For the first time ever, we're launching the NFL playoff simulator ahead of NFL Week 1. That means [checks notes] today!
nytimes.com/athletic/interac…
3
7
17
21,007
We've rebuilt it from scratch this year with a ton of new features we've always wanted to add (and more are coming).
The header itself is a visualization of thousands of season simulations, colored by season outcome
Sep 9, 2026 · 11:02 AM UTC
1
2
403
Our index page also has a more probabilistic projection of the playoff picture by seed, which we think is a more useful view than what you might typically find. It will become less uncertain as the season unfolds.
1
2
196
For the first time, we have a page dedicated to @amock419's individual game forecasts each week — a common reader request last year nytimes.com/athletic/interac…
1
1
154
Team pages also now help you see where your team is in the overall playoff picture, updating as you make choices
1
1
185
And on the team details page, we have a bunch of new charts, including one showing the records you'll need to make the playoffs and a detailed table of what seed you might get at a specific record
1
1
320
As always, these projects are the work of a team of people at @theathletic, all with different skills, from UX, design, statistics, modeling, computation, web development, ball-knowing (the authors) and sending 50000 slack messages (skye and me).
Lots more coming!
232