Let’s say you’re here because you just watched an NFL playoff game and saw a big upset — say the No. 7 team in the AFC beat the No. 2 team.
Now you’re wondering: Does that No. 7 team move on to play whoever was next in the NFL playoffs bracket? Or does the NFL reseed so it plays the teams with the best records?
The answer is: The latter. The NFL doesn’t have a traditional bracket format like other sports do. So the No. 1 teams after the Wild Card round who got a bye play the worst remaining seeds in their conference (whether that’s the No. 7 or 6 or 4) and the top seeds go from there to play the worse-seeded teams.
There’s your answer!