Warren Moon: NFL is boring - we need a farm league like NFL Europe for young QBs

[RecoveringCowboy]

NFL Europe was expensive then disbanded. But we got a number of QBs there such as Kurt Warner, Jake Dehomme, Jon Kitna. Warren Moon make an excellent point: the NFL is more QB-oriented than ever, so they need to develop them somewhere. Roethlisberger was lucky to be in a college that had a pro-style offense. Rodgers had time while waiting for Farve. The conventional wisdom it takes three years to develop a QB seems to be dismissed for an immediate impact player - don't hold your breath. It not only shows how special Brady is, but in this environment makes it less likely anyone can have his kind of career.

Great observation from WM on how the NFL is cutting corners and degrading the game. Do you wonder what else the owners/Goodell are doing to not make football sustainable?


Warren Moon: QB play shows NFL needs a developmental league

 

[jah]

I don't see how it's not a good idea for the game. Maybe not a good financial decision, but what that they've done lately has been?

 

[Ross12]

Imagine if BB was able to manage a "farm" roster on the side in addition to his main roster?

 

[Wheelman]

Correct me if I'm wrong but NFL Europe ended up becoming NFL Germany.

I don't think the popularity for B team NFL players is there in Europe.

 

[NashuaPats]

For football reasons it's a great idea, but the problem is $$$$$$$$.

 

[ALP]

BC QBs are so important to the game, you can designate roster spots as for QB only

so say you have a 53 man roster, but you get two additional spots that have to be used for QB only...

something similar happens w/ the inactive QB3

 

[anditsgood]

Great Idea

but make the minor league here in the USA, in places where there is no NFL

Like St Louis, Montana, Oregon, etc

 

[ralmat55]

Who wants to watch the London Monarchs play the Amsterdam Admirals? No one including people who live in London or Amsterdam.

But, would you watch a game between the NE Patriots and NY Jets featuring draftees and other young, developing players in May when you're starving for football?

The NFL should have a spring league in which every team participates. Basically, it would be what early pre-season football is now: a game between the 40th through 90th players on each teams roster. They could play 4 games each with 3 of the games being against divisional rivals.

It would give teams a chance to develop young players in their system and with their coaches. It would give young players a chance to develop their skills and display them not only to their team but league wide as well.

The pre-season could be shortened to 2 games and be used to get players 1 thru 53 ready to compete in regular season games.

 

[RecoveringCowboy]

Great Idea

but make the minor league here in the USA, in places where there is no NFL

Like St Louis, Montana, Oregon, etc

I have an idea.

Give St Louis an expansion NFL team, and "Pluto" the Jets to a minor league team.

 

[TheBostonStraggler]

BC QBs are so important to the game, you can designate roster spots as for QB only

so say you have a 53 man roster, but you get two additional spots that have to be used for QB only...

something similar happens w/ the inactive QB3

Moon's idea is a good one but that is a great alternate idea ALP (and a more practical one).

College is the farm for NFL QBs. Through no fault of the college game it simply is not preparing/training QBs for the pro game. For example Tyrod, I watched Tech (go out with a girl who went to Tech - be forced to watch Tech games ) and what Tyrod was repeatedly doing at Tech was definitely not preparing him for the very difficult task of operating a pro passing game at a high level. He - through his own skill or simple luck -- got some pro seasoning sitting on the bench behind a decent pro QB. IMHO if Tyrod had been thrust into a starting pro spot quicker (like many are) he would probably be out of the NFL at this time.
The idea of giving teams latitude to keep a college QB newby or two under the wing for a few seasons without it being a tangible negative to the 53 roster is a great idea to keep the pro game where it needs to be(like it or not): a prolific passing one.

Side note: though this may seemingly be a minor item, one thing the pros can do to help is Roger and company can take some of the skim, give the NCAA a giant stack of it for "scholarships", and it ultimately is a quid pro quo to move the college hash marks to mimic the pros. Though a small change it may(?) force college coaches to spend more resources on getting their QBs to pass the ball (my assumption being coaches needing more passing to win games will mean greater repetition --> better accuracy and efficiency --> better prepared for the pros).

