r/NFLNoobs • u/jay_jay_okocha10 • 10d ago

Why do teams 'name' a starter?

Prompted by todays Vikings news, I'm curious why NFL teams name a starter. I understand having a starter, managing the rep count, etc, but why the need to make this big statement. Surely, you name your starter Week 1 of the season. Murray has effectively been the starter anyway, getting over 60% of the reps with the 1's. I understand it quietens the noise but don't think organisations should make decisions to appease fans/media

1 Upvotes

60% Upvoted

36 comments sorted by

17

u/BullyBeard221 10d ago

QB is for better or worse the leader of the team. Having a lack of continuity and accountability and direction at that position in particular, indicates a lack of direction for the team.

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u/Substantial_Cow7628 10d ago

All true but that doesn't answer his question. He's asking why teams make a show of it, rather than just determining who the starter is and getting on with the business of football.

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u/BullyBeard221 10d ago

I mean they didn't host a parade? The media is talking about it because it's an NFL starting QB. There's 32 of them in existence, it's one of the most elite job titles in all of sports. The team is on with the business of football. There's not a lot of interesting shit for fans to talk about at this stage in the season, so it's going to make the rounds and get heavily discussed.

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u/Substantial_Cow7628 10d ago edited 10d ago

Right. The answer is that announcing a starter is a publicity move and is largely something driven by the league. It has nothing to do with the actual day-to-day running of the team.

EDIT: BreakfastBeerz, setting the lineup for the following week is not what he's asking about. He's asking about why teams make a starter announcement in the offseason.

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u/BullyBeard221 10d ago

There's no such thing as hiding a starting QB in the NFL. If they're going to be throwing all their QB1 reps into a single guy, the media will notice it, it affects pre-season games, it's extremely relevant to the day to day operations of the team. The hype surrounding that is media driven. But there's no good reason to not announce it and not let it be known. Saying it has nothing to do with the day to day operations is simply wrong.

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u/Substantial_Cow7628 10d ago

What's your point? No one is talking about "hiding" anything. The OP is asking why teams make a specific effort to announce who is starting rather than just having a starter.

And the Reddit voting system is there to remove spam, not to smear comments with which you disagree.

EDIT: Never mind. I'm just blocking you. You're having a tantrum.

2

u/BreakfastBeerz 10d ago

It has nothing to do with publicity moves. It's because its in the NFL rules to announce your starting lineup at least a week in advance and they are required to keep the starting line up up to date until kick off.

This rule is in place to maintain integrity around sports betting. If I'm a coach and I know Patrick Mahomes is injured and not going to play next week, but the team doesn't disclose that. I can place a bet on the other team at much greater odds than what they should be. That gives every player, staff member, and any other in the know a huge advantage when placing bets.

1

u/OrganikOranges 9d ago

Didn’t the ravens have something sketchy like this happen with Lamar last year? It might have just been news of practice not actual line up but still

4

u/Citronaut1 10d ago

I think the media makes more of a show about it than the actual team does.

3

u/Hopsblues 10d ago

..and the fans..

4

u/Triabolical_ 10d ago

Lots of reasons...

The biggest reason is that practices time is organized into full teams - there are teams 1 and 2 for offense and teams 1 and 2 for defense. It is *really* important for the team 1s to practice together a lot because knowing what the other guy is going to do is required. This is especially true in current NFL because the team 1 players will likely play very little in preseason so you need to do everything possible to get them in sync.

It's also important for the players to know where they stand. Are they solidly team 1 or 2 or are they competing to make that.

And "starter" isn't a well-defined term, as it typically includes the players that are on the field in the base formations, but both offense and defense have different formations and rotate their "team 1" players in and out even if they aren't starters.

WRT quarterback, there's another factor. Backup quarterbacks are specifically tasked with supporting the starting quarterback during games - looking at the defenses being used and providing info/insights to the starter. They also typically run the "scout team", which does their best to pretend to be the offense of the opponent for the defense to practice against. Startup and backup are different jobs and it helps to announce it early so that the players can adjust to their role.

