Jeff Fisher Says Goodbye To The 16 Game Season
Whelp, it’s official. We are at 17 games now. I hate it.
It feels like a half measure. The league was too cowardly to go for a full 18 week season so they are instead giving us this incremental measure instead. We are officially losing one preseason game to make room for it, which is fine by me. The season starts and ends later now, and now the super bowl will be well into February. Goodell has apparently used the fact that most injuries happen in preseason as part of the reasoning, which sounds stupid to me. Last year had no preseason and everyone got hurt in weeks 1-2 instead. Removing preseason games doesn’t make preseason injuries go away, it just moves those injuries to the regular season instead. Can’t wait to see who gets 49ers’d this year. Although actually having training camps and such this year should help.
Now the NFC and AFC have to alternate years in which one conference gets 9 home games (the extra game added will be cross-conference). It’ll be interesting to see if this ends up having an effect on standings. This is one of the convoluted reasons I hate the 17 week idea: it unbalances the force. Another reason is hate it is that now nobody can go 8-8, the perfect display of football mediocrity. Nobody can enjoy 8-8. 7-9? You can be mad, frustrated, or potentially optimistic about how close you are to crossing over if your team has improved on prior seasons. 9-7? You might make the playoffs there. 8-8? Explicit mediocrity. The Jeff Fisher Special. Now it’s gone. It’ll be 9-8 or 8-9. Gross. Does anyone think that looks as nice? You are either a winner or a loser now. No more perfect, mind numbing mediocrity.
Yes, I suppose 8-8-1 is now possible, but unlikely, and I will enjoy it if it happens.
Thanks to the extra game, we will probably have some records fall soon. Any season accumulation record is now easier to reach. Yardage, TDs, sacks, all of it. When those records get broken, we will now have to add a mental asterisk next to it reminding ourselves that the record is less special because it was now easier to achieve. I wouldn’t be surprised if we lose a couple just this season. I think the NFL should probably keep seasonal records in separate files for the 14, 16, and 17 week seasons, plus the 18 week season when it inevitably arrives.
What annoys me is that I’d have preferred they actually take it one step further and go full 18 games, with 2 preseason games, and an extra second bye week. I really don’t understand why they haven’t added an extra bye week, they should have done that before they added the 17th game. The NFL makes most of their money via TV contracts these days, an extra bye week gives us an extra week of football games without any of the costs added from playing a game. It seems like an easy way to make more money without re configuring schedules and making everything more complicated. Plus, an extra bye week for players! Bye weeks are great for players to rest up on injuries! More bye weeks please! I love the bye week, I get to sit back and relax and watch all the other teams without being stressed by my own stupid one.
But nope, now the players have to deal with an extra week of physical endurance without extra rest to compensate. I wouldn’t be surprised if we start getting into NBA-esque “load management” situations in the coming years with certain older stars. Bleh.
Fine, fine…I’m just mad I have to watch the Giants lose even more. Save me Kenny Golladay.
Surprised you put St. Louis in the graveyard and not Oakland. You could have even done an older Oakland tombstone, from the first time they left, and then an LA one, and then another, newer, Oakland one. lol
Blame the NFLPA for being spineless and Covid for scaring enough players fot the CBA to pass by such a small margin
I don’t really think the 17th game unbalances the force, when every team from the same conference will play an equal number of home/away games. It’s not like regular season records across conferences decides Super Bowl home field advantage, like the NBA Finals. If anything, it was the only sensible decision there.
The only sensible decision was not adding a 17th game
I feel like there should be multiple gravestones for St. Louis, or maybe have dates crossed out and corrected on the one gravestone. Or a zombie hand.
I agree that they should have jumped straight to an 18 game schedule. The NFL is now the only league in the US with an odd number of regular season games and it just looks wrong.
It also sucks that league records from the 16 game format will be broken much more easily, but that was inevitable in some regards, specifically passing. Sure, guys today are playing the same number of games, but it is fair to say that passing stats are much more inflated now than they were even a decade ago, given the stricter pass defense rules after 2004 and the greater emphasis on protecting QBs. The sack record losing its luster sucks hard though, I agree.