 

[Gronk]

I think there's probably a lot of labor-related issues that make the official "farm team" thing like with MLB improbable/impossible, especially if we're talking about teams potentially being able to force lower-level roster guys into playing in that league - practice time and team-mandated time is already pretty limited and I don't think the players are positioning themselves to soften those rules. But maybe something more like Euro soccer leagues would be plausible if you propped up a smaller (probably spring with a short season) lower league that could be full of fringe NFL roster guys and college non-student/athlete types, with some elaborate set of rules for buying players contracts and whatnot. It'd even be fun to have a team or two relegated to the lower league for being ****.

There's success and failure stories in US sports with this - the NBA developmental league serves its purpose, but doesn't generate much interest of its own accord. As someone who grew up in a CBA city as a kid, it was definitely fun to follow for the sake of that league itself. It was cool to see guys get called up on 10-day deals to the Bulls/Cavs/Knicks/whomever to see if they could stick, but you were more mad that the CBA team suffered because the seasons were concurrent.

The AHL and MiLB, by current comparison, frequently have strong local footholds and followings in their own right outside of their association with the major league clubs. It's certainly something missing from pro football's current setup and worth exploring - I don't personally care for the NFL Europe thing because I think there's a lot of mid-sized cities that could benefit economically from such a system if done properly and financially supported by the NFL, which they can certainly afford.

 

[TinhWoodhead]

"wagon" in one thread and "farm" in another? yep, Thanksgiving is upon us...

 

[fair catch fryar]

Phuck Europe. Create a farm system here.

 

[RayClay]

Screw Europe. Have a bunch of billionaires buy up some semi pro teams, then groom them in preparation for the lockout/strike we know is going to happen and start a new league like the AFL.

Then force the NFL into a merger and force goodell out.

 

[primetime]

A farm league with, say, 8 teams shared by 4 NFL teams a piece would be interesting. Teams have to provide 12 players each, which are members of their roster. Could have them play Tuesdays or something during the season.

 

[Jackson 2]

For football reasons it's a great idea, but the problem is $$$$$$$$.

And as Deflategate vividly illustrated, $$$$$$$$$$$ is in short supply for the NFL.

 

[wolverinejoe80]

QB play isn't the problem. QBs are putting up all time great numbers. and through out the history there were only 3-5 elite QBs per season.

there are so many other factors such as

1. lack of practice time
2. refs ruining the fun (bad calls, no calls, stupid calls)
3. too many commercials
4. red zone (i know many of my die hard football dudes who just watches redzone on sunday)
5. stupid sissy rules


i'm watching crableg winston right now, and he isn't that bad. he got a good arm, decent feet, and he can make plenty good throws. and he is probably considered an average to slightly below average QB in this league.

 

[JPPT1974]

Yeah as really Wolverine Joe 80, you made five great points. Can think of many more!

 

[SammyBlueCat]

I like a lot of the thoughts expressed in this thread. The question I have is how can a QB prospect develop with minor league talent surrounding him? Most NFL teams are already having a tough time with their offensive line so would a minor league offensive line get your young QB prospect killed even faster?

 

[Gronk]

I like a lot of the thoughts expressed in this thread. The question I have is how can a QB prospect develop with minor league talent surrounding him? Most NFL teams are already having a tough time with their offensive line so would a minor league offensive line get your young QB prospect killed even faster?

If they are ready to excel (or even develop) at the NFL level they wouldn't be in the minors. This takes care of itself in other sports, that's the idea. If teams didn't want to risk the prospect getting injured in the "minor" league, then they'd play him in the big leagues. I think half-assed OLs in the lower levels could block half-assed defenses at least at the same comparative level as the NFL level. Natural selection, or something like it.