How the NFL standings work
The 32 teams are split into the AFC and the NFC, and each conference into four divisions of four. Every team plays 17 regular-season games, so each result counts for much more than in basketball or hockey.
Seeds and wild cards
Each division winner is guaranteed a top-four seed in its conference. The three best remaining teams in each conference take the wild-card places. Ties in the table are broken by head-to-head results, then division and conference records.
Standings and betting
With so few games, a record says a lot about a team but not everything. Point differential, shown here as Diff, is often a better guide to how strong a team really is than its win-loss record.