The 14-2 Lions are set to face the 14-2 Minnesota Vikings in Week 18 with the NFC North title on the line. The winner of the game will earn the No. 1 seed and get a bye into the Divisional Round while the loser will be relegated to a road playoff game in the Wild Card Round.
In the lead-up to the matchup, St. Brown acknowledged that a division winner should get a spot in the playoffs but that forcing a 14-win team to a road game is "crazy."
#Lions' Amon-Ra St. Brown thinks the NFL "rule should be changed" so that a future 14-win team won't have a road playoff game. "I don't make the rules,” he said. “Hopefully we can get a win and get homefield advantage but whatever happens, we both have a spot in the playoffs." pic.twitter.com/LaNc5wQJZv
— Eric Woodyard (@E_Woodyard) January 2, 2025
"I think the rule should be changed," St. Brown said. "Obviously if you win the division, you should obviously make a playoff spot but having a 14-win team having to go on the road is kind of crazy. I don't make the rules, hopefully we can get a win and get home field advantage.
The Lions hold the current tiebreaker with the Vikings due to a head-to-head victory on Oct. 20. However, the winner of this game will gain the significant advantage while the other will have to travel to a division-winning team that will likely have just nine-or-ten wins.
While this is how the NFL has done it for years, the uncertainty the Vikings and Lions feel in their playoff positioning is surely a rare occurrence after a spectacular regular season. Additionally, a reality exists where the teams meet in the Divisional Round while the other two teams in that round have inferior records due to the playoff seeding.
Either way, Detroit's 14-2 start shows that the roster is capable of contending with anyone in their path, even if it requires going on the road to do so.
