The Athletic: Tired of a four-game preseason? Jerry Jones says changes could come, but it’s complicated

Cotton

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By Saad Yousuf Aug 27, 2019

Yeah, the NFL preseason is a mirage. From early February to early August, football fans travel on a road devoid of NFL football. Unless, you’re the fan of one of the last two teams standings, the journey goes back even longer. That first sight of NFL play, whether it’s the Hall of Fame game or the first week of preseason, might bring a spark of joy. But it lasts a quarter, if that, before usually turning into annoyance.

The third preseason game, also known as the “dress rehearsal” game, is slightly more consequential. But here’s how that looked in 2019: Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott ran nine plays, attempting just five passes. His Texans counterpart Deshaun Watson engineered a grand total of two plays before taking a seat after watching his running back, Lamar Miller, tear his ACL. Around the NFL, quarterbacks Aaron Rodgers, Jared Goff, Lamar Jackson, Carson Wentz, Phillip Rivers and Mitch Trubisky didn’t even bother to step on the field. Players with secure roster spots — the kind fans tune in for — usually sit out if they’re not feeling 100-percent healthy.

If the third preseason game is now losing its flavor, what is the point? Where is the benefit to preseason football, let alone four games? Is it even necessary? What’s the solution?

The answer is complicated. [HR][/HR]
Jerry Jones doesn’t get the fuss. What’s not to love about preseason football?

“I’m one of these guys that there’s an element of preseason that’s exciting to me, but everybody doesn’t look at it that way,” Jones said. “I thought that when you look at the fact that there’s 100 players apiece on that field tonight, which represents several hundred million dollars worth of talent, that’s enjoyable to me to watch those guys get out there and play.

“But the bottom line is, everybody knows that, at the end of the day, it’s my town against yours, and we want to see competing right down to the last down. Getting there with preseason doesn’t happen.”

Jones said he’s been part of the negotiations for the next Collective Bargaining Agreement the last few weeks, and the preseason has been a significant topic of discussion. Jones didn’t go into specifics, but theories abound about what might been discussed. What about cutting out the fourth game and giving teams a league-wide bye week before the season? Or cutting the preseason down to two games? Would that impact the length of the regular season?

“We’re discussing everything to think about there and everything that goes with that,” Jones said. “If anybody says they’ve got a pinpoint thing of what we’re going to do, they’re wrong. Because we don’t.”

There are several elements to this dilemma, and three primary perspectives: Fans, players and the team.

There is an upside to the NFL preseason for fans, particularly for those who covet the NFL game experience. Marcus (last name omitted upon request), a Mesquite resident, brought his two daughters and son to watch the Cowboys host the Texans last weekend. He said attending a regular-season game is not financially responsible for his family at the moment, but the reduced preseason ticket prices were manageable. His son plays football in middle school and looks up to Jason Witten but had never seen him play live, so even watching him for a few early drives was gratifying.

Watching the Cowboys host Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers in Week 5 would undoubtedly be a great experience. However, the cheapest tickets for that game on VividSeats are selling for $73. The cheapest tickets for the preseason finale against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, which promises to be far less thrilling, are available for $3 each. For a family just trying to get some semblance of an NFL game experience, that’s a bargain, regardless of the quality of competition.

The negative fan experience is mostly reserved for the quality of what’s on the field. This can include fans at the stadium but mostly refers to the majority watching on television, who see non-NFL starting talent for most of the games.

When it comes to players, the conversation tends to lean heavily toward the preseason being a negative, but that’s because most of the players who come to mind aren’t fighting for roster spots. Players do not receive game checks for playing in the preseason, so when a situation comes about such as Miller tearing his ACL on his first carry, the implication is he lost his season while playing for free. There also isn’t much strategizing involved, so it’s fair to wonder how much somebody like Prescott is really getting from running vanilla plays against a vanilla defense.

However, ask a player on the roster bubble, and the perception of preseason is very different.

“It’s a huge little stretch for me,” Cowboys backup quarterback Cooper Rush said. “One, just to get game reps and then obviously get tape out there and show what you’re about and get to play in a game environment. The preseason, I’m all in on it. It’s my (regular) season.”

Rush came into the summer of 2019 presumably battling with Mike White for the backup quarterback spot. Because of his play in these preseason games, he’s been able to distance himself and extend his NFL career. Players who have been in similar positions have a greater appreciation for the exhibition season. When cornerback Anthony Brown was approached and asked about the “meaningless” games — which, technically, is exactly what they are in the standings — he was miffed by the phrasing.

“People come out here and say preseason doesn’t matter, that’s not true,” Brown said. “It may not matter in terms of wins and losses, but it matters.”

Brown has deep perspective. He’s a lock to make the team now, but he’s not far removed from fighting for a roster spot as a sixth-round selection in 2016. He got his career off the ground by returning an interception for a touchdown that preseason.

“That was a confidence booster, that was more of a feeling like you solidified a spot on the team,” Brown said. “That was huge for me.”

