Topic: 🏈🏈 The American Football Discussion Thread 🏈🏈 - page 253. (Read 58668 times)

To be honest, I found it more surprising that Gronk retired last year.  I half expected him to take a year off and then join another team.  I suspect there was some personality conflicts between Gronk and Belichick.  Now he'll be reunited with his friend and mentor on what appears to be one of the better offenses in the league this year, but it's like you said; "on paper."

But I won't be holding my breath for the Bucs.  I've seen this too often to really expect anything grand.  They're in great position with their offensive line, but with two big names on the offense now, who're likely to side with each other could undermine the authority of the coach.  Two of the most successful and experienced players in the league are very likely to gain a lot of influence   If everyone one remains professional and keeps their egos out of the mix, they'll have a great season.  If not, strong personalities will come to conflict and leave the locker room divided.  I can just as easily see the Bucs' offense collapse under it's own weight.

---

Welcome!

---

I hope Lamb is available at #13! 

He's my favorite at the WR position, and since the 9ers lost Emanuel Sanders I'm a bit concerned.  Sanders was a big addition for us last year, and I was quite sad to see him go.  The other thing that concerns me; the Niners don't have any picks for rounds 2, 3, and 4.  If we don't get one of those top notch receivers, I wouldn't mind seeing us trade down and gain some picks.

I like that Makes that division even more exciting. He is still young-ish, but injury-prone. Don't expect him to be as good as in his prime for sure, but his presence on the field alone should help the Bucs in every regard. And Brady trusts him I guess.

---

Have placed another bet based on some recent information/rumours I found.

First 3 Wide Receivers Drafted - Exact Order

1. Lamb 2. Juedy 3. Ruggs 3.30    
1. Jeudy 2. Lamb 3. Ruggs 3.60    
1. Jeudy 2. Ruggs 3. Lamb 9.00    
1. Ruggs 2. Lamb 3. Jeudy 9.00    
1. Ruggs 2. Jeudy 3. Lamb 11.00    
1. Lamb 2. Jeudy 3. Jefferson 13.00    
1. Jeudy 2. Lamb 3. Jefferson 15.00    
1. Jeudy 2. Ruggs 3. Jefferson 23.00    
1. Lamb 2. Ruggs 3. Jefferson 23.00 Stake 1/10 betonline
1. Ruggs 2. Jeudy 3. Jefferson 34.00    
1. Ruggs 2. Lamb 3. Jefferson 34.00    

And:

Jeudy draft position: over 12.5 @2.30 Stake: 4/10 William Hill

Lamb, Juedy and Ruggs are the three top receivers in this draft and all are projected to go 10-15. Justin Jefferson is relatively sure to get picked somewhere 20-25, with some others like Reagor, Aiyuk, Mims, Higgins not far behind.

Rumours are some undisclosed knee issues from Juedy:


Source: https://twitter.com/NatalieEgenolf/status/1252659070978457601

Now there are always rumours and smokescreens and to trust on these being true, is foolish. But the over 12.5 is the main bet and carries some value imo, since all mock drafts point to over 12.5 and odds are good with 2.30. The other bet is a little gamble in case there is indeed some truth behind these rumours.

Ooh. Just saw this thread for the first time. Following.

Just a few thoughts:

- new Rams logo is stupid... may have to find a new favorite team
- gonna pay more attention to the draft this year since I'm bored AF
- let's hope everything gets back to normal by August!

Yo, what just happened, Gronk coming off retirement? No more WWE?! 
There were some rumors but i didn't believe any of it to be true.
That Tampa Bay offense sounds amazing, at least on paper. Interesting to see how it all plays out on the field.
Though they might need to trade one of the other two TEs, probably OJ.


source: https://www.espn.com/nfl/

Have gone through some Mock Drafts, to check how is the sentiment among those experts. They are as much in the dark as everyone else of course, so these Mock Drafts are just some fun. When even 95% of the teams have no idea whom they will actually draft, how should anyone else know I do believe a bit in swarm intelligence though, so I have placed some bets for the Draft. Follow at your own risk, but tbh I don't recommend to follow at all. All played with smallish stakes.

---

Highest Drafted Edge Rusher (only these three count for this bet):

Josh Uche 1.68    
Julian Okwara 2.75    
Terrell Lewis 5.50 Stake 3/10 Betonline

Pretty high odds imo. I expect all three of them to go early-mid 2nd round, lets see, who will be the first. Terrell Lewis is Alabama guy and teams like to pick players from their defense.

---

Will Austin Jackson be a 1st Round Pick?

Yes 1.28    
No 3.25 Stake 2/10 Betonline

Some have him getting drafting in the 20's, some don't have him drafted in first round. Odds for No are just too good here, since there are lots of better OT's in this draft and not every team will take an OT.

