When are the NFL playoffs? What to know about NFL's 2025-26 postseason
When are the NFL playoffs? What to know about NFL's 2025-26 postseason
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Five NFL games we can't wait to watch in the 2025 season
The NFL schedule for the 2025-2026 season has been released. Here are a few games on our must-watch list.
When do the NFL playoffs start this season?
Though the 2025 NFL regular season doesn't start for a few more months, the league's recent schedule release has kept football at the top of mind in late spring. As fans parse through their teams' 18-week schedules, selling themselves on optimism and hope for a strong record (and perhaps Super Bowl contention) in 2025, they turn their attention ahead to the playoffs.
Barring any drastic changes due to unforeseen circumstances, the NFL postseason will again begin the weekend after the conclusion of the regular season. Following a Week 18 slate loaded with divisional rivalry games, brackets will lock into place as teams solidify their playoff berths and seedings.
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Of the 14 teams that make the playoffs, 12 of them – all but each conference's No. 1 seed – will start their postseason run in the wild-card round the weekend after Week 18 concludes.
There's still plenty of time before the regular season begins – let alone the playoffs – but here's what to know about the NFL postseason schedule:
When do the NFL playoffs start?
Dates: Jan. 10-12, 2026
This year's playoffs will start with a three-day slate of wild-card round games the weekend after Week 18. Two games will occur Saturday, Jan. 10; two more games follow on Sunday, Jan. 11, and the wild-card round will conclude with a single game on Monday, Jan. 12.
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NFL playoffs schedule
All dates are in 2026.
Wild-card round: Jan. 10-12
Jan. 10-12 Divisional round: Jan. 17-18
Jan. 17-18 Conference championships: Jan. 25
Jan. 25 Super Bowl 60: Feb. 8
As always, the first three weeks of playoff matchups will get underway in back-to-back-to-back weeks after the regular season ends. Conference champions will enjoy a two-week break before facing off in the Super Bowl.
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When is Super Bowl 60?
Date : Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026
: Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026 Time: 6:30 p.m. ET
Since the league added a week to the regular season schedule in 2021, the Super Bowl has always taken place on the second Sunday in February.
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