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Would the NFLPA go stir crazy at an automatic 12.5% across the board salary increase for everyone, plus the addition of a half dozen more roster spots?

Perhaps.

But that would be foolish in their part.

Just look at the Steelers as an example. In five preseason games they’ve lost two kickers, a backup quarterback and a Pro Bowl center. On top of that, the Steelers have enough guys on the “waived/injured” list to eat up 11 million dollars in salary cap space.

The average Steelers starter has probably averaged a total of 5 quarters of play. If the Steelers were playing an 18 game season, that total would already be at 8 quarters almost double the wear and tear, double the opportunity for injury.

Expanding rosters would help – in some cases, to soften the impact of an 18 game season. But is a coach really going to take his starting QB out for a couple of series? Perhaps more to the point, is he going to rest/rotate his stud pass blockers? There are some positions in the NFL were you can use a little quantity to make up for quality, but there are others where you simply can’t do that.

The idea of the extra bye week sounds good on paper, but it also has its short comings.

Adding an extra bye week increases the number of games that you can put on TV, but also dilutes their quality. The NFL experimented with two bye weeks in 1993 and it was a disaster. There were plenty of weeks when the top two games were the equivalent of Oakland vs. Jacksonville and Tennessee vs. Tampa.

Aside from the human downside of an 18 game season (i.e. injury dangers), I think an 18 game season simple amounts to too much over exposure for the NFL. That, as much as anything else is the point to this article about marketing preseason better. The NFL is currently trying to lob preseason is as if it is no different than the regular season and that strategy is backfiring (I’ve seen plenty of Steelers 2015 low light clips on Steelers.com, and Heinz Field looks awfully empty.)

You may be right. Greed might get the best of the NFLPA and they might be bought off for an 18 game season. However, if I’m reading the tea leaves correctly, the NFLPA’s next big target is guaranteed contracts. That’s a smart move on their part. While they won’t win 100% guaranteed contracts on their next round, greater contract guarantees will mean more money in the pockets of the players.

And I don’t think the NFL owners will tie greater contract guarantees to a 17 or 18 game season because they know full well that would more money spent on injured players.

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The last couple of ideas should help minimize the effects of an eighteen game schedule on the effectiveness of the players towards the end of the season and the overall health of the team entering the playoffs. More rest and more players.

I hear everything you are saying and agree but do believe the NFL and the players association will come to agreement on this at the next collective bargaining agreement. Anybody know when the present one is scheduled to run out?

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It does seem clear that the NFLPA is not in favor of an 18 game season, and given the tone and tenor of the things today, I don’t think the NFLPA is interested in backing down on this.

As for the need/lack of need to modifying how it treats the preseason, yes fans do grip but keep paying, but on some of those highlight reels I’ve noticed a lot of empty seats.

At the end of the day you’re right. I’m sure some of these ideas, like taking preseason games on the road, have been discussed by the NFL. But the truth is that, unless I’m mistaken, NFL owners do not split revenue for preseason games, unlike regular season games. That’s one reason why teams that play in the Hall of Fame game (or in the old America Bowls) played 5 preseason games — no one wants to be the team that plays only one home game.

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What I’m about to say is highly unpopular given that the Steelers just endured the “preseason from hell” but I’m an unapologetic supporter of the preseason.

2 games simply isn’t enough to evaluate young talent.

Look at Landry Jones. He was clearly better at the end of preseason than at the beginning. OK, outside of Jones, Roosevelt Nix and Berry this Steelers preseason/training camp didn’t provide a lot of good examples of young talent emerging. (There are a couple of three potentially worrying trends that emerged, ones that have nothing to do with injuries, during this preseason, but its far too early to hit the panic button.)

I could see going to a 3 game preseason as an intermediate step.

All of this presupposes that the NFL stick to a 16 game regular season.

Any plan to replace 2 preseason games with 2 more regular season games is sheer lunacy. Just think back to the Steelers playoff loss to Denver in 2011. At the time Rebecca had the courage to stand up and say the Steelers were lucky to lose that game, or else they’d have been starting practice squad players in the divisional playoff round.

That was the Steelers 17th game of the season. So had the Steelers been playing an 18 game season, they’d have still had one more regular season game to play.

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While it is good to say that the NFL should treat the pre-season like a pre-season…lowering prices, travelling, etc….these are things the league will never NEED to do. Fans gripe about the prices, but still pay to go to pre-season games. Browns – Bengals at Ohio Stadium? The NFL would expect Ohio State to pay for that privilege and Cbus is a college town. Other examples might work, but it’ll always be the NFL demanding to be paid.

It’s all about the dollar. And as long as fans keep spending them, the NFL will keep taking them.

I didn’t watch a single minute of pre-season football. I don’t feel that I missed anything at all — not anything that wasn’t replayed in GIF form on a blog or two.

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I believe the preseason should be shortened to two games in which it would be wise to rest the starters (preventing injuries) and play the reserves (giving teams a good look at who will make the team) with a week break before the start of the regular season. Then extend the regular season two games making for an eighteen game season which will enrich both players and teams.

I believe the NFL has already considered and proposed this idea and I expect it to be implemented fairly soon.

I believe that the Steelers will win the Super Bowl this season.

Couldn’t pass on the opportunity for three believes in a row : )

Good to see you, Hombre, thanks for posting.

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