Updating Packers’ Spot in NFC Playoff Race Entering ‘Sunday Night Football’

Here is the latest in the NFC playoff and NFL Draft races with most of Week 12 of the NFL season complete.

GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers need a victory over the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday night to keep their playoff hopes at least semi-optimistic.

The Washington Commanders edged the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday for their sixth win in seven games. Paired with the Seattle Seahawks’ overtime loss to the Las Vegas Raiders, the Commanders (7-5) moved in front of the Seahawks (6-5) for the final spot in the NFC playoff race.

Everybody else is below .500. That includes Green Bay (4-7), which is 1-5 since Aaron Rodgers suffered a broken thumb on the final play of the London loss to the Giants.

With a win, Green Bay would move within two games of Washington, though the Commanders own the head-to-head tiebreaker.

“I think when you win, it creates momentum,” Rodgers said this week. “When I said it in 2016, how many people actually believed then? Probably not many. But then we got the first one. Then we came home and got the second one. We beat Seattle, got the third one and I think there was a lot of momentum that started in the locker room and guys started realizing this was a possibility and it's like a snowball effect rolling downhill and so we gotta pack that snowball this week and get it to the top of the hill and let it start rolling downhill.”

Meanwhile, according to Tankathon, the Packers enter the night owning the 13th pick of the 2023 NFL Draft. It’s a logjam, though. Carolina is 4-8 and owns the sixth pick.

Here are the playoff standings.

No. 7: Washington (7-5)

No. 8: Seattle (6-5)

No. 9: Atlanta (5-7)

No. 10: Detroit (4-7)

No. 11: Green Bay (4-7; at Philadelphia)

No. 12: Arizona (4-8)

No. 13: Carolina (4-8)

No. 14: New Orleans (4-8)

No. 15: L.A. Rams (3-8)

No. 16: Chicago (3-9)