NFL 2019-2020

[BuckeyeGreen]

Speaking of teams with a quarterback question mark but a team that I think is going to be very good this year even though they are in the toughest division, is the Cleveland Browns. I know everyone hates the Browns because of Deshaun but if he is who he used to be, the Browns are going to be good because their roster is strong.
On the offensive side they picked up Elijah Moore who is real talent that the Jets fucked up on and paired with Amari Cooper, Donovan People’s Jones, Cedric Tillman and Marquis Goodman, the receiving core is strong. Nick Chubb is the best running back in the league. Sorry but he only had 7 fewer yards than Henry last year and he had almost 50 fewer carries. Living in Ohio I see all their games, like it or not but Chubb is a great, great back.
I look for Myles Garrett to lead the league in sacks with the help he got on the defensive line, with Jim Schwartz as the new defensive coordinator the defense is going to be much better.
What teams do you guys think are sleeper teams and why?

 

[pop_rocks]

hey whats happening buckeye'! some good takes in there man
i would rank chubb in the top-5 rbs for sure man and i like his running style and garrett is a wrecking ball
but it all comes down to d.watts plays
he has a.cooper and i would not be sprised to see them both ball out this season but will it be enough?!
/tune into WKRP to find out

 

[BuckeyeGreen]

The Browns real challenge is the division. Easily the toughest division in the league. I think the Ravens and the Bengals are teams that could contend for the title. The Steelers should be much improved if Pickett makes a big jump this year and Mike Tomlin’s teams always play hard. No easy games in that division.
Everything depends on key players not getting hurt and missing significant time. That’s the case with every team in the nfl. A couple of key injuries will knock out any team.
Another key player to watch in that division is Lamar. He’s either Superman or a dud. I’ve watched him play many times and he either blows you away or is mediocre. It seems there is no middle ground with him. If he is on his game though there is nobody better.
I think the Ravens however will regret his contract in the long run because he has become injury prone. After having missed quite a few games the past two seasons and more importantly his passing hasn’t improved over the years, the Ravens are walking a fine line between contender and also ran. Being a Bengals and Steelers fan I hope they step over the line into the also ran territory. It’s tough for me though because I am a fan of Lamar and I do wish him the best; except when he is playing my teams.
Anybody else got any sleeper teams they think will surprise people this year?

 

[Bababooey]

I hear some of the silicon valley geeks and wall street traders micro-dose to ‘expand their minds’ a bit, apparently it helps them in their job, maybe think outside the box/there’s more than one way to skin a cat.

Jets O/U for wins is 9.5, think I might go over on that. Like u said, rodgers has a very good arm and pocket movement even though he’s almost 40, his last year wasn’t so good but he had a hurt (broken?) thumb for most of the year, plus had to adjust without davante adams as his #1 WR. But like u said, u have to figure that Buffalo wins the division, especially if von miller recovers from his acl by week 1.

I think growing outdoors you have to be near some kind of water source, close enough to where you can bring water to the plants during hot dry spells, but yeah, not so near that other people might stumble upon your plot. Also I’d want to be near water just so I could wash up once in a while, living in the bush without showering for weeks/months isn’t pleasant, possibly unhealthy too.

Hola Buckeye. U an Ohio state fan too? Who’s their QB this year? U think they’ll beat michigan? I guess going 11-3 (or whatever it is) against them the past 14 yrs isnt bad, even if it’s 0-2 most recently.
Deshaun watson lowkey deserves the hate but if you can put that aside, ur right, if he can get back to his houston form he’s a top 6-7 QB easily. He looked pretty bad when he did come back last year but that was after not playing for almost 2 years so the rust was real. A full offseason and training camp, maybe a good amount of preseason games too will help get his timing back.

Like u and pop said, chubb is an elite RB, most experts agree that he’s the best pure runner in the league right now. He doesn’t have the receiving skills of a mccaffrey or kamara but he’s shown he can catch the ball too and make plays with it.
Now that I think about it, without kareem hunt this year he might finish as the top RB in fantasy if he gets a lot of receptions. So far he’s been going in the 2nd rd in mock drafts so that’s good value.

And ur right, we’re talking about the afc-east being tough but the afc-north is usually a bloodbath too, especially if both ohio teams are good. I wasn’t too impressed with pickett last year but he wasn’t a heralded rookie so growing pains are expected, he does have some nice talent around him tho. That’s an interesting take on lamar, that was the concern about him, sure he’s devastating running the ball but will the hits add up? The last 2 seasons he’s missed time due to injuries, although maybe he could have played in their playoff loss last year. And yeah, he was jekyll and hyde last year, he started off the best QB in the league that first month then fell off hard after that. He’s got some better receiver help, maybe OBJ will do something too.

Im not sure about other sleepers, maybe Denver with a new head coach? I actually think the packers could surprise with Jordan love at QB, he got little playing time last year in the reg season but he did lead the packers to 10pts when rodgers couldn’t do anything that game. But maybe that was garbage time talking.

