The NFL plans to move forward with a full slate of games being played in Week 18, but they still need to make a decision about how the Week 17 contest between the Cincinnati Bengals and Buffalo Bills will be handled.
The Bengals-Bills game was not completed after Damar Hamlin went into cardiac arrest following a tackle he made in the first quarter. The game has significant implications on playoff seeding in the AFC, which is why the league will likely try to have the game played. The problem is they will need to decide how to fit in the game with the playoff schedule.
Pro Football Talk reporter Mike Florio joined 93.7 The Fan in Pittsburgh Wednesday for an interview and talked about the schedule. Florio says the NFL is considering a schedule that would involve the Bills-Bengals game being played in Week 19, which is when the wild-card round of the playoffs is scheduled to take place. In this scenario, the week off before the Super Bowl would be eliminated.
Week 19 – Bills vs. Bengals; NFC Wild Card games
In this scenario, during Wild Card Weekend, the Bills-Bengals game would be played, as well as the three NFC wild card games. The AFC wild card teams would have the week off.
Week 20 – AFC Wild Card games; NFC teams have week off
Then in the Divisional Round of the playoffs the following weekend, the three AFC wild card games would be played, while the NFC would have the week off.
Week 21 – Divisional Round for both conferences
In the originally-scheduled Conference Championship weekend, both conferences would be playing the divisional round playoff games. The playoffs would be synced up in this week.
Week 22 – Conference Championship round
In what was supposed to be the week off before the Super Bowl, both conference championship games would be played.
Week 23 – Super Bowl as originally scheduled
The Super Bowl would remain on Feb. 12 with just the week off before the game lost.
While that is one scenario the league is considering, they are pondering other options.
Our preference would be to play the Bills-Bengals game as a standalone game in Week 19. That game could be aired by ESPN, which was the original home of the Week 17 game. Then the playoffs would occur as usual, just a week later and with the week off before the Super Bowl disappearing.
The only issue here is that the teams that earn the No. 1 seed would have two weeks off before playing, which might make them too rusty and serve as a disadvantage. But in either scenario, one conference top seed will miss two weeks.
