What the NY Jets need to happen to make the playoffs in 2022

Wild Card Teams

After the four division leaders, there are three remaining 'Wild Card' spots that are awarded to the remaining teams with the best records.

Make sure to brush up on the various ways that ties are broken because there is a very high probability that several of these will come into play this year.

Assuming the Titans, Chiefs, Bengals, and Bills win the division, let's look at all of the remaining AFC teams with six or more wins: Ravens (8-4), Dolphins (8-4), Jets (7-5), Patriots (6-6), and the Chargers (6-6).

If you prefer to give the Ravens the AFC North crown, be my guest: for all hypothetical situations they are interchangeable with the Bengals because they both defeated the Jets therefore they own head-to-head the tiebreaker over New York.

With the level of football they're playing right now, it's fair to assume that the Bills/Dolphins and Ravens/Bengals will be battling for the division crown until the very end of the season. The loser of those battles will almost certainly have those first two wild card spots wrapped up.

It's possible that Lamar Jackson's injury causes Baltimore to slide a bit, and maybe they lose a few of the four divisional matchups that are coming up to finish their season.

They have a layup against the Falcons in addition to battles against the Steelers (twice), Browns, and Bengals. Still, even if they lose three of these games, that'll put them at 10-7, and they'll beat the Jets for a spot if they also finish 10-7.

That leaves the Jets, Patriots, and Chargers competing for that last spot. The Jets currently have a one-game lead over both teams which is absolutely crucial to note because they lost the head-to-head tiebreaker with the Patriots.

I won't remind you how badly a certain performance may come back to haunt the team in the worst way this year.