We still have 1 more week of regular season football but we already know all 14 playoff teams. The only standings glitch I have found involves home field in the National Conference, which I covered in another post. Congratulations to the 13 playoff teams who aren't New Jersey, although I guess I could congratulate myself too, whatever.

American Conference

Division Winners: San Jose, Houston, Portland, Michigan

Wildcards: Oklahoma, Denver, Honolulu

National Conference

Division Winners: New Jersey, Shreveport, Washington

Playoff Teams: Orlando, Jacksonville

Wildcards: Georgia, New York

In the American Conference, San Jose needs to win for home field advantage. Houston needs to win and have San Jose lose to get the BYE. They will be the top 2 seeds no matter what. Portland is locked into #3 seed, Michigan #4.

If I've looked at things correctly, Oklahoma is locked in as #5 (better conference record than Denver), Denver is locked as #6 (win over Honolulu) and Honolulu is locked into the #7 seed (they swept Los Angeles and win the tiebreaker).

In the National Conference, New Jersey will either be the #1 seed (with a win or Orlando loss) or #2 (beat Shreveport). Shreveport will either be the #2 seed (need a win and Orlando loss) or the #3 while Washington is locked in at #4.

Orlando could be #1 (win and New Jersey loss), #2 (win or Jacksonville loss) or #5 (loss plus Jacksonville win). Jacksonville wins the division with a win plus an Orlando loss based on division record after they split with the Renegades. Jacksonville will be the #5 or 6 seed otherwise. New York beat Georgia during the regular season and would be the higher seed if they remain tied after week 16.

I'm about to go to bed and I realized I wasn't clear in the parenthesis. I didn't always differentiate between something that's already happened and something that needs/could happen week 16. If you read something like (beat Shreveport) next to my team and you see the Generals don't play Shreveport this week, it already happened.

I apologize for any confusion my poor wording may cause.

I'm treating week 16 as a bye because I don't care about the possibility of a bye. Counting on Smirt to lose versus resting key players is an easy choice.

All that matters is making the playoffs to me....I'm either gonna go on a run....or not....regardless of seed.

Houston has made the playoffs 18 straight seasons (16 with me as owner) which I'm proud of...especially since we had the lean years of switching to 4.6 thrown in plus the retirement of my Hall of Fame quarterback added on to that.

I wonder how my journeyman quarterback will respond to his 1st playoff experience??

It will affect my decisions. If we had clinched either a BYE or a non BYE I would rest my QB, top 2 RB and some others. Since it seems to me that I need to win, I'm playing this like any other game with my best lineup. They can rest a week if they win.

Needing just a win is way different to needing to win AND have Smirt lose!!!

He has a career .900 winning percentage so I have a 1/10 at best then factor in his opponent who doesn't need to win anyway and I put my odds at around 5%.

I'd rest players in your shoes too.