How many teams make the NFL playoffs each year? Fourteen teams qualify for the NFL playoffs.
The field consists of seven teams from the American Football Conference (AFC) and seven from the National Football Conference (NFC). In each conference, four division winners qualify automatically, while three additional teams enter as wild cards. Teams are seeded within their conference according to regular-season records and league tiebreaking procedures.
The NFL expanded its postseason from 12 teams to 14 beginning with the 2020 season. The change added one wild-card team to each conference and created an extra Wild Card Round game in both the AFC and NFC. Under the current format, only the No. 1 seed in each conference receives a first-round bye; the other six teams play on Wild Card Weekend.
This is sometimes confused with the number of teams that reach the Super Bowl, which is only two: the AFC champion and NFC champion. The 14-team playoff is a single-elimination tournament that ultimately determines those two conference champions and the league champion.