The NFL is considering ways to adjust the preseason to accommodate an 18-game schedule, and one of the proposals is to shorten the preseason to two games.
However, reducing the preseason to two games is injurious, not only to down roster players fighting for a spot on the 53-man roster, but also key players as they get ready for the season. The lack of reps would have a profound impact on a first-team’s ability to be ready for the regular season if there were only two games.
If the NFL did cut the preseason and expanded the joint practices, Houston Texans coach Bill O’Brien believes the joint practices should be broadcast.
“I think that they should televise joint practices, put them on TV, show J.J. Watt going one-on-one with an offensive tackle, show DeAndre Hopkins going one-on-one with a corner,” O’Brien told the media Monday. “Put that on TV.”
NFL Network currently has a series entitled “Inside Training Camp” where they travel to various NFL training camps across the country to check in with analysis and interviews. Having a TV event surrounding the scrimmages at the joint practices would be a good way to substitute the lack of football that cutting the preseason would have.
“My family, they’re fans,” said O’Brien. “I know they would love to watch it, but I just think that would be pretty cool.”
Regardless of how the NFL decides to market the joint practices in the face of cutting the preseason, O’Brien sees joint practice as a necessary tool to help clubs get ready if the preseason is limited to two contests.
“To me, that would be a good way to go, get two or three joint practices, two preseason games, sounds good to me,” O’Brien said. “But that’s not anything that I’m going to be in the decision-making process of.”
