NFL (2024 Season)

[jlam]

AFC

(2) Bills defeat (7) Steelers
(3) Chefs defeat (6) Dolphins
(5) Browns defeat (4) Texans

(5) Browns defeat (1) Ravens
(2) Bills defeat (3) Chiefs

(2) Bills defeat (5) Browns

NFC

(2) Cowboys defeat (7) Packers
(6) Rams defeat (3) Lions
(5) Eagles defeat (4) Buccaneers

(1) 49ers defeat (6) Rams
(5) Eagles defeat (2) Cowboys

(1) 49ers defeat (5) Eagles

Super Bowl

49ers defeat Bills

[tmoore952]

Minorly annoyed that they put the Eagles-Bucs games (two East Coast, with East Coast fans) teams on the Monday night of a three day weekend.

It would have been nice if they had put a game from farther west on at that time.

[webny99]

Minorly annoyed that they put the Eagles-Bucs games (two East Coast, with East Coast fans) teams on the Monday night of a three day weekend.

It would have been nice if they had put a game from farther west on at that time.

My guess is that they are always going to put a #4/#5 seed matchup on Monday night so that all but one divisional round matchup will be set by Sunday night. Then the divisional schedule can be released on Sunday and is not waiting on that game to determine the divisional round hosts. This is the third straight year they've put the NFC #4/#5 matchup in that slot.

[NWI_Irish96]

Minorly annoyed that they put the Eagles-Bucs games (two East Coast, with East Coast fans) teams on the Monday night of a three day weekend.

It would have been nice if they had put a game from farther west on at that time.

My guess is that they are always going to put a #4/#5 seed matchup on Monday night so that all but one divisional round matchup will be set by Sunday night. Then the divisional schedule can be released on Sunday and is not waiting on that game to determine the divisional round hosts. This is the third straight year they've put the NFC #4/#5 matchup in that slot.

Yes, because Monday's winner can't play the following Saturday, so they can't have a 3/6 or 2/7 game where there might be a different opponent based on who wins.

[JayhawkCO]

I'd be pissed if I was a Chiefs or Dolphins fan with that game only being available on some streaming platform. DUMB!

Every single thing that I watch is on some streaming platform.

You never watch local channels or traditional cable channels like ESPN? Those are not considered to be streaming platforms even if you happen to watch them via stream.

The only thing I watch live is sports. So, while I do watch ESPN or USA, I watch them via YouTubeTV. So, true, not streaming exclusive, but I'd say 95% is streaming exclusive.

[Henry]

It's going to be interesting how the Bears handle the top pick in the upcoming draft. Keep Fields or draft another QB?

Also, for the Wild Card round, Go Dallas!

[Hunty2022]

My AFC side/SB predictions:

2. Bills > 7. Steelers
3. Chiefs > 6. Dolphins
5. Browns > 4. Texans

1. Ravens > 5. Browns
2. Bills > 3. Chiefs

1. Ravens > 2. Bills

Ravens > 49ers - Super Bowl LVIII

[Ted$8roadFan]

The Patriots season has mercifully ended. The big story now is if (when) Bill Belichick is replaced as coach.

[ET21]

It's going to be interesting how the Bears handle the top pick in the upcoming draft. Keep Fields or draft another QB?

Also, for the Wild Card round, Go Dallas!

Keep Fields, get a haul again for the #1

[triplemultiplex]

NFL rules have long permitted a local channel for each team to broadcast any game that's primarily on ESPN, the NFL network, or streaming.

The Packers were definitely not on a local channel for this year's stupid Thursday night game.  And last season, none of the Monday night games were locally broadcast.  We only got Monday night games on TV this season because of the Hollywood strikes and ABC had time to fill.

I think that local broadcast arrangement is in the past, for regular season at least.

It's all well and good for Chiefs fans in KC, but their market is geographically much larger than that.  What if you live in Wichita or Omaha?  Springfield?  Jeff City?
It's a cynical loss-leader to force people to get another streaming service for one event.  If you have to coerce people into buying your product, you're doing something wrong.

[NWI_Irish96]

NFL rules have long permitted a local channel for each team to broadcast any game that's primarily on ESPN, the NFL network, or streaming.

The Packers were definitely not on a local channel for this year's stupid Thursday night game.  And last season, none of the Monday night games were locally broadcast.  We only got Monday night games on TV this season because of the Hollywood strikes and ABC had time to fill.

I think that local broadcast arrangement is in the past, for regular season at least.

It's all well and good for Chiefs fans in KC, but their market is geographically much larger than that.  What if you live in Wichita or Omaha?  Springfield?  Jeff City?
It's a cynical loss-leader to force people to get another streaming service for one event.  If you have to coerce people into buying your product, you're doing something wrong.

