You found yourself intrigued. It didn’t matter that you knew next to nothing about the majority of the players and only slightly more about some of the coaches.

But it was football, and your Super Bowl hangover was mean. So you tuned into Week 1 of the Alliance of American Football season. Surprisingly, you found yourself entertained. Maybe you’ve taken time to look up some of the players or coaches from the upstart league, and when the Week 2 slate kicks off this weekend, you’ll tune in again.

You’re not alone. A lot of powerful people in NFL circles watched with just as much intrigue and came away both impressed and optimistic.

The consensus: The AAF is quality football featuring a lot of young talent. The games moved along at a brisk and entertaining pace. The offenses ran sophisticated schemes, and the defenses delivered big hits. And if the league provides a talent pipeline and developmental arena for the NFL, it could address a longstanding need.

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The AAF has a chance to satisfy the unquenchable thirst of football fans — particularly the die-hards, who get worked up over preseason games, dissect rosters and debate practice squad candidates. It also has a legitimate chance to address a real need for the NFL.

For more than a decade, NFL coaches and talent evaluators have found themselves in a quandary on player development. They face the pressure of fielding competitive rosters while maximizing the return on investments in young prospects. But because patience from above often runs short, there’s little time to endure the growing pains of slowly developing draft picks and college free agent signings. Underperformers often get relegated to the bench and can be the first to go when injuries create immediate needs elsewhere.

In many of these cases, team officials acknowledge that these castoffs aren’t bad players. They simply needed developmental time that the squad couldn’t afford.

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The NFL has no true minor league system. Those days ended in 2007 when the league’s owners agreed to shut down NFL Europe, which served as a developmental tool of sorts for teams. But it couldn't sustain itself, and owners eventually tired of investing in it.

Since then, coaches and general managers have had to rely on spring practices, training camp and the preseason to develop young players. However, only so much can be accomplished in those settings, especially when it comes to grooming quarterbacks. It takes live action for a passer to become comfortable with reading and reacting to defenses while remaining cool under pressure.

That's one of the reasons some early-round quarterbacks bomb out after their teams play them prematurely. It’s also a contributing factor for why so few middle- to late-round quarterbacks blossom into quality starters.

The same holds true for players at other positions. They often possess athleticism and smarts, but their fundamentals need to be refined before they can secure a spot on an NFL active roster.

Every July, 2,880 players report for NFL training camps. By late August, nearly half of them receive pink slips, and only 320 manage to secure practice squad spots.

Now, thanks to the AAF, additional chances could exist for those castoffs and the countless other undrafted and unsigned players to further develop into NFL-caliber players.

There does appear to be one glaring area of weakness in the AAF, and that’s offensive line play. Quality linemen are hard to come by in the NFL, let alone a secondary pro league, and are easily outnumbered by athletic defensive linemen.

The AAF rule that prevents defenses from rushing more than five defenders will help protect quarterbacks. But any passer’s talents will certainly shine through, NFL observers insist, because if he can develop and thrive in these conditions – with subpar protection and a shorter play clock – his abilities should translate well to a higher level.

NFL teams already have scouts assigned to combing the AAF for talent, and they’ll do the same for the XFL once that league begins play in 2020. Already, some performances could be helping players draw training camp invitations. Multiple NFL talent evaluators told USA TODAY Sports that numerous AAF players will wind up in NFL organizations this fall. With time, coaches and front office officials could land the same opportunities.

As one NFL talent evaluator who spoke to USA TODAY Sports on condition of anonymity, because he was not authorized to speak on personnel matters, put it, “There’s always a diamond in the rough or two. If a guy shines, we’ll find him. This should definitely be a good thing.”

NFL Europe produced the likes of Kurt Warner, James Harrison, Jake Delhomme, Adam Vinatieri, Brad Johnson, David Akers and Jon Kitna. With the exception of Kitna, all of those players went on to help lead their NFL teams to Super Bowl appearances.

If the AAF can have a similar impact in the years to come, that’s a win for all parties involved.

Follow Mike Jones on Twitter @ByMikeJones.

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