At this week’s league meeting in Minneapolis, NFL owners will discuss a proposal to reseed teams in the second round of the playoffs.
The proposal is the second playoff-related initiative introduced this year. In advance of the league meeting in March, the Detroit Lions proposed reformatting the playoffs by basing home-field advantage strictly on record. However, there was hesitance among owners to strip division champions of their first-round home-field advantage, prompting the modification to reseed after the wild-card round. Under the new proposal, teams would be reseeded based strictly on record for the divisional round, regardless of whether a team won its division or made the playoffs as a wild card.
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The proposal would need 24 votes to be approved. Here is a breakdown of how the NFL playoffs work and how the current proposal could have impacted previous playoffs.
Revisiting the 2024 NFC playoffs
Under the current playoff format, the four division winners in the NFC and AFC are awarded the top four seeds, which holds throughout the postseason. Three wild-card teams earn seeds five through seven.
The No. 1 seeds are granted a bye, while No. 2 plays No. 7, No. 3 plays No. 6 and No. 4 plays No. 5, with the higher seed (the divisional champion, regardless of whether a wild-card team has a better record) hosting in the first round.
The wild-card round would remain the same under the new proposal. Change would begin in the second round. Instead of the top-seeded team playing the lowest-remaining seed in the divisional round, the team with the best record would play the team with the worst record. The team with the second-best record would play the team with the second-worst record.
If the new proposal had been implemented last year, here’s how the NFC playoff picture would have looked:
NFC wild-card round
• No. 1 Detroit Lions (15-2, NFC North champion): Bye
• No. 2 Philadelphia Eagles (14-3, NFC East champion) host No. 7 Green Bay Packers (11-6, wild card)
• No. 3 Tampa Bay Buccaneers (10-7, NFC South champion) host No. 6 Washington Commanders (12-5, wild card)
• No. 4 Los Angeles Rams (10-7, NFC West champion) host No. 5 Minnesota Vikings (14-3, wild card)
Under the current format, the Commanders, after upsetting the Bucs, traveled to Detroit for the divisional round, and the Eagles hosted the Rams. Under the proposed new format, the divisional-round matchups would have changed because the Commanders had a better record than the Rams.
NFC divisional round under new proposal
• No. 1 Lions (15-2) host No. 4 Rams (10-7)
• No. 2 Eagles (14-3) host No. 3 Commanders (12-5)
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In context: Detroit Lions
For Detroit, a Lions-Rams matchup might have been preferable to the one it got, particularly when considering the Commanders ended the Lions’ season in lopsided fashion. Maybe playing a less mobile QB, Matthew Stafford, as opposed to the more dynamic Jayden Daniels, would have helped, but when the teams met in Week 1, Stafford got the ball out quickly and spread the wealth. The Rams were playing good football at the end of the year, and the Lions were a shell of what they once were defensively due to a rash of injuries (to starters Aidan Hutchinson, Alim McNeill, Carlton Davis, Derrick Barnes, Marcus Davenport, Amik Robertson and several other rotational players). The Lions were also far too careless with the football in that loss to the Commanders. — Colton Pouncy
Revisiting the 2024 AFC playoffs
Conversely, because all four division champions won in the wild-card round, last year’s AFC divisional round would have looked the same under the modified proposal:
• No. 1 Kansas City Chiefs (15-2, AFC West champions) host No. 4 Houston Texans (10-7, AFC South champions)
• No. 2 Buffalo Bills (13-4, AFC East champions) host No. 3 Baltimore Ravens (12-5, AFC North champions)
The Texans had a worse record than their wild-card opponent (the Los Angeles Chargers, who were 11-6), but the new proposal only reseeds off record in the second round, which would preserve Houston’s right to host a wild-card game as AFC South champions.
In context: Houston Texans
The Texans wouldn’t have been impacted if the modified proposal had been in play. They still would have hosted an opening-round game, and they were going to have to go on the road for the divisional round because they were the fourth seed (they traveled to play the Chiefs). Under the original proposal brought by the Lions, Houston would have lost the right to host its first-round home game because the Texans owned a 10-7 record and the Chargers had an 11-6 mark, but owners shot down the idea of reseeding at the start of the playoffs. — Mike Jones
(Photo: Nic Antaya / Getty Images)
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