NEWSLETTER
Friends, I think we’re beginning to see the end of preseason football as we know it.
The decision by Chicago Bears Head Coach Matt Nagy to sit his starters during Preseason Week 3 – which has long been used as a dress rehearsal for the regular season – was innovative, unconventional, controversial, and polarizing. And while there has been much debate about what it meant (or could have meant) for Bears starters to miss out on some game action, perhaps it’s time to discuss what it could mean from a larger point of view.
Players have long held a belief that the preseason is too long. Getting through a 16-game season is hard enough, especially for those who aren’t fortunate to make it unscathed through a four-game preseason. But if coaches are now willing to follow that train of thought and jump on that bandwagon, that might lead to some changes in the NFL.
Fortune favors the bold and innovation tends to come from new faces on the block. So it’s worth noting that Nagy isn’t alone on this crusade. Los Angeles Rams Head Coach Sean McVay has held out his starters during the preseason, justifying the decision by prioritizing the health of his most important players so they can be ready for the regular season. McVay called it “an imperfect deal,” via ESPN’s Lindsey Thiry, but clearly one he had enough conviction to make. This isn’t to say there is no value in preseason football as a tool for preparation, but there is probably more value in having your best players at their healthiest for games that count in the standings.
If more teams follow the blueprint set forth by Nagy and McVay, fewer fans will be attending preseason games. Not that I blame them one bit. And if fewer fans attend preseason games, there could be more motivation for the NFL to scrap them – or at minimum, shorten the preseason by a game or two, to make the remaining games more “worth” seeing.
And the crazy thing here is that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell was advocating for a shorter preseason as recently as August 2017: “I think that coaches and football people think that you could do this in three (games), and I actually think that’s better for the fans,” Goodell said, via Zak Keefer of the Indianapolis Star. “I actually don’t think the preseason games are of the quality that I’m proud of. From my standpoint, I think that would be a really healthy shift.”
So if players want the preseason shortened, coaches see the value in it, and the commissioner believes it would be better for the fans, what are we waiting for? It’s time to rip the band-aid off and move on with it. The winds of change are ready to sweep through and usher in a new era, and for once, the Bears are ahead of the curve.*
*Obviously, the Bears played one “extra” preseason game, had an early start to OTAs, and got an early start to training camp – and that must all factor into the calculus here – but the broader point above most certainly remains.
