NFC Playoff Picture 2014: Latest Scenarios, Division Standings, Clinched Teams

The 2014 NFL regular season has been incredible thus far, but many football fans are turning to the playoff picture in order to see which NFC teams have a legitimate chance to make the postseason.

Week 15 isn’t over until the New Orleans Saints play the Chicago Bears on Monday Night Football, but the fans are already considering every possible scenario that can come to fruition over the last two weeks of the regular season.

Here are the latest playoff scenarios, division standings and teams that already clinched.

NFC East	Wins	Losses	Tie
NFC North	Wins	Losses	Tie
NFC South	Wins	Losses	Tie
NFC West	Wins	Losses	Tie
Dallas Cowboys	10	4	0
Philadelphia Eagles	9	5	0
New York Giants	5	9	0
Washington Redskins	3	11	0
Detroit Lions	10	4	0
Green Bay Packers	10	4	0
Minnesota Vikings	6	8	0
Chicago Bears	5	8	0
Carolina Panthers	5	8	1
New Orleans Saints	5	8	0
Atlanta Falcons	5	9	0
Tampa Bay Buccaneers	2	12	0
Arizona Cardinals	11	3	0
Seattle Seahawks	10	4	0
San Francisco 49ers	7	7	0
St. Louis Rams	6	8	0

Breaking Down the NFC Playoff Picture

After another wild week in the NFC, only one team—the Arizona Cardinals—is officially confirmed to make the playoffs. Arizona is the only team with 11 wins through the first 15 weeks of the season and will make the postseason whether they win the NFC West or not.

The second-place team in the West right now is the 10-4 Seattle Seahawks. With a matchup against Arizona in Week 16 and the St. Louis Rams to close the season, Seattle still has a legitimate chance to win the division outright.

Turning our attention to the NFC East, Sunday night’s battle between the Dallas Cowboys and Philadelphia Eagles was a great gauge of where both teams stand. At 9-5 after the loss, Philadelphia is on the outside looking in but will play winnable matchups against the Washington Redskins and New York Giants.

Dallas plays the Indianapolis Colts in Week 16 and Washington in Week 17. If the Cowboys lose one of their remaining games and the Eagles win both of their matchups, Philadelphia will win the division. If Dallas wins out, the Cowboys make the playoffs.

In the NFC North, the battle between the Detroit Lions and the Green Bay Packers will come down to the wire. Detroit is currently leading the division, as the team owns a win over Green Bay from earlier this season. The race for the North will come down to a Week 17 rematch between the Lions and the Packers.

As long as Detroit and Green Bay win their favorable Week 16 games against Chicago and Tampa Bay, respectively, the two teams will enter the Week 17 rivalry matchup with an identical record. The winner of the game will win the division, and the loser will likely still make the postseason as a wild-card entrant.

The Packers are currently the No. 6 team in the NFC and would be the final wild-card team if the postseason began today.

The old adage is that you save the best for last, but that is far from the case in this scenario. New Orleans plays Monday, and a victory would catapult the team into first in the division. The Saints would be leading the South with six wins. That’s flat-out awful.

The only team from the South that will make the playoffs will be the division winner, and the slow crawl to crown a champion will be ugly. The Carolina Panthers are still alive, and Atlanta can also make a case to be the last team standing, but New Orleans is the most talented team in the mix.

If the Saints beat Chicago on Monday night and go on to defeat Atlanta and Tampa Bay in the last two weeks of the season, New Orleans will win the division. Otherwise, anarchy will reign, and any team besides the Buccaneers could make the postseason.

The four individual races to divisional crowns and the rivalry-heavy back end of the schedule will make for very interesting battles across the NFL, but the NFC will be particularly interesting this season.

*Stats via NFL.com.