Would you be OK with a smaller/lighter NFL version of the play in tournament like the NBA has?

[Utah John]

16 hours ago, BillsPride12 said:

NHL playoffs are the best IMO 

The leagues really need to stop tinkering with things every year, 99% of the time the changes they make are for the worse 

The NHL playoffs are too long, and there are too many games for viewers to keep track of.  But for the teams involved, of course the tournament is a grueling demonstration of toughness and stamina.  I just can't watch that much hockey when the weather is so nice (here in Memphis).

[Doc Brown]

1 hour ago, Don Otreply said:

Life is inherently unfair 

Thanks for the wisdom.  Water is wet.

[RobbRiddick]

Should be six teams per conference but you know Goodall will expand to 18 regular season games and add an 8th playoff team. Money money money. I’m sure the TikTok generation love it 

[Don Otreply]

4 minutes ago, Doc Brown said:

Thanks for the wisdom.  Water is wet.

Yes it is, and it gets really cold in Buffalo during the winter, 🤣

[Doc Brown]

1 minute ago, Don Otreply said:

Yes it is, and it gets really cold in Buffalo during the winter, 🤣

Ralph is still cheap.

[Don Otreply]

1 minute ago, Doc Brown said:

Ralph is still cheap.

lol, 

 

I’m also coming around on the “toss a small player” over the LOS on third and short, but only as a distraction for an outside sweep for a RB, 

 

 

 

 

 

 

😁👍

Edited 20 hours ago by Don Otreply

[PonyBoy]

22 hours ago, thronethinker said:

 

 

 

22 hours ago, thronethinker said:

These are things desperate leagues do. The NFL is not desperate. The NBA is losing fans by droves. 

 

To solidify your point, Memphis, a play in team lost by 51 points. In a playoff game!

They had no business in there as well as the others. 

 

 

Edited 15 hours ago by PonyBoy
Dupe

[MJS]

13 hours ago, Chandler#81 said:

I agree with most of this but we need another reg season game and another Bye team per conference in the playoffs.

I think they need one fewer regular season game. It was perfect at 16, imo. And no playoffs expansion.

9 hours ago, BillsFan130 said:

Football is by far my favourite sport, but hockey playoffs are by far the best IMO.

I like single elimination games. They make the stakes so much higher. It allows for teams to get hot and win it all unexpectedly, which adds excitement and intrigue to the game.

[Mikie2times]

1 hour ago, PonyBoy said:

 

 

 

To solidify your point, Memphis, a play in team lost by 51 points. In a playoff game!

They had no business in there as well as the others. 

 

 

They went 48-34 in the regular season. They would be a 5 or 6 usually. 

[mjt328]

Absolutely not.

 

The more playoff teams a league adds, the less important the regular season becomes.  Less urgency for them to win the normal games.  More chance for bad teams to pull off upsets against superior opponents.  There are multiple teams in the NBA playoffs right now that finished at .500 or lower.  That is pathetic.

 

Once the NFL added a 7th team to their postseason format, they were forced to drop the bye for the #2 seeded team.  Teams with 12-14 wins forced to play against a team with 8-9.  I don't see how this possibly makes the sport better.  

 

[Chandler#81]

1 hour ago, MJS said:

I think they need one fewer regular season game. It was perfect at 16, imo. And no playoffs expansion.

I like single elimination games. They make the stakes so much higher. It allows for teams to get hot and win it all unexpectedly, which adds excitement and intrigue to the game.

I agree but it’s wishful thinking. The League WANTS 16 games but the one bye thing has gotta go.

[MJS]

54 minutes ago, Chandler#81 said:

I agree but it’s wishful thinking. The League WANTS 16 games but the one bye thing has gotta go.

I'm not delusional enough to think it will go back to that. They'll eventually go to 18 regular season games and continue to tweak things in the playoffs. But they had it perfect before before adding another game and playoff teams. Oh well.

[JohnNord]

On 4/19/2025 at 7:46 PM, BillsFan619 said:

Week 1 - Seeds 8 and 9 play each other. Bye week for every other team that made the playoffs.

