The National Football League’s regular season has come to an end, and the focus now shifts to the playoffs. After months of games, the league’s best teams have earned their spot, while others were left just short. With the Super Bowl ahead, the postseason brings high stakes, tough matchups, and no room for mistakes as teams fight to keep their season alive.
The NFL is divided into two conferences, the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC), each with sixteen teams, and further split into four geographic divisions (East, North, South, West) of four teams each, totaling 32 teams, to organize play and playoff seeding. Winners of these divisions and other top teams from each conference advance to the playoffs to compete for the Super Bowl. (NFL Operations)
The teams that win their division are guaranteed a spot in the playoffs, there are also three “wild card” teams from each conference that make the playoffs. In the AFC, the postseason is led by the number one seed Denver Broncos, followed by the New England Patriots, Jacksonville Jaguars, and Pittsburgh Steelers as division winners, while the Houston Texans, Buffalo Bills, and Los Angeles Chargers secured the remaining wild card spots. The NFC playoff picture mirrors that structure, with the Seattle Seahawks earning the top seed, joined by the Chicago Bears, Philadelphia Eagles, and Carolina Panthers winning their divisions, and the Los Angeles Rams, San Francisco 49ers, and Green Bay Packers rounding out the field as the NFC wildcards.
Since the AFC and NFC were created in 1966 the NFC has won 29 Super Bowls and the AFC has won 28 (Football Hall of Fame) This year the NFC is arguably more competitive and more likely to win the Super Bowl, a writer from ESPN said, “The top two teams in the NFC West have the best odds to win the Super Bowl heading into the playoffs. The Seahawks are the favorites to win Super Bowl 60, followed closely by their division rival, the Rams.” The Bears, led by Heisman quarterback Caleb Williams, have clinched the second seed in the NFC for the first time since 2010, when they reached the Conference Championship.
In the AFC, some were happy, and most were surprised to see that the Kansas City Chiefs are not in the 2026 NFL playoffs after appearing in five of the last six Super Bowls and winning three of them (ESPN 2025). This year, the number one seed in the AFC is the Denver Broncos. Aric DiLalla, a writer for the Denver Broncos, said, “The Broncos are the No. 1 seed in the AFC for the first time since 2015, when they went on to win Super Bowl 50.” In 2015, Denver had arguably one of the best quarterbacks of all time, Peyton Manning. Now, the Broncos have the Oregon 2023 Heisman finalist, Bo Nix, who is in his second year in the league. It will be interesting to see if the Broncos can repeat their Super Bowl run from a decade ago.
Other major contenders in the AFC are the New England Patriots and Jacksonville Jaguars, both with skilled young quarterbacks, Drake Maye of the Patriots and Trevor Lawrence of the Jaguars. The Patriots are waiting for another Tom Brady, and this is the best team they have had since the Tom Brady era.
The NFL regular season for 2025 is over, and the playoffs are beginning with the league’s best teams competing for Super Bowl XV. Division winners and wild card teams from both conferences make up the field, with the Denver Broncos leading the AFC and the Seattle Seahawks earning the top seed in the NFC. The NFC appears especially strong this year, while the AFC features contenders like the Patriots and Jaguars. Be sure to check out the wild card weekend this weekend on your streaming platform.
