More is not always better.
That is the lesson the NFL is learning this weekend. They knew adding a seventh playoff team to each conference would increase their revenue by adding two playoff games to the schedule and the NFL is all about the bottom line.
But it doesn’t do much for the fans this wild card weekend.
The two seventh seeds, Miami and Seattle, figure to have little chance of beating the two seconds seeds, Buffalo and San Francisco. Miami’s quarterback Tua Tagovailoa is in the concussion program and backup Teddy Bridgewater has an ailing pinkie. That leaves Skylar Thompson to face Josh Allen. San Francisco has already beaten the Seahawks twice and are favored to do it a third time..
And even the sixth seeded Ravens in the AFC figure to have little chance against third seeded Cincinnati because Lamar Jackson has been out over a month.
That leaves three games that could be interesting – Chargers at Jacksonville, Dallas at Tampa Bay and the Giants at Minnesota.
But those three games feature a third seed, two fourths and three wild card teams although there is a lot of buzz in Jacksonville because it will be the Jaguars first playoff game but it may not cause a lot of buzz around the league.
Still, the Chargers-Jacksonville winner probably goes to Kansas City next week.
Tampa Bay is an attraction because of Tom Brady and the Cowboys are always an attraction but neither team figures to make a Super Bowl run.
It’ll be interesting to see what the TV ratings will be for these six games. The NFL is not putting on much of a show for the fans on wild card weekend.
Things will likely get more interesting next week when Cincinnati is likely to face Buffalo.