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Football

2026 NFL Playoffs explainer: How does the format work?

DAZN

DAZN News Staff

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The road to the Super Bowl truly is well underway with the frantic Wild Card Weekend in the rear-view.

The Denver Broncos and Seattle Seahawks, as the No.1 seeds in the AFC and NFC, respectively, enter the fray in the Divisional Round this weekend, in what will no doubt be another exciting slate of games.

This field of teams will slowly get whittled down to just an AFC champion and an NFC champion who will then go head-to-head at Super Bowl LX in San Francisco in February.

But how does the NFL Playoff format work? DAZN News explains it all.

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How many teams qualify?

The NFL expanded its current playoff format to 14 teams in 2020. Seven teams from the AFC and seven from the NFC will make up the field.

The previous system saw six teams from each conference qualify. Now, three wildcard teams will join the four divisional winners.

How does the format work?

The NFL playoffs feature three rounds of playoff games before the Super Bowl. Those rounds are Wild Card Weekend, the Divisional Round, and the Conference Championship games.

Under the current system, 12 of the 14 teams must play in all three rounds.

The number one seeds in the AFC and NFC, the Broncos and Seahawks, get a bye into the Divisional Round, meaning they do not play on Wild Card Weekend.

These two teams also get the privilege of playing all their playoff games at home. In addition to having the bye week, those two teams will always play the lowest remaining seed for their playoff matches.

The remaining seedings determine the matches for Wild Card Weekend.

How many teams advance from Wild Card Weekend?

Three teams from each conference will advance from Wild Card Weekend to the Divisional Round.

They will join the top seeds, meaning that the field of 14 will drop to eight.

That will again halve for the Conference Championship games.

When is the Super Bowl?

Super Bowl LX will take place on Sunday, February 8, at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California, and it will be broadcast live on DAZN (excluding the US and China).