They should have a "Reverse Playoffs"

[MrGap92]

Essentially, instead of the best teams competing for a Super Bowl, the worst team compete for the higher draft selections.

In my head, the top 4 worst teams, compete in a playoff bracket of their own, and you play for the draft picks, prevents tanking, and at that point you have to earn it still. Also lets bad teams have a chance to end the year on a positive note with something to build on.

Not sure how well this would work or if it is even a good idea, but I am just tired of the thought of tanking at this point, especially when they can't even do it correctly.

[MightyGiants]

The other option is an NBA-style lottery system.  Although, it is rough when your team has the worst record in the league by far, and you end up picking 4th.

[ViewFromSection129]

There should be a lottery where every team that misses the playoffs are included. The winner should be able to move up five picks, second winner moves up four, and third winner up three. Or something like that. So the worst team can't be lower than four, but every team can benefit,  including the ones that just missed the playoffs.  I'm not a fan of a system where the #18 team can move to #1, but if they played hard and just missed the playoffs,  why not give them a potential reward.

[Gmo11]

There should be a lottery where every team that misses the playoffs are included. The winner should be able to move up five picks, second winner moves up four, and third winner up three. Or something like that. So the worst team can't be lower than four, but every team can benefit,  including the ones that just missed the playoffs.  I'm not a fan of a system where the #18 team can move to #1, but if they played hard and just missed the playoffs,  why not give them a potential reward.

I like that idea a lot.  I don't think it necessarily stops the tanking issue though.  You're still better off losing once you're out of it than winning meaningless games.

The loser's tournament is also a good idea, but how would it work with the schedule?  You can't have these guys play 1 or 2 extra games for free.  So unless they went back to a 16 game schedule and then added 2 games on the backend for the tournament that doesn't seem feasible. I wouldn't hate if the two worst teams just played the week before the Super Bowl for the pick though.  It's only addding 1 game for 2 teams.  And you get a couple of weeks of rest before then.  Winner gets the #1 pick, loser the #2.  Or if that's not enough incentive to play you can say the loser drops to #5 or something.  It'll never happen but would be fantastic if it did.