The NFL Thread

[Alan]

It would take something pretty substantial to derail the season now, I think.

 

[big mean bunny]

I mean it feels like the last 24 hours have been pretty substantial Alan! Not wanting to jinx it but it's showing what a good job the Prem is doing in comparison. I get the much smaller squad sizes and personal but since restart I don't think there has been any postponed games?

 

[Tony Towner]

The NFC East is full of shit
The NFC East is full of shit
It's full of shit, shit and more shit
The NFC is full of shit


...again

 

[Jack Regan]

Looks like with the villa v Liverpool craziness, missed a pretty decent game between Dallas and Cleveland.

 

[Alan]

I mean it feels like the last 24 hours have been pretty substantial Alan! Not wanting to jinx it but it's showing what a good job the Prem is doing in comparison. I get the much smaller squad sizes and personal but since restart I don't think there has been any postponed games?

I mean, literally half of a week's scheduled games would have to get postponed.

The NFL train is moving and there ain't brakes on it.

 

[Jack Regan]

Chief's patriots now rescheduled for Tuesday (UK) seems unlikely.

 

[Dennisons Wrong Foot]

The NFC East is full of shit
The NFC East is full of shit
It's full of shit, shit and more shit
The NFC is full of shit


...again

feeling a little happier today?

 

[Tony Towner]

feeling a little happier today?

Sort of, sort of not. Nice to win a game, but really it needs blowing up and the division being so bad means when trade deadline arrives they won't be sellers. Could get a 2 apiece for Cox and Ertz to a Championship chasing side, maybe even a 1 and a 3 to someone like the Bills who both would improve. Instead they'll try and win the division with something like 781 and be 1 and done in the play offs

 

[Dennisons Wrong Foot]

There's a LONG way to go yet. You could be a good team by the end of the season.

At least 3/4 of the league have no chance of winning the superbowl (this year or next) - in the same way as Wolves have no chance of winning the Prem. It doesn't mean we won't watch, won't cheer a win, etc.

And it could be worse - at least you're not a Texans fan.

 

[Alan]

Sort of, sort of not. Nice to win a game, but really it needs blowing up and the division being so bad means when trade deadline arrives they won't be sellers. Could get a 2 apiece for Cox and Ertz to a Championship chasing side, maybe even a 1 and a 3 to someone like the Bills who both would improve. Instead they'll try and win the division with something like 781 and be 1 and done in the play offs

Haven't been able to see the Eagles play at all this year. My issues with Wentz are well known (and honestly exaggerated for effect) but I can't imagine he's the actual problem with the team right now. Any idea what's going wrong there?

 

[Tony Towner]

Haven't been able to see the Eagles play at all this year. My issues with Wentz are well known (and honestly exaggerated for effect) but I can't imagine he's the actual problem with the team right now. Any idea what's going wrong there?

As with all teams it's multi layered. Injuries are the biggest issue though. The starting 11 depending on whether they were in 11 or 12 personnel on offence would be:
Wentz
Sanders
Ertz
Kelce
Johnson
Goedart
Brooks
Dillard
Seumalo
Jackson
Reagor
Jeffery

The bottom 7 are out and Johnson can only manage 50% of snaps. Of the 4 WR on the roster last night, the most experienced had 40 odd receptions, 2 were called up from the practice squad on Saturday and the other was a 5th round rookie.

The roster is old. The best players, Cox, Kelce, Brooks, Johnson, Slay, Ertz are all about to turn 30 or older, they draft badly year in year out. In 2017 they took a CB at 2&3 neither of whom are still on the team, meaning they have to overpay on the free agent market. This year they took a QB at 2 and a linebacker who opted out of college for religious reasons at 3. The team needed help this season, neither of those will do that.

Wentz is psychologically damaged by the QB2 experience, starting with Foles and now Hurts. They paid him last Summer and moved Foles on, a year later investing a premium draft resource into that position was ridiculous. It's got into his head and he played the first games of the year with the yipps and one TD pass aside, last night although better made a lot of plays with his legs or did an escapoligist act avoiding sacks. Looks good when it works like last night, when it doesn't it results in 8 sacks as it did against Washington.

As per my earlier post, I'd be for ripping it up, selling at the deadline and rebuilding next year, hopefully challenging in 2022. Being in the worst division means that won't happen

 

[Alan]

As an Alabama fan for college football, and as someone who has an enormous amount of respect for Jalen Hurts, I would be utterly stunned if he came close to competing with Wentz for that job.

Agree, therefore, that the use of a draft pick that high on him, let alone any QB, was weird in the extreme.

 

[Dire Wolf]

Console yourself with the fact that the Cowboys are so bad they blocked an extra point into a 2 point conversion...

 

[PuntsWolf]

Crazy the amount of times mistakes are made on special teams, by players who literally only play ST but don’t know the rules...

 

[Alan]

They only play special teams, but that doesn't mean they don't also have to learn their normal positions. Aside from the long snapper or something.

 

[PuntsWolf]

They only play special teams, but that doesn't mean they don't also have to learn their normal positions. Aside from the long snapper or something.

Obviously, but they kind of should know the rules of the game. There aren’t that may eventualities from a punt, FG or KO.

 

[Alan]

Texans fire Bill O'Brien.

Really should have done it at the end of last season.

 

[Dennisons Wrong Foot]

Surprised it's happened so early in the season, especially after such a tough start, but apparently the players were becoming very frustrated.

It should have happened a year ago, several pundits were suggesting O'Brien was nowhere near good enough for a playoff team.

The team is supposedly built to win now, but there are so many gaps and question marks - and with no decent draft picks for 2 more years both head coach and GM are going to be tough jobs for whoever gets them.

 

[Tony Towner]

The Hopkins strategy a year after the Clowney one was bonkers and derided by every pundit going. Once Wilson started tweeting thinly disguised criticism in the Summer then the clock was ticking. The schedule at the start of the season was brutal though. Another branch of the Belichick coaching tree snapped off.

I assume they'll want Bieniemy, not sure Andy will let him go mid season though

 

[Dennisons Wrong Foot]

Texans reportedly have the highest wage bill in the NFL, no 1st or 2nd round picks in next years draft, lots of holes in the team, overpaid players, injury-prone players, and have just fired their coach after only 4 games of the season. The firing was long overdue, but the timing looks like a knee-jerk reaction. Reasons for any young prospective head coach to be concerned - especially one who may have a choice of jobs at the end of the season.

In the meantime we have 73 year old Romeo Crennel as coach - he was relieved of his responsibilities as defensive coordinator after that loss to the Chiefs in the playoffs.

Hard to be optimistic for this season or next.