I think the league needs to seriously reevaluate its playoff formula. The imbalance between the conferences is becoming so lopsided that pitting the winners against each other hardly represents "the best vs. the best" at the end of the season.
A playoff tournament bracketing system needs to be established based on won-loss record at the end of the season. This, of course, would require a radical change in alignment, perhaps doing away altogether with the conference format. But when you really think about it, what distinguishes the conferences anyway? It's not like there's a legitimate "rivalry" between the AFC and NFC echoing the old days of the NFL and AFL.
It would be a much better league if, at the end of the season, the two best teams had a shot at facing off in the Super Bowl. I wonder if the league brass has put any thought into this.
Actually, I'd like to seem them eliminate the crappy little 4-team divisions. Winning a division has lost it's meaning since you ought to be able to do it every 4th year based on average alone.
Going with the idea of "eliminating" conferences, I suggest four 8-team divisions. You would play each division opponent on a home or away basis (home one year, away the next, like college and high school). Then there would be a 3-year rotation of round-robin play with another division to get the game count up to 15. For the 16th game, you play another team in the same position (1st vs 1st, 2nd vs 2nd, etc) from one of the other two remaining divisions, also on rotation.
Just one possible alignment ... these are more or less geographical (North, South, East, West), but I figured the NFL would try to keep the NY teams apart, so among other things, I moved the Giants to the north where they might renew some historic rivalries such as vs Cleveland...
NFL East - New England, Buffalo, Miami, NY Jets, Baltimore, Washington, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh
NFL North - NY Giants, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Detroit, Chicago, Green Bay, Indianapolis
NFL South - Atlanta, Carolina, New Orleans, Tampa Bay, Jacksonville, Tennessee, Houston, St Louis
NFL West - Arizona, Dallas, Denver, Kansas City, Oakland, Seattle, San Francisco, San Diego
Or you can throw some geography out the window and combine the NFC East and North, the AFC East and North, AFC and NFC South, AFC and NFC South... consider that nrotheast teams would still travel less than south or west teams...
NFL East - Buffalo, Miami, New England, NY Jets, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Baltimore, Pittsburgh
NFL North - Dallas, NY Giants, Philadelphia, Washington, Chicago, Detroit, Green Bay, Minnesota
NFL South - Atlanta, Carolina, New Orleans, Tampa Bay, Jacksonville, Indianapolis, Houston, Tennessee
NFL West - Denver, Kansas City, Oakland, San Diego, Arizona, St. Louis, San Francisco, Seattle
But now this really begs to get Dallas relocated... perhaps swap Dallas and Indy...