A look at the league and the playoffs pictures

Sharkinva · Nov 18, 2015

With seven weeks left including this weekends games, here are the official standings/seedings for the entire league

NFL Playoff Picture - NFL.com

Just take a look and a litte food for thought.

Caliskinsfan · Nov 18, 2015

Excerpt

It’s tough to gauge how “tough” a team is at the start of the season. At this point however, there’s a good understanding of whether an NFL team is really good, really bad or just flat out inconsistent. A favorable schedule would be a nice benefit for any NFC East team during the second half of the season, so here’s the remaining schedule for all four teams in order of strength of schedule in parentheses:

Giants (.611): Bye, at Washington (4-5), vs. New York Jets (5-4), at Miami (4-5), vs. Carolina (9-0), at Minnesota (7-2), vs. Philadelphia (4-5)
Cowboys (.587): at Miami (4-5), vs. Carolina (9-0), at Washington (4-5), at Green Bay (6-3), vs. New York Jets (5-4), at Buffalo (5-4), vs. Washington (4-5)
Eagles (.562): vs. Tampa Bay (4-5), at Detroit (2-7), at New England (9-0), vs. Buffalo (5-4), vs. Arizona (7-2), vs. Washington (4-5), at New York Giants (5-5)
Redskins (.484): at Carolina (9-0), vs. New York Giants (5-5), vs. Dallas (2-7), at Chicago (4-5), vs. Buffalo (5-4), at Philadelphia (4-5), at Dallas (2-7)

The Redskins, on paper, have the easiest schedule mainly because they have four divisional games remaining. Those matchups are more toss-ups than gimmies, though. This does further show the Redskins, despite all the inconsistency and injuries they’ve dealt with this season, can still control their fate. After the Panthers game, the Redskins face just one team with a winning record in the Bills, while the Cowboys have four (Panthers, Packers, Jets and Bills) and the Giants (Jets, Panthers and Vikings) and Eagles (Patriots, Bills and Cardinals) have three each in the final six weeks of the season. Washington has two significant home games against the Giants and Cowboys that will shake up the division and possibly create some sort of separation among the four teams.

If Washington goes 3-4 down the stretch and finishes 7-9, it has 4.7 percent chance of making the playoffs, per MakeNFLPlayoffs. If the team finishes with an 8-8 record, it increases to a 39.8 percent chance and if, somehow, the Redskins go 5-2 down the stretch and post a 9-7 record, there’s a 92.2 percent chance they’ll make the playoffs. There’s also a 66.4 percent chance the Redskins don’t make the playoffs at all.

It’s a bad division, but it’ll be an interesting race to watch over the next month as the Redskins have an opportunity to play meaningful games down the stretch. And maybe, juuuuuuust maybe, play a game after Week 17.