World news – USA – NFL playoff picture 2020: Ranking wildcard chances for NFC teams still in the playoff hunt

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The NFL is close to the successful conclusion of a full regular season amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, an achievement that few believed the league could match. And as the month of December turns the middle of the evening into the end of 2020, the playoff picture is taking shape in the NFC in a very real way. The last three games are going to be hot and tough as the division’s rivals clash and teams try to spoil those desperately clinging to life. So buckle up and prepare for some exciting football as January approaches.

But which teams in the NFC have the best chances of landing a place on the wild card? After all, the league has increased the number of teams admitted by one per conference due to the pandemic and its aftermath, giving teams that are usually already mathematically eliminated by this point a chance to make their way into the tournament.

Here is a list of those who have the best chance of securing an NFC wildcard. The ranking ranges from « safe bet » to « um, good luck with it »:

OK, now that we’ve got that out of the way – because it’s extraordinarily poignant, and draws on its experience of both tracking and performing the postseason (far more often than not) – let’s keep that in mind, too that he has the Buccaneers in the best position to take a spot in the playoffs in just his first year in Tampa. From there, take a look at the offensive weapons and how dominant the defense can be with all the cylinders fired, and it’s hard to see why the Bucs aren’t the most likely team on this list to pick one Earned a place on the Wild Card. In addition, the last three games are against losing teams – two against the now eliminated Falcons. However, Atlanta will be desperate to play spoilers to make Brady and the Bucs behave better.

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Make no mistake, Wilson is still one of the best in the business and will be torching a scoreboard with guns like D every day. K. . Metcalf and Tyler Lockett, but he was hired to save the day way too many times at the end of the season – resulting in mistakes. The problem is the defense of the Seahawks, a unit that ranks among the worst in the league in 2020 and as such puts weekly pressure on Wilson and the offensive. However, after the Seahawks split from the Cardinals and are still playing for the NFC West Division crown, all they have to do is finish strong. That’s easier said than done, however, considering that their final plan involves a fight with an upgraded WFT and the Los Angeles Rams trying to track them down.

However, they’re not as high as they were in the first half of the season, having suffered three straight losses before taking their seventh win against the New York Giants in Week 14. Playing the NFC East could be the recipe for what made them sick, and they will have a chance to score wins when they host the Philadelphia Eagles in week 15. It’s going to be Jalen Hurts and not Carson Wentz in the middle, so the Cardinals on hot defense – hot off a record five sacks from linebacker Haason Reddick – want nothing more than to truly welcome Hurts to the NFL. If they can polish off the NFC East and get out of junk with the 49ers with a W, they have the option to determine how the entire NFC West shakes off in week 17, and that includes their own playoff fate. Kyler Murray and DeAndre Hopkins could easily become a must see on TV again if the pressure rises.

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From No.. Once you’re on this leaderboard, it becomes a hair-splitting process to determine who has the best chance of hitting a placeholder, considering that the remaining teams on game day can almost all be equally promising – or equally capable of control the fight bus. From this Tier B group, the Vikings are taking the lead thanks to Kirk Cousins ​​and his newly discovered weapon, rookie wideout Justin Jefferson. That combined with the game of Dalvin Cook and Adam Thielen to score a formidable insult when it clicks, but when it isn’t, the Vikings need their defense to become world bats. They’ve done it a time or two, but can they do it when it matters most and a playoff spot is at stake? It’s time to find out.

From Mitchell Trubisky to Nick Foles and back to Mitchell Trubisky due to an injury to Nick Foles, the roller coaster ride was far from fun for Bears fans, but the team is still 6-7 and could shake the table – assuming the NFC , defense helps to a great extent. Trubisky will make mistakes, and sometimes a lot of them, so Khalil Mack and Co. . Better be prepared to clear out as many as you can by keeping opposing offenses out of the end zone. If Trubisky is forced to shoot with the Vikings or Packers, they will almost certainly have suffered two losses in the last three games. Outside the Jaguars – now led again by a hungry Gardner Minshew who wants to prove he can be a franchise QB – the Bears’ final stretch is a daunting task to say the least.

