Packers president Mark Murphy is an advocate for expanding the playoffs, but he admits getting the proposal passed might take some time.
One of the proposals for adding a seventh playoff team would be to reduce the preseason by a game, and that would require 75 percent of owners to approve the measure.
“I think this one might be a little more challenging to get it done for this year, but we’ll see,” Murphy said, via Mike Vandermause of the Green Bay Press-Gazette. “Because I think a number of clubs want to see this tied into changes in the preseason.”
“The quality of play in preseason has really dropped off pretty dramatically over the last decade. We’ve looked at a couple different options.”
Either way, Murphy defended the integrity of the playoffs, saying a seventh team wouldn’t water it down.
“I think it’s more revenue, more teams contending for playoff spots, more excitement, more compelling games at the end of the season,” he said. “It would still be less than 50 percent of teams making the playoffs. You’d still have to earn it. This year in the NFC, Arizona would have made it, and they were 10-6. You want to make sure you don’t water down the playoffs.”
Of course, that seventh AFC team would have been strictly filler this year, but the Cardinals make for a much better example.