A solution to the "sitting starters" in Week 16/17?
 

I think the draft pick idea is ridiculous, and could never work.

How can you reward good teams with extra draft picks, and widen the balance between the haves and the have nots?

I heard this proposal by a listener to Sirius NFL Radio:

Schedule all non-conference and non-division games at the beginning of the year, and backload all the division games over the last 6 weeks of the season.

Division titles would likely still be on the line, and teams would have much more to play for at the end of the season.

Thoughts?

Works for me.

Reward them with a Home game to begin and end the next season.

Yep I read that suggestion last week sometime. Damn good idea.

That may or may not work.

If a team is 13-0 or 14-0, it wouldn't matter a bit. If a team has the division locked up early, which happens every year, I don't think it would matter.

There is no simple solution.

That's the best option I've heard so far.

I've never known whether or not it was intentional, but it always seems like the NHL does this at least informally. Division games seem to be mostly in the beginning and end of the season. Seems to keep things exciting.

Good teams often start at home the next season anyway.

And honestly, that's not much of an incentive.

Hey, Jim Caldwell - play Peyton Manning in Week 17 and we'll let you open at home next year.

I think he'd have to try damn hard not to laugh.

That's probably the best idea I've heard of in terms of making weeks 16 and 17 more competitive.

Hey, Jim Caldwell - play Peyton Manning in Week 17 or we'll make you sit him Week 1.

Good point.

**** it I say take away their first round draft choice for the next year :D

True, but that's an exception, and certainly not the rule.

Unless you expect there to be 2-3 teams every year that go on a Colts/Saints-like run.

In theory, wouldn't a team have to have at least a 6 game lead in the division for the last 6 games, all in the division, not to matter?

What are the odds of a team being 10-0 and the other 3 teams being 4-6 or worse?

The Fantasyfootballification of the NFL continues...

That's the thing:

You can't force coaches to play these guys, but you sure as hell can make the decision to sit them tougher.

Or better yet if they decide to sit their players the worst team in the league gets to pick 1 player off that team in the offseason