National Football League

NFL developmental league: Saints' Sean Payton's take is off the mark

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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The NFL will formally make proposals regarding a developmental league in 2017 at their winter meetings. New Orleans Saints’ head coach Sean Payton is out of touch on the issue.

In a recent conference call Sean Payton was asked about proposals to start an NFL developmental league similar to what is done in the NBA, MLB, MLS and NHL. His response was this:

PHOENIX, AZ – JANUARY 29: NFL Executive Vice President of Football Operations Troy Vincent attends the Super Bowl XLIX Football Operations Press Conference on January 29, 2015 in Phoenix, Arizona. (Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images)

Troy Vincent fleshing things out

With the guidance of Troy Vincent, the NFL’s head of football operations, backing from luminaries Tom Coughlin and John Madden and the NFL Players Association seemingly being on board, the idea of a developmental league’s time has come.

More will be fleshed out at the League’s winter meeting but it seems things will likely move quickly on the matter.

HAMBURG, GERMANY – JUNE 09: J. T. O?Sullivan of Frankfurt in action during the NFL Europe game between Hamburg Sea Devils and Frankfurt Galaxy at the AOL Arena on June 9, 2007 in Hamburg, Germany. (Photo by Martin Rose Bongarts/Getty Images)

NFL Europe

With their never ending quest for world domination the NFL’s only attempt at a developmental league to date was with NFL Europe. Not exactly what your average American football fan was looking for though the televised games were fun to watch. That’s where I got my first glimpse of future Saints standout wide receiver Lance Moore playing for the Berlin Thunder. Jake Delhomme parlayed his time with the Frankfurt Galaxy into a Super Bowl appearance with the Carolina Panthers following a career with the Saints as a backup.

Professional American football outside the NFL has been a series of short lived spring leagues: USFL, XFL, RFL. RFL you ask?

The Regional Football League

Yea, many won’t recognize the Regional Football League. It was a failed experiment in 1999 but was an absolute blast if you lived in Mobile. The Mobile Admirals, featuring former Florida State QB Thad Busby and former University of Alabama and Dallas Cowboys running back Sherman Williams ran the table in an abbreviated inaugural season before the league dissolved.

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The RFL blueprint was pretty clever. Teams featured players from the region around where they’d be playing giving local fans some familiarity with whom they were watching on the field. None of it was covered on TV save for a game between the Mobile Admirals and New Orleans Thunder which was carried on a small religious channel in New Orleans. Sidenote: can we have a moratorium on teams named Thunder?

With the full sponsorship of the NFL behind it, a spring league of this nature, if handled right, could be amazing. The Mobile Admirals played their home games in Ladd-Peebles Stadium where the NFL sponsored Senior Bowl is played. Many markets without NFL teams have stadiums of similar size which could host a developmental league team.

Nov 27, 2016; New Orleans, LA, USA; New Orleans Saints cornerback Delvin Breaux (40) reacts after breaking up a pass to Los Angeles Rams wide receiver Kenny Britt (18) during the first half of a game at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. Mandatory Credit: Derick E. Hingle-USA TODAY Sports

CFL as developmental league

Currently, the closest thing to a developmental league for the NFL is the Canadian Football League where the New Orleans Saints have mined star cornerback Delvin Breaux and safety Erik Harris.

That fact alone makes Sean Payton’s statement a head-scratcher. Both players had to develop their skills outside the confines of NFL practice squads.

The problem with practice squads

Currently, NFL practice squad players basically get their in-game snaps in preseason and that’s about it. Seeing them in practice isn’t the same as seeing them at game speed when it matters. Players frequently play a much different game when it means something.

Let’s take Saints starting right guard Jahri Evans as an example. Following his release by the Saints after the 2015 Season, Seattle signed him, only to cut him during preseason. The Saints resigned him and he’s having an outstanding year. The Seahawks presently have one of the worst offensive lines in the NFL. What Evans did during practice and preseason is a shadow of what he’s done when it counts. Some players just step up their game like that.

And that’s a very common story.

The obvious benefits of a developmental league

A league of this sort would give a lot of post-collegiate players a chance to earn an income while they develop their skills much more effectively than merely being on a practice squad or having to play in the CFL with its differences in rules and larger CFL playing field.

Other benefits of a developmental league would be giving the NFL a chance to try out rule changes, a place to develop referees and young coaches, a place to try out new technologies. It’s hard to see a downside.

This biggest problem with NFL Europe was a lack of interest in the American market. If the NFL follows the RFL model they could expect dramatically different results.

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