The NFL and the NFLPA continue to negotiate the potential terms of a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) and hope to agree on a new deal soon. The current agreement was ratified in 2011 and extends through the 2020 season.
With a new CBA could come a change to the NFL's playoff system. The league would reportedly like to extend the regular season from 16 games per team to 17 games while eliminating a preseason game. It also wants to add one more team per conference to the playoffs, increasing the total teams participating in the postseason from 12 to 14, according to Adam Schefter of ESPN.
The increase in playoff teams would mean a restructure to the playoff bracket. In the new structure, only one team from each conference would receive a bye week with the remaining teams all playing on Wild-Card weekend.
The changes could take effect as early as the 2020 season, according to Schefter, assuming a new deal is agreed upon before the start of the season.
Under the new system, the San Francisco 49ers would have earned the bye week on the NFC side while the Baltimore Ravens would have earned the bye week on the AFC side. Also, the Los Angeles Rams and Pittsburgh Steelers would have each earned a playoff spot, as well.
"That's been agreed to for a long time," one source familiar with the CBA talks told Schefter of the potential new playoff format. "There wasn't a lot of disagreement to that issue."
The source goes on to say that he would be surprised if there isn't a new CBA by the start of the new league year, which is on March 18.
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