NFL (2020-2024)

[NWI_Irish96]

Breaking my forum sabbatical to note that tonight may have been the worst NFL game I have ever seen.

It's the worst game I've ever seen that wasn't impacted by weather.

[JayhawkCO]

1. Mahomes
2. Rodgers
3. Allen
4. Herbert
5. Burrow
6. Prescott
7. Watson (I don't know if he'll ever play again, but he is obviously talented, if not a scumbag)
8. Lamar
9. Stafford
10. Murray
11. Carr
12. Wilson
13. Cousins
14. Tannehill
15. Ryan
16. Mayfield

Re: Stafford and his ranking.  I just don't feel like he makes throws that ever make me say "wow".  Yeah, he won the Super Bowl, but that was way more due to Aaron Donald than it was to Matthew Stafford.

Re: Kyler.  He does things that I think are special.  His ability to run obviously limits how defenses can control him.

Re: Russell.  The last two years that offense hasn't done nearly as much as it should with Metcalf and Lockett.  He takes a lot of sacks that I don't feel he needs to.  His deep ball in particular this past year (and yes, I know he was injured) looked terrible.  I just tend to think he's on the downside of his career.

Revisiting this now. I feel like my opinion on Stafford has been somewhat validated. That offense is a mess right now. Obviously I've discussed Russell Wilson ad nauseum and my perception of his decline. Kyler has been fine, but certainly not great. My biggest misses are obviously Hurts and Tua being left off of the list, and Allen probably needs to be above Rodgers now. But otherwise, I think this isn't too bad.

[thspfc]

Didn't see the game last night. Probably for the best. I have no doubts that Denver looked horrible on offense, but still, a few things:

1. If they lost 33-30 in overtime the discussion would be a lot different. In that case we'd also be talking about the Colts like they're contenders, having beat the Chiefs and the Broncos, rather than having beat the Chiefs and played that awful game against the Broncos. Defense exists. Denver's is really good. Indy's isn't bad either.

2. For as bad as it was, the two plays that essentially lost them the game (late 4th quarter pick and missed Hamler wide open in overtime) are very fixable and uncharacteristic of any starting NFL QB, much less one as accomplished as Russ. It might not get a lot better immediately, but I'm confident that this is absolute rock bottom for Denver and things will only go up from here.

3. People are framing KJ Hamler's visible frustration at the end of the game as being directed at Russ specifically, like it's a sign Russ has lost the team. If you've played any team sport competitively, you know that's not the case. That was frustration with a 2-3 record and five weeks' worth of offensive struggles, not with any one teammate.

[NWI_Irish96]

New York (NJ) football teams are 7-3. Nobody would have guessed that.

[epzik8]

I'm done with Ron Rivera

[thspfc]

Overall, I'm just happy that everyone is going to shut up for a week.

Where is everyone? I haven't heard anything in nearly a month now. Find me a list of teams who beat both defending conference champions with a backup quarterback.

That might have been the best game I've ever seen the Cowboys play. (Wasn't around for the 90s  ) Perfect example of how both Zeke and Pollard have major roles and compliment each other. 10 first downs, 239 total yards, whatever, I don't care. The defense looks like one of the best in the league, up with San Fran and Buffalo. Totally dominated the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball.

And I think there's still plenty of room for improvement in the passing game. Rush has made the necessary throws and hasn't singlehandedly lost a game, which is what you ask for from a backup. But once Dak is back, if he can replicate his production last year? This team would be right there with the Bills for the best in the league.

Elsewhere . . . add Campbell to the list of coaches who could be fired before Halloween. Head-scratcher for the Jags. Wentz sells it on the goal line and ruins what would have been a nearly perfect prediction. Starting to think Buffalo might be good. Baker stinks.

[LM117]

Panthers just fired Matt Rhule.

https://www.panthers.com/news/panthers-part-ways-with-head-coach-matt-rhule

[jlam]

After 5 weeks, here is my updated fork list:

Falcons
Texans
Jets
Giants
Bears
Lions
Raiders
Steelers
Seahawks
Panthers
Commanders
Saints

Not losing faith in the Broncos. Yet.

[NWI_Irish96]

Wow, 12-4 week.

Week 6:

Bears (this could be as bad as last Thursday's game)
Niners
Patriots
Packers
Colts
Vikings
Bengals
Giants
Bucs
Rams
Seahawks
Bills
Eagles
Chargers

[webny99]

It's often discussed that the NFC West has the equivalent of rock-paper-scissors going on between the teams in their division, with each team (and particularly each coach among Shanahan, McVay and Kingsbury) owning another. But the rock-paper-scissors seems to be even stronger in the AFC South, even more transcendent, and even more defiant of all logic and reason:

Texans OWN Jaguars
Jaguars OWN Colts
Colts OWN Texans

And the Titans have somehow stayed out of it, they've been good against the Colts the past few seasons, but usually play close, unpredictable games with all three division opponents.

