5 NFL teams who benefit the most from expanded playoff field

With each conference gaining an extra playoff spot in 2020, here are five NFL teams who benefit the most from the additional Wild Card games.

The 2020 NFL season will be different for so many reasons. While there are plenty of intriguing aspects of the upcoming season, one that has not been discussed enough is the expanded playoff field. For the first time in decades, the NFL will expand the number of playoff teams getting into each postseason from 12 to 14, adding two additional Wild Card teams to each conference.

Doing so adds a pair of games on Wild Card Weekend we weren’t otherwise going to have. Half-a-dozen Wild Card games will make the opening weekend of the NFL playoffs fantastic. This will allow two days of back-to-back-to-back win-or-go-home contests. Everyone will have to love this, well, maybe except for the team who is the No. 2 overall seed in its respective conference.

Going forward, the No. 2 seed will host the No. 7 seed, the No. 3 seed will host the No. 6 seed and the No. 4 seed will host the No. 5 seed. The lowest seeded team who wins on Wild Card Weekend will travel to face the top seed in the conference in the divisional round. They will be the only team in their conference who had a first-round bye. The expanded playoff field changes everything.

So with seven teams making the field in each conference going forward, here are the five teams who benefit the most from postseason expansion in 2020. Does this team have a clearer pathway into the playoffs now because of expansion? Or does it take some pressure off knowing they’ve got a fourth way into the big dance: A division title or three Wild Card spots. Let’s find out now.

The Atlanta Falcons make this list because they’re arguably the best third-place team in their division in the NFL. After back-to-back seasons of 7-9, Atlanta needs to finish over .500 if head coach Dan Quinn wants a seventh season in Flowery Branch. With the offensive personnel and the improvements made at the end of last year, Atlanta is in position to contend for a playoff spot.

Can the Falcons win the NFC South? Let’s not rule it out entirely, but it’s more likely to be the New Orleans Saints or the Tampa Bay Buccaneers than them. The only team that will surely be worse than the Dirty Birds in the NFC South next are the rebuilding Carolina Panthers. Being a third-place team might hurt their playoff chances, but it competition could bring out the best in them.

Will Atlanta be a top-half team in the NFC next year? That’s about where the Falcons fall in the conference’s pecking order. If they can hold their own in a tough NFC South and not totally embarrass themselves vs. the AFC again this fall, Atlanta might have enough tiebreakers on its side to get into the NFC playoffs as a Wild Card team, likely a No. 6 or a No. 7 seed.

Of the teams they’ll be competing against for presumably a Wild Card spot, Atlanta has the continuity in place from top-down to be in position to edge out its competitors. The Falcons haven’t missed the NFC playoffs in a presidential election year since 2000. By having the playoff field expand by one team in each conference, this only helps the Falcons’ chances of getting in.