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Nfl 2025 2026 Season Nfl Playoff Predictors

Bonisiwe Shabane
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nfl 2025 2026 season nfl playoff predictors

The 2025-26 NFL regular season kicks off in just three months. It’s always fun to take a shot at predicting which team will win the Super Bowl, and some of the top contenders seem apparent heading into the season. Four teams made it to the playoffs last season that didn’t make it the previous year. That total includes the Washington Commanders, who ended up making it to the NFC Championship Game after going 4-13 in 2023. Will the Philadelphia Eagles be the 10th back-to-back Super Bowl champions in NFL history? Which team could shock the world this coming postseason?

Without further ado, let’s reveal the picks. The Chiefs’ presence makes it tough for the Broncos to win the AFC West, but they improve their playoff seeding and get out of the Wild Card round. Houston wins the AFC South in a weak division, but questions still surround their offensive line. A Jim vs. John Harbaugh playoff game is the kind of storyline fans everywhere would love. While the Chargers have plenty to look forward to in 2025, their roster isn’t as complete as Baltimore’s just yet.

The 2025 NFL regular season is entering its final weeks, and teams are beginning to secure playoff berths and even division titles. Ten teams have clinched playoff berths. So far in the AFC it's the Denver Broncos, New England Patriots, Jacksonville Jaguars, Los Angeles Chargers and Buffalo Bills. In the NFC, the playoff teams are the Seattle Seahawks, Los Angeles Rams, San Francisco 49ers, Chicago Bears and Philadelphia Eagles. Only the Eagles have clinched their division, but more are expected to claim their respective division titles in Week 17. There are four more playoff spots up for grabs; two more teams from each conference will join the fray before we set our playoff field.

The final two weeks of the season kick off with a tripleheader of games on Christmas. The outcomes will provide more clarity for the playoff picture. The NFL playoffs will begin in three weeks, and while there are still four playoff spots up for grabs, here's an early look at some predictions and picks for who will win the AFC,... Five weeks of the NFL schedule are in the books, which means just over 27% of the season is done. Is that enough to make NFL playoff predictions? We don’t see why not.

Several teams are not where they expected to be, such as the Baltimore Ravens, Indianapolis Colts, and Kansas City Chiefs. Which of that trio, plus others have shown enough to reach the postseason this year? Below we predict the AFC and NFC playoff brackets for the 2025-26 season. While the defense is still coming around, the Buffalo Bills are back to having an elite offense, as expected. Yet, the pass defense has ranked as a top ten unit thus far, which makes us believe they’ll do just fine in the playoffs against most teams. Plus, Josh Allen and James Cook look unstoppable.

Daniel Jones has helped completely transform the Indianapolis Colts‘ franchise. Jonathan Taylor is back to being a top five running back and Lou Anarumo has the Colts’ defense allowing the NFL’s third-fewest points per game. Add it all up and the Colts look like surefire playoff contenders. Aaron Rodgers has helped create a mini-spark for the Pittsburgh Steelers‘ offense, now we’re just waiting for a 25th-ranked rushing attack to come around. With a young offensive line, this group should continue to improve throughout the season, and we expect Mike Tomlin’s defense to continue rounding into form too. Parity has run wild in the NFL in 2025 and while any team in playoff contention can conceivably win the Super Bowl, the postseason picture and who will land where in the standings is...

Such is the case after Week 16, where the Seattle Seahawks took over the top seed in the NFC and the Jacksonville Jaguars, and Carolina Panthers put the rest of the league on notice... What is the current playoff picture, who has the inside track to the remaining spots, and who is the odds-on favorite to win the Super Bowl in February? .css-1582m2i{margin:0;font:inherit;font-weight:700;}Division Leaders 1. x-Denver Broncos (12-3, AFC West; +900) As the 2025-26 NFL season approaches, DRatings projections are in.

We’ve run the numbers across all 32 franchises, simulating the season thousands of times to provide projected records, playoff probabilities, and Super Bowl chances. The results highlight a league that looks top-heavy with Buffalo and Baltimore separating from the pack. However, there is plenty of parity in the middle tiers where playoff races could come down to December. Here’s how the league is shaping up division by division. Philadelphia Eagles (10.9-6.1 | 57.6% Division | 76.6% Playoffs | 10.4% SB) The Eagles enter the season as clear favorites in the NFC East, with the only double-digit win projection and a dominant playoff... Washington Commanders (9-8 | 23.6% Division | 46.3% Playoffs | 2% SB) Washington projects as a fringe playoff team—competitive, but mostly reliant on wild-card positioning.

The NFL schedule release means only one thing: It’s time to start thinking about the end game. I’m only half kidding. Yes, we just got our first look at the 2025 regular-season slate. But I’m thinking about where it all leads — the postseason and the Super Bowl. It’s sort of like when you simulated the entire season on Madden to see who wins it all. That’s what I wanted to look at here.

I’ve thought about what the playoff standings will look like. And I’ve projected each round — including the scores (because no detail is too precise) — all the way into the Super Bowl. Of course, my Colts pick is likely to addle a few brains. The Houston Texans didn’t look like a strong team on film last year — but they coasted into the postseason due to weak division. Indy got better this offseason. Houston didn’t.

And whether it’s Daniel Jones or an improved Anthony Richardson at QB, the Colts should win more games — and they were already 8-9 last season. Elsewhere in the AFC, the Pittsburgh Steelers will either 1) have no quarterback or 2) have Aaron Rodgers, which might be worse than having no quarterback. If you're a football fan, there's one thing that probably made you nod knowingly when you learned of Taylor Swift's engagement to Travis Kelce: the timing. With five-plus months of juicy on-field action about to kick off, now is when you want to tie up those loose ends that will be harder to squeeze between NFL RedZone sessions and prime-time... Organize your socks. Tidy the garage.

Lock in your personal and/or world-shattering plans. Or, if you run an NFL team, you've been finalizing your roster by making cuts, filling holes and swinging trades, some of which can be pretty headline-worthy themselves. The 2025 NFL season is about to take real, irrevocable shape. The waning days of August and early days of September are for taking care of any outstanding business -- like making playoff picks. Luckily for you, NFL.com's analysts are as on top of their game as The Most Famous Couple in Recorded History. We've projected the winners of all eight divisions, as you'll see below, plus the six wild-card teams that will round out the final postseason field.

Participating analysts: Keegan Abdoo, Jack Andrade, Michael Baca, Mike Band, Judy Battista, Jeremy Bergman, Ali Bhanpuri, Tom Blair, David Carr, Brooke Cersosimo, Jeffri Chadiha, Eric Edholm, Gennaro Filice, Michael F. Florio, Christian Gonzales, Grant Gordon, Anthony Holzman-Escareno, Maurice Jones-Drew, Dante Koplowitz-Fleming, Bobby Kownack, Matt Okada, Dan Parr, Kevin Patra, Adam Rank, Chad Reuter, Gregg Rosenthal, Marc Ross, Nick Shook, Lance Zierlein.

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