IRVING, Texas -- Commissioner Roger Goodell said Wednesday at the NFL's owners meetings that the league would spend the next few months exploring playoff expansion.

"Of course, something that we discussed in the past is expanded playoffs. That is something that we teed up (at the meeting Wednesday)," he said. "We will probably be looking at it with the committee over the next several months. Right now, we are at 12 teams, obviously. We will look at probably 14 or 16. The committee will be looking at that."

In the current format, adopted in 2002 after the NFL added the Houston Texans and realigned the league into eight four-team divisions, 12 teams make the playoffs -- eight division champions and two wild cards in each conference.

The NFL has had 12 teams qualify for the postseason since 1990, when it expanded the field from 10, adding a third wild card in each conference to join three division champions.

Goodell also spoke Tuesday with players' union boss DeMaurice Smith over issues of drinking and driving. In addition, Goodell met with the director of Mothers Against Drunk Driving the night before Wednesday's owners meetings in the Dallas area.

The commissioner said those meetings would have happened even without the death of Dallas practice squad linebacker Jerry Brown, who was killed when police say Cowboys defensive tackle Josh Brent was speeding and flipped his vehicle early Saturday in Irving.

"It's a constant dialogue," Goodell said.

Brown died exactly a week after Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher fatally shot his girlfriend before driving to the team complex and shooting himself in front of his coach and general manager. Both deaths were the day before games.