NFL Owners Will Vote on Changed Detroit Lions Playoff Proposal

The Detroit Lions will have their proposed changes to the NFL’s playoff seeding bylaws voted on next week in Minneapolis.

Detroit’s proposed change was to have the four division winners and three wild card playoff qualifiers seeded based on record rather than giving division winners the top four seeds.

In doing so, the Lions proposed to generate more competitive excitement in late-season games as opposed to teams electing to rest starters with seeds already decided.

The proposal was tabled at the NFL Annual Meetings in early April and now will be brought up for vote once again. At the meetings, Lions coach Dan Campbell admitted he had heard some pushback regarding the proposal.

“It’s got some legs,” Campbell explained. “But I do know that a few things (against the proposal) have been brought up. ‘Hey, when you win your division, you get the first-place schedule.’ So, you play these first-place schedules and it doesn’t seem fair somebody else is playing a last-place schedule and they end up with a better record than yours and then they get a home game and you don’t.”

Ahead of the vote, Sports Illustrated NFL insider Albert Breer noted that a tweak has been made in Detroit’s proposal.

In the new version, the playoffs would be re-seeded after the wild card round to allow the No. 1 seed to play the lowest remaining seed, which is how the playoffs are currently conducted.

“A change in Detroit’s proposal from March is for the teams then to be reseeded after the first round,” Breer wrote. “So, in this case, the No. 1 seed would play the lowest-remaining seed in the conference, rather than automatically facing the winner of the No. 4 vs. No. 5 matchup, with the other two remaining teams playing in the other divisional round game.”

The proposed change to playoff seeding was one of three the Lions proposed ahead of the league meetings. Their proposal to negate an automatic first down from defensive holding and illegal contact penalties did not pass.

Meanwhile, their other bylaw proposal to not have players injured in training camp count against the 90-man roster limit was tabled.

At the meetings next week, the league will also vote on whether or not to ban the Philadelphia Eagles’ ‘tush push.’ Campbell told reporters at the annual meetings that he was in favor of keeping the play, as it would incentivize teams to find ways to stop it.