{"id":830577,"date":"2025-02-28T13:12:51","date_gmt":"2025-02-28T19:12:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/28\/nfl-playoff-picture-what-does-browns-ravens-mean-for-afc-standings\/"},"modified":"2025-02-28T13:12:51","modified_gmt":"2025-02-28T19:12:51","slug":"nfl-playoff-picture-what-does-browns-ravens-mean-for-afc-standings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/02\/28\/nfl-playoff-picture-what-does-browns-ravens-mean-for-afc-standings\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL playoff picture: What does Browns-Ravens mean for AFC standings?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Game results (Sunday):<\/strong> With the Chargers win in Week 18, the Steelers fell to the sixth seed and will travel to Baltimore for a wild card game, the third matchup of Baltimore and Pittsburgh this season. <\/p>\n

Game update:<\/strong> The Ravens are the AFC North champions and have clinched the three seed after their Week 18 win over the Cleveland Browns.<\/p>\n

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Week 18 of the 2024 NFL season has arrived.<\/p>\n

While many teams have already punched their playoff tickets \u2014 or booked their post-season travel plans after being eliminated \u2014 a handful of teams enter the final weekend of the regular season with some outstanding business.<\/p>\n

The Baltimore Ravens<\/a> are one of those teams. While the Ravens have already clinched a playoff spot, they enter Week 18 with a chance to clinch the AFC North and a home game on Wild Card Weekend. <\/p>\n

Here is how the Ravens can lock up the AFC North this weekend, starting with their game Saturday against the Cleveland Browns<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sitting at 11-5, the Ravens have already clinched a playoff spot.<\/p>\n

But the AFC North title has yet to be decided, with both Baltimore and the Pittsburgh Steelers<\/a> having a chance to claim the division in Week 18. The Ravens are a game ahead of Pittsburgh in the standings, so Baltimore has the advantage heading into Saturday.<\/p>\n

With a win or a tie against the Browns on Saturday, the Ravens will take the AFC North. It is worth noting that Baltimore is a prohibitive favorite entering the game \u2014 FanDuel <\/em>listed them as 19.5-point favorites as of Friday morning \u2014 and the Browns are starting reserve quarterback Bailey Zappe in this game.<\/p>\n

Even if the Ravens lose on Saturday, they can still win the division if the Steelers lose or tie against the Cincinnati Bengals<\/a> later in the day. <\/p>\n

The Browns-Ravens game kicks off at 4:30 p.m. Eastern on Saturday, with Bengals-Steelers scheduled for 8:00 p.m. Eastern.<\/p>\n

In addition, Baltimore\u2019s seed in the AFC playoff bracket is on the line this weekend. If they win the division they will slot in as the No. 3 seed and have a home game on Wild Card Weekend. But if the Steelers end up winning the division, then the Ravens will enter the playoffs as the No. 5 seed and play on the road against the Houston Texans<\/a>, who are locked into the No. 4 seed. <\/p>\n

Browns playoff picture<\/h2>\n

The Browns have already been eliminated from playoff contention.<\/p>\n

However, Cleveland remains in the mix for the first-overall selection. With a loss to the Ravens \u2014 and both the Tennessee Titans<\/a> and the New England Patriots<\/a> either winning or tying their games \u2014 the Browns would secure the first-overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Tiebreaker implications<\/h2>\n

This game has no tiebreaker implications.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Mark Schofield
Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Game results (Sunday): With the Chargers win in Week 18, the Steelers fell to the sixth seed and will travel to Baltimore for a wild card game, the third matchup of Baltimore and Pittsburgh this season. Game update: The Ravens are the AFC North champions and have clinched the three seed after their Week 18<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":830578,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2518,22889],"tags":[13409,9065],"class_list":{"0":"post-830577","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-picture","8":"category-playoff","9":"tag-picture","10":"tag-playoff"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=830577"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830577\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/830578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=830577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=830577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=830577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}