SI's Albert Breer on NFL Playoff Expansion

Sports Illustrated's Albert Breer discusses NFL playoff expansion.

Transcript

00:00The NFL Players Association voted to ratify the latest CBA and now we have a

00:05new playoff format. For the full breakdown, we go to SI senior analyst

00:09Albert Breer. Albert, with the new CBA now, how are the playoffs going to change

00:13with this expansion? I think the biggest change of course will come over

00:17wildcard weekend. You'll have six games instead of four. How that looks hasn't

00:21been determined yet. There's been some talk they could play on Monday night. I

00:24don't know if that'll happen. I think the more likely scenario is three on

00:27Saturday, three on Sunday. So you get a playoff triple header on both those days.

00:31Then of course it's gonna affect the playoff race where only one team in each

00:35conference gets a bye. So it heightens the importance of the number one seed.

00:39But the functional reason for all this, the reason why they're doing it

00:44of course, is because it's gonna make them more money. And that's what

00:48the NFL was looking for in doing this. And honestly the NFL felt like even if

00:52the new CBA hadn't been passed, this was something they might have been able to

00:56go forward with anyway. Didn't feel like it was part of the collective bargaining

00:59process. And so there's a chance even if the CBA hadn't passed, that we would have

01:03had 14 playoff teams in 2020. The owners were pretty adamant about wanting that.

01:07And it'll be interesting now to see how it affects some other elements of the

01:11NFL too. You know there are gonna be more coaches now that are gonna be in a

01:14position to say I had a playoff team last year. Does that save some guys jobs?

01:18There's just a lot of different things that work with this that I think are

01:21really really interesting. In fact last year, I mean look at the Rams would have

01:24been in the playoffs. Is Wade Phillips still there if the Rams are in the playoffs?

01:28There are tons of implications like that that will come into play with this.

01:31The Steelers would have been that seventh AFC team to make the playoffs under this

01:36new format. Albert, great stuff as always. And for all your latest NFL coverage,

01:40stay right here on SI.com.