There may be no fate worse for an NFL team than getting bounced from the Wild-Card round. At least the league’s worst teams get a high draft pick out of it. Getting to the playoffs is an achievement worth celebrating, but if that’s as far as your team can rise it may also get in the way of much-needed changes. We can certainly count the Dallas Cowboys in that club after their third-straight 12-5 season that ended in an early playoff exit. The same could be said of the Philadelphia Eagles, who have also been booted from the tournament early as they finished their collapse.
