Some pieces of the 2022 NFL regular season have gone as planned. The Buffalo Bills, Tennessee Titans and Kansas City Chiefs are all in position to reclaim their thrones as division champions in the AFC. Major offseason trades have helped the Philadelphia Eagles and Miami Dolphins rise to contender status.
Other pieces have not. Neither the Green Bay Packers, Tampa Bay Buccaneers or defending champion Los Angeles Rams have winning records at the season’s halfway mark. The Seattle Seahawks and New York Giants, each assumed to be in the midst of rebuilds, currently occupy playoff spots.
After nine weeks, half the projected postseason field is made up of teams that went home after Week 18 in 2021. So if the season ended today, what would this winter’s playoffs look like?