how many nfl teams make the playoffs

Fourteen NFL teams make the playoffs each season under the current format: seven from the AFC and seven from the NFC.

Core format

• The league uses a 14‑team postseason bracket, adopted starting with the 2020 season and still in place for the 2025–26 playoffs.

• Each conference (AFC and NFC) sends 7 teams: 4 division winners plus 3 wild cards seeded 1 through 7.

How seeding and byes work

• The No. 1 seed in each conference gets the only first‑round bye and home‑field advantage as long as it remains alive.

• Seeds 2–4 are the other division winners, and seeds 5–7 are the wild‑card teams, ordered by regular‑season record and tiebreakers.

Wild Card round matchups

• In the Wild Card round, the matchups in each conference are: 2 vs 7, 3 vs 6, and 4 vs 5.

• This creates three Wild Card games per conference (six total), followed by the Divisional round, Conference Championships, and the Super Bowl.

Recent seasons context

• The ongoing 2025–26 postseason schedule and brackets continue to show 7 seeds on each side, confirming the 14‑team setup is still active.

• Media coverage of current playoff pictures and projections also consistently describes a 14‑team field when discussing who can “make the playoffs.”

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.