 

[BuckeyeGreen]

Hey triple B. As far as Ohio State goes it’s hard not to admire the excellence of the program but they need to move to a different conference. Every year it’s pretty much the same thing. They easily beat the shit out of everybody on their schedule and it’s not fun to watch.
There is no mystery or intrigue in their games. You know they are going to win against the teams they schedule and the weak conference and it’s not even close. Frequently playing a bunch of subs in the second half. I get no joy out of watching them beat the shit out of far inferior opponents. I want to see a struggle, a battle. They basically have one game a year of interest to me and that’s the Michigan game. This year maybe a little different in that Penn State looks like they could be real good. If that Allard kid they have at quarterback turns out to be the real deal, they will be tough.
I don’t know who Ohio State’s quarterback will be this year. The guy who was Stroud’s back-up last will probably be the starter although a dual threat guy they have is supposed to be really good. O State is like a quarterback factory. Some of them may not make it in the pros but they always seem to kill it on the college level.
I think Michigan beats them this year. Anything can happen as the year progresses. Key guys getting hurt, new young players may turn out to be super stars etc. As it stands right now, I’m taking Michigan.
I do think Ohio State has the best player at any position in college football and why he didn’t go into the draft last year baffles me. Marvin Harrison Jr. was the best player at any position last year and why he came back this year with Ohio State having a new, unproven quarterback, is really baffling. It looked like he got some bad advice.
I think the only thing that could happen this year for him is bad, he could sustain a bad injury. I hope for his sake that doesn’t happen but why even risk it? He was by far the best receiver last year so he has nothing left to prove at the college level. Maybe he thinks if he balls out this year he’ll be the number one or two pick. Hell I would have taken him number one last year over either Young or Stroud. He’s the best college wide receiver I’ve ever seen!

 

[Bababooey]

Hehe, yeah, it’s just been OSU and michigan lately in the B10, and that only in the last 2 yrs. Before that it was OSU as the king of the conference. Wisconsin hasn’t been great lately, Iowa has a worthy defense but hasn’t been able to score in seemingly forever, MSU is inconsistent but more often bad than good, penn state is good but not as great as their reputation, everyone else is varying levels of putrid (indiana, Illinois, rutgers, minnesota etc) with occasional bouts of competence. But ur right, a competent team going against OSU/Bama/georgia only loses by 20pts instead of 40.
We’ll see. Wisconsin has luke fickell, former OSU coach, and nebraska hired matt rhule, who sucked in the nfl but was a darn good college coach. And don’t forget USC and Ucla are joining the conference next year, that should provide more competition.
I think OSU lately has been the WR factory for the NFL, more so than even alabama or lsu. But I believe MHJ was only a true sophomore last year, u need to be 3 yrs out of high school to be drafted. Ur right tho, he’s going to be a top 5 pick if he doesn’t get hurt, still a top 15 pick even if he does like jameson williams last year (tore his acl in the playoffs, still got drafted #12 overall by the lions).
I havent watched too much of him, like u said it’s boring watching OSU beat up on B10 opponents, but ill keep an eye on him this season, if he really blows up he might get some heisman votes; devonta smith won the heisman 3 yrs ago playing WR for ‘bama.
What do u think of pat fitzgerald getting fired as the northwestern coach after reports of sexual hazing in the team? Maybe if he had won 8-9 games last year instead of 1 they would have kept him on, or u think nah, he had to go regardless?

 

[pop_rocks]

hahah the new guy is kind of cool! welcome buckeyegreen
im actually a big fan of lamar (l'freaky), he is one of the most exciting qbs to watch and like you said he can light it up every now and then
im going to have to say nfc.w is the toughest division right now
you have kc, the chargers and we will see how lv and den shake out this year
does jimmy g plays a whole season w/o getting hurt?! will russ light his fire in the kitchen; stay tuned!
/could one of those two teams be be your darkest horse?
while chubb is not as polished as runCMC or kamara he can do it all pretty well
i think it all comes down to d.watts and how he transitions to his second year
if he clicks like you said the team could be poised to bust a move, but i like cin
so whats your take on the stillers? i dont really follow that div like i used to but i am all ears when it comes to hot teaks!
we will see how the microdosing goes this season baba, it always starts out micro dose when the season kicks off, but by week6 im eating them by the handful
where is f'n hawk?

 

[BuckeyeGreen]

Chubb can do it pretty well alright. When you get to watch him weekly like I do, you quickly realize he is the best in the business. I’m not the only one who thinks that.

PFF Running Back Rankings: Top 32 ahead of the 2023 NFL season | NFL News, Rankings and Statistics | PFF

Cleveland Browns running back Nick Chubb takes the top spot in these running back rankings ahead of the 2023 NFL season.

