NFL Thread

[nittany cougar]

I feel like a lot of the value of Tony Romo is in his on air rapport with Jim Nantz. Their commentary flows well, and they play well off each other.  You can tell Jim is a Romo fan, but he doesn't kiss Tony's ass too much. As ex-athletes go, Tony is not nearly as annoying as A-Rod on ESPN baseball. 

Tony often appears alone in the pre-game remote interviews on  CBS.  That made me think that Nantz likes him because he can leave some things to Romo.

[meep.meep]

On 2/21/2020 at 12:03 PM, JTMacc99 said:

The NFL schedule is so very structured, so very precise, that it makes Monica from Friends look disorganized.

Adding an extra game wouldn't be a problem. Here is the current formula (I copied it from Wikipedia):

1. Each team plays twice against each of the other three teams in its division: once at home, and once on the road (six games).
2. Each team plays once against each of the four teams from another division within its own conference, with the assigned division based on a three-year rotation: two at home, and two on the road (four games).
3. Each team plays once against one team from each of the remaining two divisions within its conference, based on the final division standings from the prior season: one at home, one on the road (two games).
4. Each team plays once against each of the four teams from a division in the other conference, with the assigned division based on a four-year rotation: two at home, and two on the road (four games).

Adding an extra game should be no problem. First thing will be to figure out where the extra game comes from. It'll probably be based on your finishing position and against a team from the opposing conference. In other words, adding another game to #3 above.

This will be where the schedule nerds have to get creative figuring out a way to have the 32 teams alternating 9 home 8 road this year, 8 home 9 road next year.

They should be able to figure out a way to always alternate the two at home one on the road each year in a way that also fits the "1st place finisher in the NFC East plays the 2nd place finisher in the NFC West in years when the NFC East is on the NFC South (#2 above) cycle" rules. It could get little tricky, but I'm sure they'll have a big old math party to work it all out before they tell us how it will work.

This all sounds very equal and organized and above board.  What it doesn't take into account is the distance that different teams have to travel to get to those away games.  Ignoring that aspect always penalizes the west coast teams and gives a big boost to the east coast teams.  And it's a game that the Patriots in particular have been playing to their own advantage for years.  Hence people bitching about their easy schedules.

This year, for example, Oakland at one point spent 48 straight days on the road (admittedly some of that was a result of them not finishing their stadium in Los Vegas).  New England barely got out of their time zone once.

Flying back and forth across the entire country and changing time zones has an effect on players.  Each team should be stuck with that.  Not just the west coast teams.

[merylinkid]

11 hours ago, meep.meep said:

What it doesn't take into account is the distance that different teams have to travel to get to those away games. 

But there is not a lot that can be done about geography.   Even divisions are spread out -- except the AFC North:

NFC East:   Dallas, Philly, Washington, Giants.   

AFC East:   New England (Foxborough), Buffalo, NYC, Miami

NFC West:   LA, SF, Seattle, Arizona (Phoenix)

AFC West:   Las Vegas (Raiders), LA, Kansas City, Denver

NFC South:  New Orleans, Tampa, Atlanta, Carolina (Charlotte NC)

AFC South:   Indianapolis, Houston, Nashville, Jacksonville

NFC North:   Detroit, Chicago, Green Bay, Minneapolis

AFC North:   Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Cincinnatti, Cleveland.  

[meep.meep]

It's the games between teams in different divisions where it comes into play.  For example, every year my team (San Francisco) plays New Orleans.  Over the past six years, the 49ers have travelled to New Orleans five times for regular season games.  That's what needs to have attention paid if they are crazy enough to add more games to the season.  The pain needs to be equalized.

[mojoween]

This morning they mentioned on ESPN Radio that New England has won the AFC East every year since 2008 (and honestly since they went to four divisions in 2002 New England was not the division winner only twice, and they also won the division in 2001).

I looked it up, and the AFC South, NFC East and NFC West has had all four teams win the division at least once.  Only Cleveland, Oakland, Detroit and Tampa Bay have not won the division since 2008.

WHY has the AFC East not caught up to the damn Patriots?  It seems nefarious.

[merylinkid]

11 hours ago, mojoween said:

This morning they mentioned on ESPN Radio that New England has won the AFC East every year since 2008 (and honestly since they went to four divisions in 2002 New England was not the division winner only twice, and they also won the division in 2001).

