We now have a better chance to make it in. There going to be a bunch of people hating this and calling it a money grab, not me. I like football, this means more football. All for it.
There's a part of me that kinda likes the NFL playoffs being more exclusive. But more football? 2 extra WC games? Sign me up. Probably won't ever see a 10-6 team miss the playoffs again. Also means a few more 8-8 scrubs sneaking in, but eh, if the #2 seed can't beat them then fuck em. They also apparently want to move full speed ahead with a 17th regular season game (and the preseason cut to 3 games). I wonder what the players will get in exchange for these extra games, because none of this seems conducive to increased player health and safety. The logistics are also interesting. 3 preseason games, so do the starters play at all? Almost certainly would mean the end of the game where starters play a full half/three quarters. 17 reg. games, who would that 17th opponent be, and who gets 9 home games a year? Or would they increase the number of London/Mexico City/Canada games so that everyone essentially plays a "neutral site" game?
I don't belong to Twitter, but usually I can read re-posts. The ones in here are a blank bubble. Can't even click on them, nothing happens. Weird.
From they perspective I'm with it. More football is always better. But they're dismantling the absolute perfect playoff system in sports. Baseball is drawn out because the series are so long. Basketball leaves the bottom four seeds with no chance and the first two rounds useless. Hockey is good in terms of parity but again very long. The good thing is I'll get over that take in about two weeks and look forward to seeing us try to grab a wild card spot.
If they changed it last year we would have gotten the Steelers v chiefs and rams v packers. Wouldn’t have hated that at all
I'm sure the plan must be a neutral game for every team. It makes far more sense than an international franchise at present and allows them to take the game to more markets still. It doesn't have to be just overseas games though. There must be US cities with appropriate stadiums that would love to host a game.
I like it the way it is. Why diminish the regular season by adding more playoff teams. This isn't the NHL/NBA where you have 2 months of 4 best of 7 rounds. I don't want to see some 6-10 team make it when everyone knows they don't deserve it.
Its more football and fun on WC weekend..so what? Some drama added if a scrub 8-8 team manages to beat a better opponent For the Jets to make a WC spot if available is a psychological boost in rebuild going forward imo
I don't mind the change. The #1 seed becomes even more important as it will be the only one that gets a bye. I would have still liked the NFL to change the seeding structure and make division winners only get a guaranteed playoff spot where all teams who make the playoffs are ranked based on their record. So if division winner #3 has a 9-7 record while 4 other teams have 10-6 records, division winner #3 would still make the playoffs, but they'd be ranked #6 rather than #3.
I was listening to Mike Florio on WFAN and he said that they discussed having the 1st place teams play another 1st place team from the other conference and so on and so forth. Also he said the game would probably be played on a neutral site whether it be in London, Mexico City or a college town that has a stadium.
I don't mind the playoff changes, I think it will make the regular season even better because you will have even more teams alive later in the season for the final playoff spot. Also statistically the biggest advantage teams have had in regards to winning the Super Bowl, is having a bye week. It will now be incredibly difficult for any team to get a bye week continuously. The only thing I am probably not going to be a fan of is having 6 playoffs games over 2 days. You basically will have to watch 10+ hours of football back to back days. Perhaps they can incorporate a way in which they play a game on Monday, but its probably to complicated.
