So what do you think of this idea?

[dolphins4life]

The crawl at TGIF's said that the NFL is considering 7 playoff teams and 1 bye in 2020.

I think this is a good idea.  Sure makes it more fair for the Miami Dolphins, who never have a chance of winning their division HAHA

[Tenshot13]

More playoff teams playing for the championship is good IMO.

[EDGECRUSHER]

No, don't like it. I'm sure the owners and players will but 6 teams per conference is enough. Don't want to become the NBA and NHL where more than half the league makes the playoffs.

This just opens the door for more 8-8 teams to make it based off of tiebreakers, that sucks.

[CF DolFan]

Doesn't bother me. I also hope they get that 17th game since they seem to want to send our teams elsewhere every year. One game on neutral ground would be better than loosing a home game.

[Dave Gray]

I would normally be against this kind of thing, but the NFL has a unique problem where it very regularly doesn't feel like best 6 teams from the conference get in.  6 was perfect when there were 3 divisions, but moving to 4 makes it so that you're often gifting a spot to a middle-of the-road team.  This would definitely help remedy that.

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

I am not a big supporter of it.  The current system ain't broken, so don't fix it.

However, the concerns that this will allow mediocre teams into the playoffs is overblown.  Rarely does the 4th seed has a better record than the 7th seed.  So the added team is actually better then some existing teams. 

For me the open question is will this improve or hurt the quality of week 17 games. With another spot you could have more meaningful games.  But it is also possible a team that clinched their division but is out of it for the one seed will rest starters rather than play for the two seed.  Likewise clinched wildcard team might rest players considering the difference between 5 and 7 unimportant.

Not sure how this would have helped the Dolphins in recent history.  When was the last time Miami was the 7 seed?  NEP would have benifited if this was the system in 2008.

 

[EDGECRUSHER]

I am not a big supporter of it.  The current system ain't broken, so don't fix it.

However, the concerns that this will allow mediocre teams into the playoffs is overblown.  Rarely does the 4th seed has a better record than the 7th seed.  So the added team is actually better then some existing teams. 

For me the open question is will this improve or hurt the quality of week 17 games. With another spot you could have more meaningful games.  But it is also possible a team that clinched their division but is out of it for the one seed will rest starters rather than play for the two seed.  Likewise clinched wildcard team might rest players considering the difference between 5 and 7 unimportant.

Not sure how this would have helped the Dolphins in recent history.  When was the last time Miami was the 7 seed?  NEP would have benifited if this was the system in 2008.

 

I think this opens the door for 8-8 teams to make the playoffs, this year alone would've saw a few make it with just 8 wins. That isn't playoff football to me. The system is just fine the way it is now.

[hordman]

I would normally be against this kind of thing, but the NFL has a unique problem where it very regularly doesn't feel like best 6 teams from the conference get in.  6 was perfect when there were 3 divisions, but moving to 4 makes it so that you're often gifting a spot to a middle-of the-road team.  This would definitely help remedy that.

Well put Dave

[Phishfan]

At a glance one team would make it at 8-8. I like the idea.

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

In theory you could have an entire division represented in the playoffs.  Unlikely as that would require the fourth place team of the division to have a better record than the 2nd place team in all three of the other divisions, but it is theoretically possible.