Looking for opinions on this thought re: preseason and oline

that I think preseason is to blame. It’s an interesting thought though. Unfortunately for me I think the problem is bigger than just reps at this point.

regarding playing starters in pre-season. But, I really believe the problem is the CBA and how teams practice now, much more than it is playing longer in pre-season.

Remember teams used to do two a days...full pads and contact.

That you need reps and practice and I am not part of the scared crowded about players getting injured. Imo if you dont get the necessary reps there is basically a 100% chance you are not ready for the season and are giving up valuabke wins. If you play in the preseason there is a risk of injury but it is not as high.

For anybody that has truly played at a high level they know the importantce of getting live reps and not just going through the motions or thud especially now with limited practice time. Practice has also become very isolated in terms of working on specific things. It is easy when you know you are going through a portion of practice when you are working on something like stunts. But when you play a game you have to be able to recognize that on the fly which we obviously are not doing. When you know what the focus is in practice it is so much easier.

So, imo, nobody can realistically argue against saying more reps in the preseason would have been valuable. The only counter would be injuries but you can say that for every situation. That is not really a valid excuse to me. When does it end. "Lets not practice at all this week because our players could get injured. Lets just have them for the game."

but it also may not have helped much since most teams play very vanilla Ds, so they likely wouldn't have seen significantly more stunts/blitzes. So their communication on those plays would still probably suck.

so yes

Struggling with rudimentary football concepts. The pass rush is non existent so far for a second year in a row.

I get your point, but I don’t see how playing the starters more in preseason would help when a number of them have no business being NFL starters and probably no business on a roster.

In comment 14084987 robbieballs2003 said:

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That you need reps and practice and I am not part of the scared crowded about players getting injured. Imo if you dont get the necessary reps there is basically a 100% chance you are not ready for the season and are giving up valuabke wins. If you play in the preseason there is a risk of injury but it is not as high. For anybody that has truly played at a high level they know the importantce of getting live reps and not just going through the motions or thud especially now with limited practice time. Practice has also become very isolated in terms of working on specific things. It is easy when you know you are going through a portion of practice when you are working on something like stunts. But when you play a game you have to be able to recognize that on the fly which we obviously are not doing. When you know what the focus is in practice it is so much easier. So, imo, nobody can realistically argue against saying more reps in the preseason would have been valuable. The only counter would be injuries but you can say that for every situation. That is not really a valid excuse to me. When does it end. "Lets not practice at all this week because our players could get injured. Lets just have them for the game."

I agree Robbie and have been saying it , you get better at football by practicing and playing football.....

other than Nate.

In comment 14085154 mdthedream said:

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other than Nate.

Solder hasn’t been good.

We hear people and coaches say all the time that there is no real way to see what OL/DL can do until the pads come on. Well as people have correctly pointed out the CBA is designed in such a way that padded practices are limited in pre-season.

So wouldn't it make sense considering that this was a new coaching staff and scheme to get your OL dirty in the pre-season?

I think NY Giant situation was such that the OL group should have gotten more work than they did in the games.

linemen need reps. If you can't get them in practice, get them in pre-season games.

More padded practices where coaches can have some control to limit injury. Have only two pre-season games.

They could also charge more per game and the season ticket holder would still be paying the same total. I doubt they would be upset to lose one pre-season game.

They could also allow teams to charge for practices (some would likely be live scrimmages) if they are really worried about the loss of revenue from two pre-season games.

In comment 14085281 Reale01 said:

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More padded practices where coaches can have some control to limit injury. Have only two pre-season games. They could also charge more per game and the season ticket holder would still be paying the same total. I doubt they would be upset to lose one pre-season game. They could also allow teams to charge for practices (some would likely be live scrimmages) if they are really worried about the loss of revenue from two pre-season games.

Whatever preseason games the NFL eliminates will be turned into regular season games. Goodell has hinted or said that if there is a 17 game regular season then every team would play at a neutral site or they would just go with an 18 game schedule.

have an entirely new Oline last year? I know they started off the year pretty well.

The argument is unassailable. More reps at anything (music, sports, mathematics, etc.) makes you better. Less makes you not as much. Yes, there are injury risks, but who's to say your starting center won't go down in the second game anyway. Plus a new offense, plus a new offensive line coach, plus new players at different positions.

When you think of it, how the hell were they supposed to play well given the lack of all of the above.

In comment 14085501 wonderback said:

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The argument is unassailable. More reps at anything (music, sports, mathematics, etc.) makes you better. Less makes you not as much. Yes, there are injury risks, but who's to say your starting center won't go down in the second game anyway. Plus a new offense, plus a new offensive line coach, plus new players at different positions. When you think of it, how the hell were they supposed to play well given the lack of all of the above.

Well put wonderback and its a question I would love to get Shurmur's opinion on. Would he do it differently if given the chance.