The NFL trade deadline was Tuesday, and no one made a bigger move than the Minnesota Vikings. With their season hanging in the balance, the Vikings decided to make a trade for Kirk Cousins. Thanks to the move, the Vikings are expected to coast into the playoffs along with EVERY OTHER TEAM in the NFC North.
That's right, in our latest projection, we have all four NFC North teams making the postseason. If that happens, it would mark the first time in NFL history that a division has sent all four of its teams to the playoffs in one season. So who else is projected to get in?
To help us figure that out, we had our analytics expert, Stephen Oh, simulate the rest of the 2026 season. There are 136 games left on the regular-season schedule, along with 13 playoff games, and Oh simulated all of them. Not only did he project all eight division winners and the 14 playoff teams, but he also crowned a Super Bowl champion.
With that in mind, let's get to the projections. And just as a reminder, we're projecting what the NFL playoff field will look like at the end of the season. This is NOT the current playoff standings.
The AFC playoff picture is starting to take shape, and based on our projection, it's starting to feel like the playoff teams in this conference are almost locked in at this point. For the second straight week, not only does our projection have the same seven teams making the playoffs, but they're all seeded in the exact same spot. Here's the projected AFC playoff field (with each team's current record): 1.
Bills (7-1) -- AFC East champion 2. Jaguars (6-2) -- AFC South champion 3. Broncos (7-2) -- AFC West champion 4.
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