How soon until we see a 6,000 yard passing season. With a 16 game season that would equate to 375 passing yards a game. Not outside the realm of possibility, but quite the accomplishment that would require circumstances to break right every single week. With a 17 game season that number is 353 yards per game. Not a huge drop, but a little less impressive. Like I could Patrick Mahomes average 350 for a season. Matt Stafford hitting 350 back in his prime wouldn’t have stretched the imagination either.
I can see it happening pretty soon honestly. It won’t be a routine thing by any means but all it takes is a great QB in the right circumstances to make it happen. Hell, if not for Dak Prescott going down early in the year, we might have seen him come pretty damn close (iirc he was on pace for 6000 before injury).
The sack record will never be broken, even if we go to an 18 game season. Because officiating changed this year. Check out sack numbers this year compared to previous years. The contrast is huge. This is because officials were encouraged to not flag offensive penalties (false starts and holdings) as much.
Someone getting to 20 sacks in the current era of officiating will be mindblowing.
What a ridiculous take. In 2018 Aaron Donald had 20.5 sacks, in 2019 Shaquil Barret had 19.5. So long as passing numbers continue to increase, so does the chances of sacks.
Like most major changes it will be jarring at first but we’ll get used to it until it feels strange to remember it was ever a different way. Well maybe the 18 game season will anyway. Odd numbers are a janky way to do things.
Jeff Fisher was a legendarily 7-9 coach.
I’m not a fan, either. But Michael Strahan is probably dancing right now. Dude has been begging for someone to break his sack record for almost two decades after all the flak he’s taken. This should ensure it happens relatively quickly.
Will never happen. The sack record will never be broken, even if we go to an 18 game season. Because officiating changed this year. Check out sack numbers this year compared to previous years. The contrast is huge. This is because officials were encouraged to not flag offensive penalties (false starts and holdings) as much.
Someone getting to 20 sacks in the current era of officiating will be mindblowing.
Would going 8-8-1 be an even bigger feat?
So what’s the most likely team for the first 8-8-1 season? Gotta be someone consistently mediocre, but not always outright terrible. Titans? Panthers? Texans?
Cowboys
*sees NFL Europe tombstone*
*remembers the good times of the Scottish Claymores*
You were before your time, dear league…
16 was the perfect number of games. You didn’t need any more or any less.
Give it like 3 years… then the union will bend to the 18 game season with a shorter preseason.
Here’s a potentially realistic sentence that reads like some goofy future prediction written in 1980 or something… “In the 17th regular season game, The nickname-less Washington Football Team kicks the extra point from the usual 15-yard line.”
Also, perfect opportunity for a team to go 0-17 and make everyone forget about the 0-16 2008 Lions and 2017 Browns.
All this said, I really loathe the idea of 17 games. So unnecessary.
17 game season pushes the Super Bowl by 1 week? Thought there were already 17 weeks but ok
Don’t you mean 7-9? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5AIoh-Sz8g
PROBABILITY PARTY!
Which of the following is more likely to happen:
a) Every team in a conference finishes 8-8-1
b) One team finishes 0-0-17
c) One game ends with a final score of 5-4 (in OT)
No team has ever scored four points in the history of the NFL.
That is where you are wrong, bucko. There was a 10-4 score in 1923.
https://nflscorigami.com/
j
A, definitely. I’m pretty sure C is actually impossible.
“I’m just mad I have to watch the Giants lose even more. Save me Kenny Golladay.”
Have a counterpoint
“I get to watch the Eagles go 3-14”
why 8-8-1
why not 0-0-16
0-0-17
godammit
Matt Nagy has gone 8-8 two out of three years as Head Coach. He once again gets lucky as he will never break Jeff Fisher’s record.
Plus it looks off.
The addition is retarded.
Nfl Europe was great.