:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/71837937/1453881249.0.jpg "NFL playoff picture: How Bengals can clinch a playoff berth in Week 18")
The Cincinnati Bengals are the 2022-23 AFC North champions and are going to be either the No. 2 or No. 3 seed in the 2023 NFL Playoffs. While they cannot secure the No. 1 seed, they have plenty to gain in Week 18 and thus will be sending out their starters when they kick off against the Baltimore Ravens at 1 p.m. ET.
The Bengals enter the game as the No. 3 seed in the AFC playoff standings, with the Buffalo Bills at No. 2 and the Kansas City Chiefs at No. 1. If the Bengals beat the Ravens and the Bills lose to the Patriots, they would finish tied with a 12-4 record. The team's head-to-head game in Week 17 was canceled, which moves us down the tiebreaker list. With a Bengals win and Bills loss, they would finish the season tied in the conference record tiebreaker and the record in common games tiebreaker. That moves them to the strength of victory tiebreaker. That will be determined by Sunday's results for all the opponents the Bengals and Bills beat. If that finishes tied, they would move on to strength of overall schedule.
The cancellation of the Week 17 Bengals-Bills game has resulted in some one-time changes to the playoffs. If the Bengals lose to the Ravens and the Chargers beat the Broncos in Week 18, the Bengals and Ravens would face off in the Wild Card round next week. The NFL decided that since Baltimore would have beaten Cincinnati twice but lost their chance at winning the division, home field in that game would be decided by a coin flip. A Bengals win would remove that from consideration.
Additionally, there are AFC title game implications. If the Bengals win and the Bills and Chiefs both lose in Week 18 and the Bengals faced the Chiefs in the AFC title game, the game would be played on a neutral site.