While the potential outlawing of the Philadelphia Eagles’ beloved tush-push play has drawn significant attention in advance of next week’s league meetings in Minneapolis, NFL owners have a chance to dramatically change the complexion of the postseason thanks to another rule proposal.
Owners will vote on the Detroit Lions’ proposal to reseed playoff teams in the second round based on records rather than strictly awarding homefield advantage to divisional winners, according to a memo issued to teams this week.
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Detroit had presented a similar rule change in advance of the owners’ meetings in Palm Beach back in late March, but that proposal based home-field advantage in the playoffs strictly on record. There wasn’t enough support for an official vote, as owners didn’t like the idea of completely stripping divisional winners of home-field advantage.
However, the proposal received a modification that would continue to include four divisional champions and three wild-card participants per conference, and allow divisional champs to still host their first-round playoff game. Under the modified proposal, once the second round is reached, the No. 1 seed would host the lowest remaining seed, and then the reseeding would take place. The remaining team with the next-best record would host the team with the second-lowest record.
Supporters of the original proposal sought to avoid a repeat of the scenario that played out last season when the Minnesota Vikings finished 14-3, but second in the NFC North, and had to play on the road against the 10-7 NFC West champion Los Angeles Rams.
Had proponents of the modification succeeded in March, a do-over of the 2024 seeding would have seen the Vikings land the No. 2 seed rather than the Eagles, and Philadelphia would have received the No. 3 seed. Rather than receiving the fourth seed and a home game, the Rams would have received the fifth or sixth seed and a road game assignment.
In the past, the NFL has occasionally seen teams secure divisional crowns despite posting losing records. In 2022, Tampa Bay won the NFC South with an 8-9 record. In 2020, Washington won the NFC East with a 7-9 record. Both of those teams hosted first-round games and lost, but under the new proposal, neither would have hosted a second-round game because of records that were inferior to their opponents.
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As with every rule proposal, 24 of the 32 owners would have to vote in favor to trigger a change. It might wind up being a rare occasion that re-seeding comes into play. However, if approved, the NFL would at least have the power to avoid rewarding divisional champs with lackluster records throughout the postseason.
(Photo: Nic Antaya / Getty Images)
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