The Miami Dolphins’ last playoff game was pretty brutal, both in terms of the insane weather conditions at Arrowhead Stadium and the dismal performance in the 26-7 loss, but imagine for a second if they didn’t have to play the Kansas City Chiefs in that first round of the 2023 playoffs.
Because they wouldn’t have had to if a new bylaw proposed by the Detroit Lions had been in effect that year.
Under the bylaw, the NFL playoff seeding format would eliminate the automatic home game for the four division winners in each conference and simply seed the teams by record.
The division winners still would get into the playoffs regardless, but no more home games for teams that finish with mediocre records.
This was among five proposals for rule or bylaw changes that NFL owners could vote on during the annual meetings in Palm Beach from March 30-April 2.
So in 2023, had the rule been in effect, the Dolphins would have played that first-round game against the Cleveland Browns as the No. 5 seed. They still would have been on the road, but Cleveland obviously isn’t the same kind of matchup that Kansas City was on its way to its second consecutive Super Bowl title.
It was the Houston Texans who benefited in 2023 from the current playoff seeding format because they got a home game with a 10-7 record when the Browns and Dolphins each finished with an 11-6 record.
The Dolphins also would have had a different first-round playoff match in 2016 under his proposed new format because Houston (again) wound up with the No. 4 seed despite having the worst record of any AFC playoff team that season.
So instead of facing the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Dolphins would have played the Oakland Raiders on the road, Houston would have been at Pittsburgh, and New England and Kansas City still would have had the two byes (there were six playoff teams in each conference that year).
From this vantage point, though, while there’s merit in rewarding a team for finishing with a better record, this proposed change would take away one of the big perks for winning a division title. And it says that for every team that’s hurt by the currently setup, there’s a team that benefits, and chances are it will even out in the end.
Here’s a quick look at the other proposed rule and bylaw changes:
Proposed by the Green Bay Packers, it would make it illegal for an offensive player to push a teammate in the back after that player takes a snap. It’s basically a call to end the tush push, and we’re all in favor of the change because the NFL shouldn’t look like rugby or Australian Rules Football with those scrums.
Here’s another one proposed by the Lions, the elimination of the automatic first down for defensive holding or illegal contact. We’re a little more torn on this one because it’s frustrating to watch a team get a cheap first down because of defensive holding on a third-and-20, for example. But the flip side is that defenders might try to get away with that holding or illegal contact more often if they know a flag wouldn’t result in an automatic first down. So we’ll vote for keeping the status quo here.
The Eagles proposed making the overtime rules the same in the regular season as the playoffs, meaning each team would be ensured of having the ball in overtime and the extra period would be 15 minutes and not 10. As it stands now, a touchdown ends the game in overtime in the regular season even on the first drive. It doesn’t seem like much of a change or extra demand on the players, so why not make it uniform?
This one, again proposed by Detroit, is a little more complicated and it suggests that players put on IR before or on the day of the cuts to 53 be excluded from the year-round 90-player roster limit unless they were among the two designated to return. This would be done to help teams hurt by a disproportionate amount of injuries, like the Lions were last year. No strong feeling on this one, to be honest.
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