14-team playoff field set after NFL regular-season finale

The GIST: The 14-team playoff field is officially set, ownership of the No. 1 pick in the 2025 NFL Draft is locked in, and there’s style points galore to dish out. Here’s what to know with the NFL regular season done and dusted.

Playoff field set ahead of Wild Card weekend: Detroit Lions running back Jahmyr Gibbs showed up and showed out on Sunday Night Football, tallying four touchdowns in the Lions’ 31–9 win over the Minnesota Vikings. The dub clinched his squad the NFC North title and the conference’s No. 1 seed.

• Elsewhere, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers topped their division too, snagging the No. 3 seed with a 27–19 victory over the New Orleans Saints.

• In the AFC, the Cincinnati Bengals did everything they could, but the Denver Broncos boasted the tie-breaking edge and ride into next weekend’s Wild Card round as the AFC’s No. 7 seed after yesterday’s 38–0 W over the Kansas City Chiefs (who were admittedly resting their starters).

• Meanwhile, the Baltimore Ravens clinched the AFC North crown, topping the Cleveland Browns 35–10 on Saturday. QB Lamar Jackson shined, becoming the first player in league history to throw for 4K yards and run for 800 in a season. Icon, and possibly MVP, behavior.

Non-playoff team head coaches on the hot seat: The Monday after the regular season (aka today) is unofficially called Black Monday, when eliminated squads and their front offices grapple with what went wrong over the last 18 weeks…and often hand out pink slips to members of a team’s coaching staff.

• Black Monday came early this year though: The 4-13 New England Patriots axed first-year head coach Jerod Mayo immediately after yesterday’s 23–16 win over the Buffalo Bills while the 3-14 Browns fired offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey on Saturday. Oof.