There is a crazy scenario this week where the Jaguars (somehow) beat the Colts and then the the Raiders and Chargers could both make the playoffs with a tie on Sunday night football.  I for one want to see 60 minutes of kneel down, kneel down, kneel down, punt.  I would watch every second.

I live for stuff like this.  My favorite sports moments include the time the lights went out at the Super Bowl and the time Gurley accidentally scored a game losing touchdown.   And of course there is the all time greatest soccer game: Barbados vs Grenada where Barbados had to defend BOTH GOALS for three minutes.

So this got me thinking about one of my favorite topics: How bad can an NFL team be and still make the playoffs?  If you assume no game ends in a tie, an NFL team can theoretically go 3-14 and make the playoffs.  They would actually HOST A HOME GAME in this scenario.  But I wanted to see what this full season would look like, so I wrote some code to simulate the 2021-22 season (with the real schedule) with the caveat that NFC North teams lose all of their out of division games and split evenly with all teams in the NFC North.  I also required there to be an 8 win wild card team in the NFC, which is the lowest number of wins I could get for a wildcard team with all NFC North teams winning only 3 games.  So without further adieu, here is what that season could really have looked like in my dream world (there are many scenarios with this, here is one of them):

AFC

East

Dolphins 12-5

Patriots 8-9

Jets 7-10

Bills 6-11

North

Ravens 13-4

Browns 12-5

Steelers 10-7

Bengals 7-10

South

Texans 12-5

Jaguars 11-6

Titans 10-7

Colts 5-12

West

Raiders 13-4

Chiefs 10-7

Chargers 10-7

Broncos 5-12

NFC

East

Washington Football Team 13-4

Giants 11-6

Eagles 7-10

Cowboys 6-11

North

Bears 3-14

Lions 3-14

Packers 3-14

Vikings 3-14

South

Buccaneers 10-7

Panthers 8-9

Saints 7-10

Falcons 5-12

West

Cardinals 14-3

Seahawks 13-4

Rams 8-9

49ers 7-10

 

Playoffs

AFC

1. Raiders 13-4
2. Ravens 13-4
3. Dolphins 12-5
4. Texans 12-5
5. Browns 12-5
6. Jaguars 11-6
7. Steelers 10-7

Things get fun here!

NFC

1. Cardinals 14-3
2. Washington Football Team 13-4
3. Buccaneers 10-7
4. Bears 3-14
5. Seahawks 13-4
6. Giants 11-6
7. Rams 8-9

In the NFC this would lead to the following wild card games:

Rams 8-9 at Washington 13-4

Giants 11-6 at Buccaneers 10-7

Seahawks 13-4 AT BEARS 3-14(!!!) (This is theoretically possible!!!)

All I want for next Christmas is the 3-14 Bears to HOST the 13-4 Seahawks in a playoff game.  The Seahawks deserve to be that team to have to go to the 3-14 team after they hosted a playoff game withe a losing record (and then won!).

Cheers.