Buffalo Bills may not benefit from playoff structure under new CBA

One big change in the new CBA being proposed is increasing the playoffs from six teams to seven within each conference. While this increases the Buffalo Bills chances to make the playoffs, there is one part that could be a negative.

The NFL moved one step closer to agreeing to a new Collective Bargaining Agreement and avoiding a lockout with news that the owners had voted to accept the CBA. The new deal will now be voted on by the NFLPA before it becomes official.

One big change coming as early as next season will be the NFL will expand the playoffs from 12 teams to 14 teams, with seven from each conference.

In years past the Bills would have benefited from a seventh team making the playoffs and their playoff drought likely would have been significantly shorter. There were two occasions the Bills finished tied for the seventh best record in the AFC, in 2004 and 2014, and depending on tie breakers they could have sneaked in.

However, the reason why this new playoff format could hurt the Bills is they aren’t playing anymore to sneak in. This team has the look of being on an upward trajectory. The hope is they will be competing for a spot at the top of the conference, not the back of the playoffs.

Under this new format, only the top seed from each conference gets a bye. So if the Bills were to finish second in the AFC, they will end up playing a game on the opening weekend of the playoffs against the seventh seed. This also hurts them based on if they are within striking distance of that top seed they could be forced to play starters in hopes of earning that bye instead of possibly getting extra rest.

Now this is certainly a hypothetical situation and it would be foolish to assume the Bills are just going to go to the top of the AFC. However, in a conference with the Kansas City Chiefs, who are going to likely stay at the top, this new format could become another hurdle the Buffalo Bills will have to face in the coming years.