www.pff.com

The AFC WEST was supposed to be the top division last year but they bombed. KC is the class team in the league right now but the rest of the division is shakey. Herbert has one the strongest arms in the league and the Chargers had him throwing short routes all year. He had one of the lowest yards per catch ratios in the league. LV and Denver look like bottom half of the league teams to me.
The Steelers are always going to give you a fight because that’s how Mike Tomlin teams play. If Watt stays healthy he’s a delightful freak show to watch. On the other side of the defensive line Alex Highsmith had a breakout year with 14.5 sacks. At 25 he is in his prime. With a healthy Watt and Highsmith and 6 time Pro Bowler Cam Hayward on the defensive line, it’s the strongest part of the team.
Offensively is where I don’t feel quite as confident. Pickett is still raw but he is impressive. He has some work to do but he is a tireless worker and Tomlin said his desire to be good and to win is off the charts. He is very motivated. The thing I can always hang my hat on with the Steelers is that they have a coach that the players love and they play really hard for him. Mike always delivers.
Triple B in the past an Iowa team, a Wisconsin team or a Michigan State or Penn State will be a challenge for a year or so here and there but Ohio State has pretty consistently dominated that conference for 20 years. USC is definitely going to be an upgrade in competition and UCLA was good last year so we’ll see. I expect Nebraska to be much improved under Rhule and he has supposedly done very well recruiting and in the portal. Fickle is a great coach but I don’t how good of a roster he has. The new teams and coaches is just what the conference needed.
The Fitzgerald thing is somewhat puzzling to me. The whistleblower said he experienced these things when he played there in 2005-2009. Now, 14 years later he suddenly wants something done about it. If those things did happen then they had some sick fucks on that team but you wait 14 years to say something? I don’t get it.
They school hired a law firm that did a seven month investigation and interviewed more than 50 people. The law firm came to the conclusion that the head coach knew nothing about it and had no involvement in it. They recommended a two week suspension without pay and that came out on Friday. The whistleblower didn’t think that was enough so he went to the student paper and the tools that are young journalist, they published it without investigating if it was true or not and of course never got the other side of the story.
The whistleblower also called the president of the university after the decision to suspend expressing his dissatisfaction with the decision. Now no NEW information or knowledge came to light between Friday when he was suspended and Monday when he was fired. The only thing that change is all the dirt was public in the school newspaper and the phone call to the president from the whistleblower caused the president to fire Fitzgerald. The whistleblower couldn’t have told the president anything new. Every thing he had to say he told the law firm that took his statement. So the president saw his testimony when he and the board reached the decision to suspend Fitzgerald.
Also the woke factor has to be taken into account. Northwestern is about as woke as they come, the player was of Mexican decent and after it came out in the school newspaper I’m sure the president saw woke riots in his future. If you want to learn what woke is really about, go to the New Discourses channel on YouTube and get a real education.
I don’t agree with the sentiment that, well he should have known or he created a culture that allowed that. Fitzgerald, by all accounts is a really good guy. He would have never promoted that kind of behavior and he even had a big meeting every season telling the players that hazing was not allowed in any way shape or form. I guess people expect the head coach to hang out in the locker room while the players are showering to make sure there is no monkey business going on.
It’s like saying a CEO of a big company should know that some employees are doing blow in the bathrooms or fucking in the back parking lot. If employees are caught doing that shit, they get fired. The board doesn’t demand the CEO get fired because “ he should have known.”
I think if Fitzgerald had been 11-1 instead of 1-11 last year, he’d still have a job. It’s all about the results baby.
The NFL teams I hope surprise this year are the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Detroit Lions. If Tua can stay healthy I think the Dolphins can make some noise. I think Seattle will be really good. Should be an interesting year.

 

[pop_rocks]

if miami can keep tuas head duct taped to his shoulders i think mia could make the playoffs for sure this season with or without a d.cook trade
afc.e is another hot div
buf is most likely winning that div but could mia make a wild card run
baba was asking about the over/ under on them ( i think it was 9.5) and i would almost tempted to take the over on that one
then you have a.rog moving to nyj and this div could produce three playoff teams this year
det looks too good to be considered a dark horse but you never know what you are going to get with jared goof at qb
the dolts were hobbled by injury but still hammered out 10w; i think they have one of the most dynamic offenses in the league and a mean defense ; this could be a break out year for them if healthy
#f'spanos
maybe russ will cook this season or maybe not; will it be another year of take out for the mile high city?
good taeks on pitt and i agree that im not sold on kenny right now, but i like the system and as long as he can play his part they could turn it around
keep those hot taeks coming man!

 

[Bababooey]

Yeah, ive seen chubb play a few times, and seen his scoring highlights on redzone. He’s shifty enough to dodge tacklers at the line and fast enough to outrun them to the end zone. 70 yard TD runs and goal line dives are both in his bag.
Even his receiving I think is underrated, I remember one ball he caught and ran with for 20 yds and did a spin move to get into the end zone. I was like, huh, just get the ball in this guy’s hands and he’ll make good things happen.
I think im talking myself into possibly drafting watson in fantasy if he falls past the 7-8th rd (typical drafts are 12-15 rds long) in fantasy. U think he’s got top 5 QB potential with the added receivers?

The cowboy’s old Off Coordinator, former QB kellen moore, is now the charger’s OC, I expect he’ll take more shots downfield than the last guy. Dak prescott seemed to throw downfield fairly often with kellen calling the plays, and like u said herbert has a better arm.
I heard highsmith is hoping to work out a contract extension before the season starts. Im not sure he’s worth much more than 20M/yr, given that tj watt draws the double teams on that line, but maybe u actually watch him and can give an informed opinion on how much he’s worth. But ur right, steelers led the league in sacks 2 yrs ago, fell to middle of the pack last year when watt was injured and had a down year, that’s a D-line you can win a superbowl with.

