Just my thoughts/ideas

[RustyBourneHorse]

So, apparently the NFL decided it wants to do a 14 team playoff, and I understand that they'd like to have a 17 game schedule. The NHL expanded the Vegas Golden Knights in the 2017-2018 season and are, according to Wikipedia, poised to expand a Seattle team in the 2021 season. Also, the MLS is rapidly expanding teams every season. Thus, my thinking is this. Why not expand a few teams? I think the NFL can afford to expand an additional 2-4 teams, and it would allow them to have an 18 game schedule and still make the 14 team playoff work.

I'm aware that this would likely result in some divisions having more teams than others. However, this concept would not be new for the NFL. As I understand it, after the NFL expanded the Browns back into the League after moving the original Browns to Baltimore, the two central divisions at the time had extra amounts of teams. Each division had at least 5 teams as I recall when it was a 31 team league, and I think one if not both central divisions had 6. This was, of course, before the Houston Texans became a franchise. Remember when the Arizona Cardinals were a division rival of ours?

The point of this is to say, I think the NFL could actually expand teams which would give them an extra game to boot to make it 18 games. The following would be my 4 cities to expand and the reasons for it.

1. San Diego - After the Chargers moved to LA, San Diego has been stuck without a team for some time. Ironically, San Diego was hosted quite a few Super Bowls. Thus, an expanded team would allow for the NFL to return a Super Bowl to San Diego as well as give the fans of San Diego an NFL team again.

2. St. Louis - Here is a city that has now lost 2 NFL teams. The Cardinals left there in the 80s to move to Phoenix, Arizona, and the Rams, of course, moved to Los Angeles in 2016. Imo, the Rams do seem more of an LA team as a lot of their iconic history was made in LA. It'd be a bit like moving the Dodgers to a new city. You'll just likely have them move back to Los Angeles because of the historical identity of Los Angeles with the Dodgers. However, St. Louis has proven itself a worthy NFL city. The XFL, I think, showed that St. Louis should have an NFL team with how rowdy the fans are there. So, an extra team here would help with the fans and give the NFL another Super Bowl location as well.

3. Orlando - so, the previous cities would fill a void in the Western divisions. Perhaps it'd also be worth giving the Eastern teams some additional playmates. Orlando would be a good city for an Eastern team. The Pro Bowl is hosted here. The city has a lot of fans from many NFC East teams including ScooterMagruder. So, this could be a good landing spot for a team.

4. London - now we come to what may be one of my crazier ideas on this list. However, hear me out. Firstly, the fact that the NFL keeps playing games in London says that they want a team in London. Having them in, for example, the AFC East means their division rivals would be the New England Patriots (near Boston, not a terribly long flight), the NY Jets (Near Newark Liberty International Airport, a route that I've taken from the UK quite often. It's a lovely flight), Buffalo (small airport, but, again, a very doable route), and the Miami Dolphins (a bit more of a distance than the rest in their division, but, again, not terrible). So, within the division, it wouldn't be a horrible trip for them or their division rivals. The new Tottenham Hotspur Stadium is perfectly useable for an NFL match and I think could host an expansion team). So, rather than plucking the Jaguars away from Jacksonville and since the NFL clearly wants London, why not make the 4th expansion team in London?

Now for a bonus idea:

5. Los Angeles Caveat Move the Chargers back to San Diego - Similar to my first idea, but felt it needed an idea of its own. If you move the Chargers back to San Diego, you give San Diego it's iconic team back. This frees the NFL to expand a new team in Los Angeles.

I dunno. These are just ideas that have been popping into my mind this afternoon. Especially when I heard the idea of adding an additional playoff game in each conference. I felt that maybe it's time for the NFL to expand a bit more. Again, these are all my thoughts about the whole situation. They might be idiotic ideas, but they're my ideas anyway.

 

[RustyBourneHorse]

Also, the London team saves the NFL the trouble of relocating a team from a stadium they also seem to like using for Super Bowls. As for the West Coast travels for this team, I'm aware that this would be brutal, and they may end up doing 2-3 every year and maybe 2-3 extra when they play the NFC West. However, in this situation, I'd have the London team play all their West Coast away games in one go. By that, I mean have them play all their away games in the weeks in a row that they need to. Then, have them have a bye week. The West Coast teams that go to London get their bye week. Plus, if you have 18 games, you may need 2 bye weeks anyway, so that can help make a London team easier to manage.

 

[John813]

1. Just move back the Chargers imo. The 2 team thing will fail in LA, and one or both will be the new "Clippers of LA". Maybe the Spanos family would be willing to sell at one point and a new owner could make amends in SD.

2. It'll be almost like giving back a NHL team to Atlanta. The last time Atlanta lost their team it was due to the ownership of the arena/Hawks(NBA) screwing over any buyer in that they wouldn't allow the NHL team to play in that arena any more. St. Louis fans got screwed by their owner and his quest for more money. Maybe in time a team could be brought back, but not sure of the timing. Is the 3rd time the charm?

