The National Football League will complete their preseason schedule this week. Most teams, all but the two that participated in the Hall of Fame Game, will play three contests before the games mean something. The regular season starts on September 4th when the defending Super Bowl Champion Philadelphia Eagles host the Dallas Cowboys.

How do coaches feel about a three game preseason schedule?

When I was in the Oakland Raiders front office in the 1970’s every team played six preseason games and until a few years ago the schedule was four summer contests. There was a rhythm to the preseason schedule that most coaches had adopted when the league had six preseason matchups.

The first game was for marginal players to get game action so the teams could cut their rosters dramatically with the benefit of that initial evaluation in game conditions. As many as 100 players were in camp for some teams, and after that first game 20 or more would be sent packing. The second, third and fourth preseason games saw most teams looking to separate the talent that was going to be on their opening day rosters with the proven veterans getting additional playing time each week to reach peak proficiency.

The fifth game of the six-game schedule was the one in which most teams played like it was a regular season game in relation to the players on the field. It was the time that teams took a full look at what they figured would be their squad when the games counted.

The sixth game was utilized to test the marginal players to help assure the right ones were kept when the roster got its final cutdown.

That pattern of how to utilize a six-game preseason schedule was common to all 26 teams, and by the time the regular campaign kicked off the squads had time to come together and already show what today we refer to as “midseason form.”

When the number of preseason games was cut to four in 1978, coaches had to adjust on how to utilize the games to prepare their teams for the games that counted. A pattern of having the third game be the contest that the most starters participated was common, and then the fourth preseason contest was again utilized to evaluate marginal talent to best assure the right players were kept in the final cut down.

Now, and since 2020, three games is all NFL teams have to prepare for the regular season. And how those games are utilized is still being tested by coaches.

“There is no set pattern,” New England Head Coach Mike Vrabel said early in this year’s training camp. “We have to feel our way and evaluate on the fly the best way to get done what we need to get done before the regular season kicks off.”

Vrabel is a breath of fresh air in the coaching community, a little more likely to tell the truth than those mentors that think everything they say needs to keep in mind how to get an edge over their opponent. I suspect that all coaches are still looking for the best way to utilize the three game preseason to be in top form come September.

But truth is, NFL teams are not as prepared to start a season in recent years as they were when their training camp and preseason schedules were longer.

Opening day can have more surprises, because the best teams have not yet got their full arsenal aligned for battle.

Consider this, last year the Los Angeles Rams became the first team in NFL history to win a division after opening their campaign with four losses in five games. By season end, they gave the eventual Super Bowl Champion Philadelphia Eagles their most competitive game in the playoffs. Even Philadelphia opened the 2024 regular season with losses in two of their first four games.

In recent seasons, the Cincinnati Bengals have had horrible records over the first month of the season and then spent a dozen weeks trying to compensate and crack the playoff field. In some years they have, in some seasons they haven’t.

If the Rams, Eagles or Bengals had six, or at least four preseason games, they would in all likelihood be closer to “midseason” form when the season kicked off. Instead, teams are still looking to find their rhythm and playing like they need a little more practice before they are ready for primetime.

Want to go back to a longer preseason schedule?

Well, that’s not going to happen. In fact, it is more likely the league will shift to two preseason games and 18 regular season matchups.

“Practice?! We’re talking about practice,” Alan Iverson once responded to a reporter questioning his work ethic other than game days.

Yes, I suggest, practice. That is where you hone your skills to mesh with your teammates to reach maximum potential. Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant knew the value of practice, while Iverson never won an NBA Championship.

The NFL will kickoff their regular season after this weekend's conclusion of preseason play … but they are not ready to play at their full potential. Their coaches are still searching for ways to get them ready in the preseason but with less opportunity to get it done.