NFL - Discussion Thread

I know. He's not going to retire anytime soon. But I desperately want him to. I hate our division (although it's a bit better now that we have the worst team in the NFL in there).

At least you haven't been a fan as long as I have. I've only seen Brady lose the division title twice, and one of those seasons he was hurt. :/

Maybe I'm an omen. When I started supporting Miami we recovered from 1-3 to get to 3-3 (including leading 41-0 at HT). We did go 3-7 after that but the season after we finally made playoffs.

At least you're not a New York Jets fan. Or god forbid a Buffalo or Minnesota fan (being 0-4 in Superbowls).

Or Cleveland fan... XD

But didn't they win the Superbowl several times in the competition before the NFL was created?

Those only seem to count for Lumbardi. Plus, I think the Browns only won it like 2-3 times, which pails in comparison to other teams back then.

At the moment I'd be optimistic if I was a Cleveland fan. Meanwhile New York Jets fans will be happy if their team finishes 5-11.

Cleveland is still a ways away. 4-12 would be a good year for them.

Their week 1 game against Pittsburgh is a massive opportunity for them to stun the league. Doubt it will happen but they've got nothing to lose.

The Detroit Lions, Cleveland Browns, Jacksonville Jaguars, and Houston Texans are the only current teams to have never played in a Super Bowl. I wonder how long before each of them makes an appearance, I'm wondering if I will see these four in a Super Bowl in the next twenty years. The Texans and Jaguars can be excused as they are new franchises but the Brown who had success before the modern era Super Bowl with Jim Brown at Running Back and the Detroit Lions have no excuse. It's a shame Billy Simms got injured in the early 80's, he was a class Running Back who could have got Detroit there and Clevelands best chance of getting there was when they got beat by Denver a couple of times in the Championship games of the late 80's.

All those teams minus Cleveland have the potential to take the next step and get into playoffs or do deep into playoffs. Detroit did get lucky a lot last season and failed in their playoffs test but held their nerve in close games and made several comebacks; a skill not many teams have. Jacksonville had an awful season but should rebound and potentially avoid a losing season. Houston were lucky to make playoffs, and played an Oakland team that was playing like a 3-13 team. However with a change at QB or improvement by Tom Savage knowing his career is in jeopardy, they could potentially make it 3 consecutive years of playoffs.

I'm very lucky with the teams I support. In AFL my team Geelong dominated the competition for several years and always were near the top for about 7 years, and now have returned there after a one-off slump. My NFL team has had past success in a competition where so many teams face droughts and club turmoil, and now are on the rise. My first year supporting an EPL side, Swansea City resulted in them narrowly escaping relegation and finishing with good form. I feel so bad for fans who support clubs that perform poorly on a regular basis, cause I've had it so lucky all my time following sports.

I initially started supporting the Washington Redskins in 1982 when they were just becoming an emerging force in the NFL, to the surprise of everyone they actually won the Super Bowl that year in a strike shortened season after going 8-8 the year before. Then after the Joe Gibbs era were they made four Super Bowl appearances winning three of them they just slid into mediocrity never to again mount a serious challenge for the Super Bowl. The same thing happened to Miami, during the early 70's the Dolpins made three Super Bowl appearances in three years and won two of them, one with a perfect 14-0 season. The Dolphins have come close a couple of times since then, once in 1982 when the Redskins and John Riggins ran all over them in the final and then again in 1984 when they ran into Joe Montana who disected them with Bill Walsh's West Coast offence. Unfortunately I can't see either Washington or Miami winning a Super Bowl in the immediate future which is frustrating. I have a feeling the next powerhouse dynasty is going to be Dallas, which makes the Redskins woes more frustrating as they are my teams biggest rivals and they already had a dynasty recently in the 90's with Troy Aikman, Michael Irvin and Emmit Smith.

« Last edited by Sanzano on May 23rd 2017 »

I'm not sold on Dallas yet. If they repeat or almost match their 2016 form then I will be. All the experts believe Dallas are very vulnerable and probably half think they will drop the division title. Personally I think they will hang on, and continue to win it, but this season is where Dallas can set up their dynasty. Failing tp win the division would be a big bump in that plan.

Don't write Washington off just yet. From what I'm reading Cousins may very well stay, but isn't signing on because the club doesn't value him enough. If he repeats his form from the past season and a half Washington will be crazy not to offer him a 5-year deal with big bucks included. And if he does indeed stay, he can be a franchise quarterback, and with the right personnel (which he will need to acquire soon), he can lead that team to success. Perhaps not Superbowl success, but regular divisional playoff appearances and maybe one or two conference championship games.

