A potentially transformative set of rule proposals were submitted by a handful of NFL clubs on Wednesday. Perhaps the most significant is a proposal to revamp playoff seeding. Submitted by Detroit, the proposal would amend the current seeding format to allow wild-card qualifiers to be seeded above division champions if they finished with a better regular season record. The No. 1 overall seed would remain the division winner with the best record.
The proposal also states that "if two or more playoff participants finish with the same won-lost-tied percentage at the end of the regular season, priority shall be given to a team or teams that are division champions." This change would have affected the most recent playoffs in four separate games on Wild Card Weekend. Instead of hosting the 11-6 Chargers on the opening weekend of the postseason, the 10-7 Texans would have traveled to Los Angeles to battle Jim Harbaugh's squad.