I think every major conference has the 800lb gorilla among its members. For the sec it’s ‘bama, now sharing it with georgia. For the acc it’s clemson, pac 12 it’s USC (I guess), Big 12 Oklahoma. That one team that wins the conference at least 50% of the time, although with OSU it’s more like 80% of the time lol. If OSU goes to the SEC I guess there’ll be more competition with bama and georgia, but every other conference would be a downgrade.

Are the allegations really that old? I thought the one that talked to the student newspaper was recent, supposedly he told other players that he wanted fitzgerald fired.

Yeah ur right, it was BS that the uni president said 2 wks unpaid leave is fine, then when it hit the media he ‘reconsidered’ and now fires him. Like the ray rice discipline by goodell, a lower punishment was fine until the details become public, then they say ‘well I didn’t know and we cant tolerate this’ and impose a harsher punishment. It’s hypocrisy and playing to the crowd.

The coach being punished for stuff that he ‘should have known about’ is fairly normal, however. Coaches get punished or fired or pushed out all the time for major recruiting violations. And I get what ur saying about ceo’s and big companies but a football team isnt thousands of people, it’s 85 or so scholarship athletes, and you’ve got a big staff to do the grunt work. Sometimes that’s what the head job is, you get the axe for the transgressions of the people under you, this encourages the future bosses to be more proactive in policing those issues.
He's going to sue the university since he still has 8 yrs left on his contract, they’ll probably settle, and next yr he’ll get another P5 job. Like u said, he’s a good coach, and he'll be just fine, even if he wont be at his alma mater anymore. Just don’t let your next players dry hump each other, Pat! This aint the Navy.

Trevor lawrence, if he continues to improve, in a weak division (colts and texans starting rookie qb’s, titans will probably be ok), they won 9 games last year (5 straight at the end of the season) and made the playoffs… yeah I could see that. Their O/U is 9.5 wins, u really think they’ll win 10-11 games next year?
Lions have been getting a lot of hype and their O/U is 9.5 too. As a longtime NFC north observer it’s hard for me to imagine them winning the division but on paper they look the best. They play the chiefs in wk 1 so we’ll see how real they are.
I actually think the seahawks might take a step back this year, but they supposedly had a great draft, helped by the extra picks from the wilson trade. I thought geno smith played worse as the season went on, and he wasn’t hurt so maybe teams figured him out? I could be wrong tho.

Pops and I have been talking up the Fins lately but they got some competition in the afc east, if the patriots look to be the worst team in ur division that’s one tough division.

 

[BuckeyeGreen]

The last thing I’m going to say on Fitzgerald is that these Big 10 coaches probably work 80 hours a week and practically live at the facility; so they are constantly overwhelmed. Not every big company has thousands of employees but even if they only had 80, there is still no way in hell that he could be held responsible for all of the employees behavior all the time.

The key thing to remember with college coaches is that they are working with kids with all kinds of various backgrounds. They all have their own issues and things going on in their lives. A college coach is basically raising 80 kids, all at the same time! Not dealing with employees but raising kids. Kids in giant bodies but still kids, growing up, learning, making mistakes, trying to adapt to college life away from home for a long period of time for the first time in their lives. Dealing, especially at a demanding academic school like Northwestern , much greater academic demands than they are used to. He also has a bunch of young coaches who are learning their trade and they all have their issues too.

I know that coaches are frequently held to, what I think, is an unrealistic and nearly impossible standard. They are not supermen. They can’t be all knowing, omnipresent gods. They can’t be watching all the kids, all the time. While the coach is spending 80 hours a week watching film, having meetings with coaches and divising game plans, having practices, meeting with academic advisors to make sure all the kids are going to class and keeping up their grades. Also many meeting with individual kids to help them with issues in their lives. Maybe home problems, school problems, injuries, playing time, NIL issues, girlfriend problems, problems they may have with position coach, transfer portal issues. Then going to dinners and talking to alumni etc. etc.

So then a couple of the players go out drinking one night, they get into a fight at the bar and suddenly there is big trouble. Even though these guys are young and bound to make mistakes, they still do have personal responsibility for their own actions. You can talk to a kid until you are blue in the face and they are still going to make young, dumb mistakes like we all did when we were young. To think a coach can always keep all the testosterone pumped, athletic dudes, from all kinds of backgrounds in line all the time is totally unrealistic.

Jared Goff had his rep. take a hit because the Rams coach trashed him and did him dirty. Goff took them to the Super Bowl and then the next year teams adjusted their defenses to shut them down and the coach couldn’t adapt and blamed it on Goff. Here is where he ranked last year. He is easily a top ten quarterback and close to top five. With the new weapons he has, I think they can be special.

Jared Goff | Detroit Lions QB | NFL and PFF stats | PFF

NFL and PFF player stats for Detroit Lions QB Jared Goff on Pro Football Focus.

www.pff.com

Highsmith gots those big numbers even though Watt missed a handful of games and even he admitted it took him three or fours games to get back to his normal level of play after he came back from the injury. So teams were concentrating on Highsmith for half of the season and he still got his numbers. With Watt fully healthy and Highsmith coming into his own, yeah I think he is worth a big payday and besides he is 25 years old and in his prime. Gotta sign young, stud edge rushers in their prime. They don’t come along everyday. If you focus on him you see Tasmanian devil. He brings it.

