In Week 18, the Detroit Lions and the Minnesota Vikings will face off with a No. 1 seed in the NFC on the line, with the losing falling all the way down to a No. 5 seed in the conference. But if Lions star wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown had it his way, there wouldn’t be nearly as much at stake for both teams in this game.
Every team of course wants to be a No. 1 seed in their respective conference due to the first-round bye they get into the Divisional Round. On top of that, it ensures that you will be getting home playoff games all the way until the Super Bowl.
Sunday’s game has more than just the No. 1 seed on the line. Since the Lions and Vikings are in the same division, the loser of the game will fall all the way down to the No. 5 seed behind the rest of the other division winners in the conference.
Either the Vikings or the Lions will be playing a road playoff game with a 14-3 record, which marks the best record any No. 5 seed has ever been since the NFL postseason shifted to seven teams per conference in the 2020 season.
“That’s one of the craziest rules ever,” said St. Brown on Friday’s edition of the St. Brown Podcast. “The NFL needs to change it to division winners make the playoffs. After that, best records for seeding. That’s how seeding has got to work. Top four teams get the 1-4 seeds and all the way down.”
What St. Brown is proposing would seemingly be the best solution for everyone. All four division winners would still earn an automatic playoff bid, which keeps the importance of divisional games throughout the regular season. But overall records would still be the most important factor in postseason seeding.
Brown’s argument is very similar to the highly debated issue of seeding in the College Football Playoff where conference champions receive an automatic top-four seed.
This of course created a scenario where the undefeated top overall seed, the Oregon Ducks, came up against the Ohio State Buckeyes in the CFP Quarterfinals instead of a potentially weaker conference champion like Boise State or Arizona State. Oregon was of course knocked out by Ohio State in their Rose Bowl matchup.
On Friday, it was reported by ESPN’s Heather Dinich that a change to the CFP seeding is “unlikely” to come next season. But perhaps a similar change to the NFL postseason seeding as Brown is suggesting would give the stakeholders of the College Football Playoff the push to make their own seeding change.
About Reice Shipley
Reice Shipley is a staff writer for Comeback Media that graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in Sports Media. He previously worked at Barrett Sports Media and is a fan of all things Syracuse sports.