The following charts seek to answer the following question: If these two (or more) teams finish with the same record, who wins the tiebreaker?
Notes and assumptions:
- At most 1 future tie game.
- Tiebreaker winners are as they would be if the teams were tied at the end of the season, NOT as if the season ended right now.
- Tiebreakers that don’t affect playoff berths or seeding are ignored.
- Division ties are broken first.
- If three or more teams are tied, apply that tiebreaker, not the two-team tiebreaker.
- Strength of victory is the combined winning percentage (essentially, the number of wins) of the teams a team has beaten. It has nothing to do with point totals.
- The BAL-HOU tiebreaker requires an IND-TEN tie.
No AFC team has yet clinched a playoff seed. NE has clinched their division. HOU, KC, and LAC have clinched playoff berths. NYJ, BUF, CIN, CLE, JAX, DEN, and OAK are mathematically eliminated.
The complete tiebreaker rules are here.
Jump to North | South | West | Interdivisional ties 2-way • 3-way
AFC North
| If these teams tie | at | tie goes to | based on |
|---|---|---|---|
| PIT-BAL | PIT | division record |
AFC South
| If these teams tie | at | with these things happening | tie goes to | based on |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| HOU-IND | 10-6 | IND | division record | |
| HOU-TEN | 10-6 | TEN | division record | |
| IND-TEN | 9-6-1 | IND | head-to-head |
AFC West
| If these teams tie | at | with these things happening | tie goes to | based on |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| KC-LAC | KC | division record |
Interdivisional ties
2-way ties
| If these teams tie | at | with these things happening | tie goes to | based on |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NE-BAL | 10-6 | BAL | conference record | |
| NE-HOU | NE | head-to-head | ||
| NE-IND | 10-6 | NE | head-to-head | |
| NE-TEN | 10-6 | TEN | head-to-head | |
| NE-KC | 11-5 | NE | head-to-head | |
| PIT-IND | 9-6-1 | PIT | common opponents | |
| BAL-HOU | 10-6 | BUF+OAK win more W17 games than DAL+DEN+NYJ+WAS | BAL | strength of victory |
| BAL-HOU | 10-6 | BUF+OAK win as many W17 games as DAL+DEN+NYJ+WAS | BAL | strength of schedule |
| BAL-HOU | 10-6 | BUF+OAK win fewer W17 games than DAL+DEN+NYJ+WAS | HOU | strength of victory |
| BAL-IND | BAL | conference record | ||
| BAL-TEN | 10-6 | BAL | head-to-head | |
| HOU-KC | 11-5 | CLE+DAL+WAS win at least as many W17 games as ARI+JAX+SF | HOU | strength of victory |
| HOU-KC | 11-5 | CLE+DAL+WAS win fewer W17 games as ARI+JAX+SF | KC | strength of victory |
3-way ties
| If these teams tie | at | with these things happening | tie goes to | based on |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NE-BAL-HOU | 10-6 | BUF+OAK win more W17 games than DAL+DEN+NYJ+WAS | BAL |
|
| NE-BAL-HOU | 10-6 | BUF+OAK win as many W17 games as DAL+DEN+NYJ+WAS | BAL |
|
| NE-BAL-HOU | 10-6 | BUF+OAK win fewer W17 games than DAL+DEN+NYJ+WAS | HOU |
|
| NE-BAL-IND | 10-6 | BAL | conference record | |
| NE-BAL-TEN | 10-6 | BAL | conference record | |
| NE-HOU-KC | 11-5 | NE | head-to-head |