I looked it up, and the AFC South, NFC East and NFC West has had all four teams win the division at least once.  Only Cleveland, Oakland, Detroit and Tampa Bay have not won the division since 2008.

WHY has the AFC East not caught up to the damn Patriots?  It seems nefarious.

Head coaches and QBs for the AFC East since 2002:

Pats -- Bill Belicheck, Tom Brady, except 2008 when Brady was hurt 6 minutes into the season.

Bills --  Numerous QBs

Gregg Williams2001–2003*4817310.354–––[26]

13Mike Mularkey2004–20053214180.438–––[27]

14Dick Jauron2006–20095724330.421–––[28]

15Perry Fewell2009 7340.429–––[29]

16Chan Gailey2010–20124816320.333–––[30]

17Doug Marrone2013–20143215170.469–––[31]

18Rex Ryan2015–2016[K]3115160.484–––[32]

19Anthony Lynn20161010.000–––[33]

20Sean McDermott*2017–present4825230.521202

 

Dolphins:   Numerous QBs

Dave Wannstedt520002004[N 3]7342310.5753121 AFC East Division Champion (2000)
2 Playoff Berths[9]

5Jim Bates*12004[N 3]7340.429—[10]

6Nick Saban*2200520063215170.469—[11]

7Cam Cameron*12007161150.063—[12]

8Tony Sparano420082011[N 4]6129320.4751011 AFC East Division Champion (2008)
1 Playoff Berth[13]

9Todd Bowles12011[N 4]3210.667—[14]

10Joe Philbin420122015[N 5]5224280.462—[15]

11Dan Campbell*12015[N 5]12570.417—[16]

12Adam Gase3201620184823250.4791011 Playoff Berth[17]

13Brian Flores*12019165110.313

 

Jets:   Numerous QBs

Herman Edwards2001–20058039410.488523[20]

18Eric Mangini2006–20084823250.479101[21]

19Rex Ryan2009–20149646500.479642[22]

20Todd Bowles2015–20186424400.375———[23]

21Adam Gase2019–present16790.438———

 

Consistency is key.

[Fukui San]

I don’t know why you’d say “nefarious” unless you think the Patriots are causing their rivals ineptitude somehow. 

The best rival AFC East QB in the entire 20 year Brady/Belichek era is Chad Pennington by a fair margin. Just try to wrap your mind around that. 

[Fukui San]

SF is in a division with Sea, Ari, and LA. That’s as good as it’s going to get for them. Seattle has only SF as a team anywhere near them. The West Coast teams’ problem is that there are only 6 teams in the Pacific time zone I think, and like 12+ in the Eastern time zone. 

The team out of geographical alignment the most is Dallas, and they’re the team that would fight realignment the most since they value the rivalries with NYG, PHI, and WAS. Miami I guess could be swapped for a more Northeast team. But would they want to go?

[JTMacc99]

7 hours ago, Fukui San said:

The West Coast teams’ problem is that there are only 6 teams in the Pacific time zone I think, and like 12+ in the Eastern time zone. 

The schedule, as far as what teams you will play and which ones are home versus away really is as fair as it could possibly be. Everything rotates through. The NFC West teams play each AFC division team once every four years, and visit each of those teams only once every 8 years. They play the other NFC division teams once every three years, and visit each of those once every six years. The two "other" games are based strictly on where you finished each season.

It is a very, very strange thing for the Niners to have drawn so many road games in New Orleans in such a short number of years. And yeah, of all the constant road trips you could get, having to play the Saints on the road is way down on the list of desirable. 

Really, in my opinion of course, the only thing the west coast teams could demand would be that the schedule makers always make an extra effort to balance out HOW their home and road games are scheduled.  Let the east coast teams deal with the occasional quirks of things like three straight road trips of "west coast, home, Texas" in 12 days.  Just don't do that to the west coast teams that are already travelling a lot.

Every year, they are going to have 5 road games out of their division. Every four years, 2 of those games are going to be against AFC west teams. The other three years it's possible that all 5 are going to be on the east coast, but almost definitely they'll all be central or east coast games.  

