POLL: Should the NFL keep its 14-team playoff format?
The NFL switched from a 12-team playoff bracket in 2020 to a 14-team format, adding one extra wild-card seed in the AFC and NFC.
The league then added a 17th game in 2021, and that made Week 18 more exciting this season with playoff spots — and seeding — on the line in the final week of the regular season.
Of course, that kind of excitement could happen in the old 12-team, 16-game season, but adding another week and two more playoff spots extended the suspense for one more week, and helped the NFL make more money.
That increased revenue likely means the 14-team playoff format is here to stay, but one might be able to make an argument that it decreases the competitiveness in the wild-card round of the playoffs.
Last week, the seventh-seed Pittsburgh Steelers (who would not have made the AFC playoffs under the old format) lost to the second-seed Kansas City Chiefs in a 42-21 blowout. In the NFC, the seventh-seed Philadelphia Eagles lost to the second-seed Tampa Bay Buccaneers 31-15 in a game that wasn’t even as close as the final score suggests.
Blowouts could (and did) happen in the old format as well, but adding an additional seventh seed in each conference resulted in a pair of teams who failed to win 10 games in the regular season reaching the playoffs, and promptly getting knocked out without much of a fight.
We want to know what you think of the format, Denver Broncos fans! If you had a say, should the NFL go back to the old 12-team playoff bracket?
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