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

[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 Sunday at 05:49 PM 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 Sunday at 10:13 PM 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. 

[BillsShredder83]

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 know youre getting dragged here, but i really like the play-in games in nba.  They def have a March Madness feel to them, even though nba is so inferior to me.

 

I like the idea of this for the NFL, but it just does not translate across sports.

 

After seeing that Florida/Houston Championship, I caught myself thinking damnnnn I wish we could get a best of 7.... but that would ruin March Madness if they went to 14 teams get in, and then a bunch of best of 7 series

 

BBBBBBUUUUUUUUTTTTTTT, maybe just for the Natty Round they could give us a best of 5!  lol i know, they probably should leave it alone, im just sad its over and seriously would love to have seen that matchup 3, 5 or 7 times

Quote

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

 

I really like this one actually! Take the Super Bowl bye week out and toss it between regular season/wild card round. id sign up for that change right now

[BillsShredder83]

On 4/19/2025 at 7:58 PM, MJS said:

-I think the NFL playoffs are the best and no other sport compares. Actually, they were the best before they expanded the number of playoff teams.

Nah.  Football is my favorite sport unquestionably.... and theres no way to do this with football but a series rules so hard.  I wouldnt expect any Sabres fans to remember LOL, but a Cup run is superior. NHL playoffs are absolutely savage!!!

 

Have something to look forward to every other night.  Every game feels meaningful.  Players are absolutely sick of the other teams players by puck drop of game 2,  Gets chippy real fast.  Up to 2 weeks for fans to focus their entire hate on another cities fans LOL  I was too young for SB runs '90-94, so I had to learn my hatred for Dallas through hockey... Washington too!

 

All that said, Id take 1 Super Bowl over winning 5 Cups; but Id be willing to settle for either at this point

[BillsShredder83]

On 4/19/2025 at 10:21 PM, nedboy7 said:

The one team bye is not good. It’s bad to give one team that advantage.  It made regular season games just as important as another wild card team. 

Agreed.  Add an extra wild card to balance it out, top 2 get byes.  They get their extra playoff $$, fans get more games, and IMO it doesnt weaken the pool down at all.

 

This year wouldve let in 9-8 Bengals & 10-7 Seahawks (same record as the 3 seed Bucs).  

[Billl]

On 4/20/2025 at 4:15 AM, 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 don't mind the odd number of games if every team has to play one at a neutral site.  Taking away home games and making a team play in another country is BS, though if they're doing it for some but not others. 

[DrDawkinstein]

No.

 

The NFL is nothing like the NBA or NHL. As a league, but more so as a sport in general. Far more players, far less games.

 

We need to stop comparing or trying to take ideas from those leagues. Neither are nearly as successful as the NFL either. If anything, they need to be copying from the NFL.