With Jacksonville and Detroit I really WANT them to do really well. I think both teams have a shit ton of potential but when teams have a history of losing it’s hard to fully believe in them until they play well for several years in a row. Doug Peterson is a great coach, he saved Lawrence’s career and he also rehabilitated the whole franchise. He was just what doctor ordered. Kind of the same situation in Detroit. Campbell rehabilitated that franchise as well. I want them to do well and hope they do.

The AFC East could be a beast but I’m going in the opposite route with that division. I think it will turn out like the AFC West did last year. Everybody was raving about the AFC WEST last year and thought it would be the best division in the league but turned into a dog. I think the Buffalo situation is shakey. I recently re-watched last years playoff game between The Bengals and the Bills. Diggs was almost invisible in that game. Josh Allen reverted back to the old Josh Allen before Daboll fixed him. Hopping around in the pocket, using bad judgment and inaccurate passing. At the end of the game Diggs got in Allen’s face and was giving him shit. Then the training camp beef already this year with Diggs. Unhappy diva receivers tend to divide teams. It will either be ugly or glorious depending on the Allen and Diggs situation.

The Dolphins have a great roster but the Tua situation is fragile and it can be easily turn into a disaster with one sack. Honestly I think Tua should retire. He is going to get sacked and if he bounces his head on the turf, he’s done. The backup, White, who they got from the Jets, can play and he may be able to save them if Tua goes down. It’s just too fine of a line with them.

Patriots-Jones. No thanks. Hey maybe having a real offensive coordinator, what in the hell was Belachick thinking, may turn him around. Personally I think Jones is soft.

I lived in Washington state for 12 years and I watched every game Russell played from his rookie season until now. He had one of the best defenses in the history of the league for four years and one of the greatest running backs in Marshon for those years as well. Honestly I never thought Russell was all that good. Remember I watched ALL of his games. He had A LOT of bad play. Many times they won in spite of him. Russell will probably improve with a real head coach but I think he has a low ceiling and I also hope he proves me wrong because I do like the guy.

One other team I failed to mention was the Cowboys. The Eagles are the class of the NFC and I think they will be better this year. Dallas has a helluva roster however. If Dak could be consistent , just like Aaron Dak had a busted thumb on his throwing hand last year, the Cowboys can beat anybody. They somehow need to find a way to exorcise the Cowboys curse. The problem is I think the curse is the owner. Hard to fire that guy.

A lot of parity in the league so I’m really looking forward to this season.

 

[Bababooey]

Everything you said about the life of a college coach is spot on accurate. Even now, georgia football players are still getting moving violations including speeding when earlier this year a player and a staff member died when drag racing another player. Im sure kirby smart and the coaches have sent out messages saying be smarter and more careful behind the wheel but like u said you cant physically control what players do in their free time.
But that doesn’t change the fact that heads will roll when the powers that be decide to make an example. It’s not just football, it’s other sports, other industries. When some cops go rogue and bring shame to a department, the chief gets axed even if he/she had no clue what was going on. I guess that’s just the nature of the top job, yeah it comes with power and prestige but also you got a sword hanging over ur head; uneasy lies the crown or something like that.

The lions started out 1-6 last season but closed on an 8-2 run and finished 9-8, almost got a wild card spot but I think seattle took it. He had a 29-7 td-int ratio, Buckeye makes sense saying he’s probably a top 7-8 QB, especially with jameson williams fully recovered from acl surgery. Am I really talking myself into drafting him in fantasy? Pops watched him for a few years on the rams and didn’t like him at all, called him ‘Goof’ but buckeye makes a good point, he’s a different QB now. What u think Pops, are there 7 QB’s you’d take over goof now?

Ill take ur word that highsmith is the real deal, I was just concerned about any team committing 50M+ to their starting Def ends, even ones as good as watt and highsmith. But ur right, with modern passing attacks you need stud pass rushers to disrupt them, so steelers have to keep their core together. At least they’ll save money on QB with pickett on a cheap rookie deal for another couple years.

I think almost any coach would have been a breath of fresh air for jacksonville after the debacle with urban meyer 2 years ago. That was such an odd thing to watch, starting with fingering that young lady who wasn’t his wife in his restaurant, kicking his kicker, even all that was forgivable but he just seemed like a bad coach at the pro level. Maybe he would have turned things around given another year because we all know he’s actually very good, but he’s not the first great college guy who struggled in the nfl. Rhule, spurrier, even saban more or less failed in the nfl.
Meyer helped bring OSU back to prominence, what did u think about that jaguars stint? U think he’ll take another college job eventually or is he done coaching for good?

The afc west, yeah that didn’t turn out so well last year, raiders and chargers struggled right out of the gate although the chargers eventually made the playoffs, and wilson fell flat on his face in denver. I think the afc east will be different tho, josh allen played with a hurt elbow most of the season but should be healthy now, diggs will be quiet so long as theyre winning. Pats have a top 5 defense, maybe top 3 so even if the offense stinks again they should be close to .500. Jets have rodgers and a stout D, and like u and Pop said Fins are loading up on talent. But ur right, one or two QB injuries could change everything, we’ll just have to see how it plays out.

