John Harbaugh calls for shorter preseason in light of Benjamin Watson injury

Baltimore Ravens coach John Harbaugh is frustrated after an important player suffered a season-ending injury in preseason, and he thinks the NFL should think about making some changes.

Harbaugh called for a shorter preseason after Saturday night’s game, saying that modern NFL coaches and staffs have the tools at their disposal to prepare players properly without putting them in game situations where they could be injured.

“It’s not the ’70s anymore,” Harbaugh said, via Jamison Hensley of ESPN. “These guys playing in these games — it’s tough — and they’re not meaningful games. They are important to get better, and they improve us. But we football coaches can find ways to get our guys ready and get our players evaluated without the kind of risk that a game necessarily entails.

“I’m really hopeful that the union and the league can get together and do something that’s good for everybody — especially what’s good for the players and for the fans.”

Harbaugh went as far as to say that the preseason should be dumped entirely.

“If I had my choice, I’d go none,” Harbaugh said. “That might be an extreme point, but we could run scrimmages, or we could run practices against other teams and figure it out. We’d all be in the same boat. That’s for people higher up than me to decide.”

Harbaugh emphasized that his opinions weren’t just because of Benjamin Watson’s season-ending injury. Don’t expect this to ever happen, of course, but it would be interesting to see if anyone else shares Harbaugh’s sentiments.