Ranking the Most Exciting NFL Division Title Races Since 2010

Playoff races are always the most entertaining part of an NFL regular season, but the chase for a division title generally holds extra importance.

The reason is simple: A division crown means an automatic postseason berth.

Because the term "excitement" can be defined in multiple ways, the order is subjective. For our purposes, it's meant to reflect a division that had multiple above-.500 teams and needed a late-season result (Week 16 or 17) to determine the champion.

Postseason results may be mentioned but aren't a factor in the rankings.

The Best Bad Divisions

Nam Y. Huh/Associated Press

Hey, exciting doesn't require the division to actually be good, right?

2010 NFC West: The Seattle Seahawks beat the St. Louis Rams in Week 17, improved to 7-9 and won the division via tiebreaker. What seemed like a meaningless playoff spot actually led to Marshawn Lynch's "Beast Quake" run and a wild-card win, so it wasn't all bad.

2011 AFC West: Perhaps best remembered as the Tim Tebow year, 2011 included a three-way deadlock for the AFC West. While the Denver Broncos won on tiebreakers, they finished 8-8, along with the San Diego Chargers and Oakland Raiders. Even the Kansas City Chiefs wrapped up the year in fourth place at 7-9.

2011 NFC East: The New York Giants defeated the Dallas Cowboys in Week 17 to take the division. New York ended 9-7 ahead of the 8-8 Cowboys and Philadelphia Eagles. The Giants later stunned the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLVI.

2013 NFC North: In a winner-take-all Week 17 clash between the Green Bay Packers and Chicago Bears, Aaron Rodgers hit Randall Cobb for a game-winning, NFC North-sealing touchdown in the final minute. Green Bay won the division at 8-7-1, largely because Rodgers missed half the season with a collarbone injury.

2014 NFC South: After a 3-8-1 start, the Carolina Panthers recovered to take the division. They earned four straight wins to close the campaign, beating all three NFC South foes—most notably, the Atlanta Falcons in a Week 17 clash to decide the champion.

2016 AFC South: Painful to watch, really. Brock Osweiler and the 9-7 Houston Texans scraped past the 9-7 Tennessee Titans on division record. Houston had a minus-49 point differential. For good measure, the Indianapolis Colts ended 8-8.

10. 2013 AFC West

Ed Zurga/Associated Press

San Diego ripped off four straight wins to close the regular season and make the playoffs, and that's merely the third-best story of the 2013 AFC West.

Kansas City opened the year 9-0, but Denver followed close behind at 8-1. The teams met in Week 11, and a Broncos win pulled the division even. Both franchises lost the following Sunday, setting up a crucial rematch in Week 13.

Denver won again and secured the all-important head-to-head tiebreaker. However, a loss to surging San Diego two weeks later meant both the Broncos and Chiefs were 11-3.

Peyton Manning and Co. finally pulled away.

Denver smacked the Texans and Raiders to end 13-3, and Kansas City fell to 11-5 with losses to Indianapolis and San Diego. The Broncos lost to Seattle in Super Bowl XLVIII.

9. 2013 NFC West

Ben Margot/Associated Press

Seattle built a 10-1 record to begin 2013, but the San Francisco 49ers tightened the division race after edging the Seahawks in Week 14.

Overall, San Francisco rattled off six straight wins to close the regular season and sat within a game of the Seahawks by Week 17. Seattle would've lost the division had it lost to St. Louis, but the Seahawks survived and claimed the NFC West.

Arizona also finished 10-6, giving the NFC West a rarity of three 10-win teams in one season.

As if that wasn't exciting enough, Seattle clipped San Francisco 23-17 in the NFC Championship Game before obliterating the Broncos 43-8 to win Super Bowl XLVIII.

8. 2014 NFC East

Matt Rourke/Associated Press

Heading into the final weekend of November 2014, both the Cowboys and Eagles held an 8-3 record. They squared off in Week 13, and Philadelphia walloped Dallas 33-10 to take control of the division.

But it wasn't over.

The Eagles immediately started a three-game skid, which included a 38-27 loss to the Cowboys in Week 15. That result moved Dallas atop the NFC East, and the Tony Romo-led Cowboys ended the regular season on a four-game winning streak.

Philadelphia missed the playoffs, joining the 2003 Bucs as the only 9-3 teams since 2000 to manage that inglorious feat.

Dallas exited the postseason after Dez Bryant's controversial non-catch against the Packers in the divisional round.

7. 2016 NFC North

Matt Ludtke/Associated Press

Following the Packers' 4-6 start to 2016 that included a four-game losing streak, the sky began falling for everyone in Green Bay. Well, for everyone except Rodgers. The two-time All-Pro quarterback calmly told ESPN's Rob Demovsky he believed the Packers could run the table.

They did exactly that, closing the two-game deficit that separated them from the Minnesota Vikings and Detroit Lions. Green Bay defeated both teams in Weeks 16 and 17, respectively.

Detroit had its chance, though.

Both the Lions and Packers took 9-6 records into the season finale, and Detroit even led at halftime. But Rodgers tossed three second-half touchdowns to give Green Bay a 31-24 win.