I actually really enjoyed watching russell play, the way he’d scramble around the backfield then turn around and unleash a deep, accurate pass was a thing of beauty. But to your point, the downside to scrambling is bailing out of the pocket prematurely, it’s like u just created ur own pressure. And he’s getting old and losing that quickness, I remember his last season in seattle nick bosa would chase him down easy. That used to not happen, then again it’s nick bosa, he’s just built different.
But sean payton did some magical things with a short, immobile QB in drew brees, maybe he can bring back some wilson magic. Wilson has a good arm but he’s not as accurate as brees, except maybe with deeper throws, we’ll see what the offense looks like this season. He's got a decent amount of talent at WR and RB, you think they could be a top 10 offense this season?

 

[BuckeyeGreen]

The thing about Russell is he’s stink for 90% of the game, frequent three and outs, makes the defense work like maniacs every game in order to keep the games close. Then a couple of plays a game he’d pull out some miraculous play. They’d pull out a close win, they’d show his miraculous play and he’d be crowned the hero.
The defensive players hated him. He’d be all rah rah but on the sideline telling everybody let’s go guys and Sherman would say, why don’t you fuckin do something for once. Remember that scene last year where one of Denver’s defensive players got up in Russell’s face for the same kind of shit. Teammates got fed up with some guy telling them to pick it up when he’s stinkin up the joint. His play last year and his teammates reaction was not an anomaly. I’ve seen that shit plenty times in the past. You watch every game a team plays for almost ten years you get to see all the warts.
The only reason they were always put in those do or die situations is because Russell usually played like shit most of the game while the defense was saving his ass by holding the other team down. Then Russell would pull something out of his ass and get all the credit. Granted his magician plays were a beauty to behold but they were a very small part of the story. Everybody saw the whole story last year when he no longer has his all world defense and his scrambling ability to save his ass. You saw the raw Russell exposed.

As far as the Fitzgerald thing goes, I know that the top dogs in all organizations are had accountable to different degrees what what their underlings do. The point I was making is that many times it not just or fair way to do it and that maybe we should look at each individual case and not have some overarching philosophy that the top guy is always responsible for everything everybody does in their organization. In other words change the way things are done now in order to make it more fair.

I don’t think a guy who has worked hard and sacrificed for maybe 20, 25, 30 years to get to a high position, only to have it all taken away because someone in his organization did something stupid. Something he knew nothing about. It’s my own opinion and we’ll agree to disagree on this one but I think that is far too harsh and simply not fair.

I know that’s the way of the world but that can and in my mind should, change. Especially when we are talking about modern 18,19 and 20 year old Rammy jocks. These guys have been told in the public schools that they are amazing, awesome and incredible from pre-school onward. These days these Star athletes come to college as celebrities who think their shit doesn’t stink, NIL money in the bank and they think they can and should be allowed to do whatever they want because they are special. Control a bunch of those guys day and night. Impossible.

We need to stop babying these guys and hold them to a reasonable standard of behavior. If you don’t know it’s wrong when you are 20 years old not to body up to a guy in the shower, rubbing your dick on him in order to try to intimidate him, humiliate him and give your buddies a laugh, then there is something wrong with you. That’s a kid who was terribly raised with no moral compass. There is being young and making dumb mistakes and doing sick shit that isn’t a mistake. Those guys knew perfectly well it was wrong to do those things. They did it because they got some sick pleasure out of watching a young guy squirm.

The coach can’t be held responsible because some parents dumped their sick kid on his doorstep not giving him a clue what he is getting. A coach is responsible for that? Punish the kid. Better yet punish the parents.

 

[pop_rocks]

baba there are a lot guys i would take ahead of j.goofy
/would you rather have jeno smith or t,lawrence ahead of him, how about that hurts kid in phi?
ever seen this goofy guy name a.rog (i hear he sits in the dark and eats ayahuasca and just dreams of football) and we arent even talking about he top tier qbs
goff is a good qb and has everything he needs to be grea but i dont think mcvey is to blame for the drop off in hisnumbers after that super season (remember that guy named gurley?)
he got exposed the next season and everyone knew he could not adjust at the line
i guess they shut off the coaches mike so many seconds before the snap so you would see shirts on defense to confuse the offense
the best qbs make the reads and adjust at the line or at least make better reads, but goff couldent make that jump
fwiw, i think he could be well in det and wish him all the best
he has a strong arm and seems like a nice guy
ive been waiting to post this for too long so im pressing the button but i will come back and polish things adding /subtracting/ or multiplying as needed
i might be getting take out pizza today so stay tuned!
will it be all the meats? maybe just the cheeses? or some variation of the tow?
por que no los dos?
this day is just getting started

 

[Bababooey]

Yeah, I remember the time in practice when richard sherman intercepted wilson and started calling him garbage, trash, etc. Lol, ur right, I think a lot of hawks players thought pete carroll coddled wilson too much, protected him from criticism when some of it would have done him good.
Seems like his reputation is catching up to him, I saw a lot of people last year saying he’s so fake and corny, starting with the leak of a team promo he shot:


And then on a long plane ride the broncos took for their london game, russell said he spent time doing stretching and high knees on the plane while everybody was sleeping. Just too much rah-rah, trying to be captain america corniness.
In his defense he dealt with shoulder and hamstring injuries last year, and had a knee scope this offseason. He did play better at the very end of last season so maybe with improved health and coaching he’ll have a bounceback season. Cant really be any worse than last year, that was a disaster.

