SI high on Cowboys and Giants to make the playoffs

[SportsGuru80]

We've been down this road too many times.

Unfortunately...

 

[TheBigEasy]

1. San Francisco 49ers
2020 record: 6–10

Major offseason changes: drafted Trey Lance No. 3; signed wide receiver Mohamed Sanu.

 

[LACowboysFan1]

Right. Except that's not the criteria. It's 6 losing teams from last season. There were only 4 from 2019 to 2020.

Since 7 made the playoffs that weren't there the year before, it's still reasonable to think 6 with losing records could make it. Washington only made it since they were the best of the worst in the East, but for that they wouldn't have made it, but 7-9 was only one win away from not having a losing record, don't see it's that big a stretch for several other teams that had 7-9 or 6-10 records last year make it this year, especially since there's an uneven number of games this year, more chances to have a losing record, end up 8-9 or such, and 8 wins is more than Wash had last year.

I get the discussion, has to be losing teams, but I still think it's not far-fetched it would happen...

 

[Flamma]

Since 7 made the playoffs that weren't there the year before, it's still reasonable to think 6 with losing records could make it. Washington only made it since they were the best of the worst in the East, but for that they wouldn't have made it, but 7-9 was only one win away from not having a losing record, don't see it's that big a stretch for several other teams that had 7-9 or 6-10 records last year make it this year, especially since there's an uneven number of games this year, more chances to have a losing record, end up 8-9 or such, and 8 wins is more than Wash had last year.

I get the discussion, has to be losing teams, but I still think it's not far-fetched it would happen...

Far fetched? Maybe not. But it's not to be expected. It's fair to say that it probably won't happen. In the last 20 years it has happened twice, 2011 and 2017. That's 10% of the time. Exactly 6 teams with losing records made the playoffs the following year.

Chances are raised slightly due to the addition of two extra playoff teams. And the fact you can't be 8-8 anymore. But by how much? instead of 10%, 15%? At best 20%? It's still not something you should expect to see.