ESPN: Multiple Team Insiders Prefer Old Playoff Bracket Format with Byes for 4 Teams

Timothy Rapp@@TRappaRTFeatured Columnist IVJanuary 14, 2025

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The NFL changed to a 14-team playoff format in 2020, altering how the bye weeks functioned. Under the old format, the top two teams in each conference received a bye week; now, only the top overall seed per conference gets that advantage.

And it reportedly hasn’t been the most popular change around the league.

According to ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler, “Most people interviewed for this story said they preferred the previous two-byes-per-conference format, but reverting to that setup doesn’t seem viable for the league. As CBS Sports recently reported, the next playoff tweak might focus on rewarding better records during wild-card weekend. Currently, divisional winners occupy the top-four seeds in each conference, despite wild-card teams holding a better record in three of last weekend’s matchups. The league could reportedly flip that setup to reward the best record.”

There isn’t a logical setup to return to the two-bye system other than returning to six playoff teams per conference, which seems unlikely. Even if the league went to an 18-game schedule—which should include a second bye week, if the NFL truly cares in the slightest about player safety—it’s unclear if the playoff format would be altered.

So for now, the one-bye-per-conference setup remains, and likely will persist for the foreseeable future.