NFC Standings 2026 Week 8: Playoff Seeds & Divisions

Games included: the 120 regular-season games played through Sunday, November 1: Weeks 1-7, every game and 13 of the 14 Week 8 games. Not included: Bears at Seahawks (Week 8, Monday, November 2, 8:15 p.m. ET), not played when this page was built, so it counts for nobody here. It involves NFC clubs, so these seeds can change once it is final. The page rebuilds itself with each new result.

NFC Division Leaders 2026

The club in first place in each NFC division as of Week 8, after the division tie-break where two clubs share a record. The four leaders take seeds 1-4.

Division	Leader	Record	Lead	Seed
NFC East	NYGGiants	4-2-1	2 games ahead of the Cowboys	3
NFC North	MINVikings	6-1	1 game ahead of the Lions	2
NFC South	CARPanthers	3-4	0.5 games ahead of the Buccaneers	4
NFC West	SF49ers	6-1	2 games ahead of the Seahawks	1

The lead is in games: half the difference in wins plus half the difference in losses over the second-placed club.

NFC Playoff Seeds 2026: If the Season Ended Today

The four division leaders are seeded 1-4 by record and the three best other clubs are the wild cards, seeds 5-7. Equal records are separated by the steps listed under how ties set the seeds. The other nine follow in the order the same procedure gives.

Seed	Team	Division	W	L	T	PCT	CONF	DIV	SOV	SOS	Status
1	SF49ers	West	6	1	0	.857	4-1	3-0	.456	.443	Division leader
2	MINVikings	North	6	1	0	.857	4-1	2-1	.400	.442	Division leader
3	NYGGiants	East	4	2	1	.643	2-2-1	1-0-1	.290	.330	Division leader
4	CARPanthers	South	3	4	0	.429	3-3	1-1	.435	.519	Division leader
5	DETLions	North	5	2	0	.714	4-1	2-0	.474	.519	Wild card
6	CHIBears	North	5	2	0	.714	3-2	0-2	.385	.481	Wild card
7	GBPackers	North	5	3	0	.625	4-3	1-2	.421	.500	Wild card
8	SEASeahawks	West	4	3	0	.571	1-2	1-1	.433	.529	0.5 GB
9	LARams	West	4	4	0	.500	2-2	0-2	.350	.525	1 GB
10	TBBuccaneers	South	3	5	0	.375	3-2	2-0	.391	.590	2 GB
11	ATLFalcons	South	3	5	0	.375	3-3	1-2	.591	.567	2 GB
12	ARICardinals	West	3	5	0	.375	2-4	1-2	.304	.551	2 GB
13	DALCowboys	East	3	5	0	.375	2-4	2-1	.295	.426	2 GB
14	WASCommanders	East	2	4	1	.357	2-3-1	1-2-1	.400	.443	2 GB
15	NOSaints	South	2	5	0	.286	1-3	0-1	.567	.613	2.5 GB
16	PHIEagles	East	2	6	0	.250	1-5	1-2	.233	.441	3 GB

CONF is the record against NFC opponents and DIV the record in division games. SOV (strength of victory) is the combined win percentage of the clubs a team has beaten and SOS (strength of schedule) that of every club it has played, both from the games so far. GB is games behind the No. 7 seed.

How Ties Set the NFC Seeds

Clubs with the same record are ordered by the NFL’s tie-breaking procedure, applied to the scores so far. Inside a division the steps are head-to-head, division record, common games, conference record, strength of victory, strength of schedule, then rankings in points and net points. For seeds, which compare clubs from different divisions, head-to-head counts only between two clubs that met or when one club beat (or lost to) all the others; then come conference record, common games (at least four), strength of victory, strength of schedule and the points steps. The tiebreakers explainer walks through the full procedure. Every tie that decided a place here, with the values that decided it:

