NFL playoff picture: Falcons, Bears lead the NFC

Rob Carr

Half of the NFL season has been played, and the playoff picture is starting to materialize. Here is your NFC playoff picture.

Many NFL head coaches, like the Chicago Bears' Lovie Smith, like to break the NFL regular season into four quarters. With that being said, where does the playoff picture stand after a half of football? Let's take a look at the NFC playoff picture.

If the season were to end right now, we would have:

#1 seed: Atlanta Falcons (7-0)

#2: Chicago Bears (6-1)

#3: New York Giants (6-2)

#4: San Fransisco 49ers (5-2)

The Wild Cards would be claimed as follows:

#5: Minnesota Vikings

#6: Green Bay Packers

Currently in the hunt:

#7: Arizona Cardinals (4-3)

#8: Seattle Seahawks (4-4)

We know that things are more than likely to change, and the NFC has a volatile enough conference to go topsy-turvy, but that's where things stand right now.

Our questions to you:

1- Will the Falcons continue their march towards NFC domination?

2- Are the Jay Cutler led Bears really worthy of the #2 seed?

3- Will the Packers, who went 15-1 in 2011 be relegated to a Wild Card?

4- Can either the Cardinals or Seahawks really be taken seriously?

Preseason predictions might be out the window at this point, but after 8 weeks, it's time to start separating teams into either contenders or pretenders. What do you think?