At least that's how it looked after a wild Week 5 that saw all four teams go winless, which seems impossible when you consider that two NFC East teams actually faced each other. So what happened in the division? The Cowboys lost to the previously winless Buccaneers.
The Eagles blew a lead in the final eight seconds against Jacksonville, and then we had the Commanders and Giants, who somehow played to a tie. At this point, you might be wondering who's going to win the division, and fortunately, we might have the answer for you here. To figure out who's going to win each division and who's going to make the playoffs, we had our analytics expert, Stephen Oh, simulate the rest of the 2026 season.
There are 193 games left on the regular-season schedule, along with 13 playoff games, and Oh simulated ALL of them. Not only did he project the 14 teams that will end up making the playoffs, but he also crowned a Super Bowl champion. And he also projected who the winner will be in the NFC East, since someone has to win that division.
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.
There are only four teams in the AFC with one loss or less, and to no one's surprise, all four of those teams are being projected to win their division. Here's the projected AFC playoff field (with each team's current record): 1. Chiefs (4-0) -- AFC West champion 2.
Bills (4-1) -- AFC East champion 3. Jaguars (4-1) -- AFC South champion 4. Ravens (4-1) -- AFC North champion 5.
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