Three teams can clinch playoff berth during NFL Week 15 slate

The GIST: Cuffing season? More like clinching season. The NFL’s playoff picture is starting to take shape with just four weeks left in the regular season: Nine teams have been eliminated from postseason contention so far, but no one has clinched a playoff berth…yet. Here’s who could check it off their to-do list in Week 15.

💙 New England Patriots: Sunday’s 1 p.m. ET tilt against their AFC East archrival, the Buffalo Bills, is the biggest game of second-year quarterback (QB) Drake Maye’s career to date — a win would return the division crown to New England for the first time since 2019. The Pats stunned the Bills in Week 5, and doing it again at home would send them back to the postseason with a top-four seed.

🐴 Denver Broncos: The most straightforward way for the AFC’s top team to secure a postseason berth? Beat the Green Bay Packers on Sunday at 4:25 p.m. ET. The Broncos boast one of the league’s most fearsome defenses (and a 10-game win streak), but Packers QB Jordan Love has thrown seven touchdowns and just one interception in the last two games. Spicy.

🐏 LA Rams: Rounding out the “win and you’re in” party is an NFC juggernaut that looks virtually unstoppable behind MVP candidate QB Matthew Stafford. Like Denver and New England, punching their ticket this week means topping a very good team: the 8-5 Detroit Lions, who are bringing a high-powered offense of their own into Sunday’s 4:25 p.m. ET battle.

☝️ One more thing: Pittsburgh Steelers superstar linebacker TJ Watt’s status for Monday Night Football is uncertain after the six-time All-Pro was hospitalized because of a lung injury that occurred during treatment at the team’s facility on Wednesday. Wishing him a speedy recovery.