Format, how 14 teams qualify, seeding, matchups, bye weeks, and path to Super Bowl. Breakdown for 2025-26 season.

San Francisco 49ers running back Raheem Mostert (31) scores in front of Green Bay Packers free safety Darnell Savage (26) during the first half of the NFL NFC Championship football game Sunday, Jan. 19, 2020, in Santa Clara, Calif. (AP Photo/Tony Avelar ...

Thanks to the way the NFL action unfolded this weekend, the Chicago Bears are a lot closer to clinching a playoff spot.

John Elway and Dan Marino were still starting quarterbacks, Tom Brady was a little-known college player at Michigan and at least six starting quarterbacks for potential 2025 playoffs teams weren’t even alive the last time the NFL had a postseason like this.

That leaves the Bears one game up on the Lions entering Week 17, when Chicago faces another potential playoff team in the 49ers. Even at 10-4 and second in the NFC, Chicago is in a precarious position given the difficulty of its schedule, which concludes with ...

The Bears began selling tickets for possible postseason home games on Thursday, as their drive to reach the NFL playoffs for the first time since the 2020 season intensifies WGN's Courtney Spinelli reports on how fast the tickets sold out,