Is the NFL declining?

[Shaw66]

I'm watching less NFL that I have in recent seasons. Sunday I didn't start watching football until 6 pm or so. I'm less interested, and I think the quality of the product is down, which adds to my disinterest. 

 

I think Prime's broadcasts are terrible and actually leave me less interested in the NFL. They almost encourage me to turn it off. They do some tricked up digital manipulation of the images to give you a more in-your-face-sense to the whole thing, but all it does is make it more difficult to watch the game. I think they do the digital manipulation to try to cover up the fact that their shows are produced more cheaply, with fewer cameras and less talent. Al Michaels and Herbstreet are horrible. Everything about the product I see and hear makes me want to turn it off, and sometimes I do. I turned it on last night late in the third quarter, watched 15 minutes, and turned it off.

 

Bills-Jets on on ESPN on Monday night was a flop, too.  A lot of penalties, and a lot of indecisiveness by the officials really chopped up the pace of the game and the broadcast. And instead of saving the day with quality talk, Buck and Aikman stumbled through the broadcast all out of sync, too. At one point, no one seemed to know which team had taken a timeout, but the refs were proceeding with the game, unaware that everyone lacked this information. And Aikman and Buck were slow to pick up on the problem. Meanwhile, fans wanted to know. And the teams played sloppy, things were too chippy .  Add it all up - bad play, missed opportunities, too many penalties, indecisive officiating, broadcast team that fails to save the show, I can understand why some fans may start saying, "I don't need to watch every game."  It's not very good TV.

 

If I were the NFL, I'd want more control over production. I wouldn't let Prime screw around with the video presentation. 

 

I'd want better, more professional broadcasters from Fox and CBS. The color commentators, particularly, are weak. Former players trying to talk comfortably into a microphone about something meaningful but not too technical for about 25 seconds. That's hard to do, and if a former player is really good at it, he's Michael Strahan or Peyton Manning and he's not going to be doing color commentary.  So, you get a lot of amateurish chatter about the same old things - momentum, smash-mouth football, etc - coming from guys who simply are not professional talkers. I don't know what's to be done about it, but if I were the NFL, I'd be worried that people like me are finding it easier to turn off games. 

 

I said this to a friend of mine who sent me the following, which was published somewhere:

 

Quote

NFL Network’s coverage of Jaguars-Bears from London and the early Sunday afternoon slot on CBS were the only two TV windows to outperform their 2023 Week 6 counterparts. The rest were down year over year:

 

49ers-Seahawks on Amazon Prime Video’s Thursday Night Football was down 5%.

 

Fox’s 1 p.m. ET games were down 13%.

 

Lions-Cowboys drew 24.06 million viewers on Fox, down 8% from Eagles-Jets in 2023.

 

NBC’s Bengals-Giants matchup was the least-watched Sunday Night Football broadcast since 2020 with 15.44 million viewers.

 

The 17.3 million viewers for Bills-Jets on Monday Night Football was down from 19.64 million for Cowboys-Chargers last year, but still the second-largest Week 6 MNF audience since 2000.

 

One of the reasons I'm less interested is that it still feels like preseason. More so than most years, teams are trying to figure out how to play, and week to week they look really good to really ugly. Denver's defense last night looked spectacular, playing the way the Bills want to play. They had speed at every position, they were getting pressure on the QB every play, challenging the entire offensive line. How much that had to do with the Saints being bad and not having Carr, I don't know. Whether Denver will be playing like that in December is anyone's guess. So, I view these games as expendable. In late November and December, we'll know which teams are at .500 or better, and that's when the real season will start. In the meantime, I don't care all that much what happens except, of course, to the Bills. 

 

And speaking of the Bills, they've given a good example of what I'm talking about. It used to be that teams fixed their rosters in the off-season, and then they played the season. It's almost as though the good teams now don't fix their rosters until October, when they make one or two splashy acquisitions. We spent a lot of time this summer talking about what the Bills' receiver room, and it was all rendered moot when they trade for Cooper. NOW the Bills have the receiver room that they intend to play the season with. In a sense, the first six games have been preseason games. The Bills have been resting their stars - Milano, Miller, Bernard, Cooper, Johnson while they've been giving other guys (Williams, Epenesa and Solomon, Spector, Coleman and MVS, and Lewis) opportunities to work on their games. I know the "rest" they were giving these guys was forced rest, not true rest, but the effect is the same: the Bills have 11 games left, they're 4-2, and in the coming weeks they'll be putting their real starting lineup on the field for the first time.  You can add Oliver and Cook to the list, too. 