[merylinkid]

All kinda things brewing in the NFLPA.   First Russell Okung was going to run for Union Prez.   But he realized he didn't have the support.   So he badmouthed the CBA.   That wasn't enough though -- he actually filed a complaint with the NLRB alleging the Union negotiated in bad faith and sold out its member.   THEN the Union finally put out a side by side comparison of the new CBA to the old.   AFTER voting started.   Apparently whatever they saw was enough for a lot of players to ask to change their vote (which way we don't know) so the Exec Committee had to hold a vote on whether to allow vote changes.    Since they voted no I am presuming they were afraid that the votes would be to against the new CBA.    

Okung is off the Exec Commitee now.   Not just giving up on the presidency.    Aaron Rodgers who is the Packers player rep has come out against the CBA -- and did not attend the meeting.   Neither did the alternate.   So yaaaay Aaron, you just made sure the guys you supposedly represent had no voice in all the brouhahaha going on.    Great job.   

The League's bluster that the tv deals will be lower if the CBA doesn't pass right the hell now is falling on deaf ears.    Even though smaller tv deals means a smaller salary cap and the players know this.    

Totally buying popcorn futures.   This is getting hot.

[mojoween]

If Miami were going to move, they probably would have done it during the realignment, because otherwise why is Indy in the South?  So Miami most likely said they weren’t moving then and won’t go now unless forced to.

[merylinkid]

So when does the NFL follow the NBA's lead and start cancelling things?   The League Meetings are scheduled in the next couple of weeks, the draft is a month away, prospective players are flying all over the country (no charters are not safe ask the NBA) right now.   

[OtterMommy]

6 hours ago, merylinkid said:

So when does the NFL follow the NBA's lead and start cancelling things?   The League Meetings are scheduled in the next couple of weeks, the draft is a month away, prospective players are flying all over the country (no charters are not safe ask the NBA) right now.   

Well, I guess the meetings can be done remotely and I think even the draft *could* be done in some sort of remote manner, if they are willing to do away with all the pageantry.  I think as soon as you get into things like practices it looks a bit dicier.

[merylinkid]

18 minutes ago, OtterMommy said:

I think as soon as you get into things like practices it looks a bit dicier.

Practices don't need to start until July.   The League functioned fine for years without a long offseason program.

[mojoween]

The draft could totally be done over Skype.  Las Vegas won’t miss the revenue.

[Sew Sumi]

The league meetings have been canceled, but as noted above, could be held via conference call. The draft is in May? Maybe this will have died down by then.

[crimsongrl]

I didn't know where to post this but: Deadspin is back!!!

Topic? I'd love to see  a paired down draft. I miss watching the first 2 rounds on a Saturday while Spring cleaning. I still hate the switch to Prime Time.

[Popples]

I guess I'll have to take what I can get. I'm happy that Deadspin is back, but the lack of a comments section is very disappointing.

[Bastet]

2 hours ago, crimsongrl said:

I still hate the switch to Prime Time.

So do I, especially since it's not prime time where I live, it's 5:00.  I work out of my home office, thankfully, so I don't have to try to commute home by 5:00 and it's instead a minor to moderate chore to finish up early (I normally work 10-7) in order to watch round one on Thursday.  But be done by 4:00 on Friday as well?  That's often hard to make happen.

[mojoween]

So the NFL is just keepin’ on keepin’ on, huh.  

[mojoween]

Also 10 years of labor peace is great but the extended season and playoffs suck monkey balls.

[Sew Sumi]

I can't believe it passed. There must have been something else in the CBA that tipped the scales. It did include base pay raises for rookies and guys like 3rd string veterans, but at what cost with an extra game out there risking injury? 

Edited March 15, 2020 by Sew Sumi

[AimingforYoko]

41 minutes ago, Sew Sumi said:

I can't believe it passed. There must have been something else in the CBA that tipped the scales. It did include base pay raises for rookies and guys like 3rd string veterans, but at what cost with an extra game out there risking injury? 

It passed by like 60 votes. I do wonder if this will mean a change in leadership of the NFLPA.

[merylinkid]

11 hours ago, Sew Sumi said:

I can't believe it passed. There must have been something else in the CBA that tipped the scales. It did include base pay raises for rookies and guys like 3rd string veterans, but at what cost with an extra game out there risking injury? 

1.    Players were told, if this doesn't pass the owners will come up with a worse deal to make up their losses on the stock market, loss of revenue from any missed games, televising the draft, etc.