Seed 1: 49ers ranked ahead of Vikings (6-1 each) on strength of victory: 49ers .456; Vikings .400.
Seed 5: Lions ranked ahead of Bears (5-2 each): they are NFC North rivals, so the division tie-break settles them first, and only the highest-ranked club of a division takes part in a wild-card tie.
Place 10: Buccaneers ranked ahead of Falcons (3-5 each): they are NFC South rivals, so the division tie-break settles them first, and only the highest-ranked club of a division takes part in a wild-card tie. Cardinals and Buccaneers ranked ahead of Cowboys (3-5 each) on head-to-head sweep: Cardinals no sweep; Buccaneers no sweep; Cowboys lost to every other club. The procedure then starts again for Cardinals and Buccaneers. Buccaneers ranked ahead of Cardinals (3-5 each) on conference record: Buccaneers .600; Cardinals .333.
Place 11: Falcons ranked ahead of Cardinals and Cowboys (3-5 each) on conference record: Falcons .500; Cardinals .333; Cowboys .333.
Place 12: Cardinals ranked ahead of Cowboys (3-5 each) on head-to-head: Cardinals 1.000; Cowboys .000.
NFC North: Lions ahead of Bears (5-2 each) on division record: Lions 1.000; Bears .000.
NFC South: Buccaneers ahead of Falcons (3-5 each) on head-to-head: Buccaneers 1.000; Falcons .000.

No tie here needed net touchdowns or a coin toss, the two last steps, which this page does not compute.

NFC Standings 2026 by Division

Each NFC division in tie-break order, with each club’s seed (1-7) if the season ended today.

NFC East Standings 2026

Team	W	L	T	PCT	PF	PA	NET	DIV	SEED
NYG Giants	4	2	1	.643	163	161	+2	1-0-1	3
DAL Cowboys	3	5	0	.375	219	213	+6	2-1	–
WAS Commanders	2	4	1	.357	159	182	-23	1-2-1	–
PHI Eagles	2	6	0	.250	137	202	-65	1-2	–

NFC North Standings 2026

Team	W	L	PCT	PF	PA	NET	DIV	SEED
MIN Vikings	6	1	.857	140	93	+47	2-1	2
DET Lions	5	2	.714	203	180	+23	2-0	5
CHI Bears	5	2	.714	180	143	+37	0-2	6
GB Packers	5	3	.625	171	164	+7	1-2	7

Lions ahead of Bears (5-2 each) on division record: Lions 1.000; Bears .000.

NFC South Standings 2026

Team	W	L	PCT	PF	PA	NET	DIV	SEED
CAR Panthers	3	4	.429	178	193	-15	1-1	4
TB Buccaneers	3	5	.375	178	151	+27	2-0	–
ATL Falcons	3	5	.375	171	189	-18	1-2	–
NO Saints	2	5	.286	162	194	-32	0-1	–

Buccaneers ahead of Falcons (3-5 each) on head-to-head: Buccaneers 1.000; Falcons .000.

NFC West Standings 2026

Team	W	L	PCT	PF	PA	NET	DIV	SEED
SF 49ers	6	1	.857	197	139	+58	3-0	1
SEA Seahawks	4	3	.571	168	125	+43	1-1	–
LA Rams	4	4	.500	194	168	+26	0-2	–
ARI Cardinals	3	5	.375	175	238	-63	1-2	–

How these standings are built: every record comes from the public nflverse game log, refreshed each time the site is rebuilt, and the order comes from the tie-breaking steps above, computed from the scores. On November 2, 2026 every team's record, points, division record and conference record matched ESPN's standings, and so did ESPN's NFC division order and seeds 1-16. The page is only rewritten when ESPN’s order agrees with the one computed here. PCT counts a tie as half a win, NET is points for minus points against. Net touchdowns and the coin toss, the procedure’s last steps, are not computed. The seeds, tie-break steps and the games behind them are in conference-standings-2026.json; every team’s line and game is also in standings-2026.json.

NFC Standings 2026 Week 8