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2025-26 NFL Season Thread


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36 minutes ago, Tony said:

I don't have a solution for the how you change the draft structure in pro sports, someone way smarter than me would have to come up with something, but I've long believed it's a completely unfair process that needs to be addressed. Yes, no one is holding a gun to anyone’s head to play a professional sport, but being a fan in Chicago, we've watched all of our favorite teams select players in the top part of multiple drafts that I’m 99% sure would have prospered if a different team would have selected them. The Sox have had more players than I'd like to remember that were taken high in the first round, rushed through the minors, and you can just see a lack of development at the major league level. It’s happened too many times for it to be coincidence. But the issue is those players don’t have a choice on what team is in control of that development. How many millions of dollars have they cost athletes that already have an incredibly short career span? 

I will not hold it against Carl Williams, or any parent, to ensure their son/daughter is put in the best situation possible. 

How about this. We know they top draft picks are guaranteed to go to the worse teams but guaranteed money. How about having a system more like baseball where Williams could have gone to let's say the Vikings, a good but not the best team but needs to sign a lesser deal for more years.

That way the player can choose, bad team more money, better team more money.

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57 minutes ago, ptatc said:

How about this. We know they top draft picks are guaranteed to go to the worse teams but guaranteed money. How about having a system more like baseball where Williams could have gone to let's say the Vikings, a good but not the best team but needs to sign a lesser deal for more years.

That way the player can choose, bad team more money, better team more money.

While obviously not perfect (don't know if any solution is) it's for sure on the right track. To take it a step further, what if there wasn't a "draft" at all? 

Every team has the same amount of money to spend for "rookie player acquisition" and there is a period of time when it starts, just like unrestricted free agency. Players declare just like they would for the draft. But the pool becomes open and any player can talk to any team. It's up to the teams to decide if they want to employe a strategy of spending their entire sum on 1-2 players, or spread it out over 7-8 players. It also lets the players decide the situation they want to go to. 

I'm sure there are holes to this idea, but I've thought about it a bit and while there is an element to just having to see it play out to see if it works, I don't see one glaring problem that stands out that tells me it isn't doable. 

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1 hour ago, Tony said:

While obviously not perfect (don't know if any solution is) it's for sure on the right track. To take it a step further, what if there wasn't a "draft" at all? 

Every team has the same amount of money to spend for "rookie player acquisition" and there is a period of time when it starts, just like unrestricted free agency. Players declare just like they would for the draft. But the pool becomes open and any player can talk to any team. It's up to the teams to decide if they want to employe a strategy of spending their entire sum on 1-2 players, or spread it out over 7-8 players. It also lets the players decide the situation they want to go to. 

I'm sure there are holes to this idea, but I've thought about it a bit and while there is an element to just having to see it play out to see if it works, I don't see one glaring problem that stands out that tells me it isn't doable. 

That's pretty good. Maybe similar to baseball draft pool where the teams with the worst records get a little more to moderate the competitive balance.

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1 hour ago, Tony said:

While obviously not perfect (don't know if any solution is) it's for sure on the right track. To take it a step further, what if there wasn't a "draft" at all? 

Every team has the same amount of money to spend for "rookie player acquisition" and there is a period of time when it starts, just like unrestricted free agency. Players declare just like they would for the draft. But the pool becomes open and any player can talk to any team. It's up to the teams to decide if they want to employe a strategy of spending their entire sum on 1-2 players, or spread it out over 7-8 players. It also lets the players decide the situation they want to go to. 

I'm sure there are holes to this idea, but I've thought about it a bit and while there is an element to just having to see it play out to see if it works, I don't see one glaring problem that stands out that tells me it isn't doable. 

If anything - don't make the $ equal - so you are giving more money to the worse teams - teams can trade "draft" money for the value and optimize accordingly.  It would certainly be interesting to say the least. My guess is it would end up in a bigger disparity of have and have nots in terms of players - more of the higher end prospects will get a larger swath of the pool and than a bunch of guys on minimum deals.  But essentially with a pool tied to where you would "pick" you essentially create a free market view of the draft.  

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Tony - I really like the idea. I think the one inherent bias to the deal is larger market teams clearly would have an advantage because you can probably help them negotiate / obtain bigger advertising / non team related pay which would put an inherent advantage to Chicago, LA, New York, etc.  I would think you'd have to find a way to normalize for that.  

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3 hours ago, Chisoxfn said:

Tony - I really like the idea. I think the one inherent bias to the deal is larger market teams clearly would have an advantage because you can probably help them negotiate / obtain bigger advertising / non team related pay which would put an inherent advantage to Chicago, LA, New York, etc.  I would think you'd have to find a way to normalize for that.  

Yeah, I thought about that as well. Bad organizations would be much more likely to stay bad, and it would get tricky to manage it, but I still think there is probably some details you could add into the rules if a bunch of smart people sat in a room for a few days and hashed it out…I think it could actually work. Never will happen obviously, but I just keep going back to how archaic the idea of a draft really is. 
 

Fun offseason convo to have I guess :) 

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1 hour ago, Tony said:

That's cool. Not surprised with the NIL movement it is bound to hit the pro sports.

Hopefully, they maintain some advantage for the teams with worse records not just the team with the most money wins.

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Posted (edited)
16 hours ago, SoxAce said:

Well I officially hate the Steelers this season.

Being a steelers fans and a medical professional I'm stuck. Can't root for him to be bad or for him to get hurt and not play. 

I think I've settled on them still trying to win with the running game and defense and minimize any impact he can have.

Going to be a tough year warch8ng the games.

Edited by ptatc
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