Local markets can still broadcast any game on cable or streaming. Are you saying that Green Bay didn't have those Packers games on a local channel?

I know local channels in Chicago always pick up any Bears games on cable/streaming.

[webny99]

Feels like the right time for a look at how the playoff picture has changed from last season:

New playoff teams in 2023-24:
AFC: Cleveland Browns, Pittsburgh Steelers, Houston Texans
NFC: Detroit Lions, Green Bay Packers, Los Angeles Rams

Repeat playoff teams from 2022-23 (active playoff streaks in parentheses):
AFC: Kansas City Chiefs (9), Buffalo Bills (5), Baltimore Ravens (2), Miami Dolphins (2)
NFC: Tampa Bay Buccaneers (4), Dallas Cowboys (3), Philadelphia Eagles (3), San Francisco 49ers (3)

Playoff teams from 2022-23 that failed to repeat:
AFC: Cincinnati Bengals, Jacksonville Jaguars, Los Angeles Chargers
NFC: Minnesota Vikings, New York Giants, Seattle Seahawks

Teams with 2+ year playoff droughts (active playoff droughts in parentheses):
AFC: Las Vegas Raiders (2), New England Patriots (2), Tennessee Titans (2), Indianapolis Colts (3), Denver Broncos (8), New York Jets (13)
NFC: Arizona Cardinals (2), Chicago Bears (3), New Orleans Saints (3), Washington Commanders (3), Carolina Panthers (6), Atlanta Falcons (6)

• 28 of 32 teams (87.5%) have made the playoffs in the 2020's.
  
• Hilariously, the Bucs have longest active playoff streak in the NFC, while the Panthers and Falcons are tied for the longest playoff drought in the NFC
• The Jets' 13 year playoff drought is the longest active drought in North American professional sports
• The Lions and Dolphins have the longest active playoff WIN droughts in the league at 32 and 23 years respectively. Both have an opportunity to change that this weekend. If they both win, the Raiders will have the longest playoff win drought at 21 years

[Big John]

NFL rules have long permitted a local channel for each team to broadcast any game that's primarily on ESPN, the NFL network, or streaming.

The Packers were definitely not on a local channel for this year's stupid Thursday night game.  And last season, none of the Monday night games were locally broadcast.  We only got Monday night games on TV this season because of the Hollywood strikes and ABC had time to fill.

I think that local broadcast arrangement is in the past, for regular season at least.

It's all well and good for Chiefs fans in KC, but their market is geographically much larger than that.  What if you live in Wichita or Omaha?  Springfield?  Jeff City?
It's a cynical loss-leader to force people to get another streaming service for one event.  If you have to coerce people into buying your product, you're doing something wrong.

It is limited to one channel in the home city of the teams involved (with Boston for the Patriots), with the exception of the Packers which have a local station in Green Bay and in Milwaukee.

[jeffandnicole]

NFL rules have long permitted a local channel for each team to broadcast any game that's primarily on ESPN, the NFL network, or streaming.

The Packers were definitely not on a local channel for this year's stupid Thursday night game.  And last season, none of the Monday night games were locally broadcast.  We only got Monday night games on TV this season because of the Hollywood strikes and ABC had time to fill.

I think that local broadcast arrangement is in the past, for regular season at least.

It was on TV in Detroit (Fox Ch. 2). Guess whatever market would serve Green Bay elected not to air it for their fans.

It's all well and good for Chiefs fans in KC, but their market is geographically much larger than that.  What if you live in Wichita or Omaha?  Springfield?  Jeff City?
It's a cynical loss-leader to force people to get another streaming service for one event.  If you have to coerce people into buying your product, you're doing something wrong.

Loss-leaders are a common sales tactic to get people to purchase a product or do their shopping at a specific store. Whether it be a Black Friday special or even free coffee, pulling customers in by offering a deeply discounted product or freebie is a proven way to encourage further purchasing, either then or in the future.

[Big John]

^^ It was on NBC26 in Green Bay and on FOX6 in Milwaukee.  The "local area" did not include Madison where 3MX lives.

https://506sports.com/nfl.php?yr=2023&wk=4

[Ted$8roadFan]

And now Mike Vrabel has been sacked by the Tennessee Titans.

[webny99]

And now Mike Vrabel has been sacked by the Tennessee Titans.

Wow! That is a mild surprise. A sure sign of discord between Vrabel and the new GM, who was hired last offseason, and the rare coach firing that fans of the team aren't happy about, or at least aren't sure what to think.

