A Look at an AFC Team's Playoff Seed and How Far They Go

With the NFL Playoffs only a few weeks away, I thought it might be interesting to take a look at how well seeded teams perform throughout the NFL Playoffs. Always interested in statistics, I wanted to know if a team's seed ranking affects their respective performance in the NFL playoffs. Keep in mind there are no in depth team analysis or statistics here, just a simple compilation of data consisting of a team's seed ranking, and how far they tend to advance in the NFL playoffs. Below you will find the data for AFC seedings and how they tend to perform after the NFL expanded the playoffs to 12 teams. Have fun reading! And if you're interested, I've also compiled a short article on how well a NFL team's seed affects their respective Super Bowl performance, assuming the team reaches the Super Bowl. Click here to go to that article.

AFC #1 Seed

Given home field advantage and the NFL's re-seeding following the Wild Card round, the AFC #1 seed would be expected to reach the Super Bowl more. Historically, this is not the case. Of the 18 AFC #1 seeds that have played in the playoffs since the NFL expanded to 12 teams, only 11 (61.1%) have advanced past the divisional playoff round and only 7 (38.8%) have reached the Super Bowl.

AFC #2 Seed

Similarly, given that the AFC #2 seed earns a first-round bye and has home field advantage in the divisional round of the playoffs, the #2 seed should perform well too. For the most part, the AFC #2 seed does. The AFC #2 seed has a slightly greater chance of advancing past the divisional round (13 of 18 teams, 72.2%), but only 5 AFC #2 seeded teams (27.7%) have ever reached the Super Bowl.

AFC #3 Seed

Historically, the AFC #3 seed tends to experience a high degree of success in advancing past the Wild Card round, as 16 of 18 teams (88.9%) have advance past the Wild Card round. However, the AFC #3 seed has not had as much success advancing past the Divisional Round, as only 4 of 18 teams (22.2%) have played in the Conference Championship and of those teams, only one has advanced to the Super Bowl.

AFC #4 Seed

The AFC #4 seed contains an interesting trend. A slightly lower number of teams (12 of 18 teams, 66.7%), have advanced past the Wild Card round. However, the AFC #5 seeded team has an overall better chance of reaching the Conference Championship (5 of 18 teams, 27.7%), and historically, the AFC #4 seeded team has played in four Super Bowls.

AFC #5 Seed

The AFC #5 seed faces an uphill battle to advance in the playoffs. Only 6 of 18 teams have advanced past the Wild Card round (33.3%) and only two teams (11.1%) have ever reached the Conference Championship. No AFC #5 team has ever played in the Super Bowl.

AFC #6 Seed

The lowest seed always has the most difficult road to the Super Bowl, having to play at the minimum the #3 and #1 AFC seeded teams in the playoffs. Only 3 AFC #6 teams (16.7%) have advanced past the Wild Card round and only one team has ever advanced past the Divisional round. That team, the 2006 Pittsburgh Steelers, would also go on to win Super Bowl XL.