How many divisions in nfl

New York Giants Giants. Washington Football Team Washington. Green Bay Packers Packers. Minnesota Vikings Vikings. Chicago Bears Bears. Detroit Lions Lions. Tampa Bay Buccaneers Buccaneers.

New Orleans Saints Saints. Carolina Panthers Panthers. Green Bay Packers. Current roster. Hall of Famers. Editor's picks. Explore Wikis Community Central. Register Don't have an account? List of National Football Conference division winners. Edit source History Talk 0. Decades before the division champion became an annual possibility, the Browns blazed a trail.

Marty Schottenheimer and Bernie Kosar's first season together produced an record and a minus-7 differential. The Browns did not even need to win their season finale to gain playoff access, thanks to the Steelers and Bengals going and the rebuilding Oilers finishing Earnest Byner and Kevin Mack became the third duo to each rush for 1, yards, and the backs' plus-yard day in Miami staked Cleveland to a second-round lead.

The Browns lost that lead but were an AFC power for the rest of the decade. Leinart took the reins in late September for a Cards team that could not compete even in a dreadful division. As they usually did in this period, the Seahawks won this division, going But every '06 NFC West team had a negative point differential.

The 49ers trailed the pack at minus, in Alex Smith's second year. Every member of this quintet posted a point differential between minus and minus Fran Tarkenton's final season came for a declining Vikings team, but both they and the Packers went The teams tied in Week 13, but the Vikings made the playoffs on the strength of their Week 8 win. Bart Starr's Packers squad won just one of its final seven games.

In their third season, the Bucs showed signs of life in going The Rams routed the Vikings, , in the teams' playoff opener.

The last gap year produced the Lions' only division title between and Detroit went and gave San Francisco a divisional-round scare , but this season was an aberration. The Bears, Packers and Vikings went Per their usual during this era, the Bucs dragged down the division.

Tampa's trade for ex-QB prospect Jack Thompson backfired, with its season turning the traded pick into 's No. Tim Tebow completed The popular southpaw's playoff walk-off pass to Demaryius Thomas became a signature 21st-century play, but John Elway traded Tebow two months later.

Denver needed consistently clutch defense and a few long Matt Prater field goals to enable "Tebowmania" and received help from a mediocre AFC West.

The Chiefs lost Matt Cassel to injury for a spell and went , while the Chargers ruined the Raiders' division title hopes with a Week 17 knockout win. The Steelers enjoyed astonishing early-season circumstances. The Bengals started , the Browns and the Oilers Yet Pittsburgh stood just after a December Astrodome defeat. Terry Bradshaw retired after the '83 season, giving way to Mark Malone, who helped John Stallworth to a vintage year 1, yards.

But the Steelers barely held off a Bengals team that rallied back to The Browns and Oilers combined for eight wins, the latter being outscored by points. This group went in non-division games. Kirk Cousins ' " You like that! This season also featured unimposing Cowboys and Eagles squads, the former playing without an injured Tony Romo most of the way in a effort and the latter ending its Chip Kelly experiment that December.

The Eagles did beat the Giants in Tom Coughlin's finale, however. Perhaps not. Are they still better than almost any team in the NFL? The promise of a new era in L. The Chargers were an unlucky team under Anthony Lynn with a glut of talent. It may be time for that talent overload to spill over, much like it did for the 49ers during their Super Bowl run. As for Las Vegas, the fruits of their offensive line churn are still to be seen. It would seem they are rounding out the rear in this divisional race, but after a seven-win season last year, they show just how good the West can be.

Las Vegas would certainly be Wild Card competitive at some of the bottom-tier divisions on this list. This was the most difficult division to place on the list. Obviously, you have the defending Super Bowl champions who have returned their entire roster and added Joe Tryon out of Washington, who will supplement an already destructive pass rush. After that, there are a lot of big ifs. We could be pleasantly surprised by a lot of new coaches and quarterbacks this year, but in order for the NFC South to be considered a top-three division, we would need to be surprised by Sam Darnold, Taysom Hill and Jameis Winston all at once.

It does not seem likely that a third playoff contender would arise from this division. Indeed, gamblers tend to agree. New Orleans has the No. It would make more sense to see them contending for a playoff spot than New Orleans. Matt Ryan is always going to throw for 4,plus yards, but the difference between his time in an offense like the one Arthur Smith is bringing and the various offenses he ran after Kyle Shanahan bolted for San Francisco is in the context of the routes.

Atlanta was almost two full yards better in net yardage per attempt with this system, which, over the course of attempts during a season, accounts for a lot of additional first downs, sustained drives and possibly touchdowns. The better Darnold is and the more difficult the Panthers are to stop, the more daunting the South looks as a whole. The former No. As we noted, anything drastically different would be a big surprise, even with a significantly bolstered skill set and offensive line.

An interesting thought: Has there ever been a collective division filled with this much defensive brain power? I was fascinated to see what the betting markets would think of the division at this point in time. BetOnline had the Bills as the fourth-most likely team to reach the postseason but did not have another team from the AFC East until No.

And, remember, if Tua Tagovailoa is still an incomplete player, Jacoby Brissett is more than good enough to take this roster three-quarters baked and push them into the postseason. New England, too, is going to have a highly incentivized Cam Newton further away from his myriad corrective surgeries and a team that theoretically has the best set of playmakers on the field since the early s.