---

Which Pick Will Andrew Thomas be Drafted

Under 10½ Pick 1.62    
Over 10½ Pick 2.20 Stake 1/10 Betonline

This is a close one. Wirfs, Willis will go before him. Bectons stock has gone down due to some drug issue I think, but he could go before Thomas as well nevertheless. Most have him go 10-14 range and with these odds, I'll take my chances.

---

Total Players from Clemson Drafted in Round 1

Over 1½ Players Drafted 1.22    
Under 1½ Players Drafted 3.75 Stake 2/10 Betonline

Isaiah Simmons is a lock for R1. Then you have a CB and a WR from Clemson, that could go late first round, but there are so many players and on top always some surprise picks (hopefully not from Clemson ). Good odds.

---

Will probably add some more in the next days, but thats it for now. Good luck, if you place any bets too, should be a fun draft


Source: https://twitter.com/AdamSchefter/status/1252287112147349505

---

In case you missed it, Sportsbet has two Promos for the Draft running, which you can join for small money and win good amounts of BTC:

https://sportsbet.io/promotions/nfl-draft-multi-master
https://sportsbet.io/promotions/sportsguru-nfl-draft

Now you made me curious I looked up all drafts back to the Eli Manning draft; I am not very good with memorizing these things tbh. Giants have never traded up or down in the first round since then, apart from 2006 where they traded down with the Steelers and then took Mathias Kiwanuka ( ) with the 32nd pick. 

I think both, the Lions and Giants, are in a great position to trade down and accumulate some more picks. Regarding the Giants, they will look for OT help and this years draft is stacked with good ones (Wirfs, Wills, Becton, Thomas), so you can find your guy with some lower pick too. Lions would love to get Okudah, but if they for example trade down with the Chargers, they will still get him. I am not sure, if I would take a CB at #3 anyway tbh. The transition for CBs from College to NFL is pretty tough and it takes a long time until they have adapted. I don't think CBs are that important and it's a lot of trial and error with them There are more important positions imo, where you should spend your high first round picks on.


Thank you. I actually got some help for the last steps from iasenko, and Welsh then making it happen with a little merit shower. Added some thoughts here.

If I remember correctly the average score for a QB is 26 so you can see Justing Herbert and Jordan Love are right there while Joe Burrow is comfortably above that with a score of 34, just for reference Tom Brady had a score of 33 while Aaron Rodgers scored 35, however while you are right and this does not tell much about the future career of a player at the same time the fact that Tua had such a low score is probably going to play against him.


The Detroit Lions are in a great position if you ask me, neither Cincinnati or Washington will exchange their picks and I do not remember the last time the New York Giants traded down on the first round(you probably remember this better than I do), so anyone looking for a QB not named Joe Burrow will have to go through them, however if they ask for too much the Giants could be the winners in all of this, but I doubt Dave Gettleman has the ability to extract as much value as he could from their 4th pick.

But this begs the question, who has the picks and the interest to move up in the draft and try to get either the 3rd or 4th pick? It may seem ridiculous but Miami may feel the need to go up a few spots to make sure they get their QB, this will no different than when Chicago moved up one spot to make sure they got Trubisky(in retrospective an awful move in a draft that had both Mahomes and Watson), another team interested could be Las Vegas Raiders which do not seem to be too happy with Carr, finally the LA Chargers should be highly interested but unless they are willing to part ways with some of their starters they do not have the draft capital to move up.

---

Off Topic: I think two weeks ago I saw you were close to rank up and now you have finally done it, so congratulations on reaching Legendary rank in such a rapid fashion.

Wonderlic scores were published:


Source: https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/2020-nfl-draft-wonderlic-test-scores-revealed-tua-tagovailoa-ranks-lowest-among-quarterbacks-per-report/

Although they don't say a lot regarding NFL careers, I always find it interesting to look at these scores. And it surely influences the teams, if they are undecided between two or more players. Having said that, Tagovailoa really hasn't good arguments with that score and considering the uncertainty regarding his hip.

-

I have placed a bet on Justin Herbert being picked under 5.5 at William Hill for @2.15. Betonline has 1.83/1.83 for that one, so I expect these odds to carry some value just on paper, since betonline is sharper in regards to NFL imo and Will Hill maybe failed to adjust.

1) Bengals: Burrow is a lock
2) Redskins: Young is a lock
3) Lions: CB Okudah most likely
4) Giants: OT 80% or that LB Simmons
5) Dolphins: QB
6) Chargers:QB

Dolphins/Chargers will fight for Tagovailoa and Herbert, but I think Herbert will get picked before Tagovailoa, so normally #5, if no trades happen. I wouldn't rule out some team like the Raiders doing a big move to get one of them either. Lions and Giants can easily trade down a bit and still get players that suit their needs. Getting a good QB is not easy, so teams are willing to give up a lot to get their guy. If Chargers are really on high on Herbert, which I think they are, they might consider a trade with the Giants too to jump in front of the Dolphins. Lets see.

