The NFL playoffs are poised to look fairly bizarre.
Patrick Mahomes won’t seem within the postseason subsequent month.
Nor will Joe Burrow or Dak Prescott.
Lamar Jackson is dangerously near becoming a member of them, and he is probably not wholesome sufficient to play subsequent weekend as his Baltimore Ravens (7-8) try to maintain their dwindling playoff hopes alive.
The percentages are even worse for the Detroit Lions, who fell to 8-7 on Sunday, lower than a 12 months after they completed 15-2 and entered final postseason because the NFC’s No. 1 seed.
“All we can do is control what we can control,” Jackson mentioned after Sunday night time’s 28-24 loss to the New England Patriots, a recreation during which he left throughout the second quarter on account of a again damage and didn’t return.
That is the primary time in Mahomes’ profession that the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs didn’t make the playoffs.
They superior to not less than the AFC Championship Recreation in every of Mahomes’ first seven seasons as a starter from 2018-24; made it to the Tremendous Bowl 5 of these years; and gained it 3 times.
After going 15-2 and dropping within the Tremendous Bowl final season, the Chiefs are simply 6-9 this 12 months.
They had been eradicated from playoff competition throughout their Week 15 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers — a recreation during which Mahomes tore a number of ligaments in his left knee.
Mahomes already underwent knee surgical procedure in hopes of returning for Week 1 of the 2026 season. However after this 12 months’s disappointment, the once-dynastic Chiefs might look a lot completely different subsequent season, not least of which as a result of Travis Kelce, 36, has publicly contemplated retirement.
The longer term is equally unsure for the Bengals (5-10), who’ve now missed the playoffs in all three seasons since their Tremendous Bowl loss in February 2023.
Burrow has suffered three severe accidents in six NFL seasons, together with the turf toe that required surgical procedure and price him 9 video games this 12 months. Cincinnati is 4-2 with Burrow this season, in comparison with 1-8 with out him.
The Bengals’ lack of ability to guard Burrow or to subject a reliable protection stay the sources of scrutiny, and Burrow’s current cryptic feedback have raised questions on his long-term future in Cincinnati.
Burrow mentioned final week that he’s “going to be playing for a long time” and expects to be in Cincy subsequent season. However when he was requested if has ever thought-about the potential of taking part in for an additional workforce in some unspecified time in the future, Burrow replied, “You think about a lot of things.”
The absences of Mahomes and Burrow opens up the AFC, however Jackson and the Ravens haven’t been in a position to take benefit.
Jackson missed three video games with a hamstring damage earlier within the season, and he’s additionally handled knee, ankle and toe illnesses that didn’t value him any time.
If the Ravens lose to the Inexperienced Bay Packers on Saturday, or if the AFC North-leading Pittsburgh Steelers beat the lowly Cleveland Browns on Sunday, then Baltimore might be eradicated from the playoffs.
The Ravens made the playoffs in six of Jackson’s first seven seasons from 2018-24, together with every of the previous three.
However NFL.com’s playoff predictor offers the Ravens simply an 11% likelihood of creating the playoffs, in comparison with 89% odds for the 9-6 Steelers, who’re led by 42-year-old quarterback Aaron Rodgers.
The Lions’ odds fell to eight% after Sunday’s 29-24 loss to Pittsburgh. Except they defy the chances, this would be the Lions’ first time lacking the playoffs in three years.
The Dallas Cowboys (6-8-1) had been eradicated from playoff competition over the weekend, regardless of a wholesome season from Prescott and a pair of 1,000-yard vast receivers in George Pickens and CeeDee Lamb.
That formally prolonged the Cowboys’ Tremendous Bowl drought to 30 years. After three consecutive 12-win seasons for Dallas from 2021-23, the Cowboys have missed the postseason two years in a row.
“We all underachieved, really,” Cowboys proprietor Jerry Jones mentioned. “And the fact we’re not in the playoffs says that for you.”
After which there are the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who fell to 7-8 and into second place within the NFC South with Sunday’s 23-20 loss to the division-leading Carolina Panthers (8-7).
Tampa Bay has made the playoffs 5 years in a row and gained the NFC South in every of the final 4.
NFL.com’s projection mannequin nonetheless offers the Bucs a 58% likelihood of creating the playoffs, in comparison with 42% for the Panthers.
That’s as a result of the Buccaneers go to the spiraling Miami Dolphins (6-9) subsequent weekend, whereas the Panthers are set to host a Seattle Seahawks workforce (12-3) that’s preventing to lock down the NFC’s prime seed.
The Bucs and Panthers then face one another in Tampa Bay in Week 18 — a matchup that might determine the NFC South.
The absences of the Chiefs, Bengals and Cowboys within the playoff combine – and the sturdy chance the Ravens and Lions will quickly be part of them — opened the door for the Patriots, Chicago Bears and Jacksonville Jaguars.
The Pats (12-3), Bears (11-4) and Jags (11-4) are competing for the highest seed of their respective conferences after none gained greater than 5 video games final season.
However no person might profit from this playoff shakeup greater than the Buffalo Payments (11-4), who’ve their clearest path to the Tremendous Bowl within the Josh Allen period.
The Payments are nicely on their solution to their seventh consecutive playoff look, however they’re but to win the AFC beneath Allen. That’s largely as a result of Allen is 0-4 in opposition to Mahomes within the playoffs.
This 12 months, Allen and the Payments gained’t have Mahomes standing in the way in which.
