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What is a Wildcard in the NFL?

Consider this your complete guide to the NFL wildcard places, including how teams qualify as wildcards and which wildcards have won the Super Bowl.

Table of Contents:

Understanding the NFL Playoff Structure

NFL Regular Season vs. Postseason

The NFL season is split into two parts. First, each team plays 17 games, aiming to rank as highly as possible to qualify for the postseason – also known as the playoffs. Here, the NFL pivots from a league format to a knockout tournament. Not every team goes through to the postseason, however, of those that do, some qualify as divisional winners and others as wildcards.

Divisional Winners and Automatic Playoff Spots

Every division winner in the NFL makes it to the playoffs. Each conference, the AFC and NFC, has four divisions of four teams. The teams that win these divisions automatically advance to the postseason.

Wildcards as Part of the Playoff Landscape

To fill out the other six playoff places after the divisional winners, a wildcard system is put into play. These wildcard places go to the three teams in each conference that didn’t win a division and have the best records.

Role of Conferences: AFC and NFC

The AFC and NFC see their teams jump across the conferences to compete during the regular season. In the playoffs, two conference-contained brackets eventually lead to an AFC vs NFC final, the Super Bowl. In some cases, teams in one conference will miss the playoffs despite having better records than the teams that qualify from the other.

What is a Wildcard?

Definition of a Wildcard in Sports

A wildcard in sports is a place in a playoff or finals format of a competition that goes to a team that didn’t automatically qualify for this advanced stage of the tournament.

Wildcard in the NFL Context

In the NFL, automatic playoff places go to divisional winners. The wildcard places are there to allow an additional six teams to join the eight divisional winners based on their performances. This means that while all division winners automatically qualify, not all playoff teams are division winners.

Difference Between Divisional Winners and Wildcard Teams

The biggest difference between the divisional winners and wildcard teams in the context of the playoffs after qualifying is seeding. The divisional winners get the top four seeds, and the best of them – the conference winner – gets a first-round bye. In matchups, higher-seeded teams get to play at home, putting wildcard teams on the back foot from the start.

History of the Wildcard in the NFL Playoffs

The wildcard system became a part of the NFL Playoffs in 1970 and has seen a few adjustments to the format over the decades. Most recently, in 2020, the playoffs expanded from 12 teams to 14, making another wildcard place in both conferences to accommodate.

The Evolution of the Wildcard System

Introduction of the Wildcard in NFL History

The wildcard was introduced to the NFL in 1970, and it only took until 1975 for a wildcard team to make it to the Super Bowl. The Dallas Cowboys didn’t win the big game that year, but it proved that wildcard teams can certainly make a difference.

Changes Over Time: Expansion of Playoff Teams

At the point that the NFL and AFL merged to create the NFL we know today, the playoffs featured three divisional winners and one wildcard team with the best win percentage. In 1978, an extra wildcard place was added to each conference. These two wildcards would play in the first week of the postseason.

The postseason expanded again in 1990 to 12 teams, three of which in each division came via wildcard qualification. When the NFL adjusted its format to accommodate a new 32-team league in 2002, four divisions were made. They kept the 12-team playoffs, cutting one wildcard place and adding a divisional one.

Introduction of the 14-Team Playoff Format

In 2020, the NFL expanded its playoff format again, bringing the team count up to 14. This was fueled by adding another wildcard place to each conference. To facilitate the odd number of seven teams going through from each conference, the conference winner is now permitted a bye week while the six others play in the Wild Card Round.

Wildcards Pre and Post-2020 NFL Rule Changes

Before 2020, the number of wildcard teams built up from one in 1970 to two in 1978, up to three in 1990, but then back down to two in 2002. In 2020, a three-place wildcard system was reinstated to expand the NFL Playoffs.

How Wildcard Teams Qualify

Regular Season Record Requirements

There isn’t a set record requirement to become an NFL wildcard team. Instead, a team just has to be one of the best of the rest. Teams simply need the best record after the divisional winners have been accounted for.

Tiebreaker Rules for Wildcard Qualification

If two potential NFL wildcard teams end with the same record, the tiebreaker rules see the place go to the highest-placed team if they’re from the same division. If that doesn’t work, they look at the head-to-head record that season (if applicable), and then the conference record, record against the same four teams (if applicable), and so on. There are 12 tiebreakers in total, with the last one being just a coin toss.

