{"id":362235,"date":"2025-12-21T09:10:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-21T09:10:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/362235\/"},"modified":"2025-12-21T09:10:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-21T09:10:09","slug":"week-16-nfl-playoff-picture-afc-nfc-bracket-scenarios-after-saturdays-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/362235\/","title":{"rendered":"Week 16 NFL Playoff Picture, AFC, NFC Bracket Scenarios After Saturday&#8217;s Games"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">The Bears, Seahawks and Eagles all won over the last three days to either move up, or remain, in the top three of the NFC standings.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">Chicago is now up two games in the win column over the Packers in the NFC North. The Bears are close to securing the division title and at least one home playoff game.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">Philadelphia became the first division winner of the season with its triumph over the Washington Commanders in Saturday&#8217;s opening game. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">The Tampa Bay Buccaneers square off with the Carolina Panthers on Sunday for control of the NFC South.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">5. Los Angeles Rams (11-4; clinched playoff berth)<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">6. San Francisco 49ers (10-4)<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">7. Green Bay Packers (9-5-1)<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">Green Bay will remain in the final wild-card spot at the end of Week 16, but its position is more perilous than it was going into Saturday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">The Packers will remain in front of the Lions, even if Detroit wins, because they have one fewer loss than their NFC North rival.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">Green Bay needs to root for former Packer Aaron Rodgers and the Steelers to beat the Lions so that there is a two-game gap in the loss column between the two sides going into Week 17.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">The 49ers are unlikely to drop down into the wild-card chaos. They are more involved in the NFC West title race that could be won by any of three teams.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">9. Carolina Panthers (7-7)<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">Detroit needs a win over Pittsburgh to feel better about its playoff fate. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">The Lions will likely have to reach the postseason through a wild-card berth, so they can&#8217;t fall more behind the Packers in the loss column.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">Carolina&#8217;s best postseason path is through the NFC South title. The Panthers and Bucs play twice in the next three weeks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">10. Dallas Cowboys (6-7-1)<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">11. Minnesota Vikings (6-8)<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">12. Atlanta Falcons (5-9)<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">13. New Orleans Saints (4-10)<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">14. Washington Commanders (4-11)<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">15. Arizona Cardinals (3-11)<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">16. New York Giants (2-12)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Bears, Seahawks and Eagles all won over the last three days to either move up, or remain,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":362236,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[64,63,593,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-362235","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=362235"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362235\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/362236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=362235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=362235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=362235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}