Preseason: A Poll

[Dave Gray]

And depending on your answer, if you reduce preseason games, do you extend the regular season to compensate?

[Tenshot13]

Cut it in half and extend the regular season by 2 games...if that works then eliminate it and extend the regular season by 4 games.

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

Keep it at four, but don’t televise it, don’t allow fan or media in the stands and invoke a policy of a life time ban for any player or coach who reports the results to the media. 

That way teams can still prepare for the season without annoying fans not interested in the preseason.  /sarcasm off.

If you aren’t interested in preseason don’t watch it.

[Dave Gray]

I'm interested in it hurting the sport.  Injuries, over-saturation just to name a few.

I say to get rid of it.  I would be fine with adding nothing, but owners probably won't like that, so 18 games with an extra bye week seems reasonable.

[DaLittle B]

On 1 hand I love the idea of 2 preseason games,and adding 2 to the regular season...More Football! I'd question if it was be 2 better games,or just more major injuries to "star"injuries.A lot of starters don't play much the 1st 2 games,and the 4th game...It's only the 3rd crucial game that the majority of starting players play the most of the game.

I'm not sure the quality of those extra games at the beginning,or games at the end of the season for teams that clinched,and teams that are completely out of the playoffs...

Ehh....I'd be fine with 2,with the same size season,but would be open to more joint practices...I don't think the owners would go for cutting 2 preseason games.

[Phishfan]

I'm interested in it hurting the sport.  Injuries, over-saturation just to name a few.

I say to get rid of it.  I would be fine with adding nothing, but owners probably won't like that, so 18 games with an extra bye week seems reasonable.

Your argument makes no sense to me. You can't argue you worry about injuries,  argue that the star players are barely on the field,  argue it creates over saturation,  then argue to add regular season games where the stars are more exposed to injury. I get you don't like the preseason but you are putting one point and then the other.

[Spider-Dan]

Dave's position is perfectly consistent.  Injuries during exhibition games are unnecessary and entirely avoidable.

[Phishfan]

I'm not going to back and forth on Dave's position with anyone else. It just doesn't seem right.

[Spider-Dan]

I take a nearly identical position to Dave's on this issue, for what it's worth.  I think that, particularly in the London/TNF era, a second bye week really needs to happen regardless of whether they add two more regular season games or not.

[Dave Gray]

My position seems pretty consistent to me.  The risk of injury is high just from the nature of playing more games, but also presumably because the players are at different speeds.  Some guys are less skilled and try-harding to get a spot on the roster and other guys are going 3/4 speed just to get a feel for the game and not injure themselves.

This dis-incentivizes you from playing your starters, so what's the point of all of it?

I just don't see why teams practicing is a product that you're selling to the public.  I could MAYBE see reducing it to 2 games with a bye week before the season...and maybe adding another bye week into the year.

As Spider says, TNF really screws up the flow of a schedule and needs to be accounted for somehow.  Those games are bad and there's just not enough prep or recovery time.

[BigDaddyFin]

4 games is fine.   However if you really want to cut down on player injuries, cut the season back to 14 games.  You'll have room for extra bye weeks and the Superbowl can come back to January.

[Phishfan]

My position seems pretty consistent to me.  The risk of injury is high just from the nature of playing more games, but also presumably because the players are at different speeds.  Some guys are less skilled and try-harding to get a spot on the roster and other guys are going 3/4 speed just to get a feel for the game and not injure themselves.

This dis-incentivizes you from playing your starters, so what's the point of all of it?

I just don't see why teams practicing is a product that you're selling to the public.  I could MAYBE see reducing it to 2 games with a bye week before the season...and maybe adding another bye week into the year.

As Spider says, TNF really screws up the flow of a schedule and needs to be accounted for somehow.  Those games are bad and there's just not enough prep or recovery time.

I don't disagree with your position being consistent, it is your talking points that conflict each other to me. You complain about player safety then propose more regular season games which I think everyone agrees increases the odds of injury. You argue preseason creates over saturation but everyone acknowledges NFL viewing is down already and over saturation has been a theory. Adding more regular season games doesn't combat that either.

[Dave Gray]

I don't disagree with your position being consistent, it is your talking points that conflict each other to me. You complain about player safety then propose more regular season games which I think everyone agrees increases the odds of injury.

I see.  I'm not proposing more regular season games.  I'm fine with the 16.  I just think that in order to get the deal done, the owners need to be compensated for loss of income from TV rights and attendance and more games would do that.  But if owners would get rid of preseason and only have 16 games, I'm all for it.

So, remove 4 bullshit games, add 2 meaningful ones and a bye week.  It doesn't change the length of the season, really.  It gives owners revenue, but also addresses the slog of the season, TNF/London issues with an extra bye week for recovery.

Also, 18 games is a nice even number that allows you to play your division twice, 2 rotating divisions within your conference and 1 non-conference division. 

16 games forces this weird strength of schedule issue because you're matching up teams against similarly ranked teams across the league.  It's fine and I don't mind, but it's less consistent and it delays determining the schedule until the season is over.

[MyGodWearsAHoodie]

If we have 18 regular season games and another bye week does that mean starting the season in early August or are we having the Super Bowl in March?

[CF DolFan]

Decrease the preseason, increase league games and then expand the roster to cover for injuries. Maybe even make each player to have to sit at least 1 game.