2026 NFL Playoffs Thread

[Blaster86]

Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis

But....we talkin bout practice? Not the game? Cause yeah more time on the practice squad won't help any more than being on the roster and holding the clipboard. Lots of young guys need game action to develop. And while using the NCAA as it's developmental circuit worked for a long time for the NFL, the current set up in college is only making things worse.

I more meant, converting that into the beginning of a farm league is just sort of... there.

I think you play shorter games or one game every two weeks to try and reduce injuries/fatigue considering how violent every play in football can be, but it does give players live snaps to prepare for actual games.

[Sylvanfan]

Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis

I will continue to bang this drum, but the NFL desperately needs a real developmental league. Even more so now that college ball is pure chaos and guys might go to four schools in four years. It's not even just QBs, I'd argue offensive line play is just as important for development and is in as bad of shape as QB play. But teams often throw rookies to the wolves because the cap encourages/requires them too.

How would you work that? Like a summer league before the season where practice squad players or the guys not on the 53 but on the 90 man rosters would play? Even expand rosters to 100 players so you can have a 45 man roster for this league?

I do agree that players need more playing experience under their teams systems. But I think the owners are too cheap to pay for that a distract their coaching staffs from their teams. But it's pretty clear that players seem less prepared than ever when pressed into action. Every other league has a feeder system that the teams control, so the fact the NFL does not shows what it gets away with in terms of product quality.

[GirlySports]

UFL?

Why doesn't spring football work in the US?

[Sylvanfan]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

UFL?

Why doesn't spring football work in the US?

Because it's not directly associated with the NFL. It needs the NFL to back it and absorb a part of the costs and have an interest in the product.

The MLB doesn't just have it's players in random independent summer leagues. The NHL isn't sending it's players to random senior men's spring leagues.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

UFL?

Why doesn't spring football work in the US?

There's a saturation point for fandom when it comes to a single sport and typically apathy towards lesser leagues. AHL teams in Canada don't typically pack the house as Abbotsford and Calgary are in the bottom half of the league for attendance.

[Weitz]

Sanders as a pro bowl replacement is hilarious.

[GirlySports]

It's amazing how minor league baseball has worked all these years.
It's tradition? It's cheap? It's a night out on a nice summer's night?

[Sainters7]

Originally Posted by Sylvanfan

Probably the best NFC Championship game since the Saints and Rams OT game with the missed PI call.

Not gonna lie, the Seahawks sealing the NFC title on a DPI against the Rams - which was a fraction as egregious as the one they didn't call vs the Saints, which would've clinched the game - definitely was salt in the wound...

Congrats Seahawks/Hawks fans on here!

[MRCboicgy]

Originally Posted by Weitz

Sanders as a pro bowl replacement is hilarious.

Every other QB in the conference is either injured or in Cancun.

[ajr4013]

Bills going with Joe Brady. Was a fun ride while it lasted.

[Senator Clay Davis]

Gotta love it when you spend months bored out of your mind at work and then get hit with it "Must be done in 72 hours" task. Fun times.

Anyway, I wanted to flesh out my thoughts on a developmental league a bit more. It starts with kneecapping the NCAA: Get rid of the three year rule and let players join the NFL right out of high school. You could draft them and send them to your developmental team instead of them wasting time in college playing 80% of their games against severely over-matched opponents. Or, for those rare players who are good enough to make the leap right away, do that. And make it so that going back and forth between the D-League and the NFL is simple. Set the standard that after three years they either join their drafted team or if the drafted team gives up on them they re-enter the draft.

There might have been a time I wouldn't think that's a good idea, but with NIL and the portal free for all it's actually semi-pro ball instead of the old days of getting paid under the table. It's led to way more instability and that affects development. This way you can develop players to a better standard than college football, have them compete against a more level group of other players, and instead of wasting valuable CTE years taking hits in college, start that NFL career and taking brain damage for more money. Also take the career ending risk out of play. The fact a Jeremiah Smith has to play next year and risk a career altering/ending injury because he's not three years removed is dumb. He'd be a sure fire top three pick if he could come out now.

I don't think you need to go crazy with it when it comes to number of teams. When the NBA started the D-League they only had eight teams. I think that's about the right number of teams in an NFL D-League. Every team having a 40-50 player D-League team doesn't make sense. I get the notion of every team having a D-League team would allow for development "our way", but coaches change often in the NFL so today's way will be someone else's way tomorrow. And then new systems need to be learned. More than anything, getting guys playing and learning at a level of NFL scheme would be huge, college schemes are comically easy.

For the season set up, set it up like baseball does. Maybe run the season late August to Thanksgiving, and then allow for expanded rosters for the last month so guys can be brought up for real game action to see where their development is. Obviously things like time served and playoff eligibility would need to be figured out. And yeah you could run a 10 game season and give guys a 10 days break between games. From the NFL perspective, this would satisfy their #1 goal in life, opening up more TV windows to show football. Now you can have Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday night D-League games. And you know that #### would outrate most other sports.

I realise this is pretty ambitious, and will likely never happen, but we all watch football, we're all honest enough to see the decline in quality the past few years. What scares me is this is the beginning of a decline, so all I can think is how bad things will be in 5, 10, 15, 20 years. It's kind of ugly to think about. So I guess I just hope that steps can be taken to improve the product that aren't just rule changes. And this idea, while ambitious, also checks the single most important box for the NFL, it will make it more money, but it will also give us better football. Dare to dream and all that.

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

https://twitter.com/user/status/2016304439326605765

Love this.

[SuperMatt18]

Yeah that's unreal in the moment awareness to realize the other cover guy overplayed the RB and is beat and to realize to pull out of your blitz there and go into coverage.

[chummer]

But McVay said it was a fortuitous bust??

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

He said they lucked into having two guys peel on Kyren because that can't be part of their design for that llay. He was half right, it just wasn't luck.

Also, Pats fans are now pissing me off and I now hope this is a blowout. Unbearable fanbase. No, you do not have the 2nd best defense in football this year. #### off.