The Green Bay Packers have one preseason game in the books and like many preseason openers it wasn’t pretty. Both the Packers and the Philadelphia Eagles could not have looked more not ready to play a real football game. It was not pretty. So many people think the NFL should reduce the number of preseason games to three, commissioner Roger Goodell among them. I completely disagree. Here is why.
In the last few years we have seen the level of play in the NFL stoop to a new level. Ever since the new CBA went into effect in 2011 the limited offseason work and reduced hitting in practice has had a pronounced drop it the quality of play. Nobody can tackle any more on defense and nobody can take hit anymore on offense. It’s almost a flag league already. And now they want to take away one of the best practice sessions a coach has? Makes no sense.
The NFL made the excellent decision to allow teams to only have to make one player cut after the final preseason game, which lets bubble players get more chances to make an impression. To take away one of those games would be a step back. These young guys need all the game action they can get to show they belong on the team.
I don’t think any good would come from dropping a game. No way the starters are going to play more, which, by the way, I think is a joke. How can starters not play all preseason but still be ready to go on opening day? As we have seen here, they aren’t. The Packers rarely get off to a good start, last year they started 4-6. But I digress, the players that are hurt the most are the guys trying to make the team or the guys trying to be a starter.
In the good old days the starters played a little more each and every game with the last one being maybe three quarters. Now the starters hardly play yet are still expected to be in game shape on opening day. As we have seen the last few years, that isn’t the case. It’s not just the Packers, it’s across the league.
The first four weeks of the regular season are really the first preseason games for the starters. That is not a good scenario in a sport with only 16 regular season games. You can’t win a Super Bowl in the first four weeks of the season, but you can certainly lose one.
If the NFL wants to reduce the number of preseason games they need get the NFLPA to agree to more contact in practice and even bring back two-a-days. If you can’t practice what you do in a game how are you supposed to get better at it?
It is time for the league and the players to get together and figure this thing out. This juggernaut is not going to last forever.