Standings entering week 9

      NFC                                 AFC
1 SF (7-0) 1 NE (8-0)
2 NO (7-1)1 2 IND (5-2)5
3 GB (7-1) 3 BAL (5-2)
4 DAL (4-3) 4 KC (5-3)
5 SEA (6-2)2 5 BUF (5-2)
6 MIN (6-2) 6 HOU (5-3)
7 LAR (5-3) 7 JAX (4-4)6
8 CAR (4-3) 8 TEN (4-4)
9 DET (3-3-1)3 9 PIT (3-4)7
10 PHI (4-4) 10 OAK (3-4)
11 ARI (3-4-1) 11 LAC (3-5)
12 CHI (3-4) 12 CLE (2-5)
13 TB (2-5) 13 DEN (2-6)
14 NYG (2-6) 14 NYJ (1-6)
15 ATL (1-7)4 15 CIN (0-8)8
16 WAS (1-7) 16 MIA (0-7)

1 NO wins the tiebreak over GB on conference record (5-1 vs 4-1)
2 SEA wins the tiebreak over MIN on conference record (3-1 vs 5-2)
3 DET wins the tiebreak over PHI on head-to-head
4 ATL wins the tiebreak over WAS on conference record (1-4 vs 0-6)
5 IND wins the tiebreak over BAL on conference record (4-2 vs 3-2)
6 JAX wins the tiebreak over TEN on head-to-head (1-0)
7 PIT wins the tiebreak over OAK on conference record (3-2 vs 2-2)
8 CIN wins the tiebreak over MIA on Strength of Schedule (38-21-1 vs 29-23)

Elimination Scenarios

NYJ is knocked out of AFC East title contention with:
         1) NYJ loss + NE win

 

MIA is knocked out of AFC East title contention with:
         1) MIA loss
OR 2) NE win
OR 3) MIA tie + NE tie

Possible Seeds

All teams can still get all seeds, even MIA, NYJ, CIN, WAS, and ATL.

Team Control

The seed that a team controls is the worst seed that team could get if they win out. These are often mutually exclusive because it is impossible for teams that play each other in future weeks to both win out.

Teams that control the 1 seed:
SF NE

Teams that control the 2 seed:
GB NO HOU IND

Teams that control the 3 seed:
SEA BAL

Teams that control the 4 seed:
DAL CAR JAX KC OAK LAC

Teams that control the 5 seed:
MIN BUF

Teams that control the 6 seed:
None

Teams that could win out and still miss the playoffs:
PHI NYG WAS CHI DET TB ATL LAR
ARI NYJ MIA PIT CLE CIN TEN DEN

Want to discuss the playoff picture? Head to the corresponding reddit post