Entering the final week of the NFL season, you've got playoff scenarios flowing out the yang. If Team A beats Team B, they need Team C not to tie Team D to make the postseason. Yes, that's an actual scenario because of course it is. It's confusing. It's frustrating. It's awful.
Thankfully, here at numberFire, we've got some tools that can lend you a hand. Combining win probability odds with all of the scenarios a team needs to make the playoffs can tell us the odds of each situation in advance, giving us a better idea of what's most likely to unfold.
Obviously, the NFL is a strange, fickle beast, so this doesn't mean it's how things will actually break, but it doesn't hurt to know what level of optimism you should have entering Sunday.
Of course, the Pittsburgh Steelers are locked into the AFC's 3 seed, and the Houston Texans are locked into the 4 seed. The Dallas Cowboys clinched the 1 seed in the NFC, and the New York Giants are the NFC's 5 seed. That leaves 10 teams with a playoff chance, and the seeding for all 10 is still up in the air.
Let's check out how things are projected to unfold in Week 17. We'll start with the four four NFC teams vying for the final two spots before transitioning to scenarios involving teams that have already punched their tickets to the postseason. You can see all raw playoff odds on our team rankings page.