NFL - Discussion Thread

Sixteen games. Going big or going home this week.

Three games on Thursday, wow. I saw some Baltimore players and staff have covid and if any more test positive they may be forced to delay their game.

Edit - duh, it's Thanksgiving. Always 3 games

« Last edited by steelersrock01 on Nov 24th 2020 »

According to the website I have no upsets, but there are a few 50/50s in there.

Warrior - Does Brady have no respect for Goff too? In 0% of Tampa Bay's wins Brady hasn't shook the opposition QB's hand. In 50% of Tampa Bay losses Brady hasn't shook the opposition QB's hand.

Brady walked off because he was disgusted with himself about that last pick, nothing against Goff.

Makes you wonder if the Buccaneers would have been better off sticking with Jameis Winston, the knock against Winston was he threw too many interceptions, Brady has thrown his fair share recently. Winston is a more mobile quarterback which opens options but then again there would be no Gronk without Brady.

https://itsgame7.com/is-jameis-winston-better-than-tom-brady-numbers-dont-lie/

I can't see any upsets this week. The only possibility is the Buccaneers at home beating Kansas. Just not brave enough to take the chance and fall further behind in the competition. Same with Atlanta, they could upset the Raiders at home but I can't discout the fact that the Las Vegas has got 300 yards of total offense every game this season, that's consistancy. The way I look at it the Falcons need to score at least 24 points to win. Not sure if they can do that against the Raiders, they've got the players in Ridley and Jones.

« Last edited by Sanzano on Nov 25th 2020 »

Brady has thrown some picks, sure, but remember last year Winston threw 30 and fumbled 12 times. Winston has the better deep ball and could just launch it down to Evans and Godwin. Brady relies more on short concepts and slants.

My Newest Mock Draft:
NYJ 1. Trevor Lawrence QB Clemson
JAX 2. Justin Fields QB Ohio State
CIN 3. Penei Sewell OT Oregon
DAL 4. Gregory Rousseau EDGE Miami (FL)
WAS 5. Trey Lance QB North Dakota State
LAC 6. Samuel Cosmi OT Texas
NYG 7. Ja'Marr Chase WR LSU
ATL 8. Carlos Basham Jr. EDGE Wake Forest
MIA 9. Micah Parsons LB Penn State
CAR 10. Patrick Surtain II CB Alabama
DET 11. Christian Barmore DT Alabama
MIN 12. Kwity Paye EDGE Michigan
NE 13. DeVonta Smith WR Alabama
SF 14. Alex Leatherwood OT Alabama
DEN 15. Shaun Wade CB Ohio State
CHI 16. Zach Wilson QB BYU
MIA 17. Jaylen Waddle WR Alabama
BAL 18. Rashod Bateman WR Minnesota
PHI 19. Jevon Holland S Oregon
ARI 20. Caleb Farley CB Virginia Tech
LV 21. Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah LB Notre Dame
TB 22. Travis Etienne RB Clemson
IND 23. Jaycee Horn CB South Carolina
CLE 24. Dylan Moses LB Alabama
NYJ 25. Kyle Pitts TE Florida
GB 26. Rondale Moore WR Purdue
TEN 27. Joseph Ossai EDGE Texas
BUF 28. Christian Darrisaw OT Virginia Tech
JAX 29. Chris Olave WR Ohio State
KC 30. Paulson Adebo CB Stanford
NO 31. Paris Ford S Pitt
PIT 32. Jalen Mayfield OT Michigan

Red Bold are fast risers. Blue Bold are falling.

Warrior - There's always a convenient excuse. The fact is that he is a sore loser who lacks the sportsmanship that most QBs show. He should've gone out to Goff and the other Rams players and just said 'too good' or something along those lines. He threw that INT because LA Rams scored 27 points to lead, and he felt the pressure. He's got to congratulate them.

Dennis - Like Mike said, Winston just throws too many INTs. Brady has been either really good or pretty bad in his games, but he's not having 1TD 3INT games like Winston would regularly have. I actually think if Winston was still QB and Tampa Bay made all the acquisitions they did, that he would've lead them to a similar record right now (last year the Tampa Bay defense was god awful for most of the season, before improving late). But in the playoffs Brady will play at another level and I doubt we'll see many turnovers from him.

Part of Brady's fault comes from Arians refusing to change the scheme to fit Brady's current strength - he can't really throw the deep ball anymore and Arians keeps calling plays that depend on it. At this point in his career he needs to be more like Drew Brees.

