An NFL farm system

A few years ago – following the death of the Alliance of American Football and before the birth of the 2020 XFL and 2022 USFL – I pondered the possibility of a traditional minor league football system for the National Football League.

And when I say “traditional,” I mean something along the lines of Major League Baseball farm clubs and NBA G League teams, franchises that play at the same time of year as the parent clubs.

As a fan of spring pro football, I’m glad the United Football League exists and look forward to its return in 2025. However, it’s an offseason venture, not in-season. And to get the most bang for its buck, an NFL-sponsored circuit would require affiliates that share a similar competition schedule.

I started thinking about this again after my favorite NFL team, the New York Jets, signed Adrian Martinez of the UFL champion Birmingham Stallions.

Martinez earned MVP honors while leading the Stallions to their third consecutive spring football crown, and it’s great that he landed an NFL job. But the job of a practice squad player is just that – to practice. Barring an injury to a QB on the 53-man active roster, he won’t be playing in any actual games.

But an NFL farm team could encompass all of the main club’s practice squad members (up to 17) and put them in actual competitive situations.

As I wrote before, these squads would not only be a good proving ground for rookies, but give playing time to backups and paying jobs to a lot of guys who otherwise would be out of football work after training camp. I’d think it would be relatively easy to put together a 40-man per club developmental league roster.

Each NFL team would have one minor league team, and from a marketing standpoint, those “junior varsity” teams could benefit from big league branding. In other words, the Brooklyn Jets could share colors and similar logos to their big league affiliates who play at MetLife Stadium. Same would be true for the Albany Giants, New Haven Patriots, Des Moines Bears, Raleigh Panthers, etc.

And of course, it would be necessary for the offensive and defensive schemes to replicate those of their NFL counterparts – made easier by the fact that they’d hold joint practices.

In my original NFL “G League” plan, I had it divided into four, eight-team quadrants (North, South, East and West) that played regional slates to keep expenses down.

Teams in each quadrant would meet each other twice over the course of a 14-game regular season, and then the four quadrant champions could advance to a four-team playoff.

And to be a functioning farm system, the season would need to run (mostly) concurrent with the NFL schedule. Start it maybe two weeks after the NFL season begins in order to put rosters together.

If games were played during the week, farmhands would be ready for a “call-up” at any time, so if the New York Jets found themselves in need of a lineman for Sunday’s game they could pluck one from the Brooklyn Jets.

This would be perfect for quarterbacks – and not just guys like Martinez.

In most cases, a second-string NFL QB will see very little action during the season and the third-string signal caller won’t see any at all.

Build a developmental team, and the understudies could receive meaningful minutes in actual games, while players coming back from injury could get reconditioned.

Additionally, it would make for a great laboratory in terms of testing safety features, new rules, in-game technology, etc.

I think it’s a great idea, if I do say so myself.

But …

It would most likely be a money-losing proposition. And even though the average value of an NFL team is $5.7 billion, owners would still want to see a positive return on their “D-League” investment.

The reason the USFL and XFL were able to morph into the UFL – and why this brand of football is expected to return for its fourth consecutive season in 2025 – is because it attracts eyeballs. Other than St. Louis in-game fan support is pretty weak, but If you’re passionate about watching football from the comfort of your couch (yet the calendar says April), this Triple-A organization gives you a fix.

But where would the minors fit in during the fall season? That’s when fans already have an embarrassment of riches with the NFL, college and high school football. And thanks to ESPN, you can catch a game virtually any night of the week.

Would fans tune in to see the Spokane Seahawks play the San Jose 49ers on a Wednesday night? I would, but I’m not confident there’d be a huge appetite for it.

And with Power Five college football now NFL Lite, the sport’s biggest league already has a feeder system it doesn’t have to pay for.

While many sports have longstanding minor league pipelines, football has gotten along rather well with just the college-to-pro model.

I don’t really expect that to change. However, if it does, I promise to watch – especially when those Brooklyn Jets hit the gridiron.