NFL Continues 14-Team Playoff Format

Introduced last year and continuing in 2021, a total of 14 teams - seven NFL teams each in the AFC and NFC - will make the playoffs.

Three Wild Card teams from each conference will qualify for the postseason along with each division winner. With seven teams per conference now, only the No. 1 seed in each conference will be receiving a bye in the Wild Card round.

The remaining division winners in each conference with the best records will be seeded 2, 3, and 4, followed by the next three teams per conference with the best records seeded 5, 6, and 7.

Wild Card Weekend for the 2021 season will feature six games, starting on Saturday, January 15. AFC and NFC Wild Card round games feature the 2 seed hosting the 7 seed, the 3 seed hosting the 6 seed and the 4 seed hosting the 5 seed in each conference.

Wild Card Weekend winners join the top seeds in each conference in the Divisional Playoffs on Saturday and Sunday, January 22-23. The AFC and NFC Championship Games, presented by Intuit TurboTax Live, will be played on Sunday, January 30. The winners meet two weeks later on Sunday, February 13, in Super Bowl LVI at Los Angeles' SoFi Stadium (NBC), marking the first time the Super Bowl is played in the Los Angeles area since Super Bowl XXVII in 1993.

Before last season's change, the NFL last expanded the playoffs for the 1990 season, increasing from 10 to 12 the number of teams to qualify for the postseason.

Since 1990 (a streak of 31 consecutive seasons) at least four new teams have qualified for the playoffs that missed the postseason the year before, including seven of the 14 playoff teams in 2020.

NFL Continues 14-Team Playoff Format Season