I still can't figure out why the Redskins management don't value 'Captain Kirk' as his team mates call him highly enough to give him the contract he has earned after the numbers he has been putting up. I can only think it is because he was a fourth round draft choice and it would mean the Redskins management admitting they screwed up selling the farm to get Robert Griffin III in the first round of the same draft, either that or there is something else the team is not disclosing to the public. Based on last years performance there was only two or three quarterbacks in the NFL who had a better season. If Cousins puts up good numbers again and proves he is not a one season wonder I agree with you in that Washington would be foolish not to give him a five year contract. The way I look at it is if a team can get to the playoffs anything can happen, nothing is a sure shot certainty. Over the years I have seen some strange things happen in the post season where one loss and your season is over. The difficult bit is getting into the playoffs.

One word to support your theory. Dallas.

Capping off a 13-3 season (13-2 with starters where they lost to one team) they go straight into the divisional round only to have an impressive comeback against a red-hot Green Bay just fall short (after wiping an 18-point deficit I might add). One loss and their season was indeed over. All that hype saw them have one game of postseason experience and no wins; one less game and win as the awful Houston Texans.

With Cousins I think it's that there are still doubters. His numbers were slightly down from the 2015/16 season and he had a few poor games. But even if he can't become elite (it's arguable that he already is) he's still a better option than Colt McCoy.

Today I had a look at his 2015/16 stats in each of the 17 games and it all started when he quite possibly gave his career a lifeline rallying Washington to a 31-30 win against Tampa Bay after trailing 0-24 through the second quarter. Cousins' efforts lead to 28 of those points. After that game there were a few iffy games but they started to become regular 300+ 3-4TD games. Look for him to have a big impact in a game to either rally from a deficit or to cause a huge scalp, and to then get the contract he's been after for so long. If not I predict Washington will continue to be ignorant, and will pay the full price when Cousins walks out and leaves the club in disarray. Like what I said to Warrior about how if Tannehill got cut I'd love to see him tear Miami apart for another team, I'd love to see Cousins tear Washington apart if they let him go.

Considering they cut Alfred Morris and put their entire running game in the hands of Matt Jones (who is now injury prone and may leave the club) they seem like a club that consistently makes stupid decisions. Those sort of clubs usually follow the trend they set.

I'm still trying to get my head around why the Redskins let Alfred Morris go, to the Cowboys of all teams. Morris was developing into a pretty good running back, now in Dallas he is a third string back behind Elliot and McFadden and is just used mostly on third downs. I keep reading everywhere that Samaje Perine could end up being the steal of the draft, I hope so, it's about time the Redskins had an elite running back that opponents fear, we've not had one since Clinton Portis and he retired in 2010. I'm not sad to see the exit of Matt Jones, he averaged one fumble every 33 carries in 2016 - the average is 100.68 carries per fumble. That sort of statistic loses games.

Not long now for the pre-season games, not sure why they have these as their is always a risk starters will get injured and it makes the season longer for the players with four meaningless games tagged on the start. I'm sure coaches can figure out in training camp whether a player is going to be any good for them without going through all the rigmarole of four actual games.

You need to play games to get your match fitness up. Like when I player comes back from injury they need games in the reserves (or at least that's how it is in other sports). When you've been out of the game for minimum 8 months maximum 9 & 1/2 you need some game time. However I think there should only be 2 preseason games not 4. The fact that coaches usually play their starters in maximum 2/4 of the games proves my point.

Not sure either why they let Morris go. But like I say, if they have stupid logic there and have been using stupid logic with Cousins, they will probably continue to use stupid logic at the end of the season and not offer Cousins anything more than the franchise tag.

Lol, putting the franchise tag on Cousins each year is just costing the Redskins a lot more money than if they had of just signed him to a long term contract a couple of years ago when they had the chance. That wasted money could have been spent elsewhere improving the team. What makes me laugh though is the Redskins didn't think twice about paying Albert Haynesworth a seven-year, $100 million contract in 2009 and he turned out to be a bust who only played two years in Washington and was average at best during that time.

Looks like the Washington Redskins club are pretty hopeless.

Yes, to be honest the Redskins have done nothing since Joe Gibbs first tenure as head coach which was a legendary period for the club. He became coach for a second stint as a Hall of Famer but didn't have good enough players to reach the Super Bowl, he had Mark Brunell and Jason Campbell as Quarterbacks for example. I wish it was Jon Gruden who was the Redskins coach and not his brother Jay whom I'm sure only got the job on the strength of his brothers reputation. I just don't see anybody in the Redskin organisation who can make sensible decisions, the Cousins situation for example should have been sorted out a couple of years ago and they shouldn't have given up all those draft choices on Robert Griffen III, his style of play in college alone should have told them he'll probably get injured in the pros.

« Last edited by Sanzano on May 26th 2017 »