Recently, NFL defensive back turned NFL draft expert Corey Chavous and yours truly spent some time talking about the need for a developmental league.
NFL defensive back turned NFL director of football operations Troy Vincent may agree.
“We need to keep the pipeline of talent flowing, and that means for all areas of our game: players, coaches, scouts, game officials,” Vincent told the Associated Press. “I am responsible to look at whatever the Competition Committee looks at, and that includes a developmental league.
“For all this football talent around, we have to create another platform for developing it. Maybe it’s an academy — what would it look like? Maybe it’s a spring league; we’ll look to see if there is an appetite for it.”
Ideally, the NFL would launch a true, in-season NFL minor league, with players being called up and sent down and getting real game reps while playing in mid-level markets not currently served by the NFL.
The NFL previously had a developmental league in Europe, but it went defunct after nearly a generation of operation. Since then, the NFL has had nothing to supplement the free farm system known as college football.
And since the free farm system known as college football may not be free much longer, especially once the labor costs increase, the NFL may need to create its own way to develop young players.