The 5 Scariest Teams Heading into the NFL Playoffs

What are the hottest NFL teams heading into Week 17 and the NFL playoffs?  

Which teams are poised to make a deep run to the Super Bowl?  

Are the Houston Texans and Atlanta Falcons the favorites to make a trip to New Orleans?  What about Tom Brady's New England Patriots and Peyton Manning's Denver Broncos?

Begin the slideshow to find out the five scariest teams heading into the NFL playoffs.

5. The Seattle Seahawks

Winners of four straight and six out of their last seven, the Seattle Seahawks head into the playoffs as one of the hottest teams in the NFL.

Nobody wants to play the hard-hitting Seahawks at CenturyLink Field, where they are 8-0. 

With a physical defense and an explosive offense that has put up more points in the last three weeks than any other team, the Seahawks will be a very difficult out in these playoffs.

Their defense is very scary.  Seattle ranks fifth in passing defense with 199.9 yards and 11th in rushing defense with 104.7 yards. 

They have picked off opposing quarterbacks 17 times thanks to their especially strong cornerback play.  The defense has also forced 13 fumbles.  At extremely loud CenturyLink Field, the most points they have allowed is 23.

The offense is equally impressive, and rookie quarterback Russell Wilson is leading the charge. 

Armed with Marshawn Lynch at running back and Sidney Rice and Golden Tate at wide receivers, the offense has been lighting up scoreboards over the last month scoring 58, 50 and 42 points in the last three games. 

Wilson, who should be in the conversation for Rookie of the Year, has played better than any quarterback in the last 10 weeks as he is leading all quarterbacks with a QB rating of 85.9 since Week 6. 

Marshawn Lynch is second in the league in rushing with 1,490 yards.  And the wideouts have a combined 14 TDs.

While the Seahawks might not host a playoff game this coming January, I still expect them to be a very difficult team to beat in the playoffs.

4. The Atlanta Falcons

At 13-2, it may seem as if the Falcons should be much higher on this list. 

They have one of the most potent offenses with Matt Ryan, Julio Jones, Roddy White, Tony Gonzalez and Michael Turner.  The Georgia Dome is maybe the second-most difficult place to play behind CenturyLink Field. 

They have beaten all the best teams in the league, and yet their past playoff performances are holding them back. 

Matt Ryan has had an MVP-caliber season and deserves recognition; however, his past playoff performances have been lackluster at best. 

In addition, the team’s defense is poor in both rushing (121.8 yard for 21st) and passing (243.7 yards for 23rd). 

The Falcons remind me a little bit of the 2011 Green Bay Packers and the 2007 New England Patriots.  Both teams had high-scoring offenses and lackluster defenses and did not win the Super Bowl after a great regular season.

If something can change the Falcons’ fortunes in these playoffs, it is the combination of Matt Ryan’s maturation, playing all the playoff games at the Georgia Dome and the emergence of Julio Jones as one of the standout wide receivers in the game.

3. The New England Patriots

Like all the other New England teams of the past decade, this team starts with Tom Brady and is followed by the weapons around him.  

This year the offense is especially dangerous with Wes Welker, Brandon Lloyd, Aaron Hernandez, Rob Gronkowski and Stevan Ridley. 

Brady is second in QB rating at 77.5 and is having another fantastic season.  The offense ranks fourth in passing yards (292.4) and eighth in rushing yards (134.5).

As solid as the Patriots seem on paper, the thing that holds them back is that sometimes they come out very flat.  There seems to be an occasional issue with motivating this team. 

They came out extremely sluggish in the game against the San Francisco 49ers two weeks ago and played an uninspired first half against the Jacksonville Jaguars last week. 

Their sluggish play has most likely led them to the third seed in the playoffs, which means a trip to either Houston or Denver in the second round.

All that being said, the Patriots are very close to having Gronkowski back from injury to add the final piece to their masterful offense.  They will be a difficult team to beat in the playoffs.

2. The Green Bay Packers

After a slow start of 2-3, the Green Bay Packers have won nine of the last 10 games and have caught fire at the right time. 

Time and time again, we have seen that the teams that get hot right before the playoffs win the Super Bowl: the 2010 Packers and the 2011 Giants, to name a couple.

Even without a strong running game, the Packers offense gives off the feeling that it can score at any time. 

The biggest reason for this is quarterback Aaron Rodgers.  He has already thrown 35 touchdowns this year and by the end of this weekend’s game will most likely have thrown for more than 4,000 yards. 

He is fifth in total QB rating at 72.6 and has the special ability to make everyone around him, including his receivers, better.

In addition, the Packers are also getting healthy just in time for the playoffs. 

Clay Matthews returned two weeks ago and provides a much-needed spark for the Packers defense.  In addition, Green Bay hopes to get Charles Woodson (collarbone) and Jordy Nelson (hamstring) back in time for the playoffs. 

Combining all these facts, one thing seems certain: the Green Bay Packers are poised to make a deep run into the playoffs.

1. The Denver Broncos

Simply put, the Denver Broncos are the hottest team in the NFL. 

They have won nine in a row and 11 of their last 12.  They have a ferocious defense and a great offense, and Mile High Stadium is completely rocking.

Oh, and they also have some guy named Peyton Manning.

At the beginning of the season, I, like many others, would have chosen Eli over Peyton to have a better season. 

Oh my, has Peyton blown that speculation out of the water!

John Elway made one of the best moves in NFL free-agent history by signing Peyton in the offseason. 

He is having one of his best statistical seasons to date.  He leads all quarterbacks with a QB rating of 82.7, which includes throwing for 4,355 yards with 35 TDs and a 68.1 percent completion rate. 

But to only single out Peyton would be unfair to the rest of the Denver Broncos. 

Demaryius Thomas and Eric Decker have played fantastically at wide receiver.  In addition, Joel Dreessen and Knowshon Moreno have come on strong to add another level to the already exemplary Denver offense.

Denver’s defense is also extremely strong.  The defense ranks seventh in passing defense (211.2 yards) and third in rushing defense (91.0 yards).  The highest amount of points the Broncos have allowed this year is 31, and they have only allowed other teams to score 20 or more points in seven games.

All in all, the Denver Broncos seem to be the team to beat in the playoffs and should be the favorites to win the Super Bowl in February.