On the other hand, I’m not sure if it doesn’t, but that goes on to my point above – in that these remaining teams are just a mole hair away from double-goers in terms of playoff potential. Let’s downgrade New York a little here after seeing a less healthy Daniel Jones beat up by the Cardinals on the way to the team’s eighth loss. That ended an impressive four-game winning streak that included a world-shocking surprise over the Seahawks. However, it was Colt McCoy who did the latter, and if the Giants insist on persisting with Jones despite his hamstring injury, their chances of landing a spot on the wild card (or reclaiming top NFC East spot) will diminish, very fast (hence why the bears are higher on this list). They’d do better to play McCoy against a Cleveland front that could easily take Jones’ lunch, as did the Ravens in Week 16, so head coach Joe Judge has a verdict to deliver at QB, and it’s better the right one.

Without a Stafford or a healthy Stafford, the Lions have little chance of squeezing their paws through the fast-closing playoff door. They’ve split their first two games under interim coach Darrell Bevell since sacking Matt Patricia after an embarrassing Thanksgiving loss to the Houston Texans. One of their most recent wins was against the aforementioned bears. The Week 15 loss to the Packers reminds us all that the Lions aren’t currently built to rattle the cage when it comes to top contenders, and the problem for them is their last three regular season games with Derrick Henry and the Titans, Tom Brady and the Bucs, and a competing Viking team that can’t afford to lose in week 17. There is still a math chance for the Lions, but don’t bet money on their odds unless you hate your money.

Of course he won’t make it with a losing record, but the 49ers should technically be way inferior and far less competitive than weekly. Despite injuries ravaging San Francisco, it remains one of the more difficult outs for opponents as Shanahan and Defense Coordinator Robert Saleh are constantly looking for ways to make a long day for anyone who faces them. So yeah, they’re not great at the conference – in terms of wins – but they have the highest winning strength of any team on this list and one of the best in the league. That tells you everything you need to know about them: when it’s time to eviscerate a competitor, they can grease the scalpels and do it. They’ll try to get the Cowboys out of playoff competition at week 15, and from there crack their ankles before NFC West battles two teams they loathe and, in the worst case, can change the playoff path from.

If it were Carson Wentz at the center it would be all I could do to keep Philly from falling last, but Hurts offers a dynamic of leadership and escape that makes him a headache for opposing defenses. This is something the New Orleans Saints found out the hard way in Week 14 when they felt the stab of surprise from Hurts. The second round rookie pick gives the Eagles a real chance at stealing a spot on the wild card, but it won’t be easy because he has no protection upfront and eventually has to win a game or two out of a pocket that probably won’t exist. With the news that Jack Driscoll is joining a list of key O-Line talents in the injured reserve and the Philly secondary suffering from battling the Saints, Hurts is talented but still very inexperienced and the pressure on him to win is not impossible. but just too much to ask. Plus, they’ll need a lot of help getting into the tournament, even if Hurts got a ball out.

Like the cowboys below, the Panthers are a sneeze away from getting out of the playoff picture.

To make matters worse, they are still battling infringement messages from around the world via return / recipient Christian McCaffrey, and that is huge. With McCaffrey in tow, Teddy Bridgewater becomes the sole focus of opposing defenses, and while Bridgewater didn’t play bad football in 2020, he doesn’t light the scoreboard either. This is not what you want to hear when you look at the fact that they are facing a final three game game that they could easily lose if they land between 4 and 12 in the season with two of theirs Games en route are against division leaders before returning home to face their own division leader at the Saints – who Drew Brees may have got back from an injury at the time. Even so, it feels like their chances feel better than the team that is last on this list.

To say it was a disappointing 2020 season in Dallas is like saying the surface of the sun is a bit bland, and now you are in a situation where your playoff fate is largely controlled by Washington becomes. The Cowboys would either have to win and let Washington lose their last three games to claim the NFC East Crown, or they would have to win and watch the Vikings and Cardinals collapse and the 49ers would have to crawl into a hole and die too. A single loss for the Cowboys eliminates them from the playoff competition, but they might win and still fail due to other teams choosing to win football. And unlike the Eagles, there are no electrical changes to the Dallas quarterback. So it will be the status quo as Andy Dalton tries to outsmart Saleh and the 49ers and then two rivals in the division to end the season. Their division record is 1-3, by the way, and they have literally the worst defense in professional football history.

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NFL, Playoffs of the National Football League, Playoffs, Wild Card