As the NFL’s owners prepare to take up the possibility of reseeding the playoff fields, not every owner is on board with the idea.

And at least one of them is sounding off about it.

“I think it’s a very bad idea,” Broncos owner Pat Bowlen said about the proposal, according to the Denver Post.

“Especially when you’re in a competitive division,” Bowlen said.  “It can be tough to have a good record when you have so many tough teams in your division.  In my mind, the AFC West is a very competitive division.  The fans are into the rivalries that exist in our division.”

Under the current proposal, teams No. 3 through No. 6 would be seeded in round one of the playoffs without regard to whether they won their division.  The controlling factor would be the teams’ won-loss records.

“I’m not criticizing the commissioner, other than to say it doesn’t work in Denver,” Bowlen said.  “And it probably doesn’t work in Philadelphia, or teams that have longtime rivalries.”  

Last year, the New York Giants would have hosted the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the Wild Card Round, even though the Bucs won the NFC South and the Giants didn’t win the NFC East. 

In 2005, the New England Patriots would have been the No. 6 seed, despite winning the AFC East, since their 10-6 record was worse than the 11-5 mark generated by the Pittsburgh Steelers and the 12-4 mark of the Jacksonville Jaguars.  And the Jaguars would have been the No. 3 seed, ahead of the Cincinnati Bengals, the AFC North champs that year.

But the Jags and the Steelers were the beneficiaries that year of being in otherwise weak divisions.  The Ravens and Browns were each 6-10 in the AFC North, and that Titans were 4-12 and the Texans 2-14 in the AFC South.

So Bowlen’s point is a valid one.  A wild-card team can fatten its record up by playing four games against basement-dwellers, securing home-field advantage over a team that had to scratch and claw for a playoff berth in a division that was competitive from top to bottom.

Besides, the reality of teams coasting down the stretch won’t be cured by reshuffling the deck in spots three through six.  The bigger problem arises after teams lock up the top two spots in the conference, and then coast home over the last few weeks of the season.  The current proposal does nothing to fix that.