Michael Gallup is another example of how the preseason can be used advantageously. With Amari Cooper out of action as he deals with plantar fasciitis, Gallup has received rare in-game reps as Prescott’s No. 1 outside target. Assuming Cooper signs a long-term contract and stays healthy, Gallup would rarely get that opportunity in regular-season games.

Owners will heavily influence the direction of any changes, so it’s important to consider that the NFL is very much a business and keeping fans entertained is Jones’ goal. Are fans willing to watch the preseason product?

The official attendance for the preseason game against the Texans was 85,636. That’s a rather impressive number when considering the 2018 regular-season home-opener drew a crowd of 90,512. As mentioned earlier, the tickets are cheaper, which amounts to substantially less overall revenue. But the preseason serves as a marketing tool for ownership: Come out for cheap in the preseason to see what it’s like, and you’ll want to come back for the real deal. Think about preseason games as the free samples at Costco enticing you to buy the product.

“Everything — player, owners, everybody — we all defer to the fan,” Jones said. “It’s done in that context so when you cover that, it covers the whole thing: the economics, the health and safety — which is economics, too — for everybody.”

In that context, it’s easy to see why Jones enjoys the preseason as it is; it’s a good business. But scrape away all other factors and view it purely as the on-field product: Are four preseason games really necessary to get ready for the regular season? [HR][/HR]
A lot changes for players when they get to the NFL, including how they prepare for the games that matter in the standings. The vast majority of players come up through a natural progression of playing high-school football, then college and finally realizing the NFL dream.

A four-game preseason doesn’t exist at those other levels

There are many layers of preparation at the high-school level. The first stage of preparing for a season starts with spring football, which then carries into the summer workouts. Once August hits and summer camp starts, the season is just weeks away. Programs with spring football typically have one controlled scrimmage against another school, whereas those that don’t have spring football may scrimmage twice. Then there are some programs, like Rockwall High School, that don’t scrimmage at all and see live action against an opposing team only when the season starts.

But even when the season starts, it’s not necessary to be a flawless operation because of the cushion of non-district games that lead into district competition.

“One of the great things about high school football is that in almost every case, the first two or three — in our case, four — games are non-district games, and there’s no implications for those games, even though they count towards your record,” Rockwall head coach Rodney Webb said. “They have absolutely no bearing on your ability to make the playoffs or win a state championship or district title.

“My opinion is, we don’t necessarily have to be as prepared for the first game of the year as a Division 1 college team.”

Even though colleges have non-conference games before entering conference play, those games have serious implications down the road. Two losses in a season, whether they come in conference play or not, seriously hurt a team’s chances to qualify for the College Football Playoff.

Dabo Swinney, head coach of the reigning national champion Clemson Tigers, is in the camp of those that would like to see any sort of action against a different team before the games start to count.

“I would just love to scrimmage somebody else,” Swinney said. “Just have a controlled scrimmage, we’re the only level of football (that) doesn’t do that. Plus, just familiarity; I’d love to just have some unfamiliarity, but that’s just where we are so we just have to do the best we can.”

At each of the three levels of football, the goal is to function at a high level when games have real implications. While high-school practices do have some restrictions, they’re more physical than the standard college and NFL practices. The non-district games are unique because they hold similar relevance to the NFL preseason, but it’s different because the starters are usually playing the whole time and the games are treated like district games. Essentially, it’s a preseason period with a regular-season approach. College football has none of that and jumps right into consequential games, whereas the NFL takes what many argue to be an over-the-top approach featuring more exhibition than needed.

Finding the right balance of NFL preseason football is tricky because it goes beyond football. Jones said it’s been a topic of conversation ever since he purchased the Cowboys in 1989. A reduction, or at least a restructure, could be on the way. After all, the NFL had a six-game preseason and 14-game regular season from 1970 to 1977 before cutting two games from the exhibition season and adding two more to the regular season to arrive at the current format.

42 years later, a six-game preseason seems ludicrous. A few decades from now, maybe a four-game preseason will be viewed the same way.
 

boozeman

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“... it’s complicated.”

$$$$$$$$$$
They could probably add a playoff game to the process and recoup even more than they get from the four shitty exhibitions.

The only issue is that the perennially shitty teams need those four games because they will never make the playoffs.
 

bbgun

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The owners could easily sacrifice two pre-season games and still be very, very rich. But they're in it for every last penny.
 

Cowboysrock55

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They could probably add a playoff game to the process and recoup even more than they get from the four shitty exhibitions.

The only issue is that the perennially shitty teams need those four games because they will never make the playoffs.
I guess I'm in the minority here but I think the preseason is useful beyond just money for the games.
 

UncleMilti

This seemed like a good idea at the time.
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I'd be very skeptical of the 85,000 attendance number. Did they sell/give away 85,000 tickets? Sure. Were there 85,000 in attendance? Not from the views I saw.
 
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