The expanded NFL playoffs have been around for two years now, and it has been nothing short of lame. On paper, more games and more teams seemed like a good idea. In practice, there aren’t seven teams from each conference worthy of the honor in most years. Hell, there are barely six in some seasons.
It is important to note that expanding the NFL playoffs only did one thing. That was drag the two seed out of a bye and force them to play the seven seed at home. The other matchups have stayed the same. However, the allure of an extra playoff game has been firmly destroyed by what it actually consists of.
A really good team at home going up against cannon fodder. The difference in quality between the three and six seeds is almost always less than the gap between the sixth and seventh place sides. Seriously, name one team in the playoffs that the Pittsburgh Steelers or Philadelphia Eagles would have had a shot against.
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The fallacy of expanded NFL playoffs
The entire concept of expanded NFL playoffs is based on two fallacies. First is the fallacy of good teams get left out of the playoffs. The second fallacy is that an extra spot keeps more teams engaged at the end of the season. Let’s start with the former.
The nicest way to describe the seven seeds in this year’s playoffs would be flawed but average. Last season saw the 8-8 Chicago Bears make the dance alongside the 11-5 Indianapolis Colts. What their win total doesn’t show is the reality that Indy won nine games in 2020 against teams with a record of .500 or worse. And the score of their Wild Card matchup against the Bills hides the fact the game wasn’t all that close.
Before that, the last double digit-win side to miss out on the playoffs happened in 2015 when the Ryan Fitzpatrick led New York Jets couldn’t get in. Of course, the NFL’s fetishization of divisions meant the 9-7 Houston Texans still qualified, but that’s a whole different thing. In most years, the expanded NFL playoffs would have simply let in a very mediocre team.
Now let’s turn our attention to the second fallacy. More playoff teams hasn’t equaled more teams being engaged at the end of the season. The seventh seed in the NFC has been clinched with a week to spare. There was drama between the Steelers and Colts this year, but both sides were so brutal to watch that it’s hard to say it was good for the league. Especially factoring in the Chargers/Raiders tie scenario.
At the end of the day, expanded NFL playoffs, what are we doing here? The extra games aren’t fun to watch for most fans, and it only seems to exist to make money for owners and give ESPN a Monday Night Football game. Neither directly benefits fans as it stands. Either fix this or put things back to the way they were.
