Updated November 10, 2026
Week 9 of the 2026 NFL season ended Monday night with the Buffalo Bills beating the Minnesota Vikings 23-6. That result settled the last open question of the week and set the standings front offices were looking at on trade deadline day. Every record below comes from NFL.com's division standings and the ESPN standings feed, both checked Tuesday morning, Nov. 10. Every final score with standouts is in our full Week 9 recap. This post is about what the week changed.
Buffalo and San Francisco Are the Only 7-1 Teams
The Bills (7-1) and 49ers (7-1) now have the best records in their conferences. Buffalo has won four straight, and Monday's win came on the road against a defense that entered the night allowing the fewest points in the league, according to ESPN team defensive stats. According to the NFL.com Bills-Vikings game center, Minnesota finished with 178 total yards and went 0-for-8 on third down. The Vikings scored only on two field goals.
San Francisco beat the Raiders 38-17 on Sunday and stays half a game ahead of the Bears (7-2) for the best record in the NFC. Denver (7-2) won its fifth straight and goes into its Week 10 bye half a game behind Buffalo in the AFC race for the top seed. That seed matters more than it used to: in the 14-team format, only the No. 1 seed in each conference skips the Wild Card round.
The NFC North Has Four Winning Teams and No Room
Chicago beat Tampa Bay 27-24 on Sunday night to move to 7-2, its fourth straight win. Detroit (6-2) has also won four straight. Green Bay (6-3) scored 45 points against New England. Minnesota (6-2) has now lost two in a row. All four teams are at least three games over .500, and the NFC North has a combined record of 25-9.
Not every team in that group can make the playoffs as a division winner, so wild-card tiebreakers are likely to decide part of this race. We walked through how those work, step by step, in our guide to how NFL playoff tiebreakers work. One date to circle: the Vikings play at Green Bay on Sunday on a short week.
No NFC South Team Has a Winning Record
Carolina and New Orleans lead the NFC South at 3-5, and Tampa Bay and Atlanta are 3-6. Because division winners take the top four seeds, the NFC South leader would host a playoff game if the season ended today. That would happen even with a worse record than several wild-card teams from the North. The ESPN standings feed's current projection has Carolina as the NFC's No. 4 seed and Detroit, at 6-2, as the No. 5 seed. That is a projection, not a clinch, and there are nine weeks left.
Two Teams Moving in Opposite Directions on Deadline Day
The trade deadline passed Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2026, at 4:00 p.m. ET (1:00 p.m. PT), per the league's 2026-27 important dates calendar. Week 9 results matched the buyer and seller split already showing up in the trades.
Jacksonville (6-2) leads the AFC South by three games over Houston. On Monday, Nov. 9, the Jaguars added defensive tackle Jordan Davis from Philadelphia, safety Jessie Bates from Atlanta and defensive tackle Davon Godchaux from New Orleans. All three moves are listed on NFL.com's 2026 trade tracker, checked at about 9:15 a.m. PT Tuesday. Philadelphia went the other way. The Eagles lost 19-11 to the Giants for their seventh straight loss, fell to 2-7, and have since traded Davis. A Tuesday deal sending outside linebacker Arnold Ebiketie to Cincinnati was called off by the Bengals before it became official, per NFL.com.
Other contenders made smaller moves. Detroit added safety Andre Cisco from the Jets, and Baltimore traded for quarterback Jacoby Brissett on Nov. 6 with Lamar Jackson and Tyler Huntley injured. The Ravens are 4-5 after four straight losses.
The biggest deadline-day deals, per NFL.com's final tracker: Minnesota brought back quarterback Kirk Cousins from Las Vegas for a 2027 third-round pick, Buffalo got safety Amani Hooker and a 2027 fifth-round pick from Tennessee for a 2027 second, San Francisco added receiver Keenan Allen from Indianapolis, and Kansas City added receiver Josh Downs from the Colts. Indianapolis kept Jonathan Taylor. That story is in our Colts trade deadline update.
The Bottom of the Standings Got Clearer
The Chargers (0-8) are the league's only winless team after a 44-22 home loss to Houston, per the NFL.com Texans-Chargers game center. Miami and Tennessee are 1-7. The Jets and Colts are 2-7, and Indianapolis has lost five straight. In the NFC, Washington (2-5-1) and Philadelphia (2-7) are at the bottom of the East, while the Giants (5-2-1) are the only NFC East team above .500.
What Week 9 Sets Up for Week 10
Week 10 runs from Thursday, Nov. 12, through Monday, Nov. 16, on NFL.com's schedule, with the Bears, Broncos, Eagles and Buccaneers on bye. The games with the most standings weight are Steelers at Bengals on Sunday night, with both teams 6-2 and tied atop the AFC North, and Vikings at Packers on Sunday morning Pacific time. Times and channels for every game are on NFL.com's Week 10 schedule page.
Last week's version of this post, the Week 8 takeaways, noted that no unbeaten teams remained. A week later, the NFC North depth it described has held up, and the AFC top seed has turned into a Bills-Broncos race.
Featured photo: Buffalo Bills offense against Washington at Highmark Stadium, Sept. 26, 2021, by All-Pro Reels via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0), cropped with a short banner.
NFL Week 9 Takeaways: Frequently Asked Questions
Which NFL teams have the best record after Week 9 of 2026?
The Buffalo Bills and San Francisco 49ers are both 7-1, the best records in the AFC and NFC. The Broncos and Bears are next at 7-2, per NFL.com standings checked Nov. 10.
Is any NFL team still winless after Week 9?
Yes. The Los Angeles Chargers are 0-8 after a 44-22 home loss to Houston. They are the only winless team in the league.
When was the 2026 NFL trade deadline?
Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2026, at 4:00 p.m. ET, which is 1:00 p.m. PT, according to the NFL's 2026-27 important dates calendar. Trades reopen when the new league year starts in March 2027.
