How Many Teams Make the NFL Playoffs in 2021?

The NFL is expanding its playoff field to 14 teams for the 2021 season. That means there will be seven games on Wild Card Weekend.

The NFL’s Playoff Structure

The NFL playoffs are a single-elimination tournament held after the regular season to determine the league champion. The tournament consists of four rounds of play. The Wild Card round, Divisional round, Conference Championships, and Super Bowl. As of the 2021 NFL season, 14 teams qualify for the playoffs.

How many teams make the playoffs?

In 2021, 14 teams will qualify for the NFL playoffs. This is an increase from the usual 12 teams that have qualified in past seasons. The extra teams are a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused the cancellation of several weeks of regular-season play in 2020. As a result, the NFL expanded its playoffs to include an additional Wild Card team in each conference.

What is the playoff format?

The NFL playoff system is a single-elimination tournament held after the end of the regular season to determine the NFL champion. Each year, 12 teams make the playoffs: six from each conference. The four division winners from each conference are seeded 1-4 based on their regular season record, with the top two seeds receiving byes into the divisional round. The remaining eight teams are seeded 5-12 and must play in the wild-card round.

The 2021 NFL Playoff Picture

The NFL playoffs are set to begin on January 9, 2021. There will be 14 teams total competing for the Lombardi trophy this year. The Cleveland Browns and Tampa Bay Buccaneers are among the teams that will be in the playoffs for the first time in 18 years. Let’s take a look at the teams that have a chance to make some noise in the 2021 NFL playoffs.

AFC

The American Football Conference (AFC) is one of the two conferences of the National Football League (NFL). The AFC was created after the NFL merged with the American Football League (AFL) in 1970. It consists of 16 teams divided into four divisions, each of which has four teams.

The conference champion is determined by a playoff tournament that culminates in the AFC Championship Game. The winner of that game advances to the Super Bowl, which is the biggest game in professional American football.

In 2021, there will be seven teams from each conference that make the playoffs. The four division winners will automatically qualify for the playoffs, and they will be seeded according to their record. The three wild card teams will also make the playoffs, and they will be seeded according to their record.

NFC

The National Football Conference (NFC) playoff picture looks a lot different than it did at the beginning of the season.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Green Bay Packers are the top two seeds in the NFC, followed by the New Orleans Saints, Los Angeles Rams and Seattle Seahawks.

The NFC West is the only division in which all four teams have a chance to make the playoffs. The division-leading Rams (9-4) currently hold the fourth seed, but they could still be overtaken by the Seahawks (8-5) or Cardinals (7-6).

The Buccaneers (10-3), Packers (11-3) and Saints (10-3) have all clinched a playoff spot, but they’re still fighting for division titles and seeding.

In the NFC East, the Washington Football Team (6-7) currently leads the way, but they could still be passed by the Giants (5-8) or Dallas Cowboys (5-8).

The NFC playoff picture will become clearer after Week 16, but there’s still a lot of uncertainty heading into the final two weeks of the season.

How the NFL’s Playoff Structure Has Changed Over the Years

The NFL playoffs are a single-elimination tournament held after the end of the regular season to determine the champion of the National Football League (NFL). The playoffs have expanded since their creation in 1933, when only two teams qualified for the tournament. In 2010, the playoffs expanded again to include a total of 12 teams.

Why have the playoffs been expanded?

The NFL’s playoff structure has expanded several times since the league’s inception in 1920.

The most recent change came in 2020, when the league added a seventh team to each conference’s playoff field. The new format increased the total number of playoff teams from 12 to 14.

The expanded playoffs were implemented in an effort to increase competitive balance and give more teams a chance to win the Super Bowl.

Prior to the 2020 season, the NFL had not expanded its playoffs since adding a second wild-card team in 1990.

What other changes have been made to the playoffs?

In the current system, which began with the 2002 season, there are four wild-card teams (two from each conference) and two divisional playoff games. The divisional round features the No. 1 seed from each conference playing the lowest-seeded wild-card team while the other divisional game matches up the No. 2 seed against the higher-seeded wild card. This system replaced a system that featured three wild-card teams from each conference and one divisional game.

The NFL’s playoff structure has changed throughout the years as the league has added or subtracted teams. In 2010, the league added a fourth division to each conference and realigned its divisions so that each conference had four divisions of four teams apiece. This change meant that there would be two additional wild-card teams in each conference (for a total of six), but it also meant that only four division winners would make the playoffs instead of six (in order to keep an even number of playoff teams).

In 2014, another realignment necessitated by the league’s expansion into16 additional markets meant that there would be eight divisions of four teams apiece. As a result, only four division winners would make it to the playoffs (like in 2010) and there would be just two wild-card teams from each conference.

How the NFL’s Playoff Structure Could Change in the Future

The NFL is currently experimenting with a new playoff format that could see as many as 16 teams make the playoffs in 2021. This is up from the current 12 teams that make the playoffs. The new format would see the top two seeds in each conference receiving a bye in the first round.

Why might the NFL change the playoff structure?

The NFL is reportedly considering expanding the playoffs to include more teams, a change that would come as early as the 2021 season.

One proposal would add two teams to the playoff field, giving a total of 14 teams a chance to win the Super Bowl. Under this scenario, the top seed in each conference would receive a first-round bye while the remaining 12 teams would compete in six first-round games.

The main motive for expanding the playoffs appears to be financial. According to ESPN, the TV ratings for NFL games have been declining in recent years and the league is looking for ways to increase interest. Adding more teams to the playoff mix could create more excitement and generate more revenue from television contracts and ticket sales.

There are also potential benefits for players and coaches. With more teams making the playoffs, there would be more opportunities for players to compete for a championship and coaches would have a better chance of keeping their jobs if their team made a deep run in the postseason.

The NFL has not formally announced any plans to change the playoff structure, but it is reportedly considering a number of options and could vote on a new format as early as May 2020.

What are some possible changes that could be made?

The NFL’s playoff structure is not set in stone and could change in the future. There have been calls for the league to expand the playoffs to include more teams, as well as to give bye weeks to the top seeds in each conference. While no decisions have been made yet, it is certainly possible that the NFL’s playoff structure could change in the future.