2017-2018 NFL thread

[Pendulous]

"According to a CAA spokesman, who works for agency that represents Jabril Peppers: "Peppers went to the combine. He was sick after flying there from San Diego. He has a history of cramping. Peppers was being pumped with fluids, drinking 8-10 bottles of water before he went to bed, because he was the first guy to work out two days for the LBs and DBs. He had to go through that first day, come back on second day, and that was the fear. So Peppers was pounding water and under the weather. He never failed a drug test in his life, nor tested positive before for any substance.""

Again, diluted sample isn't "failed"

[Grube]

No idea if players do it for the combine, but wrestlers sometimes drink a bunch of extra water to hit their weight. That can lead to diluted samples as well.

[Pendulous]

Jake Long is done https://twitter.com/JakeLong77/statu...45292656680960

[draynay]

Again, diluted sample isn't "failed"

It is as far as the NFL is concerned.

Hate Peterson to Saints, HATE IT.

[apepi]

It is as far as the NFL is concerned.

Hate Peterson to Saints, HATE IT.

Oh man, my dad is going to kill me.

[xskarma]

After Peterson to the Saints apparently the next aged RB that's going to sign is most likely going to be Blount with the Giants.

That would leave Marshawn Lynch with little opportunity to do anything else but sign with the Raiders, and he has about 2 days to do it, or the Draft starts and teams are likely to look elsewhere to fill the spot they have.

[Vetali]

Lynch an the Raiders are pretty far apart dollar wise. Doubt anything gets done.

[Northern Goblin]

If it'll happen, it'll be an 11th hour deal.

http://www.tmz.com/2017/04/25/nfl-pr...s-allegations/


Not for me to decide who to believe here, but if you sit on this stuff for 3 weeks then release it right before the draft, there's an automatic level of doubt that comes in, as people's first assumption is that this is designed purely to sabotage, we see instances like this every year.

If it is legitimate, why hold it off till now? Why wait and have that shadow of doubt cast into your allegations.

At least it gives the NFL Network their Tunsil for this year.

[draynay]

Saints have ins with Ohio State so they will have plenty of people to talk to regarding Conley, I don't want a DB at #11 but I'm sure they were considering him after all the Buckeyes they've drafted lately. Also curious timing on this being made public.

- - - Updated - - -

Peterson is a done deal, but pundits are talking about him as a replacement for Hightower, but Hightower was veteran minimum and now its $3.5mil guaranteed to an over-the-hill RB with a history of knee injuries and fumbles. That, to me, is a big difference.

[xskarma]

Peterson is a done deal, but pundits are talking about him as a replacement for Hightower, but Hightower was veteran minimum and now its $3.5mil guaranteed to an over-the-hill RB with a history of knee injuries and fumbles. That, to me, is a big difference.

The ever alluring dream of maybe, just maybe getting top form Adrian Peterson on your team. That's what they are paying 3,5M for. It's unlikely to happen, but if it does, you get a relative steal.

Fun fact: apparently there's a significant segment of people in Boston who feel like we paid a 5th rounder to get Gillislee, when we could have had Adrian Peterson for free, at roughly the same money, and they think Belichick blew it because of that.


I don't really get it, but it seems there's quite a lot of people on the Adrian Peterson bandwagon, in and outside of Louisiana.

[Northern Goblin]

Also curious timing on this being made public..

Exactly, it casts an unnecessary level of suspicion where it shouldn't exist in these cases, I don't understand why it was sat on till now.

[Darth Belichick]

Even if it's only for a year, I'm just happy to see that it's more than likely going to be Butler and Gilmore as the corners. Very good secondary there.

[xskarma]

Even if it's only for a year, I'm just happy to see that it's more than likely going to be Butler and Gilmore as the corners. Very good secondary there.

It's kinda like 2014 with Revis. We have Butler on rental for a year, and he's pretty much guaranteed to seek his fortune elsewhere after the season is done.

Between Butler, Gillmore, Rowe, Cyrus Jones that's a looooot of potential. Good luck trying to beat the Patriots with your 3rd or 4th receiver. And that's not counting the safeties, casue we re-signed Harmon and have McCourty and Chung as well.

The issue on defense at the moment is Edge. We basically only have 3 edgerushers on roster right now (Superbowl hero Flowers, new signee Kony Ealy and back up Geneo Grissom) and we basically have Ninkovich who plays both OLB and Edge (It pains me to say, but Ninkovich was pretty much a non factor last year. He's at the point where he's just another guy. He looked slow and old in the Superbowl especially.)

