The NFL has a preseason problem because the product is both risible and detestable. It\u2019s a football farce that affects the real games because preseason protected species spend the first couple of weeks of the regular season acclimating to game speed. The current preseason game ethos is unsatisfying and unsustainable. Either the name players have to play more or the NFL has to cut down the preseason schedule like an undrafted rookie.<\/p>\n
Get Point After<\/p>\n
Get exclusive analysis and insight on the Patriots and the NFL, delivered to your inbox on weekdays during the season.<\/p>\n
Patriots quarterback Drake Maye and the rest of the team\u2019s presumed starters have remained in bubble wrap this preseason. They haven\u2019t played a single snap entering Thursday\u2019s preseason finale in Cleveland. Coach Mike Vrabel was noncommittal Monday when asked if the frontline players would log snaps.<\/p>\n
A decade ago, it would\u2019ve been unconscionable to think that one of the teams playing in the NFL\u2019s regular-season kickoff game could enter that game with its players not having taken a game snap. Not anymore. The Seahawks, the Patriots\u2019 opponents in the regular-season ribbon-cutter, haven\u2019t played their top-shelf players, either. Rams coach Sean McVay habitually sits his frontline players during the preseason. <\/p>\n
Since the NFL adopted a 17-game schedule in 2021, cutting the preseason from four games to three, the traditional routine has faded. <\/p>\n
\u201cYes, it has changed, drastically,\u201d said first-year Cardinals coach Mike LaFleur. \u201c[In] 2016 in Atlanta, [we] played four preseason games, and that third game for the league was like the mock game.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou went out and you played a whole half of football with your starters, offense, defense, and then actually came out in the second half and at least [got] what it felt like to go back inside and make some adjustments, then get your body and mind right to play that third quarter. And that was just kind of the league.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe always would play our guys for two games \u2026 The league has evolved with it. I still don\u2019t know if there is a right and wrong answer to it all.\u201d<\/p>\n
Coaches are control freaks by nature. That dovetails perfectly with the rise of the joint practice. Joint practices create healthy competition between teams where coaches can script situations to measure players while metering the level of contact.<\/p>\n
The Patriots hosted three joint practices \u2014 one with the Colts and two with the Eagles. Before practicing with Philadelphia, Vrabel said that his ones would be able to get 28 to 30 reps each day, far more than in a preseason game. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou get a lot of intensity. But you see a lot of different looks, and teams are running a lot more stuff than they would run in the preseason in the game, putting it on film,\u201d Vrabel said. Preseason game plans are usually as plain as a manila envelope.<\/p>\n
Joint practices represent a useful training simulation. Fans flock to them. But they aren\u2019t the same as playing in a game setting with unbridled and unapologetic football physicality. <\/p>\n
Vrabel acknowledged that in an interview on WEEI, pointing out that some of the Maye completions cheered by fans and charted by media members during practices would result in the quarterback peeling himself off the turf in a game. <\/p>\n
Vrabel projects ambivalence. Monday, he defended the value of preseason games, citing elements such as live tackling and pushing piles that can\u2019t be replicated.<\/p>\n
Yet, following Saturday\u2019s victory over the Eagles<\/a>, he lamented the team\u2019s depth and said, \u201cWe are doing everything that we can to keep our best players available.\u201d <\/p>\n Foxborough Faithful of a certain age remember the team\u2019s calamitous 1989 preseason finale <\/a>when Hall of Famer Andre Tippett, defensive end Garin Veris, and cornerback Ronnie Lippett all suffered season-ending injuries. <\/p>\n Like everything in sports these days, there is an analytical impetus for joint practices replacing preseason games. You can\u2019t fight Big Data.<\/p>\n \u201cAt the owners\u2019 meetings, they talked about joint practices vs. playing in the preseason vs. not playing in the preseason,\u201d said LaFleur. <\/p>\n \u201cIf you get two joint practices in, that\u2019s the equivalent of playing in the two preseason games because it\u2019s an amped-up environment \u2026 For some reason, the data says if you end up having those joint practices you have less injury risk going into those first four weeks of the season.\u201d <\/p>\n This is the new normal. But it begs an existential question for preseason games: What\u2019s their purpose? That gets emphasized when the NFL inevitably moves to an 18-game, two-preseason-game schedule.<\/p>\n Certainly, preseason contests are valuable for players trying to make a roster and a name for themselves. But their raison d\u2019\u00eatre is no longer to prepare for the regular season. It\u2019s to generate revenue and audition for the bottom of the roster and practice squad.<\/p>\n Fine. Just market it accurately as NFL JV football.<\/p>\n End the preseason pretense.<\/p>\n Christopher L. Gasper is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at christopher.gasper@globe.com<\/a>. Follow him @cgasper<\/a> and on Instagram @cgaspersports<\/a>.<\/p>\n