The San Francisco 49ers remain in the driver’s seat in the NFC West as they are 3-0 in the division. We know that the easiest path to the playoffs is by winning your division. We can also acknowledge that the path just got a whole lot more difficult with Fred Warner’s loss.
A loss on the road in October isn’t catastrophic. The same cannot be said when another team captain goes down for the season. All is not lost, however. Let’s take a look at the NFC playoff rankings. You’ll see that San Francisco remains in a good spot in the playoff hunt.
The Chicago Bears, Washington Commanders, and Atlanta Falcons have yet to play. They are all on the outside of the playoff picture, looking in, heading into Monday night.
NFC Playoff Picture after Week 6:
- Tampa Bay Buccaneers (5-1 overall, 3-1 in the NFC)
- Green Bay Packers (3-1, 2-0-1)
- San Francisco 49ers (4-2, 4-1)
- Philadelphia Eagles (4-2, 3-1)
- Seattle Seahawks (4-2, 2-2)
- Detroit Lions (4-2, 1-1)
- Los Angeles Rams (4-2, 0-2)
- Minnesota Vikings (3-2, 1-1)
- Washington Commanders (3-2, 1-2)
- Carolina Panthers (3-3, 2-1)
- Atlanta Falcons (2-2, 2-2)
- Chicago Bears (2-2, 1-2)
- Dallas Cowboys (2-3, 1-3-1)
- Arizona Cardinals (2-4, 1-3)
- New York Giants (2-4, 1-3)
- New Orleans Saints (1-5, 1-3)
Let’s start at the top and discuss each playoff team. Tampa Bay isn’t going anywhere, especially playing in the NFC South. The Bucs played the second half without their star wide receiver, but did just enough to beat the Niners.
After beating Detroit in Week 1, Green Bay beat Washington, Cleveland, tied with Dallas, and had to sweat out a win against Cincinnati. I don’t know if we learned anything about the Packers yet.
In a game where it felt like the first to 30 would win, San Francisco only scored three points in the second half against Tampa Bay. Mac Jones held down the fort while Brock Purdy was out, but Purdy, George Kittle, and, hopefully, Ricky Pearsall should soon get the Niners offense back to an upper-echelon level. With the injuries on defense, the offense has to be elite.
The Eagles just had a player retire. A.J. Brown is all out of sorts. Jalen Hurts has not played well. And Philadelphia can’t run the ball. They’ll win the division, but that is not a team that looks like it will make noise in the playoffs.
Seattle feels like they’re the opposite of the Eagles. The Seahawks lost to the 49ers and the Bucs by a combined seven points, and beat up on the bad teams they faced. Seattle, based on how they’re built, looks to be a dangerous team come playoff time.
The Lions will always be a contender as long as Dan Campbell is in charge. They ran into a buzzsaw on Sunday Night Football, but Detroit is an Amon-Ra St. Brown drop away from being in control of that game. Detroit is a top-three team in the NFC.
The scoreboard might not show it, but the Rams struggled against the Ravens’ backups. That was eye-opening. Puka Nacua may miss time. If that’s the case, the prospects for Los Angeles take a severe dip. The Rams don’t play any defense, making it difficult to trust them, even with Sean McVay, Matthew Stafford, Nacua, and Davante Adams.
Seven teams get in, and the top seven feel like they’re in a different class than the next crop of teams.
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