Flowers tends to move inside on passing downs, which means we'd only have 2 Edge guys left. We'll draft some guys, no doubt and pick up some more in rookie free agency, but that's still going to be quite the hole in the defense.

To bring it back to the secondary, this is kind of the same situation we had in 2014. The secondary is very talented, but the pass rush and pressure is very pedestrian. Together that leads to a very good, but probably not league leading or recordbreaking defense.

[draynay]

Logic would suggest this is the year they draft somebody who beats out Ninkovich and he gets cut, but you can never count out those overachiever survivor types.

[xskarma]

Seems the Marshawn Lynch trade is finally happening.

"From me & @MikeGarafolo: #Raiders & #Seahawks reached agreement on trade for Marshawn Lynch. Contingent on physical"

- Rapoport


That "pending physical" bit might throw a wrench in the works, cause of his back, but we can somewhat assume that Lynch is a Raider now.

Logic would suggest this is the year they draft somebody who beats out Ninkovich and he gets cut, but you can never count out those overachiever survivor types.

Yeah, and there's the fact BB said a few weeks back that he'd rather go down with people he trusts than having possibly more upside people on the field that he doesn't trust. I think that sentiment is largely responsible for the Patriots dumping some players that still had potential the past few years. I think in advanced age BB is just not going to bother working with people that somehow let him down in one way or another.

He definitely puts a lot of trust in Ninkovich and has relied on him for a long time. Based on that he just might sneak by on the roster.

[Crackleslap]

Dayuuuum Raider finally getting that trade. I had them predicted as my way to early superbowl winners. If they can draft some good defence I just might keep them there! XD Then again we'll have to wait and see if Marshawn is still beast mode, which I'm sure he is.

[xskarma]

I had them predicted as my way to early superbowl winners.

CRAAAAAAAP, I completely forgot I was doing that. Why didn't you guys remind me?!

To recap what I was doing:

Alright. I just thought of a fun project.

I'm going to poll everyone in this thread on several occasions:

Before free agency opens (today and tomorrow till 3:59 pm ET)

Week before the Draft

Week before the first regular season game

Week after the trade deadline (which is about mid season)

Week before the first play off game is played


And I'm going to ask you "Who do you think will win the Superbowl this year?"


At the end of the season I'll do a nice looking post with the results of our voting throughout the season. I promise I won;t use these posts for the Famous Last Words posts. These are just for fun.


I *might* figure out some kind of scoring system for this and make a tally at the end to see who was most "right" throughout the season. Probably by weighing heavier here at the start and lower once we get further to the finishline.


ANYWAY, for fun and maybe bragging rights: Who do you think will win the Superbowl in the 2017-2018 season?


(You can post till the legal tampering period starts tomorrow, so feel free to think this over some more. I'll post my own guess later, cause I haven't thought about it too much yet)

So, give me your pre-draft guesses at who will win the 2017-2018 Superbowl. We have free agency pretty much fully in the books now, so we should have a MUCH better picture.


Feel free to join in even if you didn't leave a guess last time, cause getting the Superbowl champion right gets you so many points that it's easy to overcome starting late. Just need to make sure you are right!


Pre-free agency guesses from those that did leave a guess last time:

Spoiler: 

DON'T DELAY LEAVING YOUR GUESS CAUSE DUE TO MY FORGETFULNESS WE ONLY HAVE A DAY OR SO BEFORE THE DRAFT AND ONCE THE FIRST PICK IS ON THE CLOCK THE VOTING CLOSES.

I'll leave my vote after some people have reacted so as to not influence things.

[Skayaq]

I'm gonna stick with my last guess and say the Raiders, I like what they have done so far in free agency.

[draynay]

Too late for me, brain only care about draft now.

ESPN did their nfl nation mock draft where the bloggers make the picks, best-case-scenario for me, Saints taking Barnett at 11 and Watson at 32. Seems unlikely but I can dream.

[Grube]

If Lynch can stay healthy, him behind that o-line is bad news for the rest of the league. Barely anyone has had success as a RB at this age, but Lynch is better than the ones that have done well. Should be interesting to see if his back holds up.

I don't trust a Del Rio team's defense enough to pick them, especially considering how many games they should have lost because of it last year and teams beat themselves instead. With the schedules I highly doubt the AFCW winner will get a bye either, and that helps a lot playing 1 less game. Have to stick with the Pats for now.