NFC playoff picture, Week 7: Where the Seahawks stand after big win against the Falcons

Is it a little premature to look at the NFL playoff picture? Maybe, but the 2024 regular season is almost halfway over and there are already key tiebreakers in the NFC worth considering.

The Seattle Seahawks' big road win over the Atlanta Falcons combined with the San Francisco 49ers' recent loss to the Kansas City Chiefs has put the Seahawks back at the top of the NFC West. In fact, after seven games, they are the only team in the division above .500. And yet we know that the Seahawks can just as easily slip out of the lead with a single bad result in Week 8, and I'm not talking about being out of first place.

Let's look at the big picture in NFC:

Head of department

1. Detroit Lions (5-1, win over MIN)

2. Washington Commander (5-2)

3. Tampa Bay Buccaneers (4-2)

4. Seattle Seahawks (4-3)

Wildcard

5. Minnesota Vikings (5:1, loss to DET)

6. Green Bay Packers (5-2)

7. Chicago Bears (4-2, 2-0 NFC)

Not in the playoffs

8. Philadelphia Eagles (4-2, 3-2 NFC)

9. Atlanta Falcons (4-3)

10. Dallas Cowboys (3-3)

11. San Francisco 49ers (3-4)

12. Arizona Cardinals (2-4, win over LAR)

13. Los Angeles Rams (2-4, loss to ARI)

Not in the playoffs, not suitable for television

14. New Orleans Saints (2-5, 2-3 NFC)

15. New York Giants (2-5, 1-4 NFC)

16. Carolina Panthers (1-6)

Yes. I'm fully aware that the Seahawks lost to one of those teams in the bottom three, but the Giants also lost Andrew Thomas and Kayvon Thibodeaux right after the win over the Seahawks. So maybe the match would have been different if it had been played in Week 9 and not Week 5. However, the Giants are a bad football team and this was a bad loss.

At the moment it is clear that the NFC is much deeper than expected. Two teams over .500 currently have no playoff spot, and the NFC North occupies all three wild card spots. Seattle does not have a tiebreaker against the Detroit Lions or San Francisco 49ers. With a win in the rematch in Week 11, the Seahawks can reclaim the tiebreaker against the 49ers. I assume that we don't have to worry about a direct duel with the Giants.

The Seahawks are 1-3 against NFC opponents, and aside from the head-to-head matchup, this is the conference's main tiebreaker. They need to pile up conference wins to get to the other side of .500. In other words, while you want the Seahawks to go into the game at 6-3, if they want to split the next two weeks and go 5-4, a win against the Los Angeles Rams is better than against the Buffalo Bills. If they go 4-5? Well, I probably won't be doing many of these after the bye week.