How many regular season wins does an NFL team need to make the playoffs?
Sports Stats ‘on Tapp’ is a biweekly blog published every Wednesday and Sunday with a bonus “SIX STATS…” posting every Friday.
As the Green Bay Packers continue their quest for perfection (or, let me be the first to coin the phrase… PACKfection), the other 31 teams are trying to figure out how many wins they’ll need to secure a spot in the playoffs. Well… I have an answer for those teams.
Since 1990, when the NFL went to six teams from each conference making the playoffs, there have been 252 teams that have played in the NFL playoffs. Here’s a breakdown of the number of regular season wins by each of those teams.
7 wins: 1 team (Seattle in 2010)
8 wins: 8 teams
9 wins: 40 teams
10 wins: 63 teams
11 wins: 54 wins
12 wins: 40 teams
13 wins: 30 teams
14 wins: 13 teams
15 wins: 2 teams (Minnesota in 1998; Piitsburgh in 2004)
16 wins: 1 team (New England in 2007)
Here’s a few more interesting stats:
* Of the 252 playoff teams, the average number of regular season wins was 10.9.
* 96.2% of the teams that won 10 or more games since 1990 made the playoffs.
* New England is the only team since 1990 to win 11 games in the regular season and not make the playoffs.
Here’s a breakdown of how many teams with 8 or more wins in the regular season since 1990 have made the playoffs.
8 wins: 76 teams won 8 games; 8 made the playoffs; 68 did not… 10.5%
9 wins: 77 teams won 9 games; 40 made the playoffs; 37 did not… 51.9%
10 wins: 70 teams won 10 games; 63 made the playoffs; 7 did not… 90.0%
11 wins: 55 teams won 11 games; 54 made the playoffs; 1 did not… 98.2%
12 wins: 40 teams won 12 games; 40 teams made the playoffs… 100%
13 wins: 30 teams won 13 games; 30 teams made the playoffs… 100%
14 wins: 13 teams won 14 games; 13 teams made the playoffs… 100%
15 wins: 2 teams won 15 games; 2 teams made the playoffs… 100%
16 wins: 1 team won 16 games; 1 team made the playoffs… 100%
You want a sure thing? It looks like 12 wins is that sure thing. You’ve got a great chance with 10 or 11 wins. Nine wins? You’ve got about a 50-50 chance.