Members of the NFL’s competition committee met Thursday at the scouting combine and spent some of their time discussing the possible expansion of the playoff field from 12 to 14 teams. Green Bay Packers President Mark Murphy, a member of the competition committee, said the committee’s deliberations on the issue were in “still just the early stages.†Expanding the playoff field by one team in each conference would mean that only the top seed would get a first-round bye. The other possibility would be to expand the playoff field by four teams — two in each conference — and eliminate first-round byes entirely. But that would leave half of the teams in the league reaching the postseason, and the prevailing sentiment within the NFL seems to be that would be diminishing the meaning of the regular season too greatly. “I think there would be more support for one,†said Murphy, a former Redskins safety. “Then you still have one team that would get a bye. In some ways, that might make that more valuable.†Source: Washington Post