 

The real season is about to start. 

[Warcodered]

maybe it's saturation? They've flooded the market so much that people just want a break from stuff that doesn't really apply to the team they care about.

[MikePJ76]

My humble opinion.

 

The old guard of coaches who demanded excellence are now completely out of the game.  The only one left is Reid but he is still the next wave of those old coaches.  I think this matters.  

 

Also the game is played more like College football than ever before and it is just not as good.  Making WR the most important guys on teams has not been great for the quality of the sport.

 

It does not draw the numbers but I have enjoyed Baseball way more recently, probably because I am a Yankees fan and they have been successful but haven't won a championship yet (fingers crossed) and watching Aaron Judge every night for 6 months is pretty amazing.  He is like watching Allen only he is better at his sport.

 

just my two cents.  I look forward to the insults and hundreds of thumbs down.

Edited October 18 by MikePJ76

[SCBills]

The MNF metric is a weird point to make in all of this, when basically it means the two most watched Week 6 MNF games since 2000 were last year and this year…

 

As far as teams fixing/finding themselves during the season… do we want parity or not?   The league with a hard cap and draft set up does more for parity than any league in existence.  As a result, a team like the Bills can’t afford to fix their team this offseason and has to wait for a team willing to eat salary and trade us a piece we desperately need.  And it sounds like we’re not done. 
 

Chiefs were in a great spot due to their drafting and cap moves to have a pretty complete team, but long term injuries to Rice/Brown changed that.  Entering the season, they might have been as close as possible to a team of yesteryear that was able to pay an elite QB, retain its pieces and build a strong roster heading into the season. 

[Augie]

They lost me to some degree by adding all the streaming services. If you want to make it harder to watch, I just might skip it. That is the calculated decision they made to make more money. Also, being the “home team” in London against the Jags who arrived a week earlier and have been cultivating a fan base there for more than a decade doesn’t pass the smell test. 

 

I’ll always be a Bills fan, but my interest in the rest of the NFL is waning. 

[TrentEdwardsCheckDownOn4th]

The officiating is as poor as ever IMO. It also doesn't help that the chiefs seemingly get every crucial call.  

 

Most of the Thursday night games are snooze fests. But I actually enjoy the post game show with Fitz,  Sherman and the rest of them. 

 

 

[agilen]

5 minutes ago, Shaw66 said:

I think Prime's broadcasts are terrible and actually leave me less interested in the NFL. They almost encourage me to turn it off. They do some tricked up digital manipulation of the images to give you a more in-your-face-sense to the whole thing, but all it does is make it more difficult to watch the game. I think they do the digital manipulation to try to cover up the fact that their shows are produced more cheaply, with fewer cameras and less talent. Al Michaels and Herbstreet are horrible. Everything about the product I see and hear makes me want to turn it off, and sometimes I do. I turned it on last night late in the third quarter, watched 15 minutes, and turned it off.

 

 ...

 

If I were the NFL, I'd want more control over production. I wouldn't let Prime screw around with the video presentation. 

 

NBC does the production for Thursday Night Football. The talent and branding is managed by Amazon, but the folks on the cameras and in the trucks are the same folks that do SNF. And the NFL is very closely aligned with their broadcast partners - a lot of "innovation" you see on all the partners is because of the NFL pushing for new fan engagement; they want things like alternative broadcasts, AI enhancements, etc.

[Alphadawg7]

I mean this will be something that is subjective to the person commenting.  For me, it's not down, I think this season is actually great because there is so much more parity to it.  This may be the least "top heavy" season we have had in a long time where it feels like there are a dozen legit teams that if they can get hot at the right time could make a run.  

