NFL Playoffs 2023-24 dates, format, predictions

The 2023-24 NFL Playoffs are still a long time from now, but let’s take a look at the important dates, the format for the postseason and some predictions.

There’s nothing quite like the NFL Playoffs. Whenever it’s win-or-go-home in an already highly intense game, the stakes are raised and we see the best players in football do everything within their power to make sure their seasons don’t end. Throw in the added bonus of snow games in colder winter climates, and that’s just gravy.

Even before the NFL season starts, though, fans are already thinking about the playoffs. For some fans, that means already preparing for their team to make a postseason run. Others, however, are expressing some wishful thinking about “what if” their favorite team could get into the NFL Playoffs.

It’s never too early to start thinking about the postseason, though, so let’s take a look at all of the 2023-24 NFL Playoffs dates you need to know, the format, and why not make some predictions as well.

NFL Playoffs 2023-24 key dates

Before we get to the playoffs, we have to get started. The 2023 NFL regular season begins on Thursday, Sept. 7 at 8:20 p.m. ET with the reigning champion Kansas City Chiefs hosting the Detroit Lions. The rest of Week 1 will then take place on Sunday, Sept. 10 and Monday, Sept. 11. That will then obviously last throughout the fall and into the winter for 18 weeks with games on Thursdays, Sundays, Mondays and Saturdays late in the season. The final slate of games in the regular season, Week 18, will be played entirely on Sunday, Jan. 7, 2024.

The 2023-24 NFL Playoffs will then begin on Saturday, Jan. 13 with the Wild Card Round games being played on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday of that week. The Divisional Round games of the NFL Playoffs will be played on Saturday, Jan. 20 and Sunday, Jan. 21. The AFC and NFC Championship Games will then take place on Sunday, Jan. 28. That all leads to Super Bowl 58 in Las Vegas at Allegiant Stadium, which will be played on Sunday, Feb. 11, 2024.

NFL Playoffs 2023-24 format

The 2023-24 NFL Playoffs format is no different than it has been in years past. There are four rounds of the postseason, in order: Wild Card Round, Divisional Round, Conference Championships, Super Bowl.

Seven teams from each conference will make it into the postseason, four division winners from the regular season and then the teams with the three best overall records among non-division winners in both the AFC and NFC will earn playoff berths as wild card teams. The wild card teams will be seeded No. 5-7 in order of best-to-worst record of these three teams.

Only the top seed from the regular season standings from each conference will receive a bye in the Wild Card Round of the playoffs. As such, the seeding for the first round of the NFL Playoffs will look like this:

• AFC No. 2 Seed (Second-Best Division Winner) vs. AFC No. 7 Seed
• AFC No. 3 Seed (Third-Best Division Winner) vs. AFC No. 6 Seed
• AFC No. 4 Seed (Worst Division Winner) vs. AFC No. 5 Seed
• NFC No. 2 Seed (Second-Best Division Winner) vs. NFC No. 7 Seed
• NFC No. 3 Seed (Third-Best Division Winner) vs. NFC No. 6 Seed
• NFC No. 4 Seed (Worst Division Winner) vs. NFC No. 5 Seed

The NFL also reseeds after the Wild Card Round in the postseason, meaning that the No. 1 seed coming off of the bye will play the lowest remaining seed in the Divisional Round.

NFL Playoffs 2023-24 predictions

Okay, we now know when the MLB Playoffs begin and how the tournament is formatted. So, without further ado, let’s get into some predictions, shall we?

AFC

• 1 Kansas City Chiefs – BYE
• 2 Jacksonville Jaguars vs. 7 Buffalo Bills
• 3 New York Jets vs. 6 Cincinnati Bengals
• 4 Baltimore Ravens vs. 5 Los Angeles Chargers

NFC

• 1 Dallas Cowboys – BYE
• 2 San Francisco 49ers vs. 7 Green Bay Packers
• 3 Detroit Lions vs. 6 Seattle Seahawks
• 4 New Orleans Saints vs. 5 Philadelphia Eagles

We’ll spare you making predictions how the 2023-24 NFL Playoffs will play out. But that’s how the early projections have the postseason field of 14 teams shaping up.