Conference Standings and Wildcard Selection

The wildcard places don’t have to be given out to specific divisions. Rather, if you sort the whole conference by record, the top teams that didn’t win a division get picked as wildcards.

Common Scenarios Leading to Wildcard Qualification

Sometimes, particularly strong divisions emerge where several teams rank above those in other divisions. In the first six weeks of the 2024 NFL season, the NFC North broke a multi-decade record for teams starting 4-2 or better. Keeping pace, the fourth-placed Green Bay Packers at 4-2 are in a good place to qualify for the playoffs.

Wildcard Weekend

Overview of Wildcard Weekend

Wildcard Weekend is the first week of the NFL Playoffs. It sees all of the wildcard teams play against the second, third, and fourth-seeded teams – each of which was a divisional winner.

Structure: How Wildcard Teams Face Divisional Winners

The team that has won a division and holds the best record in the conference gets a bye. This leaves three divisional winners and three wildcard teams. Seeds two, three, and four go to the second-best, third-best, and fourth-best divisional winner, while the wildcard teams are seeded fifth, sixth, and seventh based on their records.

Importance of Wildcard Weekend in the Playoffs

An integral stage, Wildcard Weekend not only kicks off the NFL Playoffs, but also gives each conference’s best team a chance to rest and plan for an extra week. That may even go to an undefeated team in 2024.

Notable Wildcard Weekend Upsets in NFL History

In the 2010 season, the Seattle Seahawks met the heavily favoured New Orleans Saints on Wildcard Weekend and marched away 41-36 winners. This was powered by Marshawn Lynch shrugging off nine tackles on a 67-yard TD run, which happened to make enough noise at Lumen Field to register as a tremor on nearby seismographs.

Impact of Wildcard Teams in NFL History

Notable Wildcard Teams that Won the Super Bowl

Only seven wildcard teams have gone on to win the Super Bowl since 1970. They are the 1980 Oakland Raiders, 1997 Denver Broncos, 2000 Baltimore Ravens, 2005 Pittsburgh Steelers, 2007 New York Giants, 2010 Green Bay Packers, and 2020 Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Memorable Wildcard Runs

A further four wildcard teams have gone to the Super Bowl but couldn’t keep the momentum going to win the big game. Those teams were the 1975 Dallas Cowboys, 1985 New England Patriots, 1992 Buffalo Bills, and 1999 Tennessee Titans.

The Underdog Story: Why Wildcard Teams Can Be Dangerous

Many wildcard teams have broken into the NFL Playoffs on the back of a good run of form to end the season, giving them momentum coming into the postseason where divisional winners may have eased off the pedal to prepare for the slog. Being underdogs from the get-go, they don’t have anything to lose, which can make them dangerous.

How Wild Card Teams Have Shaped NFL Playoff History

As shown above, 11 wildcard teams have had enough momentum to get them all the way to the Super Bowl despite being at a disadvantage in the seeding. Of those 11, seven have hoisted the trophy, meaning that, when a wildcard team makes it to the Super Bowl, more often than not, they go on to win.

FAQs

What is the difference between a wildcard team and a divisional winner?

The difference between a wildcard team and a divisional winner is that divisional winners enter the playoffs with a bye or a higher seeding to get home-field advantage. Plus, wildcard places only go to teams that don’t win divisions.

How many wildcard teams are in the NFL playoffs?

There are six wildcard teams in the NFL Playoffs. Three qualify from the AFC and three qualify from the NFC.

Can a wildcard team win the Super Bowl?

An NFL wildcard team can win the Super Bowl, and in the 2020, 2010, 2007, 2005, 2000, 1997, and 1980 seasons, one did.

How does a team qualify for the wildcard spot in the NFL?

To qualify for a wildcard spot in the NFL playoffs, a team must not win their division. Then, they need to have one of the best records among the non-division winners in their conference. Specifically, there are three wildcard spots available in each conference, awarded to the teams with the best records that did not win their respective divisions.

What are the chances of a wildcard team making it to the Super Bowl?

Since the inception of the NFL’s wildcard system in 1970, only 11 wildcard teams have made it to the Super Bowl. With 54 years of football between then and now, that offers a roughly one-in-five chance of a wildcard team making it to the Super Bowl.

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