Breaking down the Bengals playoff picture after Week 12

The Cincinnati Bengals continue to win games and put themselves in a more favorable spot when it comes to making the playoffs. How do their playoff hopes look after Week 12?

Beating the Titans ensured that Cincinnati will hold yet another key tiebreaker. This tiebreaker, however, will only really come into play if the Bengals end up winning the AFC North and finishing with the same record as Tennessee.

Speaking of the AFC North, it got more interesting after the Ravens dropped their game to the Jaguars. Baltimore still holds the tiebreaker after beating the Bengals in Week 5 but the two play again in the final game of the regular season and that game could decide who wins the division.

What does the Bengals playoff picture look like?

Here are the current AFC playoff standings after Week 12.

1. Kansas City Chiefs (9-2)
2. Miami Dolphins (8-3)
3. Tennessee Titans (7-4)
4. Baltimore Ravens (7-4)
5. Buffalo Bills (8-3)
6. Cincinnati Bengals (7-4)
7. New York Jets (7-4)
In the hunt: New England Patriots (6-5), Los Angeles Chargers (6-5)

If the season ended right now, the Bengals would head back to Tennessee for a date with the Titans in the Wild Card round. That'd be a really fun game. The other two Wild Card games would be the Dolphins vs Jets and Ravens vs Bills. The worst-remaining seed would then head to Kansas City for the Divisional Round.

Bengals fans would obviously rather win the division but to be honest, none of these teams really scare me all that much. They'll play the Chiefs this weekend and have a chance to scoop up a potential key tiebreaker there and the stripes will face the Bills in Week 17 so they'll get a nice look at the two best teams in the conference ahead of the playoffs.

The Bengals were in the No. 7 spot last week but thanks to their head-to-head win over the Jets back in Week 3, they get the better seeding there.

What kind of changes will we see to these standings next week?