At this time of year, most parts of the United States are experiencing colder weather, but competition in the National Football League is about to turn up the heat! No matter who you might be rooting for this year or what you’ve already seen transpire over the course of this autumn, it is now time to take a mid-season review. In week 11 of this year’s general American football season, the team rankings for each division will now begin to shape what is to be expected in this year’s playoffs, leading all the way up to Super Bowl LI!

Important Team Rankings by League

Image credit to google.com

Above, we can take a quick look at the current stats for each team. The graphic is split into 2 major columns of 4 blocks each, and each block is comprised of football teams in the American Football Conference (AFC) or the National Football Conference (NFC). Each of these conferences features 4 cardinal subgroups, which by extension, support 4 local teams. The current leader of each conference’s subgroup is depicted in 1^st place with a bolded name (i.e. the New England Patriots, Dallas Cowboys, Seattle Seahawks, etc.). At the end of the general season, the top player from each conference’s subgroup (North, South, East, and West) is selected to represent at the playoffs and to compete for a shot at the Super Bowl title. 2 Wild Card teams (teams with the next-best records in each conference) also compete in the playoffs.

This year, it would seems that the teams with the most commanding leads for their respective division are the New England Patriots, the Kansas City Chiefs, the Baltimore Ravens, the Houston Texans, the Dallas Cowboys, the Seattle Seahawks, the Detroit Lions, and the Atlanta Falcons.

Also worthy of recognition are the New York Giants, the Minnesota Vikings, the Miami Dolphins, and the Oakland Raiders, who are the 4 teams most postured at this time to take the 2 Wild Card for the NFC and the AFC, respectively.

Additional Rankings Info

Left, the Super Bowl 50 logo, which substituted Arabic numerals out of tradition. Right, the new logo for 2017’s Super Bowl LI (a.k.a. Super Bowl 51).

As critical as it is to monitor the current rankings among the NFL teams, it is also equally (if not, more) important to conceptualize how these rankings could, potentially, change over the general season. Every team still has some games to win (or concede) before everything is decided for 2017. Note, however, that the “gap” between the Patriots and the Dolphins is larger to come back from than, say, that of the Raiders and the Chiefs. In fact, one game between Kansas and Oakland could completely change the remaining map of the season!

It is important to keep in mind that, no matter how sound or plausible a speculation is, the predicted lineup of teams for the playoffs could change very easily. Thus, hypothesize at your own risk and watch the rest of the season unfold diligently, game-by-game!