3. There's a population in Orlando, but it's a very touristy city with the Bucs to the West, Jags to the North and Dolphins to the South. There's still ton of unused land to build a stadium in Orange County, and there's always highway construction there lol.

4. I feel like the NFL agrees with you but I don't like it. The time scheduling is always whack when teams do play over there, and for the players that'll be one huge adjustment going from America to London to live. Nothing against London, but dunno how players would feel having to leave their country, across the Atlantic, to play football. One thing if we were talking about Canada. Would be tough IMO for the London team to be competitive for free agents too. Still feel like football is a niche sport there but there is a big NFL group in Europe that I'm sure doesn't mind making the trek 16+ times a year.

5. I think LA is really an one NFL football team max. If the Rams start to suck, I bet the place will be a ghost town in no time.

 

[RustyBourneHorse]

1. Just move back the Chargers imo. The 2 team thing will fail in LA, and one or both will be the new "Clippers of LA". Maybe the Spanos family would be willing to sell at one point and a new owner could make amends in SD.

2. It'll be almost like giving back a NHL team to Atlanta. The last time Atlanta lost their team it was due to the ownership of the arena/Hawks(NBA) screwing over any buyer in that they wouldn't allow the NHL team to play in that arena any more. St. Louis fans got screwed by their owner and his quest for more money. Maybe in time a team could be brought back, but not sure of the timing. Is the 3rd time the charm?

3. There's a population in Orlando, but it's a very touristy city with the Bucs to the West, Jags to the North and Dolphins to the South. There's still ton of unused land to build a stadium in Orange County, and there's always highway construction there lol.

4. I feel like the NFL agrees with you but I don't like it. The time scheduling is always whack when teams do play over there, and for the players that'll be one huge adjustment going from America to London to live. Nothing against London, but dunno how players would feel having to leave their country, across the Atlantic, to play football. One thing if we were talking about Canada. Would be tough IMO for the London team to be competitive for free agents too. Still feel like football is a niche sport there but there is a big NFL group in Europe that I'm sure doesn't mind making the trek 16+ times a year.

5. I think LA is really an one NFL football team max. If the Rams start to suck, I bet the place will be a ghost town in no time.

Oh, thank you for replying to this. I forgot you'd done so. Terribly sorry. I do prefer the thought of moving the Chargers back to San Diego. I too felt that, for the time being, only 1 team in Los Angeles was really necessary. I reckon if they MUST put a second team in LA, then Anaheim near Disneyland would be a clever place to put the second team. Especially if you have the Chargers in San Diego. That's really where I'd have put the Raiders tbh. 3rd time being the charm would be the case for me with St. Louis. I think Kroenke just wanted to move the Rams back to Los Angeles. I'd imagine an expansion team would quite like playing in the Dome, at least temporarily.

Hmm, with Orlando, I just figured they already have got the stadium for a team. Just put a bloody expansion team in Orlando.

The way I see it with London. Yes, the commute would be terrible for between games. But the second bye week with an 18 game season would make it more doable. Plus, the NFL did invest with Tottenham Hotspur to be able to have the pitch at Tottenham's current ground able to be altered for NFL matches. So, they clearly intend to keep playing matches there. They seem to really be keen on a London team. This saves the trouble of moving a team later. As for free agents, I think London would actually not be a bad place to recruit free agents. I think the lure of moving to a beautiful city like London could actually be quite attractive to a free agent. It's a lovely town, and there are lots of surrounding places that'd be a train ride away to help with that. Also, the South Coast of England like Bournemouth and Southampton would be fun places for them to visit too whilst in England. It is a niche sport in Europe, but if there's one European city that'd be up for the challenge, London is the place to have a go at expanding to Europe. Toronto would be a good alternative though if the NFL were to move International. I just think they've invested so much money in London that they probably would need to have a go at London.

 

[INCowboysFan]

So, apparently the NFL decided it wants to do a 14 team playoff, and I understand that they'd like to have a 17 game schedule. The NHL expanded the Vegas Golden Knights in the 2017-2018 season and are, according to Wikipedia, poised to expand a Seattle team in the 2021 season. Also, the MLS is rapidly expanding teams every season. Thus, my thinking is this. Why not expand a few teams? I think the NFL can afford to expand an additional 2-4 teams, and it would allow them to have an 18 game schedule and still make the 14 team playoff work.

I'm aware that this would likely result in some divisions having more teams than others. However, this concept would not be new for the NFL. As I understand it, after the NFL expanded the Browns back into the League after moving the original Browns to Baltimore, the two central divisions at the time had extra amounts of teams. Each division had at least 5 teams as I recall when it was a 31 team league, and I think one if not both central divisions had 6. This was, of course, before the Houston Texans became a franchise. Remember when the Arizona Cardinals were a division rival of ours?

