It’s time for the NFL to chop again on its preseason as soon as once more.
Two weeks of meaningless video games will formally be within the books as soon as the Inexperienced Bay Packers wrap up their assembly with the Denver Broncos and the clock hits zeros in a matchup between the New Orleans Saints and San Francisco 49ers on Sunday.
And what a boring week it’s been.
Aaron Rodgers hasn’t suited up for the New York Jets and seemingly gained’t till the common season. Josh Allen was held out of the Buffalo Payments’ 9-3 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers on Saturday, and high draft picks like Caleb Williams, Jayden Daniels and Drake Maye had been fortunate to have a minimum of 10 go makes an attempt on their ledgers.
Oh, and No. 4 general decide Marvin Harrison Jr. didn’t even play.
However that’s the secret, proper? Give your greatest gamers a dose of motion and depart it at that. Take it straightforward, so nobody will get damage. In any case, it’s simply the preseason.
Drawback is, there actually isn’t any taking it straightforward out on the gridiron. One play can spoil an entire season for a staff, possibly even a future.
Simply ask the Minnesota Vikings.
Minnesota chosen quarterback J.J. McCarthy out of Michigan with the tenth general decide on this 12 months’s draft, however the 21-year-old’s season is already over after he tore his proper meniscus in a 24-23 win over the Las Vegas Raiders on Aug. 10.
Thankfully, no such accidents have occurred this week, and hopefully everybody has a clear invoice of well being following Sunday’s abbreviated slate of video games.
This isn’t a brand new problem. Gamers have been struggling season-ending accidents in the course of the preseason for years. However after seeing simply how little among the high expertise throughout the league has performed over the previous two weeks, do we actually want to take a seat via three preseason video games annually?
We’re not saying the preseason must be fully scrapped. Going into the common season with no tune-ups would seemingly result in much more accidents, so there clearly must be some type of stay recreation motion over the summer season.
One preseason recreation ought to do the trick, although. Or, if the league is so useless set on having a number of video games, how about two or three with 10-minute quarters? Possibly simply give every staff 5 drives per recreation, and no matter occurs, occurs.
These video games don’t matter. Throw the foundations out the window.
If the objective actually is to only get some gamers developed whereas others are merely there to shake the rust off, the league doesn’t want these guys out on the sector for 60 minutes.
Nonetheless, there shall be those that vouch for the preseason. It’s the primary soccer we get after a hiatus of about 5 months; stars do nonetheless get on the sector, and ticket costs are cheaper in case you have nothing higher to do on a summer season evening on the finish of the week.
Sports activities bettors aren’t against a further three weeks of soccer, both.
However this week’s high storyline? Jacksonville Jaguars backup quarterback Mac Jones threw for 210 yards and a pair of TDs in a 20-7 victory over the Atlanta Falcons.
Placing gamers like Patrick Mahomes in danger in video games that don’t depend simply so second- and third-stringers can get their time to shine simply feels incorrect. And possibly it isn’t on the league to regulate its preseason guidelines. Maybe coaches ought to simply relaxation their greatest gamers till issues begin to matter.
Fortunately, we’ve solely obtained to make it via another week of this. Let’s simply hope it goes by shortly.