You make some compelling arguments about why firing Fitzgerald is a bad idea. It’s preferable to hold accountable the guys actually doing the bad acts and maybe their immediate supervisors. Probably many capable leaders were fired and replaced by someone less competent because they took the fall for the failings of the people under them. Although the allegations seemed like fitzgerald knew about the hazing and encouraged it – he supposedly clapped over their head after they screwed up in practice, letting the other players know to target his guy – but maybe he didn’t know the specifics, that the hazing got borderline sexual at times.
Im just thinking that the next coach NU hires isnt going to be nearly as good, his overall record was over .520 and conference record .460, which is pretty great for northwestern. U think Urban meyer might be interested? J/k.

Fwiw, fitzgerald is going to be just fine, in fact this might be good for him, his next opportunity will be at a school with more resources and we’ll see what he can really do at the next level given better recruiting, more coaching budget, NIL money etc. Where do u think he’ll coach next? Maybe arkansas if they fire their guy if he goes .500 again?

Also, I thought the NU hazing was at most dry humping (clothes on), no actual naked humping? The only naked part was one time they forced guys to do a naked QB-center exchange, or am I wrong? Which they didn’t want to do of course, but that’s more funny to me than anything. Could u imagine their disgust? What if the center rips a fart when the QB gets close? Lol. Too bad they didnt make a tiktok of it.

I guess I should clarify the question, Pops. Which QB would u want for this year, not counting age or longevity? Rodgers is 39, Goff is 28, I also would prefer rodgers this year over goff (ive seen that guy crush the bears and other teams too much to bet against him) but if ur talking long term you’d probably want goff since he’s got 10 years of his career left and rodgers has 1 or 2 (maybe 5 if he goes on the TB12 program).

Im not sure I believe in geno, it’s impressive he turned his career around but id rather have goff over him. Id pick trevor lawrence over goff tho, he’s much more athletic and a decent scrambler. Other than that, it’s the usual suspects: Mahomes, josh allen, lamar, jalen hurts, justin herbert, joe burrow are 6 I’d pick over goff.
But buckeye makes a good point, goff has been a top five QB before, in 2018 with the rams (4700yds, 32-12 td-int) so with a good offense around him he could drop some dimes all over the field. Something to think about in my fantasy draft for sure. Wonder if he’ll play much in the preseason, if he does and they score every possession the hype will build even more.

How was ur pizza, Pops? Did u go back to that free slice place again? And yeah, where’s Hawk? Hope he didn’t get abducted at the traphouse again, told him to stay away from there, smh…

 

[pop_rocks]

no i ended up going to chick fil et with my mom and getting chicken sandwiches
/extra pickles please
but im going to get the pizza later today
they have this almost white pizza but it has onions, spinach and sun dried tomatoes on it!
it sounds good so i will try it out
i think i understood the question, if we are just talking about this upcoming season i stand by my original taek, if im building a team i might rank them different, but we are just talking about this year
a.rog could take nyj to the playoffs just like $tafford did for the rams, will he win a sb, we gotta stay tuned and see
but i think he has a very limited window of opportunity like you said and they are hoping for a pone to two year reture on their investment
another thing to consider is a lot of these young gun slingers are coming off their rookie deals and will be wanting all the $$$ here soon
but i still like a.rog in nyj and im fading goof this year
/wipes tear off cheek, you broke my heart you goofy gun sloinger
yeah, i remember the good times goff had in la (dude i have a j.goff jersey someone gave me as a gift) but you also have to look at the team he had around him; stout o'line and hands all over the field and the best back in the league
im not sold on j.smith either baba
like you said, he had a great come back season in sea but can he follow up on it with another winning season?
i noticed you dident mention tua in your hot list of qbs? is it because of the neck? its the neck right?!
what about russ? will his second year in den be any better? and you know im cooking up a taek on the dream boat here! could baker pull a geno and put his name back on the map or is the end

 

[shithawk420]

Dont worry guys.staying away from the traphouses.Looks like I missed a bunch while I was was gone.all that college football talk went over my head.started drinking whiskey again so I've been sleeping most the day.preseason isn't far now.gonna have to figure out how to calibrate my new TV for sports mode.not sure how this is gonna work.dont know if I can just stream from my tv or have to use my laptop hooked up.bought it for games and movies mostly.

Haven't really been cooking lately but gonna make a rouladen soon I think.its easy enough.been having fun with this.havent bought a knife in a while.its a good knife.D2 carbon steel.

 

[Bababooey]

Whats ur favorite thing to order at chikfila, just a regular chicken sammie with xtra pickles? Waffle fries with their chikfila sauce on the side? I might have to try that, havent been there in a long time, usually when I get chicken sammies I go to popeyes.

