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Which NFL playoff team is biggest Super Bowl 60 threat? Ranking all 14 on title chances
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- Which NFL playoff team is biggest Super Bowl 60 threat? Ranking all 14 on title chances
And then there were 14.
The NFL playoff field was finally set Sunday night , the Steelers winning the 272nd and final game of the 2025 regular season and claiming the last spot in the tournament that will feed into Super Bowl 60 on Feb. 8.
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"It just takes a little belief at this point in the season," said Pittsburgh quarterback Aaron Rodgers following the victory, the four-time league MVP back in the postseason for the first time in four years and in pursuit of his first championship since he led the Packers to victory in Super Bowl 45.
"It's good to be part of the 14 after so many years. … (N)ice to be back in this position."
Yet how good is the positioning of the Steelers and the 13 other playoff qualifiers in what's seemingly shaping up as a wide-open road to the Lombardi Trophy ? We've ranked all of them, from worst to best, in terms of their championship viability:
14. Carolina Panthers
Congratulations are certainly in order for a team that's reached postseason for the first time in eight years by supplanting the Tampa Bay Buccaneers atop the NFC South. Now, let's get real. The Panthers have won once since their Week 14 bye and lost to the Bucs on Saturday. Carolina was then literally backed into the field Sunday by the Atlanta Falcons , their four-game heater to end the season creating a three-way tie atop the division – a deadlock that conferred the decisive tiebreaker to the Panthers. Carolina (8-9) became just the fifth team in league history to win a division title despite a losing record ; none of the previous ones got past the divisional round. And while QB Bryce Young will occasionally explode with an eye-popping performance, those are basically one-offs – the third-year passer throwing for as many as 200 yards just four times this season. Simply put, virtually impossible to envision a scenario where this club goes on a three- or four-game run against the league's best competition.
