Top 5 players who will decide the NFL playoff race

With just two weeks left of regular season play, there are five NFL players poised to make a major impact in the playoff race.

This NFL season has been remarkable in many ways, but perhaps most notably in its disparity between a few top teams in the league and then a whole lot of mediocrity behind them.

Through Week 7, a record five teams were still undefeated around the league. That number dipped to three after Week 9, which was still a record in its own right. Of course, now the lone unbeaten team is the Panthers, but at 14-0 and with only dates against the 7-7 Falcons and 6-8 Buccaneers remaining, there’s a very realistic shot Carolina posts the second perfect 16-0 regular season in NFL history. If they do so, they’ll be aiming for a much greater feat: to become the only team to ever go 19-0 and win a Super Bowl.

On the flip side, this season has also seen a record number of underachieving teams. Just before Thanksgiving, there were a meager 11 teams with winning records around the league – the lowest number of teams below .500 in 25 years. As a result, we’re continuing to see a recent trend in the postseason where teams like the Texans and the Redskins could host playoff games with 8-8 records (or worse), while an 11-5 Jets team or a 10-6 Broncos team could theoretically miss the postseason altogether.

As the playoff picture comes into greater focus over the next two weeks, here are the five players who will make the biggest impact on deciding which teams will qualify for January.

Next: 5. Sam Bradford