 

BUT...I do think it may "seem" down for Bills fan specifically though and here is why.  Nothing to do with the Bills themselves, but the Bills had 4 primetime games in the first 6 weeks.  That meant no Sunday games when the bulk of the games are being played.  I know when the Bills are on and other games are on too, I am much more invested in those other games because I am sitting down focused on football.  So I got the Bills on my big main TV and then the other games on my 2 side TV's.  But when the Bills don't play Sunday, I usually take advantage and do still have football on in the background, but I am doing other things like getting stuff done around the house etc.  

 

So I have technically watched "less" this year so far with Bills not playing on Sunday in 4 of the 6 weeks, but not really because lack of interest, but more to take advantage to get more done on those particular Sundays then I typically would with Bills on.  

[GETTOTHE50]

The quality is down bc we have the rare blessing to watch JA17 play every week. We are so spoiled it’s not even funny.

 

also, I wish I could just hear the sounds and mute the analysts. I can’t stand any of them. 

[strive_for_five_guy]

I’m obsessed with the NFL and watch every game I can, even with things like poor officiating.  So they’ve definitely got me on the hook.

Edited October 19 by strive_for_five_guy

[SCBills]

And as far as the league goes for protecting QB’s… much of the unwatchable product is due to poor QB play.   So I understand where they’re coming from.  
 

MNF had Allen making a few insane plays and Rodgers launching a Hail Mary.  
 

TNF had Rattler spazzing out and Bo Nix game managing in a blowout.  No one wants to watch that except Broncos fans. 

[Chicken Boo]

Can't stand the pre-game shows and couldn't care less who the commentators are.

 

Solely interested in the product on the field.  It's easy to criticize the officiating, but how many fans truly realize how difficult of a job that is?  

 

The game moves so much faster on the field than it does on your TV screen.  The refs aren't viewing the game on a wide angle in 4k.  They are eye level.  

 

Players not playing during the preseason hurts the product early on in the season for sure. Like you've stated, the real game is about to begin.

 

State of the league is just fine.  Look at how much more people are willing to pay to attend a game compared to 10 years ago.  

Edited October 18 by Chicken Boo

[Nineforty]

Speaking only about picture quality:  The picture quality of football games on Prime is the best, imo.. HDR quality on a 4k TV. but there are other broadcasts/feeds where my older SD tv shows the picture better. This is also true for almost all Sabres games for me too. Standard definition is superior.

 

Sometimes when watching via Apple TV box, it definitely does some digital hocus pocus (upscaling) that can cause the football to not be clear (or flicker) and that is annoying as well. Noticed this on other apps as well. 

[Ethan in Cleveland]

Just remember things were never really as good in the past as you think they were.

Bills won AFC Championship against Elway and Denver 10-7 without scoring a TD. That was a brutal game to watch. 

Would anyone outside of Buffalo wanted to watch the Bills in 1985? Just like no one is watching Carolina now. 

 

I'm sure age plays a role.

I can't be bothered to watch most pregame or other shows and when I accidentally do it's irritating.  Either they are too old like Phil Simms and can't speak or they are just screaming at you like McAfee and the Stephen A. 

 

NCAA offers a better slate of games every weekend. OSU Oregon was great last week and the Vanderbilt Alabama upset was too.

 

 

[Mr Info]

The OP makes good points and so do others. However, the NFL ratings this year are at a nine year high.

https://ministryofsport.com/nfl-tv-ratings-surge-to-nine-year-high/#:~:text=The NFL has recorded its,weeks of the 2024 season.

Interesting point about MLB made above. This postseason I have watched more baseball than in recent years. I was a baseball fanatic when young but they lost me when teams can spend whatever they want on salaries. Ruins competitiveness. 3 of the 4 teams currently in the MLB playoffs are the top three in salary expense. I will dump the NFL if salary cap parity is also removed. I may be incorrect but I believe there are several players on the current teams still in the playoffs that make more $ than the combined salary of some MLB teams.

Edited October 18 by Mr Info

[HansLanda]

I also wonder if the sheer cost of getting the Sunday Ticket and younger people finding "alternative means" to watch games is adding of the trend. 

 

 

[schoolhouserock]

I actually really enjoy the Prime Vision alternate broadcast on Thursday evenings. I love being able to see what’s happening downfield every play. Plus, the added AI overlays give some additional context to pre-snap movements.

