Four NFC teams punch postseason tickets in Week 16

The GIST: There’s just two weeks left in the regular season, and the NFL’s postseason picture is more chaotic than your last-minute trip to the mall. Forget sugarplums — visions of playoff spots are dancing in everyone’s heads.

✅ Four NFC squads punch postseason tickets in Week 16: The NFC West will be well-represented after the Seattle Seahawks and San Francisco 49ers earned berths in Week 16, joining the already playoff-bound LA Rams.

• Rounding out the four-team clinching party are the NFC East champ Philadelphia Eagles and the Chicago Bears, who stunned the Green Bay Packers 22–16 in overtime (OT) on Saturday.

• That leaves one spot for the NFC South champ (a hotly contested race between the division-leading Carolina Panthers and Tampa Bay Buccaneers) and the final Wild Card, which will go to either the Packers or the Detroit Lions, who also fell in a heartbreaker.

❤️ New England Patriots clinch first playoff berth since 2021: Quarterback (QB) Drake Maye broke the 300-yard passing benchmark for the first time in his career — and it couldn’t have come at a better time as the shorthanded Pats orchestrated an 11-point, fourth-quarter comeback to top the equally injured Baltimore Ravens 28–24 on Sunday Night Football.

👀 Four AFC teams watching Monday Night Football: A whopping four teams — the Jacksonville Jaguars, LA Chargers, Buffalo Bills, and Houston Texans — boast double-digit wins but haven’t clinched a postseason berth…yet. If the Indianapolis Colts lose to the aforementioned 49ers tonight at 8:15 p.m. ET, the playoff-clinching floodgates would open, and all four would lock in their spots.

☝️ Playoff seeding will come down to the wire: There’s still plenty to play for after a team has clinched…especially this season. Each conference’s No. 1 seed (and the coveted home-field advantage and first-round bye that comes with it) is still up for grabs. The drama’s only just begun.