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NFL Playoffs: Dates, schedule, teams, format, history and more

It's that time of year where uncontainable excitement spreads within every NFL fan as the regular season concludes and the playoffs come to town.

The 14 best teams from the previous four months will battle it out for supremacy with an abundance of awe-inspiring thills and game-changing spills along the way.

Here is everything you need to know about the NFL playoffs.

NFL playoffs dates and schedule

The 2024/25 NFL playoffs commence with the Wild Card round on Saturday 11 January and conclude with the Championship match on Sunday 9 February.

  • Wild Card round: 11-13 January
  • Divisional round: 18-19 January
  • Conference Championships: 26 January
  • Championship match: 9 February

NFL playoffs teams

Upon conclusion of the regular season, 14 teams will contest the NFL playoffs, of which seven are from the AFC and seven from the NFC.

Division winners all advance to the playoffs, while the remaining three spots in each conference are filled by franchises who possess the best win-loss record.

The teams contesting the 2024/25 NFL playoffs are:

AFC

  1. Kansas City Chiefs
  2. Buffalo Bills
  3. Baltimore Ravens
  4. Houston Texans
  5. Los Angeles Chargers
  6. Pittsburgh Steelers
  7. Denver Broncos

NFC

  1. Detroit Lions
  2. Philadelphia Eagles
  3. Tampa Bay Buccaneers
  4. Los Angeles Rams
  5. Minnesota Vikings
  6. Washington Commanders
  7. Green Bay Packers

NFL playoffs format

The two conferences are divided in the playoffs, meaning no AFC team can face an NFC team until the Championship match.

The number one ranked team from each conference receives an automatic bye to the Divisional round and home advantage, while the remaining 12 teams will contest the Wild Card round.

Each team is seeded. Division winners are recognised as the top four seeds, while the ranking of the remaining three teams is determined by their regular season record. In the Wild Card round, the No.2 seed faces the No.7 seed, the No.3 seed encounters the No.6 seed and the No.4 seed takes on the No.5 seed.

The outcome of the Wild Card matches determines the Divisional round, with the lowest remaining seed in each conference travelling to the first seed and the second-lowest remaining seed heading to the second-highest seed.

Winners of those matches will contest the Conference Championships and subsequently the Championship match.

NFL playoffs history

Origins of the NFL playoffs trace back to 1933 when the Championship Game was contested between the two teams with the best regular season records.

The postseason remained a singular match until 1967 when the playoffs were expanded to four teams consisting of division winners.

Following the merger with the American Football League in 1970, the playoffs doubled in size to accommodate four teams from each conference. The league then instituted the seeding system which it currently adopts in 1975.

With the expansion of the regular season from 14 games to 16 games in 1978, the NFL added two more playoff berths and the ten-team format was retained until 1989 where it was expanded to 12 franchises.

Initial calls for a 14-team playoff format were initially ignored in the early 2000s, but the NFL eventually revisited the proposal and implemented the enlarged configuration for the 2020/21 season, resulting in three Wild Card spots being available in each conference.

The Green Bay Packers have made more playoff appearances than any other franchise and they're one of nine teams to feature in the playoffs at least 30 times.

The New England Patriots hold the record for most consecutive playoff appearances with 11 between 2009 and 2019.

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