The Joe Quarterback Podcast

If you’re keeping up, by now you are aware that I’m a fan of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. I’m always happy when the Bucs win a game. And, yet, I find myself…unsettled by this past weekend’s “victory.”

Tampa Bay’s win over the Carolina Panthers in the final regular season game ensured that the playoff representative from the NFC South would enter the postseason with a losing record at 8-9. This is not the first time this happened (actually the Bucs did it in 2022 as well).

Playoff football should be about the best of the best, locking up in lose-and-go-home competition. If you enter the contest already a loser? Not how I would describe the best of the best.

My proposed solution is probably not a popular one; certainly not among Panthers fans. I think if your division can’t produce a team with a winning record, one of two things should happen:

1. Your divisional representative forfeits home field advantage throughout their time in the playoffs (assuming they make it out of the first round) and the highest ranked wild card team takes that honor.

-OR-

2. If you can’t produce a winner, then you shouldn’t be in the playoffs. Create an extra wild card spot and give it to a team who was able to go .500 or better. I actually lean more towards this one.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that the fourth seeded Steelers are that much more competitive in their conference. The North has been the AFC doppelganger of the NFC South. However, their dumpster fire got extinguished long enough for a “winning” team to limp into the postseason. And I’m not saying to completely discard the division winner model and go to a straight overall record-based approach. What I am saying is let’s make playoff football about winning teams.

(SIDE NOTE: Based on the last 7 weeks of play, I’m not even sure the best team in the NFC South is the one going to the playoffs this year. The Saints looked good in the home stretch…)

Any any rate, happy playoffs to all you fans out there!