New NFL Preseason Format
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With the NFL pre season well underway it shouldn't be too long before we start hearing the complaints of the pre season being too long. How there is no need for four pre season games. Obviously having those four extra games is going to increase the chances that someone could be injured. which seems to be the main concern for detractors. Still teams have to evaluate their guys. Simply put the pre season is about giving everything you have to make the squad. In order to properly gauge the level a player is playing at, he has to play. Training camp and practice are good for getting your bearings and learning the system but in the end it is like playing chess against yourself. You already know the next move. To really see what a player is made of you have to see him play against top level opposition.
That brings me to my point. In a recent interview, Bengals WR Chad Johnson said of practicing with another team, that he would like to do this every year. That they should practice a couple of days with each team they don't face that season. Hmmmm. Now that is an idea.
Why not...keep the schedule the same. A few weeks of training camp with the team by its self. Then once teams break camp and head back to their respective home facilities, instead of intra sqaud practice and game prep for a pre season game, they bring in a team that is not on their schedule, and just practice with them. Hold a few scrimmages, half, maybe three quarter speed. Nothing nearly as demanding as a full on game. This allows a chance for coaches to examine their players against opposition. This will also give teams an outside perspective on their teams. They will not see each other during the regular season so there shouldn't be too many problems with sharing notes. That solves problem one, putting the players against opposing teams.
But...
A team can't really tell how a player will react in a game situation, unless he plays in actual game situations. By the last two weeks of the pre season most of the cuts have been made and the coaches know who is staying and who's on the practice squad. But, you still have your holes and questions about who will fall where in the end. Now you need to put them in a game situation. The determining factor in starting a position and being the back up is how well you perform in a real time game environment. This is an easy fix. Two games. Two. One home and one away for every team. By now all of the teams should be down to final cuts and organizing the depth charts. Two games should be enough to know who is in and who needs to ride the bench and pick up some experience.
There you have it. A full pre season, that allows for all of the important points of why the pre season even exists, while at the same time limiting the number of opportunities for injury. That isn't to say players will not get injured, but it should dramatically decrease the probability.
