This Really Is Better than a Regular Off-Season

From a fan's perspective. The nice thing was, I was able to just ignore the whole football thing (nothing worse than hearing talking heads on the mothership discuss who was dissing who in the talks). But, now that it's here, this is so much more of an exciting time of year than it would otherwise be.

At this point all the rosters would be in place. Most fans are generally so hungry for football they/we drool at every camp report. And it would be a slow grind of the typical camp; wondering each day who would be competing with whom at what position; getting all the "spam" of "this young kid looks great" and having to hear all the changes in the starting lineup along the offensive line (which I'm sure we'll hear about soon enough) - as Sparano tries to outthink himself three times over.

But, with all the craziness of rookie contracts; free agent signings; trades; UDFA signings; CAP cuts by various teams ... This will be a great 3-4 weeks leading up to the regular season. Much more intriguing than usual. So, from that perspective it really adds a lot more exciement and interest than a typical year.

Maybe they should just do this schedule (not the bargaining part) every year! Have no free agency at the end of the season. Just the draft. Then close the league down the day after the draft. No signings or free agency until say mid July - give them a couple of extra weeks ... (Kidding, just kidding, move along ...).

Only bad thing is that it looks like there will be no Hard Knocks. But, the rest is very intriguing.