The point of this is to say, I think the NFL could actually expand teams which would give them an extra game to boot to make it 18 games. The following would be my 4 cities to expand and the reasons for it.

1. San Diego - After the Chargers moved to LA, San Diego has been stuck without a team for some time. Ironically, San Diego was hosted quite a few Super Bowls. Thus, an expanded team would allow for the NFL to return a Super Bowl to San Diego as well as give the fans of San Diego an NFL team again.

2. St. Louis - Here is a city that has now lost 2 NFL teams. The Cardinals left there in the 80s to move to Phoenix, Arizona, and the Rams, of course, moved to Los Angeles in 2016. Imo, the Rams do seem more of an LA team as a lot of their iconic history was made in LA. It'd be a bit like moving the Dodgers to a new city. You'll just likely have them move back to Los Angeles because of the historical identity of Los Angeles with the Dodgers. However, St. Louis has proven itself a worthy NFL city. The XFL, I think, showed that St. Louis should have an NFL team with how rowdy the fans are there. So, an extra team here would help with the fans and give the NFL another Super Bowl location as well.

3. Orlando - so, the previous cities would fill a void in the Western divisions. Perhaps it'd also be worth giving the Eastern teams some additional playmates. Orlando would be a good city for an Eastern team. The Pro Bowl is hosted here. The city has a lot of fans from many NFC East teams including ScooterMagruder. So, this could be a good landing spot for a team.

4. London - now we come to what may be one of my crazier ideas on this list. However, hear me out. Firstly, the fact that the NFL keeps playing games in London says that they want a team in London. Having them in, for example, the AFC East means their division rivals would be the New England Patriots (near Boston, not a terribly long flight), the NY Jets (Near Newark Liberty International Airport, a route that I've taken from the UK quite often. It's a lovely flight), Buffalo (small airport, but, again, a very doable route), and the Miami Dolphins (a bit more of a distance than the rest in their division, but, again, not terrible). So, within the division, it wouldn't be a horrible trip for them or their division rivals. The new Tottenham Hotspur Stadium is perfectly useable for an NFL match and I think could host an expansion team). So, rather than plucking the Jaguars away from Jacksonville and since the NFL clearly wants London, why not make the 4th expansion team in London?

Now for a bonus idea:

5. Los Angeles Caveat Move the Chargers back to San Diego - Similar to my first idea, but felt it needed an idea of its own. If you move the Chargers back to San Diego, you give San Diego it's iconic team back. This frees the NFL to expand a new team in Los Angeles.

I dunno. These are just ideas that have been popping into my mind this afternoon. Especially when I heard the idea of adding an additional playoff game in each conference. I felt that maybe it's time for the NFL to expand a bit more. Again, these are all my thoughts about the whole situation. They might be idiotic ideas, but they're my ideas anyway.

Not sure Florida needs 4 teams, especially when there is another team an hour and a half away in Tampa.

 

[RustyBourneHorse]

Not sure Florida needs 4 teams, especially when there is another team an hour and a half away in Tampa.

Hmm, maybe not. Perhaps, in that case, we have the NFC East with the Toronto team, and the AFC East team with the London team.

 

[ghst187]

I’m rapidly opposed to more dilution of talent by adding new teams.
If anything, it needs contraction. Having a London team is a horrible idea.
Soccer will always be the thing there and that poor team has horrific away schedule, imagine the jet lag for a west coast game. Who would want to play there? What free agent would want to play there?
45% tax rate?!

 

[Flamma]

So, apparently the NFL decided it wants to do a 14 team playoff, and I understand that they'd like to have a 17 game schedule. The NHL expanded the Vegas Golden Knights in the 2017-2018 season and are, according to Wikipedia, poised to expand a Seattle team in the 2021 season. Also, the MLS is rapidly expanding teams every season. Thus, my thinking is this. Why not expand a few teams? I think the NFL can afford to expand an additional 2-4 teams, and it would allow them to have an 18 game schedule and still make the 14 team playoff work.

Four extra teams would be good. You don't need to have odd divisions as you could make it three 6 team divisions in each conference. That would make an 18 game schedule easier too. 10 Div games, and 4 in each Conf. That would also all but eliminate that pesky 8-8 team (or worse) from winning the division.

 

[RustyBourneHorse]

Four extra teams would be good. You don't need to have odd divisions as you could make it three 6 team divisions in each conference. That would make an 18 game schedule easier too. 10 Div games, and 4 in each Conf. That would also all but eliminate that pesky 8-8 team (or worse) from winning the division.

Oh! That is a brilliant idea! I do like that. Brings back the 3 divisions per conferences, doesn't it? Bit of a throwback for us. Yes, I do like that quite a bit. That'd be brilliant! Toss in San Diego (AFC West), St. Louis (NFC West), Orlando/Toronto (NFC East), and London (AFC East), and you've got everything laid out, don't you? This would work brilliantly imo!! You've solved how the division layout would work. I absolutely love the layout of it, and I don't know why the NFL hasn't seen that.