A win over the New Orleans Saints on Monday night will clinch a playoff spot for the Green Bay Packers, but it’s possible the spot will already be locked in before the Packers kick off against the Saints.
Two different combinations of results on Sunday will do the trick.
— If the Atlanta Falcons lose or tie to the New York Giants AND the Los Angeles Rams lose or tie to the New York Jets, the Packers will clinch.
— If the Falcons lose or tie to the Giants AND the Seattle Seahawks lose or tie to the Minnesota Vikings, the Packers will clinch.
Falcons-Giants and Rams-Jets both kick off at noon CT on Sunday, while Seahawks-Vikings is set for a 3:05 p.m. CT kickoff in Seattle.
Considering the Packers would prefer the Vikings to lose, both for NFC North positioning and playoff seeding, the preferrable scenario on Sunday is the Falcons losing to the Giants and the Rams losing to the Jets, so Matt LaFleur’s team could actually use some help from former Packer Aaron Rodgers. Also, the Falcons are switching quarterbacks, going from Kirk Cousins to rookie Michael Penix, so they are a bit of an unknown going into New York.
The other game to watch Sunday is the Detroit Lions going to Chicago to play the Bears. The Packers could use a win from the Bears to keep open a path to winning the NFC North (would need Vikings to lose as well).
Even if the Packers don’t get the right results, a win Monday night against the 5-9 Saints would do the trick in terms of clinching a playoff spot. New Orleans is 3-2 since firing Dennis Allen and turning to Darren Rizzi, but the Saints will be without their starting QB (Derek Carr), best offensive weapon (Alvin Kamara), best pass-catcher (Chris Olave), most unique weapon (Taysom Hill), best corner (Paulson Adebo) and best deep threat (Rashid Shaheed) on Monday night.