6. 2012 NFC East

Nick Wass/Associated Press

After losing to Carolina in Week 9, Robert Griffin III and Washington held a 3-6 record. At that moment, the 6-3 Giants sat well ahead of Washington with 3-5 Dallas between them.

Slowly, however, the Giants' edge vanished.

Washington capped the regular season with seven straight wins, including five against NFC East teams and a winner-take-all showdown against Dallas in Week 17. New York crumbled down the stretch and lost the division by a game.

Griffin won Offensive Rookie of the Year, but an injury to his already ailing knee in the playoff loss to Seattle altered the trajectory of his career.

5. 2016 AFC West

Reed Hoffmann/Associated Press

With a little help from Denver in Week 17, Kansas City showed the value of head-to-head victories in 2016.

Oakland entered the regular-season finale at 12-3, but the Broncos handed the Raiders a 24-6 loss. Kansas City, meanwhile, toppled the Chargers 37-27 to join Oakland at 12-4. Since the Chiefs won both meetings with Oakland, they won the division.

Short of matching each other result for result, this division race couldn't have been closer. Neither the Raiders nor Chiefs ever held a two-game advantage on the other.

Unfortunately, the excitement didn't translate to the playoffs. Both teams lost in their opening games. 

4. 2011 AFC North

Don Wright/Associated Press

In the last section, we noted that result-for-result matching was the only way Kansas City and Oakland could've had a closer race in 2016. Funny we should mention that.

Five years earlier—thanks to how idle weekends fell for the Baltimore Ravens and Pittsburgh Steelers, they followed the same path after a 4-2 start. Both teams improved to 6-2, dropped a game, won four straight to reach 10-3, lost in Week 15 and closed the regular season with two victories.

Pretty remarkable, right?

Baltimore's two head-to-head triumphs over Pittsburgh served as the tiebreaker for the division crown. The Ravens advanced furthest in the playoffs, losing to New England in the AFC Championship Game.

3. 2017 NFC South

Butch Dill/Associated Press

When the Falcons upended the Saints in Week 14, 8-5 Atlanta pulled a game behind 9-4 New Orleans and 9-4 Carolina. That set up a thrilling finish; the last two weekends of the 2017 season featured Atlanta heading to New Orleans and hosting Carolina.

Those results heavily impacted this race.

All three clubs earned a victory in Week 15, but then New Orleans toppled the Falcons 23-13 and eliminated Atlanta from the chase. However, the Falcons turned around and beat Carolina in Week 17 to prevent the Panthers from winning the division.

Both the Saints and Panthers entered the final Sunday at 11-4 and lost, but the Saints' two victories over the Panthers earned the tiebreaker and the first of four straight NFC South titles.

Adding yet another disappointment to the Panthers' season, New Orleans clipped them 31-26 in the Wild Card Round, too.

2. 2019 NFC West

Stephen Brashear/Associated Press

Literal inches separated the Seahawks from stealing the 2019 NFC West title out of San Francisco's grasp.

The 49ers started the season 8-0, but Seattle handed San Francisco its first loss in a Week 10 overtime game. Down the stretch, the teams matched records at 10-2 and 11-3. And although the Seahawks lost in Week 16 as the Niners won, their Week 17 showdown still had the division title at stake.

And that incredibly small gap made an enormous difference.

Trailing 26-21, Seattle set up with a first down inside the 1-yard line. For some reason, though, Russell Wilson spiked it on first down before Seattle took a delay-of-game penalty. Wilson threw a near-interception on second down and an incompletion that could've been a pass interference on third down.

On fourth down at the 49ers' 5-yard line, Wilson completed a pass to Jacob Hollister. He lunged for the end zone, but Dre Greenlaw tackled Hollister maybe 12 inches shy of the end zone.

In the last 10 seasons, no division race between two teams had a tighter, more exciting finish.

San Francisco ultimately fell to Kansas City in Super Bowl LIV.

1. 2014 AFC North

Don Wright/Associated Press

Not only did Pittsburgh, Baltimore and Cincinnati finish within a game of one another, they also each owned a different record. The Steelers won the AFC North at 11-5, with Cincinnati at 10-5-1 and Baltimore 10-6.

But even the Cleveland Browns were a factor for a long time. Heading into Week 13, the standings showed:

• Cincinnati: 7-3-1
• Baltimore: 7-4
• Pittsburgh: 7-4
• Cleveland: 7-4

Cleveland promptly lost five straight games, setting up a three-way showdown to the finish. Baltimore exited contention with a Week 16 loss to Houston, but the Steelers and Bengals met in the regular-season finale to determine the AFC North winner.

Ben Roethlisberger threw for 317 yards and two scores, while Antonio Brown accounted for two touchdowns in a 27-17 Pittsburgh victory. No division since 2010 has included such a deep group of contenders and hinged on a Week 17 outcome.

Interestingly, the Ravens eliminated the Steelers in the Wild Card Round before losing to the eventual-champion Patriots.