Arians' scheme relies on the long ball and naturally causes more giveaways, especially in the first year he has a new quarterback. Look back at 2012 when he was interim coach of the Colts, Andrew Luck threw 18 picks. Granted he was a rookie, but it was still his career high. Then in 2013 as coach of the Cardinals, Carson Palmer threw 22 picks, also a career high. Then last year Winston of course had 30. And now Brady has 9 through 11 games, on pace for about 14.

So some of the blame does rest on Brady, but I think you have to be at least a little critical of Bruce Arians who seems to be really inflexible with his schemes, relying on the long ball that causes more INTs, more wear on the O line, more time for the QB to get hit and fumble. When you've got a guy like Winston that can sling it he can make the big plays to cover up the INTs, and the team didn't have high expectations so it flew under the radar.

Matt: I think you're looking into things far too much. You do realize that many players just head to the locker room and don't shake anyone's hand, right? That Brady's is only captured on film because he's a QB? Seriously, grown men don't give one once if anyone from the opposing team shakes their hands. Honestly, it's really only a time now to go greet any friends you have on the other team. LOL

Mike: I'd have to disagree to some extent. Brady still has a very pretty deep ball; he just hasn't had time to develop enough time and chemistry with his WRs yet. Winston played with Evens and Godwin for years. Brady has played with them each for only like ten games (and that's not counting injuries), Brown for only like four overall. As I said to some of my buds a few weeks back: Don't be worried about the Bucs now, be worried about them come playoffs time.

Oh yeah, I agree that a huge issue is chemistry, but you could also argue that Brady has been playing with a rotation of mostly nobodies at receiver his whole career with a few exceptions and has looked better than this.

Deshaun Watson has thrown 16TDs and 0INTs in the past 6 games.

Lamar Jackson, Mark Ingram, & J.K. Dobbins will not play @ Pittsburgh. Larry Fitzgerald also won't play vs NE.

Washington also want Alex Smith to play on for another year. He'll have to if Washington make the playoffs and receive pick 19.

Washington were leading 20-16 @ Dallas, and then were handed the win on a silver platter. In fact, the entire game they were handed the win:

- While scores were level, Dallas threw (THREW) an incompletion on 4th & 1 at DAL 31 (!!!). They also gave away a 15-yard roughing the passer penalty. Washington then had to move only 19 yards for a TD

- Trailing 13-17, Elliot lost a fumble at DAL 34. Washington scored a FG off of it

- Trailing 16-20, Dallas attempted a fake punt on 4th & 10 at DAL 24 (!!!), only to make negative 1 yards. 6 seconds later Antonio Gibson was in the end zone for a TD

- Trailing 16-34, Dalton threw a pick-6 on the first play to ice the game for Washington

Sanzano

1 day after the draft, you said:

Who the hell is Antonio Gibson? I saw highlights of the Redskins third round pick and he looks like a nightmare for opposing teams. He listed himself as a running back but is really a wide reciever with blazing 4.3 40 speed, if Gibson had of listed as a wide reciever the scouts are saying he would have been graded considerably higher. Looks like Haskins has another weapon alongside McLaren to hit.

3 days after the draft, you said:

Biggest steal of the draft will be Antonio Gibson, I've watched his highlight reel from college and he is going to be a nightmare in the pros with his blazing speed and Haskins big arm throwing him the ball. The best part though is he is an aggressive runner who is tough to bring down. Arm tackles will not get the job down which means small cornerbacks are going to struggle, his stats for breaking tackles is unreal. The Redskins are going to use him like the Panthers use McCathery.

Gibson has made 645 rushing yards (4.6 yards per play, & 59 yards per game), 233 receiving yards, and has scored 11TDs in 11 games.

« Last edited by Matt77 on Nov 26th 2020 »

I expected Dallas to be better than they were last night after seeing their Minnesota highlights last week. Had to laugh at Jerry Jones holding his head in the stands, Washington is the last team he wants to lose to because of the intense rivalry between the two teams.

Antonio Gibson seems to be getting better each week, if the Redskins decide to give him the ball more instead of splitting his time with J.D. McKissic I think you will see Gibons stats increase to elite level like in yesterday's game. Some running backs just get better the more times they get the ball and I think Gibson is one of those.

The Redskins want Alex Smith to come back next year, that's not a bad move considering Washington will be out of the race for Lawerence and Fields now as Matt quite rightly pointed out. That gives Washington the chance to build up their offensive line for the new rookie who they will draft in the 2022 draft and who Alex Smith will mentor like he did Mahomes. All of a sudden things are starting to look good in Washington.

