This League Needs More PreSeason

Looks like the only fair option left would be to extend the final cutdown date past the first game of the season. If there are no PRESEASON games then give every team a couple of REGULAR season games to evaluate new talent in ‘live game’ conditions. :face_with_monocle:

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Disagree. Regular season games should be played for real, with all of the best options at personnel. Imagine a coach saying “Yea we lost the game because we had to evaluate some backups in the 4th quarter before our week 3 final cuts.” Yea, you can’t ask a teams to do that. That won’t fly at all.

It holds up very well for football, or any high contact sport really.

But let me get this straight, you who are waging this poll campaign about how boring the game was tonite with all of its drive killing dropped passes and poor blocking, would rather watch several dog crap games just like that than to just ignore 2 or 3 preseason games?

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Yes but every coach will tell you that the real evaluation is in a game against an opponent with live ammo. Coach Craig even said this year that he couldn’t properly evaluate the rookies with no contact in camp and no games. We hear similar stuff league wide. The green and white scrimmage had no hitting, it’s not allowed so you really can’t evaluate anymore without games.

Plus there’s a big difference between shape and game shape. With all the social restrictions the past 18 months, there’s nothing to do but lift weights and run. So many guys came into camp in tremendous shape but we all saw week 1 NOBODY was in game shape. Even week 2 there were some real gassed defenses at the end of long drives.

A third preseason game would just go a long long way to make the meaningful games better quality football.

One point I haven't seen made yet is that NFL and CFL practice squads operate on completely different planets.

Having extra pre-season games like the NFL does is obviously a way to evaluate the very bottom of the roster, but those "bottom feeder" players still want to play hard and show good footage to other scouts/teams because even a place on the Practice Squad will (assuming you last the entire season) net you a near 6-figure salary at MINIMUM. A CFL practice player is earning what, a few hundred Cdn$ a week?

Unless that improves (if ever) then there's little point in games full of 4th and 5th string players because unless you make the main roster, there's little or no value signing the PS contract unless the team can somehow guarantee you an off-season job as well.

You’re probably right. Pigs won’t fly either. These pandemic plagued seasons will probably never happen again in our lifetimes… thankfully.

just wait unti next year

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Happy times I hope. :grimacing:

Yes because preseason games are crap and as a regular season game that counts, this was about the worst case. It’s hard to go down from that point and plenty of upside is at hand here when you have starters playing and it counts.

But HALF the games this year have been about as bad as that one - LITERALLY HALF. Usually it’s one snoozer every couple of weeks. You don’t think that a lack of preseason has anything to do with that? You don’t think that forever forward now with no hitting allowed in camp that preseason games don’t make the regular season a lot better?

I’m going to disagree because as you state is not true for REAL games every season but is generally all the more true, by nature, for preseason.

In any combination, I’ll take more regular season games over preseason games.

No one is arguing for less regular season games. If there are 2 preseason games or 3, the regular season still starts at the same time and still has 18 games. That does not change a single thing for you except that the first month of the regular season will be better football.

Yes but if ANY games are added at all, where we clearly disagree is that I say it should be a REGULAR season game.

More preseason games is a NO.

I could see the league going the other way and eliminating preseason games entirely. They cost money and bring nothing in. I'm not saying it's the wise/right decision, but that's how they're no doubt viewed.

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Except that the reason why they changed to an 18-game season was because they deemed two of the preseason games “unnecessary”. And like you say, if you don’t like the games, then don’t watch them. That can apply to regular season games, as well.

Your round-robin idea sounds alright. I wonder if it would be worth it to do intrasquad games, like NHL. That would remove the cost of travel. But hockey is an entirely different game.

And I agree with your point about too many games. I was more into the NHL last season because they played less regular season games.

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A reasonable idea.

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I agree with that, add the 2 games to the regular season and go to a 20 game schedule.
Fans would expect that the first 2 games may be sloppy, but at least these games would count for something.
We rarely see starters in pre-season games.

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That’s a big reason why the games are so sloppy and poorly played.

Isn ‘t that their purpose? To see how rookies and newbies look in game situations, and to evaluate their play in game conditions. Also a quarter or two for the veterans lets them work off a bit of rust, and get their timing back.

I normally attend, unless the weather is really bad, because, ultimately, it’s still football. As a kid, we used to attend the intra-squad game as well.

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I think the 2 games in pre-season are just fine, especially with how limited contact is now in practices. No need to move to a 3 or 4 game preseason.
I believe the lack of contact is what has hurt the scrimmage line and tackling. Limiting is fine, but I think they went too far and it hurts development and the game.

How many people are going to want to pay regular season prices for 2 intentionally "sloppy games" ?

This season is understandable that the games are not very smooth. It hasn't hurt my enjoyment of the games. I guess knowing that the teams hadn't played for 2 years and no preseason I was expecting it.

I still don't know why people are so adamant about moving the season up. The cold and winter is part of the game. Winters seem to be starting later then 10-20 years ago. January and February are still generally the coldest months and the NFL manages to still have fans in the seats with a third of the teams having similar winter weather as we get.
It is also a great time for CFL Playoffs. NFL, NBA, NHL are all past the initial excitement of the start of the season and moved into the leagues daily routines. MLB is done. Unlike the NFL that has everybody and every network clear their schedule for the Superbowl, the 3rd or 4th Sunday in November is probably the best time for Grey Cup attention.

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I love the season where it is. Leaves a potential opportunity for a Grey Cup and Vanier Cup pairing on the same weekend at the same venue.