There are no NFL Divisional Round predictions on this page yet: the matchups are not set until Wild Card Weekend ends on January 18. The round is played January 23 and 24, 2027, the NFL’s dates. Its eight teams are the two No. 1 seeds, who skip Wild Card Weekend, and the six Wild Card winners. ESPN’s DraftKings futures list had no Divisional Round market at the 07:52 UTC read on Monday, November 2, 2026.
If the season ended after Sunday’s Week 8 games, the Buffalo Bills (6-1) and the San Francisco 49ers (6-1) would hold the byes and host in this round. They are also the two shortest conference-winner prices: the Bills at +320 in the AFC and the 49ers at +250 in the NFC.
When the Divisional Round is played
| Round | Dates |
|---|---|
| Wild Card Weekend | January 16 to 18, 2027 |
| Divisional Playoffs | January 23 and 24, 2027 |
| AFC and NFC Championship Games | January 31, 2027 |
| Super Bowl LXI | February 14, 2027, SoFi Stadium, Inglewood, California |
The regular season ends with Week 18, on January 9-10, and the matchups and kickoff times are set after it. ESPN’s schedule lists the Divisional Round as two games on January 23 and two on January 24, with every team still TBD (read 00:41 UTC, November 2).
Who would be there if the season ended today
| Conference | Seed | Team | Record |
|---|---|---|---|
| AFC | 1 | Buffalo Bills | 6-1 |
| AFC | 2 | Denver Broncos | 6-2 |
| AFC | 3 | Pittsburgh Steelers | 6-2 |
| AFC | 4 | Jacksonville Jaguars | 5-2 |
| AFC | 5 | Kansas City Chiefs | 5-2 |
| AFC | 6 | Cincinnati Bengals | 5-2 |
| AFC | 7 | New England Patriots | 5-3 |
| NFC | 1 | San Francisco 49ers | 6-1 |
| NFC | 2 | Minnesota Vikings | 6-1 |
| NFC | 3 | New York Giants | 4-2-1 |
| NFC | 4 | Carolina Panthers | 3-4 |
| NFC | 5 | Detroit Lions | 5-2 |
| NFC | 6 | Chicago Bears | 5-2 |
| NFC | 7 | Green Bay Packers | 5-3 |
These are ESPN’s seeds after Sunday’s Week 8 games, read at 07:52 UTC on November 2. Chicago Bears at Seattle Seahawks, the Monday night game on November 2 at 8:15 p.m. ET, had not been played, so the Bears and Seahawks records do not include it. The No. 1 seeds go straight to this round. The other six seeds in each conference play Wild Card Weekend, with the 2 hosting the 7, the 3 hosting the 6 and the 4 hosting the 5. The No. 2 seeds today are the Denver Broncos at 6-2 and the Minnesota Vikings at 6-1.
NFL Divisional Round odds and the conference prices
ESPN’s DraftKings futures list carried 19 markets at the 07:52 UTC read. None of them was on a Wild Card or Divisional Round game. The nearest prices to this round are the two conference-winner markets.
| Conference | Team | Price to win the conference | Implied chance |
|---|---|---|---|
| AFC | Buffalo Bills | +320 | 23.8% |
| AFC | Jacksonville Jaguars | +480 | 17.2% |
| AFC | Kansas City Chiefs | +500 | 16.7% |
| AFC | Cincinnati Bengals | +650 | 13.3% |
| AFC | Denver Broncos | +650 | 13.3% |
| AFC | New England Patriots | +750 | 11.8% |
| NFC | San Francisco 49ers | +250 | 28.6% |
| NFC | Seattle Seahawks | +550 | 15.4% |
| NFC | Los Angeles Rams | +650 | 13.3% |
| NFC | Chicago Bears | +700 | 12.5% |
| NFC | Detroit Lions | +850 | 10.5% |
| NFC | Minnesota Vikings | +850 | 10.5% |
The market and the seeds do not agree everywhere. The Seattle Seahawks are second in the NFC price list at +550, yet eighth in the seeds at 4-3. The Jacksonville Jaguars are second in the AFC prices at +480 as the No. 4 seed. The Vikings hold the NFC’s No. 2 seed at +850, with four NFC teams priced shorter and the Detroit Lions at the same +850. A conference price is a bet on three playoff wins, or two for a team with a bye. It is not a bet on one game. When a Divisional spread is posted, a bet at -110 needs a 52.4% chance of covering to break even.
The last Divisional Round, January 2026
| Game | Kickoff (ET) | Line | Total | Final score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bills at Broncos | Sat, Jan. 17, 4:30 PM | Broncos -1.5 | 45.5 | Broncos 33, Bills 30 (OT) |
| 49ers at Seahawks | Sat, Jan. 17, 8:00 PM | Seahawks -7 | 44.5 | Seahawks 41, 49ers 6 |
| Texans at Patriots | Sun, Jan. 18, 3:00 PM | Patriots -3 | 40.5 | Patriots 28, Texans 16 |
| Rams at Bears | Sun, Jan. 18, 6:30 PM | Rams -3.5 | 49.5 | Rams 20, Bears 17 (OT) |
The lines are the DraftKings numbers in ESPN’s game records. All four favorites won, and three covered: Denver by 1.5 points in overtime, Seattle by 28 and New England by 9. The Rams won by 3 as 3.5-point favorites, so Chicago covered at home in a loss. Home teams won three of the four games, and two went to overtime.
Three of the four games went over the total. Bills at Broncos finished at 63 points against a total of 45.5. The only under was Rams at Bears, 37 points against 49.5.
How the rest of the playoffs went
| Round | Game | Final score |
|---|---|---|
| AFC Championship | Patriots at Broncos | Patriots 10, Broncos 7 |
| NFC Championship | Rams at Seahawks | Seahawks 31, Rams 27 |
| Super Bowl LX | Seahawks vs. Patriots | Seahawks 29, Patriots 13 |
All four Divisional Round winners met in the conference championships a week later. New England won at Denver while scoring 10 points. Seattle had beaten San Francisco 41-6 in the Divisional Round, then beat the Rams, who had won in overtime at Chicago. In Super Bowl LX it beat New England by 16 for the title.
Denver and Seattle played no Wild Card game in January 2026 before hosting in this round. Houston, Buffalo, the Rams and San Francisco all won on the road on Wild Card Weekend to get there.
NFL Divisional Round predictions and the pages around them
This season’s games are on our NFL predictions hub, and the coming week is on NFL Week 9 odds and predictions. The race for the 14 spots is tracked on who makes the NFL playoffs. The round before this one is on Wild Card odds, the round after on the AFC Championship and NFC Championship pages, and the title on Super Bowl odds. Our NFL parlays, player props and NFL underdogs pages cover the weekly slate. For paid NFL picks, compare the best handicappers and read our sportsbook reviews.
*Sources: ESPN’s NFL standings and playoff seeds after Week 8’s Sunday games and ESPN’s DraftKings futures list for the 2026 NFL season, both read 07:52 UTC, November 2, 2026; NFL Football Operations 2026 important dates and the NFL’s 2026 schedule release, read 07:53 UTC, November 2, 2026; ESPN’s playoff schedule, read 00:41 UTC, November 2, 2026; ESPN scoreboards and game summaries for the January 2026 playoffs (DraftKings lines as ESPN records them), read 07:53 UTC, November 2, 2026.*