The surprise teams crashing the NFL playoff party

The NFL regular season has come to an end, and the playoff seeding is set. Perennial appearances from teams like the Patriots, Packers, Giants and Steelers are no surprise to most people, but teams like the Dolphins, Raiders, Lions and Falcons aren’t as common and therefore deserve a closer look.

Some of these teams are getting their first taste of the playoffs in roughly a decade, and some have been more recently but had little to no success in the playoffs. The Lions have been there twice in the past few years, but they haven’t won a playoff game since 1992. The Cowboys have been to the playoffs once since 2010, beating the aforementioned Lions and losing to Green Bay the following week. The Raiders haven’t been to the postseason since Bill Callahan was at the helm, and they got trounced by the Buccaneers in the Super Bowl. Atlanta’s last playoff dance ended with the 49ers bouncing back from being down 17-0 and pitching a second-half shutout to win the NFC Championship Game in Atlanta.

As you can see, there is some unfamiliarity with the playoffs for some of these teams, but they made it to the show, so they have a chance to win it all. In that vein of thought, here is a breakdown of six teams that aren’t perennial favorites to make it to the postseason and how they might fare in the 2016-2017 NFL Playoffs.

Houston Texans: The Texans may have lucked out winning the AFC South, which was a total joke for the majority of the season (tell me something new, right?), but they got an even bigger blessing with Raiders quarterback Derek Carr breaking his leg a couple weeks back. The Raiders were putting up points in bunches and seemed like one of the only teams in the AFC that might be able to challenge the Patriots on the road to Houston, but with Connor Cook under center, the Raiders are decidedly less dangerous. Even if Matt McGloin is able to bounce back from his injury, the Oakland offense is in a bad spot.

Houston has its own concerns at QB with Brock Osweiler being thrown back into action yesterday while Tom Savage was pulled to go through concussion protocol and was ruled out for the second half of the game. Texans coach Bill O’Brien wouldn’t commit to a starting QB for Saturday’s game but did say that Savage would have finished Sunday’s contest had he not suffered a concussion. The Texans are in trouble either way, but they may have lucked their way into a Wild Card round win with the Raiders' injury at their most important position.

Oakland Raiders: Raiders GM Reggie McKenzie has done a nice job of building a team that can compete on the field after the Raiders suffered through years of ineptitude. Head coach Jack Del Rio has hit all the right buttons and shown he isn’t averse to risk. He gambles, he wins a fair amount of those gambles and he has led Oakland back to the playoffs for the first time in 15 years.

Unfortunately, he is without his field general and leader on the offensive side of the ball, which may mean that Oakland has to wait another year to win its first playoff game since 2002. With another year of experience and another solid draft/free agency period under their belts, the Raiders might be able to make some noise in next year's playoffs, but they are up against it this year.

Miami Dolphins: The Dolphins haven’t been to the playoffs in almost a decade, and they are running into a team that has started to click at just the right time: the Pittsburgh Steelers. Pittsburgh rattled off seven straight wins, including three straight against its division to lock up the three seed. Now Miami has to travel to Heinz Field and take on Antonio Brown, Le’Veon Bell and the rest of a tough Steelers team, and bad news, they may have to do it without their starting quarterback.

The Dolphins aren’t sure if Ryan Tannehill will be able to take the field Sunday in Pittsburgh, and the Steelers would seemingly feast on Matt Moore if he is trotted out there Sunday. While Moore’s stat line isn’t that awful this year (three starts, 2-1 record, 8 TDs, 3 INTs and 721 yards with a 63.2 completion percentage), his experience is severely lacking. He has started 28 games in his career, and the last time he saw any significant game action before this year was in 2011, his first year with Miami. The Dolphins do have some bright spots, including a run game that produced the fourth best running back from a yards perspective this year. Miami is probably a year or two away from making some noise if it continues to follow this trajectory, but the Dolphins are a nice storyline to follow.

Detroit Lions: Oh, boy. The Detroit Lions. Detroit did everything it could to give the playoffs away, but the cards didn’t fall right. Now the Lions get to travel west to meet up with Seattle at CenturyLink Field.

The last time the Lions played in Seattle, Kam Chancellor forced Calvin Johnson to fumble the ball into the end zone, K.J. Wright batted it out the back end of the end zone and Seattle walked away with a controversial win. Seattle isn’t necessarily playing solid football right now, but it is Seattle in Seattle. Detroit has only beat one team with a winning record this year (Washington) and backed its way into the playoffs. Without a solid running game and so many come-from -behind victories this year, the Lions don’t seem to have enough to pull off an upset of a team with so much experience to draw upon.

Better luck next year and the year after, but Jim Caldwell and Jim Bob Cooter has done a good job getting a lot out of a little in Detroit.

Atlanta Falcons: The Falcons are poised to have a pretty solid run through the playoffs if their defense can just hold up. A first-round bye and home-field advantage unless they have to go play Dallas play into their strengths. This team is tough to beat in a dome.

Matt Ryan is playing at an insane level, the team has an extra week to get healthy and Dan Quinn is pushing all the right buttons at all the right times. An elite run game paired with the best passing season in Matt Ryan’s career seem to have that team set to make a lot of noise down south.

Dallas Cowboys: The Cowboys have a couple of solid rookies leading the way along with some solid veteran leadership on the roster. Dak Prescott has been a revelation, and they have arguably the best running back in the NFL in Ezekiel Elliott. Their defense is acceptable but not mind-blowingly good and needs to perform at a pretty high level to compete with a streaking Green Bay team and Atlanta’s ridiculous offense.

Dallas has a first-round bye just like Atlanta does, but the Cowboys don't seem quite as well put together as Atlanta. That said, Dallas could very easily continue to surprise people, run the ball down people’s throats and let Prescott continue to make good decisions on the fly. This is a scary team to have to run into, especially if the opponent's defense is not top-level when it has to worry about Zeke, Dez Bryant, Jason Witten, a strong offensive line and Tony Romo sitting in the wings in case anything happens to Prescott.

This year, the NFL wasn’t nearly as captivating as it has been in previous years, but there is a fair amount of parity this season. It’s nice to see so many teams that aren’t always thought of as playoff contenders that have a solid shot at making a decent playoff run. With teams like Atlanta, Dallas and Oakland owning three of the top four seeds, it seems like anything can happen and likely will.