It’s going to take a while for the AFC playoff picture to shake out.
The AFC West is the division that remains most up for grabs, with every team still alive and a lot of division games left to play.
The final wild card spot is just as jumbled. If the season ended today, the Ravens (7-3) would win the AFC North and the Steelers (7-3) would get the first wild card. With forgiving schedules ahead for the most part, we expect the Ravens and Steelers to both make the playoffs in some spot.
Things gets interesting with the No. 6 seed.
The Bengals have the last playoff spot by themselves right now at 6-4. Four teams are only one game back at 5-5: Denver, Tennessee, New York, and Buffalo. (That would be the current order for tiebreakers.) The Chiefs could get to 5-5 with an upset over the Patriots on Monday night.
Fans of the Titans, Bills, and Jets probably don’t feel great this morning. The realty is that they are still in fine position. (Although Buffalo may want to stop losing by 30 points every week.)
Winning ten games would give any team a great chance to get the six seed, and even a 9-7 team might slip in.