Someone has to win the NFC West and reach the playoffs, fully deserving or otherwise.

On a Sunday filled with big games across the NFL landscape — matchups in which both participants have enviable records and are jockeying for postseason positioning — there also are significant games for the two teams that are tied atop the sport’s also-ran division with identical 6-7 records.

One co-leader, the St. Louis Rams, hosts the Kansas City Chiefs. The other, the Seattle Seahawks, plays at home against the Atlanta Falcons. The best-case scenario for the self-esteem of the NFC West is that either the Rams or Seahawks — or both —will win, and the division leader will have a .500 record at 7-7.

But given that the Chiefs and Falcons lead their own divisions, perhaps the more likely outcome is that both the Rams and Seahawks will lose. If that happens, they would remain the co-leaders of the NFC West at 6-8, and the NFL would move a step closer to having a team with a losing record reach the playoffs for the first time ever in a non-strike season.

“We’re building. . . . We’ll be good when we play really good, and we’re not there yet,” Seahawks Coach Pete Carroll said at a midweek news conference. “We’re not consistently playing the way that a good team plays, where you don’t hurt yourself and you don’t put yourself in bad situations and give away opportunities to your opponent. We’re still working at that.”

The refrain is similar in St. Louis.

“We’ve been a team that we show up, and some games we play absolutely good football,” Rams running back Steven Jackson said at a news conference during the week, “and some games we come up short.”

The Detroit Lions and Cleveland Browns reached the playoffs with 4-5 records in the strike-shortened 1982 season. The NFL record book lists 10 teams as reaching the playoffs in full seasons with .500 records.

Those around the league aren’t necessarily begrudging the NFC West winner its spot in the playoffs.

“I believe if you do win your division, you should be in the playoffs,” Philadelphia Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie said at an owners’ meeting Wednesday in Fort Worth, Texas.

There is some consternation, however, that the NFC West winner will host a first-round postseason game against a wild-card playoff team that presumably will have a better record.

Falcons President Rich McKay, the co-chairman of the NFL’s competition committee, said at the owners’ meeting that he thinks there should be discussion this offseason of a possible re-seeding proposal that, if enacted, would enable a wild-card team with a superior record to be seeded ahead of a division winner.

“I think it should be discussed,” McKay said, “and I think it would get more support than the last time.”

Currently, the division winners get the top four postseason seeds in each conference, and the wild-card teams are seeded fifth and sixth. The higher-seeded team in each playoff matchup plays at home.

Such a measure would have to be approved by at least 24 of the 32 teams, and similar proposals have been rejected by the owners in the past. McKay acknowledged that getting 24 votes for a playoff re-seeding proposal “is a tough hill to climb.”

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said: “It’s not a new conversation. We’ve had an awful lot of discussion about that over the past several years, and I’m sure it will come up again for discussion. I see the merits of what they’re talking about. But I also believe that our playoff system has worked quite well also.”

Goodell said that owners in the past “were focused a lot on that the priority should be win your division, get a home game. And that’s what clubs really felt should be the priority.”

In the meantime, the Rams and Seahawks will go about the business of trying to win their division, apparently unapologetically.

“The fact that we’re still playing big games in mid-December, I think that’s really good for this team and this organization,” Rams rookie quarterback Sam Bradford said at a news conference during the week. “Hopefully the games will only continue to get bigger.”

Jackson said: “Our goal is to be the NFC West champs.”