The NFL reportedly has an idea in place to determine playoff seeding if the Buffalo Bills-Cincinnati Bengals Week 17 game isn’t played.
The league postponed their Monday night game after Bills safety Damar Hamlin went into cardiac arrest during the first quarter. After tackling Cincinnati wideout Tee Higgins, Hamlin immediately collapsed on the field.
Thankfully, medical personnel were able to restore Hamlin’s heartbeat. He was then taken away in an ambulance to a hospital. On Wednesday, the Bills announced that he remains in ICU and has shown “signs of improvement.”
According to Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk, the momentum is leaning toward the league canceling the game altogether. They would declare it a “no contest,” Florio added, with the AFC playoff seeding coming down to what happens in Week 18:
Current momentum is pointing toward not resuming the Bills-Bengals game, and declaring it a no contest. Playoff seeding then would be determined based on the outcome of the Week 18 games.
This means that the Chiefs would capture the No. 1 seed by beating the Raiders on Saturday. The Bills would become the top seed by beating the Patriots on Sunday, if the Chiefs lose on Saturday.
A Bills loss and a Bengals win over the Ravens on Sunday would vault Cincinnati into the No. 2 seed, with the Bengals securing eclipsing the Bills based on the strength of victory tiebreaker. That would set up a potential Bills-Bengals game in Cincinnati, in the divisional round.
Florio added that this scenario “has not yet been finalized, but it’s pointing in that direction.”
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The Chiefs are sitting at 13-3 heading into Week 18. The Bills are 12-3, and the Bengals are 11-4. Both clubs defeated Kansas City in the regular season, so Buffalo and Cincinnati would have had the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Chiefs.
But if the NFL simply rules the Week 17 clash a no contest and decides to go with the scenario that Florio outlined above, the Chiefs will control their own destiny for the AFC’s top seed and only first-round bye.
There obviously isn’t a perfect scenario that will make all parties and fans happy, but the league doesn’t have a lot of options here.
Incredibly, Patrick Mahomes has never played a road playoff game during his career (if you include Super Bowls, of course). The Bills have won their last two regular season games in Kansas City, but Mahomes and the Chiefs defeated Josh Allen and company in the 2020 AFC Championship Game and 2021 Divisional Round.
Joe Burrow is 3-0 against Mahomes and Kansas City, with two of those wins coming at home. The win at Arrowhead took place in last season’s thrilling AFC Championship Game, which the Bengals won in overtime.