Unlike any of the other fired head coaches, I think it's a lock that Vrabel will get another head coaching opportunity. The Titans have overachieved in pretty much every season he was their head coach except for this one, and even this year, in a lost season, he led them to a huge upset over the Dolphins in December and had them fired up to end their division rival's season in Week 18.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

^^ It was on NBC26 in Green Bay and on FOX6 in Milwaukee.  The "local area" did not include Madison where 3MX lives.

https://506sports.com/nfl.php?yr=2023&wk=4

That's SOP for this situation. The local market that has to show it OTA is strictly limited to the markets physically containing the local teams. Any other markets do not get one, whether they should be able to or not.

[Billy F 1988]

And now Mike Vrabel has been sacked by the Tennessee Titans.

Wow! That is a mild surprise. A sure sign of discord between Vrabel and the new GM, who was hired last offseason, and the rare coach firing that fans of the team aren't happy about, or at least aren't sure what to think.

Unlike any of the other fired head coaches, I think it's a lock that Vrabel will get another head coaching opportunity. The Titans have overachieved in pretty much every season he was their head coach except for this one, and even this year, in a lost season, he led them to a huge upset over the Dolphins in December and had them fired up to end their division rival's season in Week 18.

That's certainly un-Titan-like to just oust the guy. Seriously. What the hell is the Titans GM's definition of "good enough"? I know it ain't money, 'cause they got plenty of that. I know it's not a draft pick. Not sure how that would spell the end of Vrabel's tenure.

[thspfc]

Honestly, the more I think about it, the more I believe that in the minds of Tennessee's front office, Vrabel's days as a Titan have been numbered for the better part of two years.


Vrabel and former GM Jon Robinson wanted to win games by pounding Derrick Henry 30 times a game, chewing the clock, and playing strong defense. Of course, many teams, even recently, have found success by predominantly running the ball and playing defense. Legion of Boom Seahawks. No Fly Zone Broncos. '12, '19, and '23 Ravens. '17 Jaguars. Shanahan's 49ers, Sirianni's Eagles until December of this season. But they all had the following things:

1) elite, not just good defenses;
2) competent QBs and passing offenses that could play from behind and come up with a big drive late in the game when necessary;
3) a quite serviceable second string running back, if not a pretty much even 1-2 or even 1-2-3 punch at RB.

Tennessee had none of those things during the Vrabel/Robinson era. Their defense was good, never great. Tannehill was solid in the regular season in 2019 and 2020, but when he had to make a game-changing play/drive, he usually didn't. And in the backfield, it was Henry or nobody.

In the 2019 postseason, Henry literally carried them to wins against a dying Patriots team and a (probably overconfident) Ravens team that just didn't show up on that particular night. Tannehill did next to nothing in either game, because all he had to do to win was hand it to Henry. After that, they bombed three straight playoff games, and every time it was because their opponents forced them to win by throwing the ball. Or, perhaps, not even that; their opponents forced them to come up with one or two big drives that weren't just Henry runs, and they couldn't.

2020 ended in a highly disappointing wild card exit. Henry ran wild for over 2,000 yards in the regular season. That, predictably, opened things up for Tannehill, who had the best season of his career. In the playoffs, the Ravens stuffed Henry to the tune of just 40 yards on 18 carries. Tennessee had to throw to win, and they couldn't. 209 yards of offense, 12 first downs, 13 points.

How did Vrabel and Robinson address this problem? By not re-signing two of their top three pass catchers in Corey Davis and Jonnu Smith, who were both coming off career years. Aging Julio Jones didn't do a whole lot. To the retrospective surprise of no one, their offense fell off a cliff:

2020
Total offense: 3rd
Scoring offense: 4th

2021
Total offense: 18th
Scoring offense: 15th


Tannehill's stats also plummeted . . .

2020
Yards: 3819
Y/A: 7.9
TDs: 33
INTs: 7
TD%: 6.9
INT%: 1.5
Sacks: 24
Rating: 106.5

2021
Yards: 3734
Y/A: 7.0
TDs: 21
INTs: 14
TD%: 4.0
INT%: 2.6
Sacks: 47
Rating: 89.6

It should be noted that Henry was hurt for about half the season in 2021. But if losing a running back to injury - a position believed to be injury-prone, easily replaceable, and having a short shelf life per player - kills your entire offense . . . is your offense sustainable? Sure, you have to build around your best players, but counting on a running back to go for literally 2,000 yards, as he did in 2020, just isn't smart.

Anyway, after going one-and-done again with a dreadful loss to the Bengals in the divisional, spearheaded by three Tannehill interceptions and yet more failed fourth quarter drives - despite sacking Burrow nine times - what did Vrabel and Robinson do? Trade AJ Brown, of course. In his place, they tried to cheap out with Robert Woods coming off an ACL tear and rookie Treylon Burks. The combined production from those two didn't equal what Brown did himself. At that point, the front office was just waiting for a reason to get rid of both Vrabel and Robinson. Robinson went first after a blowout loss to Philly in which Brown buried them for 119 yards and two touchdowns, and they pretty much got exposed at every position on the field. The front office pulled the trigger even though they were leading the division by a mile at the time.

