NFL to cut pre-season down to two games
Dress rehearsals will officially be cut in half on Thursday when the NFL does what’s long been expected by reducing the number of pre-season games from four to two, according to multiple reports.
It’s welcome news to fans, but maybe not so much to teams trying to prepare for a 2020 campaign that yet may turn out to be a mirage.
Either way, four weeks before camp is scheduled to begin — and with the “will they or won’t they” play question still very much up in the air — forever optimistic Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll says his team has actually improved during the pandemic.
“We killed it during the off-season. I couldn’t envision it going as well as it did,” the 68-year-old told USA Today. “It went great, and we accomplished a lot, and we’re smarter than we’ve ever been. Hopefully, we’re really going to make a turn here that’s extraordinary.”
If he’s excited, Seahawks fans should be pumped. After a pair of 7-9 seasons to start what’s now a 10-year run as the Seahawks coach, Carroll has guided the team to an 86-41-1 run and a 1-1 record in Super Bowl games.
They could very well surpass their 11-win 2019 — which ended in a close, 28-23 divisional round playoff loss to the Packers — especially if they re-sign Jadeveon Clowney, who is the undisputed best player still available on the free agent market.
Meanwhile, the NFL and NFLPA reportedly want to have an agreement on all important issues by next week, between July 8-10, allowing players time to complete travel arrangements.
Making that more difficult is a record surge in the numbers of people being affected by the virus throughout the U.S.
“There are a lot of questions unanswered, and even when you do come up with an answer, it brings up three more questions,” NFLPA president J.C. Tretter told USA Today.
JONES-ING FOR A DEAL
Just when you would think everyone would be happy simply being able to play through a pandemic, along comes Kansas City Chiefs defensive lineman Chris Jones, who says he “won’t play” unless he gets a deal that pays him at least $20 million a year.
As impactful on a game as he can be, Jones, who is set to make $16.1 million on a franchise tag, was ranked the seventh best interior lineman in 2019 by Pro Football Focus.
Aaron Donald of the Los Angeles Rams and Deforest Buckner of the Indianapolis Colts are the only two tackles making $20-million plus.
The Chiefs have two weeks to appease Jones with a long-term deal. Good luck with that.