NFL Playoff Standings 2013: How Week 15's Action Affected Postseason Picture

The stakes are high for all teams involved in the playoff hunt, as the upper-echelon teams are jockeying for seeding, while all the bubble teams are fighting for a spot in postseason. Week 15’s results had a big impact on the playoff picture due to so much shuffling of the standings and different clinching scenarios at play. Here’s how the standings look after the dust settled.

AFC

Seed	Team	Record
1	Denver Broncos	11-3
2	New England Patriots	10-4
3	Cincinnati Bengals	9-4
4	Indianapolis Colts	9-5
5	Kansas City Chiefs	11-3
6	Miami Dolphins	8-6
7	Baltimore Ravens	7-6
8	San Diego Chargers	7-7

The Denver Broncos’ loss to the San Diego Chargers on Thursday Night Football didn’t cost them their No. 1 seed this week, as the New England Patriots also fell in Week 15. Despite this, Denver and the Kansas City Chiefs now share the same record after Kansas City dropped 56 points on the Oakland Raiders. The Broncos’ place atop the AFC is at risk.

For Kansas City to jump up the standings, however, it would first need to finish with a better record than the Broncos. Since Denver won both head-to-head meetings between the two this season, it would hold the tiebreaker.

New England’s loss saved Denver this week, but it also means that there could be a new No. 2 seed in the AFC. The Patriots’ 24-20 loss to the Miami Dolphins opened the door for the Cincinnati Bengals to momentarily get a first-round bye if they beat the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday Night Football, because Cincinnati beat New England in Week 5 and holds the tiebreaker.

If the Bengals lose, they would still be secure at No. 3 in the conference due to their dominant victory over the Indianapolis Colts in Week 14.

At the bottom of the AFC playoff picture, the Dolphins take over as the second wild-card team as a result of their win over New England on Sunday. This places a great deal of pressure on the Baltimore Ravens to take care of business against the Detroit Lions on Monday Night Football.

The Ravens hold the tiebreaker in the event that they and the Dolphins finish with equal records, but Baltimore has a challenging schedule ahead and needs to beat the Lions on Monday in order to retain its spot in the playoffs.

The Chargers also kept their slim playoff hopes alive with their huge win over the Broncos, but Philip Rivers and Co. are still a game out of the playoffs at the moment.

NFC

Seed	Team	Record
1	Seattle Seahawks	12-2
2	New Orleans Saints	10-4
3	Philadelphia Eagles	8-6
4	Chicago Bears	8-6
5	Carolina Panthers	10-4
6	San Francisco 49ers	10-4
7	Arizona Cardinals	9-5

The Seattle Seahawks will stay atop the NFC for another week after a dominant Week 15 win in which they shut out the New York Giants. Seattle’s lone competition for the No. 1 seed is the New Orleans Saints, who lost a shocker to the St. Louis Rams on Sunday.

The Seahawks will obtain the No. 1 seed if they can hold on to win the NFC West. Seattle’s lopsided victory over the Saints in Week 13 gives the Seahawks the tiebreaker. With only two games left in the season, New Orleans’ Week 15 loss assures that the Saints cannot overtake the Seahawks in the standings.

The only team that could dethrone Seattle as the No. 1 seed would be the San Francisco 49ers, but that would require two Seahawks losses and two Niners victories to end the year.

In addition, the Saints' loss makes their Week 16 matchup against the Carolina Panthers extremely interesting.

If the Panthers win, they would take New Orleans’ spot as the No. 2 seed and division leader in the NFC South. A Carolina win in Week 16 would split the head-to-head record between the two this season and even out the division record. This brings us to the third tiebreaker: common games.

Common Game	Carolina Result	New Orleans Result
Seattle Seahawks	Loss	Loss
Buffalo Bills	Loss	Win
Arizona Cardinals	Loss	Win
St. Louis Rams	Win	Loss
Tampa Bay Buccaneers	Win	Win
Atlanta Falcons	Win	Win
San Francisco 49ers	Win	Win
New England Patriots	Win	Loss
Miami Dolphins	Win	Win
New York Jets	Win	Loss
TOTAL RECORD	7-3	6-4

The Panthers have the advantage there, so a win over the Saints would cause the two teams to swap places in the standings.

Further down the playoff standings, the Philadelphia Eagles’ loss to the Minnesota Vikings opens the door for the Dallas Cowboys to take back the division lead—though their loss to Green Bay Sunday was not pretty. In addition, it also opens the door for the NFC North winner to take the No. 3 seed.

All the way at the bottom of the NFC playoff picture, the San Francisco 49ers need to win out to claim the fifth seed (as a result of losses against the Saints and the Panthers) or to have any shot at the NFC West crown.

San Francisco’s last game of the year is against the Arizona Cardinals. Arizona could still make the playoffs after beating the Tennessee Titans, but they need the 49ers to lose their remaining two games in order to have a shot at overtaking the Niners as a wild-card team.

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