While the Jets get OTAs underway this week in Florham Park, league owners will gather at the Minnesota Vikings' complex in Eagan, MN on Tuesday and Wednesday for the NFL's Spring Meeting. Among the topics they are scheduled to discuss include modified playoff seeding, the future of the "tush push" play and whether NFL players will be able to participate in flag football at the 2028 Olympics.
Playoff Seeding
The Detroit Lions have proposed a playoff format that would seed teams based on record. Under the current format, division winners are awarded the top four seeds in each conference and the three wild-card spots are awarded to the non-division winners with the best records. If the format was in place last season, the Minnesota Vikings, the second-place finishers in the NFC North, would have been the No. 3 seed and hosted the No. 6-seeded Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the opening round. After going 14-3 last season, the 'Vikes got the No. 5 seed and were trounced by the No. 4 seeded LA Rams – the NFC West winners at 10-7 – in the opening round.
"I thought it was a very healthy proposal and a very healthy point that we need to evaluate and continue to look at. It went through many different forms," Commissioner Roger Goodell said at the NFL Annual League Meeting in Palm Beach, FL. "There was some great data to show that we should really look at some form of this or some version of this, but there was also a really strong point of view that winning the division was the No. 1 thing that when you come into training camp – that's the goal. Win that division and first and should the reward for winning that division be you're in the playoffs and a home game. There was some discussion potentially about if you were .500 or less and you won that division – should you also get the home game? I think there was some interest in that also, but I think the reality was it was very healthy, and I think they'll be more discussion of it."
The seeding proposal would favor division winners in tiebreaking scenarios regardless of head-to-head outcomes. And teams would be re-seeded after the opening round.
Tush Push
The Green Bay Packers' proposal to eliminate the "Tush Push" was tabled at the NFL Annual League Meeting and will be revisited this week. Green Bay's proposal would have banned pushing a player who was lined up directly behind the snapper and receives the snap. But there has also been discussion about eliminating pushing a ball carrier anywhere on the field.
"The discussion on tush push was very good," Commissioner Roger Goodell said on April 1. "We showed a lot of data, a lot of questions from the clubs, a lot of discussion about it. I think there are safety issues that are being considered in that case. We have very little data from it but it's beyond data. There's also the mechanism of injury that we study, that type of thing, that leads us to show the risk involved with a particular play or a particular tackle."
While the tush push is often cited, the league could opt for more of a wide-reaching rule.
"There are a lot of plays where you see someone pulling or pushing somebody that are not in the tush push formation that I think do have an increased risk of injury," Goodell said. "I think the Committee will look at that and come back in May with some proposals."
NFL Players in the 2028 Olympics
NFL clubs will also vote on whether to allow players to participate in flag football at the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, CA. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced in October 2023 that flag football will be included on the LA28 Olympic Sports Program with two events, one for men and one for women.
"I do think the Olympics is a critical moment for us in the flag development on a global basis," said NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell this spring. "The Olympics are the pinnacle in international sport and for us to be able to participate in that, to have both men and women's flag teams participating from around the world is a significant moment for us."
International Expansion
The NFL's seven international games in 2025 will be most in a season in NFL history. The Jets are returning to North London for a second consecutive season and will host the Denver Broncos on Oct. 12. The league would like to expand to 16 international games down the line with a regular season expansion to 18 games.
"The most expedient way to that is adding an 18th game, which would add a second bye week," said Jonathan Jones of CBS Sports said on "The Official Jets Podcast." "So now you can do a whole lot more with the schedule, right? Let's just call that 18th game an international game. You still have the 32 teams, and so there's 16 games wherever they're going to be played. If you're playing in an Abu Dhabi, if you're playing in an Australia, you probably have to get that bye week after if you are playing. In London, a lot of teams now have to go right through that. And so, the league has done a crawl, walk, jog, run, and that's how they like to go about things. And so when it comes to international expansion, I think that we are in the walk to jogging phase."
