What Teams Have A Bye In The NFL Playoffs?

It’s that time of year again where the NFL playoffs are upon us. Check out our blog post to see what teams have a bye week and who’s playing who.

NFL Playoffs

The NFL playoffs are upon us and there are a few teams that have already punched their ticket to the divisional round. The Kansas City Chiefs and the Green Bay Packers both have byes in the first round, meaning they get a week off to rest and prepare for their next opponent. The New Orleans Saints and the Seattle Seahawks also earned byes in the NFC. In the AFC, the Baltimore Ravens and the New England Patriots both have byes.

Teams

The NFL Playoffs are a single-elimination tournament held after the end of the National Football League (NFL) regular season to determine the NFL champion. Six teams from each of the league’s two conferences qualify for the playoffs based on regular season records, and a tie-breaking procedure exists in the case of equal records. The tournament brackets are made up of six teams from each conference: the winners of each of the conference’s four divisions, and two wild card teams. The seeds are assigned in order of their regular season records, with the division champions always ranked higher than any of the wild card teams. Wild card qualifiers are determined using a set of tie-breaking rules.

In each round, the lower seed is relegated to playing at their opponent’s home stadium, while the higher seed will host the game. Within each conference, divisional matchups take precedence over wild card matchups regardless of whether their opponents have better or worse records (although if both competing wild card teams have better records than all four division winners, they may be “re-seeded” to play one another). The first round of playoffs is referred to as the wild-card playoffs or wild-card weekend.

The NFL Playoffs began in 1967. Prior to that year, only four teams qualified for post-season play: two from each conference (the first place team from each division played one of the second place teams). From 1933 (when 11 clubs made up NFL) through 1966, only two clubs from each conference could meet in what was then known as “The Championship Game”. Consequently, this game was usually played on New Year’s Day 1967 Orange Bowl and 1982 Sugar Bowl were exceptions).

Schedule

The NFL playoffs are a single-elimination tournament held after the regular season to determine the NFL champion. Six teams from each of the league’s two conferences qualify for the playoffs. A bye week is given to the team with the best record in each conference, which in turn receives home-field advantage throughout their conference’s playoff bracket. The remaining teams are seeded based on their regular-season records, with division winners typically occupying the first and second seeds.

Bracket

In the NFL playoffs, there are four rounds of elimination games. The six highest-seeded teams earn a “bye” through to the second week of the playoffs. The first week features four wildcard games, in which the lowest-seeded qualifying teams play each other. The winners of each wildcard game then advance to play one of the bye teams in the divisional round. Finally, the two remaining teams play each other in the conference championship game, with the winners advancing to the Super Bowl.

AFC

Let’s take a look at the AFC teams that have a bye in the NFL playoffs. The AFC teams that have a bye are the New England Patriots and the Pittsburgh Steelers. These teams will have a week off to prepare for their opponents.

Baltimore Ravens

The Baltimore Ravens are a professional American football team based in Baltimore, Maryland. The Ravens compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) North division. The team plays its home games at M&T Bank Stadium and is headquartered in Owings Mills.

The Ravens were established in 1996, when Art Modell, who was then the owner of the Cleveland Browns, announced plans to relocate the franchise to Baltimore. As part of a settlement between Modell and the city of Cleveland, the Browns’ intellectual property, including team name, logos, training facilities, and history, would remain in Cleveland with the team (now known as the Cleveland Browns) that would remain there. The Ravens have won two Super Bowl championships since 2000.

Buffalo Bills

The Buffalo Bills have a bye in the NFL playoffs.

Kansas City Chiefs

The Kansas City Chiefs are the AFC team with a bye in the NFL playoffs. The Chiefs finished the regular season with a record of 12-4, earning them the top seed in the AFC. The bye gives the Chiefs a chance to rest and prepare for their first playoff game, which will be played at Arrowhead Stadium on January 12th.

New England Patriots

As of right now, the New England Patriots are the only team that has a bye in the NFL playoffs. They are also the only team that has clinched a spot in the playoffs.

Pittsburgh Steelers

The Pittsburgh Steelers have a bye in the AFC playoffs.

NFC

The teams with a first-round bye in the NFC are the Seattle Seahawks and the Green Bay Packers.

Dallas Cowboys

The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football team based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The Cowboys compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league’s National Football Conference (NFC) East division. They are one of the most successful teams in the history of the NFL, having appeared in 15 Super Bowls (tied for second most all-time with the Pittsburgh Steelers), winning eight of them (tied for second most all-time with the Steelers and New England Patriots). The Cowboys have made it to eight Super Bowls, tied for second most of any team.

Green Bay Packers

The Green Bay Packers are a professional American football team based in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Packers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league’s National Football Conference (NFC) North division. It is the third-oldest franchise in the NFL, dating back to 1919, and is the only non-profit, community-owned major league professional sports team based in the United States. Home games have been played at Lambeau Field since 1957.

Los Angeles Rams

The Los Angeles Rams are a professional American football team that compete in the National Football League (NFL). The Rams are headquartered in Los Angeles, and play their home games at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California. The Rams were founded in 1937 as the Cleveland Rams in Ohio. The franchise moved to Los Angeles in 1946, representing the city for the first time since the teams inception.

New Orleans Saints

The New Orleans Saints are a professional American football team based in New Orleans, Louisiana. The Saints currently compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league’s National Football Conference (NFC) South division. Since their founding in 1967, the team has played their home games at Mercedes-Benz Superdome after using Tulane Stadium during their first 21 seasons.

San Francisco 49ers

The San Francisco 49ers are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 49ers compete in the National Football League as a member club of the league’s National Football Conference West division.

Super Bowl

The NFL playoffs are underway and there are a few teams that have a bye in the first round. These teams are the New England Patriots, the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Los Angeles Rams, and the New Orleans Saints. All of these teams are considered to be Super Bowl contenders and it will be interesting to see how they do in the playoffs.

LIII

In 2019, the New England Patriots and the Los Angeles Rams play in Super Bowl LIII. The Patriots are representing the AFC in the game, while the Rams are representing the NFC. This will be the third time that these two teams have played each other in a Super Bowl, with the Rams winning both previous meetings.