[webny99]

Where is everyone? I haven't heard anything in nearly a month now. Find me a list of teams who beat both defending conference champions with a backup quarterback.

Sure, the Cowboys have been surprisingly good as a defense-first team under Cooper Rush. Beating the conference champs is not the best argument though, considering both were only #4 seeds last year and both have losing records. Neither have been a top-10 team this season, and the Rams haven't even been close.

Cowboys-Eagles next week is definitely the most exciting and meaningful NFC East game in a long time. It might not be the NFC "Least" for the first time in years (and no, the Giants are not a great 4-1 team, but they're undeniably well-coached and getting the most out of what they have, and stacking these wins means they're going to be in the playoff mix for a while.)

Elsewhere . . . add Campbell to the list of coaches who could be fired before Halloween.

That I disagree with. It was so obvious that this was a long term rebuild that I think he's safe through at least the end of the season, probably longer. Yesterday's result was mostly just Belichick doing Belichick things (remember the Super Bowl?). I don't expect the Lions offense to look that bad again, and grudgingly give Belichick a lot of credit for completely OWNING an unprepared team out of the blue at least once a season. (2020 it was 45-0 against the Chargers. 2021 it was 50-10 against the Jags. etc.)

Head-scratcher for the Jags.

Yes, but also very predictable. [see post above]

[KCRoadFan]

Great win for my Chiefs - came back from down 17-0 to win despite a bad roughing the passer call on what should have been a fumble recovery.

[skluth]

Not really related to the current season. But former NFL and San Diego State TE Gavin Escobar died in a rock climbing accident in Idyllwild. I've hiked on the mountains between Palm Springs and Idyllwild multiple times and it's fairly common to see rock climbers on many of the San Jacinto Mountains steeper faces. Injuries beyond scrapes and the occasional twisted ankle or wrist are rare (most bring along giant cushions), so to hear of two deaths is pretty shocking. Escobar had recently started a post-football career as a firefighter in Long Beach. Very sad to hear.

I wonder how that can happen if you're wearing a harness. Did it break?

Finally have info on what happened. Apparently, the weather turned ugly and they had an equipment failure. Story here.

[jlam]

I eked out a 10-6 record last week.

Commanders 14, Bears 24
49ers 28, Falcons 21
Patriots 27, Browns 13
Jets 9, Packers 19
Jaguars 34, Colts 28
Vikings 27, Dolphins 20
Bengals 24, Saints 23
Ravens 16, Giants 23
Buccaneers 31, Steelers 17
Panthers 19, Rams 21
Cardinals 26, Seahawks 41
Bills 23, Chiefs 16
Cowboys 24, Eagles 27
Broncos 17, Chargers 26

[jmacswimmer]

Great win for my Chiefs - came back from down 17-0 to win despite a bad roughing the passer call on what should have been a fumble recovery.

I was very impressed by how synced up the 70,000+ fans were screaming "BS" immediately after said call. The "Refs you suck" chant before Wright's 59-yarder wasn't synced nearly as well.

[jgb191]

But the rock-paper-scissors seems to be even stronger in the AFC South, even more transcendent, and even more defiant of all logic and reason:

Texans OWN Jaguars
Jaguars OWN Colts
Colts OWN Texans

This reminded me of my high school senior year our district football division; it was a head-scratcher for sure

Team A crushed Team B:  39-0
Team B crushed Team C:  44-3
Team C crushed Team A:  51-7

All were road victories for the visiting team.  There was a mystifying aura about having the homefield dis-advantage. 

[webny99]

Cowboys-Eagles next week is definitely the most exciting and meaningful NFC East game in a long time. It might not be the NFC "Least" for the first time in years (and no, the Giants are not a great 4-1 team, but they're undeniably well-coached and getting the most out of what they have, and stacking these wins means they're going to be in the playoff mix for a while.)

Another interesting note: entering Week 6 there's a 71% chance that an NFC East team gets the first-round playoff bye, per FiveThirtyEight.

That's a massive swing from 2020, when all four NFC East teams were below 1% chance at a bye and had a COMBINED 3% chance at earning a wild-card berth at this point in the season. 2021 wasn't much better, with only a 10% chance for the Cowboys and less than 1% for the other three teams.

[thspfc]

Commanders 20, Bears 13
Ravens 31, Giants 23
Browns 24, Patriots 19
Bengals 34, Saints 20
Buccaneers 21, Steelers 17
49ers 27, Falcons 13
Packers 23, Jets 17
Rams 35, Panthers 10
Cardinals 28, Seahawks 21
Bills 33, Chiefs 27
Cowboys 24, Eagles 14
Chargers 26, Broncos 20

Not even picking Jags/Colts. I'm a combined 4-11-1 picking games involving an AFC South team this year. Haven't been correct yet on a Colts game. Wrong on every Jags game besides week 1.

