How the NFL playoff picture looks coming out of Week 6

The NFL is wrapping up Week 6, and a few teams are standing out in the playoff picture.

By David Fucillo@davidfucillo Updated Oct 19, 2020, 8:26pm PDT

Chase Claypool #11 of the Pittsburgh Steelers celebrates with Jaylen Samuels #38 after a three-yard touchdown against the Cleveland Browns in the third quarter of their NFL game at Heinz Field on October 18, 2020 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

The 2020 NFL season is a little over a third of the way through, and we’re getting a good handle on some of the better teams in the league. The Seahawks, Titans, and Steelers are all unbeaten and looking like legit playoff contenders. Add in six one-loss teams and the playoff field could fill up sooner than later.

The NFL is expanding the playoff pool this year, adding a wild card team to each conference to bring us to 14 teams total. The No. 1 seed in each conference will get a first round bye. Then the three division winners will face the three wild card winners (2/7, 3/6, 4/5) in the opening round.

Plenty is going to change, but now is as good a time as any to start taking a look at the status of the playoff picture. Nobody will be clinching anything anytime soon, but we’ve got some teams starting to firm up their leads. Two teams head into Monday of Week 6 with a greater than one-game lead in their division. In the AFC East, the Bills host the Chiefs on Monday Night Football and lead the Dolphins by 1.5 games. In the AFC South, the Titans have a 1.5 game lead on the Colts. Tennessee had an earlier than expected bye due to Covid-19 and thus have a game in hand on Indianapolis.

We have three undefeated teams for now, but we likely won’t a week from now. The Titans and Steelers square off at 1 p.m. next Sunday, and barring a tie, only one will walk away still undefeated. The week closes with a huge Monday Night Football contest between the 5-1 Bears and 4-2 Rams. Both are firmly in the playoff race and will be looking for what could be a key win in the tiebreaker formula.

Here’s a look at what the playoff picture looks like heading into Monday’s doubleheader to close out Week 6.

UPDATE: We’ve adjusted for the Chiefs 26-17 win over the Bills on Monday’s opening game and the Cardinals 38-10 win over the Cowboys in the closing game.

UPDATE: