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Week 9 of the NFL season is under way. The Falcons extended their NFC South lead with a victory on Thursday night, and there are several more games coming up this weekend that will affect teams' playoff positioning.

As of today, here's how the NFL playoff picture looks, as well as a snapshot of some games that could potentially impact what it looks like next week and beyond:

Who's in from the AFC

Who's out in the AFC

Who's in from the NFC

Who's out in the NFC

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Prescott's Cowboys and Brady's Patriots currently hold the top seeds in their respective conferences. USATSI

Games to watch in Week 9

Week 9 only features one game where both teams are currently in playoff position heading into the contest.

Broncos at Raiders

Kickoff: 8:30 p.m. ET, TV: NBC

The AFC West currently has three teams in playoff position, with the Raiders occupying the division lead by virtue of a tiebreaker advantage over the Broncos. (The Chiefs are the second wild card, a half-game back of Denver.) This game is happening in Oakland, which seems like an advantage for the Raiders, but they're actually 1-2 at home this season and 5-0 on the road. The rematch in Denver doesn't take place until the final week of the season. A win here would give whoever gets it a leg up in the divisional race, as well as helping them keep pace with the AFC-leading Patriots.

Derek Carr and the Raiders are 1-2 at home this season and face AFC West rival Denver. USATSI

Week 9 features two additional games where both teams are currently within one game of a playoff spot heading into the contest.

Lions at Vikings

Kickoff: 1 p.m. ET, TV: FOX

The Lions are a half-game back of the Giants for the second wild card spot, and with a win could pull a half-game back of the Vikings in the NFC North. Minnesota is on a two-game slide after starting 5-0, with the offense badly needing to get back on track and the defense needing to recapture the smothering quality that carried the team through the first month-plus of the season.

Matthew Stafford and the Lions hope to make up more ground on the stumbling Vikings. USATSI

Eagles at Giants

Kickoff: 1 p.m. ET, TV: FOX

Both the Eagles and Giants are 4-3, but New York currently occupies the second wild card spot by virtue of a tiebreaker. Both teams are two games back of the division-leading Cowboys, while the Eagles have lost to Dallas and the Giants handed the 'Boys their only loss of the season back in Week 1. The entire NFC East is at .500 or better, so a win here doesn't so much give one of these teams separation as it allows them to maintain position within the playoff race.

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Carson Wentz and the Eagles look to rebound in a key NFC East matchup vs. the Giants. USATSI

Other games with playoff implications

Several other games, like Steelers at Ravens (1 p.m.), Titans at Chargers (4:25 p.m.), and Bills at Seahawks (8:30 p.m., "Monday Night Football") feature two teams within shouting distance of a playoff spot, and could conceivably knock one team too far out of the picture to reasonable come back by the end of the year, pending results of other games.

Week 9 schedule*

Sunday

  • Dallas at Cleveland, 1 p.m.
  • Pittsburgh at Baltimore, 1 p.m.
  • Philadelphia at N.Y. Giants, 1 p.m.
  • Detroit at Minnesota, 1 p.m.
  • N.Y. Jets at Miami, 1 p.m.
  • Jacksonville at Kansas City, 1 p.m.
  • New Orleans at San Francisco, 4:05 p.m.
  • Carolina at L.A. Rams, 4:05 p.m.
  • Tennessee at San Diego, 4:25 p.m.
  • Indianapolis at Green Bay, 4:25 p.m.
  • Denver at Oakland, 8:30 p.m.

Monday

  • Buffalo at Seattle 8:30 p.m.

* All times Eastern