2.    Members allowed to vote are defined as "any player actively looking for work on an NFL roster."   Which means that marginal player who got cut but still has NFL hopes?   He could vote.   Which probably skipped the scales because of the increased pay raises if they ever do make it back.

Uncertainty and hope.   

[mojoween]

I’m still so dumb about the franchise tag, can someone tell me if it’s good or bad for Dak?

[mojoween]

3 minutes ago, icemiser69 said:

Bad.  It isn't a long term deal.  He wants a long term deal.

I can and cannot believe Jerry Jones would be so stupid as to alienate his star QB.

Bill O’Brien.  Woah.

[AimingforYoko]

26 minutes ago, mojoween said:

Bill O’Brien.  Woah.

What are the Texans doing? O'Brien's a genius or an idiot, no middle ground.

[mojoween]

I hope we get South Carolina Jadeveon Clooney and not Houston Clooney.

[mojoween]

The virus is very serious and no laughing matter.

Also...

 

[Jx223]

I'm glad that free agency has begun. I just saw a report on NFL Network that Stefon Diggs has been traded for several picks to the Buffalo Bills.I also saw a report from Ian Rapoport on Twitter, that the Raiders have possibly reached a deal to sign Marcus Mariota. And it's also now being reported that Amari Cooper just signed a 5 year $100 million dollar contract with the Cowboys. 

 

 

Edited March 17, 2020 by Jx223

[merylinkid]

7 hours ago, Jx223 said:

I'm glad that free agency has begun. I just saw a report on NFL Network that Stefon Diggs has been traded for several picks to the Buffalo Bills.I also saw a report from Ian Rapoport on Twitter, that the Raiders have possibly reached a deal to sign Marcus Mariota. And it's also now being reported that Amari Cooper just signed a 5 year $100 million dollar contract with the Cowboys. 

 

 

All of the above.    You compare what the Vikings got to get Stefon Diggs to what the Texans got for Deandre Hopkins and you wonder sometimes.   Even if it was salary cap reasons, you get SOMETHING for a player of Hopkins quality.   YOu don't just give him away.   You gotta replace him and why not meet a few other needs at the same time.

[Lamb18]

14 hours ago, mojoween said:

I hope we get South Carolina Jadeveon Clooney and not Houston Clooney.

Maybe you'll get George.

I am sad about Diggs leaving the Vikings. It seems like a good trade, kind of a reverse Hershel Walker, but I'll miss Diggs. He and Thielen were a good duo. I thought Diggs might go to Cleveland because of Stefanski, but Buffalo's OK. We won't play them for awhile. 

[Lamb18]

I am also wondering how they will determine the matchups for the 17th game. The 16-game formula works pretty well. I think what would be interesting is if they rank each conference by season record and match them up, #1 NFC vs. #1 AFC, etc. You might get some Super Bowl rematches. Of course there remains the problem of getting matched to a team you were already scheduled to play.

[Jx223]

2 hours ago, merylinkid said:

All of the above.    You compare what the Vikings got to get Stefon Diggs to what the Texans got for Deandre Hopkins and you wonder sometimes.   Even if it was salary cap reasons, you get SOMETHING for a player of Hopkins quality.   YOu don't just give him away.   You gotta replace him and why not meet a few other needs at the same time.

Yeah, they definitely could have gotten more for DeAndre. He is a really good player and he seems to have a nice personality too. He never really complained when he played with mediocre quarterbacks for years. I think he will do well on the Cardinals.

Also, it looks like Tom Brady is leaving the Patriots, here's what he posted on Twitter and Instagram:

I wonder where he will end up next. I wonder if he's made a final decision about another team he wants to go to, or if he just decided he's not going back to to the Patriots. I saw some interesting suggesting being thrown out for him, the last few weeks. 

 

Edited March 17, 2020 by Jx223

[mojoween]

Tommy’s going to Indy.  Book it.

Dang autocorrect @Lamb18!

[Jx223]

Ian Rapoport is now reporting on Twitter, that the Bucks and Chargers both offers to Tom Brady of $30 million dollars. I have heard analysts suggest that he might go join the Chargers.

On another note, the AFC East is probably very happy about this news, lol. Here's an opportunity for one of the other teams from that division, to take advantage and have some success in this division, post Tom. Maybe Miami may step up, they actually ended up playing pretty decently during the second half of last year.

