The NFL Should Revert to 1990s rules and expand by 32 teams

[Senser81]

In his Historical Baseball Abstract, Bill James makes a pretty convincing argument that baseball could easily support something like 100 major league teams, and the idea that expansion greatly dilutes talent is flawed.

You kind of touched upon this in your post, but I think the difference is that when baseball expands the greatest dilution occurs with the pitching...add enough teams, and you have #3 starters becoming #1 starters and guys who would be relegated to pitching a few innings from the bullpen are elevated to regular starting positions. But the outcome of this is more runs scored, which evidently is what the baseball powers want.

Its the opposite in football. When football expands the greatest dilution occurs with the quarterbacking...which leads to fewer points scored on average, which evidently is what the football powers don't want.

[adembroski]

You kind of touched upon this in your post, but I think the difference is that when baseball expands the greatest dilution occurs with the pitching...add enough teams, and you have #3 starters becoming #1 starters and guys who would be relegated to pitching a few innings from the bullpen are elevated to regular starting positions. But the outcome of this is more runs scored, which evidently is what the baseball powers want.

Its the opposite in football. When football expands the greatest dilution occurs with the quarterbacking...which leads to fewer points scored on average, which evidently is what the football powers don't want.

Yeah, but... the football powers are wrong.

[Senser81]

Yeah, but... the football powers are wrong.

My enthusiasm for the NFL has gone downhill in the last 10 years. Its basically everyone running the same offense and the same defense with the same type of players, so the game isn't really decided by strategy or players (unless a key player is injured for that game)...its decided by which team 'executes' better and makes fewer mistakes.

The games themselves are decent enough entertainment, but they aren't all that mentally stimulating. I usually watch the Steelers, and I give them credit for being so innovative over the years. When they had O'Donnell they were the first team to use 5 WRs regularly, they've always played a 3-4, they were the first team to regularly use the zone blitz, they find ways to utilize 'tweener' players like Hines Ward, Kordell Stewart, Antwaan Randle-El, Lamarr Woodley, etc. But most NFL games feature drop back QBs, large RBs, mammoth O-linemen who can't trap or pull, fat DTs who can't pass rush, etc. Every team is the same.

[Fox1994]

So instead of having the top talent in the NFL, it should be littered with system players?

Everyone's a fucking system player. That's why Brady got drafted in the fifth round. Because he fits in NWE's system. That's why Manning throws for 4000 yards every season and Carson Palmer doesn't. Not because Manning is so much better. Granted, he's the best in the league, but were he in a system like the Ravens', we wouldn't even fucking know his name, because they don't need to throw.

Just like the Colts and Pats hardly need to run.

The problem is, there are like three systems - namingly the Ravens, the Colts, and the Pats - and not everyone can run the same thing. They think they can. I think that might be the parity problem.

That's why the Steelers sucked this year, instead of playing Ravens-Steelers, hard-nosed football, they decided to run the spread and get fucked up. That and Troy Polamalu getting hurt. They're not built for that. They're built for short, grind-it-out games.

Look at all the variety in the FBS. Fuck the bottom 100.

WVU, Oregon, and UF run different shotgun spread-options. Alabama has a lot of different formations. Cincinnati, TTU, and Texas run DIFFERENT throw-based spread games. Look at that word, different. It doesn't exist in the NFL.

Because the NFL stands for Not For Long and No Fun League.

If you don't win ten games in your first year, you won't be there for long. And if you try to do anything different - anything unique or fun - and you don't win said ten games, you're not only booted, you're seemingly banned forever.

Everyone's a system player. Just in different systems.

[FirstTimer]

Granted, he's the best in the league, but were he in a system like the Ravens', we wouldn't even fucking know his name, because they don't need to throw.

If the Ravens had Peyton Manning.............they'd throw the football. To assert otherwise is retarded....or is saying that the Raven's coaches are retarded.

Because the NFL stands for Not For Long

Ok Jerry Glanville.

[elbingz]

That's right... double the size of the league and go back to the rules that existed in the '80s and '90s for the passing game.

Yes, talent would be a bit diluted, but wouldn't you love to see an NFL team win the Superbowl with the option?

NFL Football would still be vastly faster and a better brand of football than college, but it would create greater disparity in talent, allowing for more diversity in the game. Not quite to the degree of College Football, but at least something more akin to the '80s, when we had the West Coast, the K-Gun, the Gibbs singleback, and many more divergent systems. In Today's NFL, one team's 5 WR set looks much like the next team's 5 WR set, and quite honestly, it's becoming dull.

Roll back the offensive orientated rule changes of the 2000s and double the number of teams, and the league will become infinitely more interesting.

That's just my opinion, I could be wrong.

Naw..That would be pretty corny. Way too many teams. Might as well end College football and have them go straight to this "NFL", since it would be that level of talent.

[Warner2BruceTD]

ESPN would have to ignore 60 teams, as opposed to 28.

[Fox1994]

If the Ravens had Peyton Manning.............they'd throw the football. To assert otherwise is retarded....or is saying that the Raven's coaches are retarded.

What I'm saying is that if he came up in systems where he wasn't required to throw, you wouldn't know who the fuck he is.

Ok Jerry Glanville.

Haha.

[FirstTimer]

What I'm saying is that if he came up in systems where he wasn't required to throw, you wouldn't know who the fuck he is.

What system now doesn't require a QB to throw? Hell Tech let's Josh Nesbitt throw the ball. Also, I'm going to go out on a limb and say somewhere along the line someone would have caught on that Peyton Manning could throw the football. Just a hunch................


If you have a QB as talented as Peyton Manning, at any level, you are going to throw the football.

[Fox1994]

What system now doesn't require a QB to throw? Hell Tech let's Josh Nesbitt throw the ball. Also, I'm going to go out on a limb and say somewhere along the line someone would have caught on that Peyton Manning could throw the football. Just a hunch................


If you have a QB as talented as Peyton Manning, at any level, you are going to throw the football.

Okay. Let's slow down and try this again.

Flacco doesn't throw that often, does he? Granted, he doesn't seem to be on that level of talent, but we may never know.

I don't really want to have this argument. Someone would have 'found at he can throw' because that's been the trend for a while...

All I'm saying is that there were probably people at his level of talent before he entered the league, but the rules currently in place are what promote his style of play... That's all I'm saying.

[Aso]

64 teams would be incredibly ridiculous. I would like to see it expand to like 36 or something like that though. A few more teams.

[Archer]

Okay. Let's slow down and try this again.

Flacco doesn't throw that often, does he? Granted, he doesn't seem to be on that level of talent, but we may never know.

I don't really want to have this argument. Someone would have 'found at he can throw' because that's been the trend for a while...

All I'm saying is that there were probably people at his level of talent before he entered the league, but the rules currently in place are what promote his style of play... That's all I'm saying.

Some players make the system . For example, Peyton Manning makes the Colts system right now . We don't have a system then say "Peyton better play to it"... we build the offense around him .

It's called playing to your strenghts . The Ravens don't run the ball because they are the Ravens and everybody thinks that they should, they run the ball because they have two very good runningbacks [and a FB who can run well] . The idea that the Ravens don't know how well Flacco can throw the ball is ridiculous

[FirstTimer]

Granted, he doesn't seem to be on that level of talent

You could have stopped typing your post after that.

Joe Flacco is not as good as Peyton Manning...so why would the Ravens use him as such?

[Fox1994]

Shit, that's my point. Okay, I quit. You win. Can we move on? What else is this thread about? I could've sworn someone was saying something important at some point.