Does the preseason even matter??

[Silver&Black]

A lot of talk this week is about the NFL season expanding to 18 games...thus eliminating two preseason games. Do you agree with this??? Some people argue that the preseason does nothing but get players hurt in a meaningless game, while others argue that the preseason is vital to the development of young players. What do you think????

[J.T.]

No, young players develop by getting playing time in real games. Preseason is useful to see how your rookies and high draft picks do against real NFL players and sometimes you'll find an undrafted guy who plays his way off the 2nd and 3rd team and wins a starting job, but in general preseason is needed for teams to cut their rosters down to 53. It's basically the playoffs/Super Bowl for guys wanting to cover kicks on special teams.

[vander]

preseason is a joke, entirely unnecessary
late bloomers and diamonds-in-the-rough can go to Canadian football or something.

or the NFL could start a spring developmental league, which players could go instead of college if they wanted to as well, that would be better than the way it is now.

and while I'm at it: 4 team divisions is a joke, and 38% of teams making the playoffs is a joke.

[J.T.]

preseason is a joke, entirely unnecessary
late bloomers and diamonds-in-the-rough can go to Canadian football or something.

Some still do. Kyle DeVan, Colts starting OG, played in arena league 2 before getting noticed by Indy.

or the NFL could start a spring developmental league, which players could go instead of college if they wanted to as well, that would be better than the way it is now.

It really wouldn't. First I'm pretty sure the NFL has an age limit anyway and if you think someone like Colt McCoy isn't tough enough to play in the NFL after five years of college I guarantee you anyone making the jump from high school football to the pros, even with some short ass stay in a developmental league, someone like Brian Urlacher would take their head off on the first play. I know every NCAA football team doesn't run pro schemes but it's worked for this long as a way to evaluate players for the draft, why it up now. All the NFL needs is a rookie pay scale and their method of evaluating and signing young players is completely legit.

NFL DL would only be useful for players who didn't play in college or were recovered from an injury and wanted to get back in the game. If you play college ball and can't win a spot on a team's roster, you're probably not good enough.

and while I'm at it: 4 team divisions is a joke, and 38% of teams making the playoffs is a joke.

Your team was awarded a home playoff game with a .500 record two years ago thanks to the division winners guaranteed home game rule (and Denver choking on for 6 games in a row), I really think you're in no position to about this. The way the NFL is now is fine, they don't need to it up by adding more expansion teams or regular season games.

[vander]

vander's ideal NFL:

No preseason, teams can schedule scrimmages if they want.

Spring/Summer league NFDL for NFL hopefuls, wannabes, kids who'd rather a paycheck than pretend to get a "college education" etc.

18-20 game schedule
2 bye weeks
4 divisions
2 games of inter-conference play, first two weeks of the season
2-4 games against the other division in your conference, the other 14 all against your own division
8 playoff teams
Division Champion
Conference Champion
Super Bowl Champion


or

back to 3 divisions per conference, 5 and 6 team divisions for now, but eventually the league expands to 36 teams
3 division winners and a wild card.
still only 2 weeks of inter-conference,
you play the other two divisions in your conference in alternating years

[vander]

Some still do. Kyle DeVan, Colts starting OG, played in arena league 2 before getting noticed by Indy.



It really wouldn't. First I'm pretty sure the NFL has an age limit anyway and if you think someone like Colt McCoy isn't tough enough to play in the NFL after five years of college I guarantee you anyone making the jump from high school football to the pros, even with some short ass stay in a developmental league, someone like Brian Urlacher would take their head off on the first play. I know every NCAA football team doesn't run pro schemes but it's worked for this long as a way to evaluate players for the draft, why it up now. All the NFL needs is a rookie pay scale and their method of evaluating and signing young players is completely legit.

NFL DL would only be useful for players who didn't play in college or were recovered from an injury and wanted to get back in the game. If you play college ball and can't win a spot on a team's roster, you're probably not good enough.



