How is this different then what we have now??? If teams can’t improve or do worse they will sit.
Imagine a team that is currently a second seed but with a chance of becoming a 1st place team. Imagine that team is really banged up going into the final week.
2019
Do we go all in and try to win the game to become the #1 seed (and hope for a loss from the #1 seed) or do we rest our injured players?
Home field advantage is really nice, but we could sure use 2 weeks to get our players healthy (week 17 and 1st round bye). We can hope for the unlikely situation where we rest our starters, but the backups win and the #1 seed is upset.
Tough decision.
2020
Do we go all in and try to win the game to become the #1 seed (and hope for a loss from the #1 seed) or do we rest our injured players?
Best case scenario, we rest our players, our backups win and the #1 seed is upset. Two weeks rest for our players (though unlikely)
Good scenario, we rest our players, we lose the game or the #1 seed wins. Highly likely. We get one week's rest before the playoffs start.
Other good scenario, we play our injured players, we win and the #1 seed is upset. One week's rest for injured players.
Worst case scenario, we play our injured players, we lose or the #1 seed wins. Our team is the walking wounded and it has a game next week. Highly likely of happening.
Having no 2nd seed bye for the first round of playoffs can have a huge effect.