2019-2020 NFL Thread

[xskarma]

the Panthers and Falcons are both still lurking as good if they can get over their own playoff-induced boogymen.

I think the problem for both teams is they already hit the peak of what they can do with their roster and coaching staff once and they need to find a new way to invigorate themselves.

Panthers might have it with McCaffrey, since his peak last year coincided with Cam's shoulder problem, but I don't see the Falcons getting back without somehow finding an offensive guru that can get the most out of Ryan and their receivers.

Falcons might legit be looked back upon in 10 years like "they had all these talented players, and somehow they never got it together for more than 1 year? HOW?!" Ryan to Julio is an all world connection that's being wasted.

I mean, the top receivers and their QB's:

Julio has Matt Ryan (3 playoff wins)
Hopkins has Watson (0)
AB has/had Ben (4)
OBJ has Eli (0)
AJ Green has Dalton (0)

I don't think anyone else is in the conversation. Maybe Adams and Rodgers, but that's a stretch for Adams at the moment.

You look at that list, and Julio/Ryan is probably the best combination on there. And they have 1 Super Bowl appearance to show for it and 1 early exit against the later champs Eagles in this current run (not counting '11 and '12). AB and Ben have 1 more appearance and a Super Bowl appearance in Brown's rookie year, but are about as futile and more importantly, that marriage is probably over.

So Ryan/Julio is the only elite connection left and Falcons should make sure to exploit that advantage as long as they have it.

[eschatological]

The AFC East will be better than people expect, with no team going below 5 wins.

This already almost happened. The Jets were 4-12 this year, and if not for a loss at home to a Matt Barkley-led Bills, the Jets and Bills would have been both 5-11.

[Northern Goblin]

The Raiders stadium won't be ready in 2020, thus the 2019 season will be spent finding another home for a year.

The Browns will take the AFC North on account of everyone else being awful.

The Eagles will be about to do a blockbuster trade for Foles, then Wentz gets injured .. again.

Le'Veon Bell won't be worth whatever ridiculous amount someone pays for him.

Antonio Brown and OBJ will set off trade deals that have rammifications for the next 3 drafts.

Levis Stadium will still be mostly empty every week.

Rich Eisen sets a PB at the combine.

[eschatological]

- The Bills will fire their coach by Week 10.

Y? Y u do dis? Personally, I think McDermott is one of the more safe young coaches in the league, because everyone from Terry Pegula down to the fanbase (at least in Buffalo) have bought in to his hard-nosed "culture" and "the process" bullshit. Even if Allen doesn't make strides this year, they'll hang on for another year because we have the most deluded team in the league and apparently almost 2 full years won't be enough to write the book on Allen. It would require Allen to absolutely implode for McDermott to get fired by week 10.

But then again, if Allen doesn't make strides by the end of this year, we should be looking to draft someone in 2020, and GM/coaches rarely get to take a second shot at the grand prize. But with the levels of delusion going on in our cult-like team, no one is gonna expect to draft a QB in 2020.


Some hot takes:

- I do think the Falcons come back and win the South, and play in at least the NFC Championship. Their defense was beat up early, and Freeman injured pretty much from week 1 this past year.

- Eli gets benched for a rookie they draft in a couple months (Haskins, probably) by week 8.

- Rosen turns out to be the real deal once the Cardinals put an offensive line in front of him this off-season. He's just the right amount of angry at himself for how he played this last season.

- Lamar lights up the league, Ravens win the North.

- Brees and Rivers retire after this season.

- AB goes to the Jets and Darnold's play significantly improves.

- We find out this year that Wentz and Goff aren't the real deal, as Philly pines for BDN and the Rams start looking elsewhere.

- Trubisky flames out.

- Watson gets injured, for the third year in a row, his career starts tailspinning.

- Mariota hangs it up after this season because of another crazy injury, leaving Titans fans to speculate what could have been had he just had a healthy career.

- Bills defense will take a step back because maintaining defensive consistency year to year is near impossible, and they'll be one of the worst teams in the league.

[plz delete account]

We already have an AAF thread @xskarma

[xskarma]

We already have an AAF thread @xskarma

So we did. Did not realize we had one. With the relationship between the AAF and the NFL and the fact they are both professional football leagues drawing from the same exact player pool, it makes far more sense to combine the 2 into 1 general thread. Judging by the activity in the original thread and the activity about the AAF in this one a stand alone thread would not have really been viable anyway.

We'll stick with this combined thread.

[CastletonSnob]

https://www.si.com/nfl/2019/02/19/aa...don-investment

[Crackleslap]

Burfict was cut for about 30 minutes and then it was reported fake news.

- - - Updated - - -

I think the problem for both teams is they already hit the peak of what they can do with their roster and coaching staff once and they need to find a new way to invigorate themselves.

Panthers might have it with McCaffrey, since his peak last year coincided with Cam's shoulder problem, but I don't see the Falcons getting back without somehow finding an offensive guru that can get the most out of Ryan and their receivers.

Falcons might legit be looked back upon in 10 years like "they had all these talented players, and somehow they never got it together for more than 1 year? HOW?!" Ryan to Julio is an all world connection that's being wasted.

