How the New Playoff Format Would Have Affected the NFC East

How would the last 20 years of NFC East playoff history have been affected if the NFL adopted its new 14-team playoff format earlier? Let's take a look back in time.

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The NFL will officially adopt a new playoff model for 2021 and beyond, adding one more playoff team from each conference into the fold. While the new playoff format, for the most part, wouldn't have changed that much in the NFC East had it been in existence, there were a few instances where the playoff picture would have changed.

In 2016, Washington needed a Week 17 win to clinch the sixth-spot in the NFC against a New York Giants team that had nothing to play for. Former Giants head coach Ben McAdoo chose to play his starters anyway, knocking Washington to 8-7-1 and out of the playoffs.

Although in the newly adopted format the seventh playoff seed that year would have gone to the Bucs that year, that extra spot wouldn't have made the game a must-win for Washington at the start of Week 17. That means the extended playoff format wouldn't have given the Giants assurance that their win would knock Washington out of the playoffs.

In a seven-team playoff format, the Giants could have won that game, but a loss by the Bucs would still have sent Washington to the playoffs. In that case, the Giants would've had even less motivation to play their starters to begin with, even if purely out of spite.

That meaningless Week 17 win in Washington that was famously followed by the Giants receivers' boat trip to Miami one week before a road playoff matchup against the Packers might have never happened in a seven-team playoff format.

In 2014, the 10-6 Eagles ended up as the odd man out of the playoffs in a year where the 7-8-1 Carolina Panthers played in the divisional round. Former Eagles head coach Chip Kelly earned his second-consecutive 10-win season and some front-office power, but missing the playoffs that year bought about dramatic offseason change, including the trading of quarterback Nick Foles and running back LeSean McCoy.

The new playoff format would have sent Kelly's Eagles to Green Bay for a Wild Card matchup against League MVP Aaron Rodgers and the 12-4 Packers. An Eagles win against the Packers would have probably been a longshot, as they were pummeled at Lambeau Field in the regular season, but an appearance might have kept the team together for at least one more year.

The following season marked Kelly's last in Philadelphia, as his off-season roster moves ultimately proved to fail. His offseason moves set the franchise back so much that it sparked a rebuild that culminated in the organization's first Super Bowl victory just two years later. But they did win that Super Bowl with the quarterback that Kelly originally traded after missing the playoffs in 2014.

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In 2010, before Desean Jackson's walk-off punt-return touchdown gave the Eagles a famous 38-31 week 15 win, Tom Coughlin's Giants squad was in contention for the top -one seed in the NFC that year.

The loss to the Eagles, combined with a 45-17 lashing at Lambeau Field the next week, left the 10-6 Giants out of the Playoffs in the harsh exclusivity of the old playoff format. Tom Coughlin's Giants would have traveled to Soldier Field for a wildcard matchup against the Jay Cutler Bears as the seventh seed.

The Giants would go on to win their fourth Super Bowl the next year, so it probably isn't a loss they're begging to have back, but the possibility of back-to-back titles in 2010 and 2011 wouldn't have been impossible in a seven-team format. The Giants have had some success as a lower playoff seed after all.

It also would have made The Miracle at The Meadowlands II, much less painful for Giants fans.

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The decade of the 2010s saw three NFC east teams finish one spot out of a playoff birth, but before that, in 2001, Washington finished the season 8-8 and seventh in the NFC. It would have set them up for a wildcard matchup against the Bears at Soldier Field.

Washington and the Bears haven't met since the 1987 divisional playoff game at the same venue, in which Washington gutted out a 21-17 win en route to their second Super Bowl. It would have been a renewal of a historic rivalry, but if only the seven-game format existed.

But then again, the NFC only had three divisions back in 2001 anyway, so it just goes to show that the NFL is not a league that is without its format changes. 

LISTEN: Today on Coronavirus + Sports: SI.com' Greg Bishop reflects with Luis Meche Garay on the pandemic's ripple effect on the people, businesses, and sports in his community of Kirkland, Washington. 

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