Agree, I don't rate him as high as well. And he is no #1 WR, which Houston lacks now. They now have a group of rather smallish WRs and it's missing some big/tall guy. Hopkins isn't that tall either, but he is pretty compact being 6ft1 and weighing 210+lb.


XFL has declared bankruptcy yesterday


I am hopeful and still think everything will start according to plan. Could be that preseason will get shortened or regular season start shifted a bit, but there is just too much money involved imo to cancel it all.


Thanks. I checked some betting odds regarding the draft yesterday, but nothing caught my attention so far (I also lack some knowledge tbh, there are just too many players and variables). Only sure thing is Bengals picking Burrow and Young going to the Redskins. After these two teams have picked, I expect some trade action with Dolphins/Chargers trying to move up.

---

Meanwhile CMC has signed an extension and is now earning more money than any RB ever. Good decision money-wise, but not sure, if he will be happy playing for a team that looks to be in shambles.

Gil Brandt just announced his top 150 prospects for the 2020 NFL Draft. There are some interesting names in his list and some I didn't expected. It's definitely worth to look it through. I thought I might share it here.

The Rams were built as a one year wonder to try to get SB LIII, they had many great players but on short contracts and with the cap it was obvious they will not be able to maintain that core of players that got them to the SB, then they made the mistake to sign Gurley and Goff for a lot of money and during the past year they traded two first-round picks to get Jalen Ramsey from the Jaguars, so their draft capital should be low as well, all in all this seems like a team in the middle of a rebuild already.

Also while the Texans got Cooks as a replacement for Hopkins I do not really like Cooks, he is a good receiver an all of that but for what I could see when he was with the Patriots he seems to have the tendency to drop the ball just when you really need of him to make that catch, that is not reflected on the stats but it is something I noticed it when I watched him play.


I only watched two games of the XFL and I am really regretting it, what I could give to have it on TV right now, things are so bad that roughly about a week ago I watched ESPN8: The Ocho and saw the 2018 Tetris World Championship, it was entertaining since it is always interesting to watch two of the best at something and see them perform but still I miss the football.

Do you think we are going to have a football this year since the US is now the epicentre of the pandemic?


I get what you are saying the Giants had two good runs, unfortunately for me that was against the Patriots, but they have not being consistent enough over the years and this is exemplified by Eli Mannings’s record which is exactly 0.500, so even if I believe he qualifies as a HOF that is a very telling statistic of the inconsistency of the Giants over the years.

---

Last week the NFL 2010 All-Decade Team was revealed and like always there was some controversy when Aaron Rodgers was included in the list instead of Drew Brees, this happened after Brees was not included either on the NFL 100th Anniversary All-Time Team, however I find interesting the team only carries two QBs when it could be trivial to include a third spot and keep everyone happy, but personally I think it was the right choice, even if I like Brees style of play over Rodgers this team only takes into account the last decade and not the whole career of a player and Rodgers was slightly better in my opinion during that time frame.

Yes, I can't complain with two SB wins since I follow the NFL/Giants, but it feels like it's been ages since they have been relevant. It's annoying, when you're pumped up for the season, and after week 4 half of that is already gone, because your team is 0-4 and playing bad, with no signs of a turnaround.
And what makes it worse, the Giants have always been a well-run organisation, but in recent years, there was a lot of mismanagement and Gettleman doesn't seem to be the right person in charge. Jones isn't the answer at QB imo, the O-Line is still garbage, secondary full of scrubs, the new HC a rookie. But they are not the only ones struggling.....

Lol, I agree, bad football is better than no football.  Don't feel special for being a Giants fan, at least they've had a couple of championships along the way.  The 9ers have some good history, but they've mostly been pretty shitty for the last two and half decades...  The Chiefs won their first title this year, so think about that.  What's worse, you could be a Bills fan. 

I have no qualms with the Lambs fucking up their cap room, I just wish the SeaGulls were as poorly managed!   

The XFL is already history. It was fun and painful to watch at the same time, but kind of sad they (have to) shut it down after a few weeks. Bad football is still better than no football (says the Giants fan )

---

After trading Hopkins to the Cardinals, the Texans sent a second round pick to the Rams and got Cooks and a fourth round pick. Lots of dead money for the Rams, not looking good for them overall, after they were supposed to be the next big thing not long ago:


Source: https://twitter.com/Jason_OTC/status/1248400525323718661

As you may guess I would like NE to keep winning and being as dominant as they were before but unless Stidham is the next Steve Young then NE will have to go through some transition period in which they are not going to be very good for 2 to 3 years and that is the best case scenario in my mind.

