There is no rule for how many wins are needed to be in the playoffs. The more wins the better but, the team only needs to be a division leader and therefore automatically given a playoff spot.
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There is no set win-loss record to make the playoffs. The record needed is the best win-loss record that wins your team their division, or one of the two best records for wild car playoff spots. Teams with 11-5 records have missed the playoffs while in 2010 the Seahawks became the first team with a losing record (7-9) to win their division and then win a playoff game.
New Orleans Saints Drew Brees lit up for a record setting 5,476 (not counting playoffs).
When 2 teams have a record not quite good enough to make it into the playoffs, they must face each other in a wildcard game. The winner makes it into the playoffs, and the losers season is over.
With the Houston Texans making the playoffs this year every team will have been to the playoffs.
In a non-strike season prior to 2010 no team below .500 has made the playoffs. In 1982, a strike wiped out 7 games of the regular season and the NFL decided to allow 8 teams from each conference to make the playoffs in the hopes that the owners could recoup some of the lost money. Both the Cleveland Browns and Detroit Lions made the playoffs with a record of 4-5 and lost in the first round.
85' Broncos with an 11-5 record. 1967 Baltimore Colts with an 11-1-2 record. 1963 Green Bay Packers with an 11-2-1 record. Then the 1985 Broncos. As of the 2008 season, those three teams are the only teams in NFL history to win 11 games in the regular season and not make the playoffs.