Ask players on the bubble if NFL preseason games are a waste of time

There’s a lot of grumbling that preseason games are a waste of time. There are definitely some issues to be addressed, but the games aren’t the problem.

Every year the complaints about the NFL preseason get louder. To some extent, the griping is justified. The product – in other words, the games themselves – is nowhere near the quality you’ll see in the regular season. In the Seahawks case, Russell Wilson has thrown nine passes, and we’re halfway through the preseason. The Rams aren’t playing their starters at all. So is there a point to the NFL preseason?

Before I answer that, let’s look at the complaints. You can blame the league for forcing season-ticket holders to buy two tickets for the preseason. But when you consider the cost of a season ticket, the extra $100 isn’t killing anyone’s bank account. I just found a pair of Seahawks season tickets listed on an authorized reseller for $1,268 each. The same site has tickets to the Seahawks-Raiders game for $33 each. That’s roughly five times as much per game for the regular season as the preseason contest. That’s a reasonable value in comparison.

Do injuries happen? Uh, yeah, they sure do. Cam Newton left the field tonight for the Panthers and was seen wearing a boot later. Some big names that lost at least half a season to preseason injuries include Tony Romo, Sam Bradford, and Michael Vick. Arguably the worst injury in league history happened in the NFL preseason. The Patriots Darryl Stingley took a huge hit from Jack Tatum of the Raiders, and never got up off the field. Stingley was paralyzed for life, as so many have put it, in a meaningless game.

Seattle Seahawks

I’ve got news for you. If someone is paralyzed, the game is meaningless whether it’s in the preseason or the Super Bowl. There have been plenty of injuries in practice, too. Teddy Bridgewater, Jamal Lewis, and Kelvin Benjamin are just a few of the players who lost entire seasons after an injury in practice. It’s football; injuries happen. If you’re going to complain about injuries in meaningless NFL preseason games, don’t forget to mention the meaningless NFL practices.

Sounds pretty stupid, doesn’t it? Preseason games don’t count in the standings but they’re far from meaningless. Would you rather find out if Marquise Blair can be a starting safety in a few games that don’t count? Or would you prefer to wait until he’s been burned for some big gains in the regular season, and the Hawks get off to an 0-3 start? No, I don’t think he’ll get burned, and right now it looks like he won’t be the starter anyway. Would you rather see DeShawn Shead prove he’s back to full speed in the preseason, or have the Seahawks risk it in the games that count?

You can’t find out just how good you are in practice. It takes competition against another opponent to see that. Even if you’re just running vanilla offenses and keeping your best defensive looks under wraps, you’ll get a much idea of who can play and who can’t in actual game situations against different personnel and different schemes.

Could we drop the NFL preseason to two games? Maybe, but don’t hold your breath. The league is never going to give up the revenue of those two extra games. I can’t see the players agreeing to an 18-game schedule without a 12 percent jump in their pay to match the increase in games. Sure, it would be better, but it won’t be easy getting there.

Bottom line, if you don’t want to watch the preseason, don’t watch it. When you consider that almost 48 million people watched at least some of the 2019 NFL Draft, it seems odd that you wouldn’t want to watch the players that are actually fighting for a job on the team you love. The games may not be great, but the players on the bubble are giving it everything they’ve got. And that is no waste of time.