Heading into the final two weeks of the NFL regular season, there are 14 teams already mathematically eliminated from playoff contention, which is the highest number at this point of the season since the league expanded to 17 games in 2021.
The previous high was last season, when 13 teams were out of postseason contention after Week 16.
Among this year’s contingent with no more postseason hopes are the NFL’s two most-watched teams, the Chiefs and Cowboys, as Dallas was officially eliminated after the Eagles beat the Commanders Saturday night. That’s led to a less-interesting-than-expected Christmas Day doubleheader for Netflix and nightcap for Amazon Prime Video.
Seven teams have already clinched a postseason berth, meaning half the playoff field is set and another seven spots are still up for grabs. The NFC is particularly lopsided, as the only open spot available is for the winner of the NFC South, either the Panthers or Buccaneers.
The growing disparity among this season’s playoff contenders are underperformers comes as half of the Week 17 games will be broadcast to national audiences, including seven standalone windows—the trio of Christmas contests, a Saturday doubleheader, and the standard Sunday Night Football and Monday Night Football broadcasts.
In the late Sunday afternoon window, Fox will have Eagles-Bills, and will only have competition from Giants-Raiders (both tied for the league’s worst record at 2–13) on CBS.
But only three of those nationally-televised games feature two teams with winning records. Overall, six of out of 16 matchups in Week 17 are between teams with losing records, while five include two teams with winning records.
Creating more meaningful late-season matchups has been a priority for NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, who this past offseason made a case to eliminate guaranteed home games for division champions and instead seed conference playoff participants strictly on win-loss records. The proposal, which was ultimately tabled, would theoretically give more incentive to playoff-bound teams in the final weeks of the season with more seeding fluctuation possible.
This year’s eventual NFC South champion is likely to host a team with a better record, with potential for the same scenario to play out with the NFC East champion Eagles and eventual AFC North winner.
