NFL Nearing Decision Time on Week 18 or Expanded Playoffs With More Ravens-Steelers Issues

Ravens vs. Steelers was supposed to happen on Thanksgiving in primetime. Then it got moved to Sunday afternoon. Then it got moved to Tuesday night, precipitating the NFL to move Ravens-Cowboys from next Thursday to the following Monday afternoon. These moves were all because of COVID-19 issues with the Ravens, but now the Steelers have them.

Conner is a cancer survivor, so it goes without saying that we are particularly wishing for good health for him.

If Ravens-Steelers can't happen on Tuesday, there is no way to make it up later in the season as both teams have already had bye weeks. Therefore, the NFL would have to decide as to whether to make it up on Week 18 -- which they could do without moving the Super Bowl because of the bye week after conference championship games -- or whether to go with an expanded playoffs.

As we wrote earlier this month, the NFL has weighed expanding the playoffs during the season. This season, the playoffs had already expanded from 12 teams to 14. A further expansion would go to eight teams in each conference, with no bye weeks.