Titans/Eagles today showed the difference between a run-first team that is capable of throwing effectively when they need to, and a run-first team that is not. Here's my question with Tennessee: if you're committed to the "put everything on Derrick Henry" offensive strategy, why are you paying your QB $30 million a year? He's not influencing the game beyond simply not losing it all by himself. Might as well pick up someone like Teddy Bridgewater for dirt cheap and use the extra money to strengthen the o-line and defense.

Guess what, they just fired their GM. The fact that they pulled the trigger midseason, while in the thick of the playoff race, shows just how clearly that game Sunday exposed their issues.

Then they waited for the team to lose enough so that they didn't catch an incredible amount of heat for firing Vrabel. Nothing changed at all this season. It wasn't a success, it wasn't a disappointment to anyone who was honest with themselves. If he was safe after 2022, he should still have been safe after 2023. But before the 2022 season even started, the decision had already been made - they were going to start new with a new GM, a new QB, and a new head coach. They just had to delay the latter in order to avoid being crucified by fans and media. No more putting the team on Henry's back - he's likely played his last down as a Titan.


Do I think Vrabel is a bad coach? Absolutely not. With a good offensive coordinator, he could have a lot of success with, for example, the Chargers. Do I disagree with the Titans' decision to fire him? . . . no. The team has gone stale and this is a needed reboot.

Also, there are very few coaches that would not be in hot water after going 6-18 over a 24-game span. Reid, McVay . . . I think that's it. Belichick is the greatest coach in the history of the game, and his job security is in question, having gone . . . 6-18 in his last 24 games.

Of course, if Vrabel succeeds as a head coach elsewhere while the Titans continue to sputter, then that raises the question of whether he was actually at any fault for the team's decline over the past few years. But based on his background, his demeanor, and how it's been on the field, I think some of that blame does fall on him.

In addition, Vrabel's predecessor, Mike Mularkey, inherited a team that had won a total of five games across the previous two seasons, went 9-7 twice, notched the franchise's first playoff win in 15 years, and was promptly dismissed after his second season. They've done this before. Sometimes, it seems fine on the surface, but deep down you just know it's time. The end of Doug Pederson's Super Bowl-winning tenure in Philadelphia is another example.

[webny99]

Do I think Vrabel is a bad coach? Absolutely not. With a good offensive coordinator, he could have a lot of success with, for example, the Chargers. Do I disagree with the Titans' decision to fire him? . . . no. The team has gone stale and this is a needed reboot.

I think them being stale and needing a reboot is because the roster is bad, not because the coaching is bad. Vrabel is now one of the top coaches available, so it's a pretty big risk. They're letting him go in hopes of hitting a home run on an unknown replacement, but it seems more likely that the replacement is worse than Vrabel.

Also, there are very few coaches that would not be in hot water after going 6-18 over a 24-game span. Reid, McVay . . . I think that's it. Belichick is the greatest coach in the history of the game, and his job security is in question, having gone . . . 6-18 in his last 24 games.

I would also add Kyle Shanahan to that list. Maybe not with the current roster, but certainly if they were entering a known roster reset much like last year's Rams.

Of course, if Vrabel succeeds as a head coach elsewhere while the Titans continue to sputter, then that raises the question of whether he was actually at any fault for the team's decline over the past few years. But based on his background, his demeanor, and how it's been on the field, I think some of that blame does fall on him.

I am curious how much blame you think falls on Vrabel. The team went downhill after the AJ Brown trade, and they brought in a new GM last season which usually means a roster reboot. I'm not sure there's any coach who get more than 6 wins and competitive December football out of that roster.

[triplemultiplex]

^^ It was on NBC26 in Green Bay and on FOX6 in Milwaukee.  The "local area" did not include Madison where 3MX lives.

https://506sports.com/nfl.php?yr=2023&wk=4

Yeah, what are we, chopped liver?  Same problem for my folks up north in the Wausau media market.

[Big John]

^^ It was on NBC26 in Green Bay and on FOX6 in Milwaukee.  The "local area" did not include Madison where 3MX lives.

https://506sports.com/nfl.php?yr=2023&wk=4

When ESPN first airing games, Madison and Wausau were also included as the local market, then the "brilliant" minds shrunk the definition of local markets for all teams when NFL Network started airing games.

Yeah, what are we, chopped liver?  Same problem for my folks up north in the Wausau media market.

[JayhawkCO]

Pete Carroll out as coach of Seattle. Might stay with team in different capacity.

[NWI_Irish96]

Bears have decided to retain head coach Matt Eberflus but have fired their offensive coordinator as well as most of the offensive assistants.