A quick look at the current playoff standings shows a pretty clear picture in the NFC.
The Seattle Seahawks and Detroit Lions would be the top two wildcards, both holding 8-4 marks. Lurking just behind them in the wildcard hunt are 8-4 Dallas Cowboys and the 7-5 San Francisco 49ers. The New Orleans Saints and Atlanta Falcons are vying for the NFC South title, but at 5-7 apiece, the loser of that race almost certainly is curtains for a wildcard spot.
But the AFC picture is far less clear.
The 8-4 San Diego Chargers (currently the fifth seed), 7-5 Miami Dolphins (currently the six seed), 7-5 Kansas City Chiefs, 7-5 Buffalo Bills, 7-5 Baltimore Ravens, 7-5 Pittsburgh Steelers, 7-5 Cleveland Browns and 6-6 Houston Texans all are in the mix. Two of those teams will be the wildcards.
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If you want to take a closer look at the AFC playoff picture, Shutdown Corner's Frank Schwab paints the picture in great detail — or as best he can with such a muddled picture.
Now here's a look at what the potential matchups might be if the season finishes how we think it will go:
Detroit Lions at Seattle Seahawks: A change in the NFC West standings here, with the downward trending Arizona Cardinals fading and — with one head-to-head matchup left — the Seahawks coming on in crunch time. It's what they did last season, and we think the Seahawks have enough juice to earn a home playoff game, which has meant so much to their success the past several seasons. If the Lions have to come into Seattle and ask Matthew Stafford to attack this secondary ... uh oh.
Arizona Cardinals at Atlanta Falcons: The Cardinals would hope to play a lot more inspired ball in this rematch scenario than they did when the two teams met in Week 13 in the Georgia Dome. Nothing seemed to work, but especially concerning was the way Drew Stanton played in the loss. The Cardinals backup is one or two poor performances away from losing his job, one would think, but here's thinking that a Bruce Arians-coached team isn't going to blow a 9-1 record and miss the playoffs and that it would perform better the second time around. What will the Falcons' record be? Oh, who knows — we just hope it leads to a tweak of the playoff system in the offseason.
Baltimore Ravens at Indianapolis Colts: Another rematch at the same site. Back in Week 5, the Colts controlled the action and possessed the ball for nearly 39 minutes and dominated the third-down battle (Ravens were 1-of-11; Colts were 7-of-15). Joe Flacco really couldn't get anything going down the field, but Torrey Smith has caught fire since then. Basically, we're hoping for a much prettier matchup this time around. There were seven turnovers, 33 incomplete passes, 11 penalties, eight punts and, frankly, not much excitement. These teams met in the 2012 playoffs, and it was kind of boring then, too. Sigh ...
San Diego Chargers at Cincinnati Bengals: Oh, you remember. The Chargers squeaked their way into the playoffs a year ago, passing four teams to do so, and they beat a Bengals team at Paul Brown Stadium with yet another Andy Dalton meltdown. (Others struggled in the game, too, but we can't overlook that performance.) The Chargers quietly have gotten themselves back into the picture the past few weeks and find themselves ahead of the Chiefs right now, although a showdown with the New England Patriots looms. Still, what a nightmare matchup — or a proving ground? — this would be for the Bengals, who now have a five-game playoff losing streak dating back to Jan. 6, 1991.
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Eric Edholm is a writer for Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at edholm@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Eric_Edholm
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