The Biggest Storylines of the PLL Offseason
1. Where we watching?
In my mind, this is the single biggest question facing the PLL right now. One of the biggest selling points of the league at launch, and arguably the best thing about it through these first three years, has been the broadcast deal with NBC. A few games a year on NBC, games on NBC Sports Network, and then for purchase games on NBC Sports Gold, or more recently Peacock. The deal led to some of the best viewership numbers pro lacrosse has ever had, and has been critical to the growth numbers that the league has had to this point. And now, that deal is up, and the league has to negotiate a new one. There are a few complicating factors here, among them is that NBC Sports Network is going away. It’s not going to be an option anymore. The other networks that may absorb some of the NBCSN content are channels like USA, another NBC Universal property. The question is, does NBC feel good enough about the growth of lacrosse to put it on USA once NBC SN is gone? Is lacrosse ready to beat Law and Order SVU episodes or original cable series in the ratings? Otherwise, it’s the handful of games on NBC, and then everything else on Peacock or behind a paywall. You know who else had basically that deal? The MLL. Maybe one or two regular season games and the title game on ESPN2 or ESPNEWS, the rest paywalled on ESPN+. I don’t think that’s where the league wants to be or should be at this point. If I were the commish, I’d consider chasing a deal with Disney.
The current ESPN summer properties are not exactly extensive. There’s the odd baseball game here and there, a potential overlap with the NBA but not in the same time slot, Little League World Series, Wimbledon, some MLS, and not a whole ton else of live original stuff. A deal with Disney could get the PLL the handful of games on ABC so it stays on network TV, some games on ESPN/2, and the rest can still be on ESPN+. You’d have access to high level lacrosse broadcasting talent like Anish, Carc, and Quint, but also be able to use personalities that they’ve used for other college games like Mike Golic Jr, or guys who are self-proclaimed fans of the league like Field Yates or Dan Orlovsky. I do love Burke and Burmeister, but if the league isn’t on NBC, not sure how they come along. Boyle has done games for ESPN in the past and can continue to be in the booth if this move is made. From a visibility standpoint, It’s really close to where the league is now already. It also offers the opportunity to put games on as lead ins to college football once the late summer rolls around, which is critical as some of the best viewed PLL games this year had excellent lead ins and follows on the NBC networks. A challenge here is that ESPN already has college lacrosse, and the NLL will be there this season as well. It would be a significant bet on the sport for ESPN/Disney to take on another lacrosse league. A wrinkle to this is that ESPN+ data shows them having around 15 million subscribers as of Q1 2021. Peacock, since it has so much more than just sport programming, has nearly 40 million more subscribers than ESPN+.
The TV deal is a major moment in the leagues history and can either keep the arrow pointed upward with a good deal, or bury the league behind streaming paywalls, which I must think would stunt growth.
2. Some minor improvements from the referees.
I am not here to just crap on the refs. I’m also not here to repost the “Zed thumbs it and the refs should call it meme” meme. By and large, I think the Matty Palumb and PLL officiating crews do a damn good job. The PLL game is fast moving, physical, and getting everything right all the time isn’t easy. That said, there are a few things that could be, as it’s called in other sports, points of emphasis this year. The first has to do with defenders, particularly SSDMs using their free hand. Consider this tweet. It’s hailing Mark Glicini for making a great play, blocking a shot late. And the shot block is a great play, potentially game saving. You know what isn’t? Tackling Jules Heningburg right before the block. And I don’t mean to pick on Glicini, because just about every SSDM in the league was guilty of doing this at some point this past season. I saw it multiple times each weekend. I know defenders are looking for an edge wherever they can get one because the offense is so skilled, but things this blatant just need to get flagged. The other issue I’d like to see addressed is the faceoff. I admittedly am not as well versed in the minutia of the faceoff as some others like, say, Greg Gurenlian. The Beast and other faceoff pros famously are the ones who literally wrote the PLL faceoff ruleset. So, it made me sad to see guys like Greg and Jerry Ragonese routinely pointing out failures of the refs to correctly officiate the faceoffs as the PLL rules are written. Again, consider this tweet. Beast goes as far as to say that some of these failings are costing guys careers, and he’s not wrong, since just one or two bad weeks can put a faceoff specialist in the on the bench or even in the player pool in a hurry. The league should consider bringing Beast and others back in at some point this offseason to retrain the PLL officials on the rules of the faceoff and get back to what we had year one — an incredibly competitive faceoff season.
