ESPN Insider: NFL is mulling plan to give AFC’s top seed a choice at start of playoffs
Encouraging reports continued to emerge Thursday about Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin, who the team said is making steady progress and appears to be “neurologically intact.”
People in and around the game are thrilled with such updates about Hamlin, who suffered cardiac arrest during Monday night’s NFL game against the Bengals. University of Cincinnati Medical Center doctors said Thursday afternoon that he has been able to communicate with them, and family members, in writing.
As Hamlin recovers, speculation continues about how the NFL will handle the seeding of the AFC playoff field.
Speaking on ESPN’s Thursday morning edition of “Get Up,” the network’s Adam Schefter shared two scenarios he believes the NFL will consider.
“I don’t believe the league, under most circumstances, is going to wind up replaying that game,” Schefter said of the Bills-Bengals contest. “Now we get into the fact, ‘OK, well, how does the league handle this?’ And there are many ideas that the league is kicking around, and they now can go into overdrive knowing that doctors feel encouraged about Damar Hamlin and where he’s at in his recovery, a few days after the tragic circumstances of Monday night.
“So when we go inside headquarters at Park Avenue in New York City, let me present a couple of scenarios that I think are under consideration and discussion. And I think they’re a little bit different than a lot of people would have thought.”
Schefter said ESPN’s Matt Hasselbeck came up with the first idea, which would have the AFC’s top seed decide whether it wants the conference’s first-round bye or home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.
The AFC’s No. 2 seed would pick the other option. That home-field advantage would only come into play in the AFC Championship Game.
“The other (scenario) that I think might be even more viable and more discussed,”Schefter said, “and might be the one that league enacts before Saturday’s games, is this: If there is an AFC Championship Game in the end that involves teams that don’t have the same amount of games played, where Monday night’s non-result factors into who gets home-field advantage ... I think league would say, ‘We’re not going to have any home-field advantage this year.
“’We’re going to play the conference championship game on a neutral site.’”
Other options
Pro Football Hall of Famer Kurt Warner doesn’t believe the NFL should play the Bills-Bengals game. As for seeding, he believes it should remain the same as it was heading into Week 17.
That would mean that, in order for the Chiefs to get the No. 1 seed, a couple of things would need to happen in the league’s Week 18 games: First, the Chiefs would need to beat the Raiders on Saturday; second, they would need the Bills to lose at New England. Should the Bills beat the Patriots, Buffalo would be the top seed.
Under this plan, the Bengals could also emerge with the top AFC seed with a win against the Ravens and losses by the Chiefs and Bills.
Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio reported Wednesday night that the NFL would use winning percentage to determine the AFC’s top seed.
“Current momentum is pointing toward not resuming the Bills-Bengals game, and declaring it a no contest,” Florio wrote. “Playoff seeding then would be determined based on the outcome of the Week 18 games.”
In that scenario, the Chiefs would clinch the No. 1 seed with a win over the Raiders on Saturday.
Any of those ideas is better than tossing out the result of one Chiefs game to create an even playing field, right?
This story was originally published January 5, 2023 at 11:35 AM.