I mean, the top receivers and their QB's:

Julio has Matt Ryan (3 playoff wins)
Hopkins has Watson (0)
AB has/had Ben (4)
OBJ has Eli (0)
AJ Green has Dalton (0)

I don't think anyone else is in the conversation. Maybe Adams and Rodgers, but that's a stretch for Adams at the moment.

You look at that list, and Julio/Ryan is probably the best combination on there. And they have 1 Super Bowl appearance to show for it and 1 early exit against the later champs Eagles in this current run (not counting '11 and '12). AB and Ben have 1 more appearance and a Super Bowl appearance in Brown's rookie year, but are about as futile and more importantly, that marriage is probably over.

So Ryan/Julio is the only elite connection left and Falcons should make sure to exploit that advantage as long as they have it.

Welp nothing could be done about last season. Too many injuries. I remain hopeful in the new season, we have a very good team. Just need spice up our pass rush and oline & figure out contracts for Grady and Julio.

With Brian Poole testing Free Agency, if he's unlikely too return, I'm wondering what were gonna do at CB. I'm guessing Desmond Trufant and Isiah Oliver on the outside and Kazee (current safety) will line up as a nickel back. But this depends on Ricardo Allen (safety) status, tore his Achilles so I don't think he'll be ready come week 1. So hmm indeed.

[xskarma]

https://www.si.com/nfl/2019/02/19/aa...don-investment

Well then, that went surprisingly under reported everywhere. New league having trouble standing on it's own 2 feet it seems.

[Crissi]

Well then, that went surprisingly under reported everywhere. New league having trouble standing on it's own 2 feet it seems.

I think that's true with just about anything that's starting up at the scale a league needs, especially football. An investment isnt a bad thing as long as the investor doesnt start meddling, although I see he will be in a position like Goodell is? Will have to wait and see on that.

Needing cash influxes for startups is perfectly normal

[xskarma]

"Had a great meeting with Mr.Rooney today we discussed a lot of things and we cleared the air on several issues! We both agreed that it is time to move on but I’ll always have appreciation and gratitude towards the Rooney family and @steelers organization! #CallGod #Boomin" - Antonio Brown, link

So he's pretty much officially seperating from the Steelers now, which means Steelers are now on the clock to move him a.s.a.p.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

Whatever team lands AB is probably going to implode their locker room this season. No good team, except the Patriots, would take on a distraction like he's been for the Steelers this last year. And any bad team that takes him on is going to have him checking out by midseason when their record is 2-6 and their QB is benched.



As for Franchise Tag stuff, Tom Pelissero is saying the Chiefs expect to Franchise Tag Dee Ford, and Mike Garafolo is saying the Cowboys will make one more offer to Demarcus Lawrence before tagging him.

[CastletonSnob]

Correct me if I'm wrong (and I probably am), but don't most new businesses lose money in their first few years of existence?

[Grube]

Matt Paradis is going to "test the market", which means he is probably not going to be in Denver after some team offers him a really good contract for a center. Won't really be able to franchise tag him either because the tag price for a center is way too high. Kind of sucks because he is the best center they have had since Tom Nalen and McGovern was much better at guard than center if it comes to that.

Correct me if I'm wrong (and I probably am), but don't most new businesses lose money in their first few years of existence?

They do, and that is part of why most new businesses also fail.

[xskarma]

Rumour has it that Gronk told fellow Patriots players that he wants one more Super Bowl win. That should mean he's coming back for at least another season, which would be great news, cause he was undecided so far.

That still leaves the problem of his contract though, he's probably going to want to play it out as is, and I suspect the Patriots are not really interested in paying him what he's slated. I hope that part can be settled, cause it would suck for Gronk to want to come back, only for the Patriots to then deny him on the basis of costs. We'll see...

[Pendulous]

After like four rings, saying "I just want one more ring" just sounds like bullshit.

[eschatological]

Matt Paradis is going to "test the market", which means he is probably not going to be in Denver after some team offers him a really good contract for a center. Won't really be able to franchise tag him either because the tag price for a center is way too high. Kind of sucks because he is the best center they have had since Tom Nalen and McGovern was much better at guard than center if it comes to that.



They do, and that is part of why most new businesses also fail.

Matt Paradis is literally my #1 priority FA signing as a Bills fan.

[Crissi]

eh, I dunno. We've seen people do the same in other sports (see Phelps in swimming), but yeah in football Id agree.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

After like four rings, saying "I just want one more ring" just sounds like bullshit.

It's more like Gronk saying it sounds like bullshit. We all know he's just biding his time for the XFL to start.

[xskarma]

After like four rings, saying "I just want one more ring" just sounds like bullshit.

On normal teams that would be like when Ray Lewis came back for one last year to win a Super Bowl and his team rallied around him to help make it happen. But there's obviously tons of teams that do this that fail to get the Super Bowl win. Just for Gronk, and the success he's used to, it just sounds preposterous, more so than it did for Ray Lewis or Favre or Strahan or Elway or whoever.

Gronk and the core of this team have been together for like 6 or 7 years now, which is an eternity in NFL years where the average career is less than 3 years. I think he basically just wants one last run at it with the guys he's been sharing his life with for all these past years. It's a nice sentiment, if you see it like that and not like he's some greedy fucker who wants even more when he's already got so much.