Waiting to see who will play QB for the Dolphins.

9-7 last week has me one game over .500 on the season. Yikes.

[CoreySamson]

My fantasy team has notched its third come from behind victory so far this year en route to a 4-1 record and 3rd place out of 16 teams. Out of curiosity, I would be interested to see the teams of those who have teams. Here's mine:

Aaron Rodgers
Dameon Pierce
Tyler Allgeier
Stefon Diggs
Amon-Ra St. Brown
Travis Kelce
Saints D
Justin Tucker
Romeo Doubs

Bench:
Chase Claypool
Jimmy Garoppolo
Davis Mills
Mark Ingram
Nelson Agholor
Josh Reynolds
Will Dissly

IR:
Elijah Mitchell

[tchafe1978]

Josh Allen
Nick Chubb
Rachad White
Stefon Diggs
Tyler Lockett
Jaylen Waddle
Allen Lazard
Hayden Hurst
Bears Defense

Bench
Geno Smith
Derrick Henry (on bye this week)
Jakobi Myers
DJ Moore
Robert Woods
Devante Parker
Rondale Moore
TJ Hockenson (on bye this week)

IR
Rashad Penney

My league eliminated kickers this year because they are too random with scoring and have little effect on the outcome of games. I'm currently in 1st place at 4-1 and lead the scoring by 110 points over the next highest team.

[triplemultiplex]

"Teacher, he pushed me!"
https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/34782109/davante-adams-charged-misdemeanor-assault-mnf-shove
That's so stupid.  Watch the video of that "assault" and tell me Adams should be charged with a crime.  Give me a break.
Yes it was a shitty thing to do in a moment of frustration and the guy deserves a personal apology, maybe some cash, but getting the cops involved?  Really?  Way to have perspective, everyone.

[webny99]

"Teacher, he pushed me!"
https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/34782109/davante-adams-charged-misdemeanor-assault-mnf-shove
That's so stupid.  Watch the video of that "assault" and tell me Adams should be charged with a crime.  Give me a break.
Yes it was a shitty thing to do in a moment of frustration and the guy deserves a personal apology, maybe some cash, but getting the cops involved?  Really?  Way to have perspective, everyone.

The NFL needs to review procedures for media personnel and players leaving the field. There's no way the camera person should have been right in Adams' path. Obviously, it was wrong for Adams to shove him over, but he shouldn't have been crossing right there as players exited into the tunnel. He basically walked right into him, and something like that can set a player off, especially after such a bad loss (maybe the most painful loss of any team all season, on a shortlist that includes several Raiders losses - there's a decent case that they own 3 of the top 5!)

[ethanhopkin14]

"Teacher, he pushed me!"
https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/34782109/davante-adams-charged-misdemeanor-assault-mnf-shove
That's so stupid.  Watch the video of that "assault" and tell me Adams should be charged with a crime.  Give me a break.
Yes it was a shitty thing to do in a moment of frustration and the guy deserves a personal apology, maybe some cash, but getting the cops involved?  Really?  Way to have perspective, everyone.

The NFL needs to review procedures for media personnel and players leaving the field. There's no way the camera person should have been right in Adams' path. Obviously, it was wrong for Adams to shove him over, but he shouldn't have been crossing right there as players exited into the tunnel. He basically walked right into him, and something like that can set a player off, especially after such a bad loss (maybe the most painful loss of any team all season, on a shortlist that includes several Raiders losses - there's a decent case that they own 3 of the top 5!)

That's it!  All we need is a procedure in writing and this won't ever happen again!

[TheHighwayMan3561]

"Teacher, he pushed me!"
https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/34782109/davante-adams-charged-misdemeanor-assault-mnf-shove
That's so stupid.  Watch the video of that "assault" and tell me Adams should be charged with a crime.  Give me a break.
Yes it was a shitty thing to do in a moment of frustration and the guy deserves a personal apology, maybe some cash, but getting the cops involved?  Really?  Way to have perspective, everyone.

On one hand I get it, but also try deliberately shoving some random passerby down to the pavement on the street when you're having a bad day and I'm guessing no one will have the sympathy they seem to have for Adams.

[mgk920]

For many years now I've been calling for the NFL to issue the same yellow and red cards that are used by the fútbol refs to its on-the-field officiating crews, complete with all of their AWESOME powers.  ALL personal fouls and unsportsmanlike conduct fouls would rate at least a 'yellow card'.  I can imagine that the looming spectre of having to play the rest of a big game with only ten (and maybe even FEWER) men on the field would be a HUGE incentive for those guys to behave.



mike