Puka Nacua due to a knee injury just as linebacker Myles Garrett returned with three sacks in Sunday’s win over the Commanders.
Overall, the NFC standings are very, very impressive – aside from the NFC South-leading Carolina Panthers. The Buccaneers had a chance to leap into first place after Carolina lost at home to the Broncos, but they couldn’t take advantage of five Bears turnovers and lost in Chicago.
NFL Wild-Card Round Matchups
AFC
1. Buffalo Bills
NFC
1. San Francisco 49ers
