When the playoffs start on Saturday, the NFL will have dismantled the 17 regular-season crews and assembled six new ones, based on their performance from Week 1 through Week 18.
It’s the annual all-star approach, which rewards the individuals who performed the best by reconfiguring them into new teams.
On one hand, keeping regular-season crews intact results in high-performers being left out. And, as one source with knowledge of the practice explained it to PFT, high-performing officials were happy to see their less-competent (relative to others) colleagues left out of games with the highest stakes.
On the other hand, some coaches see the value in keeping established officiating teams in place. Reshuffling the deck after 18 weeks of regular-season football forces individual styles together on the fly. And since the league tries to keep qualifying officials on the same crew as the one they worked in the regular season, those from the same regular-season crew could overpower, subtly but distinctly, the new members. And the new members could be more concerned about going along and getting along than getting the calls right.
Given the split-second nature of many officiating decisions, any hesitation can create a mistake.
Besides, what team doesn’t develop a higher level of efficiency and productivity after a full season? From players to coaches to broadcasters, there’s a much better sense of how everyone works together at the end than at the beginning.
Or, as one source put it succinctly of all-star officiating crews, “They stink.”
From the perspective of the viewer, the difference likely will not be noticeable. Bad calls happen in the regular season, bad calls happen in the postseason. However, when bad calls happen in the postseason, the tearing down and rebuilding of officiating crews could be one of the overlooked root causes.