Brian Flores had them playing hard, and they were competitive in a lot of their games. If they can improve their situation at QB, maybe they can do something. 

Edited March 17, 2020 by Jx223

[mojoween]

Miami could improve their situation at QB by signing a newly available free agent.

[AimingforYoko]

24 minutes ago, mojoween said:

Miami could improve their situation at QB by signing a newly available free agent.

Not at $30m. They'll keep Fitzpatrick and draft Tua.

[shoregirl]

😂

 

[Fukui San]

The Bucs would have the best offensive infrastructure about them over the Chargers. The Colts don’t seem interested. 

I’m glad free agency is happening to give some sort of non pandemic news to talk about. 

[DoctorAtomic]

With really nothing left to prove, I get the feeling from the statement that Brady is looking to settle somewhere where he can be successful in whatever capacity after football. It's not like he's going to go anywhere that can win now, although I'm sure he'd be thrilled to win another without the Pats. I don't feel like he needs to stick it to the Pats either though.

I know the Lakers are a primo franchise, but LeBron's decision wasn't entirely basketball related. So it seems like that to me.

[Popples]

Hmmm...

Also, why the hell is Cam typing like this?

 

[Mountainair]

22 minutes ago, Popples said:

Hmmm...

Also, why the hell is Cam typing like this?

 

He always types like that. It’s annoying AF! 
 

I just hope with this news that Tom Brady stays far away from the Panthers! I’d hate to not be able to support them next season!

[mojoween]

OMG Phillip Rivers to the Colts.  Do they even have weapons for him?

Also he is not a Hall of Famer.

[DrSpaceman73]

I was surprised the new agreement passed

I don't like the 17 game season idea just because its an odd number, uneven home/away games each year now.  Has any major league sports league ever purposely scheduled an uneven number of games?  I know it happens in strike years, but not regularly scheduled ones, so weird. 

It does have some good things in it for the lower level players, so that is good.  Close vote.  I am surprised the vote only needs a simple majority to pass, didn't realize that. 

Brady officially leaving Pats.  Will get a chance to see how he is without BB.  We've seen BB without brady in various forms, but not vice versa. 

Colts trade for a great DT.  Didn't see that coming but I like it.  Seems they are signing rivers too.  I am Ok with that.  Never been a huge rivers fan, but he is a good, just not great, QB and a certain upgrade over Brissett. 

Houston trades DeAndre Hopkins?  WTF?  I mean it helps the Colts, but seriously, WTF? 

[AimingforYoko]

The reason the Panthers gave "permission" to Cam Newton to seek a trade:
Panthers closing in on 3-year, $60m deal with Teddy Bridgewater.

Happy for Teddy, he deserves good things.

[JTMacc99]

49 minutes ago, DrSpaceman73 said:

I was surprised the new agreement passed

I don't like the 17 game season idea just because its an odd number, uneven home/away games each year now.  Has any major league sports league ever purposely scheduled an uneven number of games?  I know it happens in strike years, but not regularly scheduled ones, so weird. 

It does have some good things in it for the lower level players, so that is good.  Close vote.  I am surprised the vote only needs a simple majority to pass, didn't realize that. 

There are some TV contracts coming up in the next few years that will once again pour a ton of money into league and will materially push up the cap. Swapping out a preseason game for a regular season game and the other changes they made almost guarantee even more money going into the cap than would have been without those changes.

This feels like one of those deals where if the players had rejected it because they wanted a few changes, they were going to get met with a group of owners who were going to start the next round of negotiations by offering significantly less of everything. 

[AimingforYoko]

Breaking news: Old white guy to run out the clock in Tampa.

[mojoween]

Tom Brady vs. Drew Brees twice next year...combined age, 83.

It’s kind of a fun symmetry.  Peyton Manning went from a Colt to a Bronco. Tom Brady went from a Patriot to a Buccaneer.  

Edited March 17, 2020 by mojoween

[AimingforYoko]

9 minutes ago, mojoween said:

It’s kind of a fun symmetry.  Peyton Manning went from a Colt to a Bronco. Tom Brady went from a Patriot to a Buccaneer.

And Phillip Rivers goes from a Charger to a Colt. (1 Year, $25m)