Doug Pederson is the coach of the Philadelphia Eagles and a Super Bowl champion but history might have turned out differently had Chip Kelly been credited with two playoff appearances instead of just one.
Kelly and the Eagles made the playoffs in his inaugural season in Philadelphia, leading the Birds to a 10-6 record.
The following season, the 2014 Eagles went 10-6 yet missed the playoffs because of the Cowboys 12-4 record. Philadelphia ended up on the outside looking in after the Carolina Panthers won the NFC South with a 7-8-1 record.
On Wednesday, Adam Schefter broke the news that the NFL was set to propose adding a seventh playoff team to each conference while reducing the number of first-round byes to just one team in a new proposal to the upcoming CBA.
If the new proposal had been current for the past five or six years going back, Kelly would have been credited with getting the Eagles to the postseason in his first two-years.
The rest is history, as Kelly’s Eagles teams would go 6-9 and 2-14 in his final two seasons in Philadelphia.
With the new proposal, the yearly crisis of a 10 win team getting excluded from the playoffs could become a concern of the past. Over the past decade, five 10-win teams, nine 9-win teams, and six 8-win teams would have qualified for the postseason.
The Steelers would have benefited the most, gaining four extra playoff births over the past decade and having the bragging rights for making the playoffs every year of the decade.
The new proposal will make for some exciting and interesting football with the NFL season likely hinging on the final week of the season going forward.