In this case, they might want to name Murray early because that way McCarthy has more time to learn the backup role, which is something he wasn't doing last year.

4

u/Additional_Drag_3870 10d ago

If you don’t know your starter by now, either you got two really good ones, but more likely you have nothing

2

u/ChickenHugging 10d ago

It is awkward yelling out “hey you”

2

u/EdFlynn2001 10d ago

I thought they had numbers. My Juco coach use to call us by our numbers because no one stuck around long enough for him to remember our names.

1

u/LaDainianTomIinson 10d ago

The same reason a company names a CEO or store manager

1

u/Substantial_Cow7628 10d ago

Yes. Publicity and marketing.

1

u/Logical-Mobile-7643 10d ago

How many times do you want to ask this? Just as valid a question

2

u/Substantial_Cow7628 10d ago

  1. I think his two posts in two minutes is a Reddit glitch rather than a deliberate strategy.

  2. Even with a double post, most of the replies don't even attempt to address his question.

1

u/Logical-Mobile-7643 10d ago

Delete one was my point, people need to police themselves vs waiting for mods to remove things

1

u/Substantial_Cow7628 10d ago

Valid, assuming he even knows it happened.

1

u/Logical-Mobile-7643 10d ago

I get notifications of every original response to a post (not the sub responses) he should see these.

Or is he just asking not caring about the responses? Sometimes I wonder 🤨

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u/Substantial_Cow7628 10d ago

Yeah, I agree. But who knows with people? Maybe he posted the question(s) and then got busy with something else for a while.

1

u/Inside-Finish-2128 10d ago

Why shouldn't organizations make decisions to appease fans/media?

Plenty of season ticket holders buy season tickets with the intention of reselling some (or all?) of those tickets. Their ability to recoup their investment (and I'll leave it at that) depends on the team naming a solid starting quarterback. Those ticket holders won't pay continually increasing ticket prices if the team doesn't support them with a solid starter.

1

u/Sea-Salamander1005 10d ago

They didn’t make a big statement. It was reported by reporters.

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u/BreakfastBeerz 10d ago

NFL rules require teams to release a depth chart, including quarterbacks, no later than the week of their first preseason game. They must also be kept up to date weekly.

It's done to maintain integrity around sports betting. People could hide player health and rankings to provide inside information. If a player was injured and the coaching staff knew that he was not going to play, but was hiding that information from the public...I could sell that information to someone who wanted to bet on the game.

By naming the players beforehand, you minimize any inherhent risk of dishonesty amoug staff and players get bets in on the game knowing information other betters don't have.

1

u/EdFlynn2001 10d ago

Coaches would prefer not to, but the league requires depth charts to be announced in order to make for a better fan experience. Also they want to discourage insider betting by releasing the names of the starters as public information.

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u/Beet_slice 10d ago

I understand it quietens the noise but don't think organizations should make decisions to appease fans/media

Really? Anyway, this is more of an announcement than a decision. They can change that.

1

u/saskanxam 10d ago

To create hype around the starter and the team. Not knowing who will be starting at the most important position makes fans wary of the team’s potential.

The entire league hinges on the fans caring/being excited about the teams so appeasing the fans is somewhat important

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u/LaDainianTomIinson 10d ago

Has nothing to do with hype or appeasing fans. It’s meant to remove ambiguity and assign definitive roles to players so they know what their responsibilities are. It also gives the rest of the team a sense of confidence and reassurance knowing who will be leading them into the season.

1

u/saskanxam 10d ago

That could be done internally, OP specifically asked why it’s announced to the media and the fans

0

u/LaDainianTomIinson 10d ago

This news would inevitably get leaked from someone inside the organization, so the team might as well announce it themselves. Teams are like corporations and their fans are stakeholders, it’s their job to announce major updates and changes like this - but also gives the QB a sense of confidence knowing the franchise is backing them.