Don’t panic. It’s not a clickbait headline; I just didn’t know how else to write it.

As you may or may not be aware, NFL owners are voting Tuesday on a COVID-19 playoff contingency resolution. This would kick in if we lose meaningful games and can’t complete the 256 game regular season as the league hopes to do.

If we can’t fit those games in, under this resolution, the playoff format would expand to 16 teams and the Eagles would be negatively impacted:

That’s a lot to parse, but the CliffsNotes version is this:

  1. right now, the Eagles are on pace to win the NFC east and host the #5 seed in the wild card round
  2. if the contingency plan has to be used, eight teams from each conference make the playoffs
  3. those teams are the four division winners and the next four teams with the best record
  4. playoff seeding does not use the normal setup, and instead the teams are seeded according to winning percentage

 

We joke about the NFC East not deserving a home playoff game, or a playoff berth at all, and ironically if we have to go to the contingency plan, the Birds would likely drop way down to the bottom of the seeding and play the #1 seed on the road, which could be the Saints, Seahawks, or Packers.

Does that make sense? Right now nothing has changed, but if the contingency is approved, and we need to use it, the Birds get dicked over (and maybe they deserve it).