NFL - Discussion Thread

Josh McDaniels hired as the Raiders new head coach. His tenure in Denver was a complete disaster but maybe he'll have better luck in Vegas. Bellichick's assistants have a pretty terrible track record as HCs though.

If Joe Burrow wins the Super Bowl in a couple of weeks time he will become a huge star in the NFL. That would be a fantastic achievement, going to the worst team in the league with the number one pick in the draft to winning the Super Bowl in three years. I don't think they will do it, it's not a good matchup against the all-star Rams who have elite strength all over the field. I hope I am wrong, I don't like the way they have gone out and brought success like Tampa Bay did last year. It's a shame the 49rs squandered a 17-7 third quarter lead but it is expected with Jimmy Garapollo. I even predicted it before the game.

Whoever wins the SB will have overcome serious adversity:

Cincy:
- Scores were tied 16-16 away from home vs Tennessee, and Tennessee were about 30 yards away from getting into FG range
- They trailed 10-21 away from home vs the powerhouse Chiefs

LA Rams:
- Were outscored 0-24 away from home after leading 27-3 vs Tampa Bay, and managed to get into FG range with a huge pass. Had they gone to overtime they would've probably lost due to Tampa Bay having all the momentum
- Trailed 7-17 vs San Francisco with just a quarter to go

The Rams at least made trades to get most of their players instead of just signing free agents. Trading all your first round picks is such a high risk high reward thing you can't really be mad at them.

Matt: I do not consider it a win based on the Tiebreakers. I know you did not predict the scores this year. If we end in a tie, I am fine. In my eyes, we already did. Pick whomever you choose.

Brady officially retires. Sad to see him go.

If Rodgers and Wilson are traded, NFL is going to look way different.

Cleary a new era. Only about, what, 6-8 QBs with at least ten years under their belts?

Rodgers, Wilson, Ryan, Stafford, Tannehill, Cousins are the ones with 10 years that are still hanging around as starters. Fitzpatrick, Dalton, Flacco, and Newton are still active and have been around for a while. Pretty much everyone else is from 2014 onwards barring some other backups.

Lots of drama with the Dolphins and Brian Flores going on but I'm going to let it develop a bit before I really comment.

I have made my tip. It will be interesting to see what happens. A draw would give me the three-peat, but it would also be anti-climactic.

Brady retiring was bizarre. He's come off a possible MVP campaign, and Tampa Buy will still be strong given the amount of players they have bought. Now it will be interesting to see what they do. Do they continue their spending spree and trade for Rodgers or Wilson? I can't see them drafting a QB given how late in the draft they will pick.

Do Tampa Bay have any money to get a Wilson or Rogers? They must be skint with all the players they have signed up over the last couple of years. The Bucs have 25 players hitting free agency in the off season, no way are they signing all of them. I personally think they will have to dismantle the team and rebuild but they are so far down the draft order they are not going to get a decent college quarterback.

If they go the free agency route they are looking at the likes of Marcus Mariota, Teddy Bridgewater, Mitchell Trubisky and Tyrod Taylor. They currently have Blaine Gabbert and Kyle Trask, they are not a playoff team with those two.

Tampa is in the a bit of a rough time here shortly. They're losing Brady, Gronk, probably Godwin. And I doubt many of the free agents will re-sign with Brady gone. Their window was open because of Brady, it's probably close to shut now. They'll probably go after one of the guys Dennis mentioned, or Jimmy G or Gardner Minshew.

Matt: Yeah, the Brady Retirement doesn't make much sense to me either. He has always said he would retire if his body broke down or if his play diminishes, but neither have happened. One of his final passes ever was literally a sixty-yard bomb that he dropped on a dime. lol He also still loves the game and the comradery, which make it even more baffling. The only thing I can think of is the time he wants to spend with his family is outweighing all of that.

Dennis: I was talking with my dad earlier on the phone, and I mentioned to him that I have a sneaking feeling that the Bucs might trade for Watson if Arians stays. If they can pull off such a trade and keep Godwin, all they would have to do is retool on defense to stay in the hunt. Brady is the greatest ever, but Watson, barring his skills having diminished over the last year, is still a Top 5 guy.

Mike: I've lost all respect for Flores now. Dude is a heck of coach, but people don't like his personality and roughness away from it. And now that you got canned for that and didn't get one of the two best jobs on the market, you're gonna have sour grapes and sue the NFL and said teams? Pathetic. Miami hired you for three years and still has a black GM -- how is that racial practices? Even if the Owner tried you to break LEAGUE RULES doesn't mean he is BREAKING THE LAW. And who cares if the Broncos came into their interview with you hungover three years ago? Bad business practices, but not racist in the slightest. Them passing on you again has nothing to do with a Skin Color Thing but an Aaron Rodgers Thing. Honestly, his only true claim might be against the NFL and the Giants. But, again, the Giants is a stretch too. So what if they liked what the Bills have been doing and were more interested in the guy from the start? You had two interviews to sway them different, but you didn't. Boo who. The NFL even has a way out of the lawsuit as they have done more and more to get minority coaches hired. Dude literally threw his career away for no reason.

« Last edited by Warrior13 on Feb 2nd 2022 »

Generally agree. The Rooney Rule is dumb because everyone involved feels like a jackass. Most teams know who they want before they start interviews and then they go and interview the minority after the fact. And now they have to interview 2 so it's even worse. Everyone knows it's a joke. It just humiliates black candidates. The Eagles interviewed Deuce Staley for years. The racism claim is nonsense though, nobody is not hiring black coaches because they're racist.