Your team was awarded a home playoff game with a .500 record two years ago thanks to the division winners guaranteed home game rule (and Denver choking on for 6 games in a row), I really think you're in no position to about this. The way the NFL is now is fine, they don't need to it up by adding more expansion teams or regular season games.

are you kidding? that illustrates my point, Chargers had no business making the playoffs. plus, an incompetent coach got to keep his job because of that, and an average GM who's ego is bigger that the other 31 GM's combined got a big extension around that time too

NFDL is necessary, there's no more NFL europe, and other American leagues always die, there needs to be one league, backed by the NFL, that's here to stay.
the not-quite-good-enough's need somewhere other than arena football or canada football to turn to.
NFL needs a reliable place to find injury replacements and stash players that can't quite make the 53 man roster.
College Football needs to solve this agent problem, so give the kids an actual choice: 3 years of college or 3 years of NFDL (or combination) before you're Draft eligible. the ones who CHOOSE college won't be nearly as likely to get into trouble.

[Silver&Black]

@vander:

I agree with a lot of things you say. I would enjoy if the NFL cut back some preseason games or eliminate it entirely, but I can't agree with only 8 playoff teams. It seems like every year a wild card team makes a deep run. (i.e the Jets in the AFC le game, the Cardinals in the SB, Giants winning SB, Bucs winning SB) I know it's not every single year but a wild card still has a legitimate shot of winning it all.

And if the NFL had 18-20 games a year (regular season) we'd have to enter the nightmare of contract negotiations to accomidate the new changes.....no thanks. All in all...I like it the way it is right now.

[vander]

@vander:

I agree with a lot of things you say. I would enjoy if the NFL cut back some preseason games or eliminate it entirely, but I can't agree with only 8 playoff teams. It seems like every year a wild card team makes a deep run. (i.e the Jets in the AFC le game, the Cardinals in the SB, Giants winning SB, Bucs winning SB) I know it's not every single year but a wild card still has a legitimate shot of winning it all.

that's exactly what I hate, no 9-7 team should be a couple big, perhaps even lucky plays away from sending a 13-3 or 14-2 team home,

teams get into the playoffs after being under .500 for most of the year, or in spite of 4, 5, even 6 game losing streaks, these teams have no business being put on equal ground as teams that actually played well for the entire regular season.

reward the teams that play well all year, not the teams that played OK and then got hot in January

[Silver&Black]

that's exactly what I hate, no 9-7 team should be a couple big, perhaps even lucky plays away from sending a 13-3 or 14-2 team home,

teams get into the playoffs after being under .500 for most of the year, or in spite of 4, 5, even 6 game losing streaks, these teams have no business being put on equal ground as teams that actually played well for the entire regular season.

reward the teams that play well all year, not the teams that played OK and then got hot in January

I wanna talk about your "reward the teams that play well all year" comment. Well if a 12-4 team gets beat by a 9-7 team in the playoffs...then obviously the 12-4 team isn't playing well at the end of the year. And that's when the games are the most crucial. I could go on about the teams that play awesome all year and lay an egg in the playoffs.

I'm just trying to say that teams who barely sneak in the playoffs (very rarely are .500 or lower records) who beat every "12-4" teams in the playoffs are legitimate championship contenders. Now if the wild card teams have gotten beat over and over the past several years...I would change my mind. But they tend to make deep runs every other year...can't take out a team with a legitimate chance out of the playoffs.

[bigzak25]

I want the 16 game schedule to remain intact.

If the league wants to cut out 2 preseason games, so be it, but I don't want them tacked on. It's a long enough season as it is and these players won't last. The NFL is getting greedier and greedier.

As for the preseason itself, yes it does matter. It matters less to coaches that are entrenched and have been for a while as their systems are already implemented and they are just evaluating special teams talent as has been touched on already. However, we all know the dramatic turnaround in coaching year to year, and it is extremely valuable to those coaches who are getting all their stuff installed, and who are evaluating the whole team at every position.

All that said, I think 2 preseason games is more than enough, and I think NFL teams should stop charging for them. Make their money off concessions and let these exhibition practice games be seen for free.

[leemajors]

preseason and extended OTAs and the like are great opportunities for injuries.