Would New Playoff Format Proposal Have Benefited the Chiefs?

The Kansas City Chiefs are ready to kick off the 2025 season. They are the team that wants it to come faster than all the other teams in the National Football League. The Chiefs want to get that bad taste out of their mouth from last season. They did not finish the season in 2024 like they wanted to, and now will turn the page and put all their chips in the middle of the table for the 2025 NFL season.

But before the Chiefs and the rest of the league get there, changes can be made on how we get the seeding for the playoff teams in the future.

The NFL playoff seeding has been that the winner of each division gets a home game. But that can change if the NFL accepts on proposal. The Detroit Lions were looking for the NFL to fix the playoff format and change it.

"The Detroit Lions are proposing a change to how the playoff field is set in each conference. The current format reserves the top four seeds for division champions and is ordered by regular-season record. The remaining three playoff "wild card" spots are for the remaining teams with the best regular season record," said Ayrton Ostly of USA Today.

The NFL is hosting league meetings in Minneapolis this week in which officials are voting on multiple resolutions.

If two teams are tied based on regular season record, a tiebreaker would be added to give a division winner an advantage. The No. 1 seed would still receive a bye for the first round of the playoffs.

NBC Sports' MIke Florio reported that the Lions are submitting this proposal, but it comes at the request of NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. The intended goal would be to make more late-season games interesting.

From last season we take a look how the AFC playoffs would of looked like with the proposal format in place.

AFC seeding in 2024:

1. Kansas City Chiefs (15-2, AFC West champions)
2. Buffalo Bills (13-4, AFC East champions)
3. Baltimore Ravens (12-5, AFC North champions)
4. Houston Texans (10-7, AFC South champions)
5. Los Angeles Chargers (11-6)
6. Pittsburgh Steelers (10-7)
7. Denver Broncos (10-7)

AFC seeding in 2024 under Lions' proposal:

1. Kansas City Chiefs (15-2, AFC West champions)
2. Buffalo Bills (13-4, AFC East champions)
3. Baltimore Ravens (12-5, AFC North champions)
4. Los Angeles Chargers (11-6)
5. Houston Texans (10-7, AFC South champions)
6. Pittsburgh Steelers (10-7)
7. Denver Broncos (10-7)

The change would of been the Chargers getting the home game vs the Texans, instead of the Texans hosting.

As for the Chiefs, the new format can benefit them if the AFC West comes down to being a tough division, like we seen last season with the NFC North. But no matter if they change it or not, they will be looking to win the Super Bowl.

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