![\"calvinjohnson\"](\"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nfl\/files\/2014\/12\/calvinjohnson.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
While numerous teams enter the week with playoff spots guaranteed, only one team has absolutely nothing to play for. The New England Patriots have locked up the No. 1 seed in the AFC and will have home field advantage\u00a0throughout the playoffs regardless of what happens in Sunday’s game against the Bills.<\/p>\n
There are numerous scenarios which could unfold on Sunday but only a few are reasonable.<\/p>\n
Unlike the NFC, the AFC has a bunch of teams fates undecided.<\/p>\n
Knows entering Week 17: New England – AFC East and home-field advantage throughout AFC playoffs; Denver – AFC West; Indianapolis – AFC South; Cincinnati and Pittsburgh – playoff berth.<\/p>\n
DENVER (vs. Oakland)<\/strong><\/p>\n Clinches first-round bye with: CINCINNATI (at Pittsburgh)<\/strong><\/p>\n Clinches AFC North with: PITTSBURGH (vs. Cincinnati)<\/strong><\/p>\n Pittsburgh clinches AFC North with: SAN DIEGO (at Kansas City)<\/strong><\/p>\n Clinches playoff spot with: BALTIMORE (vs. Cleveland)<\/strong><\/p>\n Clinches playoff spot with: KANSAS CITY (vs. San Diego)<\/strong><\/p>\n Clinches playoff spot with: HOUSTON (vs. Jacksonville)<\/strong><\/p>\n Clinches playoff spot with: Known entering Week 17: Arizona – playoff berth; Seattle – playoff berth; Detroit – playoff berth; Green Bay – playoff berth; Dallas – NFC East.<\/p>\n DALLAS (at Washington)<\/strong><\/p>\n Clinches home-field advantage throughout NFC playoffs with: DETROIT (at Green Bay)<\/strong><\/p>\n Clinches NFC North with: GREEN BAY (vs. Detroit)<\/strong><\/p>\n Clinches NFC North and first-round bye with: SEATTLE (vs. St. Louis)<\/strong><\/p>\n Clinches NFC West with: ARIZONA (at San Francisco)<\/strong><\/p>\n Clinches NFC West with: CAROLINA (at Atlanta)<\/strong><\/p>\n Clinches NFC South with: ATLANTA (vs. Carolina)<\/strong><\/p>\n Clinches NFC South with: While numerous teams enter the week with playoff spots guaranteed, only one team has absolutely nothing to play for. The New England Patriots have locked up the No. 1 seed in the AFC and will have home field advantage\u00a0throughout the playoffs regardless of what happens in Sunday’s game against the Bills. There are numerous scenarios […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13091,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[425],"tags":[426,216],"coauthors":[4],"class_list":{"0":"post-13492","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-front","9":"tag-nfl"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13492"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13492\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13493,"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13492\/revisions\/13493"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13492"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=13492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\u2014 Win or tie, OR
\n\u2014 Cincinnati Loss, OR
\n\u2014 Cincinnati tie and Indianapolis win<\/p>\n
\n\u2014 Win or tie
\nClinches first-round bye with:
\n\u2014 Win and Denver loss or tie, OR
\n\u2014 Tie and Denver loss and Indianapolis loss or tie<\/p>\n
\n\u2014 Win<\/p>\n
\n\u2014 Win, OR
\n\u2014 Tie and Baltimore loss or tie<\/p>\n
\n\u2014 Win and San Diego loss or tie, OR
\n\u2014 Tie and San Diego loss<\/p>\n
\n\u2014 Win\u00a0(Chargers loss)\u00a0and Baltimore loss and Houston loss or tie<\/p>\n
\n\u2014 Win and Baltimore loss and San Diego loss<\/p>\nNFC Playoff Scenarios for Week 17<\/h2>\n
\n\u2014 Win and Arizona loss or tie and Detroit\/Green Bay tie
\nClinches first-round bye with:
\n\u2014 Win and Seattle loss or tie and Arizona loss or tie, OR
\n\u2014 Win and Detroit\/Green Bay tie, OR
\n\u2014 Seattle loss and Arizona loss, OR
\n\u2014 Tie and Seattle tie and Arizona loss or tie and Detroit\/Green Bay does not end in a tie<\/p>\n
\n\u2014 Win or tie
\nClinches home-field advantage throughout NFC playoffs with:
\n\u2014 Win and Seattle loss or tie and Arizona loss or tie, OR
\n\u2014 Tie and Seattle loss and Arizona loss and Dallas loss or tie
\nClinches first-round bye with:
\n\u2014 Win, OR
\n\u2014 Tie and Dallas loss or tie, OR
\n\u2014 Tie and Seattle loss and Arizona loss<\/p>\n
\n\u2014 Win
\nClinches home-field advantage throughout NFC playoffs with:
\n\u2014 Win and Seattle loss or tie<\/p>\n
\n\u2014 Win, OR
\n\u2014 Tie and Arizona loss or tie, OR
\n\u2014 Arizona loss
\nClinches home-field advantage throughout NFC playoffs with:
\n\u2014 Win and Detroit\/Green Bay game does not end in a tie, OR
\n\u2014 Win and Dallas loss or tie, OR
\n\u2014 Tie and Arizona loss or tie and Dallas loss or tie and Green Bay\/Detroit tie
\nClinches first-round bye with:
\n\u2014 Win, OR
\n\u2014 Tie and Arizona loss or tie and Dallas loss, OR
\n\u2014 Tie and Arizona loss or tie and Green Bay\/Detroit tie<\/p>\n
\n\u2014 Win and Seattle loss or tie, OR
\n\u2014 Tie and Seattle loss
\nClinches home-field advantage throughout NFC playoffs with:
\n\u2014 Win and Seattle loss or tie and Green Bay loss or tie, OR
\n\u2014 Tie and Seattle loss and Dallas loss or tie and Green Bay\/Detroit tie
\nClinches first-round bye with:
\n\u2014 Win and Seattle loss or tie, OR
\n\u2014 Tie and Seattle loss and Dallas loss or tie, OR
\n\u2014 Tie and Seattle loss and Green Bay\/Detroit tie<\/p>\n
\n\u2014 Win or tie<\/p>\n
\n\u2014 Win<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"