I struggled to just let this write-up flow as I was typing it up, once I had collected all the information, due to the remaining uncertainty about the health of Bills safety Damar Hamlin. This is a major challenge for all parties involved and what actually happens on the field seems secondary right now, but NFL life goes on and maybe just talking some ball will be welcome change for people, who don’t quite know how to deal with all of this. Plus, we’re continuing to get positive news about the young man, thankfully. I actually couldn’t state some things definitely, as it pertains to the effect of remaining regular season games on the final playoff picture.

There’s one more week left in the 2022 regular season, to finalize the playoff picture and upcoming matchups, along with whatever the NFL does with the Bills-Bengals matchup. Before we get into those and the specific X’s and O’s, I wanted to look at all the teams in the running and talk about the ten biggest strengths or most dangerous elements across them. All but one of these groups associated with them have already clinched a playoff spot, along with the Dolphins, who will host the Jets in basically a pick’em this Sunday and need a win in combination with the Bills beating the Patriots – a matchup that still brings some questions with how relevant it will be for playoff seeding. Still, therefore Miami actually has a slightly higher chance at a Wildcard spot than their division rivals.

So without any further proclamations, here are the ten elements that stood out most to me from this pool: