Updated NFC Playoff Picture, NFC Wild Card standings after Bucs lose to Ravens

Let’s check the pulse on the NFC Playoff Picture and NFC Wild Card standings after the Buccaneers got walloped by the Ravens on Thursday Night Football. 

Well, well, well, how the turntables have…turned.

Tom Brady returning to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for one more season seemed like it was setting things up for a potential walk-off for a legend. Some thought Brady should have retired after he won the Super Bowl back in 2020, going out on top and with punctuation on who was more responsible for the sustained New England Patriots success.

Instead, Brady returned for a second and third season in Tampa Bay that has produced diminishing returns in ways no one thought was possible.

The Bucs lost in the divisional round to Los Angeles in 2021 and have now lost three straight games as they reach the midway point of the 2022 season.

To say things have not gone according to plan is to emphatically undersell just how bad things are for Tampa Bay. With the Bucs in free fall, the rest of the NFC Playoff Picture is starting to come into focus without Brady and his crew anywhere to be found.

Updated NFC Playoff Picture after Thursday Night Football Week 8

The seemingly impossible has happened as Tom Brady is currently on the outside of the playoff picture looking in. This is great news — at least for now — for the Atlanta Falcons and Carolina Panthers.

Rather inexplicably, the Falcons-Panthers matchup in Week 8 will be for sole possession of first place in the NFC South. Tampa Bay will fall to third place if the Falcons win since Carolina won a head-to-head matchup last week, but will fall only to second place if the Panthers win since it holds a tiebreaker over Atlanta.

The main takeaway is we could be living in a world where at the midway point of the NFL season the Carolina Panthers — two weeks removed from firing their head coach and without a starting quarterback — could hold sole possession of first place and one-half of a tiebreaker over both the Bucs and Falcons.

Here’s a look at what the NFC Playoff bracket would look like if the postseason started today:

1. Philadelphia Eagles (6-0)
2. Minnesota Vikings (5-1)
3. Seattle Seahawks (4-3)
4. Atlanta Falcons (3-4)
5. New York Giants (6-1)
6. Dallas Cowboys (5-2)
7. Los Angeles Rams (3-3)

Based on those standings, here’s what the playoff matchups would look like for the first weekend of action:

• (2) Minnesota Vikings vs. (7) Los Angeles Rams
• (3) Seattle Seahawks vs. (6) Dallas Cowboys
• (4) Atlanta Falcons vs. (5) New York Giants

Each higher-seeded team would host its Wild Card Weekend matchup. The Philadelphia Eagles would have a first-round bye with the No. 1 seed and host any playoff game they play in.

NFC Wild Card standings after Thursday Night Football Week 8

Here’s what the Wild Card standings look like heading into Week 8:

1. New York Giants (6-1)
2. Dallas Cowboys (5-2)
3. Los Angeles Rams (3-3)
4. Sean Francisco 49ers (4-3)
5. Green Bay Packers (3-4)
6. Atlanta Falcons (3-4)
7. Washington Commanders (3-4)
8. Arizona Cardinals (3-4)
9. Chicago Bears (3-4)
10. Tampa Bay Buccaneers (3-5)
11. New Orleans Saints (2-5)
12. Carolina Panthers (2-4)
13. Detroit Lions (1-5)