Steelers Now
A proposal by the Detroit Lions to fundamentally change the way NFL teams are seeded for the playoffs that was opposed by the Pittsburgh Steelers has been withdrawn at the spring owners meetings after lacking the support it needed to pass.
The Lions’ proposal would have seeded all teams in each conference by record, without differentiating between division winners and Wild Card teams. Currently, division winners are guaranteed the top four playoff seeds, with the top seed earning a bye and the three other winners getting home-field advantage in the first round of the playoffs.
The lowest-seeded divisional winner is frequently a team with a worse record than the top Wild Card, creating situations where a perceived-to-be better team has to play on the road in the opening round.
Last year in the NFC, the No. 6-seeded Washington Commanders (12-5) and No. 7 Green Bay Packers (11-6) both went on the road, while division winners with worse records, the 10-7 Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Los Angeles Rams, got to play at home.
Of course, the teams do not have identical schedules, and teams inside the same division have the most-similar schedules, making the divisional component of the playoff seeding sensical.
There are still occasionally division winners that clearly do not belong. Six teams in NFL history have made the playoffs with a losing record, most recently the 2022 Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Mike Tomlin said the Steelers were one of the teams that was opposed to the proposal.
“I’m a division purist, to be quite honest with you,” Tomlin said at the annual meeting in March. “I love the rivalries that is division play. I love the structure of our scheduling that highlights it. I’d just categorize myself as a division purist. I think the division winner should get a playoff game and a home playoff game.”
As one of the members of the competition committee, Tomlin can give direct advice to the league on rule-change proposals, but this bylaw change was decided solely by ownership.
This article originally appeared on Steelers Now: Playoff-Seeding Proposal That Steelers Opposed Withdrawn
