[HoosierinFL]

Looking at a playoff predictor page and we are currently listed as the 12 seed.

I'm running some scenarios for next week:

Assuming we win, the Bengals have a bye and we gain on them to the 11th seed.
I'm also assuming
Ravens beat Dolphins
Bills beat Jets
Pats beat Browns
Steelers beat Lions
Chargers beat Vikings
Broncos beat Eagles
Titans beat Saints

I think those are all likely outcomes.
The one game harder to call is Chiefs vs Raiders
If the Chiefs win, we remain the 11th seed. If the Raiders win, we are the 10th seed. I'm not sure if the Raiders can keep winning, but who knows. The Chiefs are starting to put things together, but who knows. I'll pick the Chiefs as a worst case scenario.

But the week after we travel to Buffalo. They aren't as good as expected but this will be no easy feat to go in there and win.
I'll make the following picks:
Jets beat Dolphins (this one doesn't matter)
Titans beat Texans
Chargers beat Steelers (this is good for us, hope it happens)
Pats beat Falcons
Ravens over bears
Browns over Lions
Jags lose to 49ers
Chiefs vs Cowboys?? I can't predict what either team will do, but I'll pick a Chiefs win as a worst case scenario again.
Another hard one is Bengals at Raiders. I'll pick the Bengals.

Given those picks, and we lose to the Bills, we'll be at the 12 seed.
If we win, we are the 10 seed. I'll pick the win.

In week 12, these are my picks
Steelers over Bengals
Titans over Pats
Jets over Texans
Chargers beat Broncos (maybe?)
Ravens over Browns
Saints beat Bills at home
Jags beat Falcons
Panthers beat Dolphins
and again hard to pick but worst case scenarios Raiders win at Dallas.

This is an interesting set of outcomes because if we lose to the Buccaneers that week we are at the 11 seed, but winning gets us to the 7th seed and in the playoffs. However, I won't think we pull that off, Brady will destroy our secondary. So I'm calling the L.

Week 13 the picks are
Chargers beat Bengals
Chiefs over Broncos at home
Steelers edge the Ravens at home (this would be bad for us)
Bills over Pats at home
Dolphins over Giants
Jets and Raiders also win against bad teams at home
Jags lose to rams
We win on the road in Houston

Because of the Raiders win, we drop to 8th seed, but if they lose, we are still the 7th seed.

Next is a bye week for us, but I'll make the following picks:
Ravens over Browns
Chiefs win at home over Raiders
Titans over Jags
Steelers over Viks
Bengals over 49ers
Saints beat Jets
Seahawks beat texans
Broncos over Lions
Chargers over Giants
Bills lose at Buccs

In this scenario, it is mainly the Chiefs winning that keeps us in the 7 seed.
If the Chiefs lose to the Raiders, then Raiders and Chiefs go to the 6th and 7th seed, respectively, and we drop to 8th. But I'll keep the Chiefs as winners here.

Week 15, I'm picking us to win at home against the Pats
Chargers beat Chiefs at home
jets over dolphins (doesn't matter)
jags over texans (doesn't matter)
Broncos at home over bengals (this is a tough call)
Bills win
Ravens win over GB at home (another tough one)
But Raiders at Browns? I'll pick the Browns
Titans at Steelers? I'll pick the Steelers.

After playing with various outcomes, it appears that nothing changes our 7 seed. Even if Chiefs win, Bengals win, Raiders win, we are still the 7 seed.

Week 17 gets rough, as we now travel to Arizona.
The picks are tough, so I'll pick worse case scenarios
Bengals win at home over Ravens
Jets over Jags
Pats win at home over Bills
Chargers over Texans
Chiefs win at home to Steelers
Broncos beat Raiders on the road (?)
Titans over 49ers
Packers beat Browns
Saints over Dolphins

Given these outcomes, and if we lose to Arizona, we drop to the 8th seed.
However, we can also keep the 7 seed and lose to Arizona but only if the Raiders beat the Broncos. If we win, the outcome of the Broncos/Raiders game has no effect, we keep the 7 seed.

I will keep the pick of Broncos over Raiders. I will also call it a W for the Colts this week as I think we can keep Kyler Murray in check.

Week 17 means we have to beat the Raiders at home.
In fact at picking lots of home team wins this week:
Bengals over Chiefs
Pats over Jags
Titans over Dolphins
Chargers over Broncos
Steelers over Browns
Bills over Falcons
Buccs beat Jets
49ers beat Texans
Ravens over Rams

I think these are realistic outcomes and this actually moves us to the 6th seed. Though if the Chiefs win we are the 7 seed. If we lose to the Raiders we are 7 seed, unless if we lose to raiders and the Broncos win, we are the 8 seed.

I am now optimistically moving us into week 18 with the 6th seed, and now picks are tough because we have to consider who might be resting starters.
Here are the playoff seeds per these predictions entering week 18:
1. Titans
2. Ravens
3. Chargers
4. Bills
5. Steelers
6. Colts
7. Chiefs

Only the Titans and Chargers can afford to rest players. The Ravens will have a 1 game lead on the Steelers, and if they lose at home to the Steelers in Week 18, the steelers take the North and a top seed.
But even if Titans rest, I still think they win at Houston, so the picks are:
Titans over Texans
Raiders over Chargers (with chargers resting starters)
Bengals over Browns
Pats over Dolphins
Ravens over Steelers at home
Broncos over Chiefs

Lets consider what shakes out if the Colts actually lose in jacksonville (it happens to often!). So if that happens, it appears that the worst case is we drop to the 7th seed, no matter what happens with Bengals/Browns or Broncos/Chiefs.
But if we win, we can make the 5 seed, and the only game that affects that is if the Steelers beat the Ravens, the Ravens go to 2nd place in the North and take the 5 seed and we are the 6 seed.


So my picks boil down to some lucky outcomes and losing only to the Buccaneers from here out.
By the way, I went back and in the situation where we are the 5 seed, if I change the Arizona game to an L, we are still the 7 seed and in the playoffs.