There were quite a few upsets around the NFL in Week 3, and all of a sudden, it's starting to look like there could be some unexpected playoff contenders this year. To figure out who those contenders might be, we had our analytics expert, Stephen Oh, simulate the rest of the 2026 season. There are 224 games left on the regular-season schedule along with 13 playoffs games, and Oh simulated them all.
Not only did he project the 14 teams that will end up making the playoffs, but he also crowned a Super Bowl champion. This week's projection includes several surprises, including a huge one in the NFC, where we have an unexpected team earning the No. 1 overall seed in the conference. 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. If our projection is right in the AFC, that means we're going to have three new division champions this year.
The only team being projected to repeat as champion is the Jacksonville Jaguars. Winning back-to-back titles would be huge for a Jaguars team that hasn't won consecutive division titles since 1998-99. That was so long ago that the AFC South didn't even exist (The Jags won the AFC Central title in those two seasons).
Here's the projected AFC playoff field: 1. Chiefs (3-0) -- AFC West champion 2. Bills (3-0) -- AFC East champion 3.
Ravens (2-1) -- AFC North champion 4. Jaguars (2-1) -- AFC South champion 5. Colts (1-2) One thing you'll notice is that we don't have any 0-3 teams in our playoff field, and that's mainly because it's nearly impossible for an 0-3 team to get in the postseason.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
