NFL Playoff Picture Week 13: Latest AFC, NFC Standings and Bracket Scenarios

We're just about to kick off the 13th week of the NFL season. The Minnesota Vikings and Dallas Cowboys will have the honor of doing exactly that on Thursday night.

Interestingly enough, both the Cowboys and the Vikings are in the mix for the NFC postseason this year. The 10-1 Cowboys are almost a lock to make the playoffs at this point, while the 6-5 Vikings are battling to gain ground in the playoff race.

In fact, there are a lot of teams still battling to remain in the playoff hunt in both the AFC and NFC. Is Week 13 too early for us to take a look ahead at the postseason? Heck no it isn't. This is precisely what we're going to do today.

We'll be running down the AFC and NFC standings based on the playoff-seeding format. This means that division leaders will be ranked at the top of each conference, regardless of records. We will also examine what the playoff brackets would look like if the season ended today and check out some of the more interesting playoff-related storylines of the week.

Week 13 AFC, NFC Standings

Place	Team	Record
AFC
NFC
1	New England Patriots	9-2
2	Oakland Raiders	9-2
3	Baltimore Ravens	6-5
4	Houston Texans	6-5
5	Kansas City Chiefs	8-3
6	Miami Dolphins	7-4
7	Denver Broncos	7-4
8	Pittsburgh Steelers	6-5
9	Buffalo Bills	6-5
10	Tennessee Titans	6-6
11	Indianapolis Colts	5-6
12	San Diego Chargers	5-6
13	Cincinnati Bengals	3-7-1
14	New York Jets	3-8
15	Jacksonville Jaguars	2-9
16	Cleveland Browns	0-12
1	Dallas Cowboys	10-1
2	Seattle Seahawks	7-3-1
3	Detroit Lions	7-4
4	Atlanta Falcons	7-4
5	New York Giants	8-3
6	Washington Redskins	6-4-1
7	Tampa Bay Buccaneers	6-5
8	Minnesota Vikings	6-5
9	New Orleans Saints	5-6
10	Green Bay Packers	5-6
11	Philadelphia Eagles	5-6
12	Arizona Cardinals	4-6-1
13	Carolina Panthers	4-7
14	Los Angeles Rams	4-7
15	Chicago Bears	2-9
16	San Francisco 49ers	1-10

Playoff Brackets (If Season Ended Today)

Wild Card	Divisional	Championship
3. Detroit	1. Dallas
vs.	vs.
6. Washington	Lowest WC Winner	Divisional Winner
		vs.
4. Atlanta	2. Seattle	Divisional Winner
vs.	vs.
5. NY Giants	Highest WC Winner

Wild Card	Divisional	Championship
3. Baltimore	1. New England
vs.	vs.
6. Miami	Lowest WC Winner	Divisional Winner
		vs.
4. Houston	2. Oakland	Divisional Winner
vs.	vs.
5. Kansas City	Highest WC Winner

Storylines to Follow

Oakland Raiders

Lachlan Cunningham/Getty Images

As of right now, the Oakland Raiders are in position to secure the No. 2 seed in the AFC and a first-round bye. At 9-2, the team has established itself as a dangerous force and a potential Super Bowl contender.

However, there is a lot left to be determined when it comes to upstart Oakland. The 8-3 Kansas City Chiefs are sitting right behind the Raiders in the AFC West and already hold a head-to-head victory. If Oakland loses a game where the Chiefs do not—or loses the next head-to-head matchup, which will be in Kansas City—the Chiefs could claim the division and the No. 2 seed.

At 7-4, the Denver Broncos are also in position to make a move on Kansas City, though things would be more difficult. The Chiefs have beaten Denver once already. Still, these two teams play in Week 16, and the game will likely carry a ton of weight.

At the same time, the Chiefs have an opportunity to earn the No. 1 seed in the AFC if the team can move a game ahead of the New England Patriots. New England sits atop the conference standings thanks to a conference-record tiebreaker.

Much of the AFC's playoff seeding is likely to depend on the Raiders and their final five weeks of the regular season.

Kansas City Chiefs

As we've already mentioned, the Kansas City Chiefs are in position to win the AFC West if the Raiders slip between now and the end of the regular season. If this happens, there's a good chance Kansas City will be hosting a playoff game off a bye.

This could make the Chiefs a dangerous team in the postseason. Arrowhead Stadium isn't the friendliest of confines for a visiting team, and the Chiefs are built to contend in the playoffs.

Kansas City features a balanced, efficient offense—even if that offense isn't going to overwhelm anyone. While the offense in Kansas City doesn't rack up the yardage at a frenzied pace—on average, 328.3 yards per game (27th in the NFL)—it does put up an average of 22.9 points per game (16th in the NFL).

Perhaps more importantly, the Chiefs have offensive playmakers who can change the course of games in an instant, as Yahoo Sports' Eric Edholm highlighted:

Defensively, the Chiefs are built to battle the best teams the AFC has to offer. The defense allows an average of just 19.5 points per game (eighth-fewest in the NFL) and is rated eighth in overall defense by Pro Football Focus.

The Chiefs will be worth following because if Kansas City gets into the postseason with a high seed, this could be a team that goes the distance.

The NFC North Race

Corey Perrine/Getty Images

Right now, the 7-4 Detroit Lions have a grasp atop the NFC North standings and control the conference's No. 3 seed. However, the Lions haven't even come close to locking down the division title.

The 6-5 Minnesota Vikings sit right behind Detroit in the division standings and could easily make a move between now and the end of the regular season. Fortunately for the Lions, Detroit has already gone 2-0 against Minnesota in head-to-head games.

The Green Bay Packers have struggled to get to 5-6 but still sit a mere two games behind the Lions. While Green Bay feels like a long shot to make the postseason, the team is hard to count out as long as Aaron Rodgers is healthy and under center.

Rodgers is dealing with a hamstring issue, but it doesn't appear serious enough to keep him out of action, according to the team's official Twitter account:

Monday night's win over the Philadelphia Eagles was huge for the Packers.

"Well, I think the obvious point is we needed to win, especially where we were," Packers head coach Mike McCarthy said, per Aaron Wilson of the Houston Chronicle. "It just really is more about how we won. I think that's the most important thing in this game. You're always trying to establish a play style."

If Green Bay is going to make a realistic run at the playoffs, the team will need to buckle down on defense. The Packers are rated just 19th in overall defense and 31st in pass coverage by Pro Football Focus.

The good news for the Packers is that the team has already defeated Detroit once.

If Minnesota can somehow gain control of the division, there will be few questions about the team's defense, which is rated 10th overall by Pro Football Focus. The Vikings offense—which is rated just 23rd overall by Pro Football Focus—could be an issue.

The NFC North is still very much up for grabs, and the NFC postseason landscape could look different depending on which team claims the division crown.