 

Week 2 - The winner of week 1 plays the #1 seed. Then, seeding just how it is now. 2 vs 7, 3 vs 6 and 4 vs 5.

 

The rest of the playoff weeks as is.

 

I’m not sure how I feel about it, but there are advantages:

1. The #1 seed isn’t the only one with a bye week

2. Every team who made the playoffs, without having to win a play in game, would get a bye week

3. The #1 seed would have to win three games to get to the Super Bowl like seeds 2-7 would

4. It’d allow a team riddled with injuries who gets healthy or a young team who gets hot a chance at the playoffs. We see it many years where a team is decimated by injuries and it takes their season. Maybe if there was a play in game for seeds 8 and 9 it’d allow a team like this to still have a shot. Or, sometimes we see a young team start to gel in the second half of the season and get hot. It’d allow a team like that a chance to get in by being a 8 or 9 seed

5. It’s one more week of football

 

Just some off-season thoughts. What say you?

 

Go Bills!

I don’t see that happen because it would kill off the incentive for a bye week for the #1 team.  This has always been a part of the league.

 

Only way I’d see an 8th playoff team might be if they gave the bye to the #1 and #2 seed again 

[Dan]

When they add an 8th team to the playoffs, half the league makes the playoffs every year.  IMO, at that point, they’ve completely watered down the playoffs and are making the regular season less important.   
 

It’s like in baseball, why watch the first half of the season at all. There’s just too many meaningless games.   So the NFL really wants another game and another playoff team… but they just making it so there’s less reason to watch in Sept.  

 

Personally, I’d go back to the way it was. I’m old and they’ll never do that.   But I would change the current format a little… currently the 1 seed gets ALL the advantage.  They get the bye, play the lowest rank and home field.   I would switch it so that in the divisional round the 1 seed gets the highest seed, and the 2 seed gets the lowest.   
 

The only real advantage the 2 seed has now is home field in the divisional.  They’ve made it so the 1 seed practically gets a championship game invitation after the regular season. 

[BillsPride12]

1 hour ago, Dan said:

When they add an 8th team to the playoffs, half the league makes the playoffs every year.  IMO, at that point, they’ve completely watered down the playoffs and are making the regular season less important.   
 

It’s like in baseball, why watch the first half of the season at all. There’s just too many meaningless games.   So the NFL really wants another game and another playoff team… but they just making it so there’s less reason to watch in Sept.  

 

Personally, I’d go back to the way it was. I’m old and they’ll never do that.   But I would change the current format a little… currently the 1 seed gets ALL the advantage.  They get the bye, play the lowest rank and home field.   I would switch it so that in the divisional round the 1 seed gets the highest seed, and the 2 seed gets the lowest.   
 

The only real advantage the 2 seed has now is home field in the divisional.  They’ve made it so the 1 seed practically gets a championship game invitation after the regular season. 

That's my biggest problem with the NFL.  They constantly make changes like this to increase profits and revenue but it's at the expense of watering down the product and making it less entertaining.  I hate when people say "well it's the leagues job to grow the game"  The NFL is already pretty damn big to begin with without adding more games and playoff teams.  Greed 

[UConn James]

The NHL did the 4 Nations Tournament, round-robin, this season instead of the All-Star game and it was very popular. I loved it, myself. 1) there hadn’t been international hockey for NHL players in… was it 8 years(?), 2) The players went HARD in these games. It was the best playing the best, going at 100% 3) There was almost a two-week stoppage for NHL during this tourney, and I think was designed to whet appetites for the Olympics next year.

 

The NFL is absolutely not conducive to be doing this — or any other kind — of format, especially during the season. Impossible to do alternate teams based on some geographic or national area. The nature of the game and injuries in a very rough sport make it a non-starter.
 

NBA used existing teams and… it was just stupid. Too much on the line when the solitary goal is the Lombardi. NO ONE gives a 💩 about anything else and it was simply a manufactured-drama thing that should be gone w/in 5 years because it’s stupid.