I'm sort of of the opinion that it ain't broke. it is what it is. You want a playoff spot? Win your division. This year, some of the divisions suck, but I can remember NFC East seasons where you had great teams beating the craop out of each other twice a season. You take the good with the bad; THIS YEAR some team might get "screwed", but there were all these years where the opposite happened, and it was just.
The Bucs have already clinched a wild card and the #5 seed in the NFC, and the other two spots are up for grabs between the Rams and Cards (who play each other) and the Bears (who play the Packers).
The winner of the Rams/Cards game will get a wild card and be the #6 seed. If the Rams win, the Cards will finish at 8-8, and the Bears will get the #7 seed no matter what happens in their game with the Packers. If the Cards win, then the Rams will be 9-7, and their fate will depend on the Packers/Bears game. If the Packers win, the Rams will get the final wild card spot. If the Bears win, they get the final wild card spot.
So...we'll have the 9-7 Rams or the 8-8 Cards or Bears missing the playoffs while a 7-9 or 6-10 team hosts the Bucs in the first round. Home field advantage doesn't mean too much this year, but I assume there will be no fans in the Meadowlands, as opposed to some fans in Tampa. That's something that can and should be changed. I can live with an awful division winner making the playoffs, but that team shouldn't also get a home playoff game.
Didn't the Patriots miss the playoffs with an 11-5 record one year or am I remembering that incorrectly?
Yes. In 2008, both the Patriots and Dolphins finished with 11-5 records. The Dolphins won the tiebreaker for the division title, and the 11-5 Ravens won the tiebreaker against the Patriots for the second wild card (the 12-4 Colts were the first wild card). Meanwhile, the 8-8 Chargers won the AFC West and hosted and beat (in OT) the 12-4 Colts in the wild card game.