The 2024 NFL regular season is officially over, and the playoffs, which will take place on the road to Super Bowl 59, will begin this weekend.
After 18 long weeks, 14 teams have battled it out to advance to the postseason games, and now they will all have the chance to make it to the long-awaited national championship game on February 9. First will come the Wildcard rounds, then the Divisional match-ups, and finally, the Conference Championship games.
The 14 teams, split into seven each for the AFC and NFC, will soon be whittled down to two from each faction, who will go on to face each other in the 59th edition of the Super Bowl in New Orleans, Louisiana.
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Over the last two years, a team from the AFC has won the Lombardi trophy, namely the Kansas City Chiefs. But, this could be the year that the NFC takes back the coveted prize, with the likes of the Detroit Lions, the Minnesota Vikings and the Philadelphia Eagles all boasting impressive records so far.
But who made the playoffs, who is playing who, and how does the seeding work regarding where the games are played? Here, Mirror US Sport break down this year’s road to the Super Bowl and how it all works – from bye weeks to seeding brackets and where each round will be played.
How does the NFL playoff seeding and bye weeks work?
The Super Bowl will take place on February 9 (
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The playoffs will feature 14 teams, seven from the American Football Conference (AFC) and seven from the National Football Conference (NFC). Four of the seven teams from each conference are the winners of each division – split into north, east, west and south – and three are ‘Wildcard’ teams who finished the season with the best records other than the four division champions.
From this, each of the teams are seeded into a bracket – numbered from one to seven – and the division winners are seeded highest from one to four. Numbers five to seven are given to the Wildcard qualifiers and are based on how good their records are in comparison to one another.
The number one seed in each conference is given a bye week in the Wildcard round and will not play until the Divisional round at their home stadium. The lower-seeded teams play on the road.
Whoever wins this weekend will head to the Divisional round, where four teams will play two games each—similar to a semi-final in European football—to determine who will advance to the next game. Following this, the Conference Championships will be played between the two top teams from the AFC and NFC.
The winners of these games will be crowned champions of their respective conferences and will head to New Orleans in February to play in the Super Bowl.
2025 AFC bracket – who’s the top seed, and who will be playing this weekend?
Patrick Mahomes is looking to win his third consecutive Super Bowl this year (
Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
- Kansas City Chiefs (Bye into Divisional round)
- Buffalo Bills vs 7. Denver Broncos
- Baltimore Ravens vs 6. Pittsburgh Steelers
- Houston Texans vs 5. Los Angeles Chargers
The Chiefs are once again the AFC West champions, having won their ninth straight division title in week 14 of the regular season. The Chiefs are one of the favorites to go all the way, with a 15-2 record and an undefeated record at home, losing only to the Bills and the Broncos in their 17 matches.
This means they will get a week off from playing football while the other six teams battle it out to reach the Divisional round. The AFC games that will be played this weekend are:
Saturday, January 11
- Los Angeles Chargers at Houston Texans – 4:30pm ET
- Pittsburgh Steelers at Baltimore Ravens – 8pm ET
Sunday, January 12
- Denver Broncos at Buffalo Bills – 1pm ET
The winners of the Texans versus Chargers will take on the Chiefs in the Divisional round, and it will be between the Ravens and Steelers to take on either the Bills or the Broncos.
2025 NFC bracket
Could the Detriot Lions win their first ever Super Bowl? (
Nic Antaya/Getty Images)
- Detriot Lions (Bye into Divisional round)
- Philadelphia Eagles vs 7. Green Bay Packers
- Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs 6. Washington Commanders
- Los Angeles Rams vs 5. Minnesota Vikings
The Lions are back-to-back winners of the NFC North league for the first time since they won the Western Division three times in a row from 1952-1954. Head coach Dan Campbell has led the champions to a 15-2 record this year, an improvement from their 12-5 record in 2023.
However, the team will be hungry to make it to the Super Bowl in 2025 after narrowly missing out on the Conference Championship against the San Francisco 49ers last year, when they lost 34-31.
So, with a bye week coming up, the Lions will be planning to improve from last year and potentially win their first-ever Lombardi trophy on the first time of asking. The NFC games that will be played this weekend are:
Sunday, January 12
- Green Back Packers at Philadelphia Eagles – 4:30pm ET
- Washington Commanders at Tampa Bay Buccaneers – 8pm ET
Monday, January 13
- Minnesota Vikings at Los Angeles Rams – 8pm ET
The winner of the Rams vs Vikings game will take on the Lions in the Divisional round, and whoever is victorious out of the Buccaneers versus the Commanders will take on either the Eagles or the Packers.
Divisional round dates
- Saturday, January 18 – times to be determined
- Sunday, January 19 – times to be determined
Conference Championship date
- Sunday, January 26 – times to be confirmed
Super Bowl date and time
- Sunday, February 9 – 6:30pm ET
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