The NFL's annual league owner meetings are next week and every year teams get together to discuss league rule changes. As of late the Detroit Lions have been one of the teams that has been proposing new rules every year. This year they're proposing three.
The first is that the Lions would like the league to get rid of automatic first downs after defensive holding. Since the start of the 2023 season, no team has been burned by this rule more than the Lions. 26 times in two years. No wonder they want it gone.
The Lions are presenting the rule by saying that the effect is "Competitive equity. Current penalty enforcement is too punitive for the defense."
The Lions also want to eliminate automatic first down for illegal contact penalties.
The big proposal that would really shake up the league is the Lions would like to change the way NFL playoff seeding works. the proposal would get rid of the current format where teams that win divisions get priority seeding. Often over teams with better records.
The perfect example is that the Lions got the first seed last year after beating the Vikings for the NFC North title. The Vikings, despite being 14-3, dropped all the way to the fifth seed.
The Lions' proposal would be that seeding goes purely off-record. Had it been that way last year, the Vikings would have landed the second seed. This is what it would look like:
1. The division champion with the best record.
2. The division champion or Wild Card with the second-best record. 3. The division champion or Wild Card with the third-best record.
4. The division champion or Wild Card with the fourth-best record. 5. The division champion or Wild Card with the fifth-best record.
6. The division champion or Wild Card with the sixth-best record.
7. The Wild Card with the third-best record.
2. The playoff participant with the second-best record.
3. The playoff participant with the third-best record.
4. The playoff participant with the fourth-best record.
5. The Playoff participant with the fifth-best record.
6. The playoff participant with the sixth-best record.
7. The playoff participant with the seventh-best record.
The league should really get behind this one. There's been way too many division winners with losing records who get priority seeding and home games over bad teams.
