Before the shift to a 14 team playoff in 2020, the NFL had kept the playoffs very consistent for quite some time.
In fact, it was the first time since 1990 that the playoff format had been altered, having gone from a 10 to 12 team format at the outset of the ’90s.
And whilst there are doubters and haters on it – those who do not like the fact that only one team gets a bye, or that the playoffs are now less “selective” – the majority of fans have embraced what was previously known as “Super” Wild Card Weekend, before having the round’s prefix abandoned after four years.
The 14-Team Playoffs Has Been Successful So Far
The 7th seed produced its first playoff victory in 2023, when the Green Bay Packers beat the Dallas Cowboys after going in as 7.5 point underdogs, and both the #7 seeds this year – the Packers again for the NFC, and the Denver Broncos for the AFC – are without question dangerous matchups for any team.
Yet, after shaking up the league just a year after moving to the 14- team playoffs, in adding a 17th regular season game, the NFL could supposedly be set to make another major alteration to its postseason format.
CBS’s NFL insider, Jonathan Jones, claims that the due to record imbalances in this year’s playoff arrangement, the league could be set to review their current playoff configuration.
“The NFL will take another look this offseason at potentially changing the playoff format.” – @jjones9 ð pic.twitter.com/wpbam29Y5m
â NFL on CBS ð (@NFLonCBS) January 11, 2025
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Could The NFL Change Who Gets Home Playoff Games Moving Forward?
As Jones mentions, many across the league feel the grave imbalance between teams winning easier divisions with worse records receiving a home game over better teams that ended with higher win percentages – in tougher divisions no less – given the fact that another team finished above them to clinch the division title.
In 2024, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, LA Rams and Houston Texans all play home games against teams that finished with a higher record than them in conference – the Washington Commanders, Minnesota Vikings and LA Chargers- who the Texans just beat on Saturday to move on to the Divisional Round of the playoffs against either the Baltimore Ravens or Kansas City Chiefs.
Jones mentions that an elegant solution to this may end up being to have the teams with the four best records in division take the four slots originally given to the division winners. This would keep the #1 intact – as the team with the best record in conference will necessarily have won their division – and would allocate the next three slots based on win percentage.
So in this hypothetical scenario, Wild Card Weekend would look something like this:
NFC:
7 Rams @ 2 Vikings
6 Bucs @ 3 Eagles
5 Packers @ 4 Commanders
AFC:
7 Broncos @ 2 Bills
6 Steelers @ 3 Ravens
5 Texans @ 4 Chargers
Clearly one conference is more impacted by the current rules than the other with almost no change to the AFC under these hypothetical changes – only a reversal of home field advantage in the Texans – Chargers games, which given the Chargers’ lacklustre fan base would likely make little difference to the side.
But as Jones points out, the league owners are reticent to alter the status quo unless something dire happens in these sorts of cases, so this is not exactly a sure thing by any means. But certainly an interesting potential change to ponder.
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This article was originally published on Heavy Sports
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