You think the lack of full contact practices is why some fans aren't as excited for training camp or preseason?
And by extension sharply limited play from starters in preseason. Camp and preseason are now oriented toward getting to week 1 with as few injuries as possible, particularly starters. Some of these injury sit-outs are precautionary; some these guys would be playing if it were money games.
You now have a lot of second and third level guys getting a lot of snaps against second and third level guys. You can't tell what you've got until the guys play the money games. Practice warriors can wilt under the bright lights where they actually have to hit or be hit. Starters are only out there to get in "contact condition", getting enough snaps to get reaccustomed to that hit-and-be-hit.
If there is more inforation about what is going on than 15 years ago, shouldn't that make you more engaged? Or are you saying that when you were blind to what was going on you were free to be as optimistic as you chose to be?
Or is it that all this information has made fans smarter, now realizing how little you can glean from non-contact practices and that preseason performance needs to be taken with a grain of salt?
I would point to other factors. First, there's fantasy football where many fans are primarily focused on their collection players while attention paid to a particular team is secondary. Second, as far as some Packer fans are concerned, having sucked for the last two seasons dampens enthusiasm. Third, as little as we've seen so far with no Rodgers yet in preaseason and a few other starters sitting out, this team has not impressed.
