AFC Wild Card Picture After Week 11

The AFC playoff and wild card picture is starting to take shape as Week 11 in the NFL winds down.

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Week 11 of the NFL season is winding down and the playoff picture is becoming a lot clearer. The New England Patriots have the best record in the conference, barely, and as the AFC East Champions would be the No. 1 seed. If they lose on Sunday Night Football, things would become really interesting as the Patriots, Denver Broncos and Indianapolis Colts, who the Pats play on SNF, would all be tied with 7-3 records.

The Kansas City Chiefs also would be 7-3, but they’d still be relegated to a wild card berth. The Broncos would get the second seed in the AFC as the West division champions, over the Chiefs. The Broncos have a better head-to-head win percentage than the Chiefs, breaking the tie at 7-3.

The Colts would claim the No. 3 seed as AFC South champions with a better record than the Cincinnati Bengals, who would be penciled in as the AFC North champions and the No. 4 seed.

The 7-3 Chiefs would be the No. 5 and first wild card seed, losing the previously mentioned tie breaker with the Broncos.

The No. 6 seed would be the Miami Dolphins and this gets messy because they’re tied with at 6-4 with the San Diego Chargers, Baltimore Ravens, Pittsburgh Steelers and Cleveland Browns.

The Dolphins get the not for several reasons, they have a better win percentage in conference games than the Ravens and Chargers. Division tie breaker gives the Dolphins the nod over Cleveland and Pittsburgh because Baltimore holds the tie breaker over both of them.

If you were wondering how the rest of the list goes, San Diego is No. 7, followed by Baltimore, Pittsburgh and Cleveland in that order. That’s right, the Browns at 6-4 would still finish 10th in the AFC. San Diego gets the nod over Baltimore on on best win percentage in conference games, and like with the Dolphins, Baltimore is the best of the remaining three AFC North teams.

Pittsburgh comes in at No. 9 ahead of Cleveland based on best win percentage in common games.

Keep in mind though, that the Patriots, Colts and Steelers still haven’t played this week.