There is such a thing as story fatigue. We can only review where Tom Brady is going to end up so many times until all the angles are covered. That’s been one of the consistent stories of this offseason and by consistent that means it’s been about the only thing major that’s been talked about for weeks now. The thing is, people love the NFL. They can’t get enough NFL talk, articles, takes, and Twitter posts. The fact that Tom Brady’s impending free agency is a huge focus when the NBA is in the full throes of a playoff race, NCAA basketball is hitting conference tournament time, MLS is starting, MLB teams are gearing up for the regular season, and the NHL is getting close to its playoffs, is a testament to how strong and popular the NFL is today. It just seems like this offseason is lasting a lot longer than normal. Let’s get on with the free agency period, franchise tags, and really delve into the draft.
There’s good news for those who think this dead time is dragging. That’s the fact that this year, the NFL added an extra week to its calendar. That means for the next 11 days, there won’t be much real news or real action. It was designed that way.
The NFL needed to figure out a way to own the entire calendar and the easiest way to do that was to push free agency back a bit and extend the calendar. They did exactly that, and it’s played out perfectly.
So if you’re sick of Tom Brady news or the latest tidbit on the CBA, there’s good news: it’s coming to an end on March 16. After that free agency should provide enough content along with the latest draft projections and news. Once we get to the draft, there’s a bit more downtime, but we all need a break at some point. The real problem for the NFL will be next year if there’s nothing major to fill the dead time. The last thing the league wants is people taking time off. They don’t want the NBA to catch momentum. They don’t want eyeballs anywhere else but on NFL content.
By the way, if you do need content, there’s a bunch of interesting stuff here. We have Mark Schofield’s latest mock draft. There are 20 things we learned from the combine from Doug Farrar. There’s in-depth football content to be had and its location is pretty easy to find. Yes, ESPN, Fox, and NFL Network may be pushing the latest Tom Brady conjecture, but that won’t mean anything in 11 days when a decision is probably made. It’s fine. Draft season is upon us. Football content is coming. It’s exactly how the NFL designed things.