NFL: Will the 7-9 Miracle Makers ever exist?

[Aquehonga]

I would love to see an NFL team make the playoffs as a wildcard with a losing below-500 record of 7-9.

It could happen & isn't improbable.

What happens next is this 7-9 wildcard gets hyperhot & beats ALL their post-season opponents, culminating in a SuperBowl victory over an undefeated powerhouse who finished the regular season
15-0-1.

Factoid re: the 7-9 Miracle Makers>

They lost EVERY homegame & 1 away-game during the regular season.

This scenario could happen & even if it never happens in this universe, I'm sure it has or will occur in some alternate/parallel universe.

 

[DaleC76]

I don't see a 7-9 team earning a wildcard spot. They would have to go in as division winners, in a very weak division.

 

[nevermore]

Yeah, they would pretty much have to have won all 6 games against their division to win a tie-breaker and in order to do that while winning only one other game would mean the division was such utter shit that that they would win by default.

Maybe if it was a division with the Raiders, Lions, Bungles and the Rams.

 

[chrisspringob]

Yeah, they would pretty much have to have won all 6 games against their division to win a tie-breaker and in order to do that while winning only one other game would mean the division was such utter shit that that they would win by default.

A 7-9 team making the playoffs as a wildcard actually doesn't depend at all on the tiebreakers. All it depends on is whether or not you have more than one non-division winner in the conference with a record of 8-8 or better. If 11 of the 16 teams in the conference each have a record of 7-9 or worse, then one of them is going to the playoffs.

For this to happen, you'd basically have to have a situation where the talent in the league is concentrated in both the top 5 teams in the weaker conference and all of the teams in the stronger conference, so that the remaining 11 teams in the weaker conference are just pathetic in comparison. In the most extreme case, where those 11 teams in the weaker conference lose every single game they play against any of the 21 stronger teams, and the 11 weaker teams split the games amongst each other evenly, and you have the schedule set up just right, you could even, hypothetically, have a wildcard team with a 5-11 record. The odds against that happening are astronomical, but it's mathematically possible.

And for division winners, it's mathematically possible for a 3-13 team to win its division. That's what would happen if every team in the division lost every game outside the division, and they all split the games amongst themselves evenly. Then all 4 teams in the division would be 3-13, and one of them would win the tiebreaker to win the division.

 

[Aquehonga]

Me thinks this topic should've been put up 2 to 4 months ago yes

 

[SmoothieX]

I think its a ridiculous idea. You already get crappy division winners in the playoffs over more deserving teams.

 

[JM1776]

I don't see a 7-9 team earning a wildcard spot. They would have to go in as division winners, in a very weak division.

If Miami and Dallas had beaten the Cardinals this season, it's exactly what you would have had: Arizona would have won their division at 6-0 in the NFC West and 1-9 outside it. You'd now have an 8-9 team about to whup Carolina's ass and go to the NFC title game.