Playoff Reseeding Proposal Withdrawn

The measure was viewed as a long shot to pass and this confirms that. Teams will typically withdraw rule proposals that don’t have the votes, 24 out of 32 owners, to pass. 

The Lions, prompted by the NFL office, proposed to change the way playoff seeding works and allow wildcard teams to be seeded higher than division champions if they had a better regular season record.

Under the current setup, the top four seeds go to the four division winners, which makes it possible for a team with a better record to be on the road in the playoffs. This happens on a fairly regular basis, but last season was particularly lopsided. 

The Chargers, Vikings, and Commanders are the teams that fell on the wrong side of that quirk this year.

The NFL also hoped to create more impact for late-season games with the rule change, as currently there are many games in Week 18 that aren’t all that relevant.