Ive tried pizzas with alternative sauces, like ranch or alfredo or bbq sauce instead of tomato sauce, it works surprisingly well. I think true NY style white pizza is pizza without any sauce, but add ricotta and lots of garlic powder/oil.

It’ll be interesting to see how well the jets do with Arodge. Hawk, you think the jets will win 12+ games with rodgers at QB? How about you buckeye? I think their O/U is 9.5 wins, maybe that’s easy money depending on what you guys think.

Yeah Jalen and Lamar got paid this offseason, Herbert and Burrow are next. I guess whoever signs first, the next guy will sign for just a little more than that. QB contracts keep going up, and RB contracts keep trending down. Are good RBs seriously undervalued, Pops? Could u build a successful team on just awesome RBs and a decent QB nowadays?

Tua I think will be just fine, he had a 470 yd, 6 td game in the 2nd week of the season vs baltimore and 3 straight 3td games soon after his 1st concussion. Like u said, it’s all about health with him, if he starts all 17 games he’ll probably have a 4500yd, 35 td season, which is what joe burrow had last year. He has a new helmet design and has practiced taking falls better (some jujitsu training) so we’ll see if it actually works in games. How does that work in theory, like before getting slammed onto the back of his head does he twist so his side hits the ground first?

Im not sure baker has a comeback story in him, but to ur point Pops he will have mike evans and chris godwin to throw to, rachaad white looks like a decent all around back, russell gage is a good #3 WR, maybe he’ll surprise everyone. He’s never had a 4k yd or 30 td season, both are achievable if he starts every game. If he does reach both those marks, i guess he'll get a long term deal as a starter somewhere, unless he also had a ton of turnovers.

Maybe we should have a separate college football thread, Hawk, but im not sure there would be enough posters to justify one.
Are u able to pick up nfl games on an antenna, or you need to stream them from the internet? Is ur internet stable and fast now? Last year I watched red zone on the stream east site, it was pretty stable on my phone but I didn’t bother casting it to a tv. This year there might be a new site for pirate streams, if the old one gets unstable.

I dont think ive ever had rouladen but it sounds delish for german cuisine, beef cutlers rolled up around onions and bacon and pickles and cooked in gravy? Yes please. Post some pics if it turns out alright. Also sweet looking steel, is that a cooking knife? Without a crossguard i guess it has to be. You got any fighting steel too? Some people are really into knives, you'd be surprised how many hot chicks have knife collections.

 

[shithawk420]

i dont know about rodgers and the jets.i dont know their schedule but since hes on the jets now i dont have to feel guilty for liking the guy.lol i just did a quick google to check rodgers out a little to see if i missed anything and one of the top questions is if hes bi-racial!lol i guess he does kinda look Armenian but no hes all white.thought that was kinda funny.

Naw,we dont need a separate college thread.this place is dead as it is.it dont bother me.we talk about food and other things.just posted my knife.this kinda a sports mancave guys hanging out thread to me.i dont have an antenna but i got a smart google tv.i think i might be able to download apps or links from my tv so i should be able to stream with my tv alone in theory.otherwise not a big deal.just hook my laptop up to it.

that knife is preety much whatever you want it to be but it doest make a good chefs knife cause the blade is straight.makes it hard to dice and mince.im big into martial arts and its good for combat if i wanted.its modeled after a kinda traditional japanese tanto.if i want to commit hari kiri it will work.its kinda a ninja blade i guess.average person wouldnt know what it was at first glance.mostly just wanted a good sharp knife for whatever.yeah its good to know if a chick is heavy into knives so i know to stay the fuck away.pretty much every story ive heard is a guy getting stabbed.

 

[pop_rocks]

that is a nice blade hawk, how does it feel in the hand? but that not a kitchen knife man
a better choice for the kitchen is the good ole chefs knife or if you want to get all fancy get yourself a nice santoku
rouladen is next leve shit man and one of those things i dont make myself but i will get when we go to this german place i like
its too much work, like a cordon bleu where i dont want to put in the prep time, but its grinding for sure
can you download apps on your game consoles? i had the apps in my xbox and watched some food ball on that once (it was throught amazon)
but if you have a new tv most of tem will pair up with your phone where you can throw whatever is one your screen to the tv
i do this a lot when i travel and it works pretty well
yeah we get the regular chicken sandwiches with extra pickles on the side
you know im getting thier waffle fries!some of the best fries out there
yeam im all about the white/ non traditional pizzas with no sauce or an alt-sauce now
recently i had these bbq chciken pizzas from this joint recently and it was slapping, bbq chicken and onions on the top and bbq sauce instead of a red sauce, nice crispy thin crust
it was good

"Are good RBs seriously undervalued, Pops? Could u build a successful team on just awesome RBs and a decent QB nowadays?"
yes, i think we are seeing it in the free agent market right now where solid-decent backs are not gettin any love
do the titans count as a run first team? i mean with out king henery where would they be?
maybe i could work something up about the 9rs, how thier style of play is a heavy D and a plug and play offense
lots of check downs and dinking and dunking your way down the field
/runCMC makes this easier for sure
part of knowing how to fall/ getting slammed is this rolling thing
/chin to your chest and let your shoulders absorbed the impact
i like tua and hope he is rolling with the masters learning how to take a fall
moar taeks to come!