3. What’s the next innovation that the Chaos bring to us?
The reigning champs really do have the perfect name. Chaos is all they’ve brought to the PLL since year one. This team has zigged whenever we thought they would zag. Coach Towers has rep as the guy who’s screaming his head off at half time and making you want to run through a wall but consider just how much he’s disrupted pro lacrosse since taking over as the Chaos coach. Year one, everyone is trying to adjust to the new ruleset and, for the most part, still playing like it’s the MLL. What does the Chaos do? Realize that by involving defensemen in transition, you can leverage both the shorter field AND the shorter two-point arc, and you wind up with a team that jumps all over transition mistakes and launches two pointers at every chance. Through year one, this had the Chaos looking like the class of the league, as they leaned on two bombs and Connor Fields to put unending pressure on defenses. Year two, everyone spends on the offseason getting as much two-way talent as they can, to both combat the opponent’s transition and try to create some of their own. The Chaos got off to a rough start year two unable to do what had been so successful year one. So of course, it’s time for radical change. Connor Fields is benched, Austin Staats goes to attack, Dhane Smith gets a bigger role, Josh Byrne gets the ball more, and the Chaos catch fire playing spoiler in the playoffs, nearly taking the title. And so that takes us to year three, and again the Chaos found themselves looking for some answers early. Coach Towers went north of the border for quite a few players, and many ended up being stranded there. But we should have seen then just what Towers was trying to do to shake things up in year three. He leaned hard on players with box skillsets to try and carry over what took them to success in year two. He also let his guys embrace their inner nasty streak, like Jack Rowlett and late in the season Max Adler, to bring the physicality and swagger of a box team to the field game. Now, the target is on the Chaos as they were the guys who knocked off the seemingly invincible Whipsnakes. It’s time again for Coach Towers to zig when the rest of us zag.
4. The kids take over the show
You can feel the shift happening. The Atlas led the youth charge this year, with a squad full of rookies and 2nd year guys like Bryan Costabile and Jeff Teat playing key productive roles, complimented by quality veterans like Mark Cockerton and John Crawley. Danny Logan and Ryan Terefenko are the new cream of the crop at SSDM. TD Ierlan arrived at the faceoff spot and had an instant impact. We got flashes of just how electric Michael Sowers can be for the Waterdogs. We didn’t even get to see JT Giles-Harris, the top defenseman drafted, play for the Chrome this season due to injury. But it’s even more than just the influx of young talent. We’ve already had some absolutely iconic players retire. John Galloway and Joel White, who are among the best to ever do it at their respective positions, hung it up this year. Kyle Harrison, a fan favorite who makes a strong case to be the silhouetted as the league logo and a leader of the sport for over a decade, has retired. Paul Rabil, the most impactful field lacrosse pro ever and holder of the all time scoring record, retired. Nick Ossello. I’d be willing to bet there are a few more retirements coming before summer 2022 rolls around for some big names getting on in years. A changing of the guard is here, which makes this an incredibly exciting time for the sport. There’s also a particularly exciting and skilled group of players about to be available in the college draft. Chris Gray, Nakeie Montgomery, Matt Moore, Jonathan Donville, there is some serious talent, with serious personality, available for these teams. The sudden impact of two draft classes in one this past year, along with the extra COVID year guys now still making their way out of college, created this tidal wave of talent that is all hitting the league at once, and it just so happens to be at the same time as some all-time greats are calling it a career. This past year and upcoming year are seasons that I think will be marked as the end of one era and start of the next.
5. On the road again
Time for some new tour stops. This year, the PLL hit a lot of what I’d call the safe spots. Next year they have the opportunity to do what they had planned before COVID. Prior to the pandemic, the league had stops all set in Utah, Portland, and possibly MAPFRE Stadium in Ohio. With the MLL merger now two years removed and people in former MLL markets hoping that their team will be the next to go the way of the Cannons and become a PLL team, the league has the chance to stop in some places and gauge the appetite of those markets. They’ll already be in most of them, but Ohio and Carolina would love a stop too. It made sense to lean on reliable hotbed markets this season as the league worked its way back from the pandemic, but now following a year where, per Mike Rabil, they crushed their ticket sales goals, it makes sense to visit some of the non-hotbed, “riskier” markets as well.
6. As always, the roster shuffle. But different this time.
Speaking of the draft, as always, it’s always fun to do the roster speculation game. The rumor mill is already ablaze, as talking to some players and others around the league has led to some eyebrow raising player movement gossip. With the aforementioned retirements, there are big spots to fill for teams either with player pool talent or via the college draft. During media availability at Championship Weekend, Mike Rabil made it sound like expansion is a longshot this offseason, which would make this our first offseason without an expansion draft. I’m not even sure the league will have an entry draft again, as most of the players who you’d expect to be available in it are already in the player pool. That really just leaves the college draft and trades for major roster moves. The PLL Big Board will indeed be making it’s return as we get a little closer to the college lacrosse season. The Atlas are in an outstanding position, as they have the Cannons pick in the first round of the college draft (unless it turns out to be a conditional pick with the condition being that Rabil play more than one year so the Cannons might actually keep their pick but I’m just spit balling here). The Bulls are loaded in just about every spot but might need some help on defense or at LSM for depth. With the remarkable glut of offensive talent, if the Atlas decide they love a defenseman like Brett Makar out of Maryland, they may be able to trade back and acquire even more draft assets while still getting their guy, or just making their strength stronger and taking a player like Matt Moore. How teams evaluate their needs is particularly important this year because they don’t have the luxury of multiple drafts to fill needs. Each move is that much more weighted.