Flores and Miami come out looking bad here if that getting paid to lose thing is true with proof. That is so bad for the public integrity of the league. We all know teams tank and coaches and players give up but to have an owner pay a coach to throw is terrible.

Good way for Flores to throw away a promising career. Especially leaking the texts from Bellichick, which Flores says Bill didn't know about. Bellichick was maybe the one guy who would've given Flores a spot on his staff after this even if he rest of the league blackballed him.

It irritates me when black people blame their skin color when they don't get their own way. We are seeing it all the time now in the media and it's causing unnecessary racial tension. We don't live in the 60s any more, we have moved on. Teams just want to win, they don't care what color the quarterback or coach is. More concerning is the Dolphin GM offering Flores 100K a game to tank.

Mike: Its actually funny because Miami was said to be interested in Flores three years ago when they had a opening before interviews had even happened. It was so obvious that Wikipedia had him as Miamis coach while he was still coaching with the Pats in the playoffs. It goes both ways; it has nothing to do with Skin Color. As for the paying to tank, yeah, its bad. But I would have to think something like that happens quite often in the world of sports.

Dennis: I completely agree. I especially hate it when any race says I hope they do the right thing when they do not get their way. Who the heck are you to decide what is right or wrong for my business?

« Last edited by Warrior13 on Feb 2nd 2022 »

Paying to tank definitely happens all the time in all sports. But having it out in the open is even worse with how intertwined betting is in sports now. It's the kind of thing that has us end up with a draft lottery.

If it can be proven that coaches take bungs to lose football games the NFL will lose its credibility and will get put in the same bracket as WWE Wrestling, people won't take it seriously.

As for Flores, to me he is a bitter old black man who has got the hump things haven't gone the way he wanted and has decided to cause trouble. Why didn't he step forward and tell the world he was offered money to tank when it initially happened. He has conveniently waited until now, when he wants to get his own back on the NFL because in his mind he didn't get the job he wanted because of his skin color. The guy is bad news, I'll be surprised if another NFL team hires him at any capacity.

How can the team with the best logo in the NFL go to having the worst, absolutely criminal what has happened. I am having a hard time associating myself with the team. It's like the team I know and love died on the 2nd February, 2022. It sunk in today that I am never going to see that Indian logo in a game again. Just wondering, do you think when its throwback weekend they will bring out the classic 1982 uniform or will that upset the snowflakes in the world.


« Last edited by Sanzano on Feb 3rd 2022 »

That's the thing, Flores isn't even old. He's only 40 and by all accounts has moved up quickly. He's never even been a coordinator - he was a Linebackers coach with the Patriots (among other previous positions) before taking the HC job in Miami. Whether or not he deserved to be fired is one thing, but it reeks of entitlement for him to think he should immediately get another HC job and if he doesn't it's down to racism. Especially with the whole weird Tua/Watson flip flop thing they had going on. I would've said that he would've always had a spot on the Patriots as long as BB was the coach given his long history there, but not after he leaked BB's texts.

I don't think Washington will ever use any uniform or logo that references the Indian ever again. The new uniforms they've unveiled are quite disappointed. All black, all burgundy, and all white? No stripes on the pants? Terribly generic.

I can't believe Fores is only 40, he looks tweny years older. He makes me look like a spring chicken and I'm 53.

I'm still struggling to get over the Washington Commanders fiasco, it's starting to sink in now that it's not a joke and that the name and costume is what the team will be wearing next season. It just isn't my team any more. It feels like when a company gets taken over by another company and the name changes but the staff remain the same, it's just not the same company any more.

The Rooney Rule is a joke. All it does is tick a box, and make candidates feel stupid. Marvin Lewis kept his job at Cincy despite going 0-8 in playoff games. If a coach is good enough and has experience/credentials, they will be interviewed, and potentially hired. If not, they will score a gig as an assistant somewhere else, and can try again the following year.

Flores has thrown away his career. He was surely going to get a head coach job for next season. He is capable, a good motivator, and organises a good defense.

As for Washington, I didn't realise, but they stole an AAF team's name. I forgot who they were, but they were the __________ Commanders. Their hashtag on Twitter is even the Washington one now lol. And the new uniforms are terrible. Everything about Washington makes them seem like a gimmick franchise. And their new logo is:

w

They had 2 years to think of a name. Their marketing team 100% knew that the fans wanted names like Redwolves, Redtails etc (better names). And they came up with an awful name, awful uniforms, and an awful logo.

« Last edited by Matt77 on Feb 4th 2022 »

I agree Matt, something is going on. It's almost as if Dan Snyder plans on selling the franchise anyway but wants to make sure he totally screws it up before he lets it go.

Destroying one of the original NFL franchises should be treated as a crime, that team will never be the same. I see Washington are going all in to get either Rogers or Wilson to pacify the fans and start a new era but to be honest the damage is done. The only way they can salvage the team is to do what Cincinnati did and draft a top quarterback and get to the Super Bowl in two years which is not happening as that quarterback doesn't exist.

I hear the Dolphins are thinking of targeting Jimmy G now that the 49rs are getting rid of him just in case Tua falters in the system the new head coach is introducing. Poor Tua, new coach, same old crap.