With Week 1 of the 2026 NFL Season beginning tomorrow, there is no better time than now to make some predictions for how we think this year is going to play out.
There is a lot of unexpected events that can happen, so many of the predictions you see right now might end up being totally wrong. I am not sure many people truly thought that Seattle and New England, two non-playoff teams from 2024, would make the Super Bowl in 2025, for example.
Ahead of Week 1, we've rolled out another exercise we play on keeping up with weekly. We'll predict the 14-team playoff field each week, and obviously, our predictions will change as the records begin to sort themselves out. Let's get into our first playoff prediction of the season.
Predicting the 14-team playoff field for 2026 as Week 1 approaches
AFC Playoff Teams
1. Houston Texans
With the Houston Texans having won 12 games in 2025 despite starting 0-3, all that might be in the way of this team earning the top seed in the AFC could simply be a 'not terrible' start. If that does happen, and quarterback CJ Stroud plays better football, Houston could earn the AFC's top seed.
2. Denver Broncos
The Denver Broncos have won 24 regular season games over the last two seasons, and captured the AFC West title in 2025. Arguably the best roster in the NFL, it would take a massively unexpected decline for this team not to make the playoffs.
3. Buffalo Bills
Despite the new head coach, the Buffalo Bills still feel like a safe bet to make the playoffs. They have done this with double-digit wins each year since 2019, and now, QB Josh Allen has a new weapon in wide receiver DJ Moore.
4. Cincinnati Bengals
With the defensive overhaul that took place in Cincinnati this offseason, we could finally have a playoff-caliber team, and if it's anything like how good they were in 2022, for example, the Bengals could capture the AFC North title with 11 or 12 wins.
5. Baltimore Ravens
Baltimore gets back into the playoffs as the top Wild Card seed in our first predictions of the 2026 season. As long as this team doesn't deal with an insane amount of injuries, which was the case last year, they'll be just fine.
6. Jacksonville Jaguars
The Jacksonville Jaguars lost two foundational pieces this offseason in Travis Etienne and Devin Lloyd, and even then, the roster wasn't overwhelming. I am not sure it's wild to think this team fails to reach 13 wins from a year ago, but I also believe this team is well-coached enough to get into the playoffs two-straight years.
7. New England Patriots
New England's schedule does get a lot harder this year, so a regression could be the likely scenario, but with the receiving talent this team added in the offseason, coupled with the already-stingy defense, the Patriots might be one of the easier teams to predict to get into the playoffs this year.
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