Anyone who played any competitive sport from the age of 15 on understands position battles. Coaches at almost every level say that positions are earned and not given. That idea is mostly true. Players do have to earn their way onto the field. The idea, however, that most positions in the NFL are up for grabs during the preseason could not be further from the truth. Most players have “earned” their spot far before the preseason began.
The vast majority of NFL position battles are only battles in the minds of fans and the media. For instance, for the Jacksonville Jaguars, did Gregory Junior have a real shot at starting the first regular season game over Tre Herndon at nickel? No. Was Nathan Rourke ever going to do enough to earn the title “QB 2″ over CJ Beathard? No. Travon Walker is starting at edge rusher over anyone on the team not named Josh Allen regardless of on-the-field play. The bottom line is that the Jaguars camp was full of fake NFL position battles just like most of the other preseason NFL camps.
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There are Very Few True NFL Position Battles
Roster cuts are taking place over the league right now. Every 53-man roster in the NFL will be set by 4:00 Tuesday afternoon. Of all of the cuts made by all of the teams in the NFL, maybe one or two will be actual surprises. Virtually every position on every team is already set, and now football fans could sit back, relax, and wait to see whose team is the best. Football in America, however, is different. As far as sports talk radio, ESPN, and the huge number of football fans are concerned, there is no offseason. Fans are ready to talk about their team any time of the year, and that is especially true of the next few weeks. One of the things that will be talked about the most is the “position battles” that fans have convinced themselves actually exist.
NFL Fans Love the Backup
One of the most popular players on every bad team is the backup quarterback. The NFL is a quarterback league, and when a team is bad, that usually means their quarterback is bad. A bad starting quarterback has proven to everyone that they are bad, with the backup, you can only assume. It is similar to the saying, “It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to talk and remove all doubt.” The same can be said for every other position on the football field.
Last year, the Jacksonville Jaguars struggled with the pass rush and in the secondary. Josh Allen had seven sacks and Travon Walker had 3.5. The Jaguars have Yassir Abdullah and Gregory Junior, two promising players. Neither of them should start and neither of them will to start the season, but because they looked ok in the preseason, there is talk of a position battle.
Nathan Rourke looked pretty good in a couple of preseason games as well as the third-string quarterback for the Jaguars. He is not the seasoned veteran that CJ Beathard is and there should not be any discussion of him taking Beathard’s place at backup. Fans, however, are clamoring for Rourke and are afraid that if they release him to the practice squad some other team is going to grab him up.
The Jaguars are set at every starting position. Their offensive line is set, their edge rushers are set, the secondary is set, and their starting receivers have been set since Calvin Ridley was reinstated. There is a battle for the sixth and seventh wide receiver for the Jaguars, but that is really the only preseason battle the Jaguars have had.
Position Battles Give Pundits Something To Discuss
Position battles are fun to discuss. Fans and commentators alike can discuss borderline players. They can argue over who is better regardless of whether or not the players are competing for starting positions. In America, the NFL is king. NFL experts need something to discuss, so they make up position battles. For most networks and radio stations, discussing offseason NFL news is more popular than any in-season sport. It is quite difficult to come up with 365 days of real NFL news, so experts have to find something to discuss. Position battles are a great way to talk about football even when there is no football being played.
Position Battles are Dramatic, the NFL Preseason is Not
The main reason that fake NFL position battles are discussed is because people want drama. The NFL preseason is boring. It is so pointless that the final Jaguars preseason game was ended early. The coaches decided to end the game early because a receiver for Miami was injured. The outcome did not matter.
Season ticket holders are forced to purchase preseason games. It is part of the package, and it makes sense for that to be the case. If a fan tries to sell that preseason game at face value, however, it becomes clear how the preseason is viewed. Nobody wants to purchase the ticket. In fact, it can be difficult to give the ticket away unless you know a real fan of the team.
In Jacksonville, nobody knows how good CJ Beathard is. They do not want to know how good he is because that would mean Trevor Lawrence was hurt. They also do not know how good Nathan Rourke may be. Yasir Abdullah has looked good, but there is a reason he fell to the Jaguars in the fourth round. Gregory Junior looks like an athlete and may be the long-term answer at nickel. He is not better than Tre Herndon right now.
NFL Position battles are fun to discuss and they give fans a lot of offseason content. Very few of them are real “battles” to the coaches and decision-makers of each team. They are a way to make an almost unbearable NFL preseason somewhat interesting to watch.
Main Photo Credit: Melina Myers-USA TODAY Sports
