What the NFL should do with the preseason model

No one much likes the NFL preseason — not the fans, not the coaches and certainly not the players, who expose themselves to injuries in games that only matter to the very margins of the roster. In fact, only the owners might have any fondness for them, and that's solely as a revenue stream that season ticket holders as forced to buy into as a condition of their purchase.

But the tide is beginning to turn against preseason games. Roger Goodell has spoken for years about shortening the preseason, and the owners even offered it as a bargaining chip during the negotiations of the 2011 collective bargaining agreement with the players.

With each passing year, there seems to be less public support for the preseason. This week, there was another prominent critic: Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh, who said, if he had his druthers, he would do away with the preseason entirely.

Following Saturday's game against the Detroit Lions, during which starting tight end Benjamin Watson was lost for the season with an Achilles tear, Harbaugh didn't hold back on his dislike of the preseason.

"It's not the '70s anymore," Harbaugh said. "These guys playing in these games — it's tough — and they're not meaningful games. They are important to get better, and they improve us. But we football coaches can find ways to get our guys ready and get our players evaluated without the kind of risk that a game necessarily entails."

"I'm really hopeful that the union and the league can get together and do something that's good for everybody — especially what's good for the players and for the fans."

"If you go more games, fewer preseason games and bigger rosters, that's good for everybody," Harbaugh said. "To me, that's something that they can put their heads together and work out. It would be a positive."

Asked for his thoughts on the right number of preseason games, Harbaugh said, "If I had my choice, I'd go none. That might be an extreme point, but we could run scrimmages, or we could run practices against other teams and figure it out. We'd all be in the same boat. That's for people higher up than me to decide."

The NFL realizes the preseason is more or less loathed by everyone but realizes a handy bargaining chip when it sees one. That is why it's unlikely there will be any substantive change until the next round of CBA talks following the 2020 season. Roger Goodell and the owners want those 18 regular-season games, and the preseason is a convenient thing they can get rid of to look like they're making concessions when really it's just a sensible move.

With more meaningful games, the NFL would have to expand final rosters beyond the current 53-man limit. The league expanded the offseason roster size to 90 players back in 2012, and keeping it that way — or at least in the neighborhood — for the regular season would allow more players to be spelled during a longer season.

As for what would replace preseason games in August, as Harbaugh said, there is always the possibility of more organized scrimmages and joint practices. Teams change still charge attendance for those. They probably won't make as much as the current preseason model, though that loss in revenue would be more than offset by adding two regular-season games.

Frankly, even without the expanded regular season, the NFL should consider reducing preseason games. Having several marquee players miss the regular season on account of preseason injuries isn't helping the bottom line, and larger rosters would put less pressure on concussed players to try to conceal injuries. Of course, that means the NFL has to be serious about player safety at the expense of the bottom line, something it's very seldom been willing to do.