Since 2000 the formula that had the most success is to get a Hall of Fame QB on your team, with 16 SBs out of 20 won by QBs that are on their way to the Hall of Fame which includes Brady, Peyton and Eli Manning, Roethlisberger, Brees, Rodgers, Russell Wilson and Mahomes, NE seems to be built to follow a defensive approach to winning which is not as successful as it was in the past, Belichick obviously knows this so he should try to get his QB and protect him with his defence as he did with Brady at the beginning of his career but the question is can he get his QB in such a short time frame? That is what I do not know.

---

Most likely they were greedy, there were many teams in need of a QB and they probably thought they could get something in return for Cam but no one was interested, Cam has been living out of his MVP season now for five years but that was an outlier, since then he has been injured all the time and taking into account the kind of football he plays which is very physical we can only guess his injuries are going to get worse with time unless he can change his game, which is not likely, last year there were reports he was trying to change his throwing mechanics, but trying to do this so late in his career is not only very difficult but also indicates there is something wrong with his arm.

Is the American Woman's League team still stuck in Honduras  I saw a tweet about them being unable to return home and were appealing to their fans for financial assistance in paying for their food & accommodation whist stuck there.

Here is a link to the news article.

---

---

Just as a side note - who are the two Hotties in the photo?

I never liked Cam as a person with all his antics and this giving the balls away always looked a bit fake to me, but it was exciting to watch him play when he was on. He is most likely done now, but especially in his MVP season, he was a monster.


He never really striked me as a franchise QB. He was average with the Vikings and this injury sort of ruined his career. The numbers with the Saints from last season look good, but they are/were a well-oiled machine and Carolina is the complete opposite He is an ok-ish QB with the right pieces around him, but he can't carry a team imo, which is what franchise QB's are able to do.


Talking about the Bears, I found this tweet the other day:


Source: https://twitter.com/Pat_Thorman/status/1243226020569907202

Agree, their defense gonna struggle mightly without Kuechly in the lineup, think about it, they have to face Matt Ryan, TB12 and Brees twice (0-6 right there).
I don't know what Carolina plans for McCaffrey are, but if i were them id be willing to listen to trade offers and get something in return while they still can.
Panthers lost Olsen to the Seahawks and looking at their current offseason signings...who do they got - Robby Anderson, huh?!
McCaffrey's gonna be their only option on offense again, he will lead the team in receptions and carries, meaning too much workload for one guy might translate to injuries.

Again, tough seasons ahead for CAR. I'm also not sold on Bridgewater being a franchise QB but that's another topic.

I got to see a couple of his XFL games, he was always fun to watch.  I knew he would land a spot on a NFL team.  Carolina is sitting pretty with Teddy Bridgwater, he's is legit but he needs some weapons.  The Panthers finally cut Cam Newton, what the fuck took them so long?  I never liked that guy, and felt he was a fluke from the get go.  He had some great numbers over the years, but his attitude was shit, and his arrogance misplaced.  I would have cut him after that bitch-ass interview he had after losing the Super Bowl back in 2004.  



 
Where's the bleach?  I need to wash the eyeballs out of my skull!

The Rams and the 9ers have a long history, they've been at it since 1950.  Those early years were dominated by the Rams, luckily before my time.  Throughout the 80's and 90's the Niners had the Rams' number.  Even when the Rams were having a good year and 9ers sucked, it seems like we often found a way to beat them at their stadium.  We got in the habit of calling them the lambs.  The new logo (the legitimate one) with that big LA in the graphic seems to be goading us into using that nickname.  Okay, fine then, the LAmbs it is!



Going purely on football logo aesthetics, I have to hand the title to the Raiders.  Their's is by the far the best looking, but it has historic significance to the Bay Area, many aren't aware.  Jack London who is a famous author (especially in these parts) wrote about the rampant piracy in and around San Francisco Bay.  In the early days before Oakland was much of a city, the pirates hid out along shores and in the dock houses in what's now Alameda and Oakland.  Pretty fucking cool.

I find the Bears', the Colts', and the Browns' logos to be cool, just from the football history standpoint.

Well, this is of course photoshopped, in reality it doesn't look that obvious, but still hilarious


From the QB's I saw play in XFL, he was definitely by far the best, which is not that hard, if you saw the rest. The offenses weren't in sync and lots of players were rusty, but most of the time it was really awful to watch. As I said above, it will be a long season for the Panthers in the NFC South. I don't think Bridgewater will be able to make any noise with a very average roster and lets not forget, that they also lost their defensive captain and best player in Kuechly.