I'm wondering now how good Washington actually are, they lost three games through stupid mistakes in the final seconds, if they had of been wins they would now be standing at 7-4.

Chase Young now has 4.5 sacks:
'Chase Young is having a monster rookie season for Washington. Even though he has just 3 1/2 sacks, the No. 2 pick has been a game-altering force for the best pass defense in the NFL.'

From what I have seen from higlights Montez Sweat is just as good if not a bit better, the former first round draft pick has 6 sacks.

Both winning teams yesterday won with a score of 41. Oddly enough, the combined score of the two teams that lost was also 41. lol

It all went downhill yesterday for the Cowboys when two more of their OL went down to injury. You can't win without a decent OL. The turnovers, however, didn't help.

Keeping Smith one more year will be good. It should allow the Skins to draft Lance, and then he can sit for a year before taking over.

Well, I was going to go with a Ravens upset, but I will no longer be doing so. They're in jeopardy of not making the playoffs. They won't beat the Steelers down as many men as they are. They might be able to scrimp by the beat-up Cowboys in two weeks, but that would put them at 7-5 before having to go on the road against the Browns. Could. Get. Ugly.

I'm hearing talk that the Redskins are going to develop and groom Haskins. Not sure this is the way forward to be honest yet you have to wonder if Washington invests time in developing Haskins who has shown flashes of brilliance in a few games it may pay dividends, especially if Alex Smith stays on another year. Terry Bradshaw and John Elway were hopeless when they first entered the NFL, it took them both a couple of seasons to figure out what they were supposed to be doing. Highly touted first round quarterbacks are not guaranteed to be successfull, been quite a few busts in recent years. I'm beginning to think of depends on what team drafts them as to whether they have a chance of being successful.

Lamar Jackson has Covid, that't the Ravens finished for the season. Tough to win a Super Bowl as a wild card. I'm beginning to wonder if Jackson is going to be another Robert Griffin III, a one season wonder. There are distinct similarities between the two.


« Last edited by Sanzano on Nov 27th 2020 »

Baltimore having Covid has screwed the Steelers, with their game getting pushed to Tuesday, which messes up this week and their next game. If the game gets postponed again, they'll make a week 18, expand the playoffs to 16 teams, and remove the first round bye for the 1 seed. Which will probably screw the Steelers again. It's hard to blame teams for covid outbreaks in the environment they work and play in, but it's really frustrating.

Dennis - I was thinking the same thing with Washington's record. Honestly, no team wants to win the division. The 3 teams who don't win it will receive top 10 picks, while the winner gets pick 19. And the winner of the division has a 0% chance of winning the SB. You have to wonder whether Rivera realises they need to draft a rookie QB, and that if he calls aggressive risky plays near the end of games, it instills a positive mentality in the players' minds, and ensures that Washington are more likely to lose close games. This is what Flores did with Miami last season during the first 7 games while they were tanking.

Mike - The NFL aren't consistent. Some teams are forced to play in the usual timeslot, while others are rescheduled. Also I don't understand why having a Week 18 for the postponed games means 16 playoff teams. I'm all for if if it revives Miami's playoff hopes and robs Pittsburgh of their first deserved playoff bye in years, as unfair as it would be for them. But I see no correlation.

« Last edited by Matt77 on Nov 27th 2020 »

Yeah, I'm not sure of the logic either. They've only said that if there's a week 18 they'll expand the playoff field. Beats me.

All 4 of Denver's QBs have tested positive, and Denver MUST play tomorrow with a backup WR playing at QB. Meanwhile Baltimore have had a game moved TWICE despite only one QB testing positive.

The injury/covid list is massive. Almost every team has key players missing, including Miami. Tua will most likely not play, and Miami's already weak rushing game is completely gone now. Meanwhile Darnold is finally back right in time for vs Miami. I'm seriously considering tipping the upset. It's very rare for a team to go 0-16, and NY Jets were very close to being 3-7 right now.

If Washington win the NFC East and get pick 19 it is a disaster as Matt rightly says they have no chance of advancing from there. It does however instil confidence and optimism for the following season and with the defense now ranked 4th in the league they should be able to keep games close and maybe cause an upset, but very unlikely. Mind you all it takes is for the other team's quarterback to go down with Covid and anything can happen.

Keeo an eye on Washington's defensive Tackle Tim Settle, he is emerging as a dominant force in the Washington defence. It wouldn't surprise me if Daron Payne or Jonathan Allen is offered up as bait to get an offensive lineman as a result. With those defensive players four year contracts coming to an end and the salary cap I can't see how Washington will be able to keep all four former 1st round picks.