The NFL is going to vote on a suggestion by the Detroit Lions to change the way the playoffs are seeded. The Lions brought up a plan to have teams with the best records seeded higher than division winners if the second- and third-place teams had better records than the division champions.
Ironically, this plan would have helped the Lions division rival Minnesota Vikings last year since Detroit won the NFC North and had the best record in the NFC at 15-2. They gained that edge over the Vikings when they won the regular-season finale that decided those two issues.
The question was tabled at the NFL Annual Meeting in April, but it will be brought up at meetings next week in Minneapolis. There are a number of supporters and opponents to the suggestion, but there is a belief among some NFL observers that the suggestion will eventually pass even if it gets voted down next week.
The thought is the NFL is eventually going to adopt an 18-week schedule and the NFL does not want to see meaningless games at the end of the season.
When teams are locked into their playoff positions prior to the last game of the season, they tend to rest or remove their star players. Instead of the usual excitement found in most NFL games, those games tend to lose their luster.
Dan Campbell and Lions understand that some teams are against the proposal
The suggestion would favor teams that perform better in the regular season, and it seems logical to favor a team that won 14 regular-season games like the Vikings over a team like the Los Angeles Rams that won just 10 games last year. The Rams won the NFC West and got to host the Vikings in the postseason at SoFi Stadium rather than to U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis. Los Angeles won that playoff game with relative ease.
Lions head coach Dan Campbell said the idea has gotten some support, but there has also been pushback against the proposal.
“It’s got some legs,” Campbell said. “But I do know that a few things (against the proposal) have been brought up. ‘Hey, when you win your division, you get the first-place schedule.’ So, you play these first-place schedules and it doesn’t seem fair somebody else is playing a last-place schedule and they end up with a better record than yours and then they get a home game and you don’t.”
