Sacrebleu! Colts GM Bill Polian Says 18-Game NFL Schedule is Fait Accompli

Now, this is not an official announcement from the league by any means, and an agreement to expand the schedule will have to be part of contentious collective bargaining agreement talks.  Polian is a smart man, so why now?  He doesn’t strike me as the type that just says something to fill air because he is talking on a radio show.

Reading through his comments, they don’t necessarily sound like someone who agrees the debate should be over.  It’s possible he is addressing this and describing it as final so that the opposite effect occurs, and the opposition unifies more aggressively in the months before any resolution is made.  It’s also possible that he recognizes that the commissioner is full force behind this, and the ownership is on board, and he just wants to get his concerns and issues addressed as they move to that reality.  Polian’s chief concern is the reduced evaluation time in the preseason that moving to two games would create.  He says that starters will have to play a half in each of the two games, taking away a full game of action for rookies trying to make the team.  He discussed using more controlled scrimmages and combined practices with neighboring teams to evaluate young players.

Other issues that will need to be addressed before such a shift is actually “fait accompli” include possible expansion of roster sizes to create more jobs, or at least expansion into the early part of the regular season so that their can be additional evaluation time, a possible review of the current injured reserve policy (I would like to see something similar to the baseball disabled list now, maybe a 30 day and 60 day injured list where the team can fill that roster spot without deciding to “injured reserve” the player for the full season), and of course, the schedule.