Heading into Week 13, there had been zero playoff berths clinched so far in the NFL this year, but that changed on Friday.
Thanks to their wild 19-17 win over the Las Vegas Raiders, the Kansas City Chiefs (11-1) became the first team to clinch a playoff spot in 2024. Going into Week 13, the Chiefs had multiple scenarios where they could clinch a playoff berth with the easiest one being a simple two-step process:
The Dolphins lost to the Packers on Thanksgiving night, setting the stage for Kansas City to become the first team to punch its ticket.
With the win over Las Vegas, the Chiefs pulled off something that no NFL team has done in 26 years: They became the first team to clinch a non-divisional title playoff berth with at least five weeks left to play in the season, which is something that almost never happens this early. According to NFL playoff guru Joe Ferreria, before the Chiefs’ win on Friday, the last time a team clinched a non-divisional title playoff berth this early came all the way back in 1998 when both the Broncos and Falcons clinched a playoff berth in Week 12 (The season was only 17 weeks long in 1998, so that was also with five weeks left in the season).
With the loss, the Raiders became the first AFC team and second NFL team overall to be eliminated the from playoff contention (The Giants were the first).
As for the Chiefs, they can obviously still clinch the division title at a later point, but for now, they’ve only clinched a playoff spot, but not the overall division.
That being said, there will be one division up for grabs this weekend. The Bills will clinch the AFC East with a win over the 49ers on Sunday night. If that happens, the Bills will become the first team since the 2009 Colts to clinch a division title with at least five weeks remaining in the season.
The Lions can also clinch a playoff spot this weekend, but their scenarios are slightly more complicated. We covered all of those, plus three other scenarios where the Chiefs could get in, and you can check out each one of those here