Steelers MMQB: NFL preseason week 3 wrap up

Shorten the preseason?

Aug 23, 2015; Pittsburgh, PA, USA; Green Bay Packers wide receiver Randall Cobb (18) runs after a pass reception against the Pittsburgh Steelers during the first quarter at Heinz Field. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

Every year when players get injured in the preseason the narrative becomes how useless and dangerous the preseason is to have. Every year we’re reminded that the NFL owners would rather cut their eyes out than give up the revenue from even the meaningless preseason games.

CBS Sports’ Jason La Canfora reminds us that the NFL owners aren’t interested in entertaining the idea of shortening the preseason unless that means extending the regular season to 18 games. We’d still have the same problem of injuries only they’d be happening in games that counted rather than exhibition games.

One idea is to expand NFL offseason rosters. Currently NFL teams can have up to 90 players on their offseason rosters and they’ll have to cut that number down to 75 by this Tuesday. Instead of shortening the preseason, they could expand that 90-man roster to 100 men and hope they can easily replace injured players.

In my opinion, that wouldn’t make a difference if they didn’t also expand the regular season roster from 53 players. They could just allow teams to activate all 53 players for games instead of the 46 they’re currently allowed to activate and that could make a difference as far as recovering from injuries.

As long as big-name players with high-dollar contracts get injured, the complaints will never stop.

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