The USFL and XFL have officially announced their plans to merge into what is rumored as the “NSFL” (National Spring Football League). What if this is the eventual next step towards the NFL creating a developmental league and new pipeline for talent?
It’s something to think about.
Buy Patriots TicketsThe NFL lacks true opportunities for developing players, coaches, referees, executives and even testing rules they want to implement. A potential acquisition by the NFL would mark a huge step forward for the overall product on the field. It is even helpful for game planning, practicing and injury rehab.
We’re going to get into what that could look like, and what I would do if I was in charge of merging the NSFL into the NFL as a developmental league, creating the NDFL (National Developmental Football League).
Team and roster structures
One of the more pressing questions is figuring out how teams would roster players, where these teams will play and so forth. For starters, the NFL product wouldn’t really change on the surface, as the rosters would still contain 53 members. The NDFL would contain 37 players, plus an additional 16 two-way players.
The two-way players are similar to the practice squad, except they play on the NDFL roster. Two of them can be elevated to the active roster per week, but after five elevations, they will revert to the NDFL roster and cannot be called up again until the playoffs. They also cannot be taken off the two-way contract and placed on the NDFL roster as one of the 37. They’ll have to go through waivers if so.
If the team wishes to use them after the five weeks, they would need to sign them to the 53-man roster.
Poaching is no longer allowed, either. The only way for teams to grab players from the NDFL is via trading for them, signing free agents that cleared waivers or claiming a player off of waivers. Players on the 53-man roster also cannot be sent down to the NDFL unless they are on injury rehab (more on that later).
If a player is released from the 53-man roster, regardless of their time in the league, they will go to waivers. By clearing, they are a free agent and can sign to any team’s NDFL or NFL roster.
Players on IR, in Weeks 3 and 4 of their four-week minimum rehab, will be allowed to play up to 30 percent of the snaps in a NDFL league game for those two weeks as a rehab assignment. This allows players out with an injury to work into speed, if the team and player wish to go that route.
Location is the last part. NDFL teams are owned by the NFL franchise, and they can determine where that team sits. Most teams will likely opt to share facilities, but some teams could build their own stadiums for those games.
Contracts, trades and the NFL draft
NFL contracts are the same; however, each tiered contract has some differences in their minimums. NFL is $1 million, two-way is $750k and NDFL is $250k per year. Teams are allowed to pay more at any level, but the NFL salary cap only affects the NFL, and the NDFL/two-way players count towards the NDFL salary cap.
NDFL salary cap is $55 million for Year 1, and the NFL cap is $230 million.
Trades and all roster decisions fall under the general manager or director of player personnel. The NDFL contracts can be traded, similar to prospects in the MLB, but teams will need to remain under the salary cap on both systems, if they wish to make a trade.
All salary caps need to be compliant for a trade, and the trading of draft picks is allowed. But there is still only one NFL draft with seven rounds. There would be no changes there.
Training camp rosters bump to 150 players organization-wide and involves the entire organization in a centralized space. At the end of camp, teams will need to get down to 106 players organization-wide, including the NFL 53-man roster, 16 two-way players and 37 NDFL players
When a team makes their initial cut from 150 to 106, those released would head to waivers. Since there are three types of contracts in season, there are only two in training camp.
For example, big-name free agents will sign an NFL contract and guarantee a spot on the 53-man roster, unless part of the initial wave of cuts or other team decisions. There would be an allowance of 97 players to be signed prior to the 106-man roster cut down day, as NDFL contracts. They could compete for a spot on the 53-man roster, but they would also be fighting to get a two-way contract, or even a spot on the NDFL roster for the upcoming season with other training camp invites.
Since the goal is for the NFL to develop talent, there wouldn’t be a lot of turnover year after year in the NDFL, but enough for healthy competition. Teams will likely want players and their coaches to stick around on those developmental rosters to gain more experience.
The NFL draft would remain unchanged, besides one little wrinkle. The first and second-round picks would both be exempt from the NDFL unless on rehab assignment, for the first three seasons of their four-year rookie contract.
All picks have a rookie pay scale, but depending on if they are two-way, NDFL or NFL, it would only impact where they play, as all rookie contracts are their own category until they expire. That means teams who choose to put a third-round pick on the NDFL roster will be forced to pay their current rookie scale contract. This could eat into the NDFL cap fast, so it deters teams from drafting and stashing players for multiple seasons.
There is a lot more we can get into here, but for the sake of keeping this as high level as possible, we won’t get into the tiny details. This is more of an entertaining exercise for what a developmental league could look like without completely changing the way NFL rosters are built today.
Game scheduling
The last part of this involves how the league can make money, and it would follow the major networks of the main teams, while being on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday nights.
The schedule starts and ends the same way as the NFL, but the NDFL league plays their games on off nights, providing exposure for the players and a unique opportunity for teams to test game strategy with their developmental coaches.
Since the coaches of the NDFL will be closely trained and developed by the NFL, they’ll likely want to use this to test new schemes and play designs, while also creating a more explosive and fun style of football without the consequences of losing an NFL game.
Whether organizations want to build stadiums, or share, there are opportunities for fans to get a look at untapped potential their teams have in the system.
Although we didn’t have all the details readily available, the NDFL offers owners, executives, advertisers, coaches, players, referees and fans the ultimate experience and flexibility to enjoy more football, along with generating a greater influx of talent and opportunities all-around.