 

One additional opinion: The NFL hasn’t peaked, but the Bills might have. I noticed a similar trend in my Packers friends towards the end of the Rodgers era. They were much less interested in the NFL because they knew just about everything that would happen to their team. They’d make a run and find a way to blow it in the playoffs. It creates a form of burnout. Those same Packers fans are now deeply interested in the NFL again and I think it is because of the excitement of an ascending team.

Edited October 18 by schoolhouserock
Typo

[Mr. WEO]

Pro tip:  if you don't like what your hear, turn the TV volume off.  Maybe pick a radio broadcast.

 

Every year we hear about the NFL's "decline"....yet everyone who assumes this is still here, watching and commenting.  It strains credulity...to be kind.

 

MLB would be happy to have 1/2 of the viewers as a random crappy Bengals/Giants night game for its LCS games.  They barely got there for one LA v NY (massive markets) game this week.  The Yanks/Cleveland was under 4 million viewers...for League Championship game with a NYC team in it!!

 

There is no NFL decline.  More likely far more people are watching products like Red Zone, which won't show up in network ratings.

Edited October 18 by Mr. WEO

[Mat68]

8 minutes ago, TrentEdwardsCheckDownOn4th said:

The officiating is as poor as ever IMO. It also doesn't help that the chiefs seemingly get every crucial call.  

 

Most of the Thursday night games are snooze fests. But I actually enjoy the post game show with Fitz,  Sherman and the rest of them. 

 

 

The good officials, get this left for full time jobs with networks or teams.  The crew on Monday looked like deer in the headlights.  They were so quick to wait on review assist they didn't care about making the right calls first.  This is becoming the trend.  

Give each team 3 challenges and move the game along.  No automatic score review.  No automatic turnover review.  No inside of 2 mins automatic review.   Failed challenge is a loss of timeout or a 5 yard delay of game penalty teams choice. Each team has 3 use them wisely.  I think the game will be better without constant replay review.  Replay has made the refs larger factors. Every important play is getting reviewed. Every important play is not getting called properly because replay will get it right.  
 

Some calls need to be called. Some obvious holds, some obvious Pi.  But Monday they were calling everything possible.  

[MikePJ76]

1 minute ago, Mr Info said:

The OP makes good points and so do others. However, the NFL ratings this year are at a nine year high.

https://ministryofsport.com/nfl-tv-ratings-surge-to-nine-year-high/#:~:text=The NFL has recorded its,weeks of the 2024 season.

Interesting point about MLB made above. This postseason I have watched more baseball than in recent years. I was a baseball fanatic when young but they lost me when teams can spend whatever they want on salaries. Ruins competitiveness. I will dump the NFL if salary cap parity is also removed. I may be incorrect but I believe there are several players on the current teams still in the playoffs that make more $ than the combined salary of some MLB teams.

There is more parity in championships recently in MLB than the salary capped NFL.

 

Nothing will ever touch the nfl in tv ratings for so many reasons but mainly, your team plays once a week, this is a nation of gambling addicts and alcoholics who are glued to their tv's/devices while they sit and get drunk and hope to win and not lose money.  Then there is fantasy football.  Then there is culture, the nfl is a huge part of the culture of social media and sports radio.  Its the easiest sport to talk about because no matter what any of us can sit and talk about a quarterback or head coach for like 10 hours straight at any moment.

 

the other three sports have become regional.  If your team is in the playoffs you watch, if the city you live in is in it you watch...otherwise people just pay attention the nfl.  Major League Baseball has a major problem because they have lost a lot of their black audience and more importantly their black players.  It doesn't seem like young black men are interested in playing baseball in america anymore and honestly it doesn't seem like anyone else is the way it used to be either.   MLB does not really fit the black culture of the NFL and NBA either so it is hard to sell it to fans 30 and under who have grown up in a sports media driven mostly by the NFL and NBA.  The game needs young black superstars.  

 

if you are over 45 ish you grew up in a world where major league baseball was king and amazing, artists wrote hit songs about the game which were played before your little league through high school games and it was part of american culture.  That is now gone and the NFL rules all in ratings and attention.  

 

having said that it was a down year in MLB as far as having one amazing team, mostly because of injuries but still no 100 win teams.  However the Playoffs have been amazing so far and I am hoping they get a little better tonight and the yankees grab a 3-1 lead.

 

anyway.  I like baseball.