NFL Playoff Picture: Breaking Down the AFC Wild-Card Contenders

The AFC playoff picture is currently a jumbled up mess, so I'm going to attempt to pick it apart and make things a little clearer as only three weeks remain in the NFL season.

For these purposes, I'm going to assume the Baltimore Ravens and Pittsburgh Steelers will each make the playoffs. Whichever one wins the North and whichever gets the first wild-card spot doesn't matter for now.

Alright, here we go.

Oakland Raiders

I like how the schedule plays out for Denver for the rest of the year. I think they can beat New England at home and then win out. That would automatically win them the West, no matter what Oakland does.

The Raiders are one of the most polar teams in the league, so it's hard to get a hold on them. Their final three games are as follows: Detroit, at Kansas City, San Diego. Call me crazy, but I like Oakland against a struggling Lions team, and I think the Raiders will win those last two games as well.

As up-and-down as the season has been, the Raiders have a very good shot at finishing the season 10-6.

New York Jets

I think the Jets will win on the road this week at Philadelphia. The Eagles have a very outside shot at making the playoffs, but my guess is they've all but given up by now. New York should take advantage of that.

That leaves them with a home game against the Giants and a road game at Miami against the Dolphins. Those are both winnable, but not gimmes by any means.

If they win out, they get the second wild-card spot, if they lose one of those games and drop to 10-6, they would fall into a tie with Oakland.

The Raiders would win the tiebreaker if that should happen.

Tennessee Titans

However, we could very possibly end up with three 10-6 wild-card teams, as the Titans have easy matchups with Indy and Jacksonville and then a "toughie" at Houston.

If they manage to win out, they'll get to 10-6 and win the tiebreaker over both Oakland and New York.

Cincinnati Bengals

Alas, we have yet another team that could quite possibly finish 10-6. It would have to include a Week 17 win over the Ravens, but the Bengals could certainly do it.

Unfortunately for Cinci, they would need Tennessee and Oakland to both finish with nine wins, because the Bengals would lose tiebreakers to